Hanging together

Dylan took this cute picture. Stanley and Peter decided to take a little break. Amazingly it was not posed at all. Just two friends, hanging out together.

At the market

It was beautiful and 75. I love fall in SF. 

We got to spend part of it with Peter. 

Baby Car wash

Clyde really loves to go to the car wash. Poor Stanley has never enjoyed this treat since he is rarely in the car and I don't bother to clear my car.

Maureen made a car wash for the boys. Stanley did not understand why we called it a car wash, but he sure enjoyed the fun.
Here is a video of the car wash.

Basketball

What cute kids. Thanks Clyde for sharing your toys. 

Red shoe team ready for the game. 

Studying the other team's moves. (Or the 10 year old playing on the court)

Jumping at the zoo

I'm learning that you can take kids to an activity and sometimes they will like it, but sometime they will find something even better. 

Behind these two cute boys are two amazing sleeping tigers. Yes, they did realize there were tigers, but the jumping was way more fun. 

The zoo

Stanley and I spent the weekend with Clyde and Maureen. It was wonderful to get to spend time with my friend and Stanley and Clyde got along like best buddies. Our first adventure together was to the zoo. This was Stanley's first time at a zoo and it was perfect timing. He has really been enjoying talking about different animals. 

Running to see the elephants. Clyde knew the zoo
quite well

j

Strolling together

Stanley and Mommy enjoying the baby elephant. 

Checking out the lions. 

Stanley just called these "rrrrrrRRRR". 

2nd birthday

Stanley turned 2 years old on Sept 17th. With Steve away and me at home with Stanley, his party got left for a VERY last minute planning. For example, the cake was cooked 1h15min before guests arrived, so it was in the freezer cooling as the guests arrived. However, all in all, it went over really well, and Stanley just loved having 6 other kids within a year of him at his house playing with his toys. Sadly Steve missed a good part of the party since he was busy practicing for a talk, however, he caught the cake cutting. 

Stanley was also a very lucky boy to get some wonderful toys from his very generous friends. Here are some pictures from the festivities. 

The kids enjoyed each others company and a different places toys. Most of the kids made it into the above picture, though a little help was needed by the adults. 

On Stanley's real birthday, I got home late, so we had a little piece of left over cake and that was it. He seemed to enjoy the candles, though he couldn't master blowing them out.

Lele came to visit the day after Stanley's birthday. Stanley enjoyed eating cupcakes and opening another present of "choochoos".

Choo choos!

Stanley got some new choo choo trains for his birthday from Lele.  Looks like they are a hit from the start.  He even seems to really enjoy unwrapping it.  Thanks Lele!

New baby proofing

The other evening I was wondering why an outlet cover was on the ground. I put it back, but I found the reason.

 I think a run to Target is in store for me to get a different type of cover. His little fingers can sneak in the side and pull them out. Oh wow!

Summer in SF

This weekend SF was quite hot. Saturday it was over 80. We spent the morning at the water park with Zuri. I did not know we were going to a water park, so Stanley enjoyed running around in his diaper and t-shirt. 

Then on Sunday, we went back to SF summer by going to the beach. Stanley and Wheeler enjoyed the crowds of dogs that we saw, though as you can see there was no issue with finding a spot to sit.  (The below pictures are from Sam.)

Scissors

Last night I bought more art supplies for Stanley. We started making a project this morning with the glue and shapes. 

But it quickly become obvious he just wanted to learn how to cut with scissors. Geoff helped him cut up a piece of construction paper. 

 

Library fun

Halima has been taking Stanley to the library many afternoons. Stanley just loves it. He enjoys reading books and turns out, he found lots if books there. Since Friday evening he has been telling everyone. "Big choochoo libreeery." If you don't know the last word, it is a bit difficult to understand, but once you figure or out it is very cute. He and Halima must have found a lot of train books. 

Bump

The other night, I was folding laundry in Stanley's room and I heard a thud. Here's how the next few moments went.

Julia: "Stanley what was that noise?"
Stanley: "Mama, little fall"
Julia: "Oh you fell, are you getting up?"
Stanley: "Yes"

I walked out to see he had slipped and fell against the door while he was running. He picked himself up and walked back to me.

Stanley: "booboo Mama" and then made a kissing sound for me to kiss him. I wasn't sure where he was hurt, so I kissed his arm.

Stanley: 'Tanku" (Thank you)

And then he was off running again. It was so precious how we had what amounted to a full conversation.

Weekend shopping

Stanley enjoyed the Whole Foods in Portland where there were kids grocery carts. He was pretty good at steering, but went way too fast and would have run into people in the way. Steve had to keep a good grip on his cart. 

Below Stanley had slowed down to eat a blackberry every 2 steps. 

Art

Sticker fun

Stanley and I spent some extra time in the airport this past weekend. Stanley was good as gold; his new re-usable sticker game really helped the flight and time in the airport. Here is one version of it. 

I thought the van on top reminded me if when we saw the space shuttle flying on the 747. 

Stanley particularly enjoyed putting the "peeeple" in the plane windows.