LA Trip Part III (Monday)

Monday was our last day in LA, and we made it count. That morning we woke up, packed up the car and headed to Forest Lawn to visit Pablo. I've blogged about him before, so most of you know who he is... we brought flowers and I wrote him a little note. It took me 4 tries to get it right, and I still don't think I said what I really wanted to say. How do you tell a little boy you've never met how much you miss him? How do you tell him that you'll never ever forget him, and that he's made a huge impact on your life? How do you tell a little boy who died of cancer that his story, his life, has fundamentally changed the way you see life and the way you see your own child? There just aren't words to adequately express how I feel about Pablo's story and how much of an impact it has made... and I am certainly not eloquent enough.

I've known other people who have died before their time, and I have felt the loss of them keenly. But it has been nothing compared to how the death of this precious child has effected me after having becoming a parent. I cannot even begin to imagine the heartbreak his parents felt - and still feel. Contemplating their pain is overwhelming, it makes my mouth dry, my throat freeze, and my heart ache... and it has to be nothing compared to what they feel. I think about them every day.

I'm glad we went to see Pablo... the cemetery is beautiful.

After our visit we grabbed a late breakfast and went to Venice Beach. It was Penelope's first ocean experience and I think she's a fan... here are some pictures:







After the beach we headed to the airport, checked in, and hung out until our plane left. Penelope slept the whole ride.

We had a really great time in LA. It was exhausting, but fun.

LA Trip Part II (Saturday & Sunday) - picture heavy

Saturday morning we got ready and then headed North to go to a BBQ at the house of one one my online mommy friend's mother in law (say that three times fast!). Meg (my mommy friend) and I had met online when we were both pregnant, she was in town visiting. Kristen (another mommy friend from the same online board) lives in the LA area, so she came up for the BBQ as well. Have I confused you yet? Good.

Anyway, here are the babies in birth order (Edith, Penelope, and Jon):


Here's one of favorites of Jon and Penny:


And here's one of all of us moms with our babies:


Oh! And here's one of two of the Daddies having some quality time with their daughters... squeezed into a baby pool:


We had a really good time! I love meeting all of the moms I've known online for over a year. We're all planning on meeting up for the kids' 5th birthday, but I would love to be able to meet everyone before then... I have a not so secret hope that Penny grows up to marry one of the other December babies so I know she'll get along with her in-laws, not everyone lucks out like I did with super-awesome in-laws!

After the BBQ we headed back to the hotel and got stuck in some NASTY Los Angeles traffic. Not fun. I got rather cranky, I hate traffic.

BUT after refueling Penny's diaper-bag at the hotel we headed over to my cousin Wade's house. He and his wife Jennifer had twins in February (did I mention that on this blog? I think I did...) Anyway, I was super excited to meet them (and to spend some time with Wade and Jen who are fantastic).

Penelope decided that Jennifer was the coolest thing since sliced bread. It was so cute... she just LOVED Jen!

I didn't get as many pictures as I had planned, too busy holding babies! But here are some that I was able to take.

Ava in her jumperoo:


Penelope in the jumperoo and Luke watching her play:


Luke with his Daddy:


It was a really great visit. I wish they lived closer so we could see them more often! I can't wait until they're all a little older and they can run around and play play play!

So that was Saturday, fun and exhausting.

And now, SUNDAY!

Kristen, her husband Brian, and Jon picked us up at the hotel and we took a short drive over to Angel Stadium to see the Angels play the Yankees (the Angels won, and it was a sweep!).

Here are the babies watching the game (we were closer to the field at the beginning, but moved to the rafters so we could have shade)


Here's baby and Daddy:


Miss P & I:


We had a really great time. I enjoy going to stadiums to watch games (not so much watching them on TV), and Penelope love people watching. Once we moved to the shade it was much more enjoyable - it wasn't too terribly hot, but it was pretty warm and the sun was pretty fierce on baby skin.

It was also really nice to spend more time with Kristen and her family. I'm so glad they came with us, it made the game that much better!

After they dropped us back off at the hotel we took P to the pool, ate, and then all crashed. It had been a very full and very fun two days and we were all exhausted!

More later on Monday - our last day in LA!

LA Trip Part I (Friday)

Our baby is an excellent traveler... so far. She was wonderful on the plan to Seattle back in May, and I was hoping she would do just as well on the flight to LA. Even better, she slept the whole way - after having a small bottle, Penelope was out for the entire flight, take off & landing! Super-awesome.

I also have to mention how much I heart Jet Blue. Not only were they the cheapest, they have the most legroom of ANY flight I've EVER been on (with the exception of my one trip in first class) and they give you a WHOLE can of soda AND a snack. I know, awesome yes? Plus you can watch DirecTV & listen to XM radio. So between sleeping baby and decent amenities, the trip down to LA was actually quite enjoyable.

Our hotel, on the other hand, sucked big time. It was a Priceline find, and we got it for about half of the going rate. A really nice hotel (The Doubletree), and they even have the spiffy commercials with Dinah Washington singing "Relax Max"... but you have to pay extra for parking and no complimentary breakfast. Even the freaking Holiday Inn has free breakfast! They do give you a warm chocolate chip cookie (one for each member of your party) when you check in, so that was nice. But what are supposed to be queen sized beds are actually doubles - boo.

It was in the perfect location, so that was nice.

Anyway, we checked in, got settled, and then decided to explore the area. Walked down to The Block at Orange which is an open shopping center and bought Penny some new sunhats and had dinner at Dave & Busters, which is like a Chuck-E-Cheese for grown-ups. Penny crashed once we got back to the hotel, so I hit the hotel gym while Bryan watched baseball. All in all a nice start to our vacation!

Here's a pic to tide you all over - more later

Getting ready for LA

Tomorrow the three of us will head down to LA for the weekend. Our trip is going to be jam-packed, but super fun. Friday we're seeing my cousin Wade, his wife Jennifer, and their twins Ava & Luke who are (if I remember correctly) about 4 months old. Saturday is a BBQ with some December mommies that I haven't actually met yet, but have 'known' via the internet since almost the beginning of my pregnancy. Sunday is a football game, the Angels v. the Yankees, and then dinner with one of Bryan's friends from high school... Monday we leave, but we have some extra time during the day so I want to try and make it to Pablo's grave.

When we come home we get very little rest as Harry Potter opens Tuesday night and we're going to see the midnight show. Penny gets to stay with Grandma & Grandpa that night... that reminds me that I need to go buy tickets today.

Ok, Penelope update:

I can't remember if I've said any of this stuff already and I'm too lazy to read through my blog to double check...

*If she's on her tummy, she'll scoot backwards and tries to go forward but isn't quite there yet.
*She loves to bang things together, which is sometimes super fun and sometimes gives me a headache.
*Her ability to manipulate objects gets better every day - she's able to pick up small objects (like Puffs) but still doesn't have any desire to actually put them in her mouth. I feel like she's never going to feed herself even though I know one day she will.
*She fake coughs for attention... it's hilarious.
*She is currently yelling at me, gotta run!

A whole mess of stuff

The word count webpage I use to keep track of my count on papers for school is down. This makes me very, very sad. My word processing software doesn't have word count, and I refuse to pay out for Microsoft. Hopefully it will be up again tomorrow. This means that I can take a break from writing and blog :)

There is a ton going on with us right now, but nothing super exciting - so I haven't really had much time to blog and even if I did I wouldn't have much to talk about!

School is going well, I have a 4.0 so far (three classes) and I'm hoping to continue the trend. So far nothing has been what I would call 'hard', just 'annoying' and 'slightly pointless'. Oh well, that's par for the course. The last time I was really challenged in school was my Senior Seminar class for my Bachelor's Degree. It wasn't really hard, but it required actual effort on my part. Of course, I was fascinated with the subject (hence my major) and so it was easy to make the effort to do well.

Bryan is still thinking about going back to school, but it's a little daunting. I know he'd do well, but we would all need to be better about time management. We'll see... I'm crossing my fingers it all works out.

As for Penelope, she's doing quite well. She tried to throw up in my mouth the other day - that was fun. My mom had her and I was sitting next to them on the couch. P and I were playing "Mommy's gonna getcha!" and she burped, then turned to me with her arms wide and her mouth open (this is how she gives kisses & hugs, it's really cute). Anyway, I leaned over to kiss her back and BAM! puke all over. Luckily I had my mouth closed or else she would have landed it right in my mouth. Ew. That's a story I look forward to telling when she starts dating :)

She gets closer to crawling ever day. I think it's still another week or so off, but it's coming sooner rather than later. Which is more than I can say for teeth - she's been working on the top teeth since she got the bottom ones in... almost 2 months ago! They're still nowhere to be found and she's still chewing on her fingers like mad.

She's not big into chewing on much else though. She likes to munch on her bib or her L'Elephant, but she doesn't really put toys in her mouth. She loves to play with them, but she's not a mouther...

Oh! Today I booked out flight and hotel - the Rodgers family is going to LA! We're planning on seeing fellow baby mamas Meg & Kristen (along with their December babies) and my cousin Wade, his wife Jennifer and the twins (Luke & Ava). I'm really excited! We're also going to catch a game while we're down there (of course). The Angels are playing the Yankees, so I'm going to root for the Angels. No Disneyland this trip, P is too small... what is admission nowadays? Your firstborn? No thanks, I kinda like her :)

What else? Bryan's new Sunday night softball team starts up this week. It's a for-fun team and there will be some other new dads on the team (as well as my Dad & my brother). It should be a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to going to games with P and rooting them on.

We also got a new rug for the livingroom to cover the tile for when P starts crawling (did I already mention this?). I heart it! It was pretty expensive, but it was 84% off the original price, so we totally scored. Gottshalks is going out of sale and the rug was originally almost $4,000. Sweet.

I wish I had some new pictures to post, but I've been lax about taking pics recently. I'll try and get better, but it's hard to remember when you're so busy!

We may take her to the pool this weekend, so I promise that if we do I'll get pics.

Ok, time to get a little more work done on my paper before B comes home from his softball game.

Seattle

So I'm finally getting around to posting about our trip to Seattle...

We left Wednesday afternoon and timed it perfectly, Penelope fell asleep just before take off and didn't wake up until we landed. Yea! She didn't seem at all bothered by the plane, the crowds, or anything else. Sweet.

We took a town car to the hotel (no shuttle, same price as a taxi), checked in and unpacked (well, sorta). The hotel had cribs, so we had them bring one up, even though we didn't use it the whole time. Dinner was room service (we had gone down to the hotel restaurant to eat, but the service was terrible so we went back up to the room and just ordered food).

This was the view from our hotel window at night:


It was pretty nice - the hotel was Best Western Executive Inn, so a little sparse, but we didn't need or want fancy... BONUS, they recycle AND compost. Score! An environmentally friendly hotel!

Penny thinks going Green is yummy:


The next day we ate breakfast and headed out to Fremont (on the bus, hooray for decent public transportation!!), which is where my cousin Fredd lives. Before stopping in to see Fredd (who broke his ankle the week before), we went to the Woodland Zoo. Now, I've visited my fair share of zoos, and the Woodland Zoo is definitely in the top 5 of all the zoos I've visited. They had a super cool penguin exhibit (among other things). It was a bit rainy and cold, but we had a good time.

Here's a sleeping Penelope and I in front of the penguins:


As an aside, wearing P in the Moby for most of the trip has given me a bit of a hunchback.

Anyway, after the zoo we walked to my cousin's apartment, spent a few hours with him, went out and got lunch (delicious Cuban food), and then headed back to our hotel.

After re-supplying ourselves at the hotel, we walked over to the Seattle Center and did the Space Needle:



After that was dinner with my cousin Anna (Fredd's sister) and her son Zander. We had pizza :) It was fun, although by the end of it Bryan, Penny, and I were pretty exhausted...



So we slept. Well, tried to. Penny kept scooting herself close to the bars of the crib and then waking up and crying. We eventually brought her into bed with us and she slept much better (although I'm surprised I didn't wake up with a black eye).

The next day was jam packed. We toured the Science Fiction Museum & Experience Music Project (SMF/EMP) in the morning, took the Monorail into dowtown, walked to the Nike store, walked to Pike's Market, walked to the Aquarium, walked BACK to the market, then walked to Safeco field for the Mariner's game. 80% of the time I was wearing Penny and Bryan had the stroller and diaperbag. Needless to say we were exhausted. But we had a fun day. I have a lot of pictures, but here are some of my favorites...







In the last picture she's with my friends Cassie & Mike... our friend Ray also came to the game. It was fun even though we had to leave early (P ran out of formula so we had to make a mad dash to a grocery store).

We all slept well that night.

The next day was our departure day, but we managed to squeeze in some more fun! In the morning Anna and Zander stopped by and we walked over to the Seattle Center for coffee. My friend Lorena, her husband Todd, and their December baby Josiah also made it out. Lorena and I met online while we were both pregnant, so it was super cool to meet her and her beautiful baby!

Our December babies:


After coffee, we had lunch with Bryan's Aunt Pegg and her significant other Rick. It was a nice lunch, the place we went to was recommended by Lorena's husband Todd and was really good!

The trip back was rather uneventful, thank goodness. Penny slept halfway through the plane ride, she's a good traveler!