San Diego and the Big Girl Potty

Our trip to San Diego was a success! Abby and I got through the airport and flight without much problem. She was quite the trooper and my splurge to upgrade our seats to economy class was well worth it. Andrew was able to meet us at the airport in San Diego, which was really nice. We collected our luggage and got on the shuttle to go get our rental car. After what seemed forever at the car rental place we were off to the hotel to get a good nights rest. Abby woke us up the next morning early. It seemed she forgot that there was a 2 hour time change. So we all got ready and headed off  downtown for a quick breakfast. Breakfast was amazing and we then headed out for the San Diego Zoo.

The San Diego Zoo is AMAZING and by far the best zoo I have ever been too. The paths and landscaping make it a wonderful place to walk around. We saw pretty much every animal you could hope to see and had a great time. Abby specifically loved the monkey and turtles. We went to see the Panda's, but by this time Abby had been worn out by the monkey's, hippo's, tigers, and other assorted animals that she had fallen asleep in the stroller. This worked out well for Andrew and I since there was about a 30 minute wait to see the Panda's. It was definitely worth it, and I can now say that I've seen panda bears. We got Abby a stuffed Panda to remind her of the Zoo, which she now sleeps with every night. The turtles were by far Abby's favorite part of the zoo. This was mostly because the aquariums they were in were right at her level and she could walk up to the tank and see them swim. She giggled and yelled "TURTLES!!" at every tank and then ran to the next one to check it out. It was super cute, and the best thing about being at a zoo having a toddler running around yelling is that no one cares, since everyone has a toddler running around yelling. We also stopped by the petting zoo, which Abby loved. We spent about 6 hours at the zoo, and even wearing my sneakers my feet hurt at the end of the day. We ended our day by eating at restaurant know for having some of the best fish in San Diego.

The next day we walked down to Mission Beach and walked the boulevard. It was pretty nice to be outside all day and stop in at a couple bar/restaurants to try the local brews. I did not expect San Diego to have so many local brews, but apparently it is known to have great local brews. We spent some time on the beach. It was a little to chilly to go swimming, but I did take Abby down to the water so that it could splash her toes. I left her close to the water where the wave could make it too her. I maybe left her a little too close to the water, because the wave that came in knocked her over and she ended up with a wet butt. (The wave that hit her barely covered her feet) She survived, but she had to run around without pants for a little while her pants dried. This was definitely a mom fail, as all I had wanted was a cute picture of the wave splashing her feet, and all I ended up with was a wet, crabby  toddler and no picture. After we got back to our hotel, Abby noticed 2 ducks outside on the patio. We grabbed some stale cookies and crackers and went to feed the ducks. I'm pretty sure Abby thought this was the best part of the trip. All in all San Diego was a blast and made me start thinking that maybe moving to a warmer climate may not be such a bad idea :)

The cage leading into the bird aviary (reminded us of Jurassic Park 3)

Mission Beach

 

She wasn't a fan of the sand at first.

 

Its that time...time to learn to use the potty. Andrew and I had nothing planned for this weekend, so we decided that this would be an excellent time to try potty training. We've had a potty chair for awhile, which she would occasionally sit on at "toot, toot" on, but no real successful pee's or poo's. I made a trip to target and bought some of the cutest little Elmo undies. We then bought a whole bunch of books and read lots of how to's and stories on the internet about how to potty train our daughter. Just kidding....we did none of that. All we did was take her pants off and let her run around naked. She pee'd a couple times on herself and screamed and hated it. She now wears her cute little Elmo undies and tells us that she has to potty. Success. I hope it lasts. 

That's all! I'm going to get back to watching the Masters. Yup, I'm old and enjoy watching golf. I hope the 20 year old wins it all.  Easter is this next weekend and yes this 29 year old still looks forward to going home and hunting for her Easter basket. Hopefully the warmer weather sticks around and we can hunt for eggs outside. 

CRABS!!!!

Sick, sick, sick. Poor Abby just cannot catch a break. In the past month we have dealt with a high fever for 5 days straight, a stomach bug, and now another ear infection. I'm actually pretty sure that her poor little body is just used to her running a 102 fever, because it does not seem to bother her much anymore. So, we are on another round of antibiotics for her ear infection. Hopefully it clears up before we head off to San Diego this Thursday, so she can enjoy seeing all the animals at the San Diego zoo. 

In preparation for our 4 hour flight, I hit up the dollar store and have prepared a whole mass of new toys to keep her distracted on the plane, so she isn't such a nuisance to other passengers. I am hoping this will work, as well as letting her run all around the airport prior to our departure, so she gets worn out and sleeps the entire way. I either see the plane ride going really well, or being the worst 4 hours of my life. Lucky for us Andrew got on the same flight back, so at least there will be 2 of us. 

I meandered my way down Coastal Seafood the other day to pick up some salmon and tuna for sushi when I was suckered into buying some fresh oysters too. (Alright I wasn't suckered into it, I love eating raw oysters and the price was right.)  I brought 6 oysters home, with absolutely no clue on how to shuck them. After Andrew got home from work, we quickly Googled a video on how to shuck oysters, and then found the sturdiest knife in our house and got to shucking. It wasn't actually that difficult once you got the hang of it. As I was shucking the last oyster and got it open, I saw a black/pink round looking thing inside. I thought I had struck gold and found myself a black pearl!!!! (I am actually pretty sure Blue Oysters don't have pearls, but you never know.) Anyways, I took out my treasured black thing and put it on the cutting boards. It had legs....pearls don't have legs....It looked exactly like this....DISGUSTING.

We quickly Googled this disgusting looking creature as I was positive that my oysters were ruined. Turns out these pea crabs are actually quite common in oysters and considered a delicacy. I, however, did not see them as such and squished it with a knife and threw it down the garbage disposable. I was, at least, happy to know that my oysters weren't ruined and tasted delicious!!!

Since Abby has been sick most of this month, we have spent most of the time at home. She has been working on learning her colors. Most days everything is green. She has also learned to count to 3. She loves counting and then saying go and running across the living room. She also LOVES bubbles!!!

Bubbles in the bath.

Shamrock shake time!

She took her own shirt "off." She was pretty proud of herself. 

Blowing bubbles!

Anyways, wish us luck on our travels to San Diego with a sassy toddler! I'm sure I'll have a whole bunch of pictures to share when we return!