Visit from Maw-Maw

This week Maw-Maw was here from New Orleans. Cameron was sick most of the visit which was not much fun but when Cameron started to feel better we decided to go out and enjoy the warm weather.

My mom asked Cameron what she wanted to do. Cameron wasn't sure how to answer. I told my mom to give Cameron choices, "Museum or Zoo?" Try to make it simpler. "Art or Animals?" Cameron screamed "Animals!!" We asked her where they lived, "The Zoo!!!!!!!" Given that she had been sick and we weren't sure how she would do with a long day we decided to stay local. We've never been to the Palo Alto zoo. It has a small museum and zoo, which houses some local wildlife and is supposed to be perfect for Cameron's age. I've heard it existed, met some volunteers but never visited and didn't really know what to expect.

The museum was cute. It had lots of discovery exhibits including a tunnel that both Cameron and Riley enjoyed crawling through. There were several machine toys and an exhibit on green power. There were lots of tubes to run tennis balls through and Cameron enjoyed running back and forth putting the balls in and then watching them come out through the tubes. Riley just wanted to taste the balls.

After exploring the little museum we headed outside to see what kind of animals they had. There was a bird exhibit that had a hawk, a peacock (!!! I thought the museum only had local wildlife....). There was a pond that had a goose and some ducks. There were bunnies, rats, snakes, an aquarium with a shark, starfish, crabs. There was also a bat and bobcat exhibit. The zoo was free but they asked for a donation.

Afterwards we went out to the playground to let Cameron play. She rode on the big girl swing for the first time without falling off. She asked to be pushed very high. She made another discovery on this day. She saw some girls playing jump rope and asked what they were doing. I told her and she watched them for several minutes. When we got home, she found an electrical cord and started carrying it around the house. When I asked why she was doing that, she told me it was her jump rope. I took it away and gave her an actual jump rope of her own. Cameron is very happy.

Not a good week for Cameron

On Tuesday, usually her favorite day because Ms Ana is there to play music, Cameron was sent home after lunch for having a fever. I think you can tell that she wasn't very happy that day. Several kids were sent home with flu like symptoms so that is what we thought she had.


We took turns staying home with her and by Friday it was really obvious that it was not the flu. We took her to see Dr Lee. Cameron was really miserable. We found out that she had a double ear infection. It was her first ear infection and she gave us no sign that it was her ears. She is a tough kid. She had to get a shot and medicine to take home.

Riley is fine. At first we were concerned he would also get sick but now know ear infections are not contagious. He stayed his happy self all week. He actually enjoyed going to the doctor's office because he discovered the fish. He would crawl to the tank and pull himself up and just squeal if they came out from under the rocks.

Lets play in my room

Today was a fun day of watching the kids play together. Cameron let Riley play in her room. They played legos and blocks. Cameron showed Riley her horse who she loves very much. Cameron then declared it was time for snack.

She immediately went to her mini-kitchen and pulled out the pots and pans and all the food. They piled it up and Riley dug in. He tried just about everything by putting it all in his mouth. Cameron liked putting things into the pans, cooking it up, and then giving it to Riley for him to taste.

Riley really likes Cameron's room. He has lots of things to pull up on and the toys are all easy to pull out and scatter around. Its not too usual that she will tolerate him touching her things but she was exceptionally generous this weekend and it was so fun to watch. Poor Riley, I hope he doesn't expect this to last.

Happy New Years Legoland!!!

The real reason daddy agreed to go to San Diego!!! Today we went to Legoland. It was kinda funny that today we saw more animals but this time none of them were moving. Cameron thought all the legos were very funny. The park was still decorated for the holidays and daddy decided we would have a lego tree next year....we'll see.

It was another great day for weather. It was warm and sunny. We rode the story land boat and walked through all the safari animal exhibits. Riley got eaten by a lion but we were able to pull him out safely. He actually didn't want to leave the lion and held on to the teeth for as long as he could.

Cameron wanted to ride some rides and luckily she was tall enough for a few. Although you were supposed to be 3 years old to drive the cars, Cameron actually did a really good job. Some of the older kids got stuck but Cameron did not, she even went around a stalled car. After that she rode the helicopters and liked making it go very high.

We had a really great time seeing everything, the cities, the art, the new aquarium. Daddy also had a great time, and not just because of the legos. He met the Legoland princess. He took several pictures with her. He was the oldest person in the line. After he told me he got a picture with the princess I asked if he took the kids.... "Oh" he said, and then got back in line again.

Where the Wild Ones Go....

Today we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. This was our first visit although the Tims had been therer before. Its like a big zoo but with a very large savannah exhibit that you take a train around. Although I like the San Diego zoo, I always feel like the animals are all on top of each other. This zoo was more to my liking.

Riley was very excited. He got to take his first merry-go-round ride. He rode on a gorilla and Cameron rode a giraffe of course, she insisted. Cameron liked getting to explore. We got a double stroller but the two kids refused to ride together so Cameron mostly had it all to herself. She was a little tired so she asked to be pushed to every exhibit.

She did occasionally get out to explore. She went to watch a kangaroo presentation with Tim. And the bird show. The birds flew right over our heads and caused us to duck each time. We were also able to feed the lorikeets, but Cameron said it was "Scary!" She thinks parrots of all kinds are scary. She is a little scarred from Einstein, the Tims Macaw, who likes her so much he screams, and she runs.

We tried to teach the kids to yell Happy New Year, but it didn't really happen. We did get some really good screams though. Our New Years was pretty uneventful after the park. We were all so tired we just ordered room service and went right to sleep.