Spring fun

We've been having lots of fun this spring. Despite feeling wore out all the time I've been trying to get Otto out and about. The picture of him looking sideways was taken at the Noah's Ark Exhibit at the Skirball Museum. It is SUCH a fun place-super hands on with lots of activities and an ark that he can climb in. The only problem is that it is a bit far and opens just before nap time but we try to get there anyway. The photo of Otto in his jammies was taken one morning during breakfast. Trevor was making French toast because I made some clotted cream and marmalade jam. We thought Otto would love it but he preferred to dip honey pretzels in the cream and call that breakfast. I caved in because ultimately I figured there wasn't much difference between a pretzel and piece of toast. Trevor and Otto usually cook breakfast together. The ladder that Otto is standing on is his "robot transporter." They will make pancakes together and Otto will crack the eggs, or he will toast his own waffles, or push the blender buttons for banana smoothies. It's pretty cute and allows me some time to shower or get a little extra sleep. Otto has been super into cooking with me lately too. We make an avocado pound cake the other day and he likes to season whatever meat we are having. He also likes to poke holes in the potatoes before we bake them. I am always a little unsure how things will turn out when he helps but everything so far has been excellent. He is a great chef! The picture of Otto and I at the library was taken the same day as the one of Otto and Trevor in the cable car. We had an awesome field trip downtown one Friday that Trevor had off of work. We completely forgot about gymnastics (Otto's usual Friday morning activity) and took the public bus downtown to the central library. The bus ride was a massive highlight. Otto loved not being strapped in a car seat and kept switching seats and we even sat next to a man also named Otto! We spent almost 2 hours at the huge downtown library. It's a really beautiful building with a very inspiring children's wing. It looks like something out of a Harry Potter movie. After reading a bunch of books we ended up checking out around 10 to bring home. Instead of heading straight to the bus stop we road all the outdoor escalators downtown and ended up at the cable car which we road 4 or 5 times. It was such a fun morning and made us feel like tourists in our own city. The final photo is of Otto and Trevor flying a kite at the meadow. Otto, Tam Sam, Rahel and her daughter Aden, and Yumana and her family and Trevor and I all met up one Friday afternoon for a picnic. We had a great time and played with lots of kids-some we already knew from the meadow and some new faces as well. Otto loved flying a kite and we vowed to make picnic-ing in the meadow a Friday afternoon tradition...although we haven't done it since. I think now that Trevor is on paternity leave we will start it up again.

Fun pictures

In order to catch up these last 3 months I went through my phone and uploaded a few pictures of what we've been up to. The first picture is of Otto biking at the Meadow. Trevor has been so great and really takes over with Otto immediately when he gets home from work. They'll either play at home or go on a fun little field trip-walk for ice cream, head to the park or meadow, or just play in the car (possibly Otto's favorite activity). Trevor also gives Otto his bath every night. They play and have tons of little rituals and then when they are done Trevor wraps Otto up in a cocoon (a towel) and says "Mommy! What did we found?" And when they appear I say "It's a caterpillar in a cocoon!" And then Otto makes little cracking noises and we all shout "He's turning into a beautiful butterfly...what a great metamorphosis!" Then Otto flaps his wings (arms) and we talk about what colors they are and then he tells me he wants his bottle and his pi-pi and to read in bed with out diapies. And I say get under these covies (blankets) and we read a few books without jammies and then a few after we get him dressed and then we turn off the lights and "go night-night" and he tells us he wants to get into his crib. That's our little evening ritual. The photo of Otto in the bath was a taken a few days before a new haircut! The third photo was taken by Sarah Buckland at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife park. We decided to get out of town one day and met the Bucklands for an afternoon watching animals. We all had a great time and went back to Sarah and Andy's house for a pizza dinner. The other picture of Otto and Trevor was at the Metropolis exhibit at LACMA. We met Trevor at his office which is right across the street from the museum. Otto had a great time playing at his office (and has asked to go back on several occasions) and then we walked over to LACMA to see the huge matchbox car city that actually runs-all the cars move through the track. It is amazing and right out of Otto's imagination. The fact that he couldn't touch it made it a little less interesting for him but he enjoyed it and then we walked all around the museum, rode in the huge elevator, ran around outside and ate dinner at the cafe. It was SUCH a fun evening. And finally the last photo is of Otto touching his little sister in my belly. He likes to feel her move and always says that she'll bring him some presents when she arrives! She will!

Trampoline

When Trevor got back from Sundance and I got home from Florida the weather was so great that we decided to ramp up our backyard fun and bought a trampoline! It was the best decision ever!!! Otto LOVES it and so do we. If he is ever board or doesn't want to go out anywhere it is the perfect activity. We pretty much jump every day. He started out just running around on it and jumping and then he progressed to knee drops and then to seat drops. Now he can do somersault. He and Trevor play timber on it and pretend they are heffalumps trying to get me or each other. Unfortunately because I have been pregnant since we got it I haven't been able to do too much but I'm so excited to be able to jump with Otto once I have the baby. I am posting a little video of our trampoline warming breakfast party. Yumana, Gus, Luke and their parents came over to jump and eat bagels.

Sundance

I was a bit worried how Trevor's absence while away at Sundance would go but it turned out to be no problem. We had a great time. I made sure we had lots of events going on to keep us busy. We went to every park, Disney, all the museums, rode his strider at the park, played with friends, played at the indoor playground etc. It was fun. With Goa still in Texas and Tam-Sam next door we had lots of action-she and Maybe came over every morning and most afternoons. Toward the end of the two weeks however I was getting a little lazy. I have to admit we had cupcakes for dinner a few nights and I relaxed the TV rules and let Otto watch Cars. HE LOVED IT!!!! I am posting one photo of our time away from Daddy. I took it one morning at the Fix-a coffee shop with a bunch of trucks that kids can zoom around. The other photos were taken while I was away in FLA for a week. The one of Otto driving was taken by Daddy while they were at Disney and the one of Otto running in the train car was taken by Tam-Sam while the two of them when to Traveltown. I'll let Trevor post a blog about his time doing Daddy Day Care!

Christmas-bloged about in Spring!

OK OK. I'm officially the worlds worst blogger. These next few blogs will be short and quick just to update what we've been doing these past 3 months. I'll start with Christmas. We had a great time with the entire Groth clan in Salt Lake. Aunt Mindy and Uncle Mat were there with all their dogs. Otto especially loved Turtle (Trevor and I fell in love with him too...although that doesn't mean we are getting a dog!). He is the dog in the picture licking our faces. The weather was beautiful-sunny and warm so we were outside quite a bit. We went on a few great hikes with the dogs and Otto seemed to really enjoy himself. The other picture of Otto outside is on one of these hikes. The one really chilly day we all went to the Natural History Museum which was wonderful. It is brand new and has really modern and fun exhibits. Otto loved the dinosaurs and a display of water run-off because it had a bunch of balls that he could roll back and forth. We had a really amazing time and will go again. The third picture is of Otto in front of one of the museum's dinosaurs. We also saw a really cool play about pirates that Otto enjoyed up to a point. He was scared at first, then got super into it, and then got really scared again. Trevor took him outside for a bit and he was able to come back for the end of the play. Otto loved all his gifts especially the cars and trucks and his super cool new big wheel. Pedaling was a bit tricky at first but he is getting the hang of it and now loves to ride it up and down the driveway in the backyard. The most fun part of our holiday was seeing Otto interacting with his cousins. He really loves them and they love him. It was really cute!

Disney Part 1 and 2

Because our time in Texas was a bit bumpy I asked Trevor if he would take a day off of work so the three of us could go to Disney. Even though he had to cancel a pretty big interview he did it and we cruised down to Anaheim. High on the fact that it only took us 30 minutes from our house to the Disney parking lot we decided then and there to buy season passes so we could go as many times as we wanted to in a year. Whether Otto would enjoy himself was still and unknown. The park wasn't too crowded as it was just before the real holiday crunch. Long lines really only averaged 20 minutes. Not horrible. We road the double decker bus first then carousel which were both a huge success. Then Dumbo-another success. Then a particularly long wait for the Casey Jr. Train (a little tough on Otto) but once we were on the ride we all enjoyed ourselves. Otto caught sight of a few motorized wheel chairs and begged to sit on them for what seemed like hours (undoubtedly his favorite ride at Disney!) and then sat on Mr. Toad's car for another stretch. We didn't go on the ride itself because it had one of the longer lines instead opting to make our way over to Toon Town bribing Otto off with a DumDum. With one exception Toon town was great. Lots of cartoon cars, trolleys, and fire trucks for Otto to sit on and the option to take a fast pass on Rodger Rabbit's car ride. That ride seemed tailor made to Otto-bunnies and cars. BIG MISTAKE. It was truly terrifying and Otto begged to get off within 10 seconds of being on the ride. The entire ride was dark with neon signs, cold and bumpy with things popping out, loud music and yelling. Everything that Otto dislikes. It really colored the rest of our day at Disney. After the ride we took a break and bought Otto some new cars and got hot dogs. That helped a bit. Later we went inside Mickey's house-nice and calm, then Minnie's house-fun with the exception of a scary dishwasher and Goofy's house a car-big hit. We tried Chip and Dale's Tree house but that was too scary. Then Otto took a nap in his stroller and Trevor and I got saved seats for the parade with our coats and took a little break ourselves. Otto woke up and he and Trevor rode the fire truck up and down main street a few times. Then we ventured off to try a few more rides. We thought Winnie the Pooh would be begin enough but it too had a nightmare sequence with a heffalump that was REALLY scary. Not at all fitting for toddlers in Trevor and my opinion. Then we tried the train to get Otto in a better mood but the second scare really was too much. We decided to head back and wait for the parade. My mistake was being Johnny on the spot and saving front row seats. WAY too close for comfort. Everything was too big and too loud and when the nutcracker blew his trumpet right in Otto's face he finally hid behind Trevor and started to cry-his position for most of the remainder of the parade. After that we finally took the hint and left. All in all I'm making this first trip sound pretty bad...for a kid who never watches TV or movies I think it was all a bit too much...that said we did have a lot of fun as well. Enough fun that we ultimately decided the season pass was the right thing to do. Either way, it was too late, we already paid for them.
Otto's second Disney trip was a MASSIVE success and truly reinforced that the season pass purchase. Now that Trevor is at Sundance I'm trying to keep Otto and my self entertained for two weeks so I thought I'd give Disney another shot. He was excited from the get go. There were very few lines (the longest being maybe 8 minutes for the train and Dumbo). We rode Dumbo twice, the train once, the tea cups 7 times in a row-BY FAR Otto's favorite ride. We had a great lunch, hung out in Toon town, road the fire engine and double decker bus up and down main street several times, hung out in the fire station, road It's a Small World-the only inside ride we did-and even though it was not his favorite and he didn't want to go again, Otto admitted that "It wasn't too scary." He loved the tram and Goofy's house and he took another nap in his stroller. We had so much fun that we are going to go back next week. As Otto said when we were leaving, "You DO want to go to Disney!!!"

Texas

Otto and I skipped town again during Trevor's busy season of watching movies around the clock. Our trip to Texas started off a bit rocky. Otto got CRAZY sick for the first week we were there. On our flight out he had diarrhea twice so we had to go through two outfit changes. He also threw up all over my back while I was leaning down to pick up his pacifier which he had apparently spit out because he was going to throw up. I found that out the hard way! I thought the diarrhea was a fluke and that he got sick due to an especially bumpy flight (while I was changing him in the bathroom turbulence got so bad that the flight attendant wouldn't let us leave the bathroom to walk back to our seats) but the diarrhea and throwing up continued all day and night so I knew it was a bug. I took him to the doctor the next morning to get meds just to make sure that the twins didn't get sick but unfortunately all we got was anti-nausea medication and probiotics and orders to quarantine. This continued the entire first week. Otto's diaper rash got to bad that we went through a half tub of aquaphor and several bags of diapers. Poor guy. He was in such pain. Unfortunately I got sick too-not the same bug but instead a fever and aches and pains. Lord. It was a tough week. But the twins didn't get Otto's or my bug which I was grateful for. Unfortunately Tucker got a UTI and ended up in the hospital for three days-Thanksgiving included. Ahhhh. What a brutal two weeks. We did have some fun though. I took Otto on a lot of walks, we played in Uncle Ryan's jeep and the garage non stop, we read lots of books, rode the motorized cart at Kroger, went to the big park in the Woodlands, went shopping, and played with lots of toys-especially his new rescue fire team (Yuri, Valdamire, and Mikel) and all their equipment-a gift from Aunt Stacy. It was Uncle Ryan though who solidified himself as Otto's favorite person. He MAY be a bit more comfortable with Trevor and me but not by much. His love for his Uncle was a lucky thing because Ryan watched him one night when Aunt Stacy, Goa, and I went to see Braking Dawn. They had a marvelous time together. Even when I was around Otto followed him around everywhere. Otto loves all of his tools and jeep and his ability to catch lizards and fix stuff. And when we got back Uncle Ryan was all he talked about and kept asking to watch the video of the two of them fixing the jeep together. The picture of Otto measuring the piece of wood was taken during Ryan's Daddy Day Care stint as is the shot with Otto's arms up in the air doing thumbs up (taught to him by Ryan). The other photos were taken of him in the garage (his favorite spot), feeding the ducks, and Ryan and he fixing the jeep.