For Sale - Used "Baby" Toilet Seat

For Sale - Used, baby toilet seat with a picture of Elmo and Cookie Monster from that "baby" show, Sesame Street (as Shayna puts it). A few days ago, Shayna decided that it was time she went to the bathroom on the actual toilet seat (where mommy sits), instead of her "baby" seat. She is now going to the bathroom, on her own, removing her pants and panties by herself and wiping, using only 1 wipie at a time. We still have to go in and do a thorough wiping after she poops, but I think this is awesome because SHE decided it was time, not us!



Today was soccer day with Coach Jason at the park. At her first water break, Shayna told me that Coach Jason was wearing a shirt without sleeves and he was missing his "soccer" socks. Hello?? Does my 3 1/2 year old have a crush, or what? At the end of class, the kids put their hands on top of eachother's hands to do a cheer. Today, Shayna was the first one on top of Coach's hand and she turned around to look at me with a huge grin on her face! I mean, how could you blame her... Coach Jason is a hottie!

A Day at the Museum

Shayna and I headed north up to Downtown Los Angeles to visit the Natural History Museum on Wednesday. It was a blast! I loved coming here as a kid, so I knew she'd love it, too! Although the Dinosaur exhibit was closed for renovations, they did, however, have a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops exhibit placed right smack dab in the middle of the museum. Shayna was so happy to see the teeth on the T Rex and the "beak" on the Triceratops, she could hardly contain herself! She tried to jump the over the rope to check them out!


















There is also a Butterfly exhibit just outside of the building. Shayna was in heaven! Tons of beautiful butterflies fluttering about...
I loved photographing them! I think that I will make greeting cards with my photos! Yippeee!














There was also a HUGE scary looking polar bear! Shayna ran right up to him and grabbed his (or her) leg, to feel the fur. I asked her if she was at all afraid of the polar bear and she replied, "No, Mommy! He's just pretend!" OK... whatever... it scared the heck out of me!

We totally had another great Shayna-Mommy day! I just can't stand the thought of sending her to preschool... I'm going to miss her!!!!






The best part of the museum was in the bathroom stall! A little seat for kids, attached to the back of the stall door, actually folds down so they can sit there while you can go in peace - The kicker - it had a seatbelt, too! HA!

Family Night at Chick-Fil-A

Last night Shayna and I met our friends for Family Night at the local Chick-Fil-A. We are not real big on fast food, so this is always a treat for Shayna. If you were to ask Shayna what McDonald's is, she wouldn't know... and Mark and I would like to keep it that way. So anyways, on Tuesday nights, one can go to family night, get a kids meal for free, and watch live "kids" entertainment, for free (well, you actually have to buy an adult meal to get the free kids meal - but hey, we've gotta eat, too).




Here's Shayna and Camille getting Lassoed by the entertainer

...and here's Shayna dancing away to some country music

We had a really great time with our friends last night and we got home in time to watch the Lakers win! Woo Hoo!

Another Memorial Day in the Books

We pretty much spent the weekend in town because we've learned, during our childless days, that traveling on such a holiday means hours in traffic. So, Mark took Shayna to the park, while I cleaned her drawers out to make room for clothes that actually fit. She is growing so fast, that her once too long pants are now capris! After Shayna's (& Mark's) nap, the two decided that it would be fun to fly a kite in front of our house. It was going great until a neighbor stopped by to chit chat with Mark. Mark lost his concentration and then the kite. It is now perched in our neighbor's 20 foot high tree. We both spent about an hour trying to get the Winnie the Pooh kite out of the tree by: throwing softballs, heaving soccer balls and big sticks, spraying it with a hose, and trying to climb the darn tree. Nothing worked! So today we are going back to Ralph's and buying 2 more $3.99 kites!

Here's mark trying to get the soccer ball out of our neighbor's bush!

May Showers Bring June Bugs?

Ewwww... I hope not because we've had some really strange weather for the past 2 days! Thunder, lightning, rain, snow in Irwindale (which is about 28 miles from here). I can't remember the last time we had thunderstorms during the day. It was a first for Shayna, who has never heard thunder before! Gotta say, it freaked her out! There's something quite different about hearing thunder on television and hearing it outside. Well, needless to say, she survived and it looks like there's more rain in store for us today.

Happy Birthday, Lynn!

Just wanted to wish a very happy birthday to my mother-in-law, Lynn!


Shayna & I haven't been feeling the best, lately. We both got this Spring time cold. I guess Shayna had it worse.. fever, stuffy nose... Because she doesn't get sick very often, she didn't quite know how to act. She wanted to know how & why she got sick and WHO gave this to her.


Me, my mom, & Shayna went to the Noah's Ark exhibit last week at the Skirball Cultural Center. It was a wonderful exhibit and I can't believe that it took so long for us to go! We had a blast and I highly recommend it for everyone of all ages!

Mark and I just watched the movie, Evan Almighty, so it was really fun to see the the exhibit.

Happy Mother's Day... to me!

Today was my fourth Mother's Day... kind of strange because Shayna's only 3... hmmmmm. We had a wonderful day, as we met my parents, my cousin, Jackie, her son Alexander, my brother, Josh and his wife, Mindy and their son, Joey, as well as, Mindy's Uncle Bobby.
After brunch, we payed a visit to the cemetery to say happy Mother's Day to both of my grandmothers. We then headed over to Travel Town in Griffith Park, to see and ride the trains. I can remember coming here as a kid and climbing on the huge engines. They are still huge, but it's easier to climb up into them now. It's really nice that this place is free, although the train ride is $2.50 per person.


I don't know who had more fun... Shayna, Mark, or Alexander...

After we got home, Mark (the AWESOME husband) ran to the grocery store and made an amazing dinner, did the dishes and gave Shayna a bath... like I said before, I don't know who had more fun...

Cool Picture of the Week

We went camping at Bolsa Chica State Park in Huntington Beach, California, with our friends, Mike and Lisa and their kids, Camille and Mason, this past week. We invited our group of friends to come out and join us for a bonfire on the beach. Little did we know that it was going to be a blustery evening... nothing s'mores couldn't fix, though!

Mitzvot!

Today marks Israel's 60th birthday. What a day to celebrate! There is another reason to celebrate, as my brother, Joshua, found out this morning that he is a PERFECT match to donate his bone marrow to a very sick 4 year old boy in Irvine. He will have the procedure done in about 30 days. Please take the time and become a donor! Here is the website:
National Marrow Donor Program


I found this on the internet and I wanted to share:

When Yeshua was asked what the greatest mitzvah is, he answered:

Mattityahu/Matthew 22:36-40
"Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?" He told him, "‘You are to love Adonai your Elohey with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your, strength. This is the greatest and most important mitzvah. And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself. All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot."

Mark 12:31
The second is this: ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other mitzvah greater than these."

My brother is going to give the gift of life to a complete stranger. You are my hero!!

A Day at the Aquarium

We met our friends, Jenna & Charlie and their kiddos at the Aquarium of the Pacific yesterday, as they were up from San Diego for the day. It was awesome seeing those guys, as we haven't seen them in quite a long time, even though we only live a few short hours from San Diego. Shayna and I spent a few hours at the Aquarium until our friends arrived.

We had a blast hanging out and showing them the cool exhibits. I think the highlight of the day (there were many) were the feely-touchy exhibits. The kids loved to touch the sharks, rays, sea stars, and anemones (because that's where Nemo lives).



























Speaking of Nemo, the kids really loved the Nemo & Dory exhibit, but not as much as Charlie and I did... LOL! Another highlight of the day, was watching the tank divers feed the fish and clean the tanks.























We decided to go and check out the Lorikeet exhibit. Shayna loves to hold and feed the birds. She has no fear, unlike her mother! Hopefully Jenna won't post the picture she took of me!!





















Here is one of Charlie and the "Trip-elets," as Shayna likes to call her friends.








The day went by at lightning speed and the kids were getting tired, so we decided to head back to our house for some dinner. The kids had fun playing with one other, while the adults had fun drinking wine with one other! Farmer Mark had fun helping the kids pick their own oranges off the tree. I cut the oranges up for the kids, which kept them tied up until the pizza arrived. It was a great day, and like I said before, I wish that we lived closer to our good friends!