Kidless in San Diego!

Warning: no cute kiddie pics here... just our boring faces! Today is Day 3 of our first-ever trip without kids, and aside from staring longingly at every baby and toddler within 100 yards, I'm holding up well. I've been able to talk to Wesley on the phone quite a bit, so I'm really just struggling with missing my baby girl! Especially since she was with us during our last trip to San Diego a little over a year ago! Everywhere we go I remember Anna Kate's sweet little 5-month-old face in all the places we went together. But I'm getting to eat my meals uninterrupted and I'm getting tons of sleep, so I think I'll make it the 3 remaining days before I get to see my babies again! The first place we headed was Coronado Island, where we stayed during our honeymoon in 2003. There was a triathlon taking place on the bay so we couldn't get too close to the resort where we stayed (The Loew's Coronado Bay Resort), but we enjoyed strolling around Coronado's quaint town square and Michael got to eat fish tacos.

Sunday evening we headed to La Jolla. It was kind of a dreary day, but it was bright and sunny the last two times we've been to La Jolla, so it was kind of neat to see the cove in a different light... still very beautiful but in the sort of way that makes you want to curl up with a good book. The cloudy skies didn't keep the seals away, though! Yup, those are hundreds of seals on the shore behind Michael.

La Jolla Cove (Check out my blog post from December 2007 to see a bald little Anna Kate in this exact same spot on her 5-montha-birthday!) -Below- This is our table at our restaurant... the Brockton Villa in La Jolla. (See Dec. 2007 blog to see pics of us sitting here both with Anna Kate in 2007 and on our honeymoon in 2003). This restaurant is housed in a historic home overlooking the cove. It has breathtaking views, amazing food, and very warm heat lamps to keep you toasty on the patio! If you're ever in the San Diego area, you have to go!!! I may even let you sit at my table.

I took this photo from the patio while we were eating dinner - this seal was barking like crazy. He's right on top of the rock in the middle of the photo... that's him sticking his head up (might look like the tip of a sharp rock, but it's our seal friend! It was getting dark, so this was the best my camera could do). -Below- Sitting under the glowing lanterns and twinkly lights after watching the sunset over La Jolla Cove. The last time we were here I spent most of my time trying to sooth a teething Anna Kate!

This is the view from our balcony... our resort is located on Mission Bay, directly across from Belmont Park. Belmont Park is home of The Giant Dipper roller coaster (seen clearly from our hotel room), which opened in 1925 and is the oldest wooden roller coaster still in operation in the country. We can hear the squeals of the riders from our room!

Yesterday was supposed to be all work and no play for Michael, but they ended up finishing their tour of citrus groves early (Citrus-Greening carrying psyllids appeared in Southern California groves for the first time this past fall, and Michael is the Greening/psyllid expert, which is why he was sought out for this conference. Yesterday he toured groves and today he's making his presentation to growers and other scientists during the California ESA meeting), so Michael and I got to spend the evening together. First we headed across the street to ride The Giant Dipper!

Nerd Alert: I LOVE history, so I get really into the historical significance of landmarks. And Michael bought me a San Diego Then & Now book when we were on Coronado Island, and it just fueled the fire! The book showed hundreds of San Diego landmarks, buildings, and locations both now and how they appeared a hundred years ago or more. I've already read the whole book and I'm like a fountain of knowledge running around San Diego trying to spot landmarks! I took these photos (showing the coaster during its construction and opening in 1925) while Michael was purchasing our tickets to ride. Okay, in 1925 is cost 15 cents to ride The Giant Dipper. Today is costs $6 each!! Inflation much! But it was worth it.

Michael and I in the front car. At least we didn't have to wait hours to ride like in 1925! I guess that alone makes it worth the extra $5.85! Michael tried to take photos, but obviously most of them were blurry. There were amazing ocean views from the top! -Below- After riding the coaster we headed to Old Town so Michael could eat at his favorite Mexican Restaurant, Old Town Mexican Cafe. First we walked around the center of Old Town. Here's Michael in front of La Casa De Estudillo, built around 1827. The last time we were in San Diego we bought a Christmas ornament depicting this casa made from wood harvested from trees that stood above the casa for hundreds of years (I guess the trees were failing and had to be removed). It has hung proudly on our Christmas tree the past two years.

The Whaley House is considered to be one of the most haunted homes in America. I was only interested in it because it's the state's oldest brick home, built in 1857. (My nifty Then & Now book has pics of all of these places!)

One of the places highlighted in my nifty book was the Junipero Serra Mission, built in the early 1900s on the site of the city's first mission, which was built in 1769. In all of our previous trips to San Diego, we had never seen this mission. So we entered it into our "PBS" (Wesley's term for a GPS) and found it, located high on a hill above Old Town (don't know how we missed it... I guess in our pre-GPS days were were always too busy staring at maps and road signs to notice!). We arrived last night right as the sun was setting. The view of San Diego Bay below us was amazing! Randomly, there were bunnies hopping around everywhere!!! I though it was appropriate since Easter is right around the corner!

One of my famous timer-shot photos! The only place I could find to set my camera on was a post behind this bush. I had to run like crazy to get by Michael's side before the flash went off! I'm so elegant and all. After leaving the mission we went shopping for presents to bring back to the kids! I can't wait to see them! I miss you Wesley & Anna Kate!!!

Too Cool for School!

This week was insect week at Wesley's preschool and Michael made a special visit today to talk alllllll about bugs and show off his cool bug stuff! The class had perfect attendance today... no one wanted to miss the big bug day! Miss Sonya's class joined Miss Lynn's class for Michael's presentation, but before they arrived I got a shot of all 9 kids in Wesley's class: Clockwise from top: Andria, Owen, Ellen, Aidan, Fletcher, Erin, Wesley, Jonas, & Jacob.





Wesley got to be the "Happy Helper" today... he'd been looking forward to it all month! He got to help Miss Lynn update the calendar & weather chart, and he got to hold the flag during the Pledge of Allegiance (which he knows every word to, by the way, genius child of mine!)





Michael showing the kids different kinds of bugs and some sort of cocoon-type-buggy-thing (hey, being married to an entomologist doesn't mean I know anything about bugs!)









Michael brought bug glasses with compound eye lenses so the kids could "see like a bug." Wesley's best scary bug face (followed by Erin the mantis, Jonas the hornet, and Emily the fire ant!).



Michael gave each kid a bug jar and then gave everyone a baby grasshopper to take home and feed and nurture into a giant grasshopper! Michael has now reached celebrity-status at College Heights Preschool - it's kind of taking him back to his glory days as the Nature Lady at Southside! (When we were newlyweds, our church in Lexington needed a new Nature Lady, so I signed Michael up for the job... he quickly changed his title to "Bug Guy" and instead of cuddly bunnies and fuzzy baby chicks, the kids got to see giant hissing cockroaches and mammoth scorpions! Awww, good times.) Speaking of before we had kids....

Michael and I leave in the morning for San Diego... WITHOUT THE KIDS!!!! Our very first trip EVER without kids (well, since we had 'em anyway!). Except for the two nights I hid out at a friend's house down the road to assist in weaning Anna Kate cold turkey (and those don't count because I was in pain & stank like cabbage!!), I have not had a SINGLE kid-less night since becoming a mom! I am looking forward to sleeping the DEAD sleep of a woman that is not keeping one ear open at all times for sounds emitting from one of two baby monitors on her bedside table!!! My mom is here to watch the kids and Michael & I are gonna party like it's 2003 (when we honeymooned in San Diego)!!! This will be our 2nd return trip to San Diego since then, but last time we had Anna Kate in tow. I wish I could say that I'm torn about leaving them, but you'll have to check back in a few days to see if those emotions surface... right now I'm just PUMPED!!! Woooooo-hoooooooooooo!!!!!!!

We seriously need to get out more...

We've all completed our antibiotics and are feeling much better now, but the effects of us essentially spending two weeks indoors are starting to show! Between taking Wesley to preschool, going to church, workouts at the Y, doctor and dentist appointments, & trips to the grocery, I feel like we've remained "on the go," but none are the type of outing that warrant documentation by a camera-wielding-mommy-blogger, thus the sheer boredom you've been experiencing in your attempts to follow this blog the past few weeks (thank goodness Whitney had a baby to liven things up a bit!). Pics of Anna Kate singing "Row, row, row your boat" in a laundry basket is the best I can do this week...





She happened to be in between outfit changes... she goes through several a day, being in the messy, messy, MESSY eater phase. Yet she insisted on keeping the bow. She's very particular about her bows! She turned circles in this basket singing row, row, row your boat for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile....



Welsey had fallen asleep watching cartoons. Wes doesn't take naps anymore (darn that big boy bed! It brought an insta-death to naptime!), and he rarely falls asleep on his own like this. Usually only after we've done something exhausting, like gone swimming. I love to watch him sleeping... in those quiet moments, I can still see that tiny baby boy we brought home from the hospital! (Whit, this will be Hayes before you know it!)





Anna Kate has started to insist on a front-row-ticket to the microwaving of her meals. She'll tell me she's hungry ("I wannaeat, I wannaeateat!"), climb up on her stool, watch me make her plate, and then as soon as I turn to head to the microwave she starts yelling, "I wandown-please, I wandown-please!" ... meaning she wants me to take her down from the stool and put her up on the stove (yup, she's standing on the stovetop... still earning my Mother of the Year title!) so she can man the microwave.

This is what her hair looks like post-nap! Okay, one cute story each to make up for my lack of photos this week... today I was attempting to make Welsey lunch and we had the following conversation:
me: How 'bout the Wiggles plate?
Wes: No, too wiggly.
me: Okay, how 'bout this purple bowl?
Wes: No, too purpley.
me: Okay then, well how 'bout this plate (holding up a grown-up breakable dish)?
Wes: Perfecto! (I have never used this word... must come from cartoons)

Anna Kate and I have developed a little ritual each day when we walk down the hall at the Y both to and from the nursery (I drop her off and work out while Wesley is at preschool each MWF): The hall has a large Y (not painted on the wall... more like a giant cut-out that sticks out from the wall), followed by a large M a few feet down, then a C, then an A. When we first started going to the Y, Anna Kate would point at the letters and say, "A!" because all letters to her are A. So then I started reading them to her each time, "Y.... M.... C.... A!" This became a fun ritual she looked forward to, and she'd start to say the letters before we'd even round the corner. Then she got to where she wanted to touch the letters, so I'd lift her up and let her touch each letter as we identified it. Well last week she went from touching the letters with one finger to knocking on the letters. Not sure why, it just floats her boat. Now she knocks on each letter and says, "Knock, knock!" Probably the 2nd or 3rd day she knocked on the letters, she knocked on one so hard that it made me wince... instinctively, I took her fist and kissed her knuckles. Now she knocks each letter for about half a second and then immediately shoves her fist in front of my lips so I can kiss her knuckles. This is our new ritual. I now must kiss her knuckles after each and every letter knocking... I wonder how much longer that's gonna look cute to everyone until it just looks plain weird. On the otherhand, she does actually seem to be learning from our little letter practice. On Monday when I took her nametag off her back (at the Y they put each child's name on a piece of masking tape), she pointed to the letter "a" and said, "That's an A." For a second I thought it could just be her whole every-letter-is-A thing, but she has a total of three A's in her name and she proceeded to point to each one of them saying, "That's an A." Smaaaaaaaaarrrrrt girl! Never knew all that knuckle-kissing could be so educational!

She's one hot mama!

Whitney had her baby! Lots of you have been asking... Hayes Scott Hardy was born March 12 at 10:47 a.m. For those of you that don't know Whitney (are there any of you left in the world???), she was my college roommate and still feels like a sister. I can't believe she's a mommy!





8 pounds, 2 ounces, 19 inches and cute as can be! I can't wait to fly to Birmingham next month to meet him! Happy mommyhood, Whit!

Friends, Fillings, Funny Faces & the FUNK

We still got da FUNK... I've never felt so defeated by illness! I broke down and made appointments for all 3 of us this week (if Michael gets sick, he's on his own!). Anna Kate has a double ear infection. Wesley's cold wasn't improving so he needed antibiotics. And I woke up in the middle of the night Monday with my eyes literally glued shut with gunk! I promptly woke up Michael and informed him that he might want to stick around in the morning because I would be making my first regular doctor's appointment in over 6 years!! I woke up and seriously just Googled "family physician" and looked for a doctor to call. Luckily, both my OB and my kids' pediatrician are part of a large practice that includes general physicians, so I was in "the system." They were able to make me a "priority care" appointment. I got drops for my eyes and actual antibiotics, which I haven't taken since college. Now that I've given all of you the sudden urge to go wash your hands, here's your chance to enjoy my children germ-free...





Okay bargain moms, prepare to be amazed... I found this $220+tax Britax Roundabout carseat on Craigslist for $15. Yup, 15 bucks. But the guy lived in Tampa and when I asked if he could meet me somewhere in the middle, he said for $5 he'd deliver it to my front door. Yup, $20 total, delivered to my front door. The man headed up a ministry that accepted donated items. I'm pretty sure he had no idea how much a Britax carseat is worth. I thought he was crazy for being willing to deliver, but he said that he could either make a few runs and make about $100 by the end of the afternoon or sit at home and make nothing. Makes sense, I guess. Anywho, I threw in an extra $5 to ease the guilt of my steal. I was looking for secondary carseats for Michael's car, now that Anna Kate is using our 2nd carseat. It's kind of a pain to have to move carseats around. Anyway, all of that to say (seriously, I know that bargain story just gave a few of you goosebumps, and you know who you are...) that Wesley has been EAGERLY awaiting the installation of his new carseat for Daddy's car. I wanted to take off the cover and straps and wash everything first. Wesley walked in the den Saturday to find his seat all washed and ready to go, and he was so excited he hopped in and buckled himself. Michael installed the seat in his car, and he and Wes took a ride to the produce stand. Michael said Wesley squealed like he was on a roller coaster the entire time... riding in a Camry must feel like a hot rod compared to his usual ride (not changing my unapologetic minivan-lover status!).





Saturday night we had our friends Jose and Melissa over for dinner. Their sweet daughter Isabella is only a few days younger than Anna Kate. Her due date was actually a few days earlier than AK's, but Melissa and I were having a race to see who would go into labor first, and I won. The girls ate perched on their Bumbos and Wesley sat in his Woody chair, as usual. I got a great video of Isa and Anna Kate giggling & kicking on the princess couch... I can't wait for sleepovers!





After dinner, Wesley quickly dissolved into show-off mode. Here's what I can tell you about show-off mode... it's loud, and sporadically cute and annoying all at the same time. You can see Melissa in the background trying to remember where to buy that book on manipulating gender selection... clearly afraid to have a boy now!





Mimi arrived on Sunday afternoon - hooray! I gave her a hug and promptly went to bed and slept solid for over 3 hours before Michael woke me up to go to church Sunday night. Mommy and her funk had been waiting for that rest!! Patricia never had a girl of her own, so she got right down to business trying to get Anna Kate's hair into a ponytail. Her one request before I went to bed was that I fetch her a brush. Michael said that Mimi played with AK's hair for almost an hour and that she loved every minute of it! Mimi also brought new clothes for the kids. Both decided they wanted to play fashion show and try things on... -Below- Only 19 months old and she's already got the model pose & apathetic look down perfectly! Although Mimi tied the tummy-showing shirt (I was napping and couldn't be reached for comment). But here it is now: No tummy exhibitions! AK's gonna strictly be a 1-piece girl like her momma! I can't help it... I'm a CofC girl. Pretty sure that Alexander Campbell himself passed bikinis-are-a-sign-of-the-devil doctrine down to my family. Please send your gift baby bikinis elsewhere!





This is what photography by Wesley Rogers looks like. Let me know if you'd like a referral. -Below- Miss Attitude. Anna Kate's favorite things to say lately are "I did it! I did it!" or "I got it! I got it!" I love the sheer delight in her voice when she's so darn proud of herself.





Wesley modeling more of his new clothes from Mimi. Love his match-ups! I think I mentioned in a previous post that Wesley would be going to the dentist for the first time. Well I took him last week, and he had one small cavity. The dentist said that his molars have very deep grooves in them (just the way his teeth are shaped), so that it will be easier for him to get cavities back there. Lovely. Anyway, I took him yesterday to get it filled. I had to sign off for them to use laughing gas on him, but they didn't want me back there with him for the procedure. Kinda hard for me, but I'm sure it would have been worse for both of us if I had to watch. Anyway, he was a brave little guy, and didn't seem too traumatized. When they called me back to see him, he was putting a coin in a machine to get a toy. He didn't start to cry until the technician was giving me her report on how he did well but how all the noises and sounds scared him. It's like it all came rushing back to him and he started crying and saying he was scared. I think the laughing gas made him a little weepy, too. He continued to cry a sweet quiet cry as I carried him to the car and kept crying until Mimi asked if wanted to go to the store and pick out a toy! Then he wiped a tear and we even got a smile!





So that's been our week: first filling, seeing friends, hanging with Mimi, fighting the funk, and sport'n new duds.... and lots of snuggling!!! (Sometimes da Funk ain't so bad!)