Whatever floats your boat

What on Earth is Matteo doing here?



In his words: "I'm in my boat floating on the water."


After he was done relaxing, it was time to dive (under the bed) for some abalone.



His gear included a purple rubber glove on one foot and a dragon slipper on the other; the other dragon slipper on one hand and a snow boot on the other hand. And his invisible wetsuit. I asked him if he's going to get abalone next year and he said "Yes. I'm going with Aaron and Uncle Mike."




Not to be outdone, Dario has finally mastered sitting up (with the occasional backwards head bump on the floor when I look away for a second). Unfortunately, he's also mastered army crawling and is scooting around the floor like a pro so it looks like that nice "baby-can-sit-and-play-but-not-move" phase isn't happening in this house. Yes, that is a little scratch by his eye, which tells me it's time to cut the dreaded teeny tiny baby nails, but that other mark is just a shadow- don't anybody worry! It's rough being Matteo's little brother, but not that rough!

Maybe I don't need a girl after all...

Last night Matteo found the bottle of nail polish I bought recently, in an attempt to save some time and money on pedicures and still have colorful toes for the summertime. He absolutely insisted that Steve paint his toenails before we eat dinner. We had gotten takeout and Steve had ribs waiting for him, so purple the toes became!



I especially like how the color I chose matches the scabs on his knees, don't you?

Do you know the way to Monterey?

Okay, cheesy title, I couldn't think of anything else. But we FINALLY found our way to Monterey! We've been wanting to take Matteo to the Aquarium since he enjoys the zoo so much. We finally decided that Steve would take Monday off and we'd go and spend the night.

We left on Monday morning and headed for the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We really enjoyed the touch pools with kelp and the starfish as well as the Splash Zone kid's section, which included some friendly penguins.





That afternoon we walked around Cannery Row and out on the Coast Guard pier where there were TONS of sea lions barking away. We also hit the beach for a little while.



We stayed in a very nice hotel- here is the view from our little balcony.



And despite having both kids in the same room at bedtime, got everyone to bed by 8:45. Whew!

On Tuesday morning we walked down to the Wharf and then got packed up, checked out of the hotel, and headed to the Dennis the Menace park before heading home.



The playground was very cool but Dario was getting tired and I wanted him to get in the car to sleep instead of napping on my back and then being wide awake and pissed off about the ride home. The best laid plans and all...



Poor baby. I was trying to comfort him but there's only so much you can do in a moving car. He cried around the pacifier for an hour, giggled when I played peek-a-boo with him as we drove through Gilroy, and then cried the rest of the way home.

Matteo, however, was unbothered by the noise.



All in all, we had a fabulous mini-vacation and are looking forward to our annual Fort Bragg trip in just a week.

Coming Soon..

Pics of our trip to Monterey (complete with Dario screaming the whole way home and Matteo sleeping through the racket!) as soon as I get them all uploaded.

Good thing about a new camera = taking great pictures

Bad thing about a new camera = taking 100 great pictures of a 26-hour vacation