Spooky in September

Pirate party at the Encinitas Library.

At least he is not eating the glue.

So excited for all of the Halloween spook, candy and decor. I am thrilled to display my score from last years 75% off sale at PB kids. I think they had so many left over from last year the decided to sell them again. I love it. The days are already stuffed with treats and fun things to do all month long. Brayden is quite fond of these singing toads to his right. They come with us everywhere. Hopefully the novelty will wear off or the batteries will run out of juice.


This year we are getting a jump start on the Halloween season. Tony is making some wooded lawn ghosts and scary critters, I am making a few things for the house in addition to the costumes. I am rather excited that we have started our projects and costumes early. We are even toying with the idea of having a Halloween party. Hooray!
Sadly we decided we will not be going to San Francisco for our belated anniversary trip. I was going to run my half marathon and Tony was going to cheer me on. Awwwwww... but actually it was a fair trade since we spent the majority of our anniversary night attending a surfboard auction ( but a lovely dinner followed). I was excited for the challenge of the run and have been diligently been running at least one distance run a week. I am running from our house to Seaside which is a milestone for me. The economics were not in our favor. When the cost for 2 days staying in dirty Union Square was exceeding the cost of 2 plane tickets to Hawaii , time to reevaluate the trip. I am fairly confident I can find a local race to sign up for here.

Savoring Summer

We spent the last week of summer doing a lot of hanging around. Realizing a little too late that we live in a home with air conditioning that works fantastic. One of the highlights of our week was a midweek boat BBQ. My dad put their boat in a slip in Oceanside and wanted to BBQ and have Brayden have his first harbor cruise.

His life vest made me nervous. I am pretty sure the coast guards would frown on it. We managed to keep him from climbing overboard. I will be in charge of selecting the vest for the next boat outing instead of my mom. She brought the one that looked the most comfortable.

My dad was THRILLED to finally take his Grandson for a ride. Tony goes fishing with him a lot but it usually takes drinks and food or a trip to Catalina to get the whole family on board.

THE NEW BED.........

The bed rail-the best $30.00 we have spent lately. Brayden and his parents love his big boy bed. (Did I mention Tony made the bed frame for him? I think I did) We obviously take every opportunity we can to point out how fantastic it is to keep the excitement of sleeping IN the bed alive. So far so good. He got a new rug to help hide the hideous green( new to him anyway- Thanks garage sale on Neptune), a new pillow, and gets to use his quilt I made for him before he was born.

A brief demonstration of how you access the top of my bed with the assistance of a friendly whale step stool.

This is right about where I lay down. Right in the middle.

And this is what I think of mom's lame useless pillows. And there is the quilt crumpled on the floor which she slaved over.

"daddy"

..is a quite a popular guy in our house these days. With Tony being extra busy with work and not being home as much Brayden has been at his side every moment possible. When Tony is gone his whereabouts are questioned repeatedly. Over the last couple of weekends we have made up for lost time by spending lots of time at the beach. First surf lesson.. A natural already

Changing the back brakes. Tony did both of our cars last weekend. I figure that saved us at least $600 for both of our cars in labor alone. Too bad the money saves has been earmarked to be spent on tires.

At the nighttime zoo with pal Liam.

***sleeping in crib continues to be a challenge but getting better. Maybe next week will offer a more promising update.

Escape artist

We have a few rough nights lately in our house. Our son has figured out how to climb out of his crib. He runs to my side of the bed and cries until he gets to come in our bed with milk. Last night I was tough and let him cry. He ran to his drawer and brought me ALL of his empty cups hoping one of them would get filled. So after 15 minutes or so I gave him milk and put him back to bed. He climbs right out, runs back to my side of the bed with milk climbing over me and settling in. After 2 times of this I caved in. Hopefully this is a phase. He never really cared to sleep in our bed before. As soon as I am able to go and purchase some bed rails, the crib is out and the big boy bed is coming down from the loft. Daytime has proved to be much fun. Over the last couple of weeks we have completed a session of swim lessons at the Y, gone on lots of runs to the beach, play dates and story times. Last weekend we even took Brayden to his first Padre game. He got to eat his first hot dog and liked it.

Go Padres!!!!I guess this was the view from our seats.
We never made it up there since we played at the tot lot until the 5th inning.

Posing with his new shirt and completed library activity card from the Carlsbad library's summer reading program.

He is quite a fan of the library. We have been stopping by a couple of times a week. They had a great summer program which just came to an end. He especially enjoyed bringing his card to the volunteer girls to get his activities signed off in exchange for a sticker or piece of candy. Fun!!!

Brayden and dad at Brayden's first surf movie premiere and La Paloma experience. We went and saw "Drive Thru Australia". We gave him the total experience. Waiting in line for an hour to an oversold theatre and a dinner consisting of m&m's and popcorn. We made it through over half of the movie which was longer than expected. I was so looking forward to Siamese Basil after the movie but they were packed from all of the other people who were not able to get into the movie. It was a great typical Encinitas summer night even if I still have guilty feelings over feeding my child chocolate for dinner.
We have been spending our Sundays at Cardiff Reef. It is no surprise that Brayden feels right at home at the beach. He especially loves sitting in the sand in his new chair. We are making good use out of our state park pass and taking full advantage of setting up camp early and staying as long as we can. I grew up coming here all the time during summer. I think the majority of my birthday parties as a child were either at Cardiff Reef or Seaside. I had very little say in the matter thanks to my dad. Maybe Brayden will want to celebrate his birthday's here too. I know his Grandpa is counting on that tradition continuing even if his birthday is in late November.

Summer cont..

Brayden mastered the ability to climb in his crib. Thankfully, he can still not climb out but it is not for lack of effort.
Brayden and friends Liam and Piper posing at the Ott's birthday party. They sat so still for the longest time . They are so cute in this photo. Seconds later they wiggled in and out of the pool and threw the plastic balls at each other just like toddlers should. Greta always is such an inspiration for throwing fantastic and utterly creative parties and making all of the little things in life very special for her family.

Whenever Tony works in the garage Brayden prefers to watch him sitting inside his truck. Lately, Tony has been working on a frame for a print we bought in Hawaii on our honeymoon. Too bad my embroidered print is taking forever ( the bottom half is at least complete) otherwise he would have another frame to make at the same time.

A nice yummy chicken pot pie was waiting for me last week when I had a late night at work. I have been really busy at work which is a good thing but the qualification process continues to get worse which is always fun. Dinner was at 8 pm ( which is very late for us) but oh so worth it. Tony made it from scratch and was clever enough to put all of our initials on it.

Next up on our agenda....

Brayden's first surf movie tonight and TGIF in the park tomorrow.

Celebrating the 4th Australian style

Yesterday we spent the 4Th at the beach and barbecuing with our friends Matt and Celine ( Matt being the Australian). We spent the day visiting old neighbors on Neptune, watching the parade, drinking a few beers on the beach and consuming lots of meat. Brayden had lots of fun dropping in at various neighbors and quickly made himself at home. Beacons's Brayden

Playing with Lily at Jazz in the Park last week.

Loving the opportunity to dance and play with friends at Staecoach park.

I hope everyone had a safe 4th of July.