Tale of Two Soccer Balls

In 1986, I was 12 years old and in sixth grade.

The World Cup was played in Mexico City.

My Dad brought me home the prettiest soccer ball I had ever seen, a World Cup Ball. I LOVED it so much, that I never actually used it. We purchased a special net so that it could hang from my bedroom ceiling. (It's still encased in the net.) It had all the countries who qualified, and it was nothing like I had ever seen before. I vividly remember believing it was the coolest thing in my room.

In 2010, I'm 36 years old, with two sons, nearly 5yrs and 2yrs.

The World Cup is in South Africa.

We wake each morning at 6AM, and turn on the TV. It doesn't matter who's playing, because each game is exciting in and of itself. My favorite part is when the teams walk through the tunnel, and  pass over the official soccer ball with their flags.

From the moment I first saw it, I had the same feeling about the 2010 ball as I did in 1986. I knew I had to have one. Today, Nate and I bought the last one in stock at Big Five Sporting Goods. I brought it home, and took it out of it's box. Jack instantly grabbed it and threw it in the street. (Gasp....)  It's way too pretty to be kicked. I rushed over to rescue it and buff out any scuff marks.  It has a perfect sheen with a very colorful design with the official World Cup logo. I know it's going to be hard to keep this ball safe...I mean clean.

I wonder what Doug would think if I hung it in our bedroom?

Longest Day of the Year

Thankfully yesterday was the longest day of the year....and I needed every last second.

Recovering from a fabulous, but too short, weekend in O.C. with my family, we started our Monday a little tired. We arrived home the night before at 11:00pm. The kids were exhausted, to the point where I made sure they were breathing.  They typically wake at 6:00AM on the dot....every SINGLE day. Obviously they were still in vacation mode. Jack woke at 7:30AM and Nate at 8:30AM. (Oh how I wish that was a Saturday morning.)

After two fun filled days in the jacuzzi with numerous bbq's, I had to rip the band-aid off...back to reality! My day started with two meetings back to back, and then a road trip to downtown San Jose. I crammed all that in before noon, in order to make it back to pick up Jack for his 2 yr old check-up. That's really when the fun started.

It's important for me to set the stage, so that you can fully understand the "length" of my day. It was 85 degrees outside, and the Dr.'s office didn't have A/C. Our visit started with a weigh in, and a height check. (Simple...you would think.)  Jack wasn't a fan of the scale. He jumped off after a brief second. He melted into a puddle when they tried to measure his height...so he was 3 inches shorter than he should have been.

When Dr. Nikki arrived.....the weight and height didn't measure up, big surprise! We needed a re-do...so she called in BACK-UP. It took three adults to hold Jack firmly to the table. By this point, Jack was chanting....I go....I go....I go.....(Or maybe that was my inner voice.) Next was our second weigh in. I held Jack on the scale and then passed him off to Dr. Nikki while they weighed me. Meanwhile Jack screamed "Mommy" while the poor Dr. tried to console him. The nurse subtracted the two weights to get Jack's.

Weighing in at a whopping 35lbs, and reaching new heights at 36 3/4 inches....we are officially raising a giant. The best part is that Dr. Nikki believes he will be experiencing a growth spurt soon. Growth spurt??? Did I hear that correctly?

I won't go into the details of how we checked his ears and gave him a shot. ...it takes too much energy. All I will say was that I was sweating....and Jack wasn't happy!

The highlight of the visit, was a grape lollypop. When we got in the car, he looked at me and said, "Lollypop good. Thank you! That's the moment I forgot the past 30 minutes of pain and sweat.

We ended our day at the park, where Jack fell and hit his head on our nature hike. We had to leave to get ice, but first we needed to get our soccer ball. We left it at the playground a few minutes before, but unfortunately it was gone by the time we got back.

We finally made it home for bathtime, and bed...for EVERYBODY!

It really did feel like the longest day of the year!

"Best of"

Every year the local newspaper creates a "Best Of" list for the community business owners.

There are numerous categories, everything from "Best Pizza" to "Best Places for a Kid's Birthday Party". In sticking with the theme, I decided to add one, "Best Summer Carnival".

Anybody who truly knows me, will testify that I LOVE summer...and everything about it. The warm weather, family bbq's, summer nights, beach days, and now Summer Carnival.  

Every year in the middle of June, a local school Nativity, tranforms their grounds into a 3 day carnival.  When Doug I were first married, our house was only 3 blocks from the school. Even though we didn't have kids, we would still walk over to the carnival.  Back then it was just a fun place to hang out, eat some food, play some games, and catch up with family and friends. I remember in those "prekid" years thinking how much fun it would be to attend when we had kids.

And I have to say....IT IS!

The carnival is so much better when you experience it with Nate and Jack. The churros taste better, the rides are a little more exhilirating, and the prizes mean so much more.

Yesterday we took Nate and Jack to this yearly tradition. Here are some pictures from our day!

Independence

On Tuesday June 8th, Nathan offically declared he is no longer my little boy, and there are four reasons why.

1. He can get dressed on his own. (Today's pick actually matched.)

2. He can get his own juice in the morning.

3. He can buckle his own seatbelt.

4. He can get his own cereal.

I know one day, I'll say, "When did you get taller than me?" and I'll cry when he graduates from Jr. High,  High School, and College, but today I'm feeling very thankful.

I'm thankful that he CAN do all these things. I'm thankful he's maturing at a normal pace, (some days faster than others.) and most importantly I'm thankful that he's a growing up to be a kind little (I mean big) boy.

We've both been sick with the flu for the past week. Nate's stomach flu lasted until last Friday , and mine is just wrapping up. I witnessed first hand that he does indeed have empathy. Every so often he would come into my room and check on me. He moved my water glass to make room for new gatorade, and delivered some crackers, each time asking, "Are you doing any better Mommy?"

Last night before going to bed he said, "Mom I want to buy you a gift to cheer you up."

How sweet, what are you going to buy me?"

He replied, "Make-up."

Oh great. Thanks! (I'm sure it was the thought that counts, right?)

With only 2 days left of Preschool, and the fact that he'll be turning 5 in August, my little boy is feeling his age and independence. I'm happy for him....and for us!

Frankly I'm sick of pouring Apple Juice!

Flip Flop Season

Growing up in Southern California we spent the Summer's at the beach, and if we weren't at the beach we were walking around in our bathing suits and flip flops. When June 21st hits..or the weather is 79.5...I swear I can smell Coppertone in the air. The beach was about 10-15 minutes from our home so it was easy to throw a towel, lunch and sunscreen into the car and plan to spend the next 8 hours sitting on the sand.

I have to admit, I'm a bit of a beach snob. We were pretty spoiled being so close to so many beautiful beaches. So when people ask, "Why don't you just go to Half Moon Bay?" It's hard to politely say, "It's just not the same", without sounding like I stepped out of the "The OC". (Which don't get me started on that one.) I know some people won't understand my reasoning, but I have a feeling they are the same ones who spend their time at the pool in Hawaii. Not that there's something wrong with pools, it's just that I LOVE the sand.

So I've been worried these past few years. For some reason our oldest child is flip flop challenged. I've tried every type of flip flop out there. He can't figure out the skills of curling his toes to keep the flip flops on, and apparently it's not a skill you can teach. Believe me, I've tried.  I used to buy him the flip flops with the straps around the ankles, and he still walked around like his legs were broken.
I just can't bring myself to the realization that Nate will be wearing tennis shoes and socks to the beach. The only "water friendly" shoes Nate has been able to wear are Tivas. If you are reading this and you're from So. Cal. you understand why Tivas just won't work!

So I continue to try and brought home a cool new pair for Nate, hoping his 4 1/2 years has brought him flip flop wisdom. Umm.. no such luck. Same stiff legs, flip flops flopping off, walking around like he's been put in two casts. Uggh. No hope.

But then..... it happened! My little light!

This morning I put Jack into sandals because I know he does a lot of running around at the park. He poo pooed my choice of shoes. He walked over to the monster shoe pile near our front door and brought back......you guessed it FLIP FLOPS!!!!!

He insisted I take the other silly sandals off and put on the very COOL flip flops!

Sure enough...his toes curled under.... my blood must run deep!

Meet your new Carny

Nate's preschool is hosting a Surprise Penny Carnival next week for the kid's last week of school. The sign up sheet had a variety of choices, but since I've already hosted the bowling pin game, and brought lemonade, I wanted to do something a little more creative.

My choice....the rock painting booth.Well, I've renamed it to "Paint your Pet Rock." This is where the competitive side comes out, and I want my booth to be well visited. Nothing worse than seeing a Carny at the fair with no customers.
I have one main obstacle to overcome before the big day.

#1 - Where do I buy 30 rocks?

I know that seems silly, but I've never had to buy rocks before, and since it's a surprise I can't send Nate to go find 30 around town.

If you have some good ideas for making this booth as good as the "Golfish Booth" at the county fair, feel free to share. I'm all ears.

Should have gone to Vegas

Today was my lucky day!

Nate woke up in the middle of the night vomiting. There might be nothing worse than trying to open your eyes from a dead sleep to clean up puke on the carpet, find new pjs, dress your 4 year old and change sheets. Not to mention administer medicine. I had to check the bottle 3 times just to make sure I read the dosage right. Fevers never strike at noon when you've had caffeine and your eyes can focus on more than two letters at a time.  After a few bed and pj changes things settled down around 5AM, and then my next shift started.

Jack heard the early bird gets the worm, and has taken it literally. Our official day started at 5:45AM.  Mari showed up at 7:30AM just in time for me to jump on a few conference calls at 8:00AM. Thank God for Mari.

I called the Dr. to make sure Nate had the latest version of whatever virus was going around.  I like to think my kids stay on top of the "New Releases". Sure enough they never disappoint. The Dr. prescribed some anti nausea medine and Tylenol. I rushed off to Safeway to get his medicine only to find out they didn't have the prescription, and the place was packed. (You would have thought it was flu season in mid February.)   I left my cell phone at home so I had to run back to call the Dr. and make sure they did indeed fax in the order.  I figured while I was home I would give Nate some Tylenol because his fever was now close to 102. I remembered that there was a big recall of Tylenol a few weeks ago, so I better check that out.

Here was the sign that I should have dropped what I was doing and booked a trip to Vegas.

To find out if your Tylenol bottle is part of the recall, simply go to their website and type in your code. If you're "lucky" you can throw your bottle away!  Sure enough...the eight digits with two dashes matched exactly. I should have yelled Bingo, or Plinko or something Vegas like.  Even though I had to toss my new bottle of Tylenol, I felt a little like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory...minus the gold wrapper. 

While back at Safeway, I managed to find one last bottle of generic Tylenol. (This is where my luck took a turn for the better.)

Queue the Rocky music....with generic Tylenol and anti nausea medicine in hand I rushed home to care for my patient.

It's not a completely happy ending. He's still down for the count but the fever is gone, and he's watching the premiere of Wipeout!

If you're reading this and it's after 9PM, say a little prayer that I'm not mopping the floor or scrubbing the carpet. I did take my sister's tip and built a "special fort/bed" near the bathroom. Thanks Julie!

Social Media Agent

I have a new title...and I'm feeling very Generation Y with it. I'm a Social Media Agent. What is that exactly?
Well...I'm sort of in the apprentice stage right now, but according to Wikipedia (All sources of truth), it's the person who helps manage a company's social media marketing. It's a person who blogs, tweets, and chats in forums in order to generate online conversations within social networks to help drive business.

Q:Well who's business am I helping to drive?
http://www.foryourdisney.com/

The other half to my mommy blog movie review assignment is to act as a social media agent. I've been tweeting, chatting with total strangers, researching blogs, and learning everything there is to know about Disney. I may have two young kids but I'm feeling very "instyle" with my new gig. (I need a better word for gig....that's too Gen X.)

When you get out there into the "real" world and see who is posting on forums, you realize that there is an entire world of, let's just say, people with free time.
Because I checked my free time at the door about 5 years ago, I didn't realize how many conversations I was missing. The irony though is that I barely have time to talk with my best friends, but now I'm making time to tweet with complete strangers.

Maybe my friends and I can work out a mutual agreement that for 10 hours a week we can commit to online chatting with each other. No money has to change hands, but we may need to send in a few status reports if the contract is broken. That's how it works in the "Social Media World".

Well free time is up. Back to reality....spilled Apple juice, and wheel barrel filled with dirt just made it through the back door. I have other special agent responsibilities to tend to.

Birthday Eve

What's on your wish list????

Mr. Potato Head?
Wheelbarrel?
Broom?
Giant Shovel?
Gardening Apron?
Superhero Cape?

I can hardly wait for the soon to be 2 year old to wake up. He was born at 1:34AM, so if he can just hold out until 6AM we'll be in much better shape than we were 2 years ago!

Off to finish frosting the rest of the cupcakes...and then find a spot to hide them. (Not from the obvious children.)

The Water Leaks by Nathan Willbanks

Lately I've been testing out some new book ideas on Nathan, and he seems to have caught the writing bug as well.

Here is Nathan's latest book, titled, "The Water Leaks".

Once upon a time there was a man who lived in a gold house and his name is Richard Conjen.
Richard has a dog and lives in a small town where the water comes from.
The problem with the water is that it leaks all over town. All of the people smell so bad because of the gross water. Richard fixes the water leak with a hammer. The smell then goes away.
The End

So if I were reviewing this story, a couple of questions come to mind.
1. Richard Conjen - isn't he the guy who won the first season of Survivor 10 years ago????
2. Richard lives in a gold house...interesting...I wonder how much that would go for? And can you melt it down if you're desperate for cash?
3. Where do I get a magic hammer like Rich has? It fixes leaks with one quick smack? Look out Handy Manny this could be bad for you.
4. Is it possible that Rich lives in a waste management plant? I sure as hell wouldn't be drinking from the tap.

Overall the author painted a vivid scene that captured our senses and left us on the edge of our seats wondering if the town's personal hygiene problem would soon be resolved. Thankfully, it ended with a fairytale conclusion. Rich, the hero, came in with his mighty hammer and saved the day. It's an easy read, half a page, (2 notecards to be exact) and the illustrastions are Caldecott worthy!

I think it's definitely ready for submission.

The 2nd birthday!

20 kids under 5
35 minutes of trampoline time
40 minutes of pretend play
5 pepperoni pizzas
1 puppet show
= Jack's 2nd birthday party!

We celebrated with all of Jack's closest buddies today at the new Playspace in Menlo Park called UME.
It's the cleanest, most organized children's event center I've ever been to. The coordinators were better than most weddings. Infact it was uncanny how many similarities there were to our wedding.

1. As soon as I thought about refilling a juice box another one appeared.
2. There was quite the anticipation about the favors from a few guests. (It's all about the goody bags.)
3. The cake was lemon flavored. (He who orders it, get's their favorite flavor.)
4. The photographer forgot to get a family shot!
5. We're up to our ears in gift boxes. (Thankfully no styrofoam popcorn was included.)
6. I'm sure we went over our budget.....but it was worth every penny.
7. We didn't have to clean up, and the cake was packed in a to-go box.

The true test for the birthday boy is the nap-o-meter. The more fun and excitement Jack has, the longer the afternoon nap. The results = two hours of a solid sleep, for both Jack and mom. Wearing out Jack is hard to do! All in all it was a success!

Hot off the Press

I've made my Sickel and Ebert debut.
Last week I was hired to be one of three mom's who review Disney movies each month. I'll be blogging about the movie, as well as doing other social media work. Doug and I rushed out on Friday night for my first assignment, to review Alice in Wonderland.

Hot off the press...the new blog has gone live. You can read my full movie review here. http://www.foryourdisney.com/author/lori/

Stay tuned for upcoming releases. I'm hoping Toy Story 3 is on my list. I'll be reviewing that one with or without pay!

Only 20 minutes from home

It's one thing to find out a new kid's amusement park opened and is only 20 minutes from your house, but it's another to run into some of your best friends on the day you chose to go.

Yesterday was family day at the Willbanks home. We took Nate and Jack to the newly improved Happy Hollow park and zoo. The park has been closed for the past two years for renovation. Our first and only experience was about two years ago when I was pregnant with Jack. It was probably 100 degrees that day, no shade anywhere in sight, and a petting zoo where Doug refused to touch the animals. In his defense the animals did look a little raggedy. They weren't your typical "zoo" animals. There were animals on display like rats, and guinea pigs.
But with two years, came some much needed improvements. We were pleasantly surprised at the new and improved Happy Hollow. Here are some of the hightlights to yesterday's field trip.

1. Beautiful clean new park and zoo.
2. Landscaping was incredible. An abundance of shade trees.....they obviously needed two years to grow.
3. Ran into our long time friends Darren and Brittany with their adorable little girl Shelby.
4. Petting zoo included true animals you could pet. i.e. horses, goats, donkeys. They did have the guinea pigs still, but their new habitat was significantly better.
5. Climbing structures with rope courses, net bridges and look out towers. An imaginary pirates dream.
6. Puppet shows - Well this was actually the low light. The main character was abused by his brothers, and the voices were a bit demonic. It had potential though. The theatre and stage were shaded and tiered for easy viewing.
7. Lunch  - The cafe had an assortment of choices, some even healthy. The food was pretty good including the yogurt. (You'll see that on Jack's face below.)
8. Admission - Only $12 a person and Jack was free. We took advantage of the fact he wasn't quite two.
9. Rides - We never did make it to any of them, but we now have a reason to go back. (As if we needed one.)
10. Many drinking fountains. Jack's new found love. You'll see from the pictures below we spent a good 20-30 minutes at one fountain.

Overall we would give it a four thumbs up for a Saturday. We'll be planning our next trip soon. Who knew in only 20 minutes we would find our new kid's oasis.

Here are few pics from the day.

(Note that is Doug helping to feed the horse.)