Acorn wars

Last Saturday we drove up to Palomar mountain. The plan had been to go up to Julian for a day of apple picking. Luckily when I looked online for directions the website declared in large writing "Apple picking is over for the season!".

It was nice to learn that before we drove all the way out there. It's normally my style to get the kids all fired up about going somewhere, get them in the car, drive to the destination only to discover that it's out of business or closed for the holidays. My children are well aware of the that oh so fabulous feeling of pure and utter disappointment. I figure it's a good life lesson that will come in handy during those pesky teen years, a time ripe with disappointment! Instead of the apples we opted for a refreshing mountain hike.

The highlight of my day was the road side fruit stand that sold 2lbs of persimmons for a measly $1. I love persimmons. The highlight of the boys day was the spirited acorn war the whole family got into before piling back into the car for our long drive back home. Acorns are fairly painful when in the hands of determined 5 and 7 year old boys. We spent a good 30 minutes chucking acorns at each others heads much to the shock and dismay of a perfectly normal looking woman out for a hike with her dog. I bet she does weird stuff when no one is looking.


Here are some photos:

Jake being serious

Amelia is kind of dressed like David Bowie

This is the face Amelia makes when she laughs! I love it!

This is about the moment Andrew realized that Acorns should be thrown, as you can see Jake is mulling the idea over.

they are plotting....

jake made this face a ton during the acorn war. That's his signature war face. Andrew's war face is a lot more cool and collected

They crashed on the way home!

Mullet Free

After viewing some photos I took at the park yesterday I decided that Amelia's mullet had to go!

This is her yesterday:

This is Amelia during the hair cutting process:

The look on the hairdressers face is priceless. That's the look of someone who spends why too much time with cranky toddlers.

This is Amelia afterward:

She wasn't too excited when they put those bows in her hair. I think she looks like the fair haired version of Anais and Maelle. Of course Aaron had to make a comment about her looking like the guy in dumb and dumber so now I am partially regretting chopping the mullet.

And the award for worst human being ever goes to

I forgot my mother in-laws birthday. This is the 2nd year in a row. I am officially the worst daughter in-law ever!

I realized that I had forgotten yesterday while in the produce section of the grocery store. At the moment I realized that I was two days past due on a phone call/card/gift I said "shit!" rather loudly to the disdain of a woman and her toddler near by. I didn't take her glare too seriously because about two seconds earlier her son was running around screaming "I hate you, I hate you!", talk about awkward!

Amelia, who has become a parrot, said shit too. Not only am I a birthday forgetter but I also teach small children how to curse. It was a proud moment for me. As I tend to do, I am blaming this on my own mother who had no idea about Amelia's birthday until a few weeks afterward when I sent her the birthday photos. I am lucky if I get a card within the same month of my birthday from my parents. That's how things roll in my family. Our birthdays are always acknowledged just not quickly. I plan to make this up to my mother in law with a really cool present, one that has yet to be bought.

I called my mother in-law as soon as I got home from the grocery store. I bribed the kids with Halloween candy to belt out "happy Birthday to you." Of course after Jake was done singing he said "can I have my candy now Mom?" My mother in-law was still on the phone. Let this be a lesson that bribery always erupts in your face!

I am hoping that Aaron's brothers marry someone a bit more organized then me. Donna has always wanted a daughter and I am clearly not cut out for the gig. I am messy, absent minded, and am constantly sticking my foot in my mouth. She is soft spoken, put together, and carries a first aid kit among other things in her purse. She is the kind of woman who is prepared for anything. I am lucky if I remember to pack diapers in my purse. I am definitely not the ideal daughter in law. All I can do is try better next year.



Further proof of how miserable I am at being an ideal daughter in law, I let my children get filthy and take incriminating photo's of them. Also, Amelia has a mullet.

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Amelia is a grump

Aaron is gone on one of his diving adventures this week leaving me alone with the three little munchkins. Today consisted of free admission and birthday cake at my kids playhouse, a doctors appointment for Andrew, and afterwards a trip to the golden arches for dinner. After Andrew's appointment the nurse commented on how fabulously behaved my children are. They are always wowing medical personnel with their ability to sit still and quietly for extended periods of time. Now if only they could do the same during other social situations. They are an ornery bunch.



Today at my Kid's clubhouse (it's a play land for toddlers) Amelia thought that everything was hers. Her view of the world is simple: Everything is there for her and other people have no business touching her things. It would be hilarious if she weren;t my daughter. It was one melt down after another. There was a kid playing in the fire truck she wanted to play in, there was a girl pushing a shopping cart she wanted, and then there was the kid who had the audacity to ride on the horse she had her eye on. All of these children recieved Amelia's wrath. She growled and screamed and pointed rudely with her chubby fingers. For her it was tragic while for me it was downright embarrassing.

She spent the first half hour yelling at other children while I received a ton of dirty looks. Did I allow her to get away with this behavior? No. Did it continue despite her getting in trouble over and over again? Yes. Finally a little boy refused to acknowledge her shrieks of rage and persisted on playing with and near her. This was perplexing to Amelia yet oddly calming. After that there was no more growling. Who knew that one little trail blazing 3 year old was the answer to my problems? Perhaps she is cured. I can only hope.



Andrew's doctor's appointment was slightly discouraging. His hearing has not improved and our option appears to be a hearing aid. We have a follow up with his ENT and perhaps this doctor may have another surgical option. I asked if we could get one that is barely visible but apparently for young kids they use those chunky flesh colored ones. They also have colorful ones because everyone wants an enormous green hearing aid (it's like a kick me sign!). My concern is that he will be labeled the weird hearing aid kid. As of now he has a very audible speech delay. Somehow he has managed to fit in really well at school, mostly by being the funny kid. He is well liked and rarely ever bullied or teased about his voice. Sometimes kids will say "you talk funny" to which Andrew will follow with some sort of joke that will make the kid laugh. If he has gotten by so far without being teased I doubt a hearing aid will make any difference. We'll see. Maybe I will teach him some hearing aid jokes or something.

Pumpkins and poo

This weekend was our yearly trip to the pumpkin patch. It was like a million degrees outside. We went to Oma's pumpkin patch.

We went on a wagon ride that had nothing at all to do with pumpkins and everything to do with the smelly cows inhabiting the diary farm that houses the pumpkin patch. When I think of wagon rides I picture denim jackets, rosy cheeks, and camp fires. Instead we got sweaty pits, the smell of manure, and cows standing in poop. It was a fragrant ride to say the least.

The boys would not stop talking about poo and butts. Over and over again it was:

"whoa, look at all that poo!"
"That cow is taking a poo!"
"That cow is standing in poo!"
"Look at all their cow butts!"
and my favorite:
"That cow must have a lot of milk!"

They were mesmerized. To make matters worse, the driver stopped the ride to hop out and give us a nice informative history of the farm. He explained that the methane released by their cow's waste generates all the electrical power on the farm.

It has been a week since our pumpkin patch adventure and Jacob will not stop talking about it.

"can we do that at our house, use poo for electricity".

Andrew will no longer eat butter because he learned that the butter we buy from costco is made on what he calls "that poo farm." Aaron's grandparents are Diary farmers. they would not be proud!

speaking of butts!

My Amelia

Two years ago today Amelia was born.

She was tiny with a full head of black hair. Everything about her was miniature, her hands, her toes, and her tiny little nose. We were not expecting her so early so nothing was ready.

I had driven myself to the hospital the day before telling Aaron it was nothing, maybe a bladder infection and that I would be home in an hour. Upon arriving at the hospital I learned that I was 4 cm dilated and ready to have the baby. You would think that after going through labor 2 previous times I would be able to tell the difference between a bladder infection and contractions!

I can remember being so angry at first thinking about how I had done everything right. I had eaten right, taken my vitamins, gone to every one of my 8 million doctor appointments, so why was I in early labor?? I got over that quickly and embraced the idea that I was finally going to meet my daughter. Aaron and I named her only a few short hours before her birth. He was firm on Sarah and I was firm on Amelia. Neither of us were budging. We both agreed that Sarah Amelia had a better ring then Amelia Sarah but that we would call her Amelia until she decided otherwise.

Now Amelia is two with a full head of white blonde hair. She loves shoes and is partial to the color yellow. She loves books, her little red tricycle, and her brothers most of all. I can't imagine life without her.

I remember the day I found out I was pregnant. I called Aaron first and then Nicole. We were all shocked. I couldn't imagine taking care of three kids and starting all over with another baby. I was overwhelmed.

I learned to love being pregnant with Amelia. After the morning sickness wore off I started to enjoy my big round belly and the trendy maternity styles (you should've seen the clothes they made back in 99 when I was pregnant with Andrew!). I loved being pregnant with Nicole. It's pretty amazing to share pregnancy with a girlfriend especially when miraculously even though our due dates were 7 weeks apart we managed to deliver within two days of each other (she was 2 weeks late and I was 5 weeks early).

During our pregnancy, I remember sitting outside our houses under Molly's palm tree almost daily in beach chairs watching the kids play. Nicole would always have a plate of cheese and crackers or huge chunks of watermelon and I would have a whole cucumber sliced with a bowl of ranch. I would always manage to get food on my big round belly. Molly would sit with us and tell stories about the early days with her three kids. I was nervous about the whole three kid thing but somehow I managed. I learned that going from two kids to three wasn't so bad. Everything came easier the third time around.

My favorite thing about Amelia is the way she laughs. she tilts her head back and lets out these infectious little giggles. She's tough too. She's the kind of girl I expected having. She's girly but not wimpy. She likes to play in dirt but at the same time wants to look cute while getting messy. At the park she finds the most daring, scary, thing for a two year old to do and goes for it. She's my kind of girl!

Happy Birthday to the one and only Sarah Amelia!

The trip of all trips

If you drive south on the 1 just past the Hearst castle, on the out skirts of San Simeon, you will see zebras in a field with cows. I kid you not. My own mother didn't believe me! I was on the phone with her the exact second I spotted them and said "hold on Mom, what is that! Guys do you see that!?" I squinted my eyes and said out loud "are those zebras?" Aaron looked, Jake looked, and Andrew looked, and yes they were in fact zebras prancing around with cows of all things! How peculiar. "You better take a picture because no one will believe you." my mom told me. My camera battery died early on into our trip so no picture was taken. Nonetheless they were there.

Our trip to Big Sur was sprinkled with various animal encounters. It started on Wednesday with the condors. We were on our way to sand dollar beach, located just down the mountain from our campsite. We had pulled to the side of the road briefly, I can't remember why, and out of no where flies up this enormous condor with a pink head and the number 96 stamped, stapled (however they do it) to one of his wings, or was it his leg? I can't remember. He was fantastic and all of three feet from my car window. Not a minute later, another one arrived on the scene, and took his place next to the pink headed one. He was number 11 and he had a black head. I have never seen a real ,live, wild condor and it was pretty cool. Amelia kept saying "wow!," which cracked the boys up!

The next day we went to Andrew Moalver beach ( I don't think that's what it's really called, I can't remember exactly. It's Andrew M-something). The hike down to the ocean was a mile. On the way there the boys and Aaron sped ahead. I was left behind with slow poke Amelia, who insisted, as usual, that she would rather walk then be carried! The slow pace forced me to stop and notice everything from the elaborate branches on the trees, to the wild flowers, to the lizards, to the dragonflies, and finally to the song birds. There is something to be said about taking your own sweet time. I was really able to take everything in. The walk reminded why I love hiking so much.

On the way back Aaron decided to carry Amelia and again he sped ahead. I told the boys that if they were really quiet and paid attention they would see things in nature that they wouldn't normally notice (my dad always told me that when i was there age. In return I would roll my eyes and say "I KNOW DAD!"). Not two minutes later Andrew whispered "Mom,look!". There in front of us were four deer (one of which was a stag). I had never seen a stag before so it was really, realy cool. The two smaller of the deer looked right at us and we looked back for what seemed like a long time and then we quietly continued on.

Besides those animals, we saw more on the drive back home to san Diego (all through the car window). In all we came across 11 deer, four of which where running from a mountain lion that I didn't have the privilege of seeing. Only Andrew glimpsed that rare moment. I still kind of think it might have been a cow but he swears that it was in fact a mountain lion. "duh, what do you think they were running from mom! Why would they run from a cow." Andrew said rather snidely after I suggested the mountain lion was merely a cow.

my camera did not last long on our trip. I should've been more prepared and brought my back up piece of crap digital one. My film camera takes fantastic pictures and I didn't even consider the idea that the battery would die nor did I factor in the idea that ho dunk mountain shops wouldn't carry the battery my camera takes. My camera lasted all of two days and then I bought a disposable camera that was terribly overpriced. It made it through a day and half. I am trigger happy and tend to go through a roll of film, on an average day in about 1-2 hours. I couldn't bring myself to spend another $20 on a cheapy disposable camera. I really think that the reason my camera died was so that the next time we go back up to Big Sur we will be just as enchanted by everything. It will all be fresh and new with our lack of photo documentation to remind us of just how breathtaking it is (glass half full!). I think I can go as far as saying it is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

After trips or just plain normal days I always ask the kids "What was your favorite moment?" Always it is something unexpected and their view on what we saw and did makes the memory that much more brilliant. Andrew's favorite moment was collecting rocks at jade cove. He was perched on a big rock just over the ocean watching Aaron as he gathered handfuls of rocks and polished jade from the shore, each time a big wave would come Andrew would frantically yell and say "daddy be careful!". He liked watching out for his dad. Andrew is the protector in the family. He very much assumes the responsibilities that go along with being the oldest kid.

Jake said his favorite moment was hiking up buzzard roost and finding the baby lizard on the trail. Aaron liked seeing the condors up close. My favorite was going to Pfeiffer beach. I loved how much it resembled Ireland with it's greeness and large rocks jutting out of the ocean up to the sky. It is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. There was a small creek there that lead into the ocean. Amelia and I had a great time wading through it. I think that was her favorite moment too, that and the smores!