Bayfront Park

Sterling has been planning this park trip for a week, and it was just really unfortunate that my kids chose this week to never sleep at all and I was hitting a wall on Saturday. A migraine-inducing wall that wasn't getting better with ibuprofen. Sigh. But we still had lots of fun! 

We decided to use the metro (Sterling uses it to get to school every day, so he has a pass, the kids are under the height limit, so we just had to pay a couple bucks for a one day pass for me!) so that we wouldn't have to find and pay for parking downtown or deal with traffic and see how it went. It was....fine. The bus gave me motion sickness which didn't help my headache. It was all...dirty. Like when I rode it in Chicago with my sister Kami and it just feels so....dirty. I am not a city person. Every time I look at street corners in Miami I think 'seriously? how does so much trash get everywhere?'. I don't think I would have minded so much if it was just me. But I sat there watching my kids put their fingers in their mouth and then touch every single stool and pole and window and then stick their fingers back in their mouth. Okay, I know, I know...I am a big baby! Plus, remember my head ache. It actually wasn't too bad though. And I remember a stroller being a HORRENDOUS hassle when I was in Chicago at my sister Kami's and it made everything SO difficult. But they always had a handicap opening right by the rest of the openings (not the weird three-pronged monsters you have to scoot through that I remember from Chicago) so it was actually no big deal at all to take our double stroller on the buses and the metro. The buses can actually lower a step so we can roll our stroller right on! 

Waiting at the bus stop by our house! (Literally, it is about half a block from our house.)

Yes, Ruthie wore that tutu all across Miami. And those are the capris from you Kayli that Ruth wears all the time.)

Looking out the metro window. You are above the entire city! I wish I had felt better, at one point we went above some city streets--about six different roads crossing above and beneath each other. Someday I'll have to get a picture to show you how crazy Miami traffic and roads are.

There was supposed to be a 'metro mover' that would take us directly from the downtown station to this park, because it is so touristy. But it was down for the day. They did have shuttle buses in its place, but that meant instead of flying above all the traffic, we were muddling through traffic, and making stops in some of the scariest parts of the city. Like Overtown. At one point (this was on our way home) Sterling looked over at me and said "Pretty sure we're the only white people on here." Haha. We're not racist, it's just so crazy different than little ol' Utah! 

Which reminds me. Ruth is pretty used to seeing Cubans all the time in the area that we live in, but they are fairly light skinned. Other ethnicities are quite a bit darker and I guess Ruth is not quite as used to that. We sat down in the metro and after a bit Ruth points to the man in the seat in front of us:

"Look, he's black."

me: "Yeah, he is."

"He's REA---LLY black, mom."

"uh-huh."

"Why is he black?"

"He's black and you have red hair. Everyone is different and that is good! We are supposed to be different."

"Oh! Cool!"

Then about ten minutes later she leans over and whispers to me, "Mom. He's STILL black!"

HAAHAAA. I just hope people have a sense of humor and remember that she's three.  

On the shuttle bus. With the weird lady in the corner who kept wiping her nose on the same rag. I should be less judgmental. But city life is still a shock to my system sometimes.

BAYFRONT PARK 

 The only other place I've been that I can compare this to is Pike's Place Market in Seattle. Right on the ocean, or bay, I guess. Lots of really neat hand-crafted items at little stands and shops and restaurants all crammed together. It was pretty sweet. VERY touristy, I think we walked through a school group (made me think of choir tour in San Diego) and it made me want to get some Miami memorabilia, haha!

Sterling and I decided that this fountain must be routed from the bay, because it is deep enough that there were waves on the top. 

 Do we really live here? 

Sterling said he wanted to ride that yacht/mini-cruise boat, whatever it is. I told him we road one like that on choir tour that had a restaurant and we ate and danced and had all sorts of fun. He was jealous, haha. 

Way to photobomb the picture, Seagull. That reminds me of another story, Sterling was picking up some chocolate milk and Will and I were hanging out at a bench right beside where this picture was taken, and some black bird (raven? crow?) came up to eat some of Will's crumbs. Will was FREAKING out, major!!!!! I couldn't decide whether to shoo the bird away or comfort Will, so I was trying to do both, when a nice homeless man came over and kicked at the bird and shooed it away. Then he told us not to leave crumbs so the birds wouldn't come back. Obviously, he's never had a two-year old try to eat, but it was SUPER SUPER nice of him!

I love how the ocean is RIGHT THERE! 

A stand was handing out free samples of Greek Yogurt, it was pretty great!

Eating our yogurts. Also, the pineapple in the back is SO pretty. On the front of that place they had a huge fruit cornucopia that was really pretty.

I don't know what that beautiful building is, but I want to go visit it now! 

Walking around we discovered live music and people dancing! Of course Ruthie was DYING to join in. Will was asleep in the back of the stroller, so we took turns dancing with Ruthie. The old Latin people that were dancing? AMAZING.

Licorice in hand. He may be related to me, haha.

Ruth was unimpressed by our dancing abilities, so a nice old man took pity on her and danced with her. She was still pretty shy, but it was so adorable!!!! He had some serious skills.

See the cool fish above their heads?

Too bad we packed a lunch, Sterling and I both thought this hot dog stand looked so great! It looks like it walked right out of Enchanted, right?

Happy girl!

This was right after the bird incident, I think. Beautiful white sand. 

We got some ice cream, courtesy of 7-Eleven, and I was FREEZING. It was pretty breezy, and only seventy degrees, and my teeth were CHATTERING. I think Miami is ruining me! I'll never be able to live somewhere cold again!

I thought this ice cream truck was pretty stellar. It had music and everything.

We ended the day at the play ground. Ruth loved it, I was freezing, and Molly fell asleep.

She fell asleep and her lip dried to my jacket. Sterling thought it was hilarious, so we had to take a picture!

Look at Will! Ruth was a crazy climber, but Will didn't do too shabby either!

Looking out the metro window.

Ruth sat by two teenage girls on the way home and kept making faces at them and laughing hysterically. They were good sports about it and laughed at her the entire time. They were probably happy to get off on their stop so they didn't have to entertain anymore. Haha. 

All in all, it was an awesome day! Quite the adventure and what a beautiful place! We definitely would enjoy going back and all we had to pay for was my two dollar, one day ticket! You are beautiful in January, Miami.

Two Year Old Boy of Mine

It's tradition in our family for the birthday kid to pick out their favorite dinner to eat. He's not old enough to tell us, but he is our mac 'n cheese boy through and through, so I consulted my idol, Pioneer Woman, and tried out some home made mac 'n cheese (I can only handle so much of the box stuff, ya know?). This is going to be a staple at our house from now on, I can say that right now. It was SOOO delicious. Nothing at all like the box kind. It baked in the oven and came out with this cheese consistency of fluffiness that had Sterling and I absolutely floored. Good pick, Will, good pick. We fully support your mac 'n cheese tendencies.

I am obviously not a food photographer. Just imagine whatever you need it to look like to be amazing. That's what it looks like.

I spent a good portion of time trying to convince Will NOT to pick this bike cake, because really, ANYONE can put m&m's in the shape of a bike onto the top of a cake. 

"Bike. Mom. Bike."

"But don't you want this cool car cake, Will? It's really awesome!"

"uh-uh" (translation:no)

"It's really cool. Mommy could make it really awesome and stack it just like this. You like cars!"

"uh-uh"

Ruthie: "You could have an Olaf cake Will! Want an Olaf cake?"

"Lo-la!!!!"

me: "You want an Olaf cake?"

"uh-huh"

"You want this car cake?"

"NO! BIKE!"

Ok. Ok. You win.

Upside to this cake, this is the first time I've made my mom's devil's food cake without the center falling. Pretty sure I have Miami and sea level to thank for that, but I'd prefer all the credit, thank you.  Also, the icing was so fabulous that Ruth and Will had to double-dip the beaters once they'd already licked them clean. I take that as a sound compliment.

He was thrilled, so I guess the bike cake was worth it, haha.

I tried to get him to wear his birthday hat and smile in front of the birthday sign. He was NOT having the hat and not having the photo-taking at all, really. Boys.

(Ruthie and Will made crowns today while I made his birthday hat. Thank you, pinterest.)

For a little while, this balloon sort of stole the show. Who knew. We really didn't need to get him any presents at all!

Thanks to Grandma for the little people airplanes and the pajamas! He LOVES the pajamas and the toys!

Big sisters are sometimes a menace.

These Wedgit toys came highly recommended. I will now highly recommend them to anyone and everyone. After only one night. One night and an hour and a half straight of playing with them. Will played with them for a good thirty minutes straight (he didn't even look at his new train set pieces until after that amount of time) and then Ruthie and I looked at the booklet and made all 12 on the manual. I was in love. She was in love. I want more sets. Haha. I think they are so awesome!

The Ikea train is one of our most-played with toys, but we only had enough pieces to make an oval. The kids are getting good enough at it to try to do more things and get frustrated when they don't have enough pieces, so we got a few more additions to the basic set. It was already a lot of fun! Will always sets it up, puts all his Schleich animals alongside the tracks, and pulls the little train along it. Definitely keeps him occupied longer than anything else we have.

We got the circular piece that can be moved depending on which direction the train is coming from. Whole new world.

Cheese!

 Molly was there!

Timber!

Oh Will. My little Will. I cannot believe you are two. 

There are SO many, many things I just adore about you right now.

Today when we picked up the m&m's at the store you were adamant about "Walk!" and then trotted along beside the cart in your 'almost-ready-to-fall-down-at-any-moment-but-always-manage-to-stay-up' run that you have. It never gets old to me. Seriously brought a lump to my throat today thinking about the fact that you are going to outgrow that clumsy unsteadiness. 

Your growing independence makes you even more the apple of my eye. The other day you wanted to walk down the stairs by yourself but I wasn't paying attention, because you used to be scared to. You said "MOM! HMPH!" and then pounded your chest. It was VERY clear that you wanted to do it all by yourself. I fell in love with you all over again in that moment.

Your frustrations and your kisses. So quick to say sorry and come and make up. Your snuggles. You are the best at hugs and the heavy weight of your body is just the perfect fit--outgrowing but just barely still small enough.

Your smell. Oh boys! That sweaty, almost-slightly-pee-smelling, dirt, but baby sweet smell. It probably cannot be loved by anyone except a mother, but I will be so sad when it changes!

Your hands. Still so pudgy but slimming out and getting so much more dextrous. 

Your one-eyebrow-raise when you think you did something extremely funny and you're waiting for my reaction.

How much you love to 'COOK!' Every time I walk towards the kitchen you come at a full sprint yelling "COOK! COOK!" I don't know why you love it so much, but I hope I always remember to encourage and love that about you.

How much you love baby Molly. You love to hold her, you ask to hold her every day, several times a day. You are SO proud when I let you 'hold' Molly while you are standing up. You are always the first to be concerned about her cry and you are VERY insistent about it until we go and take care of her.

Your giggle. Your grin. Your goofy sense of humor. Your play fighting. Your laugh. Your feet that are already too big for you. The (devious?) sparkle in your eye. The way you can sing popcorn popping ('POP!' is requested nightly, multiple times.) and twinkle twinkle by tune only, and you just munge in your babble to go along with the music. 

Your JUMP! It is hilarious! You can only lift one leg at a time right now, but that one leg gets pretty enthusiastic about the other one following suit, and it ends up being this bouncy, unsteady, jaunty affair that kills me every time.

There are so, so many wonderful things about a two year old little boy. I am so thankful for our man Will. He keep all these girls sane throughout the day and oh, boy, does he have his mama wrapped around his finger. Happy birthday!