Labor Day Weekend

Ok, I know I’m about a week behind in posting about our Labor Day excursions, but we were so busy having fun that I didn’t have time to write anything until now.  We had an amazing Labor Day weekend.  It honestly felt like a mini-vacation because we did so much.  We went to San Diego, came back up to LA to meet a friend’s baby, and then did Disneyland.

The Saturday of Labor Day weekend, we went down to La Jolla Shores in San Diego for a day at the beach to celebrate Aaron’s cousin’s wedding.  Aaron’s brother, Dominick, flew in for the occasion, so we had 3 adults plus Guinevere in the car – which worked out really well when G decided she was over being in the car.  I was already sitting next to her and could try to soothe her.

When we got to the beach, Aaron dropped the rest of us off and then went to find parking.  He had to park about a half mile away . . . oh La Jolla Shores!  Meanwhile, Dominick and I met up with my parents and Aaron’s mom and the rest of the family.  They had a nice tent set up on the grassy area at the beach and we ate some food and just hung out. 

Once Aaron finally joined us, I changed G into her bathing suit and took her down to the water.  She seemed to enjoy splashing around in the waves and walking in the wet sand . . . until a wave came in that scared her!  It didn’t even go that high – it maybe came up to her calf, but she wasn’t expecting it and got scared.  After that, she insisted on clinging to me every time we went near the water.  Other than getting slightly scared in the water, she had a grand old time walking on the sand and all over the grass!

My beach baby!

In the afternoon, Aaron’s cousin and her husband rented kayaks for a bunch of us.  Fortunately, both my parents and Aaron’s mom were perfectly happy to step in and watch G while Aaron and I went out with the kayaks.  I can’t believe I grew up in San Diego and never went kayaking in La Jolla!  We kayaked all the way out into the kelp forest and then over to the caves and back.  I will admit, it was a little nerve racking initially rowing out over the waves in order to get to the calmer seas.  But once we were out in the kelp forest, it was so calm and beautiful.  We saw more seals than I can count – both swimming in the ocean, and relaxing on the rocks in the caves.  After the beach, we went back to my parents’ house for dinner to rest and fuel up before the drive back up to LA.

The next day we went to a party at a family friend’s house.  Their son is like a cousin to me and he and his wife were in town with their 8 month old.  The party was basically an excuse to meet the baby.  I love watching Guinevere meet other babies!  She is always fascinated.  Of course, she’s about the same size as the 8 month old!  Our family friends have a pool and since it was in the 100s, we decided to take advantage of the “optional swimming” portion of the party.  G absolutely loved swimming!  I was a little worried that maybe her fear of the ocean would have carried over to pools, but she did just fine.  In fact, the floaty thing we borrowed had two tubes connected by small strips of plastic, and Guinevere could reach between them and “swim” by kicking her legs and moving her arms.  It was adorable!

On Labor Day itself, I took Guinevere to Disneyland.  Aaron had to work, so it was just Guinevere and me.  As we entered the park, Minnie Mouse was there.  She came over and said “Hi” to Guinevere, but since I was alone with Guinevere, and Minnie was just out and about for a walk, “not stopping, just saying hi,” according to her handler, I didn’t manage to get a picture.  After that, we headed over to Fantasyland and walked through Sleeping Beauty’s castle.  We also went on the carousel and Dumbo.  It’s so much fun watching Guinevere grow and seeing how each trip to Disney, she’s more interested in everything around her!

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Happy (belated) Thanksgiving

Before I get started on all my December activities, I wanted to take a moment to give thanks for all my family and talk about our Thanksgiving this year.  Thanksgiving will forever have a special place in my heart because it was a year ago Thanksgiving that I found out I was pregnant. 

I spent the majority of our travels last weekend reminiscing about how I felt a year ago and staring in wonderment at my beautiful Guinevere, who at the time was little more than a little bean in my belly and now, here she is, in the flesh, a fully living, breathing, cooing (and sometimes crying) baby.  A year ago I was trying to hide the fact that I wasn’t drinking because we weren’t even close to being ready to tell our family.  This year, I was able to have some wine with my dinner (spaced appropriately due to breast feeding, of course) and eat whatever I wanted without fear of nausea or heartburn.

We followed pretty much the same routine this year as last year.  Aaron and I spent Thanksgiving Day with his mom and aunt near Temecula.  My parents drove up to join us as well.  It’s so fun having both sets of parents be driving distance now. It was surprisingly warm for late November!  All of us were wearing shorts because it was too hot for long pants!  I brought a cute little dress for Guinevere to wear, which I cleverly did not put on her until we arrived.  And of course, she had to wear a bib all day.  My little Mount Vesuvius cannot be trusted with cute clothes.  (She usually goes through about 3-4 outfits per day due to spit up).

Guinevere on Thanksgiving Day

The next day, Guinevere and I went for a walk at Miramar Lake with my good friend, Corey and her daughter.  That night, my parents volunteered to babysit for us and Aaron and I were able to actually have a date night!  We drove through fog as thick as pea soup to the movie theatre, where we saw “Argo.”  As we walked past the crazy long lines for the new Bond movie, we both commented on how we were glad we chose to see something that’s been out for a bit instead. I am so thankful to my parents for watching Guinevere – our date night was a breath of fresh air.

At Miramar Lake

Saturday after Thanksgiving has always been my family’s traditional get together dinner.  My cousins, aunt and uncle and grandparents all came down to my parents’ house in San Diego for more turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, etc.  Everyone loved seeing Guinevere so much that I didn’t really hold her very much at all!  At one point, I looked around the table and had to ask, “Who has my baby?”  Turns out my cousin had taken her into the other room to play.  By the end of the night, all of us were really exhausted, but happy.

Saturday after Thanksgiving - her tummy time skills have vastly improved!

We had a great weekend, but it was also really nice to come home to our own house and have Guinevere in her familiar surroundings.

Ok - now I'm off to go dig out our Christmas stuff from the garage and start decorating!

Guinevere's Travels: San Diego

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Last weekend, Guinevere and I went down to San Diego for the second time in her life.  Aaron had some work stuff that he needed to do in LA, so he wasn’t able to join us.  There were several reasons for this trip: a) I wanted to finally show Guinevere some of the sites of San Diego b) I wanted to clean out my room at my parents’ house c) attending a friend’s wedding.  It was so hot (again) that I ended up not getting much cleaning done, but at least I got 2 out of 3 goals accomplished!  Poor Guinevere is going to start to think that San Diego is hotter than LA!

On our first full day in San Diego, I took Guinevere down to Seaport Village while we waited for my sister’s plane to land.  Sharon was a bridesmaid in the wedding this weekend, and I thought it would be fun for her sister and niece to pick her up from the airport.  I am so glad we left as early as we did!  When we arrived at Seaport Village, it was already 85 degrees at 10am!  By the time we got back to Mira Mesa, my car was reading 101.  

Guinevere at Seaport Village

Guinevere with the Coronado Bridge in the background.

Back to Seaport Village – I’ve always loved this place!  For those not from San Diego, Seaport Village is a cute little shopping area downtown.  It’s on the water and super close to the airport.  In fact, it was much easier for Guinevere and I to stroll around at Seaport Village than to sit in a parked car in the cell phone lot.  I walked Ginny out to the waterfront and we wandered around for a while.  I even bought myself a big floppy hat.  

I don’t care if it looks silly.  I’ve been having some issues with irritation with my eyes and am trying to avoid contacts as much as possible lately, so I needed to get a hat.

Later that day, I attempted to get started on cleaning up my room.  Some kids have parents who turn their room into a guest room the moment they leave for college.  Not me.  My room in SD is almost like a time capsule to my teenage self, complete with bunk beds and all.  Yes, Aaron and I still sleep on my bunk beds (me on the top bunk, him on the bottom bunk) when we visit!  I had this great idea that I would go down to San Diego and clean out my room and donate the bunk beds and all the other stuff that has accumulated over the past however many years. Then I would go to Ikea, buy a new bed, and voila, we would have a real guest room to sleep in.   Yeah . . . that didn’t happen.  First off, it was so hot that I could barely move.  Also, Aaron wasn’t there to help hold Guinevere while I cleaned.  I thought that would be fine since I would be in San Diego and my mom and my sister would be fighting over who got to hold her . . . but my sister had loads of bridesmaid duties and so wasn’t around and my parents were busy getting the final arrangements done for the Mira Mesa Street Fair, which was the next day.

I tried putting Guinevere down for a nap in her pack 'n play in my room while I cleaned.  But there were two problems with that:  1. She was hot and fussy and didn’t really want to nap 2. I realized as I was putting my old trinkets into the various “keep,“ “donate,” and “trash” bags, there was a ton of dust in my room!  I really wasn’t comfortable stirring up that much dust with my 2 month old in the room.  So I finally gave up on finishing everything.  I figure if I just allocate an hour or two of cleaning/organizing every time I visit San Diego, we can eventually turn it into a more grown up guest room.  In the mean time, the bunk bed stays!  

Saturday was the Mira Mesa Street Fair.  My parents are very active in local community planning, so they played a big part in putting on the street fair.  It was forecast to be even hotter than Friday, and my dad was worried that the heat would make people stay home.  I took Guinevere to the street fair as early as possible to avoid the heat.  My friend Corey and her daughter, Mikaela, joined us.  We had fun pushing our strollers up and down the street.  We found my mom selling her book on the history of Mira Mesa.  Of course, when we showed up, mom wanted tons of pictures.  After the “grandparent paparazzi” session was finished, Corey and I bought some snowcones and ate them in the relative comfort of some shade.

Guinevere in front of mom's book signing table.

I have no idea how hot it was while we were at the street fair, but later that day, my car’s thermometer said 107!!!  I don’t EVER remember it being that hot growing up!  The newspaper said it was the hottest day on record since 1988.  Guinevere and I ended up escaping the heat at my friend Jfer’s house.  I’m actually really glad we hung out in the air conditioning for a couple hours.  G and I were much more comfortable and it gave me time to tell Jfer what Guinevere likes and doesn’t like, what time she goes to bed, how often she eats, etc. since I had Jfer lined up to watch Guinevere while I was at the wedding the next day.  

I’ve learned that with the baby, it takes a long time to get ready for an event where I have to do more to my appearance than just throwing on a pair of yoga pants and a nursing tank.  I think I took about 3 hours to get ready for the wedding this Sunday (including a couple of feeding breaks).  The wedding was beautiful!  I’ve known Becky, the bride, since she was in kindergarten with my sister.  My Girl Scout troop and hers would get together for camp outs, service projects and other events. I love Guinevere, but I will admit it was kind of fun to leave her with a trusted friend for a couple hours while I had fun.  I was able to dance and have a couple glasses of wine!  

My sister and I at the wedding.