Halloween...A 3 Part Series

This is Nolan's second Halloween and we could not believe how into it he was this year. I had expected a lot of tears over scary costumes and decorations but he braved it all like a champ. He did have 3 Halloween's to ease into it & I think that helped.


Halloween: Take 1
On Tuesday we went to Parent Participation class where they had a costume parade. Nolan loved all the attention he got from his bee costume and was a great poser for all the pictures. He regularly checked to make sure his antenna were firmly in place and wings still on his back.





Halloween: Take 2
Our Mom's Group met up for the 2nd annual Howl-o-ween Hoopla at Montse's house before heading down to Farmer's Market.


Farmer's Market 2008


Farmer's Market 2007

The kids had a blast eating Montse's gourmet mini cupcakes and then running races in the living room on their new found sugar high.

Is it a bird? An Airplane? No, it's Super Urban.
Brody and Nolan look at each other in amazement as Superman Urban takes off at "On Your Mark".

Once we got to downtown, Nolan was ready to go! He well .. beelined ... through the massive crowd of costumed kids and parade of Yes on Prop 8 / No on Prop 8 demonstrators. Martin and I dressed as Bee Keepers and we could hear the chuckles from the crowd as first a little bumblebee zipped through the streets with a bee keeper close on his stinger. It was nice to get so many compliments on our theme costume and we even got our picture taken by the San Luis Obispo Parks & Rec. Dept.

We finally got him to stand still for the games.

Nolan throwing a ring on the sticks.

Nolan playing Pumpkin Bowling

Halloween: Take 3 ... The Real Deal

Nolan's 1st Pumpkin Carving Lesson. He was very helpful and added a decorative touch with crayons and highlighters.

We have a very awesome neighborhood and they usually have very creative themed group costumes. Once again, Steve & Melissa took the cake with Spencer as a Bumblebee, Loralai as a Butterfly, Mom as a Black Widow and Dad as the Orkin Man.

Here we are as the Bee Keepers and Bumblebee

Grandma and Grandpa Joyce joined in on the festivities and helped us pass out candy as we took Nolan out on his very 1st Trick or Treat run around the block.

Senorita Julietta Islas Martinez Maria Velasquez Jimenez Charita & Monkey Man Ted

Nolan Trick or Treating with our neighbors The Tin Man Dixon and The Courageous Lion Grayson. At one of their first houses, Dixon and Grayson politely knocked and when no one answered Nolan took one look at his friends and charged at the door with both fists knocking. He was going to get some candy if he had to break the door down to do it...that's my boy!

Nolan spent the whole time running at a full sprint in between houses and waving his arms like he was flying.

When we returned to the house we found my dad scaring small children by gnawing on his arm through the gorilla mask while he buddied up to the scary skeleton. My mom instructed the kids to make their way past the monsters to get the candy. You know, I kinda of dig that they're old school and not very P.C sometimes, it's refreshing.

After a hard day of pumpkin carving, bee flying and trick-or-treating, Nolan enjoyed his first piece of candy, Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, and some milk. All while watching his favorite movie, Nemo. Yes, my parents did ask several times if someone had taken over my body. Okay, so we're pretty strict on those things on a daily basis but I firmly believe that not giving a child candy on Halloween can be classified as a mild form of child abuse.

Bee's Bite

Today is Columbus day, despite all the differing views on whether or not Columbus should be celebrated, I am grateful that my hubby had the day off today. He got a chance to take Nolan to his swim lessons and see all the progress our little polywog has made. I saw my chance to go on a bike ride out to Avila Beach in the middle of the day when the sun is shining, the cars are few and the wind is almost non-existent.

I'm on my mtn bike and staring at my skinny tires, they look so foreign on my bike. I'm wondering ... How fast can I go and for how long? My cat eye is reading 16 miles per hour so I up my gears...17 mph...up it again 18mph, 19mph. The adrenaline is kicking in and I'm starting to warm up. I have just turned on HWY 1 and start thinking about some of the hills I'm going to be tackling coming out of downtown Pismo Beach. BAM! That's when it happened. Somehow a bee made it past my ever growing pregnancy boobs and straight down my shirt. It got trapped when it hit my belly and decided to sting it's way out of my shirt. It's been about 15 years since I last got stung but I still know a bee sting when I feel it.

As a kid I got stung at least once a summer and probably twice every year. The bees loved me! My whole family would be walking out to the car and the bee would follow me and sting me for no good reason. My mom says that word got out among the bee community that I liked to raid the honey jar. Either way, my reaction to bee stings became increasingly worse and worse. Swelling does not describe what would happen to me ... ballooning would be more accurate. The last time I got stung I had stepped on a bee and my foot was approaching elephant size when we went to the doctor. The doctor warned us that my hyper-sensitivity was becoming increasingly worse with each sting and that we may want to look into carrying one of those scary shots around with me at all times. That was enough to scare me into staying away from the bright yellow slip and slide and raiding my sisters oh so cool United Colors of Benetton perfume. It must have worked because I stopped getting stung and instead of carrying a shot around I just carried two Benadryl tablets with me in every bag I own.

Gratefully, I had my phone with me and OBGYN on speed dial. I called and told them my predicament and asked if I could take the Benadryl that was stashed in my CamelBak. They said it was safe to take and to ice the sting. I was really freaked out at first since I wasn't sure how my body would react to the sting. I can't believe it, my body is reacting like a normal person got stung. It's just like a little bug bite. I don't think my body has ever reacted this normal in my whole life, I am so relieved! I'm still mad at the dumb bee, though. What kind of bee stings a pregnant lady in the belly. Evil Bee!

Highchair Adventures

The scene: Breakfast. Nolan sitting in his highchair with a plate of spinach & cheese eggs. Michelle eating yogurt and apples.

Nolan: Abble. Peazzz Mommy. Abble

Michelle: After you eat your eggs, Mommy will give you some apple.

Nolan: Takes a big mouthfull of eggs. Abble. Abble.

Michelle: Nolan, you have to eat ALL of your eggs first, then Mommy will give you some apple.

Nolan: Takes another mouthfull of eggs. Abble, abble peazzz

Michelle: Nolan, your eggs need to be all gone, then you get apple

Nolan: Places his eggs in another section of his segmented bowl & covers it with his hand. Bye! Abble peazz.

And this is what happened at lunch, two hours after an hour long battle to take a nap (a battle that he won).

Thump Thump - Thump Thump

Well, this is just a tad bit anti-climactic since EVERYONE knows but.... We're Pregnant! We were originally going to wait until we heard the heartbeat to announce it to the world but my belly announced it first. Let me tell ya, these stomach muscles have memory! It just came pooching right out. It worked out better that way since we didn't hear Baby F Part 2's heartbeat until Monday and I would have never been able to keep it a secret for that long.

I am due on April 4, 2009, just 5 days after Nolan's 2nd birthday. So far this pregnancy has been completely different. I feel nauseous, tired and totally emotional. The general consensus is that it must be a girl. We'll see.... Unlike the first time, this time we are planning to find out the sex of the baby. Murphy's law says Baby F will have it's legs crossed just because we want to know.

I'm now officially in the second trimester and feeling much better. I'm back to my regular swimming and hiking routine although the mountain bike tires have come off my bike and have been replaced with slicks for road riding. I still holding on to the hope that I may get just a few more mountain bike rides in before I have to hang Stumpy up for a year plus. (Yes, I did name my mountain bike...does anyone have a problem with that!?) So so sad! Good thing babies are so worth it!

P.S. Picture is not of my belly, it's just a very cool picture that I found.

The Big Boy Bed

We have another first: Nolan slept in his big boy bed overnight for the first time! We bought the bed over a month ago and let him just get use to it being in his room. I would put him in it for naps when he was really exhausted and that had seemed to go pretty well. Last night we were getting ready for bed and he climbed into his big boy bed all on his own, laid down and then asked for his binky and Jag (his favorite Jaguar stuffed-animal). We went through his normal routine and when I closed the door he lifted his head and said, "mommy?" and then just went to sleep. We had expected to have to put him back in bed in the middle of the night but he did great! He woke up crying once just after midnight and then again at 4am. Both times I went in his room briefly and let him know it was still night time, "I love you", "sweet dreams" and then left. The second time I went in there and found him lying on the floor. I asked him if he fell out of bed and he said, "Yeah" but was fine once I put him back in bed. He opened our bedroom door at 8 a.m. bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We are so excited!

Girls Gone Sideways

Getting "Sideways" at Kalyra winery.

This weekend I left the boys on their own while I went on a trip to Santa Barbara for my best friend's bachlorette party. It was a glorious 46 hours of no diaper duty! It was a totally eclectic blend of personalities and stages of life. We had "no plans to get married" a few "just married" and of course the "I'm getting married" guest of honor. We had staunch Republicans, Republican-Libertarians, Democrats and Un-Declared. We had hard core adventurist, triathletes and "I'm not walking that far again". I filled in the stay-at-home mom niche. Despite all the differences, we all got along so well and had a blast.....especially after we agreed to stop talking politics after breakfast. Instead, the conversation kept returning to "broken vaginas". Don't ask!


Jessica, Natasha - Bride-to-be, Me, Dawn, Molly and Jenny at Blackjack Winery.


Rideau Winery


Natasha acting sober while she paints away at Artiste winery.


Molly painting with her teeth.


Bride - To -Be : Princess Natasha


Jenny, 7 months pregnant, boozing it up at our last winery (but not really).

After our day of wine tasting, we went to dinner at Ca' Dario and then out clubbing. That's when we got all the truly scandalous pictures, unfortunately not on my camera. I'm sure if you go to TheDirty.com or GirlsGoneWild.com you might get a glimpse of Natasha up on the Go-Go Dancer stage with the very nearly naked go-go dancer. We only got as far as Wildcat before Natasha ended up in the bathroom and then back to the hotel.

Martin and Nolan did great together and had some good male bonding time. Even though I had a great time over the weekend, I missed them both and I was so happy to be home.

Our Little Johnny Appleseed

Today, Nolan and I went to the Avila Valley Barn to pick apples. Nolan was absolutely thrilled. First, they drove us out to the apple orchard on a tractor bed past rows of corn, raspberry vines and a pumpkin patch. Once we got to the apples, Nolan was given a bag to fill with as many apples his little heart desired. He was loving it! He pulled at those apples so hard he ended up rolling in the dirt most of the time. Nolan noticed all the other kids had begun to eat their apples so he promptly looked to the ground for a pre-munched, crawling with ants apple and shoved it in his mouth before I could stop him. Right idea .... wrong apple. Don't worry, the apple he is eating in all the pictures is one of his freshly picked clean apples.
Nolan picking apples.


Eating his apple on the tractor ride back to the barn.

For the first time Nolan wasn't scared to feed the goats or even the sheep. We spent the rest of the day chasing roosters, playing with the water faucet (oh the mystery of mud), eating apples and climbing hay bales. Not bad for a Tuesday morning.

Nolan feeding the goats.
Proud Mommy Moment: Nolan finds broccoli in the bin. "Mommy...Bob-li... Mmm" In front of other parents no less! That's my boy!