Capitola

A few weekends ago we traveled to Santa Cruz for KC's departmental retreat. Since Jory wasn't exactly suited to the poster sessions or the talks, I decided to drive him down to Capitola beach. When I told Jory that maybe he would see a whale, he responded, "I want to see a dolphin. Two dolphins. Two dolphins and two sharks." I told him ok, Mommy would conjure the sea creatures for him. [ahem]

We didn't see any sharks or whales, but we did see lots of seals and seal lions, as well as a dolphin - a big cartoon dolphin on one of the signs on the beach. Good enough!

We also got to enjoy the cute pastel houses on the beach in Capitola:

And Jory got to chase after an enormous flock of seagulls and ducks on the sand!

C is for cookie

Last night Jory expanded his culinary skills to baking. He wasn't interested in cutting the cookies out from the dough, but he sure enjoyed decorating them!




 

When he wanted an extra cookie before bedtime, we sang the Cookie Monster song instead. We'll see how long that satisfies him!

Trick or treat!

Jory's school has been preparing for Halloween for a week or so, including a "guess the weight" pumpkin game: (I can tell you that it is definitely harder to lift than Jory is)

On the big day, Amanda lent Jory her panda hat, which I coordinated with one of his Chinese outfits to make ... Kung Fu Panda!

At daycare, they took the kids on a parade around the city administration buildings, where Jory was overwhelmed by all the costumes and candy. As you can see, he had a good time:

More Paris photos!

Since our camera met an untimely death under the Zodiac Ceiling in the Louvre, it's been slow going getting together our vacation photos.

Here are a few more great pictures from our Paris trip! The bottom two photos are from the Chateau de Vincennes.

First trip abroad: Paris

We were in Paris last week, and while we'd hoped that it would be a great cultural experience for Jory, he had a different agenda. Here's an example:

Mommy: Jory, look! This is Notre Dame cathedral!

Jory: Wow! Look! Look at that! LOOK AT THAT GARBAGE TRUCK!!!

Mommy: Jory, do you want to go inside the church?

Jory: I want to go for a ride in the garbage truck! GARBAGE TRUCK!!!

So while we took Jory to lots of museums, he now has atypical experiences with the Louvre:

The Musee d'Orsay (especially the cafe):

And the Orangerie outside Place de la Concorde:

Predictably, a love affair blossomed between Jory and pain au chocolat:

Jory wasn't really fantastic in museums, as you might expect from a two-year-old. I spent a lot of time on the floor at the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay, playing with trains.

We did, however, have a spectacular experience the second time we went to the Louvre. I had Jory in the stroller and I was passing the Mona Lisa room, which is always a circus with about 200 tourists frantically trying to snap a picture of the painting from behind a series of velvet ropes.

I'd had no intention of going in (I don't even like that painting!), but then I realized that it was incumbent upon me as a mother to take my offspring to see the Mona Lisa. I was trying to edge him and his stroller into the very fringe of the crowd when a docent tapped me on the shoulder and motioned me into the handicapped viewing section - which is in front of all the other tourists and only about three feet from the painting!

I told Jory about the painting, and he blew kisses at her, and the docents all thought he was adorable. He won't remember the experience, I'm sure, but I definitely will!

Sleeping beauties

There's a lot that goes on in our house, basically all the time.

Here's how I found Jory sleeping the other night:

I'd gone into his room to get the trains out of his bed so he wouldn't roll onto them, but I wasn't able to pry the toys out of his grasp!

And this is why I'm up at night taking photos - nowhere for me to sleep!

These aren't the droids you're looking for

But they sure are cute!

Castle Air Museum

Over the holiday we visited the open-cockpit day at the Castle Air Museum out in Atwater. It's the site of a decommissioned air base, and air-history enthusiasts have gathered a remarkable variety of historical fighters, fuelers, and transporters.

Since Jory loves planes, we knew this would be a great visit. The only major problem was the sweltering heat - which is why we borrowed a hat for him.

Here's Jory with one of the quailailos, which looked remarkably unsafe:

And of course Jory and Daddy took a signature picture (Anika's enjoying herself too with some smurf-blue raspberry flavored kettle corn):

All in all we had a lot of fun!

Taming the Quailailo

On our way back from Merced we stopped at the Gilroy outlets and Jory wanted to ride the helicopter, which for some reason he calls a quailailo. Quailailo originally seemed to mean both helicopter and chicken, but fortunately Jory finally converged on a single meaning.

Jory had gotten to see helicopters taking off and landing at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater over the weekend - but we're saving those pictures for the next post.

KC traipsed all over the outlets to find an ATM, with Jory shrieking "Money for quailailo! Money money!" KC finally popped Jory in the helicopter, inserted the money - and this happened:

For some bizarre reason, Jory really likes watching this movie of him screaming in the quailailo - it's hilarious now. What a weird kid.

Road-trip Entertainment

Jory had to find some way to entertain himself during our long road trip to Merced over the holiday, and here's what he came up with! Notice the "Thomas the Tank Engine" sunglasses - this kid is a label whore.

July 4th rodeo

There was a petting zoo at the July 4th rodeo that Jory and I went to with his grandparents. And now there is a group of animals terrified of over-eager two year-olds.

The bunny was amazingly calm while Jory pet it:

Jory didn't know quite what to do with the llama at first, but then he got very excited about the brush:

This photo seemed somewhat ominous: (not clear for whom)

And then Jory had a great time with Grandpa's hat during the rodeo events!

Go America!

Galloping through the Chinese grocery

Jory and I had a good time riding a horse statue in the Chinese grocery store...

The end of the beginning

Back in June, just before we left for Aspen, Jory had his last day at his first day care. KC planned a little party to celebrate, and everyone was very sad - except for Jory, who had cupcakes and presents.

We all miss Tia Magda and Tio Ale, but we go back for visits!

At the circus!

While Mommy was in New York this weekend, Daddy and Jory went to the circus in Oakland!
We got very few photos of Jory, but here's one of him looking dazed by all the lights:

He was very well behaved for the 2.5-hour show, and by far his favorite was the elephants:

A lot of the things we saw were the same as when I went to the circus as a kid... except this:

He also liked the woman being shot out of a cannon, which he refers to as "airplane", since she goes "in the sky":

More cute photos from Aspen

These are photos that never made it onto the blog... but I thought they should have. They are all from our recent trip to Aspen.

Jory was very cuddly with Mommy:

These are all from a hike with Ajay, Sai, and Anika:

Then we went to lunch at the Pine Creek Cookhouse:

and then off to the ghost town Ashcroft, where Anika and Jory loved playing in the old hotel.