Kidspace

Our second outing of the week was to a children's museum in Pasadena called Kidspace. It's right across the street from the Rose Bowl. Smaller than Kid City in CT, and teeny tiny compared to the Phoenix Children's Museum, but fun all the same. However, Vinny fell asleep on the way there while reading is book. How cute is this?

But once we got inside, and Vinny warmed up to the place a bit, he ventured all the way up the leafy climbing structure. I was so proud of him for branching out (pardon the pun) on his own.
Vinny loved the water play area, but wasn't crazy about the splashpad sprinklers. He can be such a chicken!

On my to-do list among so many things is to find a nursery school program for Vinny. He does so well with other kids and he benefits from the structure of organized play. Vinny is talking up a blue streak these days, too. A couple of my favorite Vinny-isms:

• joop (juice)
• capple (apple)
• o-see (ocean)

He loves to play with cars these days, especially his Lightning and Mater toys. We took him to see Cars 2 at our local movie theatre, which was Vinny's first "big movie." We were sure he'd sit through given that he's 2, and that he's not crazy about watching the first Cars movie at home anymore. But he sat through the whole thing and took in all the action. He loved seeing "big Lightning" and "big Mater" on the big screen...and snacking on the popcorn and mi-mi's (m & m's) didn't hurt the cause either.

Our First Outing in Los Angeles

While Anthony was traveling back east, Vinny and I embarked on a few adventures during our first week in California. Fieldtrip #1 was to the Los Angeles Zoo. We had a great time and Vinny was really well behaved, staying in his stroller the whole time...almost. He enjoyed munching on popcorn while watching all the animals, the giraffes being his favorite!
The giraffe exhibit was fun, and we got to see them up close. One startled Vinny a bit when she got a little to close for comfort. Talk about eye contact!
The LA Zoo boasts a 6 acre elephant habitat, so one would think we'd see a bunch of elephants. But no. Not this time. After backtracking through the orangutans, we were able to watch one lone elephant. By this point it was getting pretty hot...not Phoenix hot, but hot none the less.
So we sought shelter under the monkey habitat. We could hear them a mile away, and as you can see in the photo below, Vinny was a bit hesitant about these noisy monkeys.
Hi hippo.
Bye zoo! The best part of this fieldtrip, and everywhere we visit these days actually, is that Vinny greets each animal or object with a HI ____! And leaves with BYE _____, See you Later! Sometimes he even reassures them I'll be back. I tried to get a picture of him with the flamingoes on our way out, but that was a no go. But what cracked me up is that Vinny kept instructing them to say cheese!

Let the Un-Packing Begin...

Sunday was a LONG day and night to say the least. We left around 8:30, and with a few stops along the way, arrived at our new house around 3:30. After a brief walk-through, the movers arrived to help us unload the truck. Thank goodness! By sunset we had everything moved in, and then the unpacking had to begin. Ant painstakingly put Vinny's bed together and I began to sort through the essentials. Seriously exhausting.

In perfect timing, Ant had to travel back east that week, so this is pretty much how I tended to Vinny while I tried putting things in order. Mother of the Year Award? Probably not.

The BIG Move-California Here We Come!

With Anthony working and traveling so much in the weeks leading up to the big move, Bill and Joan (and Vinny) helped me pack up the hardest room...the kitchen. And here I though I thought I had a good start with clearing things out for the tag sale! I would be remiss if I didn;t say they were a Godsend, heping me wrap and box everything...if only they could've been there to help me un-wrap everything!

UGH! MOVING STINKS!

Justin and Weez worked their butts off helping us pack up the big U-Haul. I don't know what we would have done without them. The packing seemed to be never ending...just when I thought we had put a good dent in things, more boxes seemed to appear. Poor Justin thought we'd be done by early afternoon and he'd be able to keep his plans in tact. But when that didn't happen, he found other ways of entertaining himself while Weez and Anthony tried reconfiguring the arrangement in the truck...turns out we have a LOT of stuff. Anyway, we are super proud of this goofball...and here's just one of the many self portraits I found on my camera later that night...
Bye Bye Arizona...California, here we come! Here we are just before saying our tearful good-byes to Mommo and Boppo. By the way, Anthony did a great job driving the big rig and everything got to California in one piece.
Vinny did great, too. I had an arsenal of fruit "snackies" and noisy books to keep him occupied for our 6 hour drive. He took a pretty good nap midway through, and only got a bit cranky around Palm Springs just before we stopped for lunch.
Once we got to "our new house" as Vinny calls it every time we pull in the driveway, he enjoyed running around the beautiful yard. We are just about done with putting some final touches on everything, and so I will be sure to post those pictures as soon as I can! But so far, so good. Vinny is adjusting really well.

OK, All Caught Up!

Finally! I had fallen so far behind on this blog, but finally got all caught up. Keep in mind that I had to go all the way back to St. Patrick's Day, so once you get all the way down to the bottom, you'll need to click on "older posts" and keep going because I had to go back that far!

Since the last time I had written, Vinny seemed to go into a developmental hyper-growth. This has been an amazing time to observe monumental and amazing changes. In the past 3 months, he's gone from being non-verbal (ok, not really non-verbal) to speaking in 3 and sometimes 4 word sentences! We were actually so concerned we met with the specialist at the doctor's office. How sweet she was to not laugh at us first time parents. I don't remember his exact stats, but his 93 percentile head size sticks out. His height and weight were somewhere in the middle, but you'd never know when you pick him up...he feels like a ton of bricks! Good thing he'd prefer to run that be carried!

Gone is my name Mama. He began calling me Ma for a short bit, and then all of the sudden, it became Mommy. And every word or phrase is punctuated with "Mommy" or "Daddy." He parrots everything we say, and one of my favorites might be let's see whenever we are making a choice. Or in between singing a few favorite songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, or Pattycake, he throws out a long and drawn out "how 'bout" much like I would say while killin' time in the bath tub. Speaking of names, he finally figured out Gramma and Babci's names, so we can add them to the list. He can also squeak out Uncle Tom for both Ant's brother and my Godfather. He's almost got Dziadiu, and who can blame him for taking a little bit longer on that one! But just like walking, he went from zero to 100 overnight! It's so fun to carry on a conversation with this little guy these days!

Move over Mickey Mouse, make room for Lightnin' McQueen and Woody! But fret not Mickey, you'll always be numero uno. He still requests episode after episode of "Gickey" but it's nice to wind down at the end of the day with a movie. We're hoping he gets as excited as we are about going to see Cars 2 in the movie theatre this summer.

Well, I sure hope I got everything up to date. I know how much our family loves to keep tabs on Vinny, but really I hope one day to print out this blog like a journal. There are so many things I want to remember forever and everyone says "write it down." It's true, if you don't do it right away, the moments slip right by you. The next time I write, we'll be in California, starting yet another adventure to document!

Splish Splashin'

We had the pleasure to meet up one last time with my friend, Jen, at her gym. That's right, this fancy pants gym has a few gigantic pools outside and in, and Vinny especially loved the beach entry for some splishin' and some splashin'!

Check out those cool Crocs, all turned blue from the sunshine!

Ha, Vinny is sitting with me as I type away and he just pointed to his picture and said, "I kwimmin' Mommy." Oh, he is just so so sweet!

Finally Got The Shot...Sorta

This is Vinny's buddy Evan. Isn't he a cutie pie? He is my friend Kelly's little guy and he's 3 months older than Vinny. They became really good pals in daycare. Vinny calls him "Evy." We went over to play one last time before we move and getting these two to stand still was nearly impossible. Since that visit, Vinny is now venturing up and down the stairs all by himself, just like Evan, and while that would have made me nervous a week ago, it's been so great during this packing frenzy! Take today for instance. While Joan and Bill helped me pack up the kitchen, Vinny kept himself entertained traveling between the family room and the playroom up in the loft. Until we heard a crash...no it wasn't Vinny...it was his little fire truck ride-along toy. We didn't know this until we saw him pushing the fire truck...downstairs. Little $h!t. He sent it flying down the stairs! So emergency room visit averted, and a prayer of thanks that we are moving to a single story home in California!

Helping Boppo with Jobs

It's really pretty neat to watch this special relationship develop between Vinny and Boppo. Boppo has a lot of jobs to do throughout the day, and many have to be done in a particular order and always in a particular way. There is no varying from the sequence. And whenver he can enlist the help of Vinny, he does. And Vinny loves it. He really is a good little helper. So there he is up there watering the plants and looking for lizards in the courtyard in front of Mommo and Boppo's house.

Vinny's new favorite treat is whipped cream, right out of the can onto his finger. He's only recently taken to licking his fingers, so this has been pretty funny to watch. Boppo's working on allowing him to squirt it right into his mouth, but so far, no luck. Justin is the pro, so I bet one of these days, he'll teach his little cousin that little trick.
YUM!
Time to rest...in front of a "Gickey" episode I am sure...

Check Out That Arm! Yup, He's a Lefty!

Play Date at the Phoenix Zoo with our East Valley Friends

Two of our very dear friends live way back in the east Valley of Phoenix closer to where we used to live in Mesa. Both are teachers and with school out for summer, it was the perfect opportunity to take our kiddos to the Phoenix Zoo. Normally June is approaching unbearable, but this early summer has been mild, so we could roam the zoo in comfort all morning. Here is Vinny with his buddy Elliot, Erica and Jason's little guy. He'll be two this August!

The whole gang, taking a little snack break. There's little Jocelyn, about to turn one whole year old this August! She belongs to the Prathers, John and Debra.
Vinny wasn't quite as courageous through the splashpad as Elliot, but he did enjoy running through the little stream of water around the sprinklers. Notice his super cool Crocs? Daddy bought them special for Vinny, as he loves Crocs, and they are about the only shoes that fit Vinny's chubby feet. Anyway, they turn from white to blue in sunlight!
Petting the goats with Elliot
So, the playground didn't go so well. As he walked across to the "bwide" he had his eyes on, some sand got caught up in his Crocs, and Vinny didn't like it one bit as you will see. He literally didn't move from this spot, he just remained planted firmly until I came to the rescue...but not before I snapped some priceless photos!

The horribly mismatched outfit by the way was not planned...I couldn't get him changed fast enough before he got wet in the splashpad...so we did things a little backwards and put him in a dry swimsuit afterwards!