Currently

Laughing at…Toby waving his arms back and forth really fast when he’s done eating.  And sometimes he’ll shout out “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa” when doing it.

Amused by…Toby’s new fascination with stealing things from the fridge and running away with them.  For instance, yesterday he thought it was hilarious to take the milk jug out and run off with it.  And today he managed to snatch a container of hummus and sneak away into the living room.  By the time I realized he grabbed something, he figured out how to take off the lid and smeared globs of hummus on the floor.  I was freaking out and laughing my ass off at the same time.  And he was SO mad at me when I took the hummus back and made him wash off his hands.

Struggling with…change.  Hubby has a new job which means longer commute which means lot of adjusting for me and Toby.  And the solution is not me going back to work, like oh so many people have suggested. 

Loving…fall is on its way!  I remember last year feeling very sad with summer ending and how I wasn’t ready for the seasonal change.  But this year I am all about autumn – bring on the pumpkin goodness!

Grateful for…my Scentsy business is really taking off and I’m pretty proud of my hard work :)  Being my own boss has pushed me to branch out and be creative in all aspects of the business.

Working on…getting Toby to say more words.  I’ve given up on him ever saying Mama but I will take anything else at this point as he’s just not very consistent with saying things.

Wishing…we were back in Maine still on vacation.  This year’s week away at the beach was so different compared to last year, but in a good way!  It was a lot of fun watching Toby “jump” in the waves for the first time, splash in the wet sand puddles, scoop up sand in his toys, and chase after dogs on their after-dinner night walks on the beach.  He couldn’t get enough of the ocean – one day we had to pull him out since his feet were blue and he threw a fit the whole way back up to our spot on the beach.  I think he would have gone completely under the water if we let him!

Maine 2012 – First Family Vacation

Things have been quiet around here since we just got back from our first family vacation!  We rented a house in York Beach, Maine last summer for a week in late August and wanted to continue the tradition for this summer.  We had decent weather (there were a couple rainy and cloudy days that I think were remnants of Hurricane Isaac), but at least it wasn’t overly hot since our rental house didn’t have air conditioners.  We spent a lot more time at the house this summer since Toby was with us, but we were able to get out each day and do something new.  Both sets of grandparents were able to come up so we had extra sets of hands to help out, which was nice :)  Let’s just say I quickly realized that vacationing with a kid is not really a “vacation” anymore. 

Getting ready for this trip was exhausting – just trying to remember all the stuff Toby would need was crazy!  I basically went through what we do the entire day, starting with his morning routine, and made a list of things we needed to bring.  I’ll do a separate post with my lists I updated from last summer.  My organization paid off, though, since we didn’t forget anything and we adjusted pretty well in the rental house.  I was also really anxious about wondering how I would feed Toby the whole week.  I think people forget that even if I’m bottle feeding him, I still have to pump to keep my supply up (or to keep me from getting too engorged).  That means I had to make sure we came back to the house after 4 hours or so, or I would bring my pump with us and plan to pump in the car.  I managed to keep up my supply, but it will be much easier next summer when he’s drinking regular milk all the time! 

Toby did really well the whole week – he was so good during the day and was fussy only a couple evenings.   He played a lot and also really started interacting with us more this past week.  He was “talking” (cooing) and smiling all the time.  If you continue talking to him, he loves making noises back at you.  He also hit some milestones this past week, which was exciting.  He started grabbing his toys on his activity mat and infant seat and is oh so close to rolling over.  He pulls his legs up all the way to his chest and moves to one side, but just can’t roll over completely yet.  He also started sticking his tongue out ALL the time and is always trying to lick his onesie or shirt.  He sucks on his fist a lot, too, but he was doing that before we got to Maine. 

I was worried he wouldn’t sleep well in the pack n’ play, but he adjusted quickly.  The first couple nights he woke up a couple hours earlier than he normally does at 1AM to eat, and he got up again 4 hours later at 5ish instead of normally getting up around 7ish.  The third and fourth nights he managed to stay asleep until 2:30ish, so that wasn’t so bad.  And then one night he slept from 8:45PM – 4:15AM, which I think is the longest stretch he’s ever done.  Hubby and I woke up at 3:30AM that night wondering if he was okay because we hadn’t heard him cry yet!  He did really well with naps in the pack n’ play, too – he averaged about 45 minutes each time we put him down.  The only thing that worried me was that he moved like crazy in it, even with the swaddle done tightly.  I would lay him the long way on the mattress and sometimes when I came back to get him when he woke up, he turned himself 90 degrees so he was laying the short way.  And one time he managed to scoot all the way to side of the crib, smooshing his face against it, so I went in to move him and that woke him up completely from his nap.  Even though the side of the pack n’ play is mesh, I still felt like I needed to move him.  All in all, it went much better than I anticipated!

Enough talk, here’s some pictures to recap our week:

We walked down to the beach a couple times and then did an actual beach day towards the end of the week.  We visited the Nubble Lighthouse (I want to do a family picture there each year now), went to the zoo in York for the first time, took a road trip up to Freeport to shop at L.L. Bean and other stores, and of course had to hit up the Kittery Outlets to purchase some fall and winter clothes for Toby.  We also had lots of ice cream from Brown’s and the Scoop Deck in Wells.  Time to start counting calories for real again if I want to fit into my jeans before it gets cool out!

Babymoon in San Diego – Part 4

I was looking at my pictures from San Diego yesterday and I can’t believe it’s already been 2 months since we were there.  Need to finish these recaps :)  Catch up with Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

On Saturday of our vacation, we started off early to head up to the neighborhood of La Jolla, which was about a 20 minute drive from our hotel.  I had read in one of the tourist attraction books in our hotel room that La Jolla is a must-see and to definitely wake up early to grab a parking spot to see the seals and sea lions on the nearby beaches.  It’s a good thing we left when we did, since by the time we got there it was only 9AM, and there were very few spots left.  La Jolla is gorgeous – huge cliffs overlooking the ocean, amazing views, cute little neighborhoods, very nice parks (people were even doing yoga outside), and it was so clean.  Seriously, the sidewalks and parks are spotless.

 

 

We walked down to the famous “shared” beach where the seals hang out, also known as La Jolla Cove.  You’re allowed to go right down to the beach to see them, but there is a yellow rope hung up suggesting where you should stop.  It was so fun seeing them in their natural habitat – I could have spent all day there but I think we were only there for like a half hour.

After watching the seals take naps on the beach, we drove to the Birch Aquarium.  Their exhibits showcase local animals you can find in the ocean around San Diego.  Definitely no big creatures, but it was pretty neat to see how many different fishes and other marine life are living in the Pacific.  Tickets were $14 a piece and I had a $4 off coupon, so it was worth it to spend a couple hours there.  I can see how this would be a big hit with younger kids.

And the best part were the outside patios that let you see the amazing views of La Jolla Beach and the pier.  By this point, it wasn’t so cloudy and it was starting to get warmer outside:

We did drive down to La Jolla Beach, but didn’t actually end up getting out of the car.  It’s definitely a surfer’s spot, though – so many of them were there.  We decided to drive back to the hotel to make some lunch and then in the afternoon we headed to Point Loma, another neighborhood that was only about 10 minutes away.  Point Loma is the most southern part of San Diego.  We went to the Cabrillo National Monument, which is part of a national park that also includes the Old Point Loma Lighthouse and a visitor’s center.  There’s a ton of trails you can explore for hiking, but I was pretty tired by this point so we only checked out the lighthouse and the visitor’s center.  It’s $5 per car to enter the park, which is well worth the price – I would say the best views of San Diego and Coronado can be found here. 

   

After a full day of walking around, we went back to the hotel to hang out for awhile.  We then decided to walk to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner called Pomodoro, since it got really good reviews on Yelp.  It was absolutely packed when we arrived, and when I asked if we could put our names on the list, the hostess was pretty rude and suggested we consider going next door to their sister restaurant, the Lighthouse Bar and Grill.  She claimed the menu was practically the same and they had tons of open tables.  I was REALLY in the mood for Italian and pretty skeptical about checking out the other place since I was a little put off after dealing with this girl, but we were starving by that point.  We decided to see what the other restaurant had to offer.  They sat us right away and the service was great, so it was a good move.  We had amazing meatball skewers and very tasty pasta dishes – overall the experience was pretty good. 

Babymoon in San Diego – Part 3

Our third day in San Diego started off with a tour at Petco Park.  One of our goals is to eventually visit all the major league ballparks in America, so we wanted to make sure we did a park tour while on the West Coast. 

This tour was definitely the best one we’ve been on.  The guide was very knowledgeable, funny, and we spent the right amount of time in each part of the park, so it wasn’t boring at all.  I like how he explained that when building the park they wanted to borrow ideas from other favorite ballparks, so there’s bits and pieces of the park that look familiar.

Can’t wait to start bringing Baby C to ballgames :)  Baseball is really the only sport that Hubby and I like watching together (with the exception of basketball).

After the tour ended, we walked back through the Gaslamp Quarter (the ballpark is located on the edge of the district) and wandered around for a bit.  We decided to take ferry over to Coronado Island, so we waited on a bench on the pier until the ferry departed.  Got a little too much sun from that :)  The ferry ended up being a water taxi since we were leaving from the smaller pier but at least it was only a five minute ride over to Coronado.  Below is what the view was when we were on the island looking back at the San Diego cityline.

We were starving by that point, so we decided to walk downtown to the Coronado Brewing Company.  Yet another place where I couldn’t try their own brew :(  We will have to come back to San Diego in a few years when I’m not preggo so I can enjoy all the brew pubs there.  Hubby had the “best” French dip of his life, while I had a tasty Hawaiian burger.  After lunch we walked around for a bit and then decided to rent one of the surrey bikes, which looks like this if you’re not familiar:

image source

I don’t think we realized how much work it takes to push one of these things…let’s just say we would probably not rent one again haha.  At least it was only $12 for a half hour.  We rode it around part of the island and got to the famous bridge that connects San Diego to Coronado.  I jumped off to take a break and to also get an opportunity of the bump with the bridge in the background.  And then we also tried to take a picture of both of us, but it’s hard when not using a point and shoot camera.

I also learned it’s really not easy riding a bike in a skirt.  Hope I didn’t flash anyone!  We returned the bike and then had to wait a good hour until the next ferry departed, which was kind of a bummer.  By that time, it was starting to get windy and cooler and there was nowhere else to explore that was within walking distance.  I wished we could have seen the famous Hotel del Coronado, but I think we would have had to take a taxi to get there because it looked far away on the map.  Overall, Coronado was just okay – I was expecting a bit more.  Looking back, we probably should have just driven over the bridge instead of taking the ferry, but Hubby is afraid of heights and didn’t want to drive on the bridge.

We got back to the hotel and I promptly fell asleep.  When I woke up, we were debating on what to do for dinner and I eventually decided to suck it up and go out even though I was feeling pretty tired still (the sunburn on my chest and arms also wasn’t helping my mood).  We ended up driving to Old Town, and I’m so glad we went there as it ended up being my favorite neighborhood in the city.  Old Town is the birthplace of San Diego – it includes a national park and then there’s a few different streets that have a ton of restaurants and shopping options.  It’s like a combination of being a touristy goldmine town and a Mexican marketplace. 

We decided to eat at Cafe Coyote, which was hands down the best food we had the entire trip.  Everything was so fresh, service was outstanding, and we even got a free dessert.  I indulged in a non-alcoholic coconut lime drink while Hubby tried a shot of tequila and then a Mexican beer.  We sat outside, which was such a relaxing atmosphere:

After dinner we walked around, but since it was already late, a lot of the shops and little stands were closed so we knew we’d have to come back. 

Part 4 of our trip will include some cute sea animals :)

Babymoon in San Diego – Part 2

Catch up with the first San Diego recap here.

On our first full day in Cali, we decided to wake up early (which wasn’t hard at all since we were still on Boston time) and head to the zoo.  I read a lot of reviews on Trip Advisor that recommended getting to the zoo as soon as it opened so you could stand in line for the first bus tour.  The tour lasts a little over an hour and brings you through about 70% of the park so you can check out a lot of the exhibits and get a feel for how everything is set up.  The tour was pretty good but we were extremely distracted by a family with 3 young kids seated behind us…really looking forward to misbehaving kids in the future haha :)  We sat on the top level of the two-tier bus, so I was able to get some good pictures of a few different animals, including the giraffes and kangaroos:

 

After we got off the bus, we first went to the Outback section because I was dying to see the koala bears in person.  Little did we know that the koala bears were off exhibit because they’re in the process of renovating their space.  NOOOOOO!  Oh, I was so mad since they were the number one animal I wanted to see.  I pouted a bit and then we kept walking through the Outback to continue on to the Asian Passage so we could at least check out the Pandas.  On the way, you get to see some exhibits with “big” cats, including this guy, a black leopard (black on black spots):

 

We were so close to his space, that it was a little freaky.  The best thing about the San Diego Zoo compared to other zoos I have visited is most definitely how close you are able to get to the animals.  You can tell they designed the spaces very well.

We finally got to the panda’s exhibit and saw one of them being fed.  It was cute watching him on his hind legs begging for bamboo shoots.  The other panda was just hanging out and being a little shy.

After we finished viewing the pandas, we decided to eat lunch at the Asian-themed restaurant nearby.  I had a rice bowl with chicken and veggies in soy sauce, and it was really good considering the quality of park food.  Food is a little pricey, but that’s to be expected.  We do recommend buying a souvenir cup, though.  For $5, you buy the cup and soda, and then if you keep your receipt, you get free refills for the rest of the day.  This didn’t help me so much since I’ve tried to stay away from diet sodas while being preggo, but Hubby definitely took advantage of refilling a few times that day.  It was known as his “pail” later on; it’s also a cute cup to save for Baby C when he’s older.

We continued to keep walking (the Trip Advisor reviews were not kidding when they said wear comfy walking shoes), and ended up in the Arctic exhibit, where the polar bears hang out.  They were so fun to watch, since one of them was playing with a little red ball in the water.  The other two were more lazy and napping in the sun.

 

We saw a ton of other animals, including some orangutans, monkeys, crocodiles, turtles, hippos, snakes, peacocks, exotic birds, reindeer, tigers, and many others.  We visited a couple of the gift shops before leaving, as I really wanted to buy a onesie for Baby C.  Wow, kid’s clothes are EXPENSIVE and total rip-offs at tourist places.  The cheapest one I could find was $16.  However, I was tempted to get this:

But it was $30 and the smallest size was 24 months.  I instead bought a stuffed lion that is wearing a miniature version of the zookeeper outfit – I figured that was a better investment.  We ended up leaving the zoo around 3ish, so we spent almost a whole day there (they close at 5 or 6 depending upon the time of year).  Overall, it was very worth the $40 per person to get in (bring your AAA card for a 10% discount).  And considering the weather was perfect that day (in the 70’s with lots of sun and a little breeze), it was nice spending so much time outside.

After the zoo, we searched around for a frozen yogurt place and then headed back to the hotel for a bit.  The sun was starting to set and I wanted some pictures of the marina, so we did that before heading out for the night.  Let’s just say the bump had a serious growth spurt while on the babymoon – some outfits I wore really showed it off:

The views on Shelter Island were so pretty.  Our hotel was in such a good location.  Love how the blues and purples came out in this one:

 

Of course the one thing I forgot to bring with me from home was my prenatal vitamins.  I tried finding the kind I take in a local CVS but they didn’t stock them, so we searched for the closest Walmart.  Luckily it was only about 15 minutes away and was kind of on the way to the restaurant we were planning on going to that night, so it worked out.  For dinner, we headed north and ate at the Pacific Beach Ale House.  The food here was great, servers were very friendly, and the best part was sitting on the top level patio which overlooked the ocean.  It was already very dark out by the time we got there, but I can only imagine the views must be great during the day.  It was a casual atmosphere, and I’m glad we ended up there instead of going somewhere more “fancy”. 

After dinner we walked over to the beach (known as Pacific Beach) that was literally right behind the restaurant.  One of my goals on my 101 in 1001 list was to swim in the Pacific Ocean.  However, we didn’t have plans to lay around on the beach at all for the rest of the trip, so I decided sticking my feet in would count :)  The water was a little warmer than it is in Maine during the summer.  I tried to take a picture but it was way too dark out by that point.  We checked out a couple shops and then drove back to the hotel since we were both pretty tired.  It was a great Day 2 – I was already impressed by how much San Diego had to offer.