Beginning preps for Olivia's first Christmas

Saturday, Olivia and I attended music class for the first time in a long while.  O stayed awake for the whole thing this time and was fascinated.  We danced all around, sang a few little ditties, all good things.  Afterward, I asked the instructor a few questions and long story short, decided to drop by her brand new toy store in Niles that afternoon.  (Earlier in the am Kevin let me sleep in a little and washed a bunch of bottles. Or was that Sun?  I don't remember.  But I really appreciated the gesture and just that little bit of help)

Aunt Kathy came over around 2:45 to give me a much needed break (Kevin was working) and off I went to the toy store for some successful Christmas shopping, and then to Home Depot for poinsettias.  I love a little holiday color in my cube!  At about that time the boob timer was about to go off so I headed home in anticipation.  Perfect timing!  After I fed Olivia, Kathy helped me dig out my Christmas ornaments from the center of the garage.  That was a two person job for sure, and we partitioned off some goodwill items in the process.  Success!  Then Kathy left and I started the bedtime routine.

Sunday, Kevin finally had a day off.  Megan and I tried to walk with Olivia and the dogs, but ended up returning home to feed O and drop off the dogs.. Too much crying and leash tugging!  We did take a nice long walk just the two of us... So much more relaxing for me to be unfettered for a little while.  Good conversation, gorgeous morning.  Kevin slept in a little.  In the afternoon, we put up Olivia's first house Christmas lights.  I was going to do it myself, then Kevin came out to put up the lights he already had for the house that were the right length.  Olivia awoke halfway through and. Blinded us in the baby. Born.  Fun family moment.

Update - I got everyone sick with the stomach flu and Kevin ended up missing the big 2-week trip because he was home sick when the plane departed from Sunnyvale.  What luck! :)

Recent Olivia Observations

In just the last few weeks, it's been amazing to watch Olivia "come into awareness".

She's recently REALLY located her toes and at every diaper change is grabbing them, cooing and smiling. :)

Olivia grasps the ring in her playgym and in the last two days has been figuring out to pull it to make the music go (at least I think she's figured that out).  Olivia really enjoyed Walter's playgym while we were in MD.  Thanks for sharing, cuz!

She holds objects for longer and really loved investigating her turkey slippers/booties, especially when we were in bed for the day before traveling.  She grasps my neckline or shirt while nursing, and really holds onto your finger if you let her.

Olivia is holding her head up much better and tummytime and doesn't start crying immediately.  She's far more stable when your holder her upright and prefers to be looking over your shoulder or out on the world.

Smiles!
Olivia's smiles are more meaningful and deliberate.  She loves to laugh with you during the morning diaper change. :)  She coos and coos and whoops while on the playgym, and both reaches for the toys above her, and kicks them.

She's started nuzzling my neck when I pick her up from the crib when she's crying.

Olivia now knows "mom" and "not-mom".  She insists on mom nursing her when she's very upset (hm, bad habit?)  Her eyes also follow me like a scary kid in a horror movie as I walk around the room.  A little disconcerting, but adorable at the same time.

Her bedtime routine starts at 5:30pm.  Daycare forced us into that schedule since she's ready for bed as soon as we get home.

In the last day or two, Olivia has really started to 'love' on her soft bunny from Aunt Sarah.

She likes grabbing her blankie and pulling it up to her face (and eating/sucking on it at times).

Olivia sucks her left thumb.  (also very clear change in the last 2-3 days)

Olivia's eyes are still a gray-blue.  Although. Kevin thinks they're green.

Also in the last week  - more spitup and drooling such that outfit changes must occur (for both baby and mother).  Poop explosions up the back of the diaper and all over - also forcing costume changes.

My little Sweet Pea.  I love her so much!  We miss her daddy since he's been working so much.  Fortunately, that will change right before Christmas.  We're working on peek-a-boo and still on tummy time.

Olivia's 4-Month Day, First Turkey Day

Well, life is so busy these days that I just don't get around to the blog as much as I did during pregnancy.  Ironic really, since at that time we were working like crazy on the house.  This will have to be the Cliffs Notes of Thanksgiving in MD.

The Friday before we left for MD, Olivia had her Four Month Checkup and Vaccinations.  She's growing nicely - head in the 90th %tile, height in the 35th %ile (24 inches) and weight in the 9th %ile (11 lbs, 12 ozs).  The doctor said her muscle tone could be a bit better - but can you blame her for having a tough time holding up such a large noggin?!   We are working on tummy time though and she's gotten dramatically better!  After Olivia's appointment, I was a good mom and got a flu shot.  Bad idea.  Within a couple hours I had all the flu symptoms.  My body sure reacts quickly to things - always has.  So, instead of being super productive, I spent the day in bed with Olivia.  We slept, I'd feed her when she woke up, we'd be cranky together, then go back to sleep. :)  Kevin was working.


Kevin's been working his butt off lately.  Some program he works on decided to pull the schedule to the left by several weeks and the result is - ruining holidays for all the transportation folks.  Bummer.


We took the red eye home Sat night to MD, and lucked out that it was a pretty empty flight.  Olivia slept in her car seat in the seat next to the window most of the flight, waking once to feed and again to spit up all over mom.  That came as a surprised since she is not much of a spit-upper.  But, Olivia fell right asleep after her stomach was emptied.

We had forgotten the base to the car seat in the car so had to rent a car seat from Avis - that was way too big for Olivia.  Ooops.  She made just one ride in that seat and Dad was on a mission to buy another base for our car seat.  (After a few false starts we finally found one at Buy Buy Baby!)

It was COLD in MD.  Which I like because it feels like the holidays.  I was sick as a dog the first few days - still recovering from that flu shot and the havoc plane flights always cause to my sinuses.  Mom and Dad Bellenger were pretty sick most of the time we were there, and Annie and Walter had just gotten over something - we were quite the crowd.  Olivia was just over some sniffles, but that jet lag really got to her.  She was Miss Cranky Pants herself all day Sunday since we messed with her sleep so badly.  But eventually she settled in and was showing off with smiles and Coos.

The first several days were spent playing with cousin Walter (he's soooo talll!!!!!) and Aunt Annie.  We chatted with Annie's friend Becca who was pregnant with her second child (and delivered him a day or two after we were home from MD).  I was able to catch up on some much needed sleep.  Olivia slept in the big bed with Kevin and I most night - purportedly because the room was to cold for her to be in the Pack n Play, but honestly because I liked the excuse to snuggle with my little girl and hold her hand.

Walter is a little cyclone developing into the Terrible Two's Tornado!  He's so full of energy, eating constantly (all healthy food, of course... I need to learn that from Annie), playing with every which way toy, following the dog around with a cooking spoon, and just into everything!  Wake up call for Kevin and me.  We have some *serious* childproofing to do around our house before Olivia can get around.  He's so cute with that blond hair and striking blue eyes.

We also had a stream of visitors come over to meet little Olivia.  Aunt Barbara & Elizabeth, Mr & Mrs. Morrisson, then Aunt Barbara again but with Bart the second time.  I'm sure there were more but my brain is tired.

Annie and Walter departed Tuesday morning to beat the Winter Mix home to NY.  They're normal 4.5 hour drive took somewhere around 9 hours!  Yikes!  Major kudos to Annie for handling that journey with a 14 month-old cyclone.  I can't even imagine.  We missed Joel, but he was stuck working and had been traveling a bit so he needed to stay home.

Kevin worked a lot.  Like, a crazy lot.  Sometimes until like 2 or 3 am.  Crazy.

Wednesday we went and picked up the turkey out in rural MD by Olney.  That was a fun adventure.  Dad Bellenger had a stomach bug and the weather was crappy, and I was happy for the excuse to get out of the house and go on an adventure.  While I went in to pick up the turkey, Kevin waited in the car with sleeping beauty (and was making work calls)  As it turns out, the line wasn't long at all.  Very nifty to see all the empty turkey coops / barns with nothing but white feathers remaining and 5 token turkeys for the kids to gawk at as they left with the dead brethren in their hands for dinner Thursday night.  Ironic how the people coo'd at the living gobble-gobbles!  Other preparations occurred, but not the panic that surrounded the holiday as I was growing up - I like the mellower holidays!

Thanksgiving Thursday we watched the Macy's parade here and there, I ironed a tablecloth and set the kids table - standard preps.  Kevin was put on Frisky Sour duty for the actual event.  For context, before we flew out and I warned him of the task, Kevin said, "You talk all about these whisky sours but I don't think anyone actually drinks them."  Well, he learned.  Kevin was a very busy guy mixing drinks, when he wasn't upstairs with me trying to calm Olivia down.  Dinner was delicious... well, what we had of it before meltdown at the table.  Everyone was excited to see the little girl and she was held by all sorts of people.  I was really surprised by how into Olivia cousin Margaret and her boyfriend, Price, were.  Margaret is just like her mom (Barbara) - SUPER good with kids.

The Dunkelbergers and Steins were all there - Kate & Eaton are expecting a little girl in February and little Pete is a cute handful.  Kathryn and Eric are expecting a little one in June.  Babies everywhere!  Very exciting.  We need to get up to Reno to visit Eaton and Kate - it's been far too long!

Friday was recovery day, and the little Janeiro family went off to the National Zoo for a fun little adventure.  It was surprisingly not crowded and quiet at the zoo.  We had fun wandering around while Olivia was back to being Sleeping Beauty.  The highlight was watching a big ol' elephant come into the inside pen, pick up a coconut, carry it and a bag of hay retrieved from a hanging tire over to the corner, step on the coconut until it POPped, eat it, the rip the bag apart and eat the hay from inside.  Very deliberate actions and amazing to watch.  Hearing the male lion roar loudly was also pretty cool.  I'd never seen/heard that before.  We finished off with dinner at a pizza joint in Dupont Circle.

Friday night we mainly chilled with my parents in the family room - the TV was off when we returned from dinner, which I appreciated.  We hung out and chatted about life and mom held Olivia who was smiling away. :)

Saturday morning we left the house at 7:15 to catch our 10am flight home.  I dressed Olivia in one of the outfits Mom had brought out from when I was little and Mom was stoked to see the little girl all dressed up i white.  Pretty cute!  I finally got a picture of both grandparents and Olivia all together!  The flight home was fine - mostly because almost everyone on it was part of a family with small kids.  I did a stellar job of selecting flights, if I may say so myself.  I must be a mom since the flights I picked both had other small small children!  We lucked out again and had the row to ourselves.  Olivia was a little more temperamental on this journey, but I nursed her a bunch and at one point we had her laying down on the center seat, free to kick-kick.  That's when she held a rattler (from Aunt Sarah) the first time for real and shook it around.  Way cool.

I can't remember if Kevin went into work that Saturday, but he definitely went in on Sunday all day.  Crazy.

O.K.  I wrote this much.  I'm sure I missed something, but I'm pooped.  More to come tomorrow while I try and catch up!  Hopefully photos will be added shortly.  I didn't bring my own fancy camera to MD so that cuts down on the number of pics to wade through.

Tummytime Progression! Missing Pops :(

I've been remiss in the blog entries since it's been so darn busy with going back to work!  Olivia is holding her head up a bit now for about a minute, then she tires and it's on the ground, she's squawking.  I blame it on her big head and little body!  She's growing cuter every single day!  I sit with her after nursing and just stare at her adorable, innocent little face.  What will her life be like?

About two days ago, Olivia really started noticing and reaching for the toys hanging from her play gym, and was fascinated with my sweater after nursing.  She just staaaared at it, and reached for it. So cute!  Her new game is to take the hem of her dress, or her blankie and put it right-in-her-mouth!  So cute.  She likes quilties like her mama did. :)

Another new game is clasping her hands together in front of her and sticking them both in her mouth.  She also likes the single-hand-suck and kicking her play gym toys.  Olivia is fascinated with the carseat toy from cousin Walter.... until she cries.

The little girl was a super trooper last Saturday when we drove up to Santa Rosa to visit Natalie & Steve ad their little girls Gabby and Maddy.  Adorable.  It's Natalie's 30th birthday and they moved up there about two months ago.  Super fun to see their new house and go walking in a very nice park  - Howarth Park I think was the name.  Steve even saw a bobcat by the lake!  Sadly, Kevin had to work, and missed out o the terrible traffic on the way home!

I'm drawing a blank on what we did Sunday.  Kevin worked.  I must have cleaned up around the house and did laundry.

We have Olivia's four-month appointment on Friday morning and will get a better sense for how she's grown.   I can't wait to see her weight, I'm guessing around 12 lbs.  Perhaps 25 inches?  That's my guess!

Oh!  and her other trick is rotating 90 - 180 degrees in her crib at night.  So funny in her little sleep suits.  We have a space heater in her room to keep those little hands warm.  So adorable!

Saturday night we hop on a red-eye to MD for Thanksgiving week!  Can't wait.  We'll finally get to introduce Olivia to the rest of the Litwins and will have some quality time as a family.  Olivia and I have missed Kevin the last two weeks while he's been on travel to Denver and then working all weekend.  Also looking forward to seeing all the Dunkelbergers and Aunt Annie & Cousin Walter.  It'll be a party!

We're hoping to make it to the National Zoo during the trip if weather and work permits.  Sadly, both Kevi and I will have to login and do some work while in MD.   My return from maternity leave has been a little rough.  While I'm working "part time" on the books, the workload has not been adjusted accordingly, neither have expectations.  It's very frustrating and ends up stressing me out more than if I had gone back "full time" probably.  There's a stigma with part time.  I'd much rather actually BE part time and not be made to feel inadequate or somewhat guilty for it.  Just a tough job I'm in.  Time for a change... another thing to work on while in MD.  That, and stretching my hip flexors!

This morning Charlie came over to babysit while I dropped off my brand new car at the shop.  There was some leak in the A/C system causing water to leak INTO the car on the passenger side.  Kevin helped diagnose by doing a ride-along last weekend.  Later in the day, my new-mom friend Shonna came over for lunch and a playdate with her little girl, Kailani, who was born 8/1.  We had a lot of fun just hanging out, drinking tea, eating tasty sandwiches and hiding from the POURING rain!  Yay rain!  Cali needs lots more of it!

OK, I'm super duper tired.  Without Kevin here for two weeks, my workdays go like this:
0400ish - feed Olivia when she wakes, snuggle in bed until it's time to get up
0500ish - get up, put Olivia back in her crib, shower, dress, feed dogs and let them out, get as ready for work and daycare as I can before Olivia starts making noises
0600 - Nurse Olivia one more time before leaving - precious moments.
0620 - Off to School!  First ones there at 0630
0645 - Off to work!
0715 - At work, and field lots of fires, etc.Pump twice in the Mom room (love it!)  Very intense 9 hours
1600 - At the LATEST, leave work and avoid terrible evening traffic
1645ish - Pickup Olivia, chat with the instructors
1715 - Home, nurse, let out and feed dogs
1745 - Start bath & nursing routine
1845 - Olivia asleep in her crib, mom starts her own dinner, washes all the bottles, preps bottles for the eext day of daycare if Monday.  Try to show the dogs some attention.
2000ish - log in to work to finish hours for the day - with eyes crossed.
2200ish - sleep/dream-feed Olivia or pump, then lights out!
Varies - wake up and feed Olivia when she's crying

Busy days!  As I told Kevin, right now my favorite part about Tuesdays is that I don't work on Wednesday.  That means I don't HAVE to do the bottles at night.  Sometimes I let the dogs sleep in bed with me (not tonight though).  After Thanksgiving, Kevin will be traveling again until Christmas.  Mama's not too excited about that - he's missing two months of Olivia's biggest development year.  But, that's just how his job with lots of transports has worked out.  With Lockheed Martin Space Systems shutting down the Newtown facility and laying a bunch of people off, you have to do what you have to do to stay employed.

OK, it's 2209, time for me to turn off the light.  I've been seeing double all night tonight so I really need some sleep.   I'll have to add photos later.

Oh!  And I now employ the teenage girl across the street to let the dogs out around 3:30 pm after school.  Then I don't feel so badly about the dogs being locked up for suck a long time!  This was our first week of the dog-sitting and it's gone well!  I'm over-paying her, but oh well.  Perhaps she'll turn into a babysitter in a few months too.  Yay for taking a page from my parents' book, and she was jst talking to her parents about finding a way to make some money.  Trixie and Kiwi love her already - Marissa sent a pic the first day of the dogs on her lap trying to lick her face.  So cute!  Apparently Marissa always wanted a dog.  Super cute.

REally, time for bed, Kate.  Close the computer!  (This is why I need Kevin home - he gets me out of my OCD phases)

Good Weekend :)

We had Steve & Michelle, and Rob, Roxanne & Wyatt over Saturday night to finally meet Olivia.  Kevin took the day off and our house was in pretty good shape for company.  Today Kevin had to work most of the day and I finally washed my car.  I even managed to vacuum it when Olivia took another nap a few hours later.  

Little girl holds her hands together in front of her and is really smiling a lot more these days!  She's so cute!  She had a little cold/runny nose Friday and Saturday but it appears to be clearing up.  Kevin and I can't really say the same - we both feel like we've caught a little something.   She's also "talking" a bit more and we have our night time routine down!  The only exception was Saturday night when she screamed bloody murder as we tried to put her in the bath.  Not happy.  Usually the bath calms her down.  We think it was just over stimulation from the company and not feeling well.  Poor little girl.  She's doing better with tummy time too.

It's official, Kevin is traveling next week.... and the week after.  Yikes!  So I'm enlisting some help with Olivia in order to get all my hours in during the week.  Early to bed for Mama!

Speaking of which.  Short post today, but at least I wrote something.  Time to keep prepping for tomorrow - packing my lunch, packing for Olivia.  Fun stuff!

Kate

First Week Back is Over

Now we're sitting in traffic on our way to daycare.  Ugh!  Terrible traffic all week!  I'm settling back into things at work and not too much changed in my absence except for several personnel turnovers.  Going back is tough as its hard to get worked up about the same old headaches when there's a super fire little girl I could be hanging out with.

I succeeded in gaining access to the Mother's room in my building.  Way nicer than sitting on the sink in a bathroom.  The Mother's room has a fancy medela hospital grade pump I can use, a sink, paper towels and a fridge!  the fridge is key as we dumped all my milk from Monday - didn't think the cooler kept it cold enough.  It's really nice to not have people trying the locked door too.  The room also holds a hook entitled the Milk Memos about returning to work  pumping from the perspective of real moms.  Great reading while doing my thing.  I eat lunch on there.  Settling into that routine. 

Stressing out right now about all this traffic and how late we will be picking up Olivia.  Its sad to go home and put her right to sleep.  No time to see her during the day.

Yesterday, on my day off, I had to go into work with Olivia to get my compliance training done - crazy.

I may be a single mom next week if Kevin's travel schedule holds.  That will be tough.

Well,we made it at 6:00 pm by the skin of our teeth!  Olivia was a tired girl!

First Day Back - a Success!

I made it through my first day back at work!  There remain a few logistics to sort through, but overall it was a success!  We dropped off Olivia at 7:00am at daycare.  It was nice and quiet at that hour.  We hear that she was a bit fussy in the morning which is odd since she's usually happy in the morning.  (Maybe because Sonny and Delored kept that bad girl up past her bedtime last night. :) )  She drank all 15 ozs that we left with them and I only pumped 12 ozs... will need to work on getting my supply up.  Quite a balancing act.

We picked her up at 6:00 pm and started the night time routine as soon as we got home.  Books aren't a part of the routine yet since she doesn't quite have the interest there, but one day it'll happen.  The big news is that today she graduate from the rubbermaid container we used as a bath to the sink itself!  My little girl is getting so big!  She's asleep now.

Yesterday we had some very positive tummy time - so cute! :)

As for the adults, I'm very proud of myself for thinking ahead and assembling an enchilada casserole yesterday that smells delicious!  I just popped it in the oven before giving Olivia her bath tonight.  I'm waiting for access to the Mother's Room at work so the bathroom with a door lock and I were friends today.  I sure hope I don't have to do that again tomorrow - awkward sitting on the sink.  The saddest part is that since I didn't really think to / didnt' have a good fridge to put the milk in, we dumped it all when we got home. :(  Good thing I have a little bit stashed in the freezer, but not enough to make that mistake twice!  So, fingers crossed that I gain access to the Mother's Room tomorrow where there's a fridge.  Otherwise, it's going to be a week of getting all my old accounts reactivated.  I have a loaner laptop so I'm mostly functional so far. :)

Kevin is out doing dad errands right now - picking up our first BIG box of size 2 diapers (getting close to needing those) and a space heater for Olivia's bedroom.  Her little fingers were so cold this morning!  I'm waiting for him to eat dinner and am enjoying a glass of wine to relax.  It's amazing how quickly my stress level rises at good ol' LM.  A good number of the people I worked with on a daily basis have left the program.  All but one of them left the company.  Happy to be employed, and happy to have such a flexible boss that I can work part time through the end of the year.

Time to make my lunch and pull out the frozen milk to thaw in the fridge overnight.  Lots of logistics to turnover on a daily basis.  Oh, Kevin caulked part of the master bedroom crown moulding yesterday, but the mattress had gotten we from sitting off to the side near the master bathroom where we'd had that big leak.  So, we'll probably sleep in the guest room again tonight.

Dinner time!

Preparing to Return to Work

It's been a nice break, but tomorrow, I have to return to work. :(  At first I didn't think it possible for me to be a stay at home mom... but now with the prospect of returning to the silly squabbles at work and travel, I think I'd be ok with staying home with Olivia.  I will admit that I'm tired of cycling laundry, but that's mostly the dogs peeing on the rugs.

Olivia is doing much better with tummy time now.  She doesn't start crying right away. :)  She is cooing much more and smiling a little more.  Night bedtime is fairly stable around 7pm (now 6pm with the time change!)  Last night we had dinner at the Reilly's and Olivia fell asleep in the car and slept through the whole visit!  I fed her a tad when we got home and then it was sleepy time. :)  Olivia sleeps most of the way through the night and I dream feed her around 11pm right before turning in for the night.  Hopefully she'll gain a bit more weight from me doing that.  Her naps are not regular yet, but we'll see how she settles in over the next couple weeks.  Right now she takes 3-4 short naps during the day at varying times.

Olivia is graduating to size 2 diapers this week (12-18 lbs) even though she's only just shy of 11 lbs.  I figure it's easier to go up a step than buy a small pack of the size 1s.  She loves the toy from cousin Walter that spans her bassinet and has spinny, musicky, flashing lighty thingies on it. :)  Mom and Dad like it too because Olivia is occupied for a few minutes.  Otherwise, she loves to be up on your shoulder, looking around the room.  This morning we propped her sitting up in bed and she was trying to turn her head 360 degrees!  Silly little girlie!

I've been spending time today figuring out pumping logistics for work.  Not sure how that's going to work out the first day, but we'll see.  I'm hoping we manage to get up early so we can leave early.  Otherwise, I'm uploading photos to smugmug to catch up, and intend to assemble and enchilada casserole for dinner during the week.  I'll also do one last layer of leather protectant on my fancy Texas boots!

Kevin is out figuring our materials to caulk and touch up the beautiful crown moulding that was installed throughout the house last week.  What a difference that moulding makes!  Trina, the installer, made a few mistakes (boards too short) but overall the effect is fabulous!  Once the caulking and finishing is all done it'll be even better.  I think that was the last major whole-house upgrade!  No more moving furniture out onto the back patio!  Now, if only we could get rid of the last bits of clutter, clear the garage and do the master bathroom, and finish the door frames and window frames, we'd be ready for Christmas!  I'm so ready to be done with the house remodeling and to have our weekends for other stuff.  I'm pretty sure Kevin is even more tired of the reno than I am since he does all  the hard work!

So, while I was on maternity leave we:
1) had a beautiful baby girl, Olivia Eleanor :)
2) kept Olivia alive and healthy and growing for 3 months
3) found and started daycare
4) figured out pumping and have kept it up (though I'm not sure I'll make it a whole year)
5) had hardwood floors installed
5) installed and caulked the baseboards
6) had crown moulding installed
7) chose and planted two Autumn Blaze maples along the street
8) agreed on the other trees that will be planted in the backyard
9) planted all my little plants along the periphery of the backyard (I did that :) )
10) bought a new computer and started getting used to Windows8 (ugh!)
11) bought a new fancy camera
12) hosted Gparents B
13) stopped a little water leak in the master bathroom
14) cancelled our Murietta's Well wine club and picked up the final shipment
15) hired a property manager and got the 1690 Civic Center home rented
16)  I'm sure some other stuff I don't remember.  Oh, and met a few other local new moms that I'm trying to keep a relationship with and getting Smugmug handled.

I didn't quite get to:
1) Resume updates
2) Budgeting/Finance/Insurance updates
3) Washing my car
4) learning how to use the new camera
5) finish reading the Sleep Habits book from Annie & Joel
6) transferring all my music from the old computer to new one.

OK, since Olivia is still sleeping, it's time to put that casserole together and upload some more photos.  Eventually I'll add pics to this blog too.... eventually.

Grandparents Bellenger Visit, Starting to Reach for Toys!

Momma has not had as much free time as she thought in these last couple weeks before returning to work.  As such, the blog updates have suffered.  But something is better than nothing!

Gma & Gpa Bellenger visited our little family last weekend.  They arrived Friday early morning (1am) and I had slept through my alarm to pick them up - so it was a quick trip to SFO and they were such troopers!  At a more reasonable hour of the morning we all had a delicious egg, spinach and toast breakfast.  Mmmmm.... ten we decided to head to the Coast for clam chowder and a beer!  To Half Moon Bay we went!  At Pillar Point we happened upon a group of folks with very fancy video and photography equipment, including a guy with an 8-propeller drone carrying a luminix camera.  Clearly something big was happening so we stuck around.  As it turns out, this was the opening ceremony for the Mavericks big wave competition season.  A number of big name big wave surfers were there as well as the captain of the Oracle America's Cup boat that just won the title in SF Bay.   Very cool.  After gawking for an hour or so, we enjoyed our clam chowder and beer at the HMB Brewery - always a treat.  Then, we were headed home to chill and crash early.

Gorgeous Day

Do you see the drone?

Mom and Capt Spithill!

Saturday morning we finally managed to Skype with Sarah in Afghanistan!  Awesome!  She looks great!   Later, Kevin and I had our eyes checked while Mom and Dad babysat.  We all hit up Red Robin for a very late lunch and then were off to the Unhaunted House at Sulphur Creek Nature preserve with the Janeiro's/Browns where Kathy was dressed as Super Woman and we did the tour of creepy Halloween type animals.  Very cute setup!  Afterwards, Patti and Steve had us all over for a pizza and salad dinner - delicious!!!  We had to leave around 8:30 pm though because someone was a bit cranky and wouldn't fall asleep.  However, she did really well in the Baby Bjorn at Sulphur Creek.

Sunday we watched the 49ers for a little while, Mom and I attacked the pantry reorganization and moth killing project - success!!!  I think that day we also took Olivia's 3-month photos (a couple days late, but no biggie)  Evetually we hit up the Perry Farm pumpkin patch (Olivia's first pumpkin "patch") but unfortunately all the good pumpkins were gone.  We missed our chance!  But, it was a fun opportunity to use our fancy camera and perhaps I'll pick up a pumpkin tomorrow at the grocery.  Gotta have a pumpkin for Olivia's first Halloween!  We took a very short and windy walk at Coyote Hills and discovered that they no longer pump water into the marsh there - to be a seasonal estuary.  Sadness.

Olivia was a good girl for her grandparents.  She really started "talking" to people in the last week.  Although, today she pretty much slept all day.  The toy that mom brought from Walter is a HUGE hit!  She's finally reaching for toys.  I hope to dress Olivia up in her new dresses in the next week.  She's still doing pretty well at daycare. I've finally figured out how to do side-by-side nursing so when she awakes for the ~4 am feeding, I bring Olivia to bed with me and nurse her back to sleep.  We cuddle in bed in the morning until it's time to get up.  I treasure these mornings.  There's nowhere else I'd rather be.

Tomorrow is my last day to myself before returning to work Monday.  The task at hand is crown moulding installation.  The contractor arrives in the morning so tonight was spent moving furniture and getting ready to sleep in the guest room again.  I can't wait for this part of the projects to be over. Two days.  Although, we'll have to caulk the moulding too since she doesn't do that part. I'm hoping to have a little more time tomorrow while Trina's working to add photos to this post and upload to smugmug.  For now, I'm exhausted and little one will be wanting some food shortly, I'm sure.