Bay Area Break

We took a break from daily life and headed to the Bay Area for four days of fun.  Our first stop was Discovery Kingdom.  This was the highlight of the trip for Rachel because they had elephants.  We saw the elephants three times and the elephant show.  We watched the elephants eat hay, drink water, get a shower from their trainers, and perform tricks.  We also saw other animals, visited the butterflies, and rode a couple of rides that Rachel was tall enough for (she is still only between 31 and 32 inches), but these activities all paled in comparison to the elephants.

From Life with the Bjorks

Discovery Kingdom

From Life with the Bjorks

Discovery Kingdom

After our fun in Vallejo we packed up and continued on to San Fransisco.  We stayed in a condo so Rachel could nap every day and we could make our own meals.  It was very budget friendly and it was nice not to have to sit silently in a dark room while Rachel fell asleep.  However, she only ended up napping one day in the condo.  We did attempt it each day, but most days she crashed in her stroller long before her scheduled nap time.

Our first day in San Francisco we explored the batteries at the Presidio.  Rachel enjoyed climbing up and down all the stairs.  It was interesting to see and we were surprised to learn that the cement structures were over 100 years old.  After the Presidio and some quiet time in the condo we spent the evening at The Aquarium of the Bay.  It is a nice and somewhat small aquarium.  They have 2 long tunnels with lots of fish and sharks, jelly fish, and 2 touch pools.  Rachel was too short to pet the bat rays but she did get to touch a star fish.

From Life with the Bjorks

Presidio

From Life with the Bjorks

Presidio

From Life with the Bjorks

Aquarium

The next day we headed to the San Francisco zoo.  They do not have an elephant, but we were able to get Rachel excited about the Zebra and later the polar bears which stopped her from asking to see an elephant (which she asked for every morning).  Not thinking we saved the children's zoo till the end of the day and she fell asleep before we made it over there.  She would have enjoyed saying hi up close to all the farm animals.  We may have even convinced her to pet some.  After our afternoon condo break we headed out the Shakespeare Garden, Rose Garden, and a playground in the Golden Gate park.  The Shakespeare garden sounded like it had potential, but it was disappointing.  It didn't look that cared for and the presentation of the plants and the works of Shakespeare they corresponded with could have been a little better.  There was a list at the back of the garden.  Some plaques around the garden would have been nice and maybe some paths or something.  The gate into the park was pretty.  Rachel enjoyed running around the rose garden and smelling the flowers.  After she tired of that we headed to a toddler friendly playground we discovered on our walk to the rose garden.  Rachel made a friend at the playground.  He followed her around and copied everything she did.  She loved all the attention and even followed his lead a couple times.

From Life with the Bjorks

Zoo

From Life with the Bjorks

Zoo

From Life with the Bjorks

Rose Garden

On our final day we checked out the Randall Museum.  This is a fun and free children's museum.  They have some animals, an earthquake duplo platform that you can build a structure on and then push the button to test its ability to withstand an earthquake, a toddler room with toys, and a train area.  Brian was super excited to see how much she loved the duplos.  After play time we enjoyed our lunch on their grounds which are on a hill overlooking the city.  Following lunch we headed to the beach to squeeze in a little more fun before going home.  Rachel really wanted to go in the water, but took "no" very well and enjoyed playing in the sand until it was time to head home.

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Beach

Summer Update

From Life with the Bjorks

After about a month off from blogging I am back.  It has been a crazy couple of weeks.  I decided to work 3 weeks of summer school this year.  I worked 3 hours a week for the past year and enjoyed it.  Summer school gave me chance to dip my feet into working more hours (6 hours a day 5 days a week to be exact).  I was blessed with 2 interns and by the end they were doing all the work while I watched.  They will both make great speech therapists/assistants and I enjoyed supervising and training them.  After working all those hours I can safely say working full time or even more part time hours is not for me.  The moms that do are AMAZING!  I love being a speech therapist and I love being a mom, but being a speech therapist everyday would cause me to lose my sanity.  It is really hard to go to work, give Rachel and Brian attention, and keep on top of all the house work.  Plus Rachel let me know through her behavior that having a working mommy is not okay; although, she was great for her baby sitters.  At the end of the three weeks I found out my district is hiring me again next year for the 3 hours a week.  Thank you God for a wonderfully flexible job that allows me to be a mommy and wife first.

After finishing up 3 weeks of work, I worked VBS at my church as the craft director.  I have always said doing crafts with kiddos is not my thing.  I don't like mess, but in the end I loved being the craft director.  Yes, the stamping day and the painting day were intense in terms of set up and clean up, but overall it was an easy and fun position and my helper was fantastic.  Volunteering at VBS allowed Rachel to attend.  She loves the nursery, so this was a good week with very little challenging behaviors at home as compared to the previous weeks.  Rachel also loved the morning singing in the sanctuary she even attempted some of the moves which was super cute to watch.

Beside working, Rachel and I having been taking swim lessons at the community center.  She is enrolled in Tadpoles with other babies/toddlers.  She loves the water and has no fear.  This is both a good and bad thing.  A little healthy fear can be a good thing.  Besides learning to kick, scoop, and hold her breath we have worked with her on walking around the pool, stopping and waiting until someone tells her it is okay to get in, and grabbing the wall.  Her favorite pool activities are jumping in and playing ring around the rosy.  She even falls down/goes under all by herself.  We have one more session of swim lessons left this summer starting in a couple weeks.

How to Swat Flies

Rachel thought it was time to share another one of the things she learned.  Last week she learned how to swat those  pesky flies that sneak into the house.

Step 1: Locate the fly by pointing and yelling, "fly!"
Step 2: Swat at it with whatever you have handy.  A doll bib works great.
Repeat step 1 and 2 until all the flies are gone.

Also check out her fabulous outfit.  She dressed herself.  Shirts make great capes.  If you are going to be a successful fly killer you must have a cape.

Pop Goes the Weasel

Rachel has been hard at work learning all sorts of finger plays and rhymes. She knows "pat-a-cake," "if your happy and you know it," and can sing part of the last line of the "abc's." The other night we played with a cardboard box and learned "pop goes the weasel." Enjoy!

A Hiking We Will Go

From Life with the Bjorks

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!

I decided to celebrate Mother's Day today, on Saturday, because Sundays always seem really full. Between church, Rachel's nap, and our weekly grocery shopping trip who has time for a fun celebration. To celebrate being Rachel's mommy we went hiking at Hidden Falls Regional Park in Auburn. Auburn roads can be confusing even with directions, and after getting a little lost we found the place. When we finally pulled into the parking lot "hidden" felt like an appropriate description. We hiked down to the falls and enjoyed the view. It was pretty warm in the sun, but luckily a fair amount of the way is shaded. The waterfall was really full making for a gorgeous view from the observation deck. The observation deck was very toddler friendly with narrow railings, only a few people, and one narrow exit back to the trail. The hike up to the parking lot was a little tougher, but it was doable even toting a toddler in a backpack. After our hike we were rewarded with a shady picnic table and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then we headed home for some R&R. On the agenda for tonight: gluten free ham and pineapple pizza and lemonade cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting, mmmm.

From Life with the Bjorks

Time for a water and picture break

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Check out the view

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Hiking back up

Baby's First...

It is a well known fact that many parents record a variety of "Baby's Firsts," and Brian and I are no different. We enjoy sharing them with all of you, so without further ado...Rachel got her first black eye. We are marking the occasion with a blog post and a warning to all babies and toddlers out there that running with a sippy cup may be hazardous to your health.

From Life with the Bjorks

God Made Families

This week and last week we learned that God made our family, God wants us to serve our family, and who is in our family. We used the story of David serving his family by caring for the family sheep and bringing his brother's food on the battle field from 1 Samuel 17:12-19. We did some fun activities from our Toddlerific curriculum and pinterest. Rachel liked turning the paper plate story wheel from our curriculum and was really gentle with it. I am surprised it is still in one piece. We colored a "Daddy, Daddy Who Do You See" mini book from playingwithwords365.com with our little friend who spent the day with us last Friday. It was fun to have her join in Tot school for the day. We also read some board books with family pictures I made Rachel for Christmas. They are a fun way to teach her about family members she does not see very often as well as a baby safe way to look through family memories. In addition to all our family books, we played find the family members with large face cut outs I colored that were hidden in the living room and pulled puzzle pieces out of beans with family pictures glued on the back. I have to talk more about the puzzle because it turned out so cute and was fun to make. I saw an idea on pinterest to glue family pictures inside each puzzle cut out. I couldn't wait to do this for Rachel, but I did not want her to have to just rely on matching the shape of a puzzle piece by covering up the picture or color. She is little and still learning about matching. I wanted the puzzles to be doable for her so I glued the picture on the back of the piece. On a side note, after meeting Grandma and Grandpa's dog over Easter Rachel calls the picture of Grandma and Grandpa "Howie" (the dogs name). I think it is cute, but I'm not sure Grandma agrees with me. Rachel is also working on how to label herself. She has learned she is not "Ila" or "baby" (well she is, but she is more than that). She can't say "Rachel" and doesn't seem to really understand pronouns yet, so we have been practicing pointing to herself when she sees a picture of herself and is asked "Who's that?" I also provide the pronoun label when she points to herself or if I point to her so she is hearing the correct label. There is the speech therapist in me sneaking out during play time. I still have a couple more activities for this week including a family tree to glue family pictures on and a my neighborhood mini book to color. We will see what we get to in the next couple days.

From Life with the Bjorks

Rachel is enjoying her story wheel. Check out the fabulous puzzle in the background. In case you couldn't tell I am pretty proud of it.

From Life with the Bjorks

Just a cute picture of Rachel and Brian I had to include for your enjoyment.