What's up Tuesday

It's already Tuesday?!  Slow down time!

Our great friend Josh came to visit this weekend!  We went for a nice hike on Friday while hubs had to work, and then the weekend consisted of a trip to the LA Zoo, playing lots of board games, hanging out at home and gymboree.  :)

 Saturday, February 21

Leif was fighting nap time, so after I tried rocking him, he climbed down and started pulling all of his books off the shelf...

He really enjoyed his batman book!

Finally I was able to rock him to sleep, but when I put him down he woke up.  Then I rocked him again in his large blanket, and the end result was a Leif burrito.

After he woke up, we headed out for lunch with Josh and Adam across from the zoo at the Gene Autry Museum, then spent the rest of the afternoon at the zoo!

I decided to carry him in the hiking backpack which turned out really well-Leif was able to see everything and he really had a good time (and I got a great workout in!).  We got a membership so we can come back anytime!

Later that evening while I watched Leif, the boys played their games.  Leif really wanted to play with his daddy so it was super cute watching Leif roll dice and take interest in what they were doing.

 Sunday, February 22

Josh really wanted to go to this Magic tournament downtown, so they woke up early and left.  I got to play with Leif and Miles all morning-it was overcast, so we took a walk after breakfast and then I broke out these sticky mustaches, and, well...

He didn't like the feeling of the mustaches, but I tried snapping a photo before he tore it off.  He's not as bad as he looks, trust me!

It's so cute to see Leif climb on and off the couch now, and he sat there watching I think Mickey Mouse for a little bit.  I was able to snap a photo before he wiggled off again.

He didn't go down for a nap until 11:45am, which was approximately 15 minutes before we had to leave for Gymboree, so he had a really short nap and then played hard at Gymboree-thus a very fussy, tired baby the rest of the afternoon.  The boys ended up playing more board games and then we played a couple when Leif went to sleep.  All in all, not a bad weekend!

By the way, I snapped a photo of my hair on Thursday and sent it to my stylist, who then said we should wait another week or two before we try coloring my hair (it still had a tint of green).  Today my hair has a very weak tinge of green in the bangs, but everywhere else it's blonde/honey colored!  I have an appointment on Friday so she can check it.  Honestly, I kind of like my honey colored hair-it's not that bad!  But I'll show you what happens on Friday.  :)

Pinterest Failure: Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing

Holy smokes, an actual failure!

I wanted to try out a healthy, simple recipe that I pinned not too long ago, and it was this:

It came from Nature Box, a business that sends healthy snacks

I didn't get a chance to take step by step photos, but know it was super easy and took me around 10-15 minutes to put together.

So here is the salad with shredded carrot, shredded cabbage (pre-packaged from Trader Joe's-very convenient), green onions, cooked chicken from Trader Joe's, chopped nuts and cilantro.  The dressing on the left is just peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice and sugar

I stored them in the fridge until hubs got home from school, and before I served I added a chopped avocado

Salad all mixed up

Looks pretty good, right? ... 

The first few bites were okay, but then the more I ate the more I didn't like it.  I could tell hubs didn't like it either.  I got about half way through it and announced that I was not a fan, and so did he.  The salad components itself were great, but it was the dressing that was off.  I thought it was too peanut buttery, and hubs thought it needed something else too.  So success on the salad ingredients, failure on the dressing.

Fun Weekend

I can't believe it's already Thursday and I'm just posting about the weekend.  Shows what a 3-day weekend does to my schedule!

Real quick, update on the sleep situation-I've been doing the cry-it-out method for the initial bedtime, and that has worked out extremely well...but he still comes to bed with us in the middle of the night.  He's stopped kicking as much which is nice, but we are seriously considering getting a king size bed. I've tried asking my mama group on Facebook about this, but no one could help as most who co-slept did it until the toddlers went happily into their big beds, or the others still co-slept and were in similar situations.  We are not alone!

Here's my recap:

Friday, February 13
So I was supposed to change my hair color after work, but when I went in my stylist was honest and said I need to wait another week to try and wash out the blue/green or else she'd have to go in and re-bleach my hair, causing more damage.  Sigh.  I'm glad she was honest, but sad that there was no magic hair solution to get rid of the green/blue (don't get me wrong, I LOVED the color, but it's time to move on).  She still tried washing most of it out and gave me a cut, but man, the green does not want to come out!

I picked up Leif and he tried on his new sunglasses Nana gave him when we got home:

Model in the making...?

Saturday, February 14
We had planned on taking Leif to daycare that afternoon so that we could have adult time, but we decided since we wake up so early to drive down to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach since we have a membership (thanks Missy!)

While daddy got ready, we wanted to take a selfie.  See how my hair is still green???

Haha...so Karen and I were talking about how Leif still loves to feed at night and he loves his bottles, so maybe he'll take to a pacifier now.  He did great with this one for a while but then spit it out.  Kind of a throwback to the 80s.  :)

Picking up a little otter for Leif (ahem, me) before going through the aquarium.

Since we didn't get to venture outside on our last trip, we started there.  Lookout Leif, shark!

With sunglasses, that's better.

Everyone thought he was the cutest and envied his car.  I don't know why more parents don't get these cars, Leif loves his!

Besides the otters, the jellyfish is my other favorite exhibit

This was the otter tank, but they were all sleeping.  Leif loved this tank too just because he could touch the glass and see the fish up close.

 We left for lunch around noon to Famous Dave's where it was hard to manage a little squirmy toddler while waiting for our table.  But it worked out and lunch was yummy!  We got home around 2:30pm, hung out for a while then dropped Leif off around 4pm.  We didn't know what to do, so we ended up doing some shopping and then stopped by my favorite sushi place near work to see if we could get a table (I called and the front desk was unhelpful as she said they weren't taking reservations-so I wasn't sure if they didn't take reservations in general or if they were booked!)...and hooray-they were able to seat us in 20 minutes.  We didn't care if we had a table or the bar where they made the sushi, and we ended up at the bar which was way cooler anyway since we placed our order with them and they gave it right to us!  AND we saved money since we didn't really have a server-score!

I didn't take any photos unfortunately, but here is one from yelp:

We had similar rolls.  Our eyes were larger than our stomachs of course and we ordered way too much.  It was so yummy! I love Sumo Sushi!

We picked up Leif and when we got there he was screaming and in tears.  Poor guy had another baby to compete with for Miss Karen and she couldn't rock them at the same time.  His schedule was all off too and he was in full-blown meltdown mode.  Poor guy.

Sunday, February 15

Good morning!  More pacifier fun.  He spit it out in two minutes.

Took a morning walk to get Miles' energy out.  It was a nice day!

Gymboree!  Again, think he'd make a cute toddler model?  If he just sat still a little more.  We're lucky he stood still enough for this photo!

We were all a little grumpy afterwards due to lack of food, so we headed over to Subway for lunch.  We got Leif a kid's sandwich with a few fixings, but all he ate was the apple slices and some bread.  Oh, and drank half the juice which this was his first juice box, and probably last for a while-this small juice box had 19 grams of sugar!  That's like a candy bar!  

We headed over to Costco afterwards so that I could get new glasses, but my insurance is all wonky and I can't get glasses until June which is silly.  It's a long explanation, but I'm not very happy with my vision insurance.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing at home.

Monday, February 16

Hubs and I both had the day off, so we dropped Leif off at daycare and headed over to Thousand Oaks since he had to go to the library for school and I wanted to practice my saxophone.  Productive morning!  We ended up going home to finish one of our board games we set up back on Friday, then went to our favorite Indian restaurant for lunch:

Mmm, samosa.

 We didn't know what else to do that day, so we had an unsuccessful shopping excursion (we went to a Target in Moorpark and didn't have much in our basket when we noticed the huge lines, so we just put our basket down and walked out).  Then we drove by the apartment that we almost took before we found our house and were SO happy we found the house.  We would have been so unhappy there-cramped and surrounded by dumb people again.

After we picked Leif up we hung out at home.

Daddy was eating frozen cherries and Leif kept trying to get one, so we gave him a couple bits and he loved them.  So we put a few in one of his mesh holders.  He's so like his daddy.

Tuesday, February 17

Happy birthday husband!  I can't believe he's 33, which means I'll be 33.  One of my high school friends who's a year younger than me has two kids-5 and 7; and she's hoping to have a third now.  Anyway, she was talking on Facebook with a friend how trying to have a kid now (at 31) could be harder and I chuckled.  Leif was the easiest surprise baby ever.

Okay, back to photos.

He was being such a goofball-he would squish his face against this clear cover then laugh hard, and kept doing it.

Sorry it's blurry, but look at this!  He's such a happy guy.

Wednesday, February 18

I put a block on his toe, and he kept trying to do it too.  He's learning so fast.  

Leif had a rough day yesterday at daycare and it carried through at home.  He was having so many fits!  So off to bed early he went and it was amazing...I fed him, then he looked up at me, calm, and I whisked him to his crib where he lay down immediately and put himself to sleep without a fuss.  Now I just wish he would be able to sleep throughout the night that easily...

And here we are Thursday.  I've been trying to get in shape since I'll be a bridesmaid again in September, and also be in the public eye for the New Music concert next month...but of course Valentine's Day didn't help as I stuffed my face with cupcakes, chocolate and what not.  I have been hitting the gym at least twice a week which I'm starting to notice in my legs.  I did interval training on my run yesterday which was fun.  But I definitely need to eat a little better!  Oh yeah, and I have a 10K in May.  Haha.

Alright, if I have time later I'll be posting about an actual Pinterest FAIL from last night.  Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Happy Early Valentine's Day

Funny how Friday the 13th is right before Valentine's Day, but for me, 13 has always been lucky.  So, let's hope today/this weekend will be awesome!

I must admit I'm running on fumes.  Thank God for coffee.  Leif has been keeping us up this week with kicking and fussing about in bed...and yes, he's still in bed with us.  He goes to sleep fine in his crib, but middle of the night he comes with us because he's still feeding at night.  What's nice is that on my mama network through Facebook, I am not alone and I find a lot of breastfeeding mamas co-sleep for a while because it works for their families.  If Leif didn't kick hubs in the face/below the belt, it wouldn't be so bad.  I've started letting him cry it out on his initial bedtime, and that's working fine, but it's the middle of the night that's not.  Last night after hours of trying to move Leif from putting his feet in hubs face, a 4am wakeup call with Leif sleeping across my face/head (I wish you could have seen this, I was so tired I didn't move him), I asked hubs to put him in his crib.  Of course he woke up and of course he started screaming bloody murder.  After 10 minutes, I went in to try and soothe him and planned on not picking him up.  He wasn't having it.  So then I picked him up to feed him in the rocking chair...he wouldn't stop.  I tried putting him back in and he screamed so loudly that I couldn't take it and brought him back to bed.  He was so stressed out that he wouldn't stop feeding.  I didn't go back to bed until 5am.  I think I got a total of three to four hours of good sleep.  Sigh.

I talked to our daycare lady about it, and she suggested trying to just give him a bottle to see if that helps, but I can't produce a lot of milk at night to pump enough.  Maybe.  She asked about weaning him off, and I asked her to try to mix in whole milk with the breast milk (which I asked her a week ago to do but she didn't)...but she said she's going to do that today.  We might invest in a King Size bed this weekend.  We're going to have a date night tomorrow and drop Leif off at daycare.  I have a feeling date night may equal nap time for us.

Sorry for the rant.  Please enjoy my weekly update of photos (mostly of Leif)...

Wednesday, February 4

Fun with hats-Leif got this Viking hat from Christmas, still doesn't fit quite well.

Thursday, February 5

His ears from Nana & Pop Pop fit now!

So while giving him his bath, I noticed I could pull Leif's hair into a pony tail.  It kind of threw me over the edge and I decided to cut his hair.  Trying to cut a toddler's hair in the bath is like trying to wrestle a bull.  I didn't do too bad in the back, but alas, his front is crooked-you can't see from this photo, but you'll notice in the next photos...

 Friday, February 6

So on Thursday, I kept seeing all these posts from moms that their daughters are currently selling girl scout cookies, and I complained that I never see them-probably because I shop at Trader Joe's all the time and not other grocery stores.  Well, the next morning these were on my desk!  Turns out one of my former Department Assistants (now friend)'s mom dropped them off for me.  How sweet, right?  And yes, they are already gone.  :/

In the evening as I prepared Leif's dinner, him and hubs played dice together.  It was super cute watching him sit still and play with his daddy.

Sunday, February 8

Post Office delivers on Sundays for Amazon, and hubs received his birthday present from the folks-a nice, new tripod for his camera.  Leif was very intrigued!

Tuesday, February 10

These were from daycare but they had been in my car the whole time.  He actually sat still while I took a photo of him when I picked him up from daycare.  

Wednesday, February 11

We had fun with stickers that evening!  He kept taking them off his body/face, and I'd put them back on in different places.  Somehow he managed to get a sticker on me and I didn't find it until the next morning...

Thursday, February 12

This little guy managed to get all of his clothes dirty at dinner, so I just threw a T-shirt on him until bath time.  He was so mobile and talkative that I did a "Hangout" (google's version of Skype) with the folks and he was definitely intrigued.  Nana, we'll hangout with you soon!

Friday, February 13

And we're caught up to today!  I made these last night while I prepared dinner, and brought them into the office.  So far only three are gone-what's with people?  Don't they like cupcakes?!  :)

Hope everyone has a lovely Valentine's Day-I'll let you all know how our weekend goes.  Let's hope it has more sleep involved for the whole family...

Sad, but Happy

Oh Super Bowl.  Sigh.

It was such a great game until the end!  UNTIL THE END!!!  That's when we usually shine.

But hey, we made it to the Super Bowl.  That's pretty cool.  As the saying goes, "First is the Worst, Second is the Best..."  :)

Weekend photos:

When we first got there, Leif just watched the other little toddlers playing.

He's so good at climbing!

Quick family photo at Gymboree on Saturday

This was during bubble time.  Love this little boy!

Most of Saturday we spent cleaning up the house since Michael & Alan were coming over for dinner.    Since Saturday Gymboree is at 11am, right when Leif is supposed to be taking a nap, it threw him off his schedule.

Tried getting him down for a nap around 3pm, but he bounced up and so I let him play around his room while I sat half asleep in the rocking chair.  His favorite activity now-pulling out his diapers and wash cloths, trying to put them back in, repeat.

Alan and Michael came over right after Leif finally went down for a nap/woke up and we had a fun night of grilling and after Leif went to sleep, Cards Against Humanity (hubs won!)...

Crawling around with a spoon in his mouth...

At one point I asked Alan to hold Leif while I prepared some food.  Leif was so calm, and at one point he just laid in him arms.  Managed to get a fun photo.

Then came Sunday.  UGH.  Leif woke up extra early and hubs and I didn't go to bed until 12:30am, so it was rough.  Luckily we took turns-hubs spent the morning with Leif until around 9:30am when he woke up from a quick nap, then hubs slept while I watched Leif for an hour or so.

Barbie sent me this photo:

She wrote "I'm ready!"

So I sent her this one.  :)

We had pre game coverage on all morning long, so when hubs woke up he changed it to Doc McStuffins for Leif.  It's cute how Leif will stop what he's doing when this show comes on.

Leif had a lot of energy and we were anxious...

Family photo!

This was taken before the game started-we think because Leif is walking so much, he's having some growing pains.  But this really sums up how we felt at the end of the game.  Wah waaaaah.

My hair is still green, and I still love it.  But eventually it's going to fade and I'll be changing it-thoughts on the next color???  :)