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.