Otto: the boy who loves motorcycles

We have a book called Otto: The boy who loved cars. Otto LOVES it and it is totally appropriate. Otto is a boy who loves cars-he either tells me every make and model of the cars we see or asks what they are if he can't recognize it himself...but he loves something even more than cars...MOTORCYCLES. He is obsessed. He can't get enough of them. He loves to talk about them, play with toy versions, point them out when we are driving, sit on them when we walk by, spin the wheels, go to motorcycle shops, he makes motorcycle sounds, knows all the different kinds and most importantly tells us that when he grows up he is going to be a fast motorcycle driver. They are his passion so I thought it only appropriate that I share it on his blog. I've included some photos of Otto on various motorcycles. The first is of Otto on Amador's Yamaha 1100 (Amador is the gentleman who is building our playhouse/screening room), next Otto on Morgan and Troy's ride-on-toy motorcycle cruising up a ramp, Otto on a small motorcycle at the Honda/BMW Dealership, and finally Otto on the rocker Harley that the Deighton's gave us. Otto is truly the boy who loves motorcycles.

Easter

Easter was a massive hit! I bought egg dye about 3 weeks before Easter so Otto knew we'd be coloring eggs and he was really excited about it. I cooked 17 eggs and we took them over to Goa's for some dying. Otto loved it. He colored each egg about 5 times, insisted upon fitting as many eggs as he could into the cups of dye, and spilled at least two cups over. All in all it was great fun for all of us. The next morning, Easter, the Easter Bunny visited Goa and hid the eggs in her house. I was WAY too excited about the hunt and scared Otto. He wanted NOTHING to do with finding eggs. We had to wait about an hour and very nonchalantly mention that we should go look for them. He was hesitantly on board but once he stated the hunt he had THE BEST TIME! We had to hide the eggs about 7 more times before he finally moved on to something new. I made deviled eggs out of our bounty and we headed off to a party and another egg hunt-and this time the eggs were filled with candy. Once Otto discovered the treasures inside the eggs he stopped searching the instant he found an egg and ate all the contents. It was pretty funny. That evening Otto, Trevor, Tam Sam, Goa and I hopped in the car and drove out to the Valley to the closest Olive Garden. Uncle Richard gave us a gift certificate for Christmas that we finally used. It was our first family holiday dinner at a restaurant and we all had a ball and stuffed ourselves silly. The first 3 pictures are of our Easter activities: dying eggs, Otto's Easter outfit from Uncle Fishy, and at the Olive Garden. The picture of Otto and Goa is just a cute one over on her couch that I had to include and the final picture of Otto Trevor and I in bed was taken by Tam Sam one morning. Otto usually wakes up around 5:30 or 6:00am and we bring him into bed with us and all fall back asleep until around 7:30 or 8:00. It is such a wonderful morning ritual that we all love. Tam Sam will bring Maybe in the morning to play in the backyard. We are usually awake by the time she comes over but this particular morning we were all still lazing in bed reading books. I'm so glad because now we have one of the best parts of our day documented!

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!