Line 'em up

Nothing earth-shattering today, just a few pictures of some things CJ is into right now:

Lining up his books. He, himself, selected these books off his bookshelf and then lined them up like this. There are sometimes I would LOVE to just for a second be able to crawl into his little brain and see how it is that he decides to do what he does!

And one morning he put on his Mickey ears to line up his blocks. Must be his "thinking cap"?!

He is climbing EVERYTHING, and his newest "accomplishment" is that when he is hungry he will climb up into his highchair by himself and try to put his bib on. Like, "Hello, Mama, I'm ready, where's the food?!" (And when he is all done he uses his feet and pushes away from the table and throws his bib on the floor)

More lining up books...aka, running away from Mama while she is trying to dress me...

And his newest obsession besides balls, books, shoes, hats and cars is: TRAINS! Much to our dismay, he discovered and fell in love with the Disney TV show Chuggington. It has a catchy theme song that CJ always dances to (super cute!), but the plots are annoying to adult audiences (to us anyhow!). I would much rather watch Mickey or Handy Manny any day...but he loves trains. And will keep saying "choo choo" over and over again. I was able to get him the Doug & Melissa building block train for free with our Huggies rewards codes.

CJ just loves it when Dada gets home from work every afternoon! As soon as he hears the door open, he starts running down the hall saying "Dada" and will hug both of JT's legs and say "up". It is seriously the sweetest thing ever, and even if it's been a long day, seeing my son love his daddy so much just melts my heart every time and makes me fall deeper in love with both of them.

Shave Ice!!

One of our most favorite things EVER in Hawaii was the Shave Ice. It was one of the "must do's" that we would take all our visitors to try. Well, I am SO excited that we found an authentic Shave Ice place that is only about 10 minutes from our house. (Excited for my stomach, but not so much for my wallet and waistline! ha ha!)

CJ getting to try his first taste of Shave Ice!
YUM!!! I think he likes it! (but how could he not?!)
Wahine Kai Shave Ice tasted just as good as the Shave Ice in Hawaii, and that is saying a lot! We can't wait to go back! And future visitors, don't worry, this can be a stop on your San Diego tour itinerary if you'd like!

Does this make me famous?!

I didn't know that Angelina Jolie was one of my blog readers!! Imagine my surprise when I was reading the August 29, 2011 People magazine and she was talking about their choice to live a nomadic lifestyle and was quoted saying "Home is wherever we are". Thanks Angelina, I couldn't have said it any better myself! Oh wait, I already did! ;)

Operation tire him out

There is a definite correlation between how tired CJ is and how well he sleeps. Makes sense, huh?! Well, duh Lace, ha ha! So one of my goals everyday for us is to have some sort of a morning and an afternoon "activity" to help burn some of the overabundance of energy that my son exudes. It doesn't always even need to be an "organized activity", even just going a playground for 30 minutes is great! I really strive for us to leave the house at least once a day (it is good for both of us!) So if we go somewhere in the morning, then in the afternoon we might just play cars and balls at the house, or run around the backyard. And I also try to consider that if I subject CJ to an activity that isn't geared toward him or playing (ie. grocery shopping where he is just sitting in the cart), that the other activity for the day should be something more active!

Gymboree has been a great place for CJ. He really enjoys all the equipment and exploring everything they have to play with in an environment outside of our house!

Bubble time is a FAVE!! He runs around yelling "Bub-ble! Bub-ble!"

I was so proud because another Mom came up and told me "Your son has the best personality! He is so fun!" I mean, of course, I know he is wonderful since I am his Momma, but it was nice to hear that a stranger could see that something special about CJ too! :) I think at this point, he was the only kid under the parachute, and he was running around giggling!
So on this particular day, when we got home and ate a quick lunch, CJ went right down for his nap! Gymboree just wears him out! Look at how peaceful he is when he's sleeping!! Sometimes when he's napping in the afternoon or even after he goes to bed at night, I sneak into his room and watch him sleep. I pray over him and thank God for His beautiful blessing.
My boy must take after me, in that he is NOT a morning person. When he wakes up (both in the morning and from his nap in the afternoon) he doesn't want to get up immediately. He will sit and read his books and play in his crib. He lets me know when he's ready to get up by saying "Up" or "Mama, Mama!" or by crying.
After reading, CJ picked up his bear and Mickey and gave them a hug! What a sweet sweet little boy!
Then he wanted to share Mickey with his Mama!!
Everyone who sees him in action comments on just how "BUSY" CJ is (even other moms of boys!). Or another comment we get a lot is that he is "ALL BOY!!". My Mom says that he isn't active because he is a boy, but because he is my son and I have always been active! At any rate, I can't imagine changing anything about his wonderfully energetic, fun personality! But I'm still going to do my best to make sure he gets plenty of opportunities to "burn off some steam"! ;) (So he can get his sleep, and get re-energized just to do it all over again!)

Family Day

Last Friday, CJ and I were invited to join JT at Dental Family Day. Getting to doing something fun with "Dada" on Friday almost made it seem like a 3 day weekend. I was happy to get to meet some of JT's new coworkers! CJ was happy to get to run around and play!

He must have seen someone hula-hooping, because he just stepped right in and walked around like he was a pro!

And they had lots of bubbles for the kids to play with, which was right up his alley!

Bubbles!

There was a giant bouncy obstacle course/slide that CJ thought was fun!

He even braved going down the big slide on his own!
We can't wait until the next Family Day! :)

Hi, My name is Lacy, & I have Infertility

See, I am capable of posting about things other than CJ! ;) It just seems that those are the more "fun" posts" because the other stuff I have to talk about are just more serious:

Like, how I have infertility and I've only had two periods since Colin was born, so I'm pretty sure if we ever want another baby I'll have to do infertility treatments again?!

I'd rather post about CJ, and how thankful I am to have him... Ha ha!! I am the person that will tell a joke to break the serious tone, so I'd just rather write about happy things than be a Debby Downer (because, hello?!, who wants to read that blog?!)

Seriously though, I do have a story that I've been wanting to share:

I was talking to a friend who I hadn't seen since before I had CJ. She has two kids, and we were watching the three kiddos play together when she asked "the question". The question that I never quite know how to answer and say different things depending on who it is I'm talking to. "When are y'all going to have another?" Being that she is a friend, I felt comfortable enough to tell her that "we had trouble getting pregnant with CJ". She said "oh, I'm sorry, how long did it take you?" To which, I replied "two years, and we had to do infertility treatments to have him". I guess not knowing what else to say? she said "we had trouble too with #2, I didn't get pregnant the first month and I was so upset, but we got pregnant the second month. You just gotta relax!" Ask any infertile and they will tell you that the #1 thing that they could go the rest of their life without hearing (other than "you're not pg") is "relax". I did not really know how to respond because I didn't want to make her feel bad since I knew she was coming from a place of genuine well meaning, so I just breezed over it and moved on...

But what I really wanted to say to her is: Infertility is a Medical Condition!!! Relaxing isn't going to magically make my body start producing more fsh (follicle-stimulating hormone), although I sure wish it would.

People don't ever know what to say when it comes to infertility. Some people with infertility want to talk about it openly, and others just aren't emotionally able to. And the friends and family don't know what to say either since the whole subject is so "taboo" in our society. If someone you know has diabetes, and they are giving themselves shots of insulin, people are just more likely to talk to them about their disease than if you have infertility and you are giving yourself shots of hormones. Both, however, are medical conditions!

The Resolve website has a great "Infertility Etiquette" guideline for family and friends of people dealing with infertility. I would recommend everyone checking it out if you have time, because it does a better job of giving "dos & don'ts" than I ever could. Note that the first thing on their list is "Don't Tell them to Relax"! Ha ha!!

Whew, Don't worry, I've had enough serious talk for the week too...more fun posts about the cutest toddler ever coming up!

Making a Splash!

One of the meetup playdates that CJ and I went to last week was at a splash park! We'd never been to one before and I must say that it was a HIT!

My son is a little fish! He LOVES anything water oriented!! CJ was so cute, running around from one water fountain to the next, in amazement, like "wow, where is this water coming from!?".

Unfortunately, this splash park is in a gated community, so we can't go to this one on a regular basis, but I've heard there are a couple others nearby we can check out! There is even one at the Safari Park that we can do!

I really liked the ladies that I got to meet. But it is pretty challenging trying to get to know someone when every conversation can only last about 5 seconds until one of us has to run to chase down a toddler! The same meetup group is having a "wine night" next week, so I am looking forward to hopefully getting to know some people a little better then! :)

The Help

Last night JT said to me, "You know, you can blog about other stuff besides CJ..." Well, if my own hubs is saying that, then surely y'all must be thinking the same thing. Ha ha! I just really don't have too much else to write about right now...

I guess I can talk about The Help, both the book and the movie. I read the book in under 48 hours, which is saying a lot as the Mama of a toddler! I would stay up late reading it, and then one night, I was even reading it at the dinner table. Sorry JT!! But I just could not put it down! Then, last week, I had the chance to see the movie at "Mommy Movie Monday". The theater shows a film at 10am to Moms and their kids, with the lights turned up and the sound turned down. It's just other moms, so everyone is understanding if your baby is hollering or talking. I have to brag a little and say that CJ did GREAT!! I just kept him strapped into his stroller facing me and let him watch Cars on the iPad while I got to watch The Help. :) I loved both the book and the movie! The book was of course better, but I must say that the movie was one of the better book to screen translations I've ever seen!!

The character that I felt myself identifying with, strangely enough, was Celia. Other than the big boobies, we are very similar! ;) She is on the "outside" of the popular crowd, struggles with infertility and can't cook. Overall, I just felt a kinship with her, because she is so sweet!

Anyhow, I don't want to give anything away, but I would DEFINITELY recommend reading this book, and then seeing the movie.

What a zoo!

I hope y'all don't get tired of reading about the zoo and safari park, because I'm probably not going to get tired of going and/or talking about it anytime soon! CJ and I have gone to the safari park once a week so far and STILL have not seen it all!!

This is the elephant feeding "enrichment" time:

One great thing about our membership, and only living 10 minutes away from the park is that we are able to go for short visits, which are perfect for CJ's age and short attention span! Ready for his nap, let's go home mama!
Petting a baby goat:
Dada got to come with us to the zoo last weekend!!
Snacking while animal watching, it's a rough life...
Even though there was a monkey, and hippos in this exhibit, CJ was enamored with the fish!! "Memo, memo..."
Gorilla!
Signing and saying "more" (he wanted to see more birds!)
There is a great "hands on" discovery zone at the Safari Park. Here CJ is playing with the plastic frogs:
Reading about the monkeys (he still does the baby sign for monkey by scratching under his arms) "eee eee".
Coloring:
They have a table with all different plastic animals for the kids to play with.
And the zoo keepers brought out a HUGE African frog to for the kids to get to see up close.
Kangaroo
CJ thought it was a giant rabbit (I guess because it was hopping?!) But that is pretty smart because the face looks like a bunny too!
Feeding the "kak kak" ducks.
This was SOOO exciting for me! We got to see the 2 month old baby gorilla. His name is Monroe. I thought it was so beautiful seeing the Mama Gorilla hold her baby in her arms just like a human. He was so tiny compared to how big she was!!
The Mama grabbed a handful of hay and then carried her son over to the other cave to give him a soft place to lay. The gentility and compassion of such a giant animal was just so amazing to see!
CJ waiting in the bleachers for the bird show to begin. Gotta have your snack in one hand and your water in the other!!
Watching the elephants!
Feeding time!
Each cheetah is raised with a domestic dog best friend. Cheetahs don't like each other, but they still need company. So, when the cheetah is about 3 months old they pair it with a dog that is about 6 months old, so that the dog is the alpha in the relationship. The two become inseparable within about a week. They sleep together, lick each other, do everything together except eat. (And the trainer said it is because the DOG would want to eat both bowls!!)
The happy demeanor of the doggie helps keep the cheetah grounded. Look at this relaxed face because his best friend nearby! :)
I am so glad that CJ enjoys "am-in-nal"s (animals) as much as I do! :)