Tuesday, April 30, 2013

All About Beezie

Stats: Weight: 27 lb, 28th percentile; Height: 2' 11, 45th percentile.

B is all about options--breakfast options, clothing options, video options, game options. Every morning when she wakes up the first thing she says is "I need to check out my breakfast options."

She still steals everyone else's shoes. Whenever shoes are missing at the end of a playdate, we know who to blame.

If you want her to scram, play "get back here with that!" She will take whatever she has and run like the wind.

She makes us smoothies and crocodile soup in her kitchen every day.

She could car less about her garbage truck--unless Kai Kai comes to visit. Then it's immediately the GREATEST TOY EVER.  The truck always ends up in a timeout.

Her imagination has really kicked in recently. She's constantly off on adventures, searching for pirates,  and looking for treasure.

She's a daddy's girl, and loves to work out in the garage and yard with Lance. She tells me all about their projects they work on together.


Church songs--Popcorn Popping, Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam, I am a Child of God. She fusses every morning before church because she hates dresses and tights, but loves it once she's there.

Shows: Caillou, Dora, Diego, Doc Mcstuffins, Tinker Bell, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. She got into Tinkebell after our last Disneyland trip.

In the car the other day, she started singing "this little piggie went to the market, this little piggie went to Iowa..."

She often requests a "light jacket" when leaving the house.

Food: peanut butter crackers, yogurt smoothies, bars, grapes, cheese, chicken nuggets, pancakes (with butter and syrup), strawberries, dried mango, dried strawberries, chicken noodle soup, mac and cheese, toast with butter and jam, cashews, popcorn, avocados, Wheat Thins, cheddar bunnies, fruit snacks, and waffle fries from CFA.

She's always rearranging my front porch displays. Every time I open the door, she runs out to "help" me.


She's into gardening--she loves plants and helping pick lemons from our tree. She planted some soybeans at school, and has enjoyed watching them grow.



She talks All. Day. Long.

She asks if food is gluten free before offering it to me. When I tell her no, she informs me that I should get a gluten free version of her food.

She gets angry when Logan steals her food--even if it's something she abandoned long before it was snatched. She still talks about how Logan stole her peanut butter crackers, and it was a few weeks ago. After he steals her food, she commands him into his doggie den. "Go in your doggie den, Gonie!!"

She loves to do art projects--stamps, paint, stickers, and coloring. I have yet to introduce Play Doh because it seems like a big mess.



She's bossy. She frequently tells us to leave her room, leave her alone, and not to talk. This leads to a time out for bad manners, of course, but she still tries it every once in a while.

She loves to gas up her play car at school. She loves to do all of the things I do during the day.


She's always jumping--on and off the couch, stairs, and chairs.

We rock in Lance's chair every night before bed. We talk about what we did that day, and what we will do the next day. I sing her a few songs, and then we go read books in her room. She always requests at least one song from Adele's 21 album.

We have to sing her Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 3 times each night. After the 3rd one, she says "that was the lasssssssst time." Then she rolls over and goes to sleep.

She's a connoisseur of radio songs. Her faves: Kesha, Pitbull, Adelle, Katy Perry, Amy Winehouse Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Swedish House Mafia, Justin Bieber, and Bruno Mars. She can identify Pitbull in 4 different songs.

She loves to read, and lounges around "reading" her books out loud. She makes up stories based on the pictures in the books.



She's thankfully out of the phase where she fusses in the shopping cart. She's back to being helpful and nice.


Best friends: Kai Kai, Colin, Hadley, and the Grays--according to her.


Her little prayers each night are adorable--she starts off pretty strong (bless Mommy, Daddy, Gonie...) and then she just starts looking around the room--then she blesses clothes, doors, windows, shoes, and whatever else she can spot as she peeks around. Ha!

If you take her to the beach, you can skip all of the sand toys and fancy stuff. Just dig her a hole, and she will stay busy all day jumping in and out of it. Of course this requires some effort up front.



She often dons interesting hats and glasses, and always looks through her binoculars backwards and upside down.


She's starting to understand sizes--she laid these out on the couch, and said they were big Brobee, medium Brobee, and little Brobee.


She's always stealing my phone to look at pictures and videos.

She takes pretty good care of her babies, and animals. 


She's not super clever in the stuffed animal name department: Meow Meow the cat, Pickles the Duck, Brown Duck the Duck.

She's very funny, and tells lots of jokes. She recently moved into the knock-knock jokes. Her fave is the old "banana/orange you glad I didn't say banana again." She also likes to mix up our names, and pretend that she's one of us.

She knows our fave bands: Mine is NKOTB, hers is Swedish House Mafia, and Lance's is M-83.

She dislikes hipsters and banjos like me. Mumford and Sons came on, and she told me she didn't like them. In a poor parenting moment, I said they sucked. She countered with "yeah, they suck--like my juice box!" Poor parenting sometimes leads to awesome quotes.

She always requests "fresh, cool water" in her water bottle.

I recently bought her a Radio Flyer scooter at a garage sale for $1. At first, she whined that it was too hard. After an hour, Lance said something clicked, and she hopped on and took off. Mission accomplished.

When we shop, she will look at items and say "oh, that's cuuuute."

She loves the bath, and stays in until she's cold and pruney. She has an abundance of bath toys.

She so much fun, and even on the days when she drives us crazy, we love her so much, and feel so lucky to have our little crazycakes. We love you, Beezie! You're my favorite sidekick!


My Birthday Week

Why settle for just one day of celebrating when you can have a whole week of fun? Exactly.

I kicked off my birthday week with dinner at Slider Bar in Palo Alto. It's SO good. We ordered 3 baskets of fries--garlic, sweet potato, and these greasy fries piled high with pulled pork and ranch sauce. It was heavenly.

Inger gave me a most appropriate gift



After dinner, we came back to my house and watched Pitch Perfect. It was just as good the second time around.

I also hit up Cat Club, and rocked out to the best of the 80's in the back room with Susan and Jojo.



On Thursday night, I went to Bon Jovi with friends. I stole Sharla's hat to prove my theory that I look super hot in sunglasses and fedoras. It's not conceited if it's a fact. (Hi Carly!)


We got super cheap seat online--like $15 cheap! We were technically behind the stage, but Jon Bon had a round stage, and spent a good deal of time facing us. I was quite pleased with the seats.



I pretended to take a picture of Sharla, but I'm really taking a pic of these horrible drunk dancers behind us. Their moves were shameful.


These people in front of us were killing me. They were well into their 70's, and whenever their jam came on, they pumped their fists. This is totally us in 40 years.





The show was well over 2.5 hours. Jon Bon looks sounds, and moves like he's 20. He put on a great show. He really has seen a million faces, and he's totally rocked them all.

On my actual birthday, I headed over to playgroup to hang with my friends and kids. My birthday hair was on a roll.


My so-called friends bestowed these upon me--gag.


But they made up for it with this delicious GF almond cake--thanks Meghan! Love ya--despite the fact that you also gave me those pukey kale chips. Turns out chocolate doesn't actually make everything better.


After playgroup, I met up with Team Gray, and we drove over to my favorite gluten free joint


I had a GF quiche, followed quickly by a light and fluffy eclair. SO delicious.



B dutifully helped out and chomped on a cupcake to join in the festivities


After lunch, we came back, and I hit up our school raffle. I was hoping to win some discount swim lessons--which I did. Score! Then I went out for sushi with friends, and then came home to watch trashy TV all by myself. It was a wonderful and fabulous birthday, though we did miss Lance, who was in Utah for a wedding.

Here's to 37! I'm looking forward to many more adventures!

Disneyland--Round Two

We had so much fun with Colin and Inger last year at Disneyland that we decided to do it again. I had almost completed this entire post when it crashed, and none of my changes were saved. So this is essentially a photo dump. Don't judge--and feel free to skip unless we're related.

And we're off!



B was so excited she could barely sleep the night before. Note Goofy, Donald, and Minnie in bed with her.


We stayed at the very clean and quaint Alpine Inn. I highly recommend that place for a reasonably priced place that's close to the park.

The weather was perfect, as was the company




 The kids were magically well behaved again--I swear, there's something in the air there! Unless they were fighting over the Mickey fans or Cars vehicles. They're totally faux siblings.





We started off in Fantasyland--my favorite!









Dined at my favorite gluten free bakery--The Jolly Holiday






Off to Small World





While we were waiting for Colin and Inger to get off Small World, we spied Pluto all alone with no line, so B ran up and gave him a hug. We also saw Captain Hook, but she doesn't like him.


We stopped off for some treats--ice cream and a Mickey shaped pretzel



The kids were constantly reading the maps wherever we went. It was hilarious.


Off to Adventureland!



I love New Orleans Square




Off to Winnie the Pooh








We had dinner at Cafe Orleans--very tasty!


We had the same plan as last time--hit up the popular rides when the parade starts. No lines, and you still get to see the fireworks!


After the show, the kids were wiped out--they had been troopers all day long with no naps!


Of course, we had time for a few more rides




We headed back to the hotel where all of us promptly feel asleep, ready for the next day!

Day two



These two quickly figured out by reading the maps where we were headed...

Cars Land


Colin was very happy--he had on his Mater shirt in honor of his favorite movie




The kids lined up to meet Lightning Mcqueen


B was super classy










Took a spin on Luigi's Tire ride


Popped into Flo's for a cool shake



Checked out the Mater ride




After Cars Land, we headed over to California Adventure









Back to Disneyland, where we hit up ToonTown. I could see Inger was losing energy quickly.




We parted ways with Colin and Inger, and kept on hitting up the attractions.



We did an encore run through all of our favorite rides







B was thrilled to sit in the monkeys cage



One the second night, we got a cherry spot by the castle to watch the fireworks show. Blakely was mesmerized.



After the show, we hit up as many rides as possible until the park kicked us out after 10 PM



Thanks, Walt, for another amazing Disneyland vacation with the Murdocks. Can't wait for round three!