"It's Official..."

Maletch is officially a beginner reader!! Yep, that's right!! Way to go, Maletch!
Hard to believe that he has known all of his phonics (sounds the letters make) for almost 2 years already. He learned them around his 2nd birthday, thanks to watching a few DVDs (from the Hooked on Phonics program).
Even though naturally the next step would be to learn how to 'sound out' words with phonics, I didn't feel he was ready for that (at age 2) since he was so young. Since he had mastered the lessons up to then (they were getting too easy and boring), I did go to the next lesson in the program and was surprised at how fast paced they went after that. So I felt it was way too much, and decided to put it all away for a while.

Meanwhile, we started what we call "school" for him last year. It started when I bought some Pre-school workbooks and he sped through the whole stack quickly since he loved them so much. When I say he loved it, I mean he would do an entire workbook in one day- if I would let him. I always had to limit him to no more than 6 pages in a day because I thought it would be too much. Not a day would go by that he wouldn't ask, "Can we do school now mommy?" Like I said, he plowed through the stack I bought, so I kept buying more challenging ones as he would plow through.
I decided to plan like a 'balanced curriculum' (with as many subjects as I could), mostly to see how he liked different things. I used the recommendations by some doctors and experts and bought a boatload of educational toys and teaching aids from a School Supply (I want to do a separate post about some of those things- I want to share since they are awesome). Anyway, I introduced beginner: math, science, computers, art, and lots more. There isn't anything he doesn't like so far, I take that back the only thing he doesn't like are coloring books- he thinks they are boring (but he likes tracing, drawing, and doing connect-the dots). He mostly enjoys books that have problem solving and logical questions, but his FAVORITES are doing mazes, and working with pattern blocks, and puzzles (mazes are his all-time fav though). He doesn't like easy mazes, if I give him an easy one, he'll make a face and say, mommy can I do a different one- and he'll flip to the back and find a really big difficult one that has only one correct path where he has to really think about. It's funny his mazes are so hard now, sometimes while he is working them, and I am trying to look ahead to see where he should go, sometimes I struggle and then have to try working it from the end point (backwards) to help me :) All of his workbooks are for ages 6 and up now: they all range from Kindergarten to Second Grade.

I had felt like he was ready for a while, so a few days ago, I decided to pull back out the Hooked on Phonics program to see how he liked it.... he LOVES it! He followed right along and immediately began sounding out '3-letter words.' He is so excited! Every night, "Mommy can I read tonight?" When I say yes, he starts jumping around, it is so cute! He's already said, he can't wait to tell everyone that he can read! He even started naming all of the people he wants to show and tell! Like everything else, I am tying to keep his pace slow and steady, because he is wanting to race through it. The rate he is going though, I'll bet he will be reading at a pretty decent level before his 4th birthday.
Although I didn't plan on teaching him this just yet, he has also been learning how to tell time (mostly on his own) and he has been asking me to teach him that too.
I really wish I knew how he learns so many things without being taught, I still can't figure it out!!

One Word..... AWESOMMME!!

We went to the Disney's On Ice Toy Story 3 show last night and it was even BETTER than we expected- and I did expect it to be great!!
This should be on everyone's MUST SEE list!

We got to watch one of my family's favorite movies acted out -on ice- right in front of us! This was a 2 hour performance and was entirely based on the movie plot. Disney always knows how to put on a fantastic show with the perfect music, the voices were the real actor's (from the movie), and the dancing and stunt ice-skating just made it electric! I actually was so drawn in that I laughed out loud during MANY parts and even teared up at a few parts (and I NEVER do that in movies).

John and I laughed so hard at Ken's performances (Barbie & Ken). Even though Buzz, Woody, and Jessie are supposed to be the main characters- Ken's performance was just friggin hilarious- he stole the show! He NAILED the character- remember the movie- the funny scene where he tried on clothes (modeling for Barbie) and was dancing and posing like a dork- he was SPOT on and just so funny to see a man doing it live! The chemistry between Barbie and Ken was so incredible too!

So Ken was our favorite (John and I), but Woody was Maletch's favorite. That is who Maletch 'plays' when we act out Toy Story. Just like with the Fresh Beat Band (see previous post) when Maletch 'assigns roles' he always assigns the same way: he is always Woody, daddy is always Buzz, I am Bo Peep, and Sariah is Jessie. So Maletch couldn't take his eyes off of Woody! Woody was played by an amazing actor/ice-skater who was very animated and VERY spot on! His voice was Tom Hanks just like the movie. Interestingly to John and I, many of the lines were straight from the movie (so they could have been dubbed) BUT... many were changed a bit- and only someone who has seen it 10,000 times like we have- would know.... but this means that they did an entire soundtrack with the 'big-name' actors (Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and more) JUST for this Disney on Ice show- and we were impressed by that!

Disney also amazed with the stage 'scenery' changes (I really didn't expect that in an ice-rink arena, which is much different than a theater, but somehow they made it feel like one) and I was also surprised by some incredible scenes with army man troops (picture hundreds of army men taking the stage, marching on ice-skates) and again when tons of aliens took the stage and "The Claw" appeared and dropped from the sky!

Once the toys made it to "Sunnyside" (Day Care) things got bad when Lotso Bear made them prisoners- and I was amazed at the HUGE Dumptruck on the ice- I'm telling you- great show!! The movie was still followed as Lotso changed Buzz to Demo mode to control the toys- but all was restored when Barbie tied up Ken and got the manual to change him back- except he went into Spanish mode!
Somehow they made this show the perfect blend of mostly 'regular acting' with just the right amount of musical theater performing thrown in. I sort of expected it to be entirely a musical, but it wasn't, and having so much real acting I think made it better for storytelling especially for kids who would miss a lot of lyrics in songs- especially when singers often times go crazy with the vocals. I was surprised that it was as easy to follow as watching a DVD at home- but FAR more entertaining!

It was awesome all the way through to the very end where we got to watch the bitter-sweet ending: when Andy is going off to college and says goodbye to his toys, remembering the good times he had as he gives them away.

I was super pleased with how Disney handled the ending (which was sad on 2 fronts): the plot was sad, and the show was over- and just when I was worried that all the kids in the place might get emotional and cry (including my own)-- then out came a whole PARADE of Disney friends (that weren't in the show): Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and more came out from nowhere with high energy singing and dancing, and out followed the entire cast which FILLED the entire ice arena! They did a few numbers and then ended with a happy goodbye song and told the audience goodbye in a "good to see you friends, we hope to see you soon" kind of way- just perfect- everybody was happy!

Maletch was so excited to see the show that he couldn't take his daytime nap, and not only did he stay awake for the whole show- he was so excited he stayed up and wanted to talk about it all the way home (the whole drive back from Long Beach)! Sariah stayed awake for the whole show too, hehe- and she was also really into it! She won't be able to tell you about it like Maletch undoubtedly will, but she liked it too. I am sure Maletch will also be telling you about the souvenirs that he got- he just loves his new Disney On Ice (Toy Story) toys.

During the show, Maletch whispered in my ear, "Mommy, I want to go out there and skate with them, I want to say hi and talk to them, but we don't have any ice-skates." I thought it was cute that in his mind, not having ice-skates was the only reason we couldn't go out there. Although we couldn't go out there and skate and talk to his Toy Story friends, I assured him that we will see them (the characters) soon at Disneyland and he could talk to them about the show. He has mentioned wanting to go ice-skating now several times since the show, so I will definitely be looking into taking him soon. That is something I have always wanted to learn, and now I will have a skating partner, hehe, but undoubtedly he will be better than me within 5 minutes, but I think the whole family will have fun trying it! I already looked up a near-by ice rink too- looks like FUN!!

I will definitely be looking for future Disney on Ice events to go to- I saw some old info about Beauty and the Beast on Ice, but that show is not playing anymore- which is too bad since Maletch has a crush on Belle now, hehe. But I did see that they are doing a Disney on Ice "Dare to Dream" show which won't be like Toy Story 3 (where it follows one movie all the way through) but is a 'collage of scenes' from different Princess movies (including Tangled, Cinderella, and more) and I know he would love that since he has a crush on almost all of the princesses- and he acts out all of their stories (his favorite parts are the villain scenes with lots of action)! That show would ALSO be a little girl's dream- and I hope it will still be playing when Sariah is about 3! They don't have anything on the schedule right now in the L.A. area, so I will have to watch for when they will be here.

I will post photos and videos from 'Our Night with the Toys'!!
.....coming a little later today.....

Note: We took several short video clips during the show and rather than posting them all- I will chose a few at random to post for now-- BUT John is going to melt them all together and edit it in Pinnacle- which I think will be very cool to watch- but he probably won't get around to that for several weeks.

Disney On Ice Toy Story 3 Slideshow!!

Two Exciting Events Coming....

We have some fun and exciting events marked on our calendar!!
First I was able to score 4th row tickets to see Disney's Toy Story on Ice show for this Sunday (Jan 8th)! I have heard it is an awesome show and I am looking forward to seeing Woody and Buzz Lightyear on skates, LOL! Maletch is a HUGE Toy Story fan, so I know he is going to love this! We do get to see the gang at Disneyland, but this performance will be very different from anything he (or we) have seen before!
I posted a youtube link so you can see some clips (to get an idea of what it is about). Check back soon as we will have lots of photos and videos from our night...



That is the first event, scroll down for the EVEN better event...

Event # 2: DRUM ROLL Please.....

I need a Drum Roll please for the MOST exciting event....

Maletch is a HUGE fan of the Fresh Beat Band! For those that don't know who they are: They have a cute show on Nickelodeon that stars this Pop/Hip Hop band and they are actually really good! The actors/band members are in their late 20's, but play teenagers and they have a sitcom kind of show and they always perform multiple songs throughout the show. They also have music videos. It comes on TV in the mornings, but we watch shows and music videos "on demand" whenever we want.

When Maletch was 18 months and we gave him his drums and piano, he used to pretend 'we' were the Fresh Beat Band.... and now, 2 years later, he still does, and now he adds in the role-play/acting (in addition to the music playing).

He ALWAYS assigns the roles in this way:
Maletch: "I'm Twist"

"Daddy, you are Shout"
"Mommy you be Kiki"
"And Sariah can be Marina"

When I found out they would be in Southern California, I was all over trying to get good tickets. It was harder than I thought, they were sold out all over Los Angeles, San Diego, and more- (which I was surprised since the tickets had only been open for sale for 3 weeks- they are very popular).

*

Now for the BEST Part:

While I was searching for the best tickets I could find, I found out for a heftier price they offered (to a very limited number of people): a VIP Party Package which includes: front row seats, BACKSTAGE passes to a private party with the band, of course meeting the band, posing for pictures AND the band even teaches the private party-goers a special choreographed dance and dances it with them---- you know I HAD to get that! That is quite the experience!! Well getting THOSE tickets is way easier said than done, but with a lot of perseverance and pulling a few strings- I DID get them!
We do have to travel 3 hours to the nearest venue that had that available, which is a little far, but we will just make a mini vacation out of it! We will get a Hotel for 2 nights, and party with the Fresh Beats, hehe!
This just happens to be on our anniversary weekend too- what a fun way to spend our anniversary! I couldn't think of a more fun thing to do!!

Even though this is band mostly for kids, I am 'cool' enough to admit that I actually like their music, hehe! I have actually caught myself (multiple times) saying, "Oh this is my jam" and dancing to their songs, yep I'm a dork!
I CANNOT wait to tell Maletch about this HUGE surprise because he is going to FREAK- and I can only imagine his face when he meets his idols (especially Twist, who Maletch always 'plays'). We will tell him about 1-2 weeks ahead, so the countdown of days won't be too long- but I am bursting with excitement to tell him now!

Now I need help figuring out what the kids should wear to their first Hip Hop concert and backstage party... I'm thinking it needs to be Rockstar-ish but I haven't figured out what exactly... please share any ideas??

My mom had a good idea, that we could all dress like our 'characters'. This is what they always wear, and this is Twist. Anyone know where I could get a yellow hoodie similar to this (his has a DJ, record type logo on it).

The characters if you are curious (left to right): Marina (Sariah), Twist (Maletch), Kiki (me), Shout (daddy). So we could try to dress like this -OR- what would be appropriate for a: not-quite 4 yr old and 9 month old rockstars? (the ages they will be in Feb)

Please remember that he DOESN'T know yet, so don't mention it to him yet. The event is Feb 17th and we will tell him towards beginning of Feb (please check with us first).

With the concert, backstage party, and dance with the band- I can't wait for this event, and I can't wait to take lots of photos AND videos!!

I wish everyone could come and share this experience (especially the grandparents and cousins), but unfortunately just since last week, when I purchased the tickets- the VIP tickets are SOLD OUT there too! General concert tickets are still available, but the front rows are sold out (and the VIP packages are reserved for a small group that have preferred seating).

If anyone is interested in doing this, contact me, because when they come back on tour in Southern Cali, I'm sure we will be doing this again and I can help you get your VIP tickets/packages at the same time (next time)- so let me know now, so we can plan it (because this sells out almost instantly).

*Update*: We told Maletch and he is SUPER excited! Please feel free to discuss it with him!!

OUCH... and WHAT???

First the OUCH....
OMGOSH, tonight Maletch cut his mouth on his new trumpet. He was running around in the kitchen playing it when he tripped and slammed into the dishwasher. The mouthpiece jammed in his mouth and made a very DEEP gash (under his tongue)- poor guy! I am not one to freak too much about blood- but it was gushing out- all over him, me, and the floor- it was a LOT of blood. When he opened his mouth, it was pooled up around his teeth, he was swallowing it- it was not a pretty sight!
Anyway, I am pretty good at first aid- thanks to my dad (who is like MacGyver) teaching me lots of tricks and having 2 crazy brothers, LOL! OK, so I had to find the gash (which was tricky being in his mouth and with so much blood) but I got it cleaned up, put pressure on it, etc.
This bordered on an Emergency room trip since I knew it could definitely use a few stitches, but I also know that they rarely stitch in the mouth since our mouths are made of special cells that are quick healing. So I called the on-call doctor to explain and get advice since it was late, John was at work, and I preferred not to drag my 3 yr old and 7 month old in for an all-nighter if they would just send us home (and ask us to come back in 1-2 days).
In the end, I couldn't get it to entirely stop bleeding, but I got it to slow down to an ooze (it was still a deep open wound).

Now for the WHAT???
As I was speaking to the answering service, who would page the on-call doctor, I was answering questions on the speaker phone (my name, patient name, phone number, etc)
Maletch was right next to me saying the answers before I did:
Guy: "Last name?"
Maletch: "Pollard."
Guy: "Birthdate?"
Maletch: "March second."
Guy: "Phone number we can call you back?"
ME: "area code 909"
before I could finish, Maletch said, "seven nine six, three seven six three"
Wait, What??
I stopped talking to the guy and asked, "Maletch, do you know our phone number?"
He said, "Yeah it is 796-3763"
What the heck??? No I didn't teach him this, and neither did daddy. He has only heard me give it out (maybe a few times) and he remembered the numbers and sequence?? John and I still don't understand this? I asked him to say it again a few more times, and sometimes he would add the "909 area code" and sometimes he would just say the 7-digit number (probably since he has heard me say it both ways).

It was funny when I got off the phone and I realized that my 3 1/2 yr old son could have actually made that call on his own- he didn't need me, he knew how to answer EVERY question the guy asked and even could explain what happened as well as I could- pretty crazy!

Oh, and after I got off the phone, Maletch said, "We need to tell daddy, this is an emergency!" Of course we called daddy and Maletch told him everything (how it happened, the whole story), and he even added, "I am bleeding and there is a lot of blood everywhere... and daddy, mommy was scared." Oh sweetheart, I was hoping you didn't know that!

Merry Christmas!! 2011

We definitely had a Merry Christmas and Santa must've thought Maletch and Sariah were especially good (maybe they made the nice list TWICE, hehe) because they got a load of presents!! We did a little better this year because it only took them 3 days to open their presents (from mommy and daddy), rather than last year (where it dragged out over 5 days- ok that was a crazy amount of presents). Hey we shaved 2+ days off our time, LOL!
I am sure Maletch will want to tell you all about the fun things he received for Christmas, but until then, I'll share some....
This year Santa brought a boatload of learning/educational toys (a few that I want to share and recommend and I will do a separate post about those). Santa also brought a track set for cars (motorized cars came with the track too) but it is also perfect for his "push" cars (diecast cars) too- we have always wanted a designated track for those- so that was cool! Another cool thing Santa brought was a Melissa & Doug Puppet Theater for the kids to perform with and of course he brought a BIN-full of puppets to go with it. With every kind of puppet imaginable- I am sure they will make up great stories with their selection of puppets!

Then they moved on to presents from mommy and daddy, and Maletch got some new Thomas wooden trains, tracks, and destinations, new Geotrax stuff, superhero action figures, a Buzz Lightyear Spaceship Command Center plus lots of action figures, a Stomp Rocket and they both got lots of Disney toys and a boatload of new DVDs.
There is just too much to list so I will post some photos of their loot!

I will post some photos from both Christmases soon (I've been wanting to go back and post our Christmas 2010 photos- that was during the time I wasn't blogging/ pregnancy complications) but I still want to share! Our pics are on the other computer in the office and the kids are not allowed in there, so it makes it harder for me to get time in there!

...Photos still being added to the slideshow below....

Christmas 2011 Slideshow!!

Maletch: The Little Actor!

I have been wanting to take a video of this for a LONNNG time and tonight I caught a little on tape for you!
Since Maletch was a little over a year old, he began acting out every single scene during movies (actions and dialogue) everything down to the voices and facial expressions. Yes, even when he was too young to understand what he was saying. Then he began to want to play characters around the house when the TV was not on (some of you have seen this) he will pass out roles and we can 'improv' to different characters, and sometimes he wants to reenact a specific scene. Lately, he is all about Snow White and his favorite is (the queen/witch scene). We have not seen the movie yet- he is getting it for Christmas :) but he met her at Disneyland and started asking all about her. So naturally we started reading him stories about Snow White.

I am typing all of his dialogue below since he is a little harder to understand on video:

"Magic Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?
There was a rumble, and a rumble, and a rumble, and smoke appeared.
It is Snow White.
What? I am posed to be the fairest. Ha Ha Ha.
I am going to drink this drink, (gulp, gulp, gulp)
and turn into the witch. Ha Ha Ha!
Here Snow White have a poison apple.
Take a bite and make a wish.
I wish I can meet the prince.
Aaah, you will sleep forever.
Oh no, Snow White is asleep.
How we can wake her up?
I'm sad, (wah wah) [the Seven Dwarfs]
We need the handsome prince to give her a kiss.
I am the handsome prince, I will give her a kiss. (mwah)
Yeah, Snow White he is awake."

I will try to capture a better 'performance' for you soon, but until then...

Note: Don't forget to pause the music player (at the bottom of my blog), so you can hear him better- or the sounds will be battling.

Snow White Performance.MOV

Sariah 6 1/2 Months Slideshow!

Playing with Photoshop!

I am having fun playing with Photoshop! Last year we bought the program because the software we had just couldn't do as much as I wanted with photos. There is a lot you can do with Photoshop and I have a LOT to learn. One thing is for sure, it is not a simple program (it is not intuitive)- so this may take me a while :)

I like the look of photos when they are mostly B/W with parts in color- so I was playing with that...
These weren't the best quality pics to start with-- so I am really looking forward to editing decent portraits that we will take with our lights and backdrops. I've got some ideas I can't wait to try!

The original pic (before edits)

Funny, this pic looks like I placed a digital butterfly image on her head (hey that would have been easier, LOL) BUT, I really put a butterfly (from my scrapbooking supplies) on her head when I took the photo.

Below is a collage: These are all of Sariah at 2 months old

Sariah Likes Mishief Too!

We gave Maletch a digital camera on his 3rd birthday, and it is the most awesome little camera! It is loaded with everything a kid could want from games to even video recording capabilities! It does not perform like a DSLR, hehe, with it's low 2 mp resolution but he doesn't seem to mind the low picture quality (most 3 yr olds don't care much about that)- he just loves that he can take REAL pics. This camera even came with jacks to connect and view his photos and videos on our TV, or upload them to the computer. It also comes with in-camera photo editing as well as software for editing on CD-ROM! Pretty neat, huh? I love that he is becoming tech savvy so young, but what I love best is that it gives me a way to see the world through his eyes! Sometimes I am surprised by what he wants to take a picture of- and sometimes he gets really creative setting up his shots too, lol! It is funny when I scroll through his photos and see all of our mug shots, and perfectly displayed groupings of toys, to freeze frames of a TV show, to many shots of just his feet. I will be sure to upload and share some of Maletch's favorite photos (that he took) in another post. He is very proud of some of his shots!

I was goofing around with his camera tonight and I took a video of Maletch playing on the computer, at first, but I panned across and saw Sariah opening Addie's present, lol! Caught-cha little stinker! Sorry Addie, hehe, I will re-wrap it! The video isn't the greatest quality since this was taken from his camera- but you can still make it out- but no Addie, you can't see what you are getting, LOL!

*Note: Be sure to pause the music player at the bottom of my blog before playing the video or the sounds will be battling. The pause button is towards the upper left hand corner of the player.

P.S. If you are interested in getting one of these for a child 3-10 yrs old for Christmas, it is the VTech Kidizoom Digital Camera Plus (the "Plus" part makes a HUGE difference from other models) they retail for $80.00-90.00, but I just saw them on walmart.com right now for 60 bucks (with free site-to-store)- great deal! Walmart offers 2 colors: pink or blue. I did a TON of homework on these (like everything else I buy) and this kids camera is the best on the market by far!

Sariah Opening Addie's present!?!? Video!

Thomas the Train 2011!!!

Yep, we made it to our "Day Out with Thomas" today! Although it did rain on our parade, it did not rain out our fun! It was pretty dang cold and wet, and although that was a bummer, there was one positive side to the weather- it made it practically empty compared to last year. The lines were so short at each station there was almost no waiting for anything!!

Maletch is so funny, although he knew about this event because he had been counting down the days literally for over 3 months.... he said that he wanted to be surprised and that he did not want us to tell him on the day until we get there (just like last time)..... SO, I decided when we had counted down to 12 more days, that I would quit telling the exact number of days anymore, and just say, "Yep, pretty soon..." ... WELL that little bugger KNOWS how to count down from 12 all by himself because last night at bedtime, he says, "Mommy are we going to go see Thomas?" I said, "Yeah, pretty soon, a few more days." He said, "A few more days mommy, or ONE more day? It is only one more night-night and THIS is the night-night, right?" I didn't want to lie to him (it really broke my heart) BUT he said he wanted to be surprised, so I fibbed and said, "No honey, we aren't going to see Thomas tomorrow, we are going to do some errands though"... (and I made up a bunch of stuff, hoping that would distract him if I kept talking, plus it was a built in excuse for where we would be "driving" in the morning). I could tell this was confusing to him because he HAD kept track!!
I don't know how the heck he does that-- BUT he has done this to us so many times in the past with Disneyland- we did a similar thing like let him know in advance that it was coming so he could look forward to it- but like 2-3 days before I would stop saying the number of days (not to surprise him with those trips, ONLY to make sure he would go to sleep and not stay up all excited) WELL he had figured out how to count down (and keep track) of 2-3 days by himself and would ask the same questions the night before--- so I THOUGHT I had learned my lesson- so with Thomas - 12 days - I thought that was plenty of days to lose track of for a 3-yr-old, but NOPE!! Holy heck?!?!?!
Anyway, so we fibbed and tried to play it off as good as we could, and apparently we were pretty convincing because even though he initially DID know (on his own)- he did seem surprised when we got there (only because his mom and dad were fibbing) BUT, he was super happy that we did that.
I am glad he appreciated our "trick we played", lol, cuz I really hated doing it- but NOW John and I don't know how to let him know about something in advance so that he can look forward to it, without him always knowing the night before-- cuz you CAN'T tell him about anything coming, without him wanting a specific- he WILL ask you how many more days, and even when I have tried saying things like "about 2 weeks", he always asks, "How many days is that?" LOL! How he keeps track without a calendar, I really don't understand??? I have even tried telling him it was one day later (adding one day to the actual number of days) if it is really 6, then just say 7 from the beginning, but he heard me tell John the plan apparently, cuz he 'called me out' on that too, hehe! Man, what a dilemma!

A few details/highlights/cute moments:

I chose the last departure time (train ride) of the day so that we could spend the entire start of the day doing the different activities. Maletch lasted all day without a nap, and without getting fussy- what a trooper! This way too, the whole day was a 'build up' to the best part- our ride on Thomas, and boy was he looking forward to it all day. He was so excited when we finally boarded, announcing, "All aboard" and blowing his train whistle... we got half way through our journey and the poor boy fell asleep, hehe! I really couldn't believe my eyes- but he was THAT tired, poor boy, he missed part of the train ride! Well, thank goodness he was awake for the first half, and then we made sure we woke him up before we got off (opposed to carry him) because I didn't want him to feel like he missed the end and didn't say "goodbye." I don't think he realizes he nodded off for a few minutes, and let's not anybody tell him, hehe.

After Maletch got his Thomas tattoo, as we were leaving the 'Tattoo parlor' (haha) he stopped and said, "Wait, Sariah didn't get a tattoo, we need to get one for Sariah!" My heart melted that he was looking out for his baby sister. He is always such a sweet boy, but when he shows thoughtfulness to her, it is always so touching to me. I think it was even more so since we were in a place that was so FUN, it would be easy to 'forget' to be thoughtful of others (like be thinking about the next fun thing we were going to do), but he continued to be thoughtful of her all day. He wanted her to get everything that he got. As far as the tattoo, although we hadn't planned on getting one for Sariah, hehe, of course we went right back in. Maletch said, "I think Sariah wants to have a Percy tattoo." That was a great choice, and Percy is what she got!
He always wants to share every thing he has with other kids (no matter where we are) and today was no different, right down to the bag of chips he was eating. "Mommy, I want to share my chips with that boy over there." Throughout the day, several of the employees had heard his thoughtful comments/gestures, and many were giving him special treatment, hehe! It is a pleasure to take him places and always has been- and I am so grateful for that!

I love their Thomas store! I scored a lot of cool Thomas merchandise again this time (exclusive Thomas stuff only available to event-goers). I picked up a few scrapbooking items, photo frames, cute Thomas clothes, as well as a few Christmas gifts for him!

We had a special bag of Thomas gifts for him when we got home to top off the perfect day! There were many goodies in the bag, including toys, videos, and other misc Thomas items- he loved everything!


I am just starting this post, BUT I have been working on the slideshow for what feels like FOREVER... the pictures are taking WAY too long to load (my computer must have something VERY wrong with it), so I still don't have all of the pics on here, nor are the ones that I have organized, but I threw some in a slideshow for now and I will just have to work on this later (right now I need a break). There should be more pics, and better pics later today/tomorrow.
I am so MAD at my computer because what should have taken 2 hours (to download, edit, and upload to internet) has taken 15 hours and I am still not finished!! UGGH!!! I don't have time to diagnose and fix my computer- dang thing- I just want to finish uploading photos!

Here is a "sneak peek" thanks for stopping by!
Much more coming..........

Thomas 2011 Slideshow!!

Happy Halloween 2011!

I threw together a slideshow below that I will work on more later today.
You can check out "The Pollard Squadron" for now....
Do we look tough???
Yep, nobody wants to mess with us!!! :)
We had a nice Halloween with the kids although we didn't make it to the Festival on Sunday as planned because I was so exhausted (apparently). I didn't mean to, but I fell asleep Sunday afternoon and slept until about 1:30am on Monday- I guess our crazy schedule finally caught up to me. Anyway, John came home from work early Monday, so we could take the kids to the Festival Halloween night, but we got there just in time for them to close, so we stayed a short time and then headed for the Elephant bar.
John's dad (Pops) is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force so when John's mom saw some Air Force costumes at the Bx she couldn't resist getting them for the kids. Apparently they found the one for Maletch first, and when Pops spotted the baby girl 'Air Force Princess' costume/dress he completely flipped, hehe! They are adorable! They were able to give me plenty of time to find John and I some Air Force costumes too. I decided on flight suits for us, since the kids had fatigues, so that we would not all be twins, and also so that we would look a little more like Air Force than Army. They also sent some "Pollard" name tag/patches and official Air Force Patches and pins that we attached to all of our costumes, as well as official AF hats for John and I which really made our costumes complete!
My costume is shorter than I would have liked, but it was the only flight suit I could find in my size. I don't know why so many Halloween costumes are that way? My costume aside, I thought we looked tough, hehe! Even little Sariah, our newest recruit in our squadron was ready for trouble! And our leader sure looked HOTT in his uniform! :)

We received lots of comments, although.... if I hear "Look at the Army family" one more time, lol! I don't know how many times I said, "We are AIR FORCE", LOL!

One of the highlights of the night was when Maletch asked me to dance with him. Although I dance with him a lot- the way he asked me seemed like a boy asking a girl at a dance- it was so cute! Of course Maletch danced in his true "Dancing with the Stars" fashion, and wouldn't let me do otherwise either. And while we were dancing in the Elephant bar (where nobody else was dancing) not only were we not caring what anybody thought, or who was looking, there was something about that moment I can't explain that I just knew that I would remember it forever. Thank you for the dance Maletch!!

Sariah 5 1/2 months
Maletch 3 1/2 years

I just realized that I did post pics of Sariah trying her first smoothie (which she LOVED) but I didn't post the pic of her facial expression when she first tasted it- it was HILARIOUS! She made the face like she didn't like it, apparently she had to get used to it first, hehe- she looked like it was the most disgusting thing ever- ok note to self- I will get that pic later today (it's on the other computer) AND also Maletch (my super picky eater) cracks me up, he never wants to try anything new- WELL he didn't even want to try a dessert that he LOVES (for some reason it looked different to him), and I also snapped a photo of the look on his face (the look he makes when he is looking at food he is unsure of) and that photo also made me laugh out loud, and I didn't post that one either. OK, so that is 2 pics I need to add....

Halloween 2011 Slideshow!

Backing Up!

I have so many things that I want to go 'back' and blog, in addition to keeping up with the new updates, and I am working hard to get it all caught up. It was shortly after Halloween last year, that I began having complications during my pregnancy and I wasn't able to keep up with the blog after that.
I will at least go back to include some of the big events, holidays, and family visits from the past year that were missed. Initially when I post something new, it will be at the top of the blog, and then after everyone has had a chance to see it, I will then put it where it belongs chronologically in the archives (so you may see some posts disappear from the front page). I mention this because I know some of you download photos from the slideshows and posts, so I wanted to give you fair warning that I will be moving some of the posts. If anyone has questions about how to see or find older posts, please don't hesitate to ask.

Scroll down to see photos, videos, and details from our "Day Out with Thomas" the train...

When Little Boys Misbehave!

What do you get when little boys misbehave?? A HUGE mess, hehe!

I don't know what it is that attracts little boys to mess and destruction so much, but when Maletch decides to make a mess it is always a BIG one.

Tonight, I served Maletch a cup of hot chocolate, told him I was going to take a shower, would be back in 15 minutes and I told him when I got back we would do a special project I had planned. He was excited.

But before I came back, he came into the bathroom and this was the conversation:
Maletch: "Uh-oh, mommy, I made a huge mess, you need to come and see this! I think I need a spanking."
Me: "You think you need a spanking?"
Maletch: "Yeah mommy, come here and spank me."
Me: "You want a spanking?"
Maletch: "Yeah."
The irony here is that we don't use spanking to discipline. We just don't find it necessary, since we have found what seems to be more effective with him (and no we don't use "time-out" either).
So this was kind of funny that he was asking for a spanking... what the heck??

I went downstairs to find he had taken a straw and used it like a spray gun and sprayed hot chocolate splatter all over everything within a 1o ft radius. When I say on everything I mean everything, it was all over the table, the cabinets, the walls, my sewing machine, laptop, the floor, even the stroller... EVERYWHERE! Uggh! I don't know how one cup could make such a huge mess, but everything was so covered in it!

It took me over an hour scrubbing the sticky film and spatter off, and I am still finding it in the weirdest places. Although I didn't see him do it, I can just picture him having fun trying to see how far he could shoot it, like- 'I wonder if I can hit this or that?'

Although that was probably 'fun' mischief, he definitely knows better, and of course I did not find it funny. So needless to say, he got in big trouble tonight! Little stinker!

Another whopper of a mess:
A few months ago Maletch made "cat food soup" in the carpet. We keep the cats' food and water dishes on the landing (on the stairs). Well he had taken the dry cat food and their water, mixed it together and mashed it in the carpet with some kitchen utensils (I remember a spoon, fork, and hand can-opener were used in his 'project'). And I am still not sure what the hand can-opener was used for (as there were no cans). When dry cat food gets wet, it becomes soggy and smelly- so super gross to be smashed in the carpet. When I asked him what the heck he was doing, he said, "I'm trying to help feed the cats." I found out later that he was chasing the cats around with spoons and forks loaded with his soup creation trying to 'spoon-feed' them, LOL! Ok, even though that mess was big and gross, I did find that kind of cute and pretty funny, but don't tell him that, hehe!

I will admit that even though he gets into mischief occasionally, we know we are blessed that we don't have to deal with a lot of the typical 3 year old bad behavior. We know that he is a very good kid and we are so thankful that he plays with other kids very well (sharing), and he never hits or throws tantrums. So I will gladly deal with his mischief over that any day, and count my blessings!

My Blog Efforts:

I am making an effort to add a little to the blog everyday. So far, I am doing it, YAY! So keep checking back, hopefully I can stick to it, and there will be something new everyday. Sometimes I'll make new slideshows, and sometimes I will add new pics to existing slideshows (like I did the last few days).
Especially since I don't have much time to talk on the phone, I hope this is a good way for me to keep in touch with everybody- it's great that I can do this in the middle of the night when I have a few minutes- it's too bad most of you are sleeping and don't want to talk to me then, hehe!

Below is a Slideshow!!

Well, our lil ones are getting bigger everyday, and there is just so much I want to share! I wish I had more time to spend on updates, and I will make an effort to post more often now.

Sariah is just amazing! She is 4 months old now and already has 2 teeth and more on the way! She can also sit up by herself (without support) and she doesn't stay where you put her anymore (she scoots around) and she is on a mission! She prefers her brother's toys over her own and she LOVES to play with him! She is a very happy baby and likes to laugh and smile but she gets fussy after he goes to bed- because she misses him- apparently he is way more fun than mommy!!

Maletch is doing great! He is getting very good on the computer and enjoys watching videos and playing games on the internet. He still loves Thomas the train and is very excited about the "Day out with Thomas" that is coming up in November - he talks about it everyday. We went to it last year and I will be posting pics and more about that soon!

I have a million photos that I just uploaded from my camera- since I am tight on time- I just threw together about 20 pics (all from one day) into a slideshow below and I will add more to it throughout the week (when I have time to pick a variety from more folders).

A Few Pics of Our Lil Princess!!

Funny "Maletch-isms"

I have always loved hearing about the funny things that kids say, and until a few years ago (before I had kids) my favorite stories from friends with kids were always the "kid-isms" that they would share. So I am especially loving the fact that I get to scrapbook and share the ones that Maletch says and since there are so many already, I can tell there is not enough space in his baby book for all of his quotes, so I just purchased a special journal just for his "Maletch-isms", and I hope he enjoys reading the funny things he said when he was little.

Here are a couple from the past few months:

I asked Maletch, "So what do you want to be when you grow up?" I could tell he wasn't sure exactly what I meant, so I talked about what daddy does for work, and what Grandma does, and then I added, "You can go to college and be anything you want to be, like a fireman, or a doctor, or an astronaut, or even the President of the United States." He was thinking about it, and then with the most serious look on his face, he answered, "I want to be Elmo when I grow up."
Later that week, he brought the subject up again on his own, and I guess he decided to 'change his major' because he said, "Mommy I want to be a conductor when I grow up" (and he was playing with his trains at the time)

Maletch drinks a lot of milk and juice throughout the day, and he likes to switch off constantly, so I always have 2 cups in the fridge (one for milk and one for juice) that I keep full so he can have whichever he wants.
I guess since Maletch had always heard me say that it was time for Sariah to have some milk, he thought it was time for a change because while I was breastfeeding her:
Maletch comes over and says, "Mommy, I think Sariah would like some JUICE now, I don't think she wants milk right now" and he was trying to give her his cup of juice.
I said, "That is very thoughtful and sweet of you, but she can't have any juice right now, so I am just going to give her some milk, but thank you."
Maletch, "Oh, OK."
A few seconds later, he asks, "So mommy, does that one have milk and that one have juice then?" (he was pointing to my chest, the different sides).
...does that one have juice then, LOL, wouldn't that be cool?

Today, Maletch was playing with a toy bus, and there was an Etch-a-Sketch sitting beside me, so I picked it up and said, "I am going to draw a bus like yours." Remember the Etch-a-Sketch, you draw turning the little knobs. So I thought I would impress him with my drawing, and I thought I had done pretty good at drawing the bus. When I was finished I showed him and asked, "So what do you think?" He said, "That isn't really right, mommy. The wheels should be circles not squares, and they should be the same size. You probably want to try it again."
OMGosh, he is an observant little man, he was right, those were my mistakes! So I had better not ask his opinion if I don't want my work critiqued, LOL!

I'll add more quotes soon...

Happy 4th of July!!

We had a blast at our annual 4th of July place (University of Redlands or U of R)

Of course Maletch started dancing in the parking lot right when we got there since he could here the music, shouting excitedly, "Come on mommy, let's go, let's dance!"

As we walked, holding hands, he was walking faster and faster, to the point I was being pulled- he wanted to get inside and he couldn't wait!

The only drag about going to this place is the amount of people going that don't have tickets. That is totally fine (in reality, I think they don't know what they are missing inside, since there is an entire show)- they want to watch the fireworks show for free- and I don't care that they want to see fireworks (why would I care?)-- BUT--- the traffic to get there is so insane- the streets are filled with cars and nobody moves forever- and we learned most of the people backing up the streets don't have tickets and that makes the people that do have tickets have to sit in that mess- that is pretty annoying!

That was off the subject a little, I just remembered that we were late getting inside, and that was why-- but it didn't take away from our fun- I just wished we wouldn't have missed any of it due to traffic delays!

Back to the actual fun- I was so surprised that Sariah wasn't scared at all by the noise. I knew the fireworks would be loud, but I forgot that to get a good spot to see the show, it puts you close to the speakers and what I really forgot was HOW loud the speakers are-- holy moly! But she didn't care a bit! She was staring at everything and having a good time! We really expected her to sleep through a lot of the event, since she is only 7 weeks old and sleeps a lot normally-- but she didn't sleep a single wink and we were there a LONG time- we didn't get home until midnight and she didn't fall asleep until the car ride home!! What the heck?? She wasn't going to miss a thing! She also didn't fuss one single bit the whole time! She loved all of it!

Maletch has seen fireworks many times since we have year round tickets to Disneyland and we always watch their fireworks show- so it wasn't as big a deal to him. Funny and surprising to me: Although he enjoyed the fireworks part, he was unimpressed you could tell hehe- he loved the music and the rest of the show more, and his favorite part was running around with other kids he met there. I was surprised he knew what the track in the stadium was for, he kept asking other kids to race him, and he knew to 'get in a lane' (on the track) and even funnier, he got in the sprinter's starter stance (one knee down, both hands down) and everything! Don't ask me where he learned that, but it was fun to watch, and that boy is seriously fast! I knew he could run fast, but I have never seen him run as fast as he can apparently, until tonight- and I will be looking for a Track & Field team that allows 3 year olds because he has speed! He was the fastest kid out there, and he was beating kids MUCH bigger than him. This might be hard to believe- but even the biggest kid who was 11 yrs old couldn't catch him!
I have a TON of pics so I threw some together in a slideshow below-- BUT I just realized that I didn't put a photo in that made me laugh OUT-LOUD -- a pic of the first time Sariah saw the fireworks- her eyes got so HUGE! I am so glad we got a photo of her reaction- it was so funny! I've got to find that one and add it to the slideshow, plus a few others that we took at the house before we left!

4th of July!

Welcome Baby Sariah!!

We are SO very blessed with TWO beautiful children!! I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Welcome to the world baby girl!!

I love to just stare at Sariah, and every time I gaze at her- I always hear a song playing in my head (kind of like a soundtrack) as I look at her- and it is the song playing right now. Since I am always hearing "Could you be the most beautiful girl in the world..." in my head, I just had to upload it so you could hear it too!

She is amazing!
She is very strong physically, the very first day (only a few hours old) she lifted and held up her own head without support (just like her brother did) with total neck control as she turned her head both ways and looked around the room to check things out.
In fact minutes after she was born- when she was brought to me for the first time, she immediately recognized my voice and opened her eyes. I was amazed that she knew which direction to look- with all the commotion and people around- she looked straight at me and we locked eyes. I was so happy because I knew that very moment that her hearing was fine and that she had a lot of sense of her surroundings already! Also, I was surprised for being just minutes old that she was very alert and trying to focus her eyes so intently!

Immediately after birth, while she was being cleaned up beside me- she was sucking, rooting, and looking for her milk! She was born hungry and ready to eat, and unlike many babies that have to endure a lot of practice breastfeeding- she was successful on the first try!
The doctors were joking and commenting that she had the "loudest suck" they had ever heard. One doctor (the one that broke her collar bone), felt compelled to visit us the next day. He recalled, "I think I will always remember her as the baby with the strongest suck," he added, "I could hear her from across the room- and there were a LOT of people in there- I could hear her ABOVE all of that noise!" Hey, when she's hungry, she's not messing around! hehe!
Soon to be posted, the now funny, but crazy story of the day she was born- which was like a movie, but was real- I only know it was real because I must have asked, "Is this really happening, or am I dreaming, is this a movie?" at least 95 times!

Meet Baby Sariah!!!

We Spent a "Day Out With Thomas"!!

This is from last November (11/2010):

Oh man was this a treat for Maletch!! As everyone knows, Maletch is a HUGE 'Thomas the Train' fan, and so when I found out they had a "Day Out with Thomas" event- I was ALL over it! It turns out that they only have ONE Thomas (it is a real train that drives on real railroad tracks) and is an exact replica of Thomas. Since there is only one, they travel the country and stay about 10 days in each city. So when I looked into it originally (thinking it would be a cool birthday idea) they happened to be back east someplace, and wouldn't be here until November (the closest location to us was Perris, CA) so I bought tickets about 6 months in advance and we couldn't wait to go. Even though it wasn't going to be a birthday deal, we decided to still make it a surprise to make it more fun! I also surprised my dad and Denise with tickets, since I knew it would mean so much to them to experience it with him. Thankfully they live close enough and were able to make it!
It was held at the Orange Empire Railway Museum, which is a cool place all by itself- having many antique trains that still work, and offering rides with reasonable ticket prices- something we will most likely be doing in the future.

Anyway, back to our 'Day Out with Thomas':
They had so many areas at this huge place set up for kids, they had:
* A store that was filled with EXCLUSIVE Thomas merchandise (exclusive to event-goers only, not available in any store)- which I took well advantage of buying scrapbooking supplies, clothing, picture frames, toys, and more!
* Movie watching room, where kids could watch movies (Thomas films of course) being played on a huge screen TV
* A ginormous play area with every type of Thomas track and so many train tables and trains that you can imagine
* A couple of huge Bouncy House Castles
* Petting zoo
* Meet Sir Topham Hatt area with photo op
* Tattoo Station
* Story Telling & Live Music areas for entertainment
* Arts & Crafts station
* Photo ops with Thomas (in between passenger trips)
* Additionally, there were all of the museum things to see and there were plenty of trains that the kids were allowed to climb on: some antique trains/cabooses and they also had several neat wooden trains (not real) that were meant for kids to climb on.

All of these activities made this an all-day event. When we purchased tickets, we had to choose a Departure time out of the many trips Thomas would make throughout the day. I chose one of the later times, and we had plenty to do while we waited to board Thomas for our 25 minute train ride.

Maletch loves to tell the "Train Station Story" and he tells it everyday, or he asks me "Mommy, can you tell me the train station story again?" Often times he wants to tell it over and over (many times in a row).

This is how the story goes when Maletch tells it (these are ALL his words verbatim):
"Mommy and Daddy took Maletch in the car but they didn't tell him where we were going. I said, mommy where are we going, and she said, I can't tell you it's a surprise. Then Maletch fell asleep in the car and mommy said, wake up Maletch, we are here. I said, where are we mommy? She said, it's a surprise. Right then, a train whistled, I said, I hear a train mommy. Mommy said, yes you do, take a look out the window and see who it is. It's Thomas, it's Thomas! Mommy said, yes it's Thomas, it's REAL Thomas, and guess what? We get to ride on real Thomas! I said, No way really? Mommy said, Yes we do. I said, Can we go? Let's go! Then we got to ride on the coaches Annie and Clarabel and Thomas pulled us forwards and backwards. Grandma and Grandpa came too. We also got to meet Sir Topham Hatt and Sir Topham Hatt said, what's your name, and I said Maletch. He said, nice to meet you, and I shook his hand. We took a picture with Sir Topham Hatt. I got a Thomas tattoo too and mommy gave me a Thomas whistle surprise. Let's see, what else did we do? Oh yeah, I also got Shake n' Go Thomas and Day out with Thomas toys at the train station store."
Maletch is quite the story teller, and he is 100% correct in his version, and it is almost the same way I tell it to him. The only thing that he doesn't know is that John and I teared up seeing his initial excitement and reaction. It was awesome, and the look on his face and the excitement he had is something I will never forget!

Needless to say, he has been asking when we can go see Thomas again. I wish we could do this more than once a year, but that is the only time they are in our area. If you ask Maletch about this, in addition to the story, he will tell you that, "Thomas is coming from the Island of Sodor to California in November."
He also adds, "First it will be Halloween, THEN Thomas." And yes that is all true, that is where Thomas lives, and he will be here in November, so Yay- that is only next month now!! I hope my dad and Denise can come again, Maletch has been asking about that! I really hope we can make this an annual tradition (until Maletch looses interest in Thomas). I suspect he will 'be into' Thomas longer than most, since we have such an elaborate train set-up.

I have SO many pics and videos from that day- scroll down to see the slide show and videos. In the last video, you will see Maletch 'watch' one kid high-five another kid, and he wanted a high-five too, but he was too late.
... oh and of course be watching for our new adventures with Thomas next month! Hard to believe that last time I was 3 months pregnant with Sariah (so technically she went too, LOL) but this time she will get to see it for herself!

**Don't forget to pause the music player (at the bottom of the blog) before you play the video clips (or the sounds will be battling). The pause button is towards the top left corner of the music player, the same button can start the music again if you wish.