Cute Stuff

Here is a cute video of Chloe. I hope you can view it. This is the first time I am doing this. If it works, I will be putting more up here.

All domesticated now

Canning, bread making, and baby food preparing.

While my parents were down here, we went to the farmers market and purchased some green beans for canning. (Usually my dad would grow beans in their garden and my mom would can them for the following year's meals, but with mine and my sister's pregnancy and the chaos that came with us, the garden never happened. ) We got 5 bags worth of beans which gave us 24 pints and 24 half pints. YUMMY! We split the bounty and are both very happy that we got green beans for the year. Oh and this effort was mainly my mom's because it seemed like every 1/2 hour I needed to tend to Chloe for one reason or another. My dad did a great job occupying her, but when I was needed, I was needed!

As well as canning beans, my mom and I (again more my mom than I) made some more food for Chloe.

We cooked up the squash and froze them into little cubes to feed Chloe in a few months.

I also made a few loaves of bread for the week. They turned out really good. I love to make stuff at home and from scratch when possible. I have learned that while this is all fun and very rewarding, it is much easier to do when my mom is around. (otherwise a lot of this would not have gotten done) Thanks so much mom for coming down to help.

Separation Anxiety

So with my parents here this weekend, they really helped out with Chloe. Especially my dad. The second night they were here, he had put her to bed. Normally when I put Chloe to bed it is in the co-sleeper right next to my bed. Actually it is attached to my bed. It has been like that since she was born. Always by my side. Well this night that my dad put her to bed, he placed her in HER CRIB in HER ROOM! not in the co-sleeper. But as all parents know, you never ever move a sleeping baby if you want to keep them sleeping. So, that night she slept in her room by herself away from me for the first time EVER. She did wonderful. She slept for a good 7 hours until she needed to eat again, and then I continued to put her back in the crib. I however did not get much sleep that night. I was waking up every hour to check on her. I had the video baby monitor on in the co-sleeper next to me, so I was able to look in on her without having to get out of bed. (best present ever)

So I survived the very first night without my baby at my side. Poor Brett.....not only was I waking up every hour, but I needed reassurance that she was ok. Hopefully tonight will go better. I think I am going to put her to sleep in the crib again.

First guests!!!!!

We have our bath back!!! No more awkward bath times. Thanks mom and dad!

SO my parents came down this weekend. I was so happy to see them. I really missed them. All it took was some sweet talk from Chloe a few pictures over the phones and they "flew" on down...well actually they drove here. It took them 14 hours to get here on Friday and left on Monday, but it was well worth it.

While they were here we took them to the farmers market where we bought green beans and pickling cucumbers for canning. We saw a campaign to bring Iowa to Mare Island (that's the island where Brett goes to school) and we totally agree, well at least we should bring one Iowan family to Mare Island.......TRACY....

Brett and my dad also made an excursion over to Six Flags to play on the big rides while my mom and I took a nice walk around the beautiful homes on Mare Island. We had really nice weather here for them. It was anywhere between the mid 70's and mid 80's. We also played pinochle together until one in the morning....we were all tired but needed to finish the game, but decided to go to bed before that happened. Oh and Brett and I started this murder mystery puzzle a few days before my parents came. I gave up about a day into it, but my dad helped Brett finish it.

I was sad to see my parents go, but I will be seeing them over Thanksgiving...so only about 3 weeks away. I think I can handle it. No I know I can handle it, I just went 3 weeks without seeing them. I like this ritual...every 3 - 4 weeks we get together. Hopefully Chloe will remember them easier this way.

Home made

We went grocery shopping the other day and they had really good deals on yams and squash. So good that I couldn't pass them up. So today I am going to attempt to make home made baby food. I know Chloe is only 3 months old and probably won't be eating real food for a few months, I just want to be prepared.

Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it turns out when I am done.

Over the mountains and through the cities to Grandmother's house we go....

As you read in my previous post, our family decided to take yet another long road trip to see Brett's Grandma Pauline who lives in Southern California.

It took 7 1/2 hours to get there but it was worth the trip. Chloe did excellent on the trip down, she only cried a few times but would always fall back to sleep. I do not recommend driving through LA on a Friday night. We got there around 7:30 thinking that we had missed the traffic...well we missed the worst of it, but were delayed 2 hours on our trip!

So growing up in the northwest, I thought I had a pretty good idea what mountains looked like...rocky with lots of trees, shrubs and water running down the sides of them. Well to my surprise, we had to drive through the mountains on our way down and back. And I was stunned to see mountains with nothing but sand on them. Very different from what I was used to. This definitely is California.

The weather was wonderful. It was in the mid 70's and very nice. If it is that nice next time we go down there, I am definitely bringing my suit. There are 7 pools where his grandma lives. Oh and by the way, I believe we have found the place where we will be retiring. Laguna Woods.

When we were down there, we saw Brett's Grandma, his Aunt April, Uncle Randy, his cousins James and Karen and her husband Rob. They are all such nice and friendly people. We went out to dinner with them which was wonderful and a nice icebreaker for us since we hadn't seen them for quite some time.

Grandma Pauline and I stayed up both nights until midnight or later just talking. I loved it. I haven't had a grandma since I was 8 so I really enjoy the fact that Brett still has 2. I try to soak up all the time I can get with them.

So I am afraid that Chloe may be starting to teeth. The whole weekend she was drooling, having lots of diapers and she was chewing on everything. YIKES she is not yet 3 months old. I hope this is something else, not teething.

We had some pretty amazing sites on our way home. We drove through LA (lots of traffic), mountains, orchards, garlic fields (the Italian in me went nuts!) but the most amazing thing was the fire and the smoke that it caused. Hopefully you have all heard about the fires that are going on in Southern California. Well one started by I-5 (our route home) and the smoke cloud was huge. We had to drive through it. You know how it looks when you are wearing sunglasses with an orange tint to them and everything turns a brownish-orange color? Well that's what it looked like for about 5 miles through this smoke cloud. It was neat to look at.

On the way home , Chloe slept the ENTIRE trip! All 8 hours of it. I had to wake her to feed and change her, but she fell back to sleep instantly. Oh and when we got home....yeah she slept through the night like a wonderful little baby. I was so afraid that since she had been sleeping the entire day that she would be up all night, but I was wrong. I love her so much!

I was really sad to move to California because I knew I would be leaving behind such wonderful people who I love so dearly. My family was the hardest to leave. I know that they are only 15 hours away (with a baby you have to extend the trip time) so I could see them if I want to...but it really is a drive. When I went down to Brett's relatives this weekend, I realized that I had family here that I really enjoy spending time with. And they are only 6-8 hours away depending on traffic. With this knowledge, it makes me feel better about being here in California. If I need a family fix....any family fix, I can always drive to see them and be there within a few hours.

Apparently I know my baby

On the phone with my sister:

me: "Ok so I have 2 warm outfits, 2 pj's, 3 dresses, 2 back up outfits, 2 onesies and some pants."

Tracy: "Wow that should be enough. What I do for David is put him in one outfit like a t-shirt and overalls and if it gets too cold, I just put a blanket over him."

me: "Yeah that is great if you have a boy, I have a girl. You need to have all the frilly outfits and if one gets dirty then you have to change her into another cute and frilly outfit. I mean with boys you have a t-shirt and pants of some kind and some socks. With girls you have the onesie, the dress, socks, tights, shoes, the pantaloons to the dress and the matching hat. THEY ALL MUST GO!"

Tracy: "(laughing) ok well I guess you need to pack a lot of stuff."

me: "Ok so I have 8 diapers a day and 6 extra" (...8 x 3 + 6 = 30) "That should be enough right?"

Tracy: "Well that should be more than enough. I don't ever remember changing Davids diaper 8 times a day except for when he was first born. If you go through that many diapers, you should come home because she would be sick!"

me: " Yeah but I know her and I am afraid that this might not be enough."

Tracy: "Then you can always buy some from the store!"

me: "Yeah I guess you are right"


Well we left our home with 30 diapers for 2 1/2 days and we came home with only 7! So see Tracy, I did need all of those diapers. Oh and we ended up having to do laundry at his Grandma's house as well because she went through 3 outfits a day. (and no it wasn't like the Oscars where you change the outfit for each occasion.)

Just because

Incase you needed a Chloe fix today....

So here is Chloe doing some much needed floor time. Mind you it only lasts about 5 minutes before she is face down crying into the blanket until I pick her up. But I was able to get some cute photos of her before she started to freak out.

Here she is having a good time in her crib.

ENJOY!

Farmers Market

Our first day here we decided to get up early and go to the farmers market. It is only about 7 blocks down from where we live so it was a nice walk for us especially after 2 days of being cooped up in a car. So of course I had to dress my daughter up in an adorable outfit. here are some pics. Oh and she doesn't really like to wear hats, but it is sunny here and I demand that she wear them. Plus I think that she is cute in them.

There was so much fresh produce there. We ended up getting Perfectly ripened strawberries, grapes, pommegranets, persimmons, broccoli, green beans, and tomatoes. All were deliceous. So I have only been to 2 farmers markets in my life before I experienced this market. The Pike Place Market and the Farmers market in Seattle in the U district. There you have to ask for certian amounts of the product that you want and they weigh it and hand it to you and you given them the money in return. Well here it is a little different. You pick the food and the amount that you want, put it into the bag yourself, and you have to fight the croud so that you can pay the vendor. I could have walked away with a lot of free food if I wanted to, but I am a nice person and waited my turn (sometimes up to 20 minutes). I have never had to fight to pay someone. It was a whold new experience. Oh and if you only want like 2 peppers and yhey are selling by the pound, then they will just give you the 2 for free. I have never seen that before.

Along with fruits and veggies there, they also have home grown honey (they even bring the bees to show you how fresh it really is), fresh baked bread, and hand made goodies. It is such a fun thing to do on Saturday mornings.

Since we drove to California in my car, we were limited with the space we had to bring items that we needed. One item that got left behind on accident was Chloe's bath tub. Not the worst in the world, but it did make life a little more interesting. I would "have to" take a bath in our clawfoot tub (it is very nice) and have Chloe join me. It worked out pretty well as long as Brett was there to hand her to me and take her when she was done with her bath. This also took up a lot of time. So when Chloe had her 2nd blow out diaper of the day I decided that she needed a bath, that a whipe down with baby wipes just won't do the trick. Well we didn't really want to do the elaborate bath time, and you aren't supposed to put the baby in the kitchen sink because of food bacteria, and our bathroom sink is way way too small....we needed to improvize. So we did the next best thing....My largest mixing bowl in the kitchen sink. Hey it works when you need to clean a kid in a flash. Hopefully we won't need to do this too many more times. (We are waiting for my parents to bring down her bath tub)

Here are some floor time photos.

and here is Chloe grabbing my hair and threatening to pull it out if I take any more pictures of her. Oh how I love my baby!

Road Trip

So we began our road trip to California at 9:30 in the morning. Sorry we didn't get any photos of Washington or northern Oregon, but I just wasn't thinking that I needed to get pictures of places that I had seen many times in my life. Looking back, I think that I should have taken pictures of our ENTIRE trip. Oh well, maybe I will get them on our next road trip.

We started out down I-5 until we go to southern Oregon and detoured off to Bandon Oregon. Amazingly with baby on board, we only stopped 2 times. Once at a rest stop (More for Brett and myself) and the other was for food for all 3 of us. (Let me tell you, if you ever try to do a road trip with an infant, always bring along multiple clean bottles, a breast pump and wipes to clean it and a travel bottle. These items were life savers when it came to meeting Chloe's food demands and out time constraints.)

We got to our destination at around 6:00pm, just in time for dinner. There we stayed the night with Brett's God Parents Mike and Sharron. What wonderful people. We will be stopping by the next time we go through Oregon.

The next morning we headed off on our journey down Hwy 101 along the Oregon coast. If you ever have the chance to make the trip it is definitely worth it! Here are just some of the pictures that we took.

Along Hwy 101 they have the Great Redwood Forest.

Here we stopped to see the drive through Tree. We did not attempt to go through it because we like my car the way it is, but we did witness a Honda going through...barely...

Our first family photo. Chloe was so happy to get out of her car seat for a period of time longer than it took to change her diaper. HAHAHA this is what she looked like when I took over driving. What a silly baby. She actually slept the majority of the time.

As we were entering the state of California, we saw a rainbow. It was so bright and gorgeous. And what a good omen as well. It made me feel better moving here. We also drove by and through many vineyards.

By the time we got home, it was too dark to see anything so this is where the photos end. We got in about 8pm and it was so nice to have everything already set up for us so we could just go to bed. It was a long two days on the road for us. It took us 9 hours the first day and about 8 hours the second. But the trip was beautiful and well worth it.

So we are now a California family...at least for the next 4 years, then who knows where else we will end up.