I could sit here and find you hundreds of links to research articles that tell you how important it is for your child to be read to, and how important it is for your child to read on their own (if they are older), but you know what, let me spare you. We all know reading is important, we all want little bookworms. 

....and I freaking hooked one.  SUCKERS. Be jealous. 

I just didn't hook one the way I thought I would. 

See, I had visions of my child having his nose buried in a hardback book, that I had painstakingly hand picked just for him because of the beautiful message and deep meaning behind the story.  Turns out, my kid likes knock, knock jokes about Bananas and crazy bouncy balls, and you know what?

I am estatic.  

Tiny Titans by Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani

I couldn't care less that there isn't a deep connection to respecting the planet we live on and hard work embedded in the story line (or is there?). Nope, all I care about is that right now, during the earliest moments in his reading career, he has something that he loves, that he cherishes and someting that he wants to read. At this point in his life, he views reading to be something enjoyable, he views it as something fun and he has something that grabs his attention, and to me, these are all huge wins. 

Sure, he is what, almost three?  Who cares that he likes studying each page of his favorite comic book like he is looking for a precious dropped fruit snack...I mean, you know...if I let my kid have.....those...oh whatever.  He gets fruit snacks. I am the devil. I get it, that isn't the point.  The point is, is that I totally care a lot about my child wanting to read, not what he reads. 

We all have met those kids, or maybe we were one of those kids who "didn't like to read". They don't want to read the books their teacher assigned, or, maybe your parents...and just being hypothetical here, didn't think it was okay for you to be reading Fear Street Cheerleaders because it was "too scary" (MOM!), and that was the one thing you really wanted to read, that grabbed your attention, but it wasn't something that was available to you. There are a lot of reasons that kids say that they don't like to read, and they are all valid.  

If you don't have something that you want to read, you are not going to like reading. How could you?

National Geographic Little Kids (A huge hit in this household)

Thankfully, kids today are lucky, they have so many different things to read, and a ton of ways to read them.  From WeGiveBooks (kids can read popular titles for free digitally, while at the same time helping get books into the hands of children who don't have them) to  Graphic Novels to e-readers to Magazines geared specifically to kids and their diverse interests (National Geographic Little Kids is Wes's favorite). There are so many different ways to get reading, and so many different things to read, it is hard to run out of options. 

But, can we stop here and talk about Tiny Titans and Patrick The Wolf Boy for a second? Because seriously, I don't know if anyone else has gone shopping for comic books that are appropriate for a young child, but the pickings are slim.....or super violent. I can take some fighting, but with a kid who asks "why" to everything, I just don't see the need to explain the violence in traditional comic books yet. Which means, we are left with Sponge Bob Square Pants, Superman Family Adventures, Scooby-Doo, and maybe two or three other ones.  Good options, but, Tiny Titans is a really fun read, without it being the characters you want to shove under a couch and magically loose (sorry Sponge Bob). 

Thankfully I stumbled across Art Baltazar's shop and found all of his amazing comics that have been perfect for a tiny dude. Also, $2.50 for some reading material that my child will pour over for large expanses of time? Sold! Over and over again. 

I don't know why magazines and comic books are Wes's style, but, I guess it doesn't really matter.  He loves to read, and fostering that positive connection is enough for me.  

This weekend was our first camping trip of the season, and Wes was beyond excited to be back to the great outdoors, getting filthy and just generally causing a ruckus outside.

We took a short, "pregnant Ella" single night test run up to Green Valley Falls in Julian, CA which is a really great place for families and folks who are generally not huge on camping in general.  It has a beautiful short hike that leads to waterfalls and a stream with plenty of kid friendly hang out spots where the younger set can splash, throw rocks, and look for fish (that I would be shocked if they found), but, I am a damn liar, and have no qualms sending my kid on a wild goose chase. 

We had site 68, which was a pretty good set up.  A huge oak for shade, lots of places to safely explore within eyesight and, look, not gunna lie. It wasn't far from the bathrooms. Which in my book, for both Wes and I, is pretty ideal.  Priorities....they have changed. 

Camping with Wes this year as opposed to last year (look at those chubby faces!) has been a HUGE difference, and is less containment and more, well, just a lot of fun. He is an active participant in the camping trip, from his excitement, to being able to help get dinner ready, hike on his own, and help carry things from the tent to the car as we clean up. He is part of everything, and loves every second of it, which...well....is good, because if he was a camping wet blanket, I don't know what we would do. 

It was also really nice to watch Gray and Wes do their man thing.  I am not into gender roles too much, so it being a "man" thing is less of the thrill, and more, it is so nice to see your partner in crime and offspring do tons of fun, positive and enriching activities together.  Handy skills? Our kid will have them, thanks to Gray. 

Gear wise, we have spent the "colder" months culling our supplies and trying to minimize what we bring, and we did pretty good.  No crazy pack 'n' play, no mat to keep a precious baby clean, no stash of toys that were edible, nope.  Dude is a regular person. Child specific we took two trucks, a bucket and a shovel, along with an extra set of clothes, two extra sets of socks and called it a day.  

Also, we kept it easy food wise.  Veggie dogs and baked beans for dinner, and an egg/potato hash for the morning. Apparently, somewhere into Wes's second veggie dog, with -baked beans dripping down his shirt I realized I sorely misjudged camping food.  Apparently roasting veggie dogs in the fire is one of the more exciting things Wes has ever done? 

Oh! Yeah, totally forgot. Pregnant me? Totally survived and totally ready to do this whole thing again next month...and the month after...and...I think that is all we have booked now, but, you get the idea.

Haven't taken your kiddos camping yet? I am not one to tell people what to do, but dude, come on, it is one of the more exciting adventures a family can participate in, and it can be as easy or as intricate as you want. Living in Southern California we are lucky, the weather is nice now, and we have a lot of options. From local mountains like Palomar and Julian, all the way up to Sequoia National Forest where you can grab a fire permit, follow an old logging road and find your own spot wherever you wish (Which, I wouldn't recommend without a serious skill set and body of knowledge in place - logging roads go on forever, and ever and it would be easy to get lost)!

Random tangent?  I love these guys, together and individually. Our tiny family is my favorite

1.My First Book of Knots
2.6" Handheld Brass Telescope with Wooden Box - Pirate Navigation
3.Ships and Sailing (DK Visual Dictionaries)
4.Sew 'N' Sew Sewing Block
5.Enrico Root Wood 3 Section Wood Bowl + Crocodile Jaws Toddler Tongs (For shell sorting of course!)
6.Just Think Toys Bathtime Consruction Building Toy (Coast Guard Boat And Helicopter)
7.Mudpuppy Mermaids Magnetic Figures 

1.How Did That Get In My Lunchbox?: The Story of Food
2.PlanToys Work Bench
3.Melissa & Doug 60-Piece Standard Unit Blocks
4.Battat Take Apart Crane
5.Tonka 'Vintage Steel' Tough Grader
6.Sliding Town
7.PlanToys Plan City Construction Vehicles
8. Roadwork! By Sally Sutton | Illustrated by Brian Lovelock

So....

A few things. 

1)Has anyone else noticed that I use "So," to start a sentence way too frequently?

2)We have clearly established that I naturally lean towards laziness, right? 

3) Sorry for the awful instragram photos - I never intended to write about this. 

Excellent. Now we can move forward.

So, a few months ago, I realized that my son and I had fallen in to a delightful, but not all that productive routine in the mornings before I head out to work.  I am not one to be structured, organized or productive but even this was a little much for me.  I can handle an easy going household with dishes in the sink, stomachs full of delicious food and lots of time spent outdoors exploring, but again, we were not using our time in a constructive way.

Which, lead me to realize, that as an individual, I do really well in a high structured environment. Not that my son does, but I do, and well, hell, sometimes you are two years old and you are just along for the ride.  

This whole restructuring of our mornings this has now evolved into a formal learning time for The Beast, and has become something that he really enjoys, and really looks forward to. After the dishes are done, a load of laundry has been switched, we have vacuumed and we have done one other random daily task (because, have you seen how useful a toddler is with a sock as a dusting rag? It was like they were born to get all the spots low to the ground you always miss). I ask if he is ready for our activities and he yells "LETTERS! LETTERS! ME LETTERS!" 

B is for Beach.  We went beach camping yo.

I can't say that we do anything too crazy, I am not here to reinvent the wheel folks (and this is just straight from an email I sent to Charlotte) 

1. Made a collage of A's from magazines (he likes collages for some reason)
2. Went to see Animals at the Wild Animal Park
3. Did a realism painting of an apple
4. Made Apple oatmeal pancakes
5. Did a painting with an apple (like a stamp)
6. Made a letter "A" in glue and glued beans along it
7. Traced sand paper "A"s with our fingers
8. Made an alligator with a toilet paper roll, tissue paper and glue
9. Read books about Animals 
10. Went to the airport to watch airplanes
11. Did letter/coordinating word (like an apple) stamping using these and these

C is for Cars or Colors....it was a win/win situations really. 

As his enjoyment of the activities has evolved over the past several weeks, I have found my planning taking slightly deeper roots, and my love for Excel has shown through. 

D is for Dinosaur...dinosaur fossils with air dry clay  

Between all of the amazing  out there, pintrest, and just going off of the things The Beast likes, I have been able to keep us going!  It has been a really fun experience so far. Nothing too serious, a great way for us to interact together, and well, the dude likes it. 

As he and I figure this out together (this = mornings, not homeschool - I don't think homeschooling is for us, I just can't justify the cost of a private preschool, and there don't seem to be many non-denominational ones in our area...but maybe this is just how it starts). I have found some great products that we have gotten a lot of use out of. 

1. Play and Learn: Do-A-Dot ABC's, Numbers & Shapes Activity Book - There are a lot of free worksheets on the web, which we use.  For some reason though, The Beast loves the sheets from this book the most. Simple, and awesome.  Additionally, there is a place where you match a letter cut out to a printed letter. It is always a good day when The Beast gets to do this. 
2. Amazing Action Alphabet - The concept of the book is that each letter gets it's own page. Then there is a silly paragraph filled with alliterations. You read the paragraph once, then there is an action that goes along with with story that the child gets to do. So, when the bubble blowing bear says B-b-b, the child makes the sound while pretending to blow a bubble wand.  This book has found it's way into our daily rotation. 
3. Snap Cubes®, Set of 100 - We play with these A LOT.  From counting, to patterns, to memory games to color sorting to just plain building fun. They go everywhere, but they have been really versatile to have around the house. 
4. Sandpaper Letters - I had never seen these letters before, but they are really neat.  The letter is made out of sand paper, and the child can trace the letter with their finger and feel it.  The Beast finds these hilarious to do. 

...and yeah.  That is what we have been up to. What have you been up to? 

A cheap costume that we already had most of? Deal. In case you are unfamiliar with Diego - he is an animal rescuer who travels around....well, rescuing animals. Long story short - Diego is good people, and thankfully he isn't too snappy of a dresser.  Blue shorts, a blue shirt, a khaki vest (which was $3 at a thrift store, that Gray refashioned into a toddler sized explorer vest), and a backpack.

Gray made the backpack out of felt, and, as always, he did an amazing job.  Gray always seems to have the patience for the projects that would leave me cursing. Straight lines? Those are my specality. Rouge sewing projects, ignoring all of the "sewing rules"? Gray does it, and knocks it out of the park. 

One of the best things about the costume? How much he gets into the character. We went the extra mile and bought The Beast a Baby Jaguar - THE Baby Jaguar.  Diego's sidekick. If you put Baby Jaguar at the top of his rock wall, and say "Help Me! Help Me!"  The Beast will run around looking for his vest and backpack, put them on, then climb to the top of the wall to save Baby Jaguar. Like a true animal rescuer. 

The difference a year makes - right?

Hey!  Remember me?  No.....I don't blame you. It has been awhile, and a whirlwind summer of adventure, but more on that later (but seriously). 

Gray and I have spent the past few weeks building a space for The Beast and his imagination to grow. Some would call it a bed, The Beast calls it his "club house".  

(Oh look at me taking pictures while there is still saw dust all over the floor. Just fantastic Ella)

The good:

• It is awesome. 
• It was cost effective
• The Beast loves it
• It is a monstrosity, but we can live with it.  It gives The Beast more floor space in our tiny house to construct, roll, play, jump and just all around be a kid. 
• Dude, an in house rock wall? Alright! 

The bad:

• The Beast loves the bed so much, he refuses to come to our bed in the morning and cuddle with us while we all wake up.  Instead of him waking up, calling for us, us going in to his room, grabbing him and then bringing him to our room...he wakes up, calls us, we go into his room and he says "Dada (because let's be honest, Gray is the less lazy one of us) come here Dada. Hold me. Come up here Dada" and then they fall back asleep and wake up sometime later. While I lay all alone in bed....sobbing because I am lonely....or some version of that. I really didn't anticipate this issue. I am not sure how much I like it.

The Details:

• We used this Ana White design as inspiration and tailored it for our space and to be a bit more toddler friendly by doing a series of smaller steps and platforms as well as making the railing much higher (the blind cord is usually rolled up - I am noticing that I should have taken less realistic photos and tidied up a bit). 
• The rock holds are from Rocky Mountain Climbing Gear, and they are fantastic.  Heavy duty, high quality, come with the hardware and super easy to install. You will need an allen wrench, so don't forget that

The Beast seems to loves his space - from rescuing animals "on top of the mountain" to snuggling up and reading on a cold rainy day, I personally feel like his room is turning into a fun, magical space that grows with him - and I am glad that he seemingly shares these views. 

And just for fun....how cute is this Ghost that my Mother In La, Sue, did with him? 

Hey there! 

The Beasts battery died in his camera, and we are really lazy have yet to buy new ones, so I figured that I would write a little post about our upcoming adventure.  

Check out what Charlotte and her family are up to while they do their shake down cruise

In a few days we are leaving for an epic week of camping.  Every year we head up to Sequoia National Forest over the labor day weekend, however, this year, Charlotte and her family have made our trip a bit more exciting and have invited us out to Two Harbors Catalina to camp for several days, then, we when we return Catalina, we will hop off the boat, head to our car and drive directly up to meet my Dad in the Sequoias.

As adults, Gray and I are excited. As a toddler who knows what a boat is, the beast can't wait for our "boat trip" and "camping". Dude loves camping. He loves camping so much that he has been crying daily because he thinks every time we hop in the car, we are going on the "boat trip".......which means we have been doing a lot of ordering online (Thanks Amazon Prime!) instead of buying in person

We do a lot of camping as a family, but all of our camping gear up to this point has been a hodge podge of thrown together stuff in some shoddy Tupperware contain. So, since we will be carrying all of our gear on to the Catalina Express, and none of our bags can be bigger than 36" and we will have to wrangle a toddler who is excited about the boat. I didn't want to deal with 6 bags, loose ends and chaos. We also needed to streamline our gear because we will have to leave some of it in the car is an organized way. 

So what changes have we made to our gear?

Rio Grande Backpack (45L) from Army Surpluss World

Our first change was how we carried stuff. We snagged a duffle bag and backpack from an Army Surplus store. I know our backpack is not actual surplus, just designed to mimic it, but the price was right, the zippers are sturdy and so is the stitching. Works for us. It isn't beautiful, but it gets the job done. 

Top Load Canvas Duffle Bag (21" x 36") from Amazon

We also snagged a duffle bag for items like sleeping bags, pillows and clothes. I am really excited about the bags because this also means storing of camping items will be easier, and less spread out. Making our camping trips more pleasant. 

Backpacking Pinnacle Dualist by GSI

This is quite possibly what I am most excited about. Our cooking items for camping have taken up so much space. An old pan, some huge plastic plates, random cups. However, no more! Not for us. This nesting mess kit includes a 1.8L pot, a lid that can act as a strainer, a bag that acts as a sink, two cups, two insulated bowls and two spoons. Perfect for our family of three (we picked up an extra spork for The Beast). This is exciting. Be excited. I am excited. 

Everything else we picked up was pretty mundane, reusable dish cloths from the 99 cent store instead of paper towels, Freeze Dried Fruits and Vegetables Sample Pack so we can avoid dealing with a cooler on the island and some canteens. 

We are set!

My next task that I need to tackle before Saturday, activates for the the car ride to the Catalina Island Express, and from the ferry terminal to Sequoia National Forest.

Bring it on! 

Dear Cora,

It has been ages since we have knocked over a 7-11 hung out together.  I know you are leaving in a few days, and I figured that it was time that my mom and I took over this dead blog.

You will be headed around the world, while I pillage and conquer my own. Two totally different lifestyles, but that doesn't mean we will lose touch. I figured we will just show each other what we have been up to, and when you come home 16 years from now, it will be like you never left. 

Oh, and my mom got us these totally sweet cameras for kids, for our birthday's so we can show each other what our world is really like. 

Let's get this show on the road!

So, what have you been missing out on in my life?

My take:

Mom's take

I turned two!  Nothing too new to you, but let me blow your mind for a second. BabyCenter now considers us preschoolers!  Who knew? My mom had a slight panic attack over this, and I found her curled up in a closet weeping. Parents. Freaking shameful I tell you. I had to drag her out of the closet, rip the paperbag from her hand and give her a serious pep talk. Moms, AmIRight? You couldn't make it, but I bounced the afternoon away with friends and family. We had cake pops that looked like ice cream cones, sundaes, and somewhere in there, I melted into a blob of content.

My Take: 

Mom's Take

Living on a boat, you might not have noticed, but it is officially 800 degrees out, which has made my house 850 degrees inside. If someone would have warned me about this, I would have just stayed in my womb. My face didn't melt off in there. People wonder why I am always naked, well let me tell you! With no A/C, things can get pretty uncomfortable. So, au naturale is my preferred method - an acceptable alternative? We spend all day outside. I built a pretty sweet fort the other day, with fresh grapes from my Great Grandma's garden, and I find caterpillars like they are going out of style. Dude, have you pet one? It is hilarious! 

Are you kidding? I was off petting caterpillars - of course this is mom's take:

Oh! Wait, one more thing. My dad built me a cool swing. My mom was complaining about me "swinging" on everything, from the table to the freezer door handle and asked my dad to whip something up, and this is what he came up with. It is perfect. It took those losers long enough to catch on. Their solution was amusing, so I am going to keep them. For now.  

Mom's take....I was swinging naturally:

Alright, my mom says it is time to go to bed. Isn't she cute? I'll show her bedtime.................and a reason to drink.