Little Rockstar

There's so many fun things to play with at this house!

Old and New

We moved to Brentwood, for the summer, almost two weeks ago. We unpacked our stuff about one week ago. We finally set up our computer a few days ago, and I just uploaded this picture today. My life moves more slowly here in Brentwood. This picture represents what I'm missing about our old place: the backyard playground, the community, and the friends. Our last couple days at Stanford were warm enough to get out the pool that's been sitting on our patio all winter. I warmed up the hose water with water from inside, and all the kids piled in like it was a hot tub!
Here is what you're most likely missing out on.
Rainier cherries from the local farmer's market. Yumm! They're so sweet and tangy. I bought a big container of them. There's also some free apricots calling my name. I know you can often buy produce cheaper in the store, but there's something wonderful about picking some fruit that's still warm from the sun and eating it right on the spot... drool... I can't wait for peach season.
Britton is also missing out on these cherries right now because he's attending his annual conference in Washington D.C. I missed him as soon as he left because I was suddenly an exhausted pregnant woman with a growing belly. I swear this baby plans on doubling its weight while its daddy is gone. But luckily I am in Brentwood and have plenty of help while he's gone. Will is often bathed and put to bed by his Nana, fed by his Papa, entertained by his Uncle Alex, and babysat by KK.

My Hero!

You may think me a monster, but I have to admit that I think baby ducks are cuter than baby humans. Well, at least brand newborn babies. And of course I think my own children are cuter than baby ducks, but you get what I mean right? Baby duckies are INCREDIBLY cute!
So this weekend I spent a lot of time cleaning and needed to get out of the house to do something fun. I was out of ideas so I let Britton chauffeur us away to a place of his choice. He picked the perfect destination. The Palo Alto Baylands Park has a walking trail, a nearby airport, and a duck pond! We watched planes landing, and took a walk along a trail which I cut short in my eagerness to see if there were any baby ducks at the pond.
At first I was a little disappointed I only saw one duck family and they only had like three babies! As we got closer to the duck family all of a sudden they only had one baby... Moving closer to the water, I saw in horror this skimmer/filter thing filled with about seven trapped baby ducks! The grate over it kept the larger ducks out, but the baby ducks were just small enough to fall in and not be able to get back out because the water was continuously pouring in to a lower level inside.
Britton quickly went to their rescue while I made sure our own son didn't get too close to the nasty water and need rescuing himself. Britton scooped up the little squirming ducks one-by-one and they sped off as fast as they could to their parents. At this point I was very close to tears. (I blame raging pregnancy hormones.) Will really wanted to hold the baby duckies. This was probably one of his few chances. Unless this happens often at the duck pond and in that case we should go save them again tomorrow.

Here's the happily reunited ducky family in the distance.

Campout and Carnival!

Britton was so excited this year to finally be able to take his own son on the father/son campout. They had a great time eating s'mores and talking and playing with the other fathers and sons. Will was so wound up he had a hard time going to sleep. Plus it doesn't even get dark outside until 9 now! The picture below is Will supposed to be going to sleep. They just played with the flashlight and then went back outside until it got dark. They had a pretty cold night together, but survived!

The next day was the annual carnival for our part of campus. It's full of all kinds of great activities for the kids and many picture-taking opportunities for the parents. I volunteered to help since I'm going to be a CA (Community Associate) next year. I help out with these kinds of activities and help plan activities for my own courtyard to get together and know each other better.
They had a petting zoo full of goats, bunnies, and a duck.
I helped manage the line at the pony rides. Will did a great job riding the pony! I thought he would get overwhelmed and start crying, but he did his auntie KK proud.
They also had the usual cotton candy, balloon animals, sno-cones, and face-painting. Here's will with one of his friends showing off his Thomas tattoo. He's also wearing a Thomas the train shirt under that jacket. I've never seen him so excited about clothes before. It's a struggle to get him to change out of the shirt sometimes.
It was a great day. Lots of fun, lots of sun, and lots of sugar. Watch out, here comes Monday.

We're Ready

The past couple months I've been watching another baby part-time. It's been great to have another little person around, and Will has loved it more that I anticipated! He gets so excited every time he sees the baby and even though it seems like they wouldn't have much to do together, Will has found plenty of activities to do with the baby.
Here Will wishes that the co-sleeper was a bunk bed. This game doesn't go on very long, or the baby would never sleep.
Here's Will and his buddy doing some ninja tummy time together.
Will, who hardly used a pacifier as a baby, dug up a pacifier and spends some quality paci time with the baby.
Hopefully his love for babies will continue because Will is going to have his own little baby to play with ALL the time! Come November-ish, another little guy/girl will join the Olson clan. It's still quite a ways away so hopefully Britton and I will be ready for number two by then too.

Slice Like a Ninja

I walk in the front door one day to find myself ambushed by ninjas!



Britton gets so creative when I'm gone:) Now it's a regular thing to dress up as a ninja (or as Will says, "jinja") with my hair bands and run around kicking and making sound effects. We also use ninja sounds when we cut our food with knives.

Keeping Track

Now that Will is talking and understanding so much I need to find a way to keep track of all the cute/funny things he does. Until I find a better way, this blog will do. :)

Yesterday I said to Will "You want to be potty trained?"
Will got up very excitedly and put his train in the potty.

EVERY morning we take Will downstairs, get him some milk, and then get him something to eat.
One morning he woke up and the first word out of his mouth was, "Juice!" As soon as he got downstairs he said, "Watch TV".
Is that how it's going to be now Will? He knows what he wants!

This is how Will asks for help. VERY loudly and several times in a row. I love it. Except for when it's annoying. But someday he'll say it the boring, normal way and I'll be glad I have this video.

Weekend with Rachel II

Most of my posts are about 1-2 weeks after the actual event, but at least I'm consistent.

My friend from high school happened to be in the bay area again so we invited her to stay with us another weekend. This time I scheduled garage sale shopping, a train ride in a beautiful park, and some beach time at Half Moon Bay.

Will's current obsession is trains. Specifically, Thomas and friends. I think Thomas, Percy, Gordon, or Emily make it into every other phrase he spits out. Thanks to this TV show, he can say things like, "shunting trucks" and "engine shed". He also picked up "cheeky" and "bother" which is really cute to hear.
So I've been looking for trains in the area he can ride. I found a small train ride in Los Gatos (30 min drive for us) at Vasona Park. The best part is it's only $2 per ride! (I found another train in the Santa Cruz mountains that was more like $22 per ride.) They also have a carousel for $2.

We had a beautiful walk through the park after the train and carousel shut down.
There were baby geese! I can't help squealing with joy when I'm around baby geese/ducks. They're just so adorable I could watch them for hours.
We stopped at a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Los Gatos called Las Esquina (The Corner). We watched a cute Mexican grandma make our tortillas from scratch...yummm! It was so fresh.

Once again, I didn't take ANY pictures so I'm completely relying on Rachel's pictures and she, understandably, hardly takes pictures of herself. Here's some from our trip to Half Moon Bay.
The flowers below are called Ice Plants! I never would have guessed, but I love seeing these flowers. I learned the name of many plants while Rachel was here. I really admire her passion for gardening and nature. She even planted some flowers in my patio when I wasn't looking! I'm trying to make sure Will doesn't destroy them.
The highlight for Will was running after the many dogs and horses on the beach.
It was a beautiful, fun weekend, and well photographed thanks to Rachel.