Pumpkin Patch Revisited

We went to Irvine Park Railroad pumpkin patch, and it might just be the best place on earth. Alexis loved it! There were a ton of kids around for her to run up to and say "hi".- I always feel so bad for her because she will say Hi to everyone she walks near and more than half the time they don't her so she stands there holding her little hands together and looking up with her big eyes and says "hi" in her little voice to no response. So I walk around all day greeting her back when she doesn't get an answer and I think half of Southern California must think I am some sort of crazy lady.- Anyway back to the pumpkin patch. It was especially nice because Jess and Nicky came down and played with us and the pumpkins! Matt also just HAD to have the hugest pumpkin known to man. If we want to put it on display we are going to have to build an arena sized stage for this monster! I haven't seen him so excited about something in a while, ear to ear grinning! There were a bunch of picture cutouts that everyone had fun goofing around with and a hay maze that I took Alexis into and we managed to find our way out the right way, instead of climbing over the walls of hay like she was so determined to do ( I just don't know why that child feels the need to scale any obstacle, chair or wall she comes in contact with, I swear she is a spider baby in disguise!) All in all it was a fun day and it did the trick, Alexis Matt and I all slept like rocks that night!

Sunny Skies

You know what the best thing about California is so far??? THE WEATHER. It is the end of October and I am going for runs outside, Matt is taking the baby in the pool, we drive with the windows down, sleep with the fan on at night and are wearing shorts on a regular basis. It's still in the mid 70's and not even a hint of a cloudy day! LOVING IT!

Well, the computer geniuses at Best Buy have my computer and are doing whatever it is the computer geniuses at Best Buy do, to hopefully make it work right. The charger on it was bent on the inside and apparantly it takes two weeks to fix bent chargers.
We had a nice day at the pumpkin patch yesterday with Jess and Nicki and we took a ton of pictures that I can't post right now. When my computer comes back to me I will be sure to overload you with pictures! We also have very big news! Last night Alexis went poo poo in the potty! (sorry for the late night calls Maude, Poppy and Grandma) and then she went pee pee in the potty this morning! Very exciting stuff going on in the Caldwell apartment this morning. I think our neighbors probably think we are a little (or a lot) bit looney, dancing around and singing potty songs! The time to say goodbye to diapers is closing in and I couldn't be happier about it!!
My posts are going to be few and far between for the next couple of weeks because I can't use Matt's computer all that much (APC would not approve of potty blogging on the company computer) but I will try and sneak on every so often! Peace Out Cub Scout (that was for you 06410!)

good-bye communication

My computer is going into the shop tomorrow, again. blah! and my phone is lost, double blah! I guess I will find out very quickly what is was like to live in the early 80's. If only I could find myself a larger phone, I wouldn't lose mine all the time. I wonder where this girl got hers, it even comes with it's own carrying case!! MUST.FIND.80'S.PHONE.

It's time to PO-TTTYYY!!

The time has come at last to start potty training! Alexis keeps walking over to the toilet and saying pee-pee, and if that isn't a sign that she's ready for a potty, I don't know what is! So we went to Target today and bought a little pink potty that plays music when you go in it! As soon as I took it out of the box she walked up and sat on it and said "Pee-pee". She loved sitting on it until she realized it plays music...the music is supposed to play when you go potty in the hole but she figured out how to turn it over and press the button that makes the music (this might lead to messy potty training). I don't know how to go about teaching her to actually 'go' on the seat so tomorrow we are going to get a potty training book and for today she will just continue to sit on it and I will continue to jump up and take off her diaper when she sits on it!

She's Advanced

I know I have been saying it since she was born but, Alexis is advanced! Sure, she only has 2 teeth and has trouble with multi-syllable words, but she is well on her way to being an engineer or architect! (Alright maybe I am living in la-la land and am slightly delusional because I spend all day everyday with an 18 month old) Matt is not as easily impressed as I am though he says what would really impress him would be if she could change her own diaper! We will begin diaper changing lessons tonight... jk!! This is what the little one was up to last night and this morning:

the one on top is full of juice and the bottom one is empty... clearly untapped genius ;-)

she thought Lexi Pumpkin needed a couple hats

goodnight kisses

I love this picture. Lexi was giving Daddy a kiss goodnight before bed a few nights ago. I forgot to post it till today though!

There is a nature center across the street from our Apartment and they had a big fall fair yesterday and a pumpkin patch so we headed over to get some pumpkins! It was really cute, I am going to have to take Alexis over there one day when it isn't so crowded. They have nature trails to walk on and they have a little wildlife information center with snakes and frogs and birds that light up. She loved the snakes...weird! we picked out some pumpkins. Lexi kept picking up little ones and throwing them on the ground saying"ball!". Try explaining that a pumpkin and a ball are not the same thing to an 18 month old! We came home and gutted and carved the pumpkins, well Matt and I gutted and carved them, Alexis walked around licking the tops of the pumpkins, which grossed me out but kept her busy. While we were taking pictures of our jack-o-lanterns the munchkin fell and hit her head on the fence. This is her first big tumble. she didn't say "Boom" after this one, she cried for about 5 minutes and she had a scratch and a little bruise last night. but when she got up this morning it grew!! Now she has a nasty blackeye. the poor baby. She won't let me get anywhere near her with frozen peas to ice it so she is going to be walking around for a while looking battered and bruised. Everytime I look at her eye I run up and give her a big hug, it makes me want to cry... she has already forgotten about it, it isn't bothering her at all, but I still feel so bad! here are some pictures of our nice day at the pumpkin patch and her subsequent injury with pics from last night and this morning:

Lexi the Photographer

Alexis got a hold of my camera and I thought you all would get a kick out of her photography. there is also some in here of piggy back rides around the apartment and some goofy hat ones. we had a big picture day today!

Lexi: A Self Portrait

"EAR!"

taking Dolly for a stroll.

Alexis' favorite toy is a little doll Grandma got her for Christmas last year. About a month ago she started carrying Dolly around by the pigtails, dragging her feet along the ground, poor Dolly is in desperate need of a pedicure, and everyday we drag Dolly around the apartment or whatever store we are in. well this morning Alexis decided to take Dolly (Dah-ey in Lexi language) for a walk in the stroller. I obviously ran right for the camera because I am a little picture crazy.

Ohhh Al

I don't get to watch the Today show all that much anymore, But Lexi is sleeping in this morning so I get to watch it!! It always strikes me hilarious how inappropriate some of Al Roker's comments are. Something about watching Matt, Meredith and Ann (yes I am on a first name basis with my buds up in New York) flounder at what to say to his comments just puts me in a good mood. He just has less censors than everyone else, this morning for example they were doing an interview with two actors from the new Robinson Crusoe show, two good-looking guys, and everyone was standing outside shivering from the cold. Well they start the interview and the guy that plays Crusoe is wearing a button down shirt that is buttoned halfway to his bellybutton (not that I was complaining!) and leave it to Al at the end of the interview to call him out on it! "If it had been a little bit warmer he would have unbottoned the whole shirt" oh Al! This is a mild example of his spunk, Matt loves Al and could probably come up with better examples than that but he is in the shower. just thought I would share the little spark that makes my morning!

Nightmares

Alexis was up at 5:15 this morning,sobbing and screaming her little head off. Every so often she gets baby nightmares, poor little munchkin. I can't imagine what could scare her so much at 17 months... maybe someone took Elmo away from Sesame Street, or the pool vanished. She was so scared though, I rocked with her for 15 minutes then I couldn't put her back in her crib, she clung to me and started screaming, so I brought her into our bed and she sat up straight and wanted to climb allover Matt, then when I tried to take her in the other room so he could sleep she started screaming allover again. so now we are having an early morning milk and Elmo session, hopefully after an episode of sesame street and a book she will go night-night... I'm not counting on it though!

Lazy Day

well it is now 2:00 and the Red Sox are on to be closely followed by the Giants tonight... Go G-Men! The wind has been going crazy all day and that was a sufficient enough excuse to stay inside and catch up on some housework and lounge. Alexis took a super long nap this afternoon which makes a happy (and somewhat bored) Mommy. Matt did some landscaping on our extensive lawn and I did a seemingly never-ending pile of dishes. Somewhere in between all that we managed to find the time to watch a couple episodes of the Sopranos (CLEARLY not my choice, but Matt gets so few days off and works so hard so... Tony ruled our living room today). Anyway all in all it was the best wasted day we've had in a long time. It's nice just to be able to put our feet up and co-exist sometimes. here are some pics of Matt the Gardener and some of the pool that we probably should have used, but lets face it we are just to lazy to leave the apartment today!

Sunday at the beach!

Since we moved out here, even before we moved out here, all we hear from everyone is "On a clear day you can see Catalina from here" Now we heard this no matter what town we were in. If you are within 2 miles of the beach you can be sure that on a clear day you can see Catalina. Well so far everyday we have been here has been sunny. No clouds in the sky and the bright sun shining down on our skeptical little east coast faces, and still no sign of the illusive Catalina Island. It has become a bit of a running joke between us, we wake up on a particularly beautiful day and say "I bet Catalina is looking lovely today" or some other sarcastic comment. Well it has finally happened... WE HAVE SEEN CATALINA!!! it isn't an island on a sneaky turtle's shell, always shifting to keep us on our toes! We went to Huntington Beach with Alexis yesterday to get some beach time in and right in back of the pier we saw it! and it was bigger than we expected! there was a curtain of haze between us and the Island but it was there! At first I thought it was a barge, but after being (teased) very nicely corrected by Matt we realized we were indeed looking at Catalina! Well it just about made our weekend! The Californians haven't been lying to us, you really can see Catalina from"here" on a clear day! Well either that or we have been drinking the water here for long enough that we are having the same hallucinations... I'm going to go with we saw the island! Here are some pictures of our day at the beach. if you look very closely at the ones with the water in the background you can see the veiled Catalina!



























Isn't this picture pretty? my husband the photographer!