Is it the weekend yet? Nope, it's Hump Day. But it will be here soon enough, oh yes...
Sorry I haven't posted frequently, but you can ooh and aah to your heart's content on these photos:
Saturday April 11:
Nana and Pop Pop flew in the previous Thursday, but we finally had a full day to spend with them. First, breakfast...
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| Leif always wants to be in the kitchen when I'm cooking, so while I made pancakes I let him play with old steel cut oats. Messy sous chef. |
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| We were getting the car packed for our trip to Santa Barbara, but Leif and Miles thought they could take the wheel for a change... |
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| When we arrived, Pop Pop and I had to scout out a bathroom so Leif and Nana got a little quality walk time in. |
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| And of course Leif navigates to places he shouldn't be. |
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| At the end of our trip, Leif was so worn out from walking around in the old Courthouse lawn and beach that Pop Pop had the chance to give him a big hug without Leif squirming around. |
Sunday, April 12:
That afternoon I had to work for a concert, but we all met up at a kid's hair place close to my work for Leif's FIRST professional haircut!
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| Lucky guy got the Hummer |
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| Getting prepped |
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| They offered him a lollipop-his first ever! |
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| He was hesitant at first, but he liked it a lot |
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| They also hooked him up with an iPad! Awesome place. He played with it for a little while but got distracted. |
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| This was when she had to use the clippers and needed him to hold still but telling a toddler to hold still is like telling anyone to hold still when they have a giant spider on their back (best analogy I could think of at the moment). |
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| Even though he managed to squirm so much that she couldn't get everything cut perfectly, she still did a fantastic job! |
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| Look at my handsome men! Leif was such a great trooper, and the hairstylist even said so. Good boy Leif! |
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| The hair place was in this fun "Marketplace" which also had a big toddler/kid area to play in; this is us in action, walking over even though Leif isn't a fan of holding hands yet. |
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| Curious boy! |
From there I had to grab a quick lunch from Panera and then run over to the concert. I got to see Nana and Pop Pop back at home after the concert. It was so nice seeing them even if it was brief!
Tuesday, April 14
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| I was cleaning out Leif's closet while Leif rifled through one of his boxes of "stuff"; he found this and proceeded to keep it in his mouth for a good half hour or so. Too funny. |
Thursday, April 16
After Leif's baptism, Michael (one of Leif's Godparents), Susie and I went over to Cisco's Mexican Restaurant for lunch. Leif was pretty behaved-I think because he was so excited to use a big boy spoon and he actually managed to feed himself a few bites of refried beans.
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| And yes, he loves straws/drinking from big glasses. |
Friday, April 17
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| He sure does love Miles, pretty much more than us! |
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| His building skills are improving quickly! |
Saturday, April 18
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| He now refuses to let us feed him 95% of the time; so I'm getting used to messy yogurt mornings. |
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| He's a huge fan of the driver's seat. |
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| We decided to check out the Scandinavian Festival at my school-apparently it's the second largest Scan. Fest in the Western United States; the largest is actually the one held in Ballard, WA! Here's Leif checking out the Norwegian 'Elk Hound' (I think that's what they're called). |
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| Always on the move! |
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| Nice pup. |
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| He had to check out the tree/bark |
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| When we were done, we stopped by the grassy area outside of my office house and let him run around for a while. |
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| We decided to get our favorite sushi for lunch; Leif loves their Udon Noodles. |
After lunch we ended up back at the Camarillo Outlet Mall and did some more awesome discounted shopping. Hubs came away with four new shirts from Columbia, I got a few things from The Loft, and Leif came away with a pair of high-top Adidas and toys from the Toys R Us outlet store. Score!
Sunday, April 19
Our friends and Leif's second daycare person had a BBQ out in Canyon Country (where we previously lived) so we came out. They hired a chef to make TACOS and they were delicious. Before/after food, Leif got to play in the enclosed playground.
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| He actually blew a few bubbles! |
Tuesday, April 21:
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| Two years ago we got Miles as an early birthday present for me and also to curb my baby fever...little did we know there was a reason my baby fever was all haywire. Miles is super crazy and not the brightest in the bunch, but he's the most happiest dog I've ever seen when it comes to meeting new people/dogs. And he's getting better with Leif! |
Wednesday, April 22:
Facebook likes to give you reminders/memories of what happened a year ago, and this photo popped up:
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| Isn't it crazy that this was Leif one year ago?! He looks so different to me now! |
OH, and get this: I was going crazy with how needy Leif was at night and how it would take over two hours to get him back down to sleep without crying for me. And we were getting tired of Leif taking over our bed. Someone mentioned the
sleep easy solution on my Facebook mama group so I ordered the book and read through it the weekend Nana and Pop Pop were visiting. I've heard a lot of the same training technique through so many sources, but what I liked about the book was how it broke down baby/toddler sleep in a scientific way, and reiterated how important it was for family as a whole. So I dove in Monday, April 13. Hubs and I sat through 35 minutes of earsplitting screams and cries (with the methodical check-in process). It was so heartbreaking to listen to him scream and not console him/pick him up. After those 35 minutes I had a nice glass of wine to ease my tension which definitely helped. He woke up a couple more times throughout the night screaming, but they didn't last more than 5-10 minutes.
So that was what, about 10 days ago? This whole process has been successful; the second night he cried for five minutes before falling asleep and woke up once or twice for a couple minutes; then he started going to bed without crying and waking up for only one to two minutes tops. Well, last night I put him down around 7pm (usually it's around 7:30, or 8 on weekends), I woke him up to feed him for a few minutes around 11pm, and he slept THROUGH THE ENTIRE NIGHT WITHOUT WAKING UP. Which means I slept throughout the night uninterrupted!!! I got a WHOLE night's sleep! Karen, our daycare lady, said he's been cheerful and I feel awesome. This is such a big success for us! Poor Hubs though, he blames our old bed for not being able to sleep lately. Don't feel too bad-tax season was good to us, and we used our refund to get a new bed! We ordered it on Amazon-a memory foam King-Size mattress-and it is currently setting up in our room. We're supposed to give it a few days to fluff up and then it's good to go! We laid on it briefly last night just to see how it feels, and holy cow, it's amazing. I'm very excited to try it out!
