Jory loves looking in the mirror

Somehow we have raised a little narcissist. Daddy's storage on his phone is almost entirely occupied by movies of Jory admiring himself. Here are a couple of my favorites...

The Hiller Aviation Museum

Jory has been enamored with planes flying overhead, often leaning his head back and shouting "BYYYYEEEE!" at the plane while waving like crazy.

So, I thought it would be fun to take him to the nearby Hiller Aviation Museum. As it turns out, he freaked out when we went inside the cockpit of a 747, and also when we sat down in a helicopter:

However, he loved the kiddy play area; here's a much smaller cockpit (and check out his awesome pilot jacket!):

and here's a plane that's more his size, where he's figured out how to start the prop!

Jory loves luaus

When we made our reservations for the Old Lahaina Luau, I was a bit concerned that the combination of structured activity and post-bedtime revels was a poor choice for our little beastie on vacation. We reserved floor seating, hoping that things would be better if Jory weren't constrained to a chair.

And we were right! Jory likes hula, and Hawaiian food - and did I mention the hula ladies? He only tried to throw his pants on the stage once!

Beastie and the Beach

From Jory's point of view, I think the highlight of our recent trip to Maui was the beach. And the attendant grubby state.

At first, Jory wasn't too sure about the whole beach prospect. I couldn't really blame him; when we first arrived the wind was extremely strong, and so it wasn't a whole lot of fun for any of us. But then KC started building sand castles, and Godzilla became very interested.

And after that it was more of the same - sun, sand, a little bit of water ... and lots of dirty Jory!

This last picture is a nice illustration of why we hired a photographer just before Christmas!

Parents enjoying themselves? Not on my watch!

While we were in Maui at the end of January, we were very excited to sign up for a dive in the shark tank at the Maui Ocean Center. This dive (my first in three years!) was only possible because our friends the Jacobs were willing to watch Jory while KC and I were in the tank.

We knew Jory was going to be mad ... but BOY was he mad!

Things started out well enough. Here's Jory with Auntie Virginia - notice Jory's shark duds! Incidentally, these are the same shark clothes that Jory wore in Hawaii last year. If your kid doesn't grow, he can still fit into 3-6 month outfits when he's 16 months. Actually, that's not true - he still can't wear the pants because they fall right off him! Anyway, things were fine at first:

Then things started to degenerate. Here's my first view from inside the tank - and this is the photo that Facebook chose as the album cover for our photos:

 Jory calmed down a bit, but he was still not happy:

In the background you can see a little girl trying to console Jory (and that's an eagle ray butting on the picture at the left):

After a bit of food, Jory perked up enough for a few good shots from in the tank:

Despite Jory's extreme displeasure, KC and I had a really great dive. Thank you Auntie Virginia and Uncle Chris!

Life with a Toddler

In case you were wondering, it goes something like this:

Step One:

Step Two (yes, those are Jory's basketballs in the cat food container):

Step Three:

I eventually helped him ... because I'm Mother of the Year!

Pictures from Hawaii soon!

Worst kiddie rides ever

On our way down to our mini-holiday in Carmel, we stopped at the Gilroy Outlets for a little shopping. When we found these two kiddie rides, we thought, perfect! Jory can ride the cars while Mommy finishes a little shopping.

Unfortunately, these were the Worst Kiddie Rides Ever. They didn't move! And it took us a long time to figure that out. Check out the two videos!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Jory seemed perfectly happy ... but what a waste of a buck!