Raider..... Pirate...... Same Difference!

Happy Halloween!

Pirate Baby & Pirate Daddy

Happy Halloween from the notorious pirate family -- The Herrings!  AAARGH!

Happy October

This is my favorite photo of the day.

Well, we made it!  We made it to Sacramento and into our new apartment!  We've almost fully settled in.  Aaron has his own room!!  How exciting is that?!  (Trust me, it's exciting!)  We even got to enjoy almost 3 extra weeks of summer.  But I think Fall is finally moving in, and I'm a-ok with that.

We moved into my old neighborhood and we live 2 minutes from mom & dad in one direction and 5 minutes from Eva in another.  And Natalie lives just short car trip away in San Francisco.  Aaron is enjoying having so much time with family and he calls Eva "tia" (aunt) and he calls grandpa Howard "papa".  So far he's still calling grandma Yvette "momma" too, but I just think he doesn't have the GR down yet which is why he calls my dad "papa".  


Our new apartment complex has a pool, a mini golf area, a playground for kids, an exercise room and a billiard table.  Aaron has been to the playground a few times (he loves the slide) and to the pool with his dadda twice, which he loves!  He's gonna be one of those fearless kids that just walks right off the step - I can just tell!  Gotta keep our eyes on that kid!


Today, we all went to a pumpkin patch and Aaron had so much fun!  He got to see farm animals, ride a pony, go through a maze, pick a pumpkin and go in a bouncy pen.  He was in heaven.  Josh and I are still trying to figure out what we're gonna dress him as for Halloween, but we're leaning toward something from Yo Gabba Gabba!, Dora the Explorer, or Go, Diego, Go!  Those are the 3 cartoons he's really into now.  Josh wants Aaron to go as Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba! just so he can dress as DJ Lance Rock!  Haha!

Josh is still on the hunt for a job and I'm not looking for one myself, but if it comes down to it, I will probably look for something in the State.  I am trying to get used to being back in California.  I'm so glad we moved at the beginning of Fall so that I didn't have to last a whole summer here, not that I'll be able to skip it next year!  And I'm getting my barrings back - getting to know Sacramento again.  It's strange because some of it is exactly the same.  Exactly.  Yet plenty has changed.  Once we get to know the city better, we'll probably decide which area we like best and try to move there.  You never know what the future holds!


The important thing is that Aaron is wonderful, healthy, smart and has plenty of people who love him.  We are all lucky for that.  Next week is his grandma Yvette's birthday and it ends in a ZERO.  We will all be celebrating with her.  

So happy October, happy birthdays, happy National Coming Out Day, happy Breast Cancer Awareness month, happy Fall and any other occasion that deserves a "happy" in front of it!

I hope you're all happy!  We are!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Aaron, Adriane & Rocky

Well folks, it's official.  The three of us little fishies (plus dog) are moving out of Washington.  We will miss it here.  I will particularly miss the green, the water, the mountains, the clean, the living GREEN, the temperature, the 24 hour supermarkets, the huge seagulls, the sea otters, the ferries, Pike's Market, the farmer's markets, the shopping, the metropolitan yet small city feel, hearing the boats and trains from my condo. I'll miss most of it in fact.

But we're trading it in for other things.  Things that we feel like we need.  Things to help keep us SANE.  Mostly, it's a change we hope will do us some good.


So we just got back from a trip to California to see my family and came back with an apartment leased and waiting for us at the end of this month.  I'm busy with all the details and will have to pack and hope Aaron doesn't pull everything right back out of the box!  

But during our trip Aaron had fun with his grandparents and his tia (aunt) Eva.  For the first day after we go back he went around the house saying "TIA!  Where are you?".  So cute!  He likes his tia's little backyard because it has grass and flowers and cement for chalk and a hose!  


Eva and I took Aaron to South Land Park to see if he'd actually let us put him on the pony rides and he did!  And his pony was named Rocky!  It must have been fate.  (Rocky - Adriane, get it?)  He also went to Funderland which has a bunch of small rides for little kids.  He went on the CHOO-CHOO train and the cars.  He was kind of small for everything else.  The one other ride he could have gone on was a solo ride and he wasn't up for that just yet!  


He's talking so much more now and says new words everyday.  He can count to 10 in both English and Spanish now and he can almost count to 20 in English.  He loves to sing!  He sings to himself all the time.  He also loves to point out buses.  If you're in the car and he sees one he yells at the top of his lungs "BUS! BUS! BUS! BUS! BUS! BUUUUUSSSS!" and doesn't quit!  Somehow he's learned to dance like he's at a hoedown.  I blame that Dance-a-lot Robot on the Disney Channel!  


He still loves to eat but has become a little more picky than he used to be.  Well actually, he used to eat pretty much anything!  Now it changes from day to day, but I can always count on diary and carbs!  If it has bread, pasta or cheese he's gonna eat it!  


He changes and grows everyday.  I still look at him and see part baby, but now it's becoming more little boy.  I love my boy.  


So now on to a new chapter in our lives!  Next time I post it will be from Cali.


Hello Sunshine!


 

I'm hungry and tired but I'm doing this post, dammit.

So we finally took Aaron to the Woodland Park Zoo.  We had been talking about it and talking about it and we finally found a sunny, warm day with nothing else planned to visit the zoo.  Aaron loved it and he was in total awe of both the giraffe and the elephant but the elephant was definitely his favorite.  He cried when we left the elephants to visit another animal!  And yes, he can now say elephant. :)  We want to visit the aquarium next.


It seems since I posted that last entry with his vocabulary it's grown almost double!  It's like one day they knew a handful of words and the next day there babbling away!  A lot of new animal words and sounds and definitely more compression in general.  I just did a video yesterday but I'm to lazy to upload it here so you can see my YouTube channel and see it there.  


Recently, Aaron's taken to "playing" with the dog Ulrich, though I'm not sure Ulrich has any idea what's going on.  Aaron runs around chasing him and Ulrich just runs around in circles trying to get away from him!  If Aaron catches up to him, he kind of lightly grabs his back or smacks him gently and then laughs and laughs and runs away!  It's pretty adorable and so far there has been no negative reaction from Sir Ulrich!  

I'm also trying to teach Aaron his first chore!!  (Haha!!  It's really more for the dog and Aaron to build a relationship).  When Ulrich's food bowl is empty, I'll say "Oh-uh!  The doggie's food is all gone!  Do you want to feed the doggie more food?" and Aaron will usually answer "YES!".  So I ask him to get the bowl for me and he picks it up, brings it to me where I'm waiting by the bag of dog food, I fill it up and give it back to Aaron.  I taught Aaron to grab it with both hands and he does, then walks it over to the placemat on the floor, squats and places it in the floor.  Then I tell him what a great job he did and I call the dog over and we both show Ulrich his full food bowl.  So far it's working out well.  I figure this will teach both Aaron and Ulrich a few things.  Now if only I could teach Aaron how to vacuum!  Haha!


Now if you'll excuse me, I've got about 20 minutes of nap time I'm guessing so I'm going to make good use of it!  

Aaron should totally model

Aaron's Zoolander!  (Thanks for the idea, Maya!)                                                                             

Brought to you by your future graffiti artist

Today it was hot in the Northwest.  Like, 95 degrees in some spots.  And for those of you who say that 95 isn't that bad -- Seattleites do not have air conditioning so SHUT IT!  Moving on.....

Since I knew this week was going to be warm I had been thinking of activities Aaron and I could do outside - even if it was on our little "stoop".  I had been actually thinking of sidewalk chalk for awhile and yesterday I went to Safeway and lo and behold -- there was sidewalk chalk for sale right in the front of the store in a summer display.  So today I swept our stairs and little entrance area, put the baby gate up at the end of the stairs and introduced Aaron to sidewalk chalk!  Hooray!!!  

Aaron loved it.  Ulrich loved keeping Aaron company.  And I loved being outside for a change without having to restrain Aaron in one way or another (hand holding, stroller, babe in arms).  He spent a little over an hour outside coloring on the walls and ground.  It's like he's a baby Picasso.  I sent a photo to my mom's phone and she said "He is going to become a graffiti person now!".  Yeah, I'm pretty sure sidewalk chalk does not lead to a life of crime, but I guess you never know.  Of course she thought it was totally adorable anyway.

Recently Aaron, Josh and I went to The Hi-Life (for their awesome $5 breakfast) and Aaron dropped his cup on the floor when a nice woman who was waiting for a table picked it up for him.  I said thank you to the lady and Aaron turned around and looked at her and said "thank you!" and the woman just started cracking up.  She thought it was the cutest thing.  And it was.  Score one for teaching baby good manners!

We're also trying to get Aaron to say "help" when he needs it instead of screaming (loudly) in frustration.  When Aaron can't get a toy out of his toy box he screams.  When he's sitting on something and doesn't realize it and can't pull it out from under him, he screams.  When he traps himself behind a piece of furniture and the wall, he screams.  So we tell him that it's inappropriate to scream and then we ask him to ask for help.  So far he still yells at first mostly, but when I look at him and say "Aaron, what do we say when we need help?" he says "heeelp".  On rare occasion he uses it all on his own.  Like when he's screaming his head off because I'm changing his diaper and he hates it and is trying to roll over and yelling "HEEEELLP" at the same time.  Yeah.  Awesome.  I'm just picturing having to change his diaper in public when he starts that up.  Score one for baby on this one.  (sigh)  You win one, you lose one I guess.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go stick my head in the refrigerator.  And if you happen to see some sidewalk chalk tags in your neighborhood, I swear -- it's not my boy!