Public transit extravaganza

Kate and I had been figuring out a fun thing to do with our two boys. Both dad's are away, so we settled on something close to home (i.e. no long car rides). We ended with choo choos and boats. It was quite a fantastic adventure using only a Clipper card and some lunch money. It is a highly recommend stay-cation adventures for those readers in the bay area.

Stanley and I raced down to Bart together and caught the first train out this morning. Kate, her dad, and Ronan met us in Oakland and thoughtfully drove us to the ferry terminal. Here, Stanley and Ronan were waiting for our 'big boat'.

We boarded the boat in Oakland and toured the boat before settling upstairs.

We put on coats thinking it was going to be cold and windy.

It was definitely a bit windy, but super warm. Stanley's jacket is on here only for sun protection.

The views of the city were fantastic!

After exploring bubbles at Fisherman's wharf we jumped on two different 'choo choos'  (i.e. old style trolleys) and enjoyed the views of the Embarcadero and Market St.

We grabbed some coffee and sandwiches at the Ferry building and watched the America's cup boats coming back from a practice session.

All in all it was a fantastic adventure for a little boy's morning with 2 Bart riders, 2 old time trolley rides, and 1 boat trip...all public transit. 

Uncle flounder

With Steve in Portland, Uncle Flouder has saved us by coming over lots. He has taught Stanley some new skills. Spraying water and putting on shoes. It is fun to have him around so much.

Bye bye Peter

Peter is heading off to Russia and then to daycare. Stanley is really going to miss his best buddy. They definitely love each other and even have their own language between the two of them. Every morning Peter comes in and says "Hi Mama" (that's me since Stanley calls me Mama) and then Stanley and Peter spend the morning chatting about...well...stuff. They tell jokes too; sadly no one else shares this language, but they do not seem to care. They laugh and laugh with each other.

We ran into Peter and Halima this morning while we were out on a run. Peter and Halima joined us for our morning adventures and the two boys walked hand-in-hand down the street. It was so cute and yet so sad that they will not get to be together much anymore. The have spent about 50 hours a week together since they were 3 months old. Pretty amazing.

Stanley and Peter walking and talking. 

Getting into trouble with chalk. 

Just chatting. 

Bye bye peter. I missed a cute hug and kis they gave each other. 

Welcome Wheeler. Stanley will look forward to having you as his friend. 

Sharing with friends

Stanley enjoys his time with Peter, Wheeler and Halima. Here's an update from Halima today. 

Piseco

This post is an older one.

In July, we went camping at Piseco Lake in the Adirondacks. I loved it when I was younger and I could not wait to take Stanley there again. The first night was full of bugs. And, when we woke up in the morning, we were short a picnic table, but full of bugs. After just a few minutes, I had bugs in my coffee and Steve had inhaled a few. It was the worst that people can remember since it had rained all June and July.

After thinking we would head home and packing up camp, Papa Doug, found us a wonderful cabin and we enjoyed the rest of the vacation sleeping in the comfy heated cabin.

We all enjoyed canoeing, swimming, and watching Stanley throw rocks into the water. Stanley REALLY liked throwing rocks into the water. He really liked when he could throw them 'far' and then we pick them out of the water and let him throw the same rocks again.

Papa Doug and Stanley crossing the bridge.

Family canoe trip!

Dancing with Lolo in the cabin

Eating blueberries! Stanley enjoyed them. 

Throwing rocks.

Stanley spent a lot of time running around the cabin 'handicap' ramps with Papa Doug or Mama. He loved running fast down these ramps.

Last year Stanley did not like his life vest at all. This year, he loved it. In the below picture, he is wearing his 'boat jacket' because he wanted to. It has nothing to do with a boat at this point.

Dinner without daddy

Birite! Yum

Stanley doesn't look very happy in the picture but was sure enjoying eating all of his ice cream and even some of mine.

Jumping

Stanley has been trying to jump for about 2 months now. He was getting one foot off of the ground for a while, but he just couldn't get both feet off of the ground. This weekend, he must have realized that practice makes perfect. At the market, he saw some girls jumping (you can see them in the first video below). Stanley went over to Steve and started jumping, and jumping, and jumping. It was about 2 hours of constant jumps.

At the end, he could jump. He gets both the feet off the ground and can even move forward sometimes. He is still doing it quite often and is very proud of himself. The last video shows some of his success.
Video 1: Decided that he will learn to jump.

Video2: still practicing. Steve and my arms were tired of giving him some balance.

Video 3: Success!

In Rochester

We spent a week in the east coast in July. It had been a year since we had been back to Rochester, so Stanley spent the time exploring their toys. Papa Doug is now clearly called Papa and Stanley enjoyed reading with him. Lolo (called 'OO') spent a lot of time throwing dice with Stanley and he picking them up by the color.

Papa Doug and Lolo (called 'OO') spent lots of time showing Stanley new and different things. Stanley loved seeing the turkeys in their backyard. And then OO and Papa Doug took Stanley down the street to see more turkeys. Stanley is still talking about the 'turkey' that he saw with OO and Papa. When we got back to San Francisco, Stanley went to the front door and asked to open the door to go see the turkeys. I don't think Stanley understood my joke when I said there were no non-human turkeys left in SF.

Too bad Papa Doug and Lolo don't live close to us, but thankfully we got to see them the following weekend in Santa Barbara. 

 

4th of July

We spent a great 4th of July in Denver. Stanley entertained his cousin Will as you can see in Steve's video. Here are some other photos.

At the 4th of the July parade. Stanley did not really get it. 

Stanley dressed in Steve's old clothes and playing with Steve's
bear. 

What more could a kid want? 

Carefully studying the mechanism

Stanley love to play with the garage. He recruits whomever
will play with him. 

Stanley still has to have items in his hands. Now he has
graduated up to 3 items and learned that his pockets can old things too. 

Random photo--Stanley LOVES choo choo trains. He plays with them where ever we go. Here he is enjoying Ronan's trains.

Tahoe Trip

We have been away for the last 7 of 10 weekends. Here are some backlogged trips.

Tahoe was fantastic and relaxing early in the summery.

Relaxing with Dad

Cool guy!

Airport playground

Chicago airport thoughtfully put a playground in the airport. Since Stanley and I had a 4 hour layover on our way to Rochester, we spent a lot of time at the playground. It was lots of fun except for one small panic moment when I was standing with the luggage and he surprised me by climbing up a small staircase to the toy control tower. Thankfully a mother saw my panic and asked if I was looking for a little blond boy with a blue shirt. She pointed to Stanley who was laughing on the phone in the control tower.

Check out this video of Stanley flying the plane:

Here are some photos:

Driving the luggage trolly

Driving the plane

Flying the plane

Fun with Cousins

Another back logged video post.  This one is from our trip to Colorado over the July 4th weekend.  Stanley and his cousin Will had a lot of fun playing together.  Stanley would run around and surprise Will from all different sides.  Fun times!

Piano with Clyde

A backlog post from our trip to see Paul, Maureen, and Clyde a few weeks ago.  Stanley and Clyde decided to serenade us with a little improvised piano music.  Quite a duet!

We're back...

As you may have noticed, we are really far behind on blogging. Stanley hates when we spend anytime on the computer and after he goes to bed, we do a little work and then crash into bed before doing it again the next day. We'll try to be better.

Besides being gone every weekend for the past 7 weekends, Stanley has really developed his vocabulary.

- Stanley now says 'sentences'. He has the cadence of a sentence where he puts a bunch of babble between up to 3 words per sentence. For example, Papa blah, blah, dah, dah, door, turkey. Translation: Papa Doug took me out the door to go see turkeys. If you understand the context, you can easily figure out what he is saying
- He knows a few colors: pink, red, blue, white, purple. Lolo taught him these by asking him to select different color die. We now walk down the street looking for blue cars or white trucks. Today he even said Blah, Blah, mama, blah, blah blue car. And then he went up to my car and wanted in. Amazing that he actually wanted in the car, he knew which car was mine along a random street of parallel parked cars, and he told me my car was blue.
- Daddy Steve now has his own name 'Addie'.
- Stanley has been very good about telling us when he has 'poop' and then running to get a diaper change.