Tyler's Snow Day with Friends! (Week 134)

Hey everyone!  Whoohoo, I am officially on maternity leave!  Last week was pretty stressful since I was wrapping up this big project for work - a project that had a super quick turnaround time and required many many many hours.  Whew, what a sigh of relief it was to send out those final emails and turn on my Out-of-Office message.  Yippee!  Let's hope I'll be able to start relaxing now. :)

First, though, I thought we'd show some love to our cat Mojo.  He's been quite affectionate lately - he must be having flashbacks of the last time we took out all the baby gear and how he was ignored for a few months.  Poor kitty.  It's still funny some nights when he tries to sneak into bed with us to sleep on our pillows (where he used to sleep EVERY night before Tyler was born) - I'll catch him with one paw on the bed and say "Mojo!" and he'll freeze with one paw up and try to look all innocent.  Silly cat.  Here are a couple pictures of Mojo from the other day when we were playing bubbles with him (Tyler was blowing the bubbles and Mojo was popping them).  He sure is ferocious on the right photo!

 

We had a pretty tough week.  Tyler had a mild fever Sunday night so he stayed home with us on Monday.  Bad timing though since it was my last week and I was SO crammed at work.  Will and I double teamed at home that day but I still had to work late into the night.  Tuesday I headed into the office and Will tried to take Tyler to school but Tyler was NOT having it.  He didn't have a fever anymore but was pretty clingy and soft-hearted Will agreed to let Tyler stay home with him that day.  Wednesday Tyler went to school fine but then got sent home in the afternoon with a fever of 101.6!  Ack!  Not sure how the school got that temperature because I could NEVER replicate anything close to that on the thermometer at home.  We took him to see his pediatrician just to be safe (they got a temperature of 100.3 from him) and to check out his unpleasant sounding cough.  Thank goodness they didn't hear any fluid in his lungs/ears (Last week 2 kids in Tyler's class came down with pneumonia!).  So Thursday Tyler had to stay home from school (kids have to be fever free for 24 hours before they can return) and BOY oh BOY were we happy when Friday rolled around and he was fine to go back at school.  Tyler with a (very) mild fever is quite disagreeable.  He was quite, eh, disagreeable, all week and I seriously had moments where I thought I was going to lose my mind.  Not sure if it's the pregnancy hormones but there was one night where I was SO traumatized by his meltdown that it took me a while to get over it.  Yikes!  Thank goodness Tyler is back to his normal cheerful self now.  Sheesh.  

One thing I have to mention though, is how great Tyler was at his doctor appointment.  He was a great listener and stood on the scale to get weighed (32.5 pounds - the kid is not gaining weight!); and he let the doctor look into each of his ears, and opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue when she checked his throat.  He even sat quietly when she used her stethescope to listen to his lungs!  I wish I had taken a picture to capture the moment - totally not a big deal - but it just made me realize what a big boy he is becoming.  He's going to be a big brother so soon!

Anyway, Saturday rolled by and we were excited to check out Snow Day at the Orange Country Great Park.  The ads promised lots of snow, sledding, snowman building, crafts, etc.  Tyler had a great time playing in the snow at Big Bear Lake so I was really excited for him.  We packed his snow boots and his snow bib - we had high expectations! 

A bad sign of things to come: the line to get in!  The event officially started at 11am and we got there at 10:30am thinking we were all special for arriving early.  Wrong!  It took forever to get into the parking lot because there were so many people - there were 5-10 minutes at a time where we were just sitting in line not moving!  Not a good sign.   We met up with our friends (Larry, Marj and Tyler's friend Maddie and her little bro Jackson) when we got there.  There were actually 2 other families meeting up with us as well but they arrived later and the line was SO ridiculous by then that they gave up and left.  Here's Tyler and Maddie.

  

As soon as we got there we were on the lookout for snow.  Hm.. where's the snow?  Tyler saw a little igloo with a penguin in front of it and made a beeline for it.  He was funny interacting with the penguin...until he knocked it over! haha. 

  

We finally found the snow patch.  And by patch I mean patch.  It was quite a small area and it was JAM packed with people.  Next to it we saw the "sledding" area which was equally as pathetic.  We definitely did NOT need Tyler's snow pants, but he was happy to wear his snow boots.  There were plastic snowmen and polar bears set up sporadically.  Here's Tyler checking one out. 

  

Another penguin encounter!  Reminds me that I totally want to take Tyler to the San Diego Zoo again after we have the baby.  I think (from what I remember) that outings with a little baby wouldn't be so difficult since she's sleeping most of the time.  Tyler's looking pretty disappointed here as he looks around for the "exciting" snow - plus he's got some Michael Jackson action going on with his single glove. :)

  

Here's Tyler and myself with a snowman.  Tyler really liked playing with the snowman's broom for some reason.  Yes, I am drinking coffee (half decaf!) - I needed it!  It was getting really hot too and bending down to help Tyler make little snowballs was not very comfortable.

  

Luckily, Tyler came across a little pre-made snowman.  Cute!  He claimed it as his own. 

  

It even had a little visor on it with sunglasses!  Tyler thought it was fun to play with and accidentally knocked it over - but he caught it with his knee.  Good manuevering!

Yeah, so we staked out our little spot in the snow patch and made little snowballs and played with the pre-made snowman.  Very exciting.  Good thing Tyler doesn't need much to keep him occupied.  Here's Will and Tyler.

 

This picture I took so you could see how many people there were crammed into such a small space. It was funny seeing people (like the lady on the right) in snow pants - we all had great expectations!

 

Tyler's snow man has grown beyond the standard 3-ball shape. 

  

Here's a video of Tyler and Will playing with the snowman.


The snowman kept tipping over with 4 levels so Tyler finally figured out a way to keep it standing up.  Heehee. 

 

Our fun snow day was pretty short lived, as it was getting warm, the snow was melting, and more people were arriving!  We headed out and stopped by to play in a firetruck.  Here are some pictures of Tyler with Maddie.  He didn't like sharing the driver seat...

  

But he cheered up pretty quick.  It's a firetruck!

  

Afterwards we headed to a nearby Chick Fil-A for lunch.  Tyler has NEVER played in a fast food restaurant's playground.  We haven't been to one in a while though - but I was still really surprised when he was excited to go play!  The good thing about this playground was that it was only for kids 3 and under - so it was perfect for Tyler and his friends. 

  

Tyler had no problem climbing up the different levels and peering down at us from this car that was hanging above!  I had to remind myself to not think about the germs that are in there...

  

Here's Tyler coming down the slide.

  

And Tyler with the Chick-Fil-A cow.  Another moment of Tyler being brave!  I still remember him crying when the cow came near him when he was little, and how he was afraid of all the characters at Disneyland.  It was only recently in December that Tyler would go up to the Santa Shark at the Aquarium of the Pacific - and even then he looked a little hesitant.  No problem this time!

  

And with his friends Maddie and Dylan.  By the end of lunch, all the kids were having meltdowns since it was past 1pm and WAY past their usual noon naptimes.  Everyone except Dylan - he is so well behaved! 

  

Sunday Will's parents came by in the morning and had lunch with us.  It's great seeing Tyler so friendly and loving with his grandparents - he loves playing with them!  I am definitely honestly hoping that they will be moving closer to us sometime this year.  Here's Tyler with his grandparents!

 

Have a good week everyone!