One of the biggest perks of Alex's job is getting to go to sporting events at Cal pretty much whenever we want to. We will probably use this more when the kids get a little older and more interested in watching the event, but we still make it to a few things each season. Here are the kids and I (Kenzie's bow is peeking through) at the first gymnastics meet of the season!
We have started gathering/organizing things for the baby to come in early June. Kenzie is quite taken with his carseat, and can get in by herself. She hasn't figured out how to get out by herself, however, so it's also a great baby corral for the time being. Gotta love dual purpose pieces of furniture!
This also reminds me of an awesome conversation that we had with Olivia. shortly after finding out the gender of the baby (It's a Boy!) I asked her if she had any name ideas for the new baby. This prompted a short clarification that the baby doesn't tell us his name, the Mom and Dad actually get to choose the name for the baby. Suddenly I realized that I had opened a new realm of possibility as she started listing all her names for her children (by my count, there will be at least 3 named unicorn and 2 named princess). After that roundabout conversation I asked her again:
Me: 'Honey, do you have any name ideas for the new baby?'
O: 'Kenzie!'
M: 'It should probably be a boy name because this baby will be a boy.'
O: 'Oh...then meatloaf!'
Needless to say, we haven't narrowed our list for baby names yet, but our list of name contributers is shrinking by the day :).
Can anyone find Carter?
SuperBowl 50 was at Levi Stadium, which happens to be about an hour from our house. It was really hard for Alex when we realized that taking our family down to the festivities wasn't the smartest idea, so he was thrilled when his work decided to go for an evening. He was in total football heaven (I can tell because he kept texting me pictures like the ones below...) with all of the behind-the-scenes displays they had around. Going to a SuperBowl game as a spectator and enjoying all the festivities for a weekend has probably made his bucket list, but this will hold him off for a few years I think.
My day that evening was an adventure as well. Carter came out of his room after a suspiciously long time being quiet to ask me to put on a pair of socks for him. He's about a 60% self-dresser at this point, so I told him that I could help him do it and sat down. When he sat across from me I noticed that his feet looked like huge sausages from the socks that were already on. He let me take pictures as we peeled off one layer after another before we finally found the end. As it turns out, 7.5 pairs (one layer only had the left foot) is the max for a 3 year old to put on by himself. Lesson learned!
Of course, Kenzie had to get in on the sock action as well.
Carter has definitely been getting bigger, and we have reached the realm of potty training. To be more specific, we have started and stopped potty training 4 times already because of lack of interest on his part. I know I shouldn't push it, but he's 3 1/2 so it's time. But that's beside the point: I have discovered a major flaw with boys' underwear. All of the big characters/cool pictures are on the bum side of the undies. This may not seem like a major issue, but it causes coverage issues when your son insists on wearing his undies backwards so he can 'look at the guys' every day.
We ended this first week of February with Alex's first weekend off work when the weather was nice! We celebrated with a trip to the Oakland Zoo, which will have to be repeated soon. We had a great time, and it was a learning experience for the kids. They each had Christmas money that they wanted to use, but they have quite a few new toys, so we decided to give some experience options. There are SO many fun Bay Area things that there's no way we will be able to do them all, so it was fun to let the kids choose one that they wanted to do the most. They both chose the Zoo (with a trip to the gift shop of course)
The petting zoo portion was a favorite for the rest of the family, and I battled my extreme repulsion of them enough to go into the pen to take pictures. I didn't touch anything, and was the handwashing police, but I did get some cute shots of the kids enjoying this disgusting activity!
Olivia especially liked the brush for animals. Surprisingly, she is my most hesitant kid toward live animals (but my most exuberant toward anything theme ride/rollercoaster/bounce house/etc), so she liked to pet without actually touching.
Makenzie was in love with this goat. She was up totally close petting it carefully when it decided that it wanted to get up, and rolled right into her. She was totally bowled over, but got right back up, walked outside, and found a more stationary animal to pet.
Carter found a 'cow goat...his mom eated a cow and he was born like this'. An exciting moment for this silly kid.
After the petting zoo and lunch, we found Kenzie's favorite animal! She could have stayed all day watching them with her little hand outstretched asking them to come closer. This zoo doesn't have a giraffe feeding area, but I look forward to taking her to Portland or another zoo where she can touch a giraffe :).
This elephant was super fun to watch. It was his lunch time, so he walked over all his rocks and stuff to get to his food, which was placed fairly high. He had to stretch his trunk WAY up to get it, so the kids got an up close view of how elephants eat. They stood, mouths hanging open, for about 10 minutes watching this fun process.
When we had reached the end of our walking ability, the kids and Dad did a couple rides. The ski lift took them over a few animals that we had seen, but also to the bison, which are only able to be seen from above.
Mom and Makenzie had some rest time...my little sleeping beauty.
They also took a train ride to the emu/kangaroo part of the zoo!
All in all, a totally successful outing. We were all tired at the end, but it's amazing how much easier it is to keep the fun, peaceful attitude when we are all together as a family instead of me shuffling 3 kids around with me everywhere!
The zoo wasn't enough fun for one weekend, so the next day the kids and I headed to Tilden Farm with some good friends! This meant 2 moms and 6 kids, so there was a lot more shuffling and counting of kids than the day before :). This farm is on the back side of Berkeley, and was a great place to get more of that lovely petting zoo experience. They encourage animal feeding, and have all sorts of animals to see and get close to. The animals are all very friendly, and not at all afraid to lick a hand that is in their space :).
The Rules had been there before, so MacKenzie (note the different spelling...but she is big MacKenzie to our kids) was a pro at feeding them...she even fed a cow with her mouth! I tried not to gag as I laughed and took this picture :).
Our kids weren't quite ready for that level of commitment, but they did get in on the feeding action. Carter was seen a few times taking a bite out of the celery before sharing with the animals, and Makenzie mostly ate hers...but that's the benefit of feeding them veggies!
M made friends with a chicken that was wandering around. To be quite honest, she was much more interested in him than the other way around, but they made a cute pair.
She finally figured out the process, and tried valiantly to reach this sheep. I'm not sure if she would have surrendered the celery, but we didn't have to find out because she was about 4 inches shy of tall enough.
Our friends showed us their group picture stump! We weren't as effective as we like to be at getting a shot of all these kids, but we captured their personality, which is just as well. Here are the kid by personality trait displayed:
MacKenzie: Performing beautifully for an audience, quite the dancer!
Carter: Eager to do whatever someone else is doing that looks like fun, he's going with the flow.
Olivia: Mother hen as usual, helping Makenzie stand still
Makenzie: tolerating said 'help' quietly, if not defiantly :)
Brecken: not totally concerned with the craziness, just hanging out waiting for the next adventure
Grayson: In his own world, doing whatever he pleases :)
It was a totally fun afternoon with some great friends. I wish I could put into words how great it is to have found such a fun 'friend family' so soon after moving to a new place. The kids get along so great, and that allows Allison and I to just hang out and ignore the crazy for a little bit. I'm very grateful to have them!
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