Choco-smiles

Happy ABC Twinkle Twinkle 123 Birthday

Jack often bursts out in "song" with a mashup of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Alphabet song, with a sampling of his 1-2-3's. Here's a few videos of Jack babbling.

Traintown

We have been to Sonoma dozens of times but have never stopped at Traintown until this weekend.

We thought it would be a fun diversion to spend a night in Sonoma and indulge Jack's interest in trains so we took a roadtrip this weekend.

Traintown has a fun miniature open-seated train that travels through wooded areas, tunnels, over bridges, and stops at a mini-Western town that's complete with a petting zoo. Afterwards, there's a carousel, ferris wheel, and other carnival rides for more fun.

After Traintown, we took advantage of Sonoma's real summer weather, leaving San Francisco's typical fog and 60 degree "summer" temps behind. We ate lunch al fresco and swam in the hotel's pool until the sun starting setting.

CLICK HERE for more pictures of our trip to Traintown.

Declaring Independence from the Binky

Over the long Fourth of July weekend, we celebrated independence not from the British but from the Binky.

The dentist noted that Jack's bite was significantly off and believed that  continued use of the Binky would exacerbate the problem. Since Jack uses the Binky only for naps and nite-nite, we decided to go cold turkey and take advantage of the long weekend in anticipation of the sleepless nights ahead.

We talked to Jack a week beforehand about the Binky Fairy. How we would give all of our Binkies to the Binky Fairy and how he would get a toy in return of his choosing. Five days till the Binky Fairy. Four. Three. Two. On the big day, we took Jack on his first ferry ride across the bay to the seaside town of Sausalito. We walked straight to the toy store and let Jack choose some stickers and a little toy car. When we got to the register, we pulled out our Ziploc bag of Binkies and had Jack give them to the Binky Fairy behind the counter -- a somewhat apathetic high school kid in a black concert t-shirt. We quickly made an exit and distracted ourselves with some Passion Fruit sorbet next door. That weekend, Jack didn't nap because he couldn't fall asleep without the comfort of his Binky; and he stood up in bed and screamed horribly for it once we shut the door at night. A day or so later, it was hardly better. But today, Day 5, he went right to sleep. He's either exhausted himself over the past few days, or hopefully we can close this chapter.

After a lazy couple of hours in sunny Sausalito we headed back home on the ferry. We enjoyed the rest of the unseasonably warm weekend at Stinson beach and Chrissy Field's beach. The combo of sand and water kept Jack, and us, entertained for hours.

Here are some pictures of our weekend (click on a picture once or twice to make it bigger):

By the fountain in Sausalito

At Stinson Beach

At Chrissy Field, with Golden Gate Bridge in background

And a couple of videos of Jack in action: