A Little Perspective

It's interesting for me to think about the fact that this was me (and Peter) exactly one year ago today.



My goodness was I ever humongous! And, to be honest pretty terrified. Not that I would have admitted it since I was too busy trying to put on a brave face for Matt.

I'm sure glad that my whole perspective changed once most of that belly was gone and I had that squishy tiny pink baby in my arms...

Little Bookworm

Sometime during our visit to San Diego Peter became very chatty. Not sure why really, but suddenly the kid is constantly making noise. He talks all day long, to everyone and, well, everything. Unfortunately, nobody has any idea what he's talking about, but, hopefully that will come with time.

Also, I'm sure I've mentioned before the he LOVES books. LOVES them.

So the other night Matt and I were busy with one thing or another and Peter was in the playroom amusing himself when we noticed him get out a book and proceed to "read" it to himself. Like, outloud.

Seriously....

Never mind the fact that he has the book all turned around and inside out. He knows that there's a story in those pages and gosh darn it, if Mom and Dad aren't available to read it to him, he's going to tell it to himself. :)

Sea World!

Wednesday, the third full day of our San Diego trip was the day I'd most been looking forward to... the day when we would finally be taking my son to my most favorite place on earth, Sea World. 

Interestingly enough, one of the first exhibits we visited was the Sea Otters.  This seems silly and ironic to me, that we had travelled all the way to San Diego, to go to a Marine park, to see animals that live right off our coast back home.  Of course, In Monterey Bay, the otters don't have big tubs of ice to play in...

Then we saw some Dolphins.

After that we went down in the underwater caverns to see the eels,

before going up and seeing the Bat Rays.

Then we visited the Seals and Sea Lions.  This too seemed a little silly since so many of these animals live near our current home, but Peter seemed to like watching them bark and carry on since the feeder booth was open.

After awhile we made our way over to the tide pool where Peter met a sea star. 

Naturally, he tried very hard to eat it.  I did not let him.

Soon it was time to get our seats at the Shamu show. 

Unfortunately it was REALLY hot, and Peter was not happy about it so Matt had to take him to stand in the aisle.

I must admit I enjoy that photo as there are little camp kids happily doing the "Sham Slam" in the background during Splash time.  Matt finds this utterly ridiculous, but I just think it's awesome.  :)

Take aim....

and FIRE!

After Shamu, Peter passed out in his stroller for a nap, so Matt and I went to get some lunch.

Then we headed over to Wild Arctic to see the Polar Bears, Walrus and Beluga Whales.

In the gifts shop, Matt helped Peter pick out a souvenir.  Naturally I wanted him to pick a killer whale, and Matt really tried to convince him, but in the end, the Polar Bear just had too much appeal.

Next it was time for the Dolphin Show.  Peter enjoyed sharing some Animal Crackers with Daddy while we waited for the show to begin.

And I'm not sure why, but he seemed very interested in the action once the show got started.

I include this picture because it looked liked the trainers were "controlling" the animals with their hands, magically or something and right after that, Peter was sticking his arms out like he was trying to do it too.

Anyway, the new show is a bit cheesy, but it was fun enough, I guess.

Afterward Peter snuggled his new bear while we waited for my friend Steph who's a trainer to take us behind the scenes for a mini-tour.

Once we go there, Peter got to meet a Dolphin up close. 

To be honest, Peter was not thrilled.  He seemed to find them just plain terrifying. 

The trainers tried hard to change his opinion...

And with her help, we got a picture as a family with the dolphin.

Peter, for his part, just really wanted to look at the rescued Sea Lion pups.

He wasn't any more interested in the Beluga whale either.

Since he only seemed to be interested in the Sea Lions, we went to that show next.

Peter drank his bottle and watched happily.  He definitely seemed happier to be away from those "scary" dolphins.  :)

Finally, before we wrapped up our day we went to the Pets show, so that Peter could see the puppies, which he always seems to love.

Afterward, the sun was starting to set, the weather was cooling off and it was time to call it the end of a very long, but very fun day.

Except when we got back to the hotel room, Peter was much more interested in playing with his new Elmo doll from the park then heading to bed.

He also kept trying to break the code and get into the safe.  Either that, or he just liked the beeping noise when he pushed the buttons.

And then the next day, it was time to pack up the car again and be on our way home.  Traffic was pretty awful all the way through LA so our trip was extended an extra couple of hours which really annoyed Peter who was really tired of his car seat.  At one rest stop, Matt let him get out of his seat for awhile and pretend to drive.

And then that night, when we were finally home, he was all over the house burning off energy.  He especially seemed to enjoy rolling around with his new bear.

Mission Bay Beach

The second of our three full days in San Diego was meant to be our day to relax.  Naturally this meant that we would start our morning out at the beach. 

There's a lovely little corner at the end of Mission Bay where some of the older Sea World campers go snorkeling.  I've been there many times as a camp counselor and have often noticed nice families with small children enjoying this particular little patch of beach as it is quiet, generally not crowded, has fairly clean sand, and since it is on the bay side, has very calm, clear (so long as it hasn't rained in a while,) water-- with almost no waves. 

I've been dreaming about taking my own kid(s) to this very spot since long before I ever even thought seriously about having any.

It was pretty much all I wanted it to be and more. 

No sooner had we gotten our umbrella and blanket set up, then Matt and Peter were charging down the sand to check out the water.

Keep in mind that on our two previous trips to the beach we were on the ocean and Peter, frankly, seemed to find the waves terrifying.  Happily, the calm waters of the bay solved this problem for him.

 

Since it is still very early in the summer, the water was a bit chilly, but, compared to the water off California's central coast, it was MUCH better and everyone was happy to take a dip.

This picture has nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was cute.

The cool water did have me a bit worried about Peter catching a chill and making his pneumonia (which was now 4 days into the course of antibiotics) flare up again, so I tried to get him wrapped in a towel and relaxing in the warm sun a bit. 

He had other ideas however.  For goodness sake's, he just wanted to play in the sand!!!!

Notice his face.  Because by "play," I mean "eat."  My gosh there was nothing I could do to stop that child from trying to eat the sand, or sticks, or the random little teeny sea shells he kept finding buried in the sand. 

Although he did seem to enjoy it when I buried his legs.

He also kept crawling away.  Waaaaay, far away.  Where that child got his independent streak from, I'll never know.  (Oh wait....)

Luckily though, at this point, I'm still faster and I can always catch him. 

After a few hours of eating sand fun in the sun it was time to go.  I didn't want any of us to get too much sun and we needed to think about getting lunch.  I stripped Peter down to his swim diaper and took his trunks and rash guard to the sinks to rinse them out while Matt took him to the car to get him de-sanded and into some dry clothes.  I guess I moved faster than Matt though, because when I got to the car, this is what I found...  hehehe.  :)

If you ask me, moments like this make all the sand eating in the world very worth while.