Call The Fashion Police

Dillon has become so independent lately. His new favorite thing is dressing himself... and unfortunately that often includes picking out his own clothes. Shorts on cold days. Plaid shorts with checkered shirts. At least when he decides to wear jeans they go with most things.

And some days he even decides to accessorize. Usually that includes a beanie or his Nemo hat. Or sometimes a tie. Or sometimes he'll sport a hat AND a tie.

or a guitar...

Circus Fun!

I remember going to the circus many times as a child and liking it. But over the years, I have grown to dislike (and have a slight fear of) clowns, so when my dad called to ask if we wanted to go to the circus my initial response was "no way." He asked if they could take Dillon and I said that would be fine because I was sure he would like it. Just because his mommy is a bit neurotic doesn't mean he shouldn't get to experience the fun of going to the circus. And then I hung up with my dad and started thinking... Just because I don't like the circus or clowns did I want to deprive myself of seeing Dillon's reaction to the circus for the first time? Heck no, I didn't! So I called my dad back and said to count me in.

We got to the arena where the circus was and made our way to our seats, passing what seemed like a million souvenir stands. Dillon had to stop and look at every. single. one. And of course I felt like the meanest mommy ever when I had to tell him that I didn’t have any money to buy him something. It wasn’t really a lie – I had no cash on me – just my credit card – and there was no way that I was about to pay twenty-two dollars for some spinning light-up toy that would break in two days. Everything was so darn expensive. Sitting in our seats was no better – there were people peddling popcorn for seven bucks and cotton candy for a mere eleven dollars. I don’t remember things being such a rip off so expensive when I was little (although it probably was). What I do remember was always getting a snow cone in a cool cup when I was a kid and within a few minutes of sitting in our seats I saw a kid walk by with one in hand. So, at intermission, I forked over nine dollars and bought Dillon a snow cone in an elephant cup. And he was so excited and loved eating the snow cone and opening and closing the hat/lid. Plus, in the long run it wasn’t that expensive… I paid five bucks for a diet Pepsi in a paper cup – at least Dillon got to keep his cup.

Dillon enjoyed the circus. He especially liked the animals and was constantly asking me when there was going to be more animals. His favorite part of the show was the horses. The first thing that he noticed about the horses was that some of them were white with black spots. “They look like cows, mommy.” He also liked the zebras and the dogs. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of clowns - Most of them didn’t have the traditional white face. Every time the audience clapped, Dillon clapped along and every time he would ask me if it was over.

After the circus was over we were able to go and see the animals. Dillon liked looking at the zebras and said that the elephants make him sneeze. Totally cute, but he didn’t even sneeze (or neeze as he would say) once.

And I’m glad that I did go to the circus because I actually had fun.

La Habra Children's Museum

Our city has a children's museum that I have been wanting to take Dillon to. It is small and totally quaint. It has been around for over thirty years and I remember going there when I was a kid. I took Dillon and Jordan there today, even though I thought that she might be a bit too old and that he might be a tad too young. But I was wrong and they both had a good time. Like I said, it's small, so I thought that it would only take us an hour or less at the museum - I was wrong - we were there for close to two hours.

They had a play area, a dress up area complete with a stage, a "dinosaur" excavation area, a carousel and many more things. Since today is also Earth day the had a craft area where the kids were able to paint flower pots and plant a flower in it. Dillon loved painting his and Jordan's turned out great.

We had a fun day and I will definitely take Dillon back.

Quack Quack

Today I took Dillon and Jordan to the park for a picnic and to feed the ducks. Dillon was excited to go but once we got there he showed almost NO interest in the ducks... or his lunch. He did have a great time playing on the play equipment and he did feed one or two ducks. There were some little ducklings and he was enthralled with them. They were so cute! We also saw a few turtles. I have never seen turtles in the pond before (and I've been going to this park since I was Dillon's age - probably younger) so it was pretty neat. There were four of them and every time I tried to get close enough to take a picture one would jump back into the pond. I finally outsmarted them and snuck up from behind and was able to get a decent picture.

Out Of The Mouth Of My Babe

Dillon says some of the funniest (and sometimes annoying) things. The kid never forgets anything - he'll bring stuff up days, weeks and even months later. Here are a few of my favorite (and least favorite) things that have come out of his little mouth lately.

Something that he says all. the. time. that drives me insane is "what?" It's not so much that he says it probably in the neighborhood of five hundred times a day, but it's how he says it. It's like Whhuuuuttt. Loooooong and exaggerated and so annoying.

Another thing that he says quite frequently is "I'm upset." He never says I'm mad or sad, it's that he's upset. And I have no clue where this came from because neither Jason nor I ever says that.

I think that Dillon was born to be a nudist. The kid never wants to wear his clothes! This, for some reason bugs Jason - He is constantly asking me why I don't ever put clothes on the kid. The other day when I was changing Dillon's diaper shortly Jason was due to come home from work, I was trying to put his pants back on and he was not cooperating. I said "Don't you want to make Daddy happy by putting on your pants?" "No, I want him to be mad... at you!" Well, gee, thanks a bunch.

Back before Christmas we were watching the movie Mickey's Once upon a Christmas. There is a part in it with Huey, Dewey, and Louie. When Dillon saw them he said: "Mommy, too many Donalds!" Ever since then when there is a lot of something that is how he refers to it - as too many whatever. For example, "Dillon, do you want some grapes?" "I want too many grapes"

I took him to Disneyland a few weeks ago and decided to take him to see Playhouse Disney Live. I took him one other time and that was last May when we went with my mom and Nana. As we were sitting on the floor waiting for the show to start, Dillon looked at me and said: "Last time we came in here with Grammie and Nana." Wow! I was astonished that he had remembered something from almost a year ago - something that happened about a month after he turned two.

When we were driving home from picking up his Valentine's pictures he says to me: Mommy, my window get dirty. I looked at his window and sure enough - bird poop. I told him that a birdy went poo poo on his window. His response? "That is not nice!" The whole rest of the way home he kept saying, "why did the birdy go poo poo on my window" and "but, why?" We stopped at Starbucks on the way home and as we were leaving he saw a bunch of birds sitting on a telephone wire. "Mommy, too many birdies. (a short pause) I wonder which one went poo poo on my window. Maybe it was that one on the bell." It was a funny statement on it's own, but made funnier by the fact that we were about five miles away from where it all started.

He always wants to know who is singing when we are listening to the radio. During the Christmas season I constantly listen to Christmas music. One day while we were driving he asked me "Mommy, who's singing?" I replied "Mariah Carey" He responded "I don't like her... change it!" Jason about spit out his drink laughing so hard. A few songs later it was the song "Up on a Housetop." Dillon declared "Arrgh... a pirate song!" Why? Because they were saying (or so he thought) "Yo, ho, ho!" (You know, "Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn't go!")

We don't eat fast food often, in fact hardly ever, but that doesn't stop Dillon from knowing the names of all the places. My three favorite names are: Some Boy (Subway) Jacket Box (Jack in the Box) and Carlos Mc Junior (Carl's Jr.) I sort of understand the Jacket Box one but the Carl's Jr. one baffles me to no end!

Jason's parents are Catholic and have a statue of the Virgin Mary in their back yard. Dillon was watering some flowers near her and inquired about the statue. My mother-in-law told him that it was Mary and that if you talk to her she can talk back to you. Dillon looked at her and said "No she can't... She's a statue!"

There are soooo many more to share, but I don't want to keep you reading all day.

Superhero Cupcakes

Six dozen cupcakes

Six designs

Six cups of homemade butter cream

Five flavors of cake

One-hundred-twenty-nine pieces of fondant:

Seventy-one letters

Twenty-five starts

Eleven word bubbles

Eleven superhero shields

Eleven superhero mask

Breakfast Date

This morning I went on a date with the most handsome guy on the planet. He seriously makes my heart melt with one glance. We sat at a checkerboard table inside of Starbucks and chatted over oatmeal. He drank chocolate milk and I drank a black iced tea. What a way to start the day!

Down Up Painting

Dillon and I take a mommy and me class through the community college district that we both love. Each week there is stories, learning of letters, singing, free play - inside and outside and arts and crafts. I have always been a pretty crafty person and I love making things. Dillon, however, does not share that passion. I have to practically force him to do his craft... there is usually two or three each week and I always have him try at least one (and usually it's only half painted or in the case of the Thanksgiving hand print turkeys - all one color). He has found two crafts that he actually likes; the first involves painting with marbles and the second one is painting with shapes. His teacher calls it shape painting but Dillon calls it down up painting. Basically, you take a shape (like Lego's or the shapes that you sort into boxes) dip it into paint and stamp it on your paper. The reason that he calls it down up painting is because the teacher explains to the kiddos that you can go down up with the shape several times before reapplying the paint. Dillon loves this one so much that he actually asked to do down up painting at home.

He has plenty of shape sorting blocks and I had some washable finger paints so, I figured, Why not? So, I squirt some of the paint into the little baby cereal bowls and thinned them down with a tiny bit of water (the paint we have is very gel like), grabbed his blocks, taped some paper to the kitchen table, stripped him down to his diaper and set him to work. And the kid painted, and painted and painted... for an HOUR! He filled up three huge pieces of paper all while saying out loud "Down up down up down up." And when he was done, I hung his art up to dry, wiped down the kitchen table with a wet paper towel and I popped him into the bath and the mess was all cleaned up. Love it.