I Am My Mother's Daughter

I always have thought there were some pretty major similarities between me and my mom. We both are creative (in our own ways), were a little kooky, we like to dress a little funky and different, we are both pretty calm and level headed and we are both low maintenance and could care less about make-up. But it wasn't until the other day that I realized I am much more like her than I thought.

For the longest time I didn't totally get it when she would say things to me like, "You know the color of my doors are really bugging me I think I am gong to re-paint them" (and her house has A LOT of doors.) Or, "I really don't like the way that piece of furniture fits, I need to find something else." I understood what she was saying of course, but I never felt like the doors needed new paint or the piece of furniture didn't fit. UNTIL the other day, sitting in my bedroom I began looking around and thinking, "I hate how the TV is way to big for that piece of furniture, I don't like that laundry hamper it doesn't fit with the style of the room, I hate how white those doors are, those frames just don't look right on the wall, this room just doesn't feel finished." And then, one by one, I began to check these things of my list of to-do's and before I knew a perfectly good room had been turned upside down and changed around to fit my liking. And I now can say with certainty, "I am my mother's daughter" Well we are crazy and somewhat perfectionists but at least we can admit it, most of the time that is. Here is a little look at the "improvements."

I made these flower arrangements and glued some trim and a button on the milk jar (converted into a vase)

I put fabric with different textures but all in the same neutral color palet

This is the piece of furniture I got from my mom for my birthday. Notice how well the TV fits on top along with the DVD player and cable box.

Two of these baskets work as laundry hampers. I bought these fairly cheap and spray painted them to mach the colors in the room.

I have been slaving over these doors all week. It took A LOT of effort but I finally think I am happy with them.

Haircuts All Around

Those of you who have seen Wesley recently know that he was in dire need of a haircut. Although his Justin Bieberesque due was adorable it was getting a little shaggy looking and it became obvious to me that my meager hairdressing skills were no going to "cut" it (no pun intended). So I broke down and took him in to get his haircut from the same lady that did Oliver's. She is a real pro and it never ceases to amaze me how even she gets the hair considering they inevitably move right as show goes to cut. Nevertheless, he looks ADORABLE. And as many people commented on facebook, more like his big brother than ever. And I guess it's true because today, while taking Oliver to the potty in Barnes and Noble, a lady holding open the door said, "OH, my daughter-in-law has twins and she has her hands full." (I should note that Wesley was in a stroller so the height differential wasn't apparent) I didn't have the energy to tell her that they weren't in fact twins so I smiled and thanked her for holding open the door. We also recently buzzed Oliver's hair, well Michael did, at home with our clippers. He was more than up for the haircut when we told him he would look like Anakin Skywalker if he held still and let us do it.

The pictures of the cuts will be posted below but I wanted to write a little more about Welsey here. Just in the last weeks I have noticed his verbal communication getting better everyday. To help me remember I wanted to write out all the new words I have heard him say: Daddy (a very popular word in his vocabulary right now), all done (pronounced alll duh), more more (sounds like ma ma but he is not talking about me he is talking about wanting more food), doggy, norma, hot, Oliver (although this sounds like ol'er) ball, basketball (bahball), and golf ball (go' ball). And on top his budding communication skills he is responding to so much of what we say and ask him to do. He will close the door when we ask him to and when I say, "Let's go to Oliver's room" or "lets go to the potty room" he will head there without us leading him first. He is a smart boy and is walking in his brothers very vorbose footsteps!

He wasn't so sure about the whole thing

This is him before she started cutting. He like the car until he saw the clippers.

Oliver wanted to sit in the truck too.

Fun n the Sun!

We had such a fun week in San Diego hanging at the beach and playing outside in the beautiful weather. Auntie Steph took some pictures of us as a family and of the kids, thank you Auntie Steph, and the pictures are adorable, as usual.

It Really is Magical

I have to first give a warning that this is a long post. However, I felt it was important to document as much as I can from Oliver's very first visit to Disneyland. We have been looking forward to taking him from the first time his little eyes lit up watching his first Disney DVD's and although our expectations were high I think this trip exceeded them in every way possible. There is something magical about Disneyland, it's hard to deny that, but as you get older the magic fades with the crazy long lines and ridiculous amounts of people and you start to wonder if its worth all the work. It's still fun, of course, but it's not the same. But this trip wasn't about us. It was all about Oliver and seeing him experience it all for the first time, watching him marvel at all the rides and the characters, and knowing that he really does believe it's all real Disneyland regained every ounce of magic it held for me as a child.

We packed a lot into a day and half. We rode It's a Small World, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, the Teacups, and Dumbo. We braved Pirates of the Carribean (hoping it wouldn't scare him) and he LOVED it. In fact, it was the only ride we rode twice. We rode Roger Rabit and greeted Mickey and Goofy. We took in two Jedi Training School performances and he made his own lightsaber. We visited California Adventure land and stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel. We ate popcorn, ice cream, corn dogs, and everything in between. It was a great trip and it was, without a doubt, worth all the work:)

Oliver and Mommy flying to Disneyland.

In the lobby of Paradise Pier. He was so excited to see Goofy in the lobby when we first arrived.

Oliver's first ride at Disneyland. It's a Small World.

Riding in a car at Toon Town.

On the Merry-go-round

Greeting Goffy

Waiting in the line to see Mickey (in Mickey's house)

Oliver giving Mickey hugs. He then proceeded to ask him where the potty was. Hilarious.

Michael doing the classic I'm throwing a fit at Disneyland face.

He did not want to go in his stroller at all.

WE had to take these pictures right outside the park. Its a Fay Family classic. And my non-taking photographs parents might even have one of me in this same spot:)

Is that not the cutest face you have ever seen? We had to buy the mickey mouse hat- it's a classic.

Some more characters we ran into.

Mommy and Oliver on the teacups. We had a hard time getting him to smile and open his eyes at the same time.

One of the highlights for Oliver was the Jedi Training School. This is a 20 minute or so show where a Jedi master chooses about 20 or so kids from the audience and then teaches them in the "ways of the force." Then some storm troopers, darth vader, and darth maul enter and the young paduans get a chance to showcase their moves ad battle the evil sith lords. Oliver was too young to participate but got to the show early and got to sit in the front row. Darth Maul was probably about five feet from us and so in between battles he would give the crowd the best evil eye he had. Oliver raised his hand and "used the force" which of course Darth Maul played right into. He kept coming back over and over and Oliver continue to use the force to push him back. When Oliver stopped using the force we asked him why and he said with a healthy dose of attitude, "I already did it like five times." I might have peed my paints I laughed so hard.

Oliver attempting to pull the sword out with the Castle in the background.

Oliver with Handy Mandy.

California Adventure Land has a whole bunch of splash pads for kids to play in. So before nap time on our second day we let Oliver run around. They made us keep his shirt and shoes on (unfortunately he was wearing his nike runners at the time). But he didn't seem to care. I love these pictures that Michael took of him.




There is a story in the Fay family that I have heard once or twice about Bill and Marsha taking the kids to Disneyland and Stephanie, when spotting the evil queen that peeks out of the castle window, grabbing on with all of her might to Bill (holding her at the time) and latching on so hard that he swears he had nail marks on the back of his shoulder. It's an understatement to say that she was horrified. Well with our son it was a little bit different. He calls the evil queen the "funny lady." And he thought she was just that. He loved watching her peak out of the window so much that on our second day, when waking from a nap and asked, "You ready to go back to Disneyland?" said, "I want to go and see the funny lady, go and see her at the window, and I want to take a picture of her." Go figure. But you don't dare not tell a 2 and a half year old at Disneyland "no" so we took a picture as requested.
We has some time to kill before the fireworks so we ended up hanging out at this dance floor (below) while a live band played. I am pretty sure the band was a group was made up of college "all star" band members so they were really good. Then there were what seemed to be a group of talented dancers who would dance amongst some others who were brave enough to get out there with an audience of 75 around people. Amongst those brave enough was Oliver who had a merry old time out there on the floor showcasing his moves.


We stayed out on the last night to watch the fireworks. Oliver thought they were really cool but I have to say I was super impressed by the whole thing too. They had a real person playing Tinkerbell and swinging on this huge wire across the sky from one side of the castle to the other. It was pretty magical.