Week with Ahma

This week Ahma has been in town taking care of Will while Loli is on vacation.  Will is the luckiest boy!  He has had a great time with Ahma, and now Bapa (he came in last night to help).  Will has been to the park and has been playing in the pool, and he is talking a lot more - saying things like breakfast, Ahma, Bapa, snack, and icky.  It is so fun to hear his words!

Bapa came in last night, and Will took to him immediately.  Will loves to take your hand and pull you where he wants you to go.  He went right to Bapa and wanted to take him downstairs. 

Yesterday we gave Will his first Popsicle which wasn't the biggest hit. He took one lick, made a funny face, and then tried to give some to Maggie and ultimately put the Popsicle in the pool.

little fireman

little blondie

Home

We made it home!  The flight was uneventful and ALL of our luggage arrived with us which is no small feat for this amount of stuff!

It is good to be home in many ways, but we already miss San Diego.  I miss sleeping with the screen door open and needing lots of covers to stay warm.  I miss having Kathleen and Chuck around us all day  (so does Will apparently - he has been going up to their pictures and pointing).  I miss knowing our days are planned with vacation type things like going to the zoo, the beach, etc.  And I am sad that this vacation that we looked forward to for so long has come to an end. 

However, we are very much looking forward to Ahma's arrival tonight!  She is taking care of Will this week while Loli is on vacation.  It will be lots of fun having her in town, and I know Will is going to have a great time!

Goodbye San Diego

We are sad that today we are leaving San Diego. This has been a really great vacation, and we look forward to coming back! Will enjoyed his last night with some time at the beach with his dad, and once Will was asleep, we enjoyed a delicious dinner from Aqua al 2. The last time I ate at this restaurant was in Florence with Julie when we were studying abroad.

Traveling with a 15 month old was much easier than I anticipated. Aside from the snafu with the diaper on the way here, the rest has been really smooth. Hopefully the fight home tomorrow will be uneventful!

Goodbye San Diego!

Zoo Part Two

Today we headed back to the zoo.  On our first visit, we didn't make it to the Children's area, so we headed back today and had a great time.  First of all, I recommend the Children's zoo as you get really close to the animals as you can see from these otter and meerkat pictures.  Will had a great time and he really loved petting the goats.

cute meerkat

Will looking at the otters

loving the baby goats

he loved it!

Picture from Sea World

Here is a picture I took of our token picture from Sea World.  Will has probably seen Sesame Street 2 or 3 times (although I wish it were more - I love it!), but I think he knows Cookie Monster and he likes Elmo every time he has seen him somewhere or on something.  I didn't know who Zoe was, so I assume he didn't either.  We have some TV watching to do before our next trip to Sea World!

Will  was most interested in climbing on the set of the picture stage.  He was cozy in his little spot and posed for the picture.

After the photo op, he gave Cookie Monster five, and we were on our way...

Sea World

Yesterday, Kathleen and I took Will to Sea World while Chad and Chuck went to Comic Con.  They saw Angelina Jolie, Bruce Willis, JJ Abrams and other stars while Kathleen and I saw Shamu and Elmo.  We all had a great day.

Sea World may be the best place for a 15 month old baby.  they have a whole park for kids to play, and Will really liked it.  I didn't bring my camera due to some light rain, so we have only one picture - one of Will with some Sesame Street characters that turned out super cute so we had to buy it.  I will try to scan it in when we get home. 

In the afternoon we came home and took Will to the beach.  He loves the sand and could probably play on the beach all day. 

this is something new for Will.  He now walks around and waves his hands in the air like he is maestro.  it's hilarious...

Last night, we got to catch up with 2 friends.  Ali, a friend from college who I hadn't seen in 10 years, and Emily came over for dinner.  It was so nice to catch up with them! 

Wild Animal Park and La Jolla

On Tuesday we took Will to the Wild Animal Park.  The park is really incredible and they do an amazing job at breeding animals and have helped many escape extinction.  Most of that was lost on Will, but he did enjoy seeing the animals and also enjoyed the tram ride where he fed Chuck his snacks.

one of the 7 white rhinos left in the world.  2 are at the park!

the elephant area was awesome . i love seeing the babies.

They have a South African enclosure area that was reminiscent of our safari a few years ago.  They had an incredible number of animals roaming together in an area just as they would in the wild.  Only exception is the big cats aren't there, so it is peaceful living for the animals.

One of the big cats instead was taking a stroll through the park with some handlers.  We loved seeing the cheetah.

Today we got a later start and went to La Jolla for the morning.  Aside from it being cold (which I still have a hard time processing since it is July!), it was fun to walk around and we loved eating at Smash Burger.  They have great burgers, and so we looked the place up online and it turns out there is one down the street from Chad's office in Addison.  So much for local Cali dining! 

In other news, Will's vocabulary is expanding by the day.  Since we have been here, he has said "snack", "cheese", and "dog".  He is loving his time with Aunt Leen and Uncle Chuck who never seem to run out of energy to entertain our little guy. 

Chuck and Chad picked up their packets for Comic Con today, and they are super excited for the event to start tomorrow.  They will be sitting in on a panel with Tina Fey and Will Farrell while Kathleen and I take Will to Sea World!

San Diego Zoo

Today we took Will to the zoo!  He had a great day - seeing so many animals for the first time.  The San Diego zoo is awesome - I hadn't been in years.  The habitats are built so you can really see the animals and you almost forget they are enclosed since their spaces are usually huge.  We loved seeing all the monkeys and apes (they have always been my zoo favorites), pandas, elephants, etc.  Everything was new for Will, and I saw my first baby flamingo ever!

mama and baby flamingo

will plays with the gorilla

while the real gorillas watch

orangutan on his jungle gym

Will having a great time

he loved drinking aunt leen and uncle chuck's drink

with Aunt Leen on the double decker bus

big beautiful lion

sleeping panda mama and baby

Aunt Leen and Uncle Chuck on the Skyfari

Day at the Beach

First of all, hats off to Will for waking up at 7:30am PST. I went in to check on him at 7:30am, and he was reading "Goodnight Gorilla." He saw me, decided to finish his book, and then wanted out of his crib. I think I love him more today than yesterday.

Today, Kathleen, Chuck and Chad headed to a Padres game, and Will and I headed to the beach. The sand was a big hit again today.  Sadly, the water is freezing for us Texans, so Will wouldn't do much more than get his feet wet.  Good thing since I wasn't too excited about getting in the ice cold water.

 

the sand is even on his hat...

he's a sand magnet

he loves sand so much - he tried to eat it off his toes!

This was Will's smile when we told him we were taking him to the zoo tomorrow!

Good night!