Carmel - Thanksgiving Week

We took advantage of Bryce having the entire week off for Thanksgiving break and spent the week camping in Carmel. Sharon and Ross met us for the week.

The first day we took a beautiful short hike and spent some time at an organic farm with a great children's garden.

On day two we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf for a morning of seal watching and walked to Cannery Row for a delicious ocean-front view lunch. Faith became very attached to Sharon on the walk to Cannery Row. Bryce had to have shrimp for lunch - his new favorite. After lunch we went back to the campground for Faith's nap and Nathan and Bryce went to the driving range at some fancy Carmel Valley golf course.

The next day (Thanksgiving Day) it was raining. We spent the morning at the campground and then headed to "downtown" Carmel Valley with Bryce while Faith napped for a little wine tasting. After we biked/walked down the street from the campground. Along the way the kids got to see horses and pigs.

On Friday we meet the Buccellato's at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had a fabulous time seeing all of the exhibits. We took a break mid-day and went to lunch at Bubba Gumps then back to the aquarium for a couple more hours.

It was a nice relaxing trip. It was just what we needed after the chaotic prior 6 months of construction. We hadn't really spent any prolonged time together as a family because all of Nathan's time was spent either at work or working on the house.

Faith's weekend to have Ginger the bunny

Faith got to take Ginger or as she calls her Gingerbread home for the weekend from preschool. She had such fun.

Bryce's bunk bed/Faith's window seat bench

While the kids spent the night at Grammy and Gramps' house, Nathan and I put together Bryce's bunk bed and Faith's bench for underneath her window. We wanted to surprise the kids when they came home. We were worried that Faith would be upset by Bryce getting the bunk bed, but she was perfectly happy with her bench.

Faith - 3 year old pictures

My friend and terrific photographer, Elise, took Faith's pictures at Rincon Valley Park. Faith completely cooperated and Elise took great photos. Here are a few.

Faith 3 Years Old

My baby is now officially a little kid and no longer a toddler. While I'm sad to see the baby/toddler years officially over with, I'm also hoping that she'll move into a phase of being more agreeable and that she'll have a lot less fits.

We've noticed over the past few months that she is not using her left hand very often. She used to switch back and forth between both hands whether she was eating, drawing, throwing, cutting, among other things. Now she seems to be favoring her right, but when she uses her left she is just as skilled. It will be interesting to see if she ends up being ambidextrous or right handed. I think we'll encourage her to use both at least for the time being.

At her 3 year old check she weighed 30 pounds 2 oz. fully clothed and was 38.5" tall. That puts her in the 80th percentile for height and about the 45% for weight. However, her weight to height drops down to about the 15%, meaning she is tall and thin, just like her big brother. She far exceeds all of the skills/abilities the doctor says a 3 year old should be able to do, so in that regard she is doing wonderfully.

She has recently learned to spell both her and Bryce's name. She can count past 20, knows all of her ABCs, and recognizes some written letters and numbers.

She is thrilled that she gets to start ballet next week. I hope she enjoys it as much as she thinks she will. She took a trial Lil' Kickers class a few weeks ago and said she enjoyed it. However, every week when I ask if she wants to go back she tells me not this week. Perhaps soccer won't be her thing, or maybe she just prefers a quiet morning at home with mommy. I'll keep offering it, as we'd like her to be well-rounded and have lots of experiences.

Faith refuses to wear anything but a dress. I'm lucky if I can get her to wear leggings with it when the weather is cold. On rare occasions I can get her to wear a skirt. Her requirement is that the dresses/skirts twirl, if they don't go out enough when she spins she won't wear them. She is also very into her new pink rain boots and likes to make fashion statements by wearing them with her pretty dresses.

Bryce - Tigers Soccer Team

Bryce played his first season of soccer with the Northwest Oaks Youth Soccer Club. He was on the Tigers - #24. Practice started the week before school started, which was wonderful since he met a few other kids starting Kindergarten at Riebli. None of the kids on his team ended up in his class, but at least it meant a few more familiar faces on the playground. a number of kids from his class are on other teams so he gets to play against them.

Bryce has really enjoyed his first experience playing on a real team. He's learned a lot about teamwork. He's learned that being the one to actually score the goal is not always what the game is about, but rather that passing the ball to a teammate that is in a better position to kick a goal is a good thing and playing defense is important too.

While he's not the absolute best player on the field, he definitely has shown that he has athletic ability. He lacks a little of the agression and drive at this point, but his skills have greatly improved. Most importantly, he's had a ton of fun!

Faith 2 Years 11 Months

Faith is starting to give up naps. She naps about 50% of the time. The issue now is that when she naps she wakes up grumpy. When she doesn't nap, she often has a night-terror and is grumpy in the evening. We are in that weird no win, transition stage. I'd love it if she keeps napping for a while so that I can continue to have one on one time with Bryce in the afternoons and/or get some of my own stuff done.

Now that she is settled into her own room, she has started sleeping through the night again She still comes into our room most morning between 6-6:30 wanting to cuddle, which we let her do.

I can't get her to wear anything other than a dress. She is even particular about what dresses she will wear. They have to have adequate twirl capabilities. If they don't twirl enough she won't wear them, as ballerinas must be able to twirl.

She is starting to be able to blend a few double consonant words, but most of the time she still says stuff like "nail" for "snail", "mall" for "small" etc.

Baby dolls are still her favorite things to play with. She is such a good mommy. Sometimes, as she is supposed to be going to sleep she will scream for me because she wants to make sure I'm taking care of her babies appropriately. She tells me to remember to lift up my shirt and feed them, rock them, not to be too loud if they are sleeping, or some other important instruction.

She is still attached to her binky and yai-yai, although we are being really firm about them staying in her bed. Some days she still fights us on this, but most of the time she cooperates without much fuss.

She is still as head strong as ever. Once she gets her mind settled on something, good or bad, there is no stopping her.