Fair Days...

Cayden, Thom, and I had our first big outing of the summer: San Diego County Fair! We've gone the past few years with him, once in a Baby Bjorn and once in a womb, but we couldn't wait to see his reaction to all the sights and sounds. By the time we actually got to the fair we were all starving, so food was first on the agenda. Cayden is still a little young for 'Deep Fried Twinkies', so he settled for a little hot dog and fries. Of course, he did take a few bites from Mommy's annual serving of Australian Beer Battered Potatoes!!


As I wrote about earlier, Cayden is a big playground fan, and I had these fantasies about him taking his first ride on the BIG slide with Papa today. It just struck me as the ultimate 'American Fair Memory'. We made our way over to the in-field and started surveying the scene and trying to decide if Cayden was ready for any of this quite yet. We found the big slide and Thom and Cayden bravely marched their way up to the top. It's hard to tell from the picture below, but Cayden's face was absolutely petrified with fear!! As soon as he got down to the bottom though, he turned around and started to walk right back up the slide for more!

One of the things I love the most about the fair is all the colors and nostalgia. I loved this pool of ducks, but it was actually a game and I didn't think the carnie was too thrilled about us letting our son play in her booth without forking over five bucks.

One of the things I find so interesting about raising a little boy is his totally natural draw to trucks, plane, and cars! Cayden saw this ride and start chirping, "Carwk, Carwk" (yes, I realize his pronunciation of car is bordering lude!) and Thom and I couldn't resist taking him for a spin. As always parenting is a learning process, one in which I am constantly growing. Today's lesson was: "Observe the ride in full action before throwing your child on it!" Those little cars looked so harmless, but when they revved up their little engines and started whipping small children around at each end I was terrified! Cayden didn't miss a beat and was full smiles with every turn. Thom said he was yelling, "beep beep" and "again, again" the entire time. (By the way, special thanks to my husband for riding shotgun in that ridiculously tiny car!)

The day ended with a trip to the petting zoo in the livestock area. Cayden was so brave and let the desperately starved goats eat pellets from his hand! It was a great day and I know there will be plenty more summer memories made at the SD Fair in the Years to come.

Oh Summer Days...

I officially had my last day of school on Tuesday and we have very quickly settled into the enjoying lazy summer days as a family. So far (and we're only on Day 3!) Cayden has been to Sea World, the SD Zoo, and had his first early-evening run through the sprinklers with Mama. Being home with him is so wonderful and his growth, vocabulary, and ever-expanding concept of the world have kept me completely engaged and happy. I was just remarking to Thom yesterday what a different experience it will be staying home with him this summer, in comparison to last year. At 9-months, he was barely crawling and now I am running full speed and using the stroller to cut him off when I need him to stop him from going off road! Yes, I do occasionally take him down in the process, but sometimes it's the only option I've got!

This summer is full of plans: Gymventures class at the YMCA, swim lessons, trips to Daily Scoop for SnoCowns (light on the syrup, heavy on the ice), beach days, outings with the cousins and new friends, Cayden's first Symphony, and lots of family nap time I hope. I'm so fortunante to have a job, if I do have to be a working mother, where I have three months of the year off. No matter how hard teaching can get, you can't beat the
schedule! Oh summer, I love you!

Park Predicaments

At 21 months, Cayden is running full speed through the world. He skips (sorta), climbs, and meanders into any nook he discovers. One of the best parts about becoming a family is that a child can really put the 'simple things' in life in to clear view. Aside from our daily walk, Cayden loves to play at the park and as his mother, I've become a bit of a park enthusiast myself. We're lucky that in our neighborhood there are a lot of options: Bird Park is a great location, but has a very lame play structure; Pioneer Park in Mission Hills has a fantastic new play structure for the little ones and you can take a stroll among the gravestones. The gravestones add a bit of Edward Gorey macabre to a park outing, which I find kind of amusing. The park has becoming a great way to kill the afternoon hours before Papa gets home, but it does present one problem: Where's the line between letting go of your toddler just a little bit and keeping him in one piece?

Sunday was a full day for us and we went to a birthday party in Harry Griffin Park in La Mesa. While it's not close for us, this park is a fantastic place to play! There are huge grass fields to run through, a dog park near the back, and a jumbo play structure! As soon as we got out of the car, Cayden took off yelling, "Side...Side" (slide) and I pretty much had to do a drive-by greeting to the other parents. "Umm...Hi... here's Amaya's gift...gotta go catch..." Immediately, Cayden runs to the biggest play structure and starts warming up. He climbs up the little ladder and does a quick run down the little slide, the one perfectly fit for his size. Or should I say, the one that doesn't make my heart race? Within a few minutes he starts eying the big loopty-loop slide and my mind starts troubleshooting.


At 21 months Cayden is a great walker, but of course like any child he's not safety-proof either. With Thom and I both at the park, managing him is easy. We split duties, one person at the top of the slide, one at the bottom. Being there alone is a whole different story, such was the case on Sunday. I had to assess the situation and decide if it's better for me to be at the top of the slide or the bottom? There's so much to think about: Will my arm fit through the bars to catch him if he stumbles on the ladder? How many steps? Three? Umm, I think he'd be Ok. Of course, while I'm thinking about all this, he's already at the top and getting ready to go. You can never predict the slickness of a slide either. There are some that he's gone off of and he's totally gone airborne! With all my worry though, the slide was just sticky enough with who knows what, to make for a smooth spiral downwards.

At the bottom he was all smiles and staticky hair and ready for "again...again" I love our days in the park and I suppose I love his weeble-wobble ways too because they force me to get up and play right there with him! Even more, despite all the complaints about modern-day gadgetry and TV obbsessed toddlers, a day with Cayden in the park reminds me that you don't need a dollar to make your little boy brilliantly happy.

And So We Begin...

In our family, Thom is the writer. He's brilliant, he's tireless about it and he just recently won a fellowship with Earthwatch because of his essay entry. I love buying journals, I love browsing the stationary section at Borders looking for the perfect notebook to write my thoughts, but the trouble is that I rarely write. And even more troublesome, I teach writing. Recently though, I have found myself browsing a new section of notebooks - namely, Blogs. From my friend Deann's photography blogs to the heartbreaking words and photos of Matt Logelin, a total stranger, detailing raising his baby daughter after the loss of his wife, I'm completely pulled in. I could spend hours tracing back archives and putting together life stories from fragmented comments. I've found myself sometimes wishing I could do something like that, had that outlet, perspective, and voice.

This week, I met up with some friends for coffee and one was trying to convince me to come to a scrapbooking class with her. I politely declined, informing her that I was not 'like that', but she insisted that I was, in fact, a creative person. She had her daughter around the same time I had Cayden and she keeps a blog about her. I love it and it's one of the few I check in on every week. She then said to me "OK, well at least this summer you should start a blog. Do it for Cayden." The idea stayed with me over the next few days and then this afternoon, I found myself opening an account.

What I love about this medium is that it can be anything you need it to be. A quick photo from a cell phone, a long-winded rant, a staged candid moment, a sentence. I realize that my voice has the potential to be something too. Most likely not much (I won't likely be a featured Blogger on Huffington Post anytime soon), but it's mine and I want to try it out. I'm passionate about my family right now and any mother loves to talk about her child, so I've decided I'll start from there and see where it all goes.

Thanks to Jeanette, Deann, Madeline, and Cayden for the inspiration!