I missed "uno", but here's...

This was filmed back on May 21st. I'm just now getting it here. Jeez!

Vacationing in the Valley...

We love to go visit our friends Kylie and Garrett who live in Castaic (which is out in the Valley for those of you who don't know LA). It's really only an hour or so drive, but they have a guest room and we like to stay over. Especially during football season. Jason, Kylie, and Garrett are all in a Fantasy Football league together and Sundays are apparently sacred football watching days. (?) I don't care about football, but I love hanging out with those guys and their house is so comfortable to just lay around and read in. They have two daughters Brooklynn and Brenna who are close in age to Bella & Baz, so it's fun for the kids too.

Last weekend, we spent some quality time out there and went to their daughter Brooklynn's school carnival. Bastien was dressed like a stud in the new hat and glasses he just bought on a shopping excursion with his dad...

Apparently, he picked this stuff out himself. Well, I bought the shirt, and for Jason really, since his favorite movie of all time is Jaws.

On another fashion note, Isabella wore her favorite dress as of late. It was coincidentally given to her by these guys on her last birthday. She is always pulling this out of her drawer to wear. It's definitely cute, but I wonder what makes her love it so?They had a lot of games to play and stuff to bounce on.But, this guy kicked Bastien's ass...He was trying so hard to get that puck to the top, see?

He couldn't quite get it, but he did win at the Cake Walk.....ABOUT FOUR TIMES!!!

And so did Isabella...TWICE!

(People, how am I supposed to drop pounds when my kids are winning brownies and cookies and cakes and candy? It's torture.)

Meanwhile, Jason and I participated in our first ever Cow Plop. What is a "Cow Plop" you say?

Well... you try to guess where in the yard the cow is going to lay his patties.

And, man, we came sooooo close.

I'd never heard of such a thing. And I'm from Texas?!

I tell you, though, it's kind of weird to be part of crowd watching and waiting for cows to do their business.

Ah, the delights of being a tourist.

Dead Alice

"Alice is a Zombie and her feet are bucket feet. Her dress is made out of walls. Her skin is made of moon. Her eyes are buttons (like in Coraline). Her nose is the number eleven. She lives in Zombie City. Her sister's name is Benden. She was going with her sister on a walk in the city. Then, she was starting an owl movie at home (like Maude and mommy). And then they were making cakes. After the cakes, they were eating them. They were strawberry. They were trying to build a big big city around their house with dead blocks. Do you know what dead blocks look like? They look like really old blocks. After they built the city, they started putting people in it, like us, for them to play with." -Bastien Tamez

Questions, questions, questions...

Here are some interesting questions I've had from Bastien the past few days...
After seeing something for Halloween with a decapitated body...
What happens to the head?
I said something like "Well, usually peoples' heads are attached when they die. That's just to look creepy."
Where do you put a person's body after they die? It gets buried in the ground. How do you know where someone's buried? They put tombstones there with the person's name on it.
What happens if the name is too long to put on the tombstone?

While watching a Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! episode about space...
What would happen if you went to space without a rocket? What if you were out there and you didn't have a string attached to something?
Uhmmm.... Then he told me, I want to go into space, but I don't want to wear a seatbelt and can you turn the gravity button off? Is there a Planet Fun in this real world?
He has been very interested in what is real and what is not. At Jack In The Box, he asked me, is there a real guy in the Jack In The Box head? I said, no, that's just his head. How do you know that?
I guess I shouldn't lie. I'm having a hard time with that right now. Not lying, per se, just how much to give away. Do I tell him that Santa Claus isn't real? That would be sad. But then, it's good to tell him all the scary Halloween stuff isn't real.
He asked me what happens after you die too. I told him that since nobody dies and comes back to life, there's no one to tell us - so nobody knows. He said it would be nice if you could come back as another person. (Is this kid a Buddhist already?) I told him some people do believe that and maybe it's true, but nobody knows for sure.
I much prefer these kinds of questions...
What's a "toupee"?

All those questions from this...

Post From The Past - Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh - Gay Your Life Must Be!

I meant to do a post on the zoo trip I took with just Bastien a while back. I have to admit I didn't get all excited about the zoo until my twenties when I went with Jason and my mother-in-law in San Antonio. Their zoo is amazing and I just couldn't believe all the animals you could see in the middle of Texas. I guess I was just old enough to "really appreciate it". I did a trip with Isabella the Friday before this one, just a mother-daughter thing, but I think she was just too young. We spent more time at their little playground than checking out animals. Fun, but not the "zoo" experience I was looking for. Then, I took Bastien a week later for mother-son day, and that was more like it.I signed us up for a class in the morning at the LA Zoo. The theme was "Flamingos". That's all they had at the time, so what are you gonna do?

It's a fun little program called Critters N Kids. You start in the classroom where the teacher tells you all about the topic (in our case, yes, flamingos). There's a circle time, story, and some hands on interactive learning stations. We played with flamingo eggs and I don't remember what else. (Maybe that's why you should blog while it's fresh in your mind, as opposed to months later). The one super plus is that they offer the class the hour before the zoo opens. This allows you to then wander around in the zoo before everybody else gets there. It's nice and cool, and they are bringing out all the animals and feeding them so you get a chance to see them all. Check out the good animal sightings...

Bastien's favorites were the lion and tiger...Hey, they really do like bananas...

Kinda fuzzy, but how cool is this animal?! I was amazed when I saw it. The kid book pictures just don't do this uniqueness justice! I am reminded of the rhino in "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and realize the animated version wasn't too different than the live one. Check out that armour.

Is this guy coughing? Or singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"?

My favorite of the trip. This guy is so Dr. Suess. A Gerenuk...

The zoo started out a big hit with Bastien. We had ice cream before noon.

And, as you can see, I splurged on the expensive tiger lunch box. Well, it was his favorite animal...

Then we got some poses...

After lunch, we saw this guy and I was reminded so much of my childhood. The Kookaburra song just doesn't come up again after say, ten years old. I was happy to see the right lyrics, just to check.
The really fun thing was how into maps Bastien was. Everytime we saw one, he would say "Now, where are we?" and have fun dictating where we needed to go next. Maybe he won't be functionally illiterate despite his mother.Then, we had this surprise. A koala named "Baz".

Uh oh, we landed near an ice cream vending machine. Look how happy he is...And how pissed he is when I say "no more ice cream".

I hate to end on a sour note, when the day was so great. But these are the truths of child-rearing. An ice cream vending machine + no nap + lots of exciting activity= Operation Meltdown. To be honest, sometimes you feel like, "why do I even bother?" But then, my dad gave me some great advice (amidst some bad advice I won't go into) about doing things for your kids. He asked me if I do these things for me or the kids? Hard to answer. Then, he warned me, "Don't set your kids up for all these sacrifices they need to repay. If it's fun for you, great, but if not, don't torture yourself on their behalf and get mad when they don't appreciate it." Well, that's not exactly what he said, but that's what I got out of it.

Good to remember.

Mourning The Loss Of Childhood

Tonight, Bastien asked if he could be four again. Of course, I told him it wasn't going to happen. I asked if he didn't want to grow up and be five. He said he'd rather start over again with four.

Yeah, me too.