Valentines Day, Chinese New Year, riding an Elephant, and Tyler meets Sebastian!!! (Week 136)

Happy Valentines Day and Happy Chinese New Year!  Hope you guys had a great weekend celebrating the Year of the Tiger or doing something romantic (if you're still in that lovey-dovey stage of a relationship...).  To make up for our uneventful last post, we've got a fun photo-filled one for you guys this week!

Starting off - Tyler and his Valentine's loot from school.  Ok, so I probably should have gotten the hint last year when he came home with all these fancy little Valentine packages from his friends when he was in the Toddler room...but it totally didn't occur to me.  The teachers told us that we could just bring in Valentine's cards and right our child's name in the "From" space.  No problemo - picked up some "Cars" Valentines with little stickers, wrote Tyler's name on them, folded them up, put a little heart sticker (included in the box) and gave them to his teachers.  Done!  ... Anyway, Tyler came home this week with a bag full of goodies.  Real goodies - like little favor bags from different kids full of candy, lollipops, stickers, etc.  One kid even sent an individually wrapped puzzle!  Boy, was I feeling like the ghetto mom.  Haha.  Thank goodness there were at least 2-3 other kids who's parents went the same clueless route as we did.  Next year we'll know!  (Tyler loves his bag of goodies - totally not interested in the candy - but loves to dump it out all the time, proclaims that "I made a mess!" and looks through everything.)

Lucky for us, Tyler's school has a Parent's Night Out on Thursday.  Will and I took advantage of this extra time to run some errands and head out to the Newport Beach Pier.  It was nice, we hung out on the beach for a bit as the sun was setting and snapped some super pregnant pictures.  We originally had planned to have dinner at some super fancy restaurant there, but changed our mind last minute. (Honestly, not like we're on a date trying to impress each other! haha!).  We ended up eating at a little restaurant right next to the pier - Sol Grill (great reviews on Yelp) that had delicious Parmesan garlic bread that I scarfed down (and suffered horrible indigestion for the rest of night.).  It was nice that we had some quiet time to celebrate Valentine's Day ourselves.  We picked up Tyler by 7:30pm though (he could have stayed there until 9pm... but we missed him already!)

Friday we had my 38 week checkup.  My doctor is out of town so we saw the nurse practicioner instead.  This was Will's 3rd time to an appointment with me this pregnancy.  We agreed for this pregnancy that he would only come to appointments that included ultrasounds (whereas when I was pregnant with Tyler he was at every single one).  We went this way because my doctor's office can be super backed up and it just didn't make sense for him to take so much time off work sitting with me.  Anyway, wow, we never got to see Tyler this far along in an ultrasound - so it was pretty exciting.  Even though ultrasound measurements are not very accurate at this stage, Katelyn is measuring ~6lbs7ounces (maybe +/- a pound?).  I'm feeling more at ease knowing (hopefully) that I'm not having a huge baby that is going to do some damage coming out.  (Knock on wood...).  It was cool seeing her exact position - her head is literally hitting up against her exit route, lying on her side with her body on my left and her arms/legs on the right side - totally made sense of why I was feeling kicking all the way on my right side.  Anyway, here's a short clip from the ultrasound video - it's totally hard to tell anything since she's so cramped in there - but she is looking kind of ghost-ish and plump (before she wasn't so fleshy and looked skeleton-like!).  She's totally ready to join us!

Saturday was such a nice and beautiful day that we decided to head out to the Santa Ana Zoo.  I think we've been there once before around Tyler's first Christmas for a nightime holiday event - but never during the day time.  This zoo is super close and, eh, super small.  I had to prepare Tyler ahead of time that there would be no lions or tigers, etc at this zoo.  What are they known for?  Monkeys!  Lots and lots of monkeys.  Here's Tyler at the entrance - super cool with his shades.

It took a little coaxing to get him to take a pictures with this metal monkey.  Supposedly the guy who started the zoo insisted that there always be at least 50 monkeys living there.  They have a lot of different kinds of monkeys, as well as farm animals.  Yippee! :)

The highlight of the zoo, I think, was their bald eagle.  Theirs was injured while in the wild and can no longer fly (sad!).  But they sure are beautiful animals.  Here's Tyler and Will with the eagle in the background.

They did actually have a bird aviary.  I was pretty excited since its always fun to see lots of birds flying around.  ... Disappointed.  We had to look pretty hard for the birds and even then there weren't very many birds living in there.  Even the Long Beach Aquarium has a much better bird aviary!  Oh well.  Tyler was more interested in the turtles living inside. Here's a video of Tyler checking out the turtles.

Whoohoo - train rides!  That day they were giving free train rides to members (which we are not) so the line was super long.  Good thing we got there right when they were opening.  The train ride is pretty cute, it goes around the entire park I think.  Here's Tyler and Will - they were first in line when it came to their turn and Tyler chose to sit in the caboose at the end.

Tyler loves train rides!  Yay!  A fellow waiting mom told us while we were in line that there was a tunnel on the ride that the kids love - everyone yells and screams and laughs.  Uh-oh.  We have had not-so-great experiences with Tyler and tunnels in the past... here's Tyler BEFORE the tunnel...

.. and then Tyler AFTER the tunnel.  He did not like it.  Will actually had a video of them going through the tunnel - it's not so much a tunnel as an open barn-like building - it doesn't even get dark it's so quick.  I think Tyler wasn't feeling all that yelling by the other passengers, and he started yelling "ALL DONE!!" and then hid in Will's lap.  Awww.

Thank goodness he was fine by the end of the train ride.  All better!

Afterwards, we headed over to the Elephant Ride!  Ahhh!  (The elephant is actually trucked in, from who knows where, on the weekends...)  I was very excited but nervous at the same time - I kept having flashes of those TV specials "When Animals Attack" of grainy video of an elephant that loses it around people.  Yikes.  Tyler was SO excited!   Here's Will and Tyler on Becky the elephant.  Tyler told me afterwards that the ride was "very bumpy" and that he "wanted a new elephant" next time.  Sure thing, Tyler.

Overall, a nice quick outing.  The zoo is so small that you can seriously do it in an hour+.  They even had a playground there next to the food area - Tyler ate his lunch and then played for a bit before we headed home.  (I actually wanted to avoid the playground time - hey I was tired! - but Tyler insisted on "5 minutes".  I agreed because he's really good with my iPhone timer - as soon as the 5 minutes is up and the alarm goes off, he's ready to go!).

Sunday was Chinese New Year and we headed over to the San Gabriel area to see Will's family.  First stop was my in-laws, but then we headed over quickly to Will's grandmother's place to see her.  Tyler took a little time getting warmed up but then happily posed for photos.  Here's Tyler with Will's grandmother (he is totally like Mr. Rogers in that cardigan huh! haha!).

Here's Tyler with Will's uncle and 3rd aunt.  It really was actually surprising that he took that photo with Will's uncle - at first he didn't even want to be touched by him!  But after running around in the yard for a while, he was in a better mood for photos. :)

We headed back to Will's parents place for lunch.  They sure do make great oil-free food - can't wait to be eating it after the baby is born!  Here's Tyler and his grandparents.

Aside from the previously prepared food, everyone got together to make dumplings.  Tyler totally wanted in on the action and had his own little roller and everything.  It was super cute watching him roll out each piece of dough.

Too cute!  He can make dumplings with grandma from now on.  Even better - he actually ate 5-6 dumplings at lunchtime!  I think I've tried to get him to eat it before and he was never interested - but knowing that "I made it!" made him much more easily convinced.  Yum!  I even ate a good number... before I discovered there was a little mushroom in them. Ack! Sigh.

Here's a short video of Tyler helping roll the dough.  I hope he didn't create too much extra work for everyone else! :)

We didn't leave until 2pm - which was WAY past Tyler's normal nap time of noon.  Ugh.  You would think we had learned from the last time this happened (also from staying too long at my inlaws).  Tyler woke up when we got home (which he never does because he is so knocked out) and was super tired and grumpy.  Rolled around on the floor for a while throwing a tantrum.  Sigh.  I don't blame him - he was really overly tired.  We better learn from this!

Today is President's Day and Tyler's school is closed.  Doh.  Good thing Will took the day off because in my state there was no way I could watch Tyler all day without going nuts.  What a nice day it was though - Tyler slept in a little and came over himself to our room in the morning (usually I go get him).  Then he quietly sat between Will and myself and watched cartoons.  For like 2 hours.  Are we bad parents or what?  We got to have extra sleep on each side while he watched Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse.  Yay!  I was feeling a bit guilty thinking of his brain turning to mush - but hey these cartoons are educational (not like it was Spongebob Squarepants!) and shoot, our days of sleeping for longer than a couple hours at a time are numbered.  Thank you Tyler! :)  We didn't get out of bed until 9am-ish - ahh, bliss! :)  Later that morning, my friend Trina stopped by with her new dog Sebastian.  Sebastian is a 1 year old rescue puppy - very playful, and big!  I was nervous how Tyler was going to react but he didn't seem as scared as we thought he'd be.  He liked throwing Sebastian's toys around for him to catch.

Here's Sebastian, Trina and Tyler!

This is a cute video of Tyler pushing his bubble lawn mower and Sebastian running after the bubbles.  They're going to be great friends. :)

Ooh, and for dinner tonight we headed to Opah (half off all dinner entrees on Mondays).  I've never been there for dinner and was completely blown away by their Chilean Sea Bass.  O M G.  I couldn't stop gushing/raving about it.  I must have it again soon.  It was seriously the best meal I have had in a long time.  to DIE for!  Ok, I'll stop.  It was SO good though!  Here's Trina and Tyler. :)  Tyler was so upset when Trina had to leave in the afternoon that we had to promise him that we would see her again soon. He loves his Auntie Trina!

Random pictures from the week...

With my girls Mariam and Trina!  This was last week when Trina first got Sebastian and we were meeting her new dog!

Here's Tyler at school one morning last week.  Those were cool lego-like blocks - you can actually bend them after you connect them!

Tyler found this unopened wooden train in one of his toy baskets (Rhenaeus) and was really excited to open it.  However, he was more interested in the brochure that came with it - and would just sit there and stare intently at all the different trains and items available.  I asked him which one he really liked and he pointed to the clock tower.  My, oh my, I looked it up online and it's like $40-50!  Dang!.. Yeah. Keep looking at the picture Tyler. :)

I got a new camera this week!  My old point-and-shoot Canon sd800 just wasn't cutting it anymore - most likely due to all the bumps and drops that Tyler has caused.  The last straw came when it was taking forever to snap photos due to the delay time.  My new one is the S90, which I am really liking.  I still wanted one that was small and compact, and not too big (the next nicer one is the G11 which is just WAY to honking big for me to whip out).  Anyway, I was VERY clear with Tyler that this new camera (it's black) was MOMMY's and he does not play with it... and that HIS camera was the Silver one (my old one).  Tyler was very excited to have his own camera and went around taking photos immediately.  Here he is taking a picture of his wall in his bedroom.  

Ooh, more exciting news.  I can truly say Tyler is day-POTTY TRAINED... when he's not in school.  We can go entire weekends where he doesn't wet his diaper, even during naps!  I can't figure out why he won't go when he's at school though - I'm thinking he's just too busy playing and it takes too much time to sit there and wait for the pee to come?  Anyway, I figured the sooner we can get him used to peeing standing up, the faster he'll get and then (hopefully) he'll do it at school.  So... we got the Peter Potty Urinal!  It came today and he has switched over to it super fast!  I love that it's adjustable (will grow with him as he gets taller) and has a water tank on the top that flushes the urinal.  Yay Tyler!  No wet or dirty diapers in 2010 with us!  Even when we're out (like at the zoo), he'll know to hold it until we can find a bathroom to use.  Now if only he would start doing this at school....Here's Will and Tyler using his new urinal. :)

Ooh, I love this picture - the bubbles are so strategically placed.  Tyler always likes to play a little in the bathtub each night - especially when we put some bubbles in.  It's so cute to hear him talking to himself (I no longer have Tyler bath duties since it's so uncomfortable to bend over).

He's getting much better at his night time routine.  He's fully using big boy toothpaste which he'll brush and spit and gurgle (before he would ask for his "baby toothpaste" since the dispenser has Thomas the Train on it!  He always has to play a little "hiding" with the towel after he gets out.  And now the actual going-to-sleep routine is much shorter!  Before I used to have to lay with him in his bed until he fell asleep and then sneak out.  Baby steps to where I got him used to me sitting on the end of his bed until he fell asleep.  Then sitting there while the music in his lullaby thing played and telling him that I would leave when it stopped.  And now we're at the point where I sing one song on his lullaby and go (like a minute long?) and then Will stays with him for a little bit.   The whole point is to get him used to me not being there with him to fall asleep - BEFORE Katelyn arrives.  I don't want him to resent her and blame her.  It's working! baby steps!

And last photo - Tyler is starting to enjoy lining things up.  Thought it was cute - and cuter when he puts everything away when he's done playing with it.  

We're super excited about the arrival of Katelyn, and hopefully Tyler will adapt pretty quickly to his little sister.  He is such a gentle kid and really loving with my tummy - fingers crossed!  We are so thankful that he is so healthy and sharp - to a point where he has to be in everyone's business and dictate what everyone does!  Who knows, maybe by our next post we'll be announcing our new arrival! :)