Lions, Tigers, and Hairs

Today lil' H and I went to Peteluma so that he could get a haircut and now he looks twice as old. My plan to let his hair grow throughout our California summer was dismissed when he started to look like A.) a ragamuffin and B.) Squiggy from "Laverne & Shirley."

And then Nutella gelato. He kinda liked it. A bit.

Note: this child has GREEN eyes! Where did those come from? We also found a beautiful knitting store that H let me drool in as he played with the ball winding machine.

A good day and one closer to a visit from Grandma and Aunt Jen!

Muir Woods and Henry's Toyshop

Today we went to Muir Woods, upon recommendation (nay, insistence) from a family friend. You know what? Every other person in the state of California had the exact same idea. And so we had to park seven miles from the ticket booth. And that sucked. But trees! There were big ol' trees. And Hen walked an entire mile long trail. Yes, at the end he was fussin' and I had to sing many rounds of "Shoo Fly" but, man, he walked and walked!

We went through Mill Valley afterwards and found Henry's Toyshop, a fantastic shop with quality toys to beat the band. Someone there knows good toys and I suspect it's Henry himself. But here's the kicker: the cashier heard me call over lil' H ("That's a garden hoe, Hen") and then gave us a free t-shirt with their logo because of his name!

Our own Henry shared some of our arugula pizza, shocking the socks off of us.

Mike made me stop on the way home so that he could buy some roadside cherries for $1.00.

First trip to the ocean!

Father's Day was spent at the ocean--H's own giant sandbox. Nothing could have filled my heart more than watching these two goons building a sandcastle.

The kids don't know what the jazz is all about!

Yesterday we went to the 30th Annual Cotati Jazz Festival (where "white people [were] dancing like white people" according to Mike) and the whole town square smelled like funnel cake. And corn dogs.

H choose our picnic lunch--California calamata olives, gouda cheese, sesame bread, and in-shell peanuts.

Later we headed to Petaluma to tour toy shops (they had nuthin' on this place) and candy establishments. Oh my word. Powell's Sweet Shoppe is a utopia. Every candy ever. I was texting like mad to my candy loving cohorts (Mallo cup=gross, btw, Mrs. Jones) and relishing in the continual loop of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." I steered H away at that rooster-getting-head-cut-off scene. Come over and I'll take you there.

SuperBumbleLion!

Up in the sky! Look! It's a bird! It's a plane! 

It's SuperBumbleLion!

Special thanks to Grandma for honoring H's request for a cape ("WITH A LION!" and reversible with bumblebees to boot!). Thank you, Mom!

And, straight from SuperBumbleLion's mouth, I give you this stream of consciousness rant that caused H to miss his afternoon nap. His head gears were just turnin' too hard to settle down! Verbatim, as fast as I could type:

Mister Cat is on fire! Mister Cat is on fire! It's called a special ceiling fan. It's called a special ceiling fan. Wanna eat breakfast? One and the lamp is ripped. One and the closet is ripped. One and the curtain IS RIPPED! The one monkey he NEEDS his mama! Trees are chopping. This one is a peanut. This is a nut. This is a peanut. This is another! Some are peanuts. Some are nuts. They are falling off the ceiling! Babies went down! Let's get an egg in! This leaning caterpillar is in trouble! No screws into the bed! Hold on and spokes!

Our day involved a lot of underpants. And the hose. And the playground.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday
H and I dropped Mike off for his first day as a law clerk (where you can bring your dog to the office!) and drove to the Rohnert Park Library for Toddler Storytime. He listened attentively, especially to the song lyrics about bumblebees, watched while I "shook out the wiggles" to a Raffi song (No, he did not do this with me. Yes, I stood on the carpet doing this by myself. Alone.), and signed up for their summer reading program. The children's section of this library could house our entire local Chicago branch. Stepping on soapbox: libraries are so important for instilling lifelong learning; they indicate where a community's priorities are/aren't. Hyde Park's library makes me sad every time I go.

Today
We drove to Honeybee Park today and climbed high on a rock wall, twist slides, and a too steep staircase.


Tomorrow
We will see if H is willing to let his mom potty train him. Um, yeah.