You're my human holiday

"... All the muscles in my mouth, never smiled or said profound things

Until the day she handed you to me ...

... And I know that its been sang before, but you're my human holiday

I put my hands to the table and dare say, the love of my life ..."

Random happenings

My weekend in beautiful sunny San Diego for conference. Pretty sure that's what they call hurricane season down there. Oh and did I mention that it was also Anime Con that weekend?! I couldn't have planned a conference pairing better if I had tried to myself. Teachers and anime freaks. Awesome.

Right?! I was clearly signed up for the wrong conference.

So, if you're trying to get killed like in every opening scene of every scary movie out there, first walk in the rain in a strange city through an abandoned dark old town late at night ...

Make sure to pass a haunted house on your way...

And then run and jump on the RIGHT train as its pulling away only to find yourself thrown into the seat behind a homeless man in a yellow trench coat with extremely long, pointed filed nails and a foot long goatee talking to himself and he folds up papers. Don't make eye contact. DON'T.

I don't like to brag, but pretty much Sully and I are WAY popular with the ducks at the park. Too popular in fact. Like pick your son up because he's screaming and crying as ducks attack him for food and he's in fear of getting eaten or losing an eye ... kind of popular.

My ham taking pictures of himself

And practicing yoga

Shaun winning mula in Vegas

What happens when Yaya facetimes with Sully. And this is her good side.

Mama & Sully breakfast date at Noah's Bagels

Sully after his school potluck for Saint Paddy's

Sully insisted his picture being taken with this crane. Random.

My dude and I in Vegas for literally 24 hours

Sully racing his car at the park and not taking a dump in his pants even though it looks kind of like he's taking a dump in his pants and no car is in sight.

He recently graduated from Helga's House of Pain Masseuse School

Sully's picture of Mama sans makeup and down 16 pounds! Yay!

He was missing in action after asking if we had sprinkle cookies (we didn't nor we do we ever really, so it was a weird question) and I found him in the kitchen.

"Hey Sully what are you doing?"

"Oh! Hi Mama. Its okay, I found sprinkle cookies!"

"Sully those are just sprinkles, but who am I to judge."

Sully's photography skills.

"Lets take a picture together Mama!"

No shower, no makeup ... but whatever right! Right?

Wordless Wednesday

Learning to do Yogurt

The amount of energy Sully exudes is exhausting. Like - literally takes my breathe away just watching him sometimes.

I dress him in motion.

He eats on the go.

He moves, talks and sings in his sleep.

The first thing he'll ask to do is play hockey when he gets home ...

after an ENTIRE day spent at preschool doing nothing but running around.

Some days, we even hit up TWO parks. Back to back. Just in an attempt to tire him out.

Good luck getting him to sit for anything other than hockey.

I've considered strapping a dog weight pack onto this kid. And night time, oh man have they been a battle for us to get him to wind down and relax. I mean seriously, Frankie says relax child!

When I was at conference, I was able to meet the two ladies who designed the book and DVD you see below. Its a awesome Yoga (or Yogurt if you're Sully) alphabet book that teaches children yoga moves from A to Z. It has colorful pictures and illustrations & simple instructions (For yoga dummies like me). Each move also comes with a short fun poem to recite with the child. They were so passionate about teaching children yoga and about their book they spent the past two years working on that I bought one for Sully and my boss bought one for our centers.

I'm actually really excited to incorporate this into our weekly routine and think it'll be really fun having something Shaun or I can do with him for some calming one on one time right before bed. He's been seeing us work out a lot more, and likes to do it with me - so this is special "exercise" that is all his.

I hope it helps. If not I just bought one of the most expensive alphabet books I'll ever buy.

Tonight we took 5 minutes to work on two quick starter poses and poems (Namaste & Shanti) while doing some deep breathing . He looked at the pictures and had the poses down quicker than you can say "Namaste."

Looks like someones a natural.

I smell a mini yoga mat in someones near future.

Namaste.

Wordless Wednesday

Star Wars ... Talkin' 'bout .... Star Wars

And so it has begun. Sully asked to learn about Star Wars this week. Shaun is the expert, but I know enough to get myself by and fake it. We picked out some characters he wanted to learn about and some keywords every boy needs to know like - lightsaber and droids.

We made some alien planets - he asked for green and black paper and his bingo markers. It was also his idea to use red sand and his painted rocks to create a "Alien Planet". (Those bingo markers btw were an AWESOME score in Michael's 75% off bin one night when I ran in to get some spray paint for a photo project. They were normally $14 bucks ... were a return and missing the blue (but whatever right) and were discounted to $3.75! So swiper definitely swiped them)

Playing IS Leaning - What we're learning!

Word & letter recognition

Creative Thinking

Collaborating & Expanding ideas/concepts (Use of sand, rocks ... "What else can we use?" etc)

Counting (Use of the figures for counting or sorting/classification)

Developing language skills - Storytelling & recall

Sensory - Touching (The sand is rough, the rocks are smooth etc)

Color concepts (Red sand, green & black paper, orange action figure etc)

Perks to the job

There are a LOT of perks that comes with my job, and I am EXTREMELY fortunate to work with a program and co-workers that are based around family and understand the importance of balancing the two together. Today we had a Hands of Health Day event, which was for children and families and promoted healthy life styles and choices. I wasn't planning on bringing Sully today since it was a preschool day. I knew if I took him out for a few hours there was no way I would ever get him to go back today - not unless I wanted a nuclear meltdown on my hands. That and I have what feels like about 100 things to accomplish and get done, starting with finding my desk under stacks of papers and applications.

At the nudging of my co-workers and boss to go get him, I caved. I bounced my little jailbird out just before lunch and headed back to work. I'm really happy I did. We had a fantastic afternoon at the event - it was a nice surprise for him to get out early and I really enjoyed spending the afternoon with him doing something different. My little guy played so hard, he crashed in his seat before I even pulled out of the driveway to leave.

I wish I had got a picture of the entire event/set up. It came together nicely (great job ladies!) and was busy the entire day. If you live in Ventura, I would highly suggest checking out First 5. All of our services/classes/workshops/events are FREE for families with children 0-5!

He thought the fruit were hilarious!

My little apple. We had to take a picture of each fruit ... multiple times.

Eating his healthy snack he made. Rice cakes, colored cream cheese and gold fish crackers and a strawberry and banana kabob.

Learning about how to keep our teeth healthy

He got a kick out of the giant toothbrushes and floss

Playing Follow the Leader after spinning the Activity Wheel

I just thought his face was hilarious - and his little booty sticking out.

Decorating his Vegetable crown

Playing at the Farmers Market as the shopper

Cute, right?

Playing vendor at the Farmer's Market - ringing up people's food!

Attempting to hula-hoop for the first time ever

We won't be making nationals anytime soon ...

His cool fruit tattoo he picked out

Always the helper. My little guy was picking up trash and putting chairs away from outside without me even asking him too. Such a great kid.

The event also had music, Zumba lessons and free healthy snack ideas plus a handful of vendor tables.

The Loot:

First 5 tote

Potter the Otter Book

Fruit and Veggies coloring activity book

House Safety activity book and crayons

Two toothbrushes - Green sparkle and green penguin (Can you tell his favorite color?)

Get moving Moorpark bracelet

Stickers

Poison Control number magnet

Board book

Fruits and Veggies coloring crown

Popcorn

Child Id kit (We did it there. I HIGHLY recommend this for parents. It comes in a small kit you can do at home. It includes everything you need to fingerprint, photo, and DNA swab your child as well as keep a record of their height and weight in case they ever get lost.)

Parent kit books and DVD (You can pick up a parent kit for free at our centers.)

Activity and food group coloring cards

Healthy food group calendar

Recipe book

Car seat safety pamphlets

(I also scored and got a box full of Quality Child Care fliers for my Scholarship Parent packets)