County Fair

We had fun at the Ventura County Fair today. We saw lots of animals including rabbits, chickens, goats and sheep. By far, Jack's favorite were the goats we saw playing and head butting one another. Jack laughed at their antics until he almost fell over! He had kettle corn with Daddy and we viewed all the talented entries from local children. Before we left he rode on several rides. Rob practically got whiplash from the one in the picture. Jack went crazy for the very tall slide that went zippity-quick! Overall, a very fun day, followed by a well deserved nap for us all.

It's Potty Time!

Sorry in advance if this is too much information...but Jack just did his first potty on the toilet! YEA! We've been gently suggesting it all summer, but he was not interested. Tonight it just clicked! And Daddy was at home to help him, so maybe that had something to do with it. He got two M & Ms as a treat and we all applauded when he flushed! Hope this is a sign of good things to come. How stoked would we be to NOT have two kids in diapers at the same time!?

Super Landscaper!

In case you haven't quite figured it out yet, Jack really loves his cape. I cannot remember the last time he spent a day without wearing his cape. Here we are just back from a weekend trip to Lowe's, where Jack wore his cape and sunglasses! We get more comments about him in his SuperJack outfit! The best was from a woman who stopped in her tracks and said, "I remember the cape days! I have six sons and they all went through a period where they wore their cape everywhere! I think the oldest took his to college with him!" So Jack decided that he would be best able to water the lawn with his cape on, naturally! If we can't cure the dead spot that persists in our front lawn, then maybe SuperJack can!


Otherwise, it has been an interesting week. We are now fishless as some strange plague wiped out all 4 of the goldfish in one week despite medication in the water and lots of online research. We figured this would be Jack's first experience with death, so we explained in terms a 2 year old might be able to grasp--"The fishies went to Heaven to be with Jesus. Maybe when you move into your new big boy room we can get you some new fish." He accepted the news just like I'd told him we were going to have peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, no problem. Then the following day we were successful in catching the rats that had invaded our garage (Gross!). The first one was dead, so I handled it covertly while Jack watched a movie. However, the second one was still kicking a bit and I couldn't distract Jack enough to close the garage up without him seeing it! He immediately said, "Mouse!" and wanted to investigate. But I got him back in the house, put a bucket over the "mouse" until Daddy got home, and responded to his further queries with, "Mouse went to Heaven." His response? "Get new mouse?" Priceless! But God I hope NOT! So that night at dinner he recapped his experiences with death to Daddy..."Fishies go Heaven, get new fishies. Mouse go Heaven, get new mouse. Gigi (Gracie) go Heaven, get new Gigi." Yikes! That dog better be sweet or he'll have her replaced!

Shark Bait

I apologize again for the huge lapse in posting. Rob was out of town 5 days in Boston for work which left little time for me to do frivolous things like posting on the blog or showering (HA)! I also had the added fun of being unsure whether my computer had a massive virus from the hijacking, so I didn't use it until Rob got home to scan it.

We had a good week, but it's always better when Daddy is home. While he was away one of the goldfish died, but Jack hasn't quite figured it out yet. He counts them, but he knows there were four, so he always manages to count one of them twice! I'll enjoy his lack of accuracy while it lasts. I also was surprised by a mouse eating dog treats in our garage cupboard. They only freak me out when I am barefoot, as I was that morning! We've since set a few traps knowing that if you see one there are probably ten, but nothing yet.

This week, Rob is (are you sitting down?) playing hooky from work to have a staycation with us! I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes! Yesterday we just kind of loafed around, but today we drove to Santa Barbara to visit the Ty Warner Sea Center on Stearn's Wharf. Jack got to touch a shark and hold several sea stars. He also explored their aquarium tunnel and he loved playing in the marine animal puppet center too. We followed the visit with lunch on the pier. It was fun to be tourists for the day in our own back yard.

Hijacked

No pun on our son's name! My email account was hijacked last night and it has become a huge nightmare! I can't access the account and the hackers still have control over it. The good news is that I was not mugged at gunpoint in Scotland and I am not in need of $2500 to get out of trouble. But it will take many hours to get my new email account up and running. I don't know if I will ever have access to my old address book, photos or saved files. You can help by NOT using my old email account! Do not send or open any email from the old email account, I won't get it, but the hackers will!! You can contact me through Facebook or email me at my new email account shannon.trani@hotmail.com. (New account has a dot between first and last name.)

So now, we take Batman with us for protection!

What a Week!

Over the weekend, we made an impromptu visit to Palm Springs to see Great Tutu and get away from our June Gloom (that was still here mid-July!!) We drove out on Friday night and got settled into the hotel and the pool. The weather was a lovely 110 degrees! But I was certainly not complaining, it was a relief from the 60 degree temperatures, fog and drizzle that we had experienced all week in Ventura! On Saturday we got to visit with Great Tutu at her house. It was so wonderful to see her! She and Jack have always had a unique connection, and even though it had been a year since they'd seen one another, he flew in her door, gave her kisses, high fives and even did knuckles with her! That was adorable! Jack and his great grandmother doing a whole series of gestures to greet each other! Rob and I were able to chat with her for quite a while while Jack explored all the treasures in her living room. We caught up on all topics, from serious to silly, and everything in between. Rob and I could not have agreed more, it was by far the highlight of our trip!

Ironically, Auntie Kim was in Italy and Uncle Lorenzo in Houston while we were in the desert. Crazy that we missed them, but sometimes that is the way it goes. Furthermore, Uncle Carlo, Aunt Tara and cousins Luke and Collin were vacationing in Santa Barbara while we were in their neck of the woods! We were so glad their stay was extended so Jack and I could join them for fun at the beach in Santa Barbara on Tuesday. It was an absolute gorgeous day and we were so happy to spend it with them. The boys got to play together and even posed in their matching Italy shirts for a muscle photo! What a fantastic day! As you can see, it wiped Jack out. He fell asleep in Rob's arms that night. You can only party for so long until it catches up with you!

Independence Day

OK, I realize this is really delayed. I'll blame it on pregnancy brain. I could've sworn I'd posted Fourth of July photos, but I guess it was on FaceBook instead. Sorry! Well, here they are. We loaded up the wagon with Jack and all our picnic supplies and rolled over to the City College for their annual fireworks show. It was the first time for all of us and we were so impressed! We stopped at Subway for sandwiches and then made our way to set up camp. After eating our picnic dinner, Rob headed out in search of the Kettle Korn that we had promised Jack. I took Jack to the Jolly Jumper to kill some time. It took an hour to get through the popcorn line, but it was worth it when Jack dug in to the bag with both hands, yelling "popcorn!" He also made his own fireworks show with his light sticks as it got dark. If he thought those were cool, it must've totally rocked his world when the real show started.
Around 8:30 Jack started asking for the fireworks. He had no idea what fireworks were, but we had been talking about them for a week, so he was ready. Finally, at 9pm he snuggled into Daddy's lap just as the sky exploded! He sat completely stunned for about the first 5 minutes, not sure if it was cool or scary. Then Rob told him it was like the lazers that Ironman shoots. That was all he needed to know. He had all three of us pretending to shoot lazers from our palms into the sky! It was really funny! I'm sure the people around us thought we were crazy, but Jack was happy, so who cares!