Vacation Recommendations!

Vacations wins, losses and toss ups: We I did a ton of prep work for our trip and with Spring Breaks/vacations around the corner, I thought I might share if it's helpful. You know I can't shut up about things when I find out about them. :)

Wins:

Scala SPF 50 Sun hat: I found this at TJMaxx for $15, but Amazon has it in a zillion colors. Love this thing! I could wad it up in my bag and it never looked like it.

SPF 50 hats for the kids: Loved these, and the kids wore them almost the whole time, i.e. they were pretty comfy.

Kiss My Face Kids Defense Continuous Spray Sunscreen SPF 50 Sunblock Smells delicious and was super easy to spray on and I didn't worry about unnecessary chemicals.

mifold Grab-and-Go Car Booster Seat, this thing is pretty amazing. Folds up into a small package, and voila, you have a seat belt adjuster for the kiddo. No booster seat needed. Boom. Lucia didn't love it, unfortunately. But for a short trip, it worked and I felt good about it. It adjusts the seat belt down rather than boost the kiddo up.

Cole Haan Nike Air Vernonia Gladiator Sandals: These are a DREAM to walk in. Love them so much, and I felt like they looked really cute too. Found them on Poshmark for discount, as they've been discontinued, but eBay probably has them. I need to research whether Nike has regular non-athletic sandals, since I'm pretty sure they don't collaborate with Nike anymore.

Strikeouts:

Crocs Leigh II Ankle Strap Wedge: Although I have these in another color and they're super comfy, I was surprised that these were uncomfy and I developed blisters after wearing them. I wore them for a few hours another day though, and they didn't bug me, so maybe they're just not for Disney-level of walking.

Camelbak water bottles: While I was super psyched to find these at TJMaxx for $7 each, these were largely a bust, since Disney offers free ice water in paper cups, and there are very, very few places to refill water bottles and I think water bottles are like $6 each or something. We'll still use these for other things though, so if you're looking for these, head to TJMaxx, yo.

Toss Ups:

Baby Blanket Sunblock Stick: Meh. This was so hard to get on the kids little faces, it didn't glide at all. I used it most days, but the kids didn't like it at all. Womp.

Touring Plans: I have always used this site (subscription) and the accompanying book to create personalized touring plans, which basically entails picking the rides you want to go on, then using their crowdsourced data points and line estimators to optimize the order to go in, so you minimize waiting and ride as many rides as possible. However. This time I found the estimates to be off, and the My Disney app to be much more useful in telling wait times, especially when factoring in walking times. I suspect Disney has or will have something like it very soon.

I'M FREEEEEE

Espen turns three today, or as he calls it, FREE. We have explained to him for the past week that first he was one, then two and now three, and he counts on his little chubby fingers, one, nine, ten, thirteen, fourteen, two. Makes perfect sense in his mind.

We've seen so many changes in him the past few months. He's talking nonstop, mostly about rockets, Paw Patrol and action-sequences he's seen on TV. For some reason he's got it in his head that a squirrel is in his bedroom, so we have to reassure him every night that the bedroom is indeed squirrel-free. He says, SCAWED MOMMY, EKORN! (Norwegian for squirrel).

He's continually needing to be re-trained in sleep; we have to restart the routine regularly and remind him of each step. He always gets right back on track when we do this, but it's a mystery to us how every night it's a surprise that he has to go to bed.

He's CLOSE to riding his balance bike; I saw him get on it this weekend and try it out. It's a smidge too tall for him. I think he's slightly less klutzy than Lucia, so I'm hoping he'll wait until he's really ready to test it.

The faces he makes; I wish I could capture them. I once told my mom he looked like one of those calico cat clocks:

 

via GIPHY

This morning he was thinking about something, and his eyes shift all the way to the left, then all the way to the right, while he processes it. He is HILARIOUS.

He's learning more and more to torture his sister, with toys and what not. He's SO Lynchy, in that he loves pasta pasta pasta, and refuses most meat, although we watched him totally house some chicken sausages last week, and he can put away two hotdogs no probs.

It's so hard and bittersweet with him growing up. I tried to cradle him the other day and realized how big he was getting. But then he says the funniest things, or asks for clemtimes or runs as fast as he can to get a glimpse of the garbage truck, and I'm so excited with how he's growing up.

He's in remission, btw, from his autoimmune disease. We test his urine a few times a week to ensure it hasn't spiked up. So far, so good. Crossing our fingers.

Happy Birthday Espen. We love you so much.

Two point five

Espen is 2.5 today. He's getting close to being ready to potty train and loves his new daycare. And is constantly moving. Gulp. 

New Helmets!

We finally have helmets for both kids; Espen rides his little car when we go for walks, and has successfully learned to stop at the corners and wait for everyone before crossing and/or maniacally laughing as we repeatedly say STOP ESPEN. We had to abort our walks early a few times to teach him how to cooperate, but it worked! He was a model citizen on our walk last night. 

Lucia, on the other hand, really needs a new bike (but has a brand-new helmet!) We took her training wheels off last night to let her try to scooch her bike along for the walk and get used to balancing, and it was a disaster. Pete carried her home with the bike in the other hand, with her sobbing. :( So, a new bike is in order.

Summah!

And so we begin our last week of summer, in our new house. The summer feels like a blur since we found out we were moving about two weeks after school let out. Seven weeks into our new house and it still doesn't feel like home; I'm trying to figure out what the magic thing is for that? Pictures on the walls? Maybe I'll work on that this week. We are blissing out in the suburbs; last night I said to Pete, I'll be right back, I've got to walk to the neighbor's tree for some lemons to make salad dressing. We've also been taking walks after dinner where the kids ride scooters or scoot-toys. Espen wakes up every morning and says, Mommy walk? He loves loves loves his walks.

In the meanwhile...

Lucia has been up at a camp the past three weeks with her best friend Eddie where she learns a little science, then goes on hikes to the beach every day. She is LOVING it.

Espen has been unhappy at his new daycare, and while it's OK, it's not great, so we are moving him to a Montessori school near our house in October. It's adorable and he can stay there until he starts kindergarten. We're beginning introducing him to the potty, which is pretty cute. 

School starts next week! I'm trying not to lose my mind with the to-do list and nerves over meeting new parents, will we fit in, etc. Lucia will be doing Girl Scouts, and I sincerely hope the troop is not as snotty as the one we tried joining last fall. I've got my first meeting with moms only tomorrow night. Say a prayer they're nice. :) We meet her teacher on Thursday and see her classroom, then go to a new parents orientation Wednesday night, then a picnic Saturday night for the whole school. There are only 200 families in the whole school, so we are super excited to get to know people and hope it's what everyone says it is: a close-knit community. Below Lucia is modeling her new uniform. Why she wanted to wear a cardigan in this heat is beyond me, but I was so happy she wasn't crying about her uniform. 

Pete has hacked our window AC units so we are not melting in the heat wave. Northern California doesn't get very hot, but when it reached 100 yesterday it was pretty uncomfortable. The kids room was around 70 degrees though. Woohooo! Major shout-out and props to him for it.

Happenins.

Here's some recent pics of the kiddos and us. 

Medication

We'll be relieved when Espen is in remission and off prednisone, as it causes weight gain. Behold the tummy.

Big changes

Lucia begged us to get bangs, and so I relented. I watched several YouTube tutorials in preparation, then got out my scissors and took a deep breath. She loves them and was thrilled with how they looked. She looks older but I'm ok with that. :) 

Famous

We knew Annie's shot of Esperdoodle as a wee lad was pretty cute, but we were really excited to see it on the TinyPrints website. Awww! So hilarious to see him with different names. Isabella! AS IF!

Where'd 2014 go?

It blows me away that the end of the year is already here. Pete and I talked about all the things that have happened in the last year, good and bad, and if we'd do the bad ones over again, or if what we learned from them. It's been a tremendous year of growth for all of us, in so many ways.

The kids were home all last week for Thanksgiving break and we ended it on a bang, with head lice. Sad trombone. I was super breezy about it, then I realized (after talking with Mary) just how extensive the treatment is, and then I wasn't so breezy anymore. Lucia's hair is down to her waist when its wet, so imagine trying to comb through that with the nit comb. Good lord.

Otherwise, we had a good break, with a sleepover (ahem, we think that's how she got lice though), a trip to the zoo, a belly-popping Thanksgiving with Mattias and Cindy, which was so wonderful because we basically just let the kids lose their minds for 6 hours, a trip to an awesome museum near our house, and the biggest news of all -- WE NOW HAVE CABLE. We're lowering our IQ daily with TV, but man it's been great. Really great. We have a new Internet service provider and cable was free with it, so I thought why not. Pete was less excited, but I think even he will agree it's been pretty damn awesome.

Here are some recent pics of us.