Shawna’s Whimsical Weblog

This weekend marks Marshall’s first day of hard-core potty-training. We have him roaming the tiled portion of the house au natural. Here’s the scoreboard:

Day 1
Pee:
Floor: x2
High Chair x1
Potty x6-7
Training Pants (worn to mailbox) x 0

Poo
Potty x1 (thank goodness)

Day 2
Pee
Potty x12
Training Pants x1 (worn 3 times)

Poo
Potty x1

We are leaving him in diapers during bedtime (nap and at night). The rest of the week will be similar I suspect, I won’t try him in underwear until next Friday (holiday). He needs to be mostly trained (only reminders) when pre-school starts August 4th.

Marshall’s soundtrack has diversified. A few months ago I mentioned it was a string of “children’s music”. Now, he is a fan of pop music. He currently requests the “Bum Bum Bi Dum” Song, which most other individuals refer to as “Disturbia” by Rihanna. The other top song you can find him singing is “Human” by The Killers. Grandma Sullivan was very confused when Marshall kept proclaiming “My Hands are Cold” (a line from “Human”), when in fact his hands were nice and toasty. Lesser favorites include “I Hate This Part” by the Pussycat Dolls and “Please Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna.

Marshall couldn’t resist this motorized ATV at Connor’s 3rd birthday party

Couch Potato
In addition to watching his girlfriend Rihanna’s videos on YouTube (we don’t actually let him watch the “real” Disturbia video -too disturbing), Marshall is a fan of all things video. He watches Curious George, Thomas the Tank Engine (back on the playlist) and other PBS shows (some in Spanish) at Grandma Sullivan’s house. At home he will watch any number of DVDs I have gotten out from the library about John Deere equipment or other vehicles. One time I put in two DVDs back to back to see if he would get bored, but Marshall sat and watched them contentedly.

It’s Still Not Potty Time
We have made a very small baby step in the Potty training direction. While previously it brought on much tears and screaming, Marshall will now at least sit on the potty. Mind you he has never actually done anything while sitting there. Tim tries to relax him by reading a book to him while he’s on the potty at night before bed, but it has yet borne any potty success. I’m going to wait at least until July before I put Marshall into training pants. I just don’t think he’s ready yet.

Feets of strength
In the past month, Marshall has actually started to use the pedals on his tricycle from time to time. His preferred method of transport is still to scoot, but at least it’s a start. He also has gotten pretty good at kicking the soccer ball around since Tim has been bringing him to my earlier Weds night soccer matches. He looks forward to asking a teammate of mine, Kate, to borrow her “pink ball”. I have opted not to enroll Marshall in the “Little Kickers” classes or swim classes this summer. These classes are just too expensive or have odd schedules. I don’t think Marshall’s soccer/swimming ability is going to come up lacking in the long run, if I don’t enroll him this young. I figure we will use my brother’s pool or the Community pool within walking distance when it gets warm this summer.

You see on this page?
Thankfully, Marshall loves him some books. If you sit with him, he will bring you book upon book upon book to read together. One of the games he likes to play while reading is “I Spy”. He will initiate the game by exclaiming, “You see on this page!?” Sometimes, if you are within earshot, but not currently reading to him, he will scream “You see on this page?!” to try and initiate a reading session.

I love it you drill
It’s very touching to hear your child say “I love you.” However, Marshall may not know what he is actually saying when he mimics those words back to us. You are just as likely to hear him say “I love it you item/action he really doesn’t like”. For instance, he’ll say “I love it you change my diaper”, when it is clear he really doesn’t want his diaper changed. I’m wondering if he’s just missing the word “not”. In any event, it really is fun to be holding (simple) conversations with Marshall these days. Plus, I do think he loves us. ♥

Phew! It’s been a busy week here. We officially moved into our Poway house last Sunday. There is still a very long list of projects around the house, not to mention the unpacking still left to do. As the clutter gets cleaned out of each room, I will try to take some pictures of the “finished” product. If we have time tomorrow, I think Tim and I will a room-by-room rundown to help organize ourselves. My main plan for tomorrow is to return a microwave to Lowe’s and to pick up a desk from Ikea to match the one Tim currently has, the “Jerker”. Unfortunately, the “Jerker” was discontinued, and has been replaced by the “Fredrik”. I know you’re thinking, “Who comes up with these names?” Well, at least it’s not as bad as the Ikea’s children’s desk called the “Fartful”.

In other big news, Marshall got into the local Spanish-speaking pre-school program at Valley Elementary School. This school is literally a stone’s throw from our house. Registration was this past Wednesday, and we heard yesterday he will be in a T/Th 12-3:00 PM class starting the first week of August! This is a big relief, because selection for the school is done by a lottery system. I can’t believe Marshall will be in pre-school in 4 1/2 months! I will actually need to attend pre-school with him for the first two months, because they are not allowed to attend alone until they are 3 years old (and potty-trained). It’s too bad I can’t attend longer, because I could use the Spanish lessons. It is a “Parent-participation” school so even after the initial 2 months, I will be heading into the classroom a couple times a month to help in some form or another.

I have retreated back into my non-blogging cave. Part of this is due to the fact that weekend time, AKA “free time”, is now split between my seriously active physical routine (hockey, yoga, soccer) and prepping the new house in Poway. The other part is directly related to begging Tim to write things for me, since he’s well… good at and some junk. But, Tim is very busy with his comic, the aforementioned Poway house and sleeping. Thus, you’re stuck with me afterall. I have to think back to the point of these postings. I had wanted to document the small changes that Marshall was going through on a month-to-month basis. Truly, he is still changing on a week-to-week basis.

“This is called a”
Marshall is so proud to be naming everything! To inquire about the name of something, Marshall will put the proper questioning tone at the end of a sentence, “This is called a …?” While I delight in the fact he can name most objects around the house, I like that he can make jokes! This morning I witnessed this interchange.

Marshall holds up a cheerio from his cereal bowl, “This is called a moon”.
Mom says, “Yes, that does look like a moon.”
Marshall grins and pops “the moon” in his mouth. “Marshall eats the moon!” *laughter*

What toddlers daydream about…
Tim caught Marshall the other day in one of his a-thousand-yard stares. Tim asked him what he was thinking about, to which Marshall replied, “Trains”.

”Thank you Marshall”
As you might have noted in one of my last posts, we have been trying to instill a basic level of manners in Marshall. Marshall will now hand us a toy he wants us to play with and state, “Thank you Marshall” before we have a chance to do it ourselves. He also will occasionally give us an unprompted “please” or “thank you” for something we do for him. We have used the “I can’t hear you” card when Marshall forgets to say please. This often leads into a “Who’s on first” interchange, when I can’t understand what Marshall is saying pronunciation-wise. When asked to iterate what he just said, Marshall will then say “Pleeeeeaaaaase!” “No, what did you say?” “Pleeeeaaaaase!”

Television
We introduced a number of television shows in the past few months. The shows in Spanish have been treated with very little interest and we have decided to let those go until he is listening to Spanish in pre-school. Maisy has been a great favorite. I like the simple topics and the fact that the plain backgrounds don’t distract from teaching new vocabulary. Marshall requests Bob the Builder on a daily basis, but I think it may still be a little fast-paced for him. He often loses interest after 5 minutes. We gave Thomas the Tank Engine a try, but Tim and I couldn’t abide by the fact that the show seems to be filled with petty, mean-spirited trains. Thomas has been removed from the playlist.

Potty Training
Parent: “Marshall, do you want to use the potty?”
Marshall: “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!”
That is all to report on this subject.

It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time
The soundtrack to Marshall’s life appears to be one nursery rhyme followed by another. He will break into one of many different nursery rhymes out of the blue. “Baa, baa black sheep”, “Gingerbread man”, “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “No more monkeys jumping on the bed” seem to be some of his top tracks at the moment. He can sing along with most his children’s music CDs. We all enjoy a little “Peanut Butter Jelly with a baseball bat”.

Loud Noises
Marshall has long been scared of loud noises. He is terrified of the food processor, hairdryer, garbage disposal, and power tools. He will insist on us being “All done, All done!” while any of the above objects is in use. The other day Tim went to use a hand cheese grater. When Marshall saw the shiny metal object, he started crying “All done, All done!” even before Tim had started to use it.

Playdough
My mom and Marshall have found countless ways to play with the playdough I made. It has become food or hats for his dinosaurs, a way to attach people to cars, a medium for cookie cutters (to stand or take form), bowling items and a baton to run relays. Marshall is still a huge car aficionado and picked up a number of new vehicles for Christmas he spends countless hours with. Other current favorite activities include batting a balloon around, gardening (hoeing, digging and watering), throwing airplanes, and coloring with crayons.

All better
Marshall has long been a trouper with the tripping and tumbling commonly found in the toddler age set. He will get back up while stating “all better” and rarely even asks for a hug. This past Tuesday at “family dinner” night, my brother was playing with Marshall. My brother had a small bear and Marshall had a smalled stuffed Tigger. In a series of unfortunate events, my brother’s bear kept meeting with an injury. Every time Marshall would bring Tigger over to the bear to give the bear a hug and tell him “All better”.

Speech Patterns
Clearly Marshall’s vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds. The fact that “Pterodactyl” spills out of his mouth is a little wild. He is definitely reaching an age where he is soaking up words like a sponge and likes to mimic words that he hears. He has also in the very early stages of using “I”. He can be found exclaiming “I love milk!” or “I’m sorry” instead of “Marshall have a cookie”. Pronunciation is a whole another ball of wax.

There you have it. Some of the small changes that Marshall has exhibited in the past few months. It’s a really fun time. It seems like I’m always saying that. Go us. I’ll leave you with a picture of Marshall saying “cheeeeese!”. Note the “noodles” that the dinosaurs are eating.

So, it’s apparently my job to work on Shawna’s blog. I wasn’t aware of this particular change, but it’s probably in one of the lesser known sub-clauses in my husband contract.

The one thing I didn’t want to do with a blog is make it into a 2,500 word piece waxing about how amazing my kid is. How amazing can any one kid be, if every parent is blogging about it?

Instead, I’ll talk about Christmas eve, and what is going on for the San Diego Hamon clan. This is not Marshall’s first Christmas, but it is the first time where he will be more aware of the grand implication of the lit tree and the colorful things underneath it.

It’s been a slow progression up to this point, but I see this as the end of innocence. Not in a grandiose or melodramatic way, but Marshall is going to be a little wiser to the ways of the world, come this time tomorrow night. Gramma has been hinting and implying about presents, but as of right now Marshall doesn’t really understand presents or gifts. Things come in and out of his possession with such regularity that there really isn’t a set of rules that he has been able to learn. I think tomorrow will be the the first time where he puts all the pieces together. I think tomorrow will be the first time he is able to associate an event with toy acquisition.

So, it’s not his first Christmas, literally. But I think it’s his first Christmas as a kid. I think the word “Christmas” will be forever associated with presents, come tomorrow. Marshall will remember the day where he gets dinosaurs, cars and a fire truck (among other things). He will walk around the house, clutching as many of the new precious treasures as he can, swimming through the wrapping paper and basking under the glow of the tree.

I remember being a little kid around Christmas time. I remember taking naps during the winter break, because it would put me 2 hours closer to Christmas day. I remember the giddy sleepless nights before. Marshall grows up a little more tomorrow, being that he’ll never look at Christmas the same way ever again. Tomorrow is his first day of that.

I kind of lament it, to a certain degree, because it means he’s growing up.

Tim promised me he’d write another entry. However, he finds the typical “my child is SO awesome” blogs to be rather mundane. Can you blame me for finding the writer in the family to actually write more interesting entries than what I come up with? I didn’t think so. So without further ado… our awesome child.

Rock on Marshall, rock on.

Shawna asked me to come up with something for Marshall’s second year birthday weekend. There were a few obvious things that I could talk about. Shawna was out of town, so it was just the two of us left to our own devices. I could talk about the Costco cake calamity, the spurned dish of “Macaroni and Awesome” or car carrier toy given to him by his grandmother.

I could also use the opportunity to cleverly and back-handedly complain about how I had to move our stuff out of our condo, by myself. But, clearly, I wouldn’t do something with such petty martyrdom. And really, that doesn’t really have anything to do with Marshall.

That leaves me with something that is kind of fun to share: As he gets older, Mal becomes increasingly interactive with his world. He remembers more and more, he interacts with things on a level below their surface. He’s able to conceptualize things and deliberately use his imagination.

So, along those lines, I started a new tradition with him. Every night, after his normal routine and a book or two, I sit down with him in the dark and tell him a spontaneous, improvisational story. The story is episodic, in that I don’t intend to complete it and I build on the previous night. I repeat a lot, so that the two of us can remember what’s going on in the story up to the present point.

And, being a writer, this comes off as a challenge in its own right; based on the oral nature of the storytelling and the limitation of the audience, story time has proven to be challenging in ways I couldn’t imagine.

The story is fairly simple: One day, the little boy and his bear climbed up the tallest tree in the land. They climbed and climbed to the very top and looked to see what they could see. From the top of the tree, they could see the Far Away Land, about which they knew nothing. That day, the little boy and his bear decided to travel to the Far Away Land. They head out, meeting adventures along the way.

Part of my design was to leave various details up to Marhsall, to involve him with the story. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but I hadn’t really prepared myself for the way a two year old sees the world. On the second night, the boy and the bear came to a river. They saw a little man with a big boat. He was going to ferry them across the river, but he wouldn’t go with them past that point.

“What color is the boat, Marshall?” I asked, when the little boy and the bear came down to the river bank.

“Blue boat!” he replied.

“Okay, so the little man in the big blue boat took the little boy and the–” I tried to continue, but I got interrupted.

“Red boat!” Marshall exclaimed.

“What? We just said that it was a blue boat.”

“Purple boat!” Marshall countered, apparently willing to compromise with me, choosing something between Red and Blue.

“Too bad, buddy. The paint is dry and the boat is blue. The little man can’t afford to dry-dock his boat and repaint it” I countered weakly. I mean, who’s story is this, anyway?

The funniest part about this process is that he and I have this argument every time we talk about the little man and his big boat. We recap the story every couple of days and we get to the river and have a debate about what color the little man’s boat was. That is as much of the story as the actual narrative; it’s the piece of the story that wrote itself, without any of my intervention.

Nowadays, Shawna joins us for storytime, laughing with me when Marshall forces me to alter the story universe when he suggests anachronisms or continuity breeches.

(We had an exchange that went something like this:

Me: What’s the little boy’s name?
Mal: Marshall!
Me: That’s a great name for a little boy. What should we call the bear?
Mal: Marshall! (giggle)
Me: Uh… Doesn’t that get confusing?

For the record, the bear has since been named “Blue Bear.”)

In conclusion, Mal is less and less of a baby these days. He’s more and more of a little boy. I thought I’d leave with an image that best describes him these days:

Much progress has been made and there is much work left to be done.

September was a very busy month for for Marshall and us. We took trips to the Zoo, Sea World, Wild Animal Park, and Sequoia National Park. Not to mention that we finished out the month by moving out of our condo and in with my mother. Let’s not forget that Marshall turned 2 years old as well on the 26th! Busy month indeed. This is reflected in the 112 pictures added in his September photo gallery (compared to a paltry 23 for August).

Music Together
My birthday present to Marshall was a series of music classes (10 total) through the Music Together program. Marshall loves listening to his Hullabaloo CDs and I thought he might enjoy the classes which are supposed to teach tonal and rhythmic patterns while still being fun for children. The classes run 45 minutes and Marshall likes to play with the various instruments that are brought out during the class (egg shakers, drums, bells, tambourines, etc). By 30 minutes he’s ready to head outside and play at the nearby fountains (our class is held at a Synagogue). He can now sing a bit of the Itsy bitsy spider and likes two songs that are sung in the present participle named “Every Day” and “See how I’m jumping”(see below). In the “Every Day” song, it aptly tells of the going’s on of various family members (mommy wakes up, daddy wakes us, baby wakes up -stretching and stretching, stretching and stretching, followed by working and playing, followed by getting tired and sleeping). Today when we were riding home from a long morning of shopping and Marshall was leaning his head against the carseat and looking pretty tired. I asked Marshall what was going on and he replied quietly, “Marshall sleeping”.

See How I’m Jumping
About a week before Marshall turned 2, he actually started jumping with both feet off the ground. Jumping is still a little awkward, but hitting a bouncy castle at the park earlier in the month and once again mid-month has propelled him towards a standard jumping technique. He now often requests a “bouncy castle”, and I think he will have at least 2-3 opportunities to hit one in October.

Living with Grandma
We hadn’t really expected to move out of our condo so soon this year. However, it actually may turn out to be timed rather well. Marshall loves being at Grandma’s house. He loves the backyard and enjoys the company of her Scottie, Willy. Marshall will follow him around the yard and if he sees the dog outside will request “Marshall outside”. I think the first few days may have been a little strange for Marshall (he was extra hyper before bed) and he still has trouble going down for his mid-day nap. However, this has been the case for some time now. We like being able to walk to the store/dinner and there is a playground at the Del Mar Hills school (also within walking distance). If Marshall actually is having any trouble adjusting to his new home, we think he will be well settled by the time we leave him with Grandma at the end of the month to head to VA for Molly’s wedding.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Here we were on our red-eye from San Diego to Newark, NJ on Thursday night. Deb Finucane, Heidi Davis and I were all finding our seats very uncomfortable and with VERY little room to recline. It helped that I didn’t sleep much the night before, so I was able to grab a few hours of sleep on the 5 ½ hour flight. Still, we were all wrecked upon our arrival. We still needed to grab our connecting flight to Buffalo and drive the 3 hours up to Barrie. We had ended up renting a mini-van since Laurie Chong and Moriah Alexander would be joining us for the drive.

Deb was quite the trouper, acting as our chauffeur. Laurie Chong was a very efficient navigator and the rest of us acted as amusement for the ride. Laurie’s assistant was dubbed “Greta” a GPS unit we rented from Avis. Crossing the border into Canada was fairly easy, even when a flustered Deb dropped our passports as she was handing them to the customs agent and he was slightly perplexed about how the 5 of us would be coming from California to play in a ball hockey tournament. We stopped at one of the ubiquitous Tim Horton’s for lunch. We would share a giggle over the “TimBits” that were purchased. To be honest, I couldn’t tell where the popularity of the chain came from. Their sandwiches were decent, but I definitely have had better donuts in my time.

After muddling through mid-day Friday traffic in Toronto, we found ourselves at the rink around 2:30 PM. The rinks were empty since the tournament, which would gather 68 teams, started at 3:00 PM. We took a few moments to groggily pass the ball around the court to get a feel for the rink nuances. The surface was a “waffle” grid of plastic tiles. We later found out that they play year round in the rain and snow. Only in lightning conditions do games get called off. The ball definitely moved differently on the surface and rinks were slightly smaller than what we were used to.

Our first game was at 6:00 PM. Instead of driving up to the resort we were staying at (25 minutes away), we decided to stay and watch the 4:00 Ladies B game. Nearly half of our team was from Barrie, and 4 of the ladies in on this “B” team would be playing with on our “A” team, including our goalie Krista. The ladies (Sheila, Dawnn, Elle, Andrea, and Michelle) we would pick up from Barrie were very solid players. The only disappointment was with my ex-boyfriend’s co-worker in Toronto, Erica, who showed up for our first game, but was a no-show for the rest of the tournament. I received an e-mail from her later saying she had come down with Strep throat.

We started rather slowly in our first game, as one might expect from a team that has never played together. In hindsight, I think we could have beaten the Sockets, a local team from Barrie, but it was not be for our exhausted team. We ended up losing 2-0, but still earned a ½ pt for having tied a period 0-0. We did not learn about the head-to-head scoring until after our first game. It was time to go get something to eat and we headed to a local restaurant near the rink with our Barrie teammates. The service was so slow, that Deb, Moriah, and Laurie would take their food to go to be able to go watch the 8:00 women’s game. Heidi, Sabine, Sabine’s boyfriend Paul, and I would head to find the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) and a grocery. We had 9 in the 2 bedroom suite, including our returning defender Wendy from Massachusetts and her 19-yr-old son Jacobus. Some enjoyed 20 Bees wine-in-a-box and Moriah received good-humored ridicule for having brought a trashy romance novel for her reading material. Moriah, Deb, and Laurie ended up sharing one of the king sized beds without problem.
Team Injury status: one strained groin, one dinged forehead (from my suitcase).

We woke up Saturday to be treated to breakfast-ala-Paul, who had been a saucier in NYC. Our suite had it all except salt and pepper (and a roasting pan, which was listed in the room’s FAQ as something that could be retrieved from the front desk if needed). We would later use the dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and jacuzzi tub (though we were disappointed to find the jets didn’t work). After breakfast, we headed to the rink to watch our next opponents play in their 11:00 game. It was raining and we were shocked to find the games were still on. An additional shock was that no one seemed to be phased by the fact that games were being played in this condition. The rain did give us a slight reprieve from the normal stench of cigarette smoke that permeated the area. We were a little dismayed to see the team from St. Catherine’s, called Rectangle Auto Supply, were a far better team than the Sockets. Sabine, Deb, and I headed over to enjoy the resort’s hot tub and pool. Before every game I spent a half-hour warming up my beleaguered groin. There was also time for a yummy home-cooked lunch at a restaurant called Loobie’s near our hotel. We noted that they had 7 desserts on the menu, and we decided we would come back later to get “one for each of us”.

Rectangle Auto Supply ended up beating us 6-1, but the game was actually a lot closer than it sounded. We were all very impressed by the womens’ skill level. They all moved without the ball, passed a lot and had very accurate shots. I could very well see this team contending against a team of men from our league back home on this smaller surface (where speed and break-aways were not as important/common). This second loss landed us in 8th place in the tournament and we would be playing the 9th place team (Dunlop Billiards, another local Barrie team) later that night as a play-in game for the play-offs.
Team Injury status: one strained groin, one dinged forehead, one fat lip, one scraped knee, one girl with strep throat (down to 12 floor players)

We munched on fruit and lunch leftovers under the umbrella of our mini-van’s trunk, since we would be playing in a few hours. The rain had abated for our 4:00 PM game, but it would be sprinkling at the start of of our 7:00 match. The gridded plastic tiles allowed for drainage, but we been warned that a light sprinkle was the slickest of conditions to be playing in. Jason, Michelle Smellie’s husband, had started to coach us in the previous game. Before the third game, he asked if I would play defense. I’m not sure why he decided to put me there, but I decided to make the most of it (even though it would mean I didn’t get to play with my hockey soulmate Deb).

We came out very strong against Dunlop Billiards and the majority of play was in their zone. Most of of the players, sans Deb and Dawnn (whom actually embraced the conditions by sliding on her feet around the court), were playing more hesitantly. Even though we dominated the play, we found ourselves down 2-1 at the end of the second period. Jason had come over to commend me on my defensive skill (he wondered where it had come from which I guess means he thought I was kinda sucky until that point), when Moriah put in the tieing goal in the 3rd period. Overtime went without scoring and we found ourselves in a shootout. Dawnn was our first shooter, and had a beauty of top-corner goal across the grain. It was the only goal we would end up needing as Krista stopped the next 3 shots. Hooray! We were in the play-offs! Unfortunately, this meant we would be playing Rectangle Auto Supply again the next morning, since they had come in first place in the round-robin. We were off to get one of every dessert from Loobie’s.
Team Injury Status: one strained groin, one dinged forehead, one fat lip, one scraped knee, one girl with strep throat, one bruised wenus, one “waffle-butt”, one lacerated labia from an opposing player’s stick blade to the groin (down to 11 floor players)

Loobie’s was closed! Oh no! We ended up heading to the restaurant across the street. John Mousmoules, a gentleman we play with in San Diego, had come out to watch us play that day since he was home visiting family in Toronto and Barrie that week, joined us for a drink while we had dinner. It was after dinner that the injured labia requiring 3 stitches was discovered. One car would head to a nearby hospital and the other car headed back to the hotel to crash.

We finished up our leftover groceries for breakfast, checked out of our hotel and headed to the rink for our 10 AM game. The rain had passed and there was only a little dampness to the ground. We were all exhausted (late night and 3 games of hockeys in hand). Rectangle Auto Supply would quickly prove their dominance against us. I’m not even sure what the final score of the game was (the scoreboard only would show a 5 goal differential, so it sat at 5-0 for the entire game). Tom, the league coordinator in Barrie, told us that the team from St. Catherine’s had won the championship 3 years in a row, minus the last year. He also said no team could really match their fire power in the tournament. We scratched our heads as to why we were slated to play against them in the initial round of play. Tom had coached us in Philadelphia, and had told us he thought we could contend in the A division. In hindsight, I think we should have been in the B division. We all thought that the level play in Philadelphia was more along the lines of play we saw in the B division in Barrie. As it turns out, Rectangle Auto Supply would lose in the finals in the first overtime 1-0 to another local Barrie team, Canada Cartage Beavers. I have to say I’m a little shocked, since I hadn’t seen a team there as good as the Rectangle Auto Supply, and I wonder if any of their players had gotten injured on their way to the final game. They only had 10 floor players to start with.

So-Cal Quakes
Back-row (L-R) Wendy, Sabine, Laurie, Heidi, Michelle, Moriah, Elle, Sheila, Krista, Andrea
Front-row (L-R) Deb, me, Dawnn

Since our flight wasn’t until the next morning, we decided to spend some time at Niagara Falls on our way back to Buffalo. We had a merry ride in the van and arrived at a sunny falls around 4:00 PM. We decided just to view it from the Canadian side since none of use were really up for walking around that much anyways. After snapping a few photos, we stopped in a gift shop for a few souvenirs and headed for the border crossing. The US customs agent was even more stern than the Canadian one. We sat in silence as Deb answered his questions, even though we really had nothing to hide from him.

Our hotel, that Laurie had booked was right next to the airport. It was time for another night of little sleep as we now had to squeeze 2 people on a double-bed, not to mention we all had to get up at 6:30 AM (or earlier in Laurie’s case). We successfully checked our snowboarding bag full of hockey sticks without incident and even though our morning flight was delayed, we made it to our connecting flight without a problem. Home, sweet home.

I think the team consensus is that we won’t be back to Barrie again. It’s just too far to travel. Especially since the ball hockey tournament in Vegas is expanding next year to include a Woman’s division. I’m very curious to see how many woman’s teams will actually make it out that far West. We all had a great experience in Barrie and we do hope that we’ll see some of our Barrie mates in Philadelphia next year. On another positive note, a number of players in the San Diego League have expressed interest in holding more practices so we can continue to improve our play. Who knows, maybe we’ll be champions yet.

Updated: California County Adventure Page to include Kern and Tulare counties.

9/10/08
Location(s): Los Angeles, Kern, Tulare Counties

It’s been an exhausting day. Tim and I are now clinging to a frail shred of alertness, although it is only 8:00 in the evening. Marshall is settling down in his portable crib in the adjoining room. I expect he shall be fast asleep soon. The adventure started yesterday when the 3 of us came up to Ayal’s place in L.A. To stay the night. We left after my birthday dinner with my Mom at 8:00 PM. Arriving just before 10, Einat was gracious enough to host us until Angela and Ayal (coming from work) joined up. We then proceeded to chat until 1:00 in the morning. Good news was to be had! Ayal’s scans showed no growth in his returned cancer, and actually showed recession in the lessions in his spine. I was very happy to hear it. Ayal and Einat plan to elope some time this fall. We had hoped Marshall would nap in the car, but he stay wide-eyed until being placed down in Ayal and Einat’s bedroom. The 3 of us would sleep miserably in the same room. I kept waking up and then lay awake, worrying that I might wake Marshall up. Marshall would of course wake up at 6:45A.M.

We would get a late start to heading out to Sequoia. Breakfast at the Blu Jam Cafe was slow-going. We ended up leaving around 10 AM. Our first stop was at a FoodsCo grocery store in Bakerfield to pick up some snacks. FoodsCo is like a Foods 4 less, where everything is still in the large boxes they came from and they don’t employ baggers. The clientèle in the store were depressing. Many were overweight and also looked plain exhausted (Tim and I could blend in in that regard). There was also a sense that most of these individuals may not be the most educated. We gathered up our snacks and brand new sippy cup (since we had forgotten a milk bottle for Marshall). We were back on the road searching for the Kern and Tulare county signs. We found them along the 99, but the freeway was too busy to stop and take shots. We decided we might have luck going down the “County Line Rd”. While the road did straddle the two county lines, the signs were much harder to come by. We eventually had to drive all the way over to the 65 to find the Kern sign.

We took the 65 through Porterville and Exeter and joined up with the 198 on our way to Sequoia National Park and our final destination of the day -Wuksachi Lodge. Again we had hoped that Marshall would nap in the car, but it wasn’t until 3:50 that Marshall dozed off. He has NOT been enjoying his time in the car. I had thought if I filled him full of food that he would have an easy time napping. All I accomplished was Marshall not showing interest in dinner. In the end it was the stretch of super-windy roads that caused Marshall to cry himself to sleep. He was able to get an hour nap in while we finished the drive (10 miles or so) and I checked into the lodge. After all the winding, I wish I could have taken a nap too!

We made a reservation for a 5:30 dinner at the lodge and set off to find our beautiful suite (I really am thrilled with it). We were greeted by 3 deer by the buildings followed by a hail storm. Rain had been sprinkling and it had opened up into a downpour. Of course we hadn’t packed rain gear. Here’s hoping tomorrow’s weather will be fair and we can enjoy the big trees! Dinner was decidedly not great and the Wi-Fi Internet Access was down in the lobby. Boooooo! We’ll find out tomorrow if the one other eating establishment here is actually still open for the summer tomorrow.

After returning from dinner, I noticed that deer were again down the ways from our building. I figured it might be the same dear from earlier, but it turns out it was a new set of 5 deer. I snapped some pictures, while persuading Marshall to not head up the hill after them. These deer are so tame I think he could get within touching distance. Tim has gone back to the room to rest his battered big toe (which he injured last Friday playing soccer). I was tired of herding Marshall and started us back to the room. Below I could see more people taking pictures. I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this place is crawling with deer!’. But I was wrong, as it turns out it was a brown bear heading up our way. I yanked a soon to be crying Marshall off the ground and hurriedly jogged back towards are room. I would have guess that the bear was a young adult. Marshall was crying to be put back down and was expectedly not as well-behaved as a rested child not locked up in a car all day would be. He was even too tired to be read a story. However, I did promise him animals and he has already seen something special.

9/11/08
Location: Tulare County
Today was a far more leisurely day for us. We spent most of the day in the near surroundings which was very nice. Seeing as we forgot to bring a stroller or backpack to carry Marshall in, we were very limited on the amount of hiking we could actually do. This was OK since Tim’s foot wasn’t up for any death marches anyways. Marshall was up just before 7:00 AM. Out first stop was the Lodgepole Visitor Center. We had hoped to avoid the bland and overpriced food found at the Wuksachi Lodge, but our hopes were dashes when we found that the snack bar at the Lodgepole Village had closed for winter. We briefly stopped at the visitor center, because it wasn’t very interesting. It was then back to the Lodge for their buffet breakfast. We opted for the continental breakfast which didn’t include eggs and meat. The fruit, oatmeal and pastries were enough to tide us over. Thankfully they didn’t charge for Marshall. Out next stop was the Giant Forest Museum, a few miles down the road. It was advertised as having neat interactive exhibits. Unfortunately they were still all too advanced for Marshall to enjoy. We took a short hike down to the entrance of the Big Trees Trail (.2 roundtrip). This short distance took roughly an hour on Marshall Standard Time. Marshall spent most of his time banging a stick on the ground, and he was intrigued by a “green stick” (a stick covered in moss).

Marshall hikes with Dada and his “green stick”.

Our next stop was Moro rock. Moro rock is a granite dome with a steep ¼ miles staircase to the summit. Tim made it half-way up before deciding it was too dangerous to take Marshall any further (especially since Marshall wanted to walk on his own). Poor Tim had to sit with a crying Marshall as I hurriedly hoofed the remainder of the hike solo. It was then onto “Tunnel Log” (the fallen sequoia you can take your car through) and Crescent Meadow. Again we probably hiked a total of .1-.2 miles before turning around for the car. It was nearing lunch time and we had to head back to the Lodge for lunch. We were at the mercy of the park warnings not to leave any food in your car, lest bears attack your vehicle. Thus, we continually had to return to the lodge for food. Marshall was tuckered out from his morning jaunts and had a hard time not falling asleep in the short drive back to the lodge. He woke up plenty to take part in his share of french fries at lunchtime.

Marshall with the resident lodge bear

We all returned to our room for a well-deserved (?) nap. I sneaked away at the end of the nap to use the lobby’s wi-fi. After catching up with e-mail, it was time to go back to get Marshall up and on to our last “adventure” of the day. Speaking of “adventure”, Marshall now uses this word in the fashion that he uses many words. Randomly. Tim thinks the ratio of Marshall speak is 50% babble, 50% the content in front of him. Marshall was asking to see bears and deer today, but in the end we ended up showing him neither. Our last stop was to head North into Kings Canyon and to head to “Buena Vista” trail. It was a 1 mile hike to the top. Marshall and I completed the biggest hike of our day … maybe .6 mile. Unfortunately, that means we had to carry him most of the way down. Tim made it all the way to the top to take some pictures. By the time we reached the car it was coming on 6:30 and we knew we would have to hustle to find a place to eat. Our first attempt was at the Montecito-Sequoia Lodge. The dining hall was packed with patrons for the buffet dinner, but we were quick to realize to actually was only for people staying in the buildings there.

We then high-tailed it onto the Stony Creek Center, where we barely caught the dining establishment being open. It was a pizza joint and they let us order a pizza to go. They also had a sundry store, so we felt compelled to by ice cream bars. Poor Marshall was very hungry at this point and we drove hurriedly the 20 minutes back to our lodge. Strangely enough, Marshall barely touched his pizza when we got to the room. That’s two times in a row that Marshall has shown no interest in pizza. Tim and I more than made up for him and now sit groaning with full bellies. Tim and I stared in fascination at the TV, since we so rarely get the opportunity to watch TV at home. There was a family guy episode playing. I was able to watch half the episode, but spent the latter-half giving Marshall a bath.

Tomorrow we plan on finally visiting the largest tree in the world, General Sherman. It should be a long hike for Marshall, but I hope that it will make it more likely for him to take a nap in the car on our long drive back to San Diego. It would have been nice to spend one more day up here. It’s been a struggle with Marshall for the most part. He is entering his terrible twos and there are a lot of power struggles to be had. It is difficult to be in a place where we can’t give Marshall a “timeout” for not listening, like we can at home. However, it’s been really nice to get out of the rut that is our day-to-day lives. At least it’s nice for me. Tim has been a real trouper, seeing as he doesn’t really like to go on vacation. As for Marshall, it’s hard to say what he will get out of the trip. Surely he is too young to remember it, but I have to wonder what sort of imprinting can be done at this young age. Will he likes the outdoors like his mom? Or will he take after his father? At least it seems he likes to go on “adventures”. It will likely be some time before we head out on another California County adventure, so we will have to make due with adventures closer to home.

Family shot standing on a brick representation of General Sherman’s girth.