Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday I celebrated my 31st birthday. The celebration actually began over the weekend with a celebratory dinner at La Fondue...just me and Mike! We even got dressed up for the occasion and Grandma Linda was kind enough to come up to babysit the little guy. La Fondue is AMAZING...a full four course fondue meal with cheese fondue, salad, meat fondue, and the always spectacular chocolate fondue. Yum Yum! We even opened up a bottle of wine from our New Zealand honeymoon. It was definitely a wonderful evening. Perhaps we need to have date nights more often!

On Monday, Mike was kind enough to let me sleep in. I can't remember the last time I actually slept past 8:00am...probably before I got pregnant in the spring of 2007! Mike took the day off of work, so we packed up the car and headed over to Half Moon Bay for lunch at the Moss Beach Distillery. We actually went here for my birthday dinner about 5 years ago, so it was fun to revisit, enjoy lunch and experience everything with Brody this time around.

After a walk around the Ritz Carlton (such an amazing place!), so decided to head home. We made a special stop at the Lemos Farm Pumpkin Patch so that Brody could experience a pumpkin patch with both mommy and daddy. There was lots to see and do at this pumpkin patch. Here are some photos from our afternoon:

9 Months Old and LOTS of Boogers!

Brody is 9 months old today!

I wish I could say that we celebrated with a trip to the park or with some fun playtime with Porter, but nope. Little man Brody celebrated this milestone with a cold. This is Brody's second cold in the course of a month, and wouldn't you know he just had to share it with Mommy. I've got the sniffles too, but at least I'm old enough to know that green boogers are not that attractive and should be wiped away immediately. Poor Brody doesn't like us trying to clean up after his never ending stream of snot.

We did manage to get out of the house for Brody's visit to the doctor for his 9 month check up. He now weighs 19lbs 7oz and is 29 1/4" long. Basically he's long and lean (just like mommy and daddy were pre-baby!). Brody also has two teeth and we think that the top two teeth will be making their debut shortly.

Aside from his growth, Brody is now cruising the furniture at home. He's even successfully released his grip from the couch for a few seconds to take a step, but then he usually ends up on his bottom. I think that he'll be walking by Thanksgiving for sure. My guess is that once he starts walking, he'll be RUNNING in no time. Thank goodness I'm no longer in my back brace...perhaps I'll be able to keep up with him!

More Firsts...

First Trip to the Beach - I took Brody down to Laguna Beach so that he could experience he first trip to the ocean. Yes, we've driven over the hill to Santa Cruz, but we didn't actually go down to the water's edge. Brody started with the sand at the beach playground and really enjoyed the swings. Then, we headed down to the water. He LOVED the water (even though mommy thought it was a bit chilly) but didn't seem to enjoy the sand that ended up everywhere...including in his diaper.










First Trip to the Pumpkin Patch - Grandma Linda and Auntie Amy joined us as we traveled to the Irvine Park Pumpkin Patch. Growing up, I remember going to Irvine Park for Girl Scout events (I think that this is where I got bucked off a horse!), and then spent some fun times there in high school before graduation. Brody got to see the ponies, the old Irvine Park Train, his first Haunted House, and seemed to enjoy picking out a pumpkin. This was a perfect introduction to one of my favorite holidays!

A Trip to the OC...

Last week, I took Brody down to the OC to show him mommy's old stomping grounds. While it's been about 13 years since I lived in Tustin full time, it was nice to go back and show our little guy where I grew up. We even stayed in the house next door to the house I called home during my elementary school and middle school days! It definitely brought back memories of walking to and from school, playing in the park and swimming at the neighborhood "Big" and "Little" Pools. Tustin Meadows was where I experienced many of my firsts in life, so it was only fitting that Brody got to experience some firsts as well:

First Visit to McDonald's - Yes, as soon as we got off the plane, we headed to McDonald's to dine with our family friends Bob, Lynda & Ryan Poe, and Ryan's little girl, Natalie. Even though some folks thought that it would be a great time for Brody to try his first french fry, we stuck to our favorite puffs and milk while everyone else (yes adults included) enjoyed their Happy Meals!

First Playdate with Birthday Buddy Evan - We got to meet Evan Seaver, Brody's "Birthday Buddy" as well. Lucky for us, our wonderful hostess, Mrs. Fletcher, had grammy duties that included babysitting her grandkids throughout the week. On Tuesday Evan came to play. Evan's mommy was actually one of my babysitters when I was in grade school...so it was kind of fun to learn that Brody and Evan were born on the SAME day, just a few hours apart in January. While both little guys are almost 9 months old, it was pretty amazing to see just how different the two are. Brody is cruising up a storm while Evan is content in grammy's arms. Evan can circle his ankles round and round, while Brody has a hard time remembering to bend his ankles when he gets around (he does lots of moving around on his tippy toes). Both little guys were as happy as can be and we had a fun morning together.

More firsts to follow...

Playdates and Cupcakes...

As we try to establish a weekly "routine," one thing that Brody and I try not to miss is our weekly playdates at the park. When Brody was 2 weeks old, I started attending a new moms group at the hospital on Wednesday mornings. At first, it was a time for all of us to share thoughts, ask questions, laugh, cry (yes, I did cry at my first meeting...blame it on the hormones!), and simply share in the experience with others who had little ones about the same age as Brody. Since then, many of us have hosted playdates at our homes, grabbed lunch, walked a few miles (though I think that I did more talking than walking), and become friends. In fact, many of the moms that I met in the group were extremely supportive when I broke my back in April. A number of them came over to help out, spend time with Brody and Porter, bring us meals, and even kindly remind me to keep my back brace on when I wanted to take the darn thing off.

Now that our little one are becoming more mobile, we've moved our playdates outdoors in an attempt to spend time together and soak up that nice weather while it lasts. Last week, Brody and I headed to the park to "play" with our friends. Here are some shots of Brody and his friends.

This week, instead of a trip to the park, Brody and I spent much of our week at home recovering from colds. Yep, it took 8 months for Brody to catch his first cold. And while I know that he needs to catch a cold to build his immune system, it certainly isn't much fun trying to wipe a child's runny nose every few seconds. To Brody, this was pure torture.

Today, Brody was finally feeling a better, so I thought a little road trip to Palo Alto would be a good cure for the common cold. Especially when their are CUPCAKES involved! Yes, the Bay Area finally got it's own Sprinkles cupcake store. I had heard about this cupcake chain from my sister (there's a store in the OC), and even saw the owner on a Martha Stewart episode. So, I called up my friend Stephanie, and today we had a "Cupcake Date" with our little ones. And, because Brody and Hattie (Steph's little girl) are too young for cupcakes, it simply meant that we HAD to eat the entire thing! Only a tiny setback in my hopes to lose some baby weight - but it was a delicious set back! Here are some shots of our "Cupcake Date" and my yummy Red Velvet treat!

Brody enjoying some banana oatmeal

Miss Hattie

Mommy and Brody

Red Velvet...my favorite!