A Quick Trip to Happy Hollow

We haven't been to Happy Hollow in a while so after preschool today, Peyton and I drove down and spent a couple hours there. We only had about an hour and half before it closed - they have limited hours when the school year begins.

We started off at the carousel where Mr. P-Rex (my Mom's nickname for him) chose to ride the Triceratops. :-)

From there, we jetted on over to the roller coaster (it was only open for 30 more minutes). I apologize for what you're going to hear in the following video. There's a reason why James usually rides the "scary" rides with our daredevil son. I dislike heights. I don't like roller coasters or anything super fast, other than cars. But, as it was just me and Peyton today, I had to suck it up and ride that roller coaster...TWICE! He had a ball, of course. Gotta keep him happy. :-)

We made our way over to the Danny the Dragon ride which was set to open at 2pm which gave us a few minutes to eat lunch.

Then he wanted to ride on the Kiddie Swings which he rides alone. I wish I could have gotten pictures or video while we were waiting in line. He was dancing to the beautiful Brazilian music playing. We lucked out and got the same music for the ride. Enjoy!

He wanted to ride it again, so he stayed on and went around a second time.

Then we headed over to his other favorite ride: the Frog Hopper. I mistakenly called it the Frog Jumper which he like and now it's the Frog Jumper in his mind. I got lucky as we were behind a mother with two girls in line, and the mother sat in the only adult seat on the ride, so Peyton had to ride it without me - oh darn! ;-)

From there, we only had about half an hour before the Park closed, so I gave him the choice of playing on the slides or feeding the cow (both of which he wanted to do). He chose the slides. I feel bad that he already knows that I won't climb up those structures, but he's a champion climber!


He went up the "easy way" the next time.

He just always comes out smiling. :-)

We're really trying to work on the concept of time and consequences of being late. He gets upset if we leave school to late (because he runs around with Naoki and refuses to go to the car) and misses the northbound train at the station. And, today was another learning opportunity. At about 2:40, I told him that if he wanted to feed the cow, we had to leave the slides soon. He refused. I asked again for the next 10 minutes and he kept refusing. So, when the announcer came on the speakers at 3:00 throughout the park saying it was now closed, I had a little meltdown to deal with as he wanted to feed the cow. Oh well, he'll understand eventually.

Overall, it wasn't bad for my first solo trip to Happy Hollow with Peyton given that we only had 90 minutes and he normally likes to spend 3-5 hours there. But we packed in a lot of fun. :-)

Peyton the Contortionist

Every day, after school, I take Peyton to either the Menlo Park or Redwood City train station to watch the midday trains. He loves seeing the trains. He says "Hello train. How are you doing?" most of the time - not as often as when we first started doing this.

Peyton likes to play on the crossing tracks after the trains leave the station. The trains only come hourly between 10am and 3pm.

A northbound train (right) and southbound train (left). This doesn't happen to often, but when it does...

...Peyton gets annoyed when I ask him to turnaround to take a picture with both trains! Bad mommy - ha!

Last week, we got quite a surprise. The northbound train pulled up hauling two engines! Peyton was confused but liked it!

He likes to play on the crossing tracks after the trains leave and likes to inspect the crossing arms.

Happy at the train station yesterday!

We usually get to the stations a few minutes before the northbound train arrives and then wait another 10-15 minutes for the southbound train. During this time, Peyton stomps on leaves, looks at the train schedule board, watches what people are doing, and if all that fails, he does this (at the Menlo Park station):



My little contortionist. I'm not sure how much longer he'll be able to do this as he's growing, growing, growing!

Trains and Spelling

Life has been crazy at the Stafford house recently, so I apologize for not posting any new updates lately.

Peyton is doing very well! He started his school district classes in September. He attends a social skills group two mornings a week and has 30 minutes of speech therapy prior to his social skills group one day. The group that he's currently in is comprised of 5 kids all with some language delays which are causing delays in socialization. Last week, I met with his teacher and she told me that Peyton's language skills are above what she's teaching in his current group, so she will be creating a new group for him and one of his classmates starting in November, that will focus exclusively on applying his language to socialization. James and I are very pleased that the teacher is willing to make this change so early in the school year!

The three other days of the week, he continues to go to his inclusion preschool at Milestones, part of Abilities United. He loves it there! He's made some great friends. Our little guy is growing up; he now calls me "Mom" and James "Dad". Rarely, he'll call us Mommy and Daddy, but he's definitely not a little baby any more!

Potty training has derailed - up through last week, he was able to pee and poo on the potty, but just wouldn't tell us when he had to go. Then on Sunday, he refused to go to the potty AND refused to get his diaper dirty. This caused big messes at night. :-( So, I've had to beg him to go in his diaper and we'll revisit the potty another time. (He'll go at school, sometimes, so it's definitely a control issue on his part - my little Taurus).

But, I'm happy to tell you that Peyton has started to SPELL! He can tell you what letter words start with, and has learned to spell his own name. We are so proud of him!

At the Car Wash

My Dad likes to keep his car very clean and goes to a place where they hand wash your car (exterior only) while you sit inside. I thought Peyton would love to watch this, so James and I took Peyton to get Papa's car washed on Saturday.

Our Little Fish

Last week's swim lesson was one of my favorites. Peyton is getting more and more confident in the water and just has a ball in the water. Here are a few pictures taken throughout the lesson.

 

 

 

 

 

At this lesson, he was in a very silly mood and wanted to make lots of "bubbles". His teacher, Carrie, was able to work it into a lesson in kicking.

More bubbles!

And then, this happened....

Yes, that's right! Peyton was SWIMMING! All legs, but still, swimming! And, he did it again.

And again!

I immediately sent one of the videos to James and he was sooooo happy! Way to go Peyton!!

Peyton's FIRST Train Ride!

This weekend was the Abilities United Carnival at Peyton's preschool. James and I have been trying to plan a day to take Peyton on the train, but couldn't find the right time because we would always need a car wherever we ended up. Plus, we didn't want to go anywhere too far, in case he didn't like it (you never know).

There's a train station about a mile away from Peyton's preschool, so we decided that a 4 stop ride would be perfect as a starter trip. I dropped James and Peyton off at the Redwood City station. I waited with them until the train came.

Peyton was SO excited.

He was happy to hear the train.

There it is!

Waiting patiently.

So excited!

I apologize for the loud screech of the train's brakes as it stopped at the station, but here's a quick video of them getting on the train.

I picked them up at the California Street station and we made our way over to the Carnival. We had a lot of fun, and Peyton got to experience his first jumpy house. He loved it!

Then it was back to the train station and I got my turn to ride with him back to Redwood City, while James drove to pick us up.

 The earlier train had been very full, so Peyton had to sit on James' lap and couldn't really look out the window as there was someone in the window seat. The Northbound train was pretty empty, so we got seats to ourselves and Peyton got to sit by the window. 

 He was surprised to hear the conductor's voice come over the intercom.

We had fun!

 I tried to get him to look at my phone while saying Chugga Chugga Choo Choo, but he was glued to the window. Once again, I apologize for the loud background sound.

 He was really fascinated by how fast things were passing.

He LOVED riding the train. He keeps asking to ride the train again. Now, he wants to ride the train to the Academy of Sciences. The train station is on the other side town, so we'd definitely have to split up and have one of us drive up and pick us up and then drive to the Academy. Maybe....

Our "Playdate" with the Matsuda Family at the Academy of Sciences

At our last playdate with Naoki, we mentioned that we are members at the California Academy of Sciences and invited them to join us whenever they wanted on a trip with the boys. Due to some scheduling conflicts, we were finally able to make the joint trip last weekend!

Peyton did his usual stop at the T-Rex, but I was amazed that he limited it to just a few minutes when Naoki said he wanted to see the sharks. We made our way to the ostrich exhibit.

They were 53 days old and significantly bigger than the last time we were there!

We made our way down to the aquarium. Naoki loved the Philippine Coral Reef.

The wonderful Matsuda family!

We got lucky and got to see a diver cleaning the tank.

Naoki and Satoko watched the diver intently.

Even Koki was intrigued!

Koki really liked the diver and the tank.

Isn't he just adorable?!?!

But, I don't blame him - it's an amazing view!

Peyton and James made their way to meet us and Peyton greeted Naoki with a kiss (of course).

Then it was back to his newest fascination at the Academy - the pythons!

I'm so glad they're all sealed up.... :-)

Back to the Philippine Coral Reef.

I could sit here all day - it's amazing!

Peyton and Naoki decided that they wanted to see the penguins in the African Hall, so we made our way back upstairs.

In the six months that we have been going to the Academy, this is the first time we realized that the landscape behind the zebra and oryx diorama is a digital screen that loops an elephant stroll through the African savannah.

Peyton and Naoki climbed up on some "rocks" to watch the elephants.

Naoki making a funny face.

Koki decided to join in the fun.

Hi Koki!

We took a lunch break, then took a quick peek on the roof (it was cold and very windy that day), and then explored the second floor - the naturalist and education floor. Peyton was very interested in examining mini plastic skull replicas of homo sapiens, homo erectus, australopithecus, and a chimpanzee. He was so focused. He sat still for about 15 minutes just playing with them. Opening their jaws and studying the differences. Peyton is extremely active; he doesn't sit still for very long, so this was incredible.

Peyton's latest point of interest has recently been volcanoes. We were excited that the education center was playing an episode of PBS' Nova on Mount St. Helen's. He was so happy!

Being that we had Peyton and Naoki together, it was just a matter of time before a game of chase started. And they did not disappoint us! Even Koki joined in the fun.

 It was getting late, so we made our way back down to the aquarium for a different view of the Philippine Coral Reef in the deeper, darker room. The room is lit with a blue light, and I love this picture of Naoki.

But of course, the main focus of the room is the large round window into the depths of the reef.

Buddies enjoying the view. (One of my favorite pictures).

Before we left, we made one last stop to show Naoki and his family the water show.

It was a long day, we were there for about 6 hours (we had previously spent no more than 4 hours there), but we saw so much and had so much fun! We look forward to coming back with the Matsudas!