Week 16: Sorry It's Been A While!

Hello everyone...

I feel terrible for not keeping up the blog for so long.  Time seriously flew by, lots of people came to visit, I tried to squeeze as much time as I could in with my little Leif before returning to work.  And alas, it's already Day 2 of Back-to-Work and I miss Leif terribly.  Let me fill you all in on what happened in the last few weeks with my 100 Days of Happiness photos (sorry for the Facebook repeat for my FB friends!).  I left off with Day 2, so here is:

Day 3

The first day my folks came to visit.  They were so happy to see Leif!  (and us of course)

Day 4

The folks & I went to see Noah while hubs watched Leif.  Later that evening hubs and I played board games...typical evening.

Day 5

Leif wore the same shirt twice in a row...because we had to take his three month photo shoot again!  :)  I was/am super happy for coffee every morning, pretty flowers, and while my folks watched Leif the hubs and I went on a "date night"; which only consisted of going to the mall where I bought a new pan from Macy's with a gift card and stopped by Barnes and Noble.  Nothing too exciting since I worried about Leif the whole time!

 Day 6

We were invited to a BBQ hosted by Angela, Leif's part-time nanny & my friend/co-worker.  First time Leif was actually happy to be in his stroller/car seat!  Top right is hubs walking with Angela's son and I can't forget Miles, who has been slightly neglected now that Leif is in our lives, but we love him just the same.

Day 7

Day 7 happiness was Leif, Miles finding his sun-spots, playing cribbage with my pa and the new vibrating/singing elephant my pa bought for Leif.  It works-especially on the hubs (made him fall asleep on the couch, haha).

Day 8

This was the last day my folks were in town, so they hung out with Leif, then we took a nice, long walk by the river.  My order from Old Navy arrived when we came back, which is where Leif's new straw fedora came from.

Day 9

My goofy baby & fur-baby make me super happy (Miles has a weird habit of burying himself under blankets when he takes naps-he heard something and got up to see what was going on).

Day 10

Happy to take walks in my Ergo Baby Carrier now that Leif fits in it.  And happy to have had the hubs come home from work to hang out with Leif.

Day 11

Our aunt, uncle and cousins from the hubs' side came out to visit from Seattle.  The top left photo is a hat that was given to us from our uncle-he won it at Knott's Berry Farm.  Top right is our cousin who is also apparently a baby magnet like the hubs.  And the whole Griffen family!

Day 12

We took a trip out to Burbank so I could go to Old Navy and return some things; Leif did a really good job in the car and with the hubs at the mall!  But I was really happy to spend a day with the hubs since he had been busy at work.

Day 13

We pushed our luck and had another adventure the next day-great success!  Leif slept most of the way to the CLU Scandinavian Festival where he met Katy, music student and friend.  Then we hit up the Reagan Library/Museum since we have a family membership thanks to my pa where we saw Air Force One (Leif took a huge poop on it!), then their rotating exhibit was a baseball museum.  Leif is with Babe Ruth's saxophone and the next photo is a replica of Fenway Park.

Day 14

I met up with Angela & her kids at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch where Leif did a great job...until right before we left where he decided to scream at the top of his lungs because he was hungry.  I was able to feed him in the car before we left for home!

Day 15

Nana arrived!  If this photo doesn't make you smile/happy, then you my friend have no soul.  Just kidding.
I love my Leif! 

Day 16

SALSA & BEER!!!  If you don't know that this is our favorite restaurant by now, well, now you know.  Ha.  Not pictured is one fussy Leif to the right of me.

Day 17

We spent the afternoon at the Getty Center, where we found out Leif is not a fan of French art/artifacts (he was super fussy in those exhibits), but loves Jackson Pollock and Italian paintings.  And the top left photo is of two "drug urns"; thought these were interesting since the left one held antidote for snake bites, but they never said what the right one was for...

Day 18

Last day Nana was in town.  But we were happy to stroll through Burbank since we met up with the hubs for a quick lunch.  Here is Leif snoozing in IKEA.

Day 19

This was my last full free day before my maternity leave ended, so we took full advantage and visited the poppy fields about an hour north of us.  It was neat to see acres of orange poppies, but it was super windy and we had to pay $10 which was silly.  Afterwards we hit up Chronic Tacos which was yummy.  The bottom left photos were taken in the morning-I found a hoody that barely fit Leif so I wanted to put him in it.  He's so stinking cute with his daddy.

Day 20

I had to work at a concert this afternoon, but in the morning we took Miles to the dog park since he needed to get out and be social.  When I got home from the concert I spent all my time with Leif.

Day 21

First day of work wasn't too bad at all, but of course I texted the hubs throughout the day to see how he was doing.  The left photo is what he sent me, and when I got home at one point I had to put him down on his jungle mat...hard to tell in this photo, but his motor skills are developing and he was able to grab onto the spinning toy hanging above him.  I'm so proud of Leif!  

So here we are today, Day 2 of work.  I was able to catch up yesterday (which is crazy-I thought it would be way more chaotic around the office!), and now I'm able to finally write in this blog.  I miss Leif a lot and still worry about him, but I know he's in good hands.  Today he is with my friend Susie's mom who lives about five minutes away from campus...which means I'm going to visit him during my lunch break and then she may bring him over to my office when I'm done so he can meet a few of my co-workers.  But he'll be going back and forth between sitters, and I feel like even though it's good for us (cheaper), he's going to not be on a routine.  So we are going to start looking around for a good daycare that's affordable.  Pretty much any care for him is expensive for us, but we'll figure it out.  Daycare at my school is basically another rent payment (and this is with an employee discount!), but I wish it wasn't so expensive because it would probably be the best solution.  Sigh.  Being a parent is super expensive, but we knew this already.  I'm actually looking into working for Mary Kay on the side to make extra income-a music student is a rep and she told me more details about it.  Sounds rather interesting!  I like my job, but it really doesn't pay much and there is no way to make any more unless 1. My title changes or 2. I find another job on campus.  Since the hubs starts classes in June through the "Professional Development" program, I can't leave CLU until he's finished, which is another two and a half years.  I've been thinking about asking my boss at some point about the idea of changing my title to executive assistant since that pays more than admin. assistant (and hearing about how the music department was having a difficult time with me gone!), but I don't know how that will play out.  In my ideal world, I would stay at home with Leif while working at home; that's where Mary Kay comes into play, but I don't see me making enough to support the family on it, and my benefits would fly out the window.  Again, being an adult/parent is hard!!!

Health-wise I'm not too shabby.  I still can't fit into most of my jeans pre-pregnancy and I tried shimmying into my old dresses; those fit in my waist and hips, but due to breast-feeding, they will NOT zip all the way up.  But my weight is still slowly decreasing which is great, and being at work will allow me not to graze on food all day at home.  I'm not sure when I'll be able to start training for my 10K in August; probably when Leif fits his jogger.  By then it's going to be scorching hot-I guess I see 5am runs in my future, ew.

Alright, I've taken a lot of time from work, need to finish a few things here and there and then I get to see Leif, yay!  Happy Tuesday everyone.