A Day in the Life

*Please don't feel obligated to read all this. It is my attempt at recording what life is like right now for us since this is all the record we have! Do watch the video at the bottom though. :)

Today was a typical Thursday. For breakfast McKay and I had cereal. McKay kept saying 'O' and pointing to the box. Sure enough, when I brought the box closer to him, he pointed right to the 'O'. Once he got down from his highchair, he brought me his 'O' magnet saying 'O'. Good job buddy! Then, as I helped him finish up his cereal, he 'counted' to five on his fingers, one finger up at a time, starting with his thumb. He doesn't say the numbers but he is counting them in his own language. He finds things to count all day long.

Next, I called my visiting teaching partner to see when she is available to go visiting. She is doing her masters at UCLA (yes, in LA) so she is only available Fri-Sun. I left her a message but McKay really wanted to talk on the phone. I asked him who he wanted to talk to and he said 'ama, papa'. So we called and visited with Papa McCleve for a few minutes. McKay did eventually say 'bye bye' after I convinced him (I think) that Papa couldn't see his cute little hand waving into the phone.

Thursday morning is library story time so as I was getting ready, McKay worked on taking everything out of the bathroom to sweep, like we had done the day before. This is the reason I usually sweep the bathroom when he is asleep. Cute little helper.

McKay loves the 'Young Ones' program at the library where they sing songs with lots of actions and hear a few flannel board stories. The teacher is great and McKay is so cute. He waves excitedly to the teacher when he comes into the room and does all the actions. Afterward he is always very anxious to play with the puppets and props used that day. The teacher knows McKay by name and we are usually one of the last to leave the room. Next week is the last time until July. :(

For lunch McKay had 3 fish sticks he dipped in tartar sauce and then he took a nap while I blogged. :) When he woke up, we turned on one of his favorite cds, Leap Frog Baby and I started making dinner. It was a beautiful day so we had the door open and McKay could hear our neighbors coming home from work so he started to ask for Dada. I told him Daddy would be home in a little while so he waited at the door and called for him. Then he did his running game which consists of him starting at the door to the utility room in the kitchen and waiting for me to say 'ready... Go!' and he takes off running into my room and back. We play this game a lot when I am doing dishes or cooking. He is a cute little runner and is getting so fast.

Once Daddy got home, we had dinner. My glass that was cracked finally decided to break and we had 2 cups of water all over our kitchen table. Then, I was pouring water into my new glass and watching what Jordan was doing and poured more water on the table as my glass overflowed. We now have a very clean table! McKay didn't quite understand what was so funny but he laughed with us anyway.

After cleaning the kitchen, we got McKay ready for bed while we watched Wheel of Fortune. McKay likes to clap and there is a A LOT of clapping on that show! Books, Prayers, Teeth, and bed for McKay. Jordan and I exercised, showered, worked on the computer and went to bed.

So there you have it. That is a typical Thursday for us these days.

Swimming

Monday was too hot so we went swimming with some friends in the ward. We are lucky it doesn't usually get up into the 90's here. McKay enjoyed being in the kiddie pool that is 1ft deep. He also had a lot of fun kicking and 'swimming' with Mamma in the big pool. He was not ready to go when it was already past nap time. I think we will be swimming a lot this summer!

Check out that awesome suit I got for him. SPF 100+ and UPF 50+. I didn't have to put much sunblock on him and he was much better protected than he would have been any other way unless we had stayed inside all day! No sunburns on this boy! It breathes really well and dries quickly. Plus I think it will help keep sand out of his diaper when we go to the beach. Yay!

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

In Vallejo CA there is a Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. It is about an hour to an hour and a half drive from our home in Santa Clara. And we have season passes! Last Saturday we decided to make Six Flags a part of our summer fun and headed out for our first visit. Next time we will take a different, more direct route and it will only take an hour and fifteen minutes to get there. Unfortunately there is no way around the toll bridge which is $4 per car. Good thing we are getting a good deal on the passes & parking! This park is really unique; it has all the animal shows similar to Sea World, lots of the big roller coasters common to Six Flags, over 20 rides with NO height requirement (lots of options for McKay), and lots of animals that you can just go look at like at a zoo or aquarium.

Anyway, we got into the park and happened upon the dolphin show which was just getting started. I was parking the stroller, but Jordan said right when he and McKay walked in and McKay saw the dolphins doing their flips, our not-fun-at-all drive up became totally worth it. In fact, I think part of the reason we enjoyed the park so much was because of our sweet little McKay.

One of our favorite shows of the day was the dolphin show. In fact, we even considered going back again for the next show. That is until we remembered we can come back anytime this year and that there is a lot more to see!

21 months

McKay wasn't ready to leave the dolphins yet so we went down to watch them a little closer. He liked to watch the dolphins play with their ball and would wave to them every time they swam away.

When McKay first saw this ride, he was excited and wanted to go on it so badly. He did pretty well waiting for our turn, even when we didn't get on when I thought we would - we were the first in line for the next ride.

He wasn't too sure about the ride at first. Jordan got a kick out of his expression, which reminded him of a picture of him at about McKay's age with the same expression at Disneyland. It only took a couple of spins and McKay was laughing and having a good time.

They have a Thomas Town which has this Harold the Helicopter ride, a Bertie the Bus ride and a Thomas Train ride that goes around the park. It was the Saturday at the end of spring break and apparently the park had not anticipated the crowd because we didn't have a map of the park. We were lucky enough to get a xeroxed copy of the show schedule so we just stopped here and there on our way to the shows. Next time we will go for a train ride!

Click on the collage to see the pictures closer. Obviously I had a hard time narrowing down which pictures I wanted to post. :) The elephant show was also a favorite. I have never seen an elephant in real life be so cool! McKay likes elephants a lot more after the show. It was funny to watch the elephant keep asking for more treats while the trainer sat on her side and taught us about elephants. I think he had everyone's attention when he laid down and had the elephant step over him. Especially after explaining that the elephant couldn't see her feet or him! Another favorite part was when the elephant wiggled her ears. (Wiggled seems too mild of a word to describe it... maybe waved would be better.)

After the show was over, we went to the edge of the ring and pet the elephant. Now McKay can say he has touched an elephants tusks.

Shade was limited there so next time we will make sure we are early enough to not be sitting in the sun.

Our favorite part of the sea lion show was when McKay barked/growled like the sea lions.

By the end of the day, we were all pretty tired, especially with no nap for McKay. While we waited for the killer whale show, McKay made friends with the lady sitting in front of us. He gave her 'five', 'knuckles', 'skin' and even did a little dance with her. He was very comfortable and made her wish she had a boy (she had 2 older girls). McKay makes friends wherever we go.

Next time we will sit in seats with a better view and make sure it isn't the last show of the day and I think we will enjoy the killer whale more. It still was good though.

On our way out we saw a huge walrus who was very interactive with the group of us who were watching him. He was clapping his flippers, which McKay loved.

Our first day was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed how much the animals liked us. It was so much better than a zoo where you can't get the animals to do anything. It's gonna be a fun year!

Caltrain Lunch Date

Last Friday afternoon McKay and I went for a train ride! A friend in our ward organized a lunch date/train ride. We got on the train in Sunnyvale and got off in Palo Alto. McKay and I almost missed the train. Apparently I need to add at least 10 minutes to our 'getting ready' time for applying sunblock. We were literally running to catch the train. McKay was laughing at me when I was rushing to get him strapped in the stroller before taking off running through the parking garage. A train worker helped us get all the strollers on the train & out of the way. He also helped by unloading all the strollers once we stopped. However, he unloaded an extra stroller. Yes, the train was long gone but someones stroller with a bag full of snacks and diapers was left on the side. Bummer for someone! Their Day of Fun just got more complicated!

After we left the stroller at the station, we caught up with the rest of the group at the Peninsula Fountain & Grill, not to be confused with the Peninsula Creamery a few streets down (ahem!). As we were walking in to join the rest of the group, a man leaving asked us what we were all doing. He'd never seen so many babies before. 'Is there a baby convention going on or something?' :) We used ALL the highchairs & booster seats the restaurant had and still were a few short. McKay and I got a sandwich with home style fries & and chocolate fudge shake that was 'mmm'.

Deb and I are both councilors in the Young Women Presidency. Her little Elle is 10 months old. Deb is a lot of fun and reminds me of my cousin Amy.

McKay had fun looking out the window and choo chooing.

What a fun afternoon!

Easter

After the ward Easter Egg hunt, we took a little impromptu family picture.

We had been having Easter egg hunts in our house and a few outside before the ward hunt so McKay would sort of know what was going on. He did well with picking up the eggs but he didn't seem to see any reason to pick up the candy on the grass! For several days after Easter, McKay would ask if he needed to bring his basket whenever we went somewhere. Besides swinging with Mamma (the only child seat was taken), McKay also enjoyed playing with a sheet of plastic he found, chasing it in the breeze. He was entertained the entire time we were visiting with friends and had a lot of fun running as fast as he could. He is getting pretty fast.

Easter morning the Easter Bunny didn't come until after breakfast & McKay's bath. McKay was too excited and busy to pose for a real picture, though I did try. (sigh!) He enjoyed finding eggs, eating his candy, and he almost mastered his new puzzle by the end of sacrament meeting.

McKays newest words: 'eeas' for Easter, 'meomo' for Elmo, 'dadas' for Jesus, 'eee' for yay,'papa' for Grandpa, and 'amma' for Grandma. He is saying more and more each day!

Miscellaneous McKay Moments

McKay was 'helping' me make dinner and I guess the broccoli must have looked good to him because he helped himself and actually ate quite a bit. He doesn't always eat broccoli well so I let him have as much as he wanted.

With the exception of when he is wearing this swimsuit, McKay always seems to think it is a hat. I have no idea where he came up with this but invariably when he sees the suit, he puts it on his head. I was going through his drawers and taking out everything that was too small for him, including the suit, so it was nice and accessible for him. I was having a hard time getting him to look at the camera for a picture so I started asking him to do animal sounds. See if you can tell which is which. He is doing a sheep, a chicken, a snake, and a pig.

This one is just a mix of the rest of the random pictures on my camera - my attempt at finally catching up a little. :) McKay likes to play in our closet and is always touching Jordan's belts that are hanging down. Well, Jordan left his belt in the front room one Sunday evening and of course, first thing on Monday morning, McKay found it and wanted to wear it. It wrapped around him twice and still was a little big. (Note: The belt is almost too big for Jordan too - not to wrap around twice though! ;)) It was fun until he realized he couldn't pick anything up off of the floor. Somehow I managed to catch his frustrated expression.

This kid wants to do everything we do. The middle picture is McKay 'exercising' on the stair stepper. The top right picture was taken shortly after McKay woke up from his nap, hence the pacifier. I thought he looked so funny clutching his new found love 'ducky' and the grocery store receipt that must have been too cool to be thrown away with the rest of the recipes he took to the bathroom trash for me. It is pretty long.

The bottom right picture is our dresser. The reason I took the picture though is to show how it looks after we do laundry. I frequently fold clothes in my room during which time McKay plays in the closet or whatever he finds to do. When we are done, all the handles on the dresser are flipped up. Funny boy.

So the noises McKay is making in the picture above are (clockwise starting at the top-left): Either the pig or actually a smile (maybe I did get lucky once... I can't remember now), hissing like a snake, clucking like a chicken, and baaing like a sheep. I do have the rest of the zoo too but I thought 4 were enough. :)

Done!

Tax season is over! It was fun (sick, I know) but I am glad it is over. The last couple of nights before the deadline I was up till 2-3 am so I actually took a nap yesterday. Wonderful! The only problem was that between the nap & thinking about the activity for Young Womens next week (it is going to be SO fun!), I didn't fall asleep very quickly. Today, even though I really wanted a nap, I didn't take one and hope to get to sleep early. That always feels better anyway.

I mopped my kitchen floor today and am SO HAPPY to have a clean floor! I won't tell when the last time was that I cleaned it. It was the first thing to go when I was spending my nap times & evening/nights working. I dusted & vacuumed the living room & bedrooms yesterday, including wiping down the couches, and will give the bathroom a much needed scrubbing this afternoon. The bathroom hasn't been cleaned since Jordan did it a couple weeks ago. Gross! I love a clean house and the only time I can deal with it being messy & dirty is when I don't have the time or energy to clean it. Other things like cooking dinner & doing laundry take priority. We must eat & have clothes to wear - plus McKay loves helping with the laundry. One thing I must say though is that we never missed a library story time or reading to McKay. He loves it!

This situation I have is really perfect & wonderful. I get to be home with my little sweetie (and my bigger little sweetie) and I also get to do taxes and associate with people who are also sick like me and like doing taxes. It is nice to be appreciated & feel like you are really good at something. I was asked (jokingly of course) if I would move back to Utah for next tax season. :)

Now I will go back to working a few days a week and to free Saturdays to go to new places and to revisit places we love. McKay and I will walk to the park everyday and Jordan and I will do our best to show McKay all the wonderful creations of our Heavenly Father - we'll try to make a dent anyway. We have a lot of fun things planned for this summer - it will be a summer of nothing but fun fun fun, so look out - it won't be too hard to beat my blogging track record for the first 4 months of the year though. It never is. And come next January, I will be itching to get back into doing lotsa taxes again! Love it!

Spring!

We were pleasantly surprised to have these fun flowers come up this spring! The first three were surprises in our front yard and the rose was the first bud of the year. In a few days we are going to have tons of roses! Now if we can just keep those pesky snails from killing our spring flowers...

McKay has adopted this little 'seat' as his when we are outside grilling. He was so cute, swinging his legs and begging us to come sit on the deck box next to him.

We have been having practice Easter egg hunts so McKay will know what to do when we go to the ward Easter egg hunt next week. He caught on really quickly when he discovered M&M's inside the eggs! He'd find one and empty it, then put it in his basket and say 'hmmmm' as he looked around the room, then squeal excitedly and point when he found another egg. I am not sure who is having more fun, me or him! It will be interesting to see how he does with all the other kids at the park with him.

Today after conference we decided to take advantage of the 80 degree weather and walk to the park. After playing on the playground, we enjoyed sitting in the shade and blowing bubbles. A perfect ending to a wonderful General Conference weekend!

Things to Remember

3-30-09
I love it when I am doing something for McKay, such as washing his face after a meal or helping him brush his teeth, or changing his diaper and he looks up at me and says 'thank you!'

3-26-09
When we are reading books, if someone or something is sleeping, McKay lays down on the couch next to me or leans against me and breathes deeply, pretending to be asleep. This deep breathing always makes me yawn! (nothing to do with tax season of course!)

We were grocery shopping and I told McKay the last thing on our list was chicken and he started clucking like a chicken.

McKay always lets me know if my skin or garments show when I am leaning over looking for something by either laughing and pointing or by touching my skin.

I LOVE McKay's cheerful 'hi'! Makes my day.

McKay loves music, singing (in the car to primary songs - so so sweet) or dancing to it. When he wants me to turn on music, he moves his shoulders like he is moving to the music.

I love playing with McKay, especially when we laugh together. Yesterday he was playing in my closet (a regular occurrence) shutting the door and then calling for me to ask where he is. I went over to the closet and got down to his height. When he opened the door I startled him and he loved it, so I did too. Needless to say, this new 'game' continued till Mama was done! When McKay is looking for me in the house, he does his 'whistle' "youwho". I love to surprise him when he comes around the corner. He is such a good sport and is so fun to laugh with.

McKay likes to watch the pictures come up on the computer monitor screen saver and point out his Grandmas and 'papa', as well as Dada, Mama, and himself.

This morning I was making some orange juice, at McKay's request (no milk today please). I poured the concentrate in and started adding the water. As I poured the first cup in he said 'ooonn' - he was counting the cups for me!

McKay's job is to get the recycled pie pan out of the cupboard and load it with fish sticks or tater tots when we have them for lunch. He also LOVES to sit on the counter and watch me cook, especially breakfast. He is a good breakfast eater.

3-16-09
This morning McKay woke up at 5:30 am, which is unusual for him but not entirely unexpected since he didn't get a nap yesterday because of church. We could hear him on the monitor chattering happily. When Jordan walked in he got a cheerful 'hi'! Lucky for us, he went right back to sleep when Jordan gave him his pacifier and told him it was still time to sleep. Even in our semi-conscious state, we both got a chuckle out of his cheerful 'hi!'

Today I stepped out on the porch to check the mail and before I knew what was happening, McKay shut the door behind me. Yes, it was locked. He's too efficient!

3-15-09
We were at the store checking out the bathroom scales. We had all the display scales spread out on the floor and each of us were getting on the different scales. McKay quickly figured out which scales you pushed a button and then got on, which scales you tapped with your toe and then got on, and which scales you just got on. I must say, we all had a good time trying out scales!

McKay runs everywhere. This week he has started bending his right arm and kind of swinging it as he runs, even if it is a short distance. It is really cute.

This morning Jordan & I were talking about having grilled chicken for dinner and McKay started clucking like a chicken. Nothing we say seems to get past this kid!

Last night Jordan came in from laying McKay down and asked how we could keep him from growing up - he is such a sweet boy!

3-13-09
McKay woke up from his nap today, anxious to retrieve his pacifier on the floor. Much to his delight, another pacifier from yesterday was in the same area. 1-2-1-2 pacifiers (alternating hands up and down) McKay was careful to make sure each pacifier got equal amounts of 'sucking' time!

3-6-09
McKay LOVES to play with the computer mouse. Usually I try to remember to put it up on top of the printer, out of reach (for now it is out of reach anyway). It has turned into a game. When he sees the mouse is on the desk, within reach, he grins at me and races to beat me to the desk.

We try to keep the toilet paper roll up on the back of the toilet, rather than on the dispenser to avoid having the roll, unrolled. It is more convenient to have it on the dispenser so I'll slip it on after he goes to bed or even during naps sometimes. I can always tell when he has unrolled the toilet paper because he comes to find me and looks at me with a guilty/gotcha look on his face and I immediately know what he has done.