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???  :)

HAPPY BLUE FRIDAY - GO SEAHAWKS!

Are you READY for some football?!?!  :)

I put my brave pants on this week and went all out for the Seahawks, just because I was inspired by a friend who did this...

Doesn't it look awesome?!

Since I did that crazy presentation last Friday, my boss okay'd me to leave early on Wednesday for my hair appointment at P!ay Hair Lounge in Simi Valley...

First, Toni cut my bangs and did a slight trim, then off to bleaching...

All bleached!  Reminds me of high school.

Adding the blue and green...

End results-front

And back...I love it!

Hubs didn't get home until late from school, and the first thing he said to me when he saw me was...

"You're going to get fired!"

Thanks hubs.  I started worrying so I texted Michael and asked if I was going to get fired for bright colored hair...he asked how bright, and we went back and forth.  End result-no, I'm not going to get fired.  

Next morning I styled my hair and posed with Leif-

I realized after I posted this to Facebook that it's not super flattering that I'm standing in the bathroom with the toilet in the background...but Hubs had to get to work asap so he took this super quick.  I love my hair!

And sure enough, all the music faculty were pretty cool with my hair!  The one faculty member that I thought would have a gripe hasn't said anything about it.  My boss towards the end of the day exclaimed, "Is that for the Seahawks?!  Sorry, I'm a little late..."  haha.  

Here's my obligatory selfie at my desk-I really hate about 99% of the selfies I try to take and automatically delete them, but this one wasn't that bad...

And then our knock-off jerseys we ordered weeks ago came in.  That's right-instead of forking out over $100 per jersey, we found a website that sells jerseys for roughly $21-$23 a piece!  When hubs opened them up, he said they were super stinky.  He washed them on gentle, and I dried them on low when I got home, but they still have a faint smell of jet fuel.  But hey, for the price, we can't complain!!!

Regular 12th man jersey

Forgot what they call this, but here's the fun one I ordered.  Wearing this one today!

Leif is in one of his Seahawk onesies-I didn't put him in a jersey because he can get super dirty at daycare.  And Hubs is in one of his jerseys.  Yay!  I'm super excited!  Any suggestions on what to cook/eat on Sunday?

Pinterest Success: "The Yummiest Pancake Recipe"

Sometimes I'll get hooked on something and want to eat/drink it ALL the time.  And then after I have immersed myself with it, I'll just get sick of it and stop and not have it for a while.  Does this happen to anyone else?  For example, I was on an Indian food kick for months...but then I stopped cold turkey.

Anyway, I've been on a pancake kick, but just because Leif will eat pancakes.  I like trying to make his food rather than serve him processed food.

Today's Pinterest Success pin is "The Yummiest Pancake Recipe", and the pin looks like this:

Don't they look yummy?!  Website is here

And here are my photos:

Since hubs wasn't feeling very well all weekend, I let him sleep while Leif played in the kitchen with me.  He had a lot of fun playing with just a bowl and mixer!

Ingredients

Mixing dry and wet ingredients separately

They don't look that great, but it's not all about looks, right?

Coffee break between flipping!  Second cup of the morning...

Last set of pancakes.  Like how they're ombre?  If someone could tell me how to evenly cook pancakes without doing them one by one, that would be helpful, please and thank you...

Leif enjoys pancakes and banana!

I ate the burnt ones.  They were delicious!

Even Miles wanted in on the action.

I like this recipe because they are always the perfect size (I made some a few weeks ago that were super thick), you can taste all the ingredients and they taste great even burnt.  :)  My only modification as you may have noticed in the second photo is I use non-flavored Almond Milk, and I don't know if you could even tell the difference.  I've made these a couple times now so I may be able to do this without having to pull up Pinterest!  I don't know if I would call them the "yummiest" though, just because I prefer the Swedish-Pancake style (almost crepe like) vs. regular pancakes.  But this will be my go-to fluffy/old-fashioned pancake recipe!

Weekend Fun

The weekend flew by, and I'm so excited/anxious for this coming weekend-Superbowl baby!!!

So Friday was crazy.  I left for work in a whirlwind because I had to give a presentation that day to 25 admission counselors from around the world about the music department; I woke up a little late so I had to get professional looking as fast as possible.  When I was driving to work, my car sounded louder; well, I could feel everything more.  Then when I got on the freeway, my steering wheel starting vibrating rapidly...then my tired popped.  Luckily I was able to move over safely but I was stuck on the side of the freeway and the shoulder wasn't very wide.  I called hubs frantic, and after he agreed to come out (thankfully he didn't have to work), I renewed my Triple A membership and they came out and changed my tired very quickly.  Phew!  We found a tire shop pretty close by, dropped the car off, dropped Leif off at daycare (he was not a happy camper throughout this whole situation), and we stopped to get some breakfast since we didn't know how long it would take.  They called, said my car would be done by 1pm, so hubs dropped me off at work around 10:30am.  Not terrible!  Could have been worse.  Gave my presentation with Michael (faculty/friend) and it went smoothly.  After work, hubs picked me up, got my car, picked up Leif, dropped him off at home, got his dinner ready and then I drove back to Thousand Oaks to catch Michael's euphonium-tuba recital (the first half).  Like I said, it was a crazy day!

Saturday was bridesmaid shopping day for my friend Christina.  She lives in San Diego, but we met about 15 minutes away from my house since it was close to everyone, phew!  We stopped at David's Bridal, found a couple she liked-then lunch at the mall and dress shopping at Nordstrom.  After trying on a few, she settled on three styles at Nordstrom!  I'm happy with them.

All three will be short, so Devon on my left will be in that style top, I liked my strap dress and the third style will be a deep sweetheart strapless cut.  All in royal blue!

Christina is in the white top in the middle, but SEVEN bridesmaids!

 I got home around 5pm, and since hubs stayed home with Leif all day, he was itching to get out.  So we ended up...at the mall again.  Haha.  It was fine, and Leif got to try out his new car!  (photo below of car...)

Sunday I woke up on the right side of the bed-I let hubs sleep, and I cleaned up the house, started laundry, made pancakes (pinterest success post coming up!), took Miles & Leif for a walk, took Leif to Gymboree, and spent the rest of the day cleaning/playing with Leif.  It was a really nice Sunday.

We really love where we live!

My cutie pie enjoying his new ride.  He didn't try to take off his hat until the end of our walk, good boy!

View of Leif and our location

There was only one other baby at Gymboree but Leif still had a good time.  And at the end he went up to Casey and kept trying to kiss him, it was super adorable!