The Happiest Place on Earth

Shawna and I embarked on one of our braver parenting adventures when we drove down to Orange County last week for a 6-day trip to visit Hop, Mop, Uncle Kyle, and, perhaps most importantly for Megan, Disneyland :)

Just packing up my car with 4 carseats, two double strollers, 3 Pack n' Plays, and various duffel and diaper bags took about 2 hours. We pulled away from Shawna's house at about 11 a.m., and arrived in Mission Viejo by 5:30. The seven and a half hours in between are a blur now. Kind of like labor, a trip like this doesn't seem so bad once it's over. Mostly, we managed the demands of our little passengers:

• retrieving countless lost binkys, loveys, and toys
  
• dispensing goldfish, Nilla wafers, and various snacks to 4 voracious snackers


• mixing bottles, pouring milk and water into sippys, and dealing with the inevitable diapers
  
• distributing headphones, inserting DVDs into the DVD player, and managing complaints from the peanut gallery about which movie was playing (although Tim will be horrified to learn that Joey did not put up a fuss at all about Barbie's version of Rapunzel)


• passing out Happy Meal boxes (don't judge)
  

The final 10 minutes of the drive are seared in our memories forever, though. With very little warning, Joey threw up all over himself, his carseat, and Shawna's portable highchair, which was unfortunately below his feet. We debated stopping, cleaning up the mess, and then continuing the drive, but decided to just power through to the finish line.

The drive home was more of the same. Just subtract the vomit (thankfully) and add the pirate sword, a souvenir from Disneyland (a gift from Uncle Kyle, no surprise) that almost beheaded Bridget on more than one occasion.

Here are the "big kids" in the back row:

The journey was worth it, though! We enjoyed 6 fantastic days being spoiled by adoring grandparents, gorgeous weather, and the best of our 1980s toy collection.

On Saturday, as we approached the exit for Disneyland off the 5, Shawna and I realized that the adults in our crew outnumbered the babies... 5 to 4. Then she added, "Kyle actually counts as more than one adult!" The trip definitely wouldn't have been as much fun without our master entertainer, willing to carry babies, push strollers, change diapers, attend princess parties, and keep antsy 2.5 year-olds happy while waiting in long lines!





Mop tried out the Ergo, which is near the top of my list of must-haves for moms!

From her Ergo perch, Clara met Minnie Mouse:

and Joey and Megan met Mickey! They were a little skeptical.

Hop and Mop near the end of a looooong day!

Our strollers worked overtime at Disneyland... the babies enjoyed a long nap, and Joey and Megan got stadium seating for the parade!

We scored great seats for the parade, which was a wonderful end to a magical day!

Joey was wiped out by the end of the night:

Thanks again to Hop & Mop and Uncle Kyle for treating us to a fun, memorable trip to the Happiest Place on Earth!

Short and Sweet

Clara had her 1-year check-up yesterday, and we're wondering whether she really is related to her monster brother. Her growth has really slowed down, which the pediatrician says is totally normal for a breastfed baby. In fact, to quote her, Clara's stats are "much more appropriate, to put it politely." Um, apparently our little shortie was almost obese before this appointment! Nonsense! We just make chubby infants around here!

Anyway, here's the scoop on her new trimmed-down physique:

Height: 28 inches (20th percentile)
Weight: 20 pounds, 2 ounces (25th percentile)

Her noggin is still a respectable Cecchin size, measuring 45.4 cm, or the 60th percentile.

She got three shots this time, and although she didn't smile at the doctor, like she did at her last appointment while being stabbed with a needle multiple times, she limited herself to one small cry. What a champ!

Birthday Girl

We celebrated Clara's first birthday on Saturday. The guest of honor was, as usual, on her best behavior, and definitely showed why she's the "apple of our eye." Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate! For those who weren't there, you mostly missed a stampede of small children, a foggy Sunset day, and a volume level that could only be matched by a rock concert.

Joey helped Clara get her party hat on...



Our family of four...






Joey and Megan talked for DAYS beforehand about blowing out these candles:












Finally, Clara got to sample a pink cupcake...

and went back for more!



A bath was definitely in order!

We had 16 miniature guests, all but one age 3 or under!

Gitte, Megan, and Joey enjoy juice boxes:

Gitte relishing cake:

Joey showed off his swing to an adoring crowd, mostly composed of grandparents:



Shawna and Bridget:




The Grochol girls were the first to pose for a big group shot:



Mass chaos ensued when we tried to get everyone in the same picture... this is the best of the bunch, sadly (l-r: Jessica, Megan, Bridget, Joey (holding Bridget), Marco, Katelin (holding Marco), Reese, Ryan, Tommy, Clara, Brooke (walking away from the insanity), Grace, Natalia, and Gitte. Lorelai and Lily missed the photo, unfortunately!)



We also squeezed in a shot of Grandma Cecchin and the four Cecchin cousins:


The childless adult guests watched all of the parents perform their insane antics during the photo shoot, and congratulated each other on not being part of that crowd:

Present time, and lots of pink toys! The big hit was the pink horse from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jeff, which was assembled by the only semi-handy person in the house, and promptly commandeered by Joey, Megan and Bridget:

Joey and Megan stampeded back and forth from the living room to the dining room, carrying the cheapest, most fun toy of all :)

PG-13 Play Date

Friday night, we headed to Moraga to enjoy pool time with T, Carrie, and Grace, along with Sabrina and Gitte. Then T and Carrie held us hostage for 3 hours while they made dinner, channelling Michael and Jan in last season's "The Office" ;) Luckily, no flat-screen TVs were damaged, and T and Carrie are still happily married:)

The night started off innocently enough,with Joey and Gitte hitching a ride in the double stroller for the walk down to T and Carrie's neighborhood pool...

But at night's end, this is what we found --the two of them raiding Grace's toiletries and applying lotion to each other. Maybe they should have been better supervised while the adults ate dinner and drank wine ;)

In between, we braved slightly chilly temperatures and had the pool to ourselves! Tim and Sabrina sat out these shenanigans...

Grace, Joey and Gitte snuggled into their towels and dried off:

How cute is this little puppy?!

Thanks for hosting our East Bay play date, T and Carrie!!

Technical Difficulties

Typing has been painfully difficult since last Friday, when Joey took advantage of being left unsupervised while I was putting Clara down for a nap, and pried every single letter and number key off the laptop keyboard. They were also scattered all over the family room. Lovely.

A few hours later, the keyboard was mostly reassembled, but 'A,' 'P,' and the letter '7' have gone the way of missing socks, resulting in a very gap-toothed laptop. Definitely evidence that kids live here!

Fort Funston

We packed the camera for our family jaunt to Fort Funston on Sunday, and proved once again that Tim has the most powerful genes between the two of us.

Need I say more?

Joey's shaggy 'do before his haircut:

Great Guns

Sporting a new haircut (he's still getting over the trauma), our future Calvin Klein model shows off his guns -- doesn't he look like he's about 6??

Jellybeans... A Recurring Theme

I think our dental hygenist was right. You know you have a serious problem with candy when jellybeans crop up in your blog at least once a week.

The latest about this devilish, addictive candy:

I bravely took both Joey and Clara with me to the paint store to study paint swatches and pick out new colors for our dining room, living room, entry, and living room (which painters are painting this week! More on this later...). I knew the whole outing was doomed when we rolled up to the paint display (Clara safely contained in stroller, Joey unwisely on foot), and saw a candy machine parked immediately to the left of the swatches. It offerred a trifecta of tempting candy options... M&Ms, jellybeans, and RedHots... all of which Joey was powerless to resist. He started chanting, "candy! candy! candy! candy!" If I had a quarter, I would have probably (guiltily) bought him a handful of M&Ms so I could look at swatches in peace, but since I didn't have one, I told him "no." I should have known something was amiss when I didn't hear much protest, and he was actually silent for a couple of minutes. Then:

"Mama, Clara no like jellybeans!!"

I swivelled around to find Clara, grimacing and half-panting, with a Red Hot in her mouth that Joey, apparently, found on the ground. I know this because it was still covered in dust and debris even after I pulled it out of her mouth. I think the 20-something girl standing next to me (choosing a shade of purple for her studio) was pretty much horrified.

It's amazing how fast you can choose paint colors after an episode like that.