Turtles

We went to The Commons at Calabasas, you know the city where the Kardashian's live along with the Beibs and a whole lot more celebs.  Its a shopping center with upscale stores, restaurants with names I can't pronounce and a theater.  We went here specifically for the Koi pond and turtles, something free to do.  Grant loved it! His little heart was pumping so fast as I held him back from jumping in the fountain while he said "mine" reaching out for the turtles.  Me personally, I'm too scared to pick one up even though all the other children around us were picking them up. I enlisted Dave to be the brave one as you can see. 

 

Waving "Hi" to the turtles

Peek-A-Boo

Dump Truck

Found a new way for Grant to help me around the house and lets face it, toddler activities take 10 min to set up and 5 minutes to be done with it.  I can only run to the park and other kid friendly activities so many times a week.  Grant is a busy little man so sitting down to color, string noodles or just sitting still is not in his routine. We've had chunky legos for quiet some time now and I will say just this week he's really enjoying building.  So I guess we have found an activity that he will sit still for about an hour. 

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Toddler Bed

Transitioning from the crib to a toddler bed, oh the challenges for mommy and the new found freedom for little man. We transitioned for a couple of reasons, one being that Grant is tall enough and assertive enough to climb out of the crib on his own. Who knows if he's using his mattress as an Olympic spring horse, back hand spring and landing on his feet or heaven forbid his head. The other reason is I'm tired of getting up in the morning to go get him and pick up 20lbs while half asleep.  I'd rather him walk in and wake me up with a big good morning hug. The reality is he really wakes up and immediately starts saying "moothie" (smoothie) and pulls my hand. So the 1st night of trying out his new found freedom he must of gotten out of his bed no less than 75 times.  I layed on the floor a few feet from his bed and every time he got out I said "go back to bed and lay down."  He would get out, run to me and give me a hug and kiss and run back and jump back into bed. Then he got out of bed and went over the side rail on his head falling into bed about 15 times in a row which was fine because I figured it would help wear him out.  He eventually fell asleep and I snuck out of the room. Each night got less an less, maybe 20 times and then only 4 times and I thought cool! In a week I'll have him trained and on to potty training. Its been over a month now, I'm still laying on the floor next to him till he falls asleep, he still gets out of the bed a couple of times and there are days I'm just too tired and he ends up in our bed.

"H" is for Hawkins and a deep tissue massage as Grant kicks my back. The Snow Angel is a favorite too. How a little person can take up so much room in the bed I don't know.

Helping put together his big boy bed

Reading his kitty a story

Sometimes naps anywhere are still "naps!"

Story Time

I haven't been to the library since the days of the card catalog system and the paper pocket in each book that gets stamped when the books are due. For you young-ens its before the computer was invented.Who knew it could be so exciting and you could get so much for so long. The librarian had to give me a quick lesson and bring me up to date but I was amazed you can check out 30 books at a time and for 3 weeks! I think that's very generous. I'm guessing I probably won't need to buy books for a while when I can use the library. As you can see below I checked out an assortment of topics including potty time. Obviously I have no idea what I'm about to get into with potty training and the questions Grant may ask when the author has to write a page about our little hole.

Sensory Board

I'm always searching for new ways to play with Grant and I found this idea on Pinterest.com  I was worried that I was going to go through the time and money for Grant to take one glance at it and run on by to something more interesting. Surprisingly he loves it! He can turn, spin, flip, slide, open, twist, lock, push, etc. Lots to keep him busy and figuring out. It cost about $30 to put together because we only had the lock and combination lock in our home.  But if you search your house you may find all sorts of things you can use and bring the cost down even more. 

Bimmer

So if you've been following my blog you remember "Can't make this stuff up" where we finally sold the Jeep. We made some fat cash and were able to pay off Dave's Dodge Charger SRT8 with the money and we paid off my car in November. We were feeling good, no car payments! I would say the night we paid his car off was the night Dave blew his car engine. Dave has an addiction for modifying his cars.  Over the years I've heard super charger, chips to increase horse power, X-pipe exhaust, staggered wheels, and the list goes on of car jargon. I just found out this is the 3rd engine in his driving career that he's been able to max out the cars potential. The engine set us back almost all the money we had earned selling the jeep.  Then a week after Dave's car was being rebuilt my car at over 200k miles decided to die. We went from having 3 cars to no cars in a matter of a couple of weeks, when it rains it pours.  I searched Yelp.com which I do for a lot of things and found a 5 star mechanic that deals mostly in BMW's and while we were discussing bringing my car back to life we spotted this beauty.  It didn't make sense putting anymore money into my car, there was a laundry list of things that needed to be done.  It's been 9 years since I've bought a car and this is the best one yet. Its loaded with CD changer, DVD but the best find is hidden on the flip side of the navigation screen.  Its an old school cassette player. I think that's my favorite part, reminds me of the beloved 80's.  Happy Mothers Day to me, Love Dave.

Reminds me of a cozy den 

Perfect for standing diaper changes on the go 

Cattle Call

Its a cross between being on a thrilling roller coaster ride at an amusement park or being one of the cattle herded on the farm.  You get the call that you have an audition, well Grant has the audition and that's the roller coaster. Woo Hoo! Pick out the perfect outfit, dab in a little hair gel, and grab a few toys to excite on the spot. I get so thrilled every time thinking one day we may see Grant in a magazine or a billboard, internet or anything. Its just for fun and all money earned goes into an account set up and required by law to protect minors. What I seem to always forget is that when I get there its really like being on a farm, thus the expression cattle call. 100's of kids Grants age, boys and girls, every nationality and the cutest darn things I've ever seen! I try to get Grant acting silly, I might even be guilty of a sugary drink just before go time. But no amount of prep work can prepare Grant at this age when walking into a room with a person he doesn't know holding a news reporter size video camera and a TV. All of a sudden he's mesmerized  stunned, and wondering whats going on. Its all very quick, no warm fuzzies and specific to what they want you to do. You have about 30 seconds to hit or not hit the mark and its over.  Hoping and waiting for a call back. So I find myself wondering, would it be easier to hit the lottery?  I hear California now has Powerball!