Shana Tova

This afternoon we went to a big Rosh Hashana lunch at Kate's. It was so fun and I tried gefilte fish for the first time. I'm embarrassed to admit that I've always refused even the littlest before. Brandt liked it, too! I should add that this gefilte fish was better than the stuff you get in jars at the store. And in the interest of full disclosure, Brandt puked his all up, but I think that was more of a gagging on a piece stuck in his throat more than a matter of not liking the taste.

Last water park of the season

September is ending and the water parks are turning off the taps for the season. It's a shame because it's finally almost not too hot to go to the park. Today we were able to handle the heat once the sun got low and hit Mission Hills Park one last time. Brandt stayed pretty dry, even with that chunkalunk aiming the red hose at him. Of course once I put his street clothes back on he sat down in a big puddle.

On Tuesday we went to the Summerlin farmers market where Brandt did some one-legged crawling and I realized I haven't seen that for a long time! On the other end of the spectrum, he did a little running with the aid of a downhill slope. Scary! I thought I had a while longer before having to deal with this.

Yesterday we went to meet a new baby friend and I came to the realization that Brandt has finally graduated from just being an accessory to being a participant. He did sit still in my lap (like the old days) during the baby naming ceremony, but for the most part he was running around and climbing on stuff with all the other toddlers. It's pretty cool!

And in tooth news, the top left molar is poking through. It's been there for a while, but the first time I thought it had broken through I was mistaken (or it went back in...does that happen?).

Pumpkins and potties

We went to the Bellagio to check out the new seasonal flowers. They're awesome! At first the tourists were timid, but then they warmed up to us and tried to help coax smiles out of the babies, and then they really opened up and chased us all around taking pictures of our kiddos. Kinda weird.

Pretty cool first today: Brandt peed in his little potty all by himself. He was running around nekkid and signed that he needed to pee and rather than get off my butt to hold him over the toilet I said, "Hey, why don't you sit on that little potty right there?" and he did! Then next time he signaled and walked over to the potty with no prompting...but aimed wrong and slipped off the side and peed on the floor. Oh well.

Pony Party

Brandt's friend Rayney turned three today and had a pony party. It was so cool! And not only was there a pony--she had a whole petting zoo. I was worried Brandt wouldn't want to go in the pen with the animals, but he did OK. He didn't want to pet any of the goats, chickens, or rabbits, but he pointed and signed at them all ("bird" for the chickens and "dog" for the goats and rabbits...we need to add some more animals to his repertoire).

Speaking of signing, he's got quite a few now: balloon, bathe, bird, ceiling fan, clean, cold, dog, flower, hat, hot, milk, more, shoes, toilet, tree, water. It's so cool. And still no words. When he's sad his "ba ba ba" turns into "ma ma ma," but I don't think he's calling me mama when he does that. And he makes all the other sounds, too, and some people hear words, but I dunno. Last Tuesday we met a little girl at the park who is on the latest Signing Times DVDs. Her mom was so cute: "I lived in New York and knew a lot of rock stars, but my daughter's on Signing Time! That's so much cooler! Rachel [host of Signing Time] is the biggest rock star!"

Molar mania

OK, now I know what teething is like! Last Friday Brandt held his jaw and cried in pain for the first time ever. We walked up to CVS and got some Hylands teething tablets (it was late afternoon so it was only 90 degrees--ha! *only* 90 degrees). They helped a lot (actually, just getting him outside fixed the teething pain), but they didn't completely un-grump him. I led the Mommas' Circle at Well Rounded Momma on Wednesday and one of the new moms turned me onto Gummy Oil from Kerry's Herbals (valerian, chamomile and clove essential oil, infused in olive oil). That stuff is amazing! I can't believe he lets me stick it in his mouth because previous herbally things (Herbally Grounded's Infection Fighter and Kid Viral) I've tried to give him cause him to immediately vomit. Still only the one molar poking through, but the other three are right under the surface so it's not long now.

I took this picture of breakfast just to freak out Dan--he's not big on mess. I should have him eat with us more often so he gets numb to it. See the red mark between Brandt's eyebrows? There was a yellow mark there which I thought was a mango stain so I scrubbed at it for a while before realizing it was actually a little bruise. The bruise would have been gone by now, but now he'll have the red mark for a day or two. D'oh!

This morning--after hosing off the oatmeal (steel-cut oats, per Oprah and Dr. Oz, natch)--we cycled by the REI scratch and dent garage sale. As always, the line was a million people long so we skipped the sale and hung out on the tot turf with a coffee to kill time before Kids Day started over by the carousel. We didn't bother with the free balloons or face painting or caricatures since there was a long line for each activity. But we rode the carousel (the panda this time) and Brandt enjoyed that. No-nonsense Nancy was working the till so I had to stand next to Brandt rather than ride the horse (er, panda) with him. He reached for me once, but was easily distracted into enjoying the ride.

In the evening we drove up to North Las Vegas for Balloonapalooza. Unfortanately there were no hot air balloons because it was a little windy, but we were forewarned since apparently there were no balloons last year, either. Even without balloons it was great fun. We met a ton of other babies there and had a big picnic. Everclear headlined...and played cover songs! They played their own songs, but also Brown-Eyed Girl and 867-5309/Jenny. Weird, right? But then there was a fireworks show (baby's first fireworks!) and that was awesome.

Winnie the who?

River turned one today and had a monkey-themed birthday party. Curious George was not available to come party so we made do with Winnie the Pooh. Brandt wasn't scared of the man in a bear suit, but he wasn't eager to hang out with him, either. The birthday party was awesome and River made a terrific mess eating his birthday cake, which is the most important part.

We were going to hit the Prince Kuhio Ho'olaule'a Pacific Islands Festival in the afternoon, but it didn't dip below 100 degrees and I just couldn't handle going back out in the heat.

San Gennaro Feast

Brandt and I checked out the San Gennaro Feast today. I didn't think it was worth the $7 admission. But we went an hour early to scope out the going-out-of-business Mervyn's in the same parking lot where I got a digital camera for $10 (marked down from only $20). As you can see, it wasn't worth the price paid, either.

San Gennaro had a little petting zoo for $5 and a "Take your picture on a pony" for $8, but it was just too hot to hang out. We lasted two hours, but it was a pretty sweaty two hours. If we try again next year I think we'll wait 'till evening. At least we've learned for upcoming festivals that it's not worth beating the crowds by going early if it's too sweltering to appreciate the show.

Booth babe

We've been working the ABC Kids Expo all this week. Several baby carrier companies have employed us locals as mom/baby models to walk around their booths wearing the babies in exchange for entrance into the show and a free carrier. Pretty cool! Today we were at the Ergo booth and in the past couple days we've been at Baby K'Tan and CatBird Baby. Plus, lots of companies are selling stuff for super cheap today.

Brandt provided more proof that he is officially a toddler a few days ago: he flushed the bottle cap to my Sigg. The toilet was already mid-flush and he tossed it in. Sigh. Before long he'll probably be able to independently flush things--probably cell phones. I was thinking that at lesat he can't lift the toilet seat lid yet, but he figured that out tonight.

Cove swim

Another year, another out-of-shape cove swim. I swam once last week to verify I wouldn't drown, but that's the only swimming I've done this year. Not the best preparation for a race. Brandt, Dan, and my dad didn't even bother watching, which was fine by me (plus, it's not like they could tell which one I was in a field of over 200). It was very sunny out so they played in the shade and we met up as soon as I was done.

And that was about it for today. We flew back home at 6:30pm so it was way too quick a visit. Hopefully next year we'll plan a longer visit and I'll have been swimming and be ready for the race. A girl can dream...

Hop on Pop

We flew to San Diego last night for the annual rough water swim on Sunday. Brandt thought we should pack a lot in today so he woke up at 6am. Dan kept snoozing while Brandt and I went for a walk to Shelter Island. I had hoped Brandt would go back to sleep during the walk, but there was just too much to look at (namely, birds and dogs).

Once everyone was up we went to Del Mar for the Max Mikulak memorial. It was an amazing celebration with a huge turnout. I hate to admit that I was glad we were so far at the back where we had trouble hearing because had I heard all the sweet stories, I would have bawled through the whole thing. I can't even fathom what it would be like to lose Brandt.

After the babies napped, Ava reminded me how awesome and literal toddlers are. I told her to go jump on Dan for a picture and she stood on his chest and bounced. Sam jumped on him a bit, too, but then got sidetracked by Emma the dog.

We spent the afternoon at pool at the Sheraton. Dan was a little alarmed at the combo of Brandt's love of jumping into the water and his lack of swimming know-how. So we might invest in some fancier swim lessons soon. The ones at the community center are damn cheap, but they don't pack a lot of punch. Australian Swim School, here we come!

Acacia Park

Thinking it'd be under 100 again today, we went to Acacia park at 3pm to check out the splash pad. It was way fun, but way hot. Brandt had to wear his shoes to avoid cooking the bottom of his feet.

After a couple hours the play structure cooled down enough to play on and the babies got braver with the water. I think we'll go again next week, but start out a little later in the afternoon--and hopefully have purchased better footwear. He did a bit of crawling around, but was mostly walking. Go toddler!

The door is ajar

Happy Labor Day! We're still on east coast time. I meant to just take a nap, but Brandt and I fell asleep at 5pm! So it was well under 100 degrees when we all woke up and perfect outdoors weather. It was still way too hot to go outside wearing Brandt so we practiced with the stroller. Dan did most of the pushing, but he let me do a little and of course I ran off the road a couple times. I really don't see how those stroller people do it!

We started out down at the park and then walked on to Whole Foods where Brandt fell asleep in the stroller. I wouldn't have thought it was possible. This may present more opportunities to get the little guy to nap in the future!

Yesterday afternoon Brandt quickly figured out how to open all the doors in the house. Dan's not going to be able to work from home anymore, poor guy.