Election Eve shenanigans

"Tell Mom what we were just talking about," Jeff said.

Immediately my interest was piqued, especially because Jeff eyed me with his, "Wait for this shit" look.

With all of the seriousness he could muster, B looked me straight in the eye and said, "I want Mitt Romney to vote for me."

"You mean you want to vote for Mitt Romney?" I corrected him.

"Yes. I want to vote for Mitt Romney."

"Why?"

"Because Obama is ugly and bad. My friends told me so," he said. I admired his firm resolve in the conversation--he even had a little furrow in his brow.

"Hmm. Any other reasons?" I asked.

"No, but my teacher told us we should talk to our parents about who we should vote for and why." I was immediately thankful for his teacher's intervention; I can only imagine how far Kindergartners would have taken this.

We chatted for a couple more minutes about why it's important to vote and why people vote for certain candidates. Then I explained why I voted for who I voted for. I told him when he was old enough he should vote for who he wants to vote for, but he needs to be open-minded and listen to all of the issues, not just the ones his friends--or even his family--think are important.

I am not going to lie. This conversation was a much bigger deal to me than it was to him, as I am sure he has already forgotten about it. I also had to carefully choose my words so it didn't come out like, "Your friends are assholes and they are in Kindergarten. They don't know what they are talking about."

Halloween 2012

B informed us for weeks he wanted to be a Transformer, because "that's the best costume ever!"

The morning after we purchased his Optimus Prime costume he told me as we were getting ready for school, "Actually..." (Anything he says after starting with "actually" is usually annoying.) "Actually, mom, I really want to be Wolverine, because that is the best costume and everyone knows that."

This is one of the reasons I am not a fan of school. I have to hear the opinions of all his classmates and buddies.

Cash didn't have a choice with his costume. I happened to be hitting some thrift shops and I found his costume. I knew he would actually prefer not to wear a costume, but in our home you don't roll out to TOT without a costume. You want candy? You better have a costume, say trick or treat and thank you. It's how we do.

Unsurprisingly it took us ten minutes to wrangle Cash into his costume and another thirty minutes convincing him he wanted to go to strangers' homes and ask for candy.

We were able to get these pictures with the aide of candy bribes and promises of more candy. Thank god Christmas is coming up because candy bribes are only usurped by Santa bribes.

Disneyland!

Well, hello again, blog. It's been so long that I fumbled with my password. Oops.

I definitely need to document Disneyland pictures. We didn't do any traveling this summer in preparation for this big trip. It was B's first time!

Jeff and I don't believe in taking kids on vacations they won't remember; we agreed B's first time at DL would be at least 5 years-old. This also meant that Cash stayed home, which made it that much more special that B had us all to his self.

We have been planning this trip all year, but keeping the details a secret from B. We only told him, "Sometime when you are 5 we will go to Disneyland." This prevented us from the incessant begging, questioning, and reminding associated with an upcoming event. The night before we left we told him we were going on a plane to California the next day. He was convinced we were going to San Diego (the only place he remembers from CA), so we gave in and told him about DL.

The whole trip was a bit of a whirlwind: we flew out super early in the morning and flew home three days later very late. But it was all worth it. We had a great time!

Day one:

We stayed awake at the airport by taking ridiculous pictures.

Then I realized it would be a lot less "hands-on parenting" if I just gave him the phone. 

We had to get his 1st Visit pin. 

By far, our favorite picture. We did Space Mountain first. Poor Bug was freaked out (it was scary for Halloween) and practically deafened by the speakers. 

He had to drive at Autotopia. I have never been so sure the car would jump the track.

After naps we met up with our good friends, Vern and Laurie, and they showed us around California Adventures.

Whilst in line for the Cars ride it broke down. They us these golden passes for the next day.

We ended the night with cotton candy and the CA water show.

The second day we decided to start of at California Adventure. It was a lot more fun there than I thought it was going to be. Thank you Dews for giving us great tips on rides!

Bradley felt the need to pose for every.flipping.picture.

Hot daddy.

The perfect DL shirt for Jeff. I found it at Target for $6. 

I felt bad for my parents after this trip. They didn't have phones to pacify us. 

The Cars ride at CA is amazing and worth the wait in line.

So is the Toys 3D arcade game.

The Dilbecks like to pose.

This is our only normal picture.

He often complained about how much we embarrassed him. 

We had to convince him the ferris wheel would be fun. We were in one of the swinging cages, so every ferris wheel will be disappointing for the rest of his life.

And one with Dad.

I am not big on the "side entertainment"--but I am a big old slut for the show Phineas and Ferb. I hate that my kids don't want to watch it all day long.

After naps on this day we headed back to Disneyland. We ended our second day on B's all-time favorite ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I was happy to hear Space Mountain didn't ruin him on roller-coasters forever.

Our last day in California we decided to spend the whole day at Disneyland. Bradley was emphatic he wanted to go back on Thunder Mountain and we had a Magic Morning pass to use, so we thought we'd work some magic with Fast Passes.

Can I tell you, I was totally disappointed with the lame Magic Morning? There is nothing magical about them cramming you into small sections of the parks with thousands of other people, since they don't actually open the park early. We'll sleep in next time.

Anyway, it was sprinkling a little bit, but nothing disastrous. We started in Fantasyland. Once the park opened we were able to hit Thunder Mountain, Toontown, etc. etc. We even got B to go back on Space Mountain--but it didn't mean he enjoyed himself anymore. Ah well--one ride out of dozens.

It must be the 80 year-old man in him, but this kid loves merry-go-rounds.

Overall, he wasn't impressed with Mickey's house and was unclear why Jeff and I thought it so cool.

After doing the Haunted Mansion a few times, B decided he was okay with Jack Skellington. 

Our big splurge of the trip was eating lunch at the Blue Bayou. I love this place!

We flew home late Thursday and though we were so exhausted, we had some fabulous memories to hold on to.

It will be some time until our next trip. Disneyland has become so expensive--at the end of this summer they hiked ticket prices. We hope to take both boys back to San Diego this summer for some beach time and Sea World.

Hopefully I won't continue to suck at blogging and that summer trip is the very next post after this. :/

The last time we went out to dinner.

September-ish 2012

Don't let these faces fool you. This was the night we gave the other patrons at BJ's a healthy dose of birth control. For all my complaining about screaming kids, karma hit me with a screamer. Cash loves to express himself at the top of his lungs. And B is the weird kid that always has to pee. Actually, he is just fascinated with bathroom facilities.

Does someone want to come over and make us dinner?

Chatty Cashy

Once upon a time we didn't think Cash would ever talk. We knew all our work with speech evals and therapy would end with us wishing he'd shut up. I fear that day is upon us.

Honestly, it's a blessing, though. The boy was so frustrated that he couldn't communicate that he acted out a lot and attained a seriously bad rap. He is much more manageable and receptive now. He still screams and has yet to decipher the concept of an "indoor voice", but talking is talking.

Cash's new found speech skills mean...
- he is able to incessantly ask for yogurt. "GOGURT, PEEEEAASE!!"
- he observes our (apparent) poor housekeeping skills. "EWWWW, POOOOP!!" and "UHOHH, DIRRRTY!"
- he points out all busses. "I see a BUSSS!"(x10, even if you acknowledge the effing bus.)
- he requests his favorite song. "MONKEY?MONKEY?MONKEY?" (Beastie Boys "Brass Monkey")
- he demands his favorite show. "CAIIOOOOOOUUUU!!!" (ughhhh. He likes Caillou.)
- he knows how to get out of time-out. "Sowwy. Sowwy. I am sowwy. SOWWWYYY!!"

We have a long way to go, but progress is being loudly made.

Bradley goes to Kindergarten

I have been eyeing this day for over a year. Everyone did marvelously! Best of all, Bradley is stoked to go back to school. In fact, he says he wants to go to school everyday forever. Nerd.

We had to get a picture of the backpack so he could show Mrs. Moya, he said.

*ahem* and Cash.

My handsome men.

He is clearly done with pictures by this point. 

With his friend Cayden.

He was excited to see us when he got to school. Then he promptly ran away to the playground.

We had the idea he was big for his age. Totally shattered in line.

He was so excited to get on this bus in the morning we couldn't get a picture. I was READY when the bus arrived.

Frisco

We have a new family member! Welcome Frisco, our new puppy. He is part Yorkie and part Lhaso Apso.

He is absolutely adorable and everyone loves him--even our other two dogs. The boys are especially in love. Cash immediately took to him. When he first saw him he squealed, "Nice! Nice!" Which means he wanted to pet him nicely.

He's not in pain. He's saying cheese.

Bradley wants to do everything with Frisco. "Can I watch cartoons with Frisco?" He is also introducing him to things in our home, including books.

Summer Vacation 2012

This summer has been a bit of a bust in regards to travel for the Dilbeck family. Bradley, my mom, and I had some medical issues to tend to in June requiring varying lengths of recovery. It didn't seem prudent to plan for any trips if we weren't able to follow through. Then again, I can't go an entire summer without a promise of escape, so I purchased a Groupon for a two-night hotel stay in Phoenix.

The first day we took the boys. We made a big deal about going on vacation and explained that every single thing we were going to do was fun, simply because we were on vacation. Every meal. Every stop. Every bathroom break. Pure excitement. I think they bought it because B kept saying, "I love vacation!" And they both stayed up until after 10pm.

Day one we went to the Phoenix Children's Museum, ate at a popular Mexican restaurant we'd never been to, and went swimming. The next morning we went to Tempe Town Lake and rented a paddle boat.

It was too hot for anyone to be too impressed. If it would have been twenty degrees cooler, I think we would have had fun.

Then Jeff and I dropped the boys of at their grandparent's house and we were off on the second half of our vacation.

We went to go see the new Batman movie (a-fucking-mazing) and then went to dinner at The Arrogant Butcher in downtown Phoenix. Remarkably, we were able to drag dinner out longer than 30 minutes--sans kids can be a boon for our digestive systems. Then we took a sweet little walk in the rain.

We did our version of a nightcap at a coffee place and then drove around the surrounding historic neighborhoods. The whole time I tried to explain to Jeff why we needed to move the following weekend. (The minute I get out of Mesa, the more I realize I don't want to go back.)

The next morning we met with one of our favorite couple-friends, Erin and Eric, to see their amazing new home and introduce Jeff to breakfast at LGO.

It was a great weekend and it gave us a nice little reset before school starts in a week. And if there are any regrets for not going on a bigger vacation, they should be wiped out when we take Bradley to Disneyland for his first visit. So.excited!