When we found out I was pregnant with Nora, it was a Tuesday morning, and it just so happened that we had plans to see Michael’s family that following Saturday. We decided right away that we were going to tell our news to our families—just parents and siblings—at the first opportunity, so we baked up (literally, ha) a surprise for Michael’s family, then made last-minute plans to see and surprise my family as well. I was only five weeks pregnant but it was too hard to keep quiet and already having the plans for a get-together presented the perfect opportunity.
This time, we had JUST seen both of our families for Thanksgiving—I got the positive test on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend—plus I had been through a miscarriage (more on that another time), so we decided to wait for 1) a confirmation of a heartbeat via ultrasound, and 2) the opportunity to tell everyone in person again.
That opportunity? Christmas.
A week before Christmas, we went in for an ultrasound at 7 weeks to confirm a viable early pregnancy. We saw a little bean—measuring right on target, and with a perfect little heartbeat.
Then we had to figure out exactly how we were going to tell. With Nora, we made a cake that was pink and blue in the middle. This time, we struggled a bit. In fact, we didn’t come up with what ended up being THE plan until the early afternoon on Christmas Eve!
It was worth the last-minute scramble to get it all set up, though, because the reactions were awesome. And what better way to announce a pregnancy on Christmas than to make the news an actual GIFT? :)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Blogging vacation recaps is probably my least favorite thing about blogging. Yet I love, love, love having the posts to look back on, so they are a necessary evil.
So it took me two weeks to wrap that up. And now we are halfway through February already. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?? It is a perpetual feeling of being behind on EVERYTHING.
I have a list of things that I want to blog about in the next week or two, so hopefully I’ll have some good posts coming up. Life is back to normal, pretty much. A few randoms:
- I got a promotion at work. We’re seeing some other changes on our team as well, so it’s been an interesting time of transition. I’m sad for things to change—since they were good before—but of course I am happy for the opportunity change brings as well.
- Michael’s birthday was last weekend. I’ll probably blog a little about that soon, but for now… happy belated birthday to my husband. 32 looks good on him. :)
- We are in the beginning stages of seriously trying to potty train Nora. We’ve been casually introducing her to the potty for months, and she has had a handful of successes randomly, but this past weekend we really jumped off the high dive and went cold turkey, moving her to big girl undies. We’ve been moderately successful so far. She went back to daycare today and had a good day there, too, so who knows? We’re not putting a lot of pressure on the situation; we don’t have a lot of expectations. But I hope we can keep the momentum and progress going!
- I have been terrible (and I mean really terrible) about taking photos lately. Thank goodness we went on vacation or I swear we would have nothing to document anything since Christmas. And thank goodness for the iPhone because that is where most photos come from these days. I actually really appreciate the photos from the iPhone since they are far more likely to be little moments of everyday life, but STILL. I partly blame the time of year. It’s hard for me to get motivated to whip out the camera and start snapping away when I almost always have to use flash and we are in the boring INDOORS all of the time. I can’t wait for spring.
- We have several home improvement projects on our list for before the baby comes. We haven’t started any of them, and of course I really want them all (mostly) done by May so we’re not rushing the last few months, and so we can relax and ENJOY LIFE and the WARM WEATHER and not have to worry about being stuck inside with projects. We shall see. We need to get a move on.
It’s good to be back… REALLY back! It feels like it has been forever since I’ve had complete blogging FREEDOM! :)
Last day in San Diego. Back home, the temperatures are in the teens. We knew we had to make the most of it.
We got up and got ready early, opting to go down to Pacific Beach for breakfast at a place called Kono’s. Blueberry pancakes for Nora and me, huge-ass breakfast burritos for Jay and Michael. We ate outside on a deck overlooking the beach. Not a bad way to start a day. I’m not going to lie; we’ve had a lot of “I think we could live here” moments the last day or two.
After breakfast we took a little walk down the pier. Nora could see and hear the water beneath us, and she kept saying, “In! In!” Little nutcase wanted to frolic in the waves like yesterday.
It was a beautiful morning, but still a bit chilly. But we walked down off of the pier and onto the beach so Nora could play. And sure enough, she wanted to go down by the water right away. Off came her pants so she could run around in her diaper and t-shirt. :)
Once Nora had some time to run off some steam, we all piled back in Jay’s car and dropped by the grocery store to pick up some stuff to make sandwiches to pack for the beach in the afternoon. Then we took a ride to a couple of scenic overlooks to fit in some more sightseeing before Nora’s nap.
The first was Mt. Soledad, and it was definitely pretty up there!
It probably goes without saying after seeing the above pic, but Nora was not in the mood for photos here! Ha!
From there, we drove to Torrey Pines. Again, beautiful. Torrey Pines had a lot of really nice looking hiking trails, but that wasn’t something we were going to attempt with Nora. We’ll have to come back someday. For now, we just used the opportunity to take a few more photos.
Then we went back to Jay’s for a while so Nora could take a nap. It was later than we hoped, as we wanted to spend the afternoon at the beach. But we knew she needed some rest, so we let her nap until a little after 2:00, at which point we actually woke her up.
By the time we got to the beach, things were already cooling off pretty significantly since the winter mid-afternoon sun isn’t all that powerful! But it was pretty, and HEY, we were ON A BEACH. IN JANUARY. Can’t complain about that. And Nora? She didn’t care one bit.
We picked her up some sand toys so she spent a good amount of time playing in the sand, but eventually she did gravitate toward the water again. A quick change into her bathing suit and she was off.
Before too long, she came back because even she was cold! We snuggled up to watch the sunset.
Once the sun had set, we packed up and went back to Jay’s. We grilled burgers and hot dogs for dinner, and got ourselves ready for the long trip home.
I don’t wanna go.
We woke up in the middle of the night last night to find that our hotel had lost power. Not wanting to disturb Nora or our night of sleep to figure things out, we just rolled over and went back to sleep. We heard it cut back on a few hours later, and when we got up in the morning, all seemed to be normal.
Except one of the elevators wasn’t working. Which made getting our stuff downstairs and checking out very, very slow since every elevator that came our way was already chock full of people.
We finally checked out, with no explanation whatsoever of the power failure. And then we were on our way.
On our way out of town, we stopped at Randy’s Donuts, because well, it kind of felt like we had to. And who doesn’t like a donut?
My donut was pretty good, though it reminded me of a Krispy Kreme, which aren’t my favorite. BETTER than a Krispy Kreme, but it had that “melt in your mouth” quality to it, I guess.
We had never just straight-up given Nora a donut before, so probably needless to say, she was a huge, HUGE fan.
We took the 5 to Long Beach, at which point we got off to cut over to the Pacific Coast Highway. We wanted to take our time making our way back south, and see some of the scenery that PCH has to offer.
By the time we got to Huntington Beach, Nora was already fed up with being strapped into her car seat and it was clear that we needed to give her some fun. We parked and then basically let her run wild.
We weren’t 100% certain how she was going to respond to the sand and/or the ocean, but we need not have worried. She took to it like a complete natural.
The water was really cold, but Nora did not care one bit. It was so fun to see such joy on her face and hear it in her voice. She couldn’t get enough of it.
This is Nora telling me that it’s too “bwy” (bright) to look up and smile at the camera.
After we had frolicked for a good hour or so, we went back to the car to get Nora and Michael into some dry clothes and get back on the road. By this time, Nora was much more willing to sit in the car seat and chill for a while, now that her “play” needs had been fulfilled. :)
We made a quick pit stop for a bathroom and a big ol’ drink and then we continued down the PCH. Nora eventually fell asleep, so it was really peaceful.
We stayed on the PCH until San Clemente, then hopped back on the 5 for the remainder of the drive. We made it back to San Diego by mid-afternoon, at which point we drove around for a while longer to allow Nora to nap a little longer. She apparently really needed it!
Once she was up we went back to Jay’s place and waited for him to get off of work. Another one of Michael and Jay’s friends, Alan, came by to visit, and we all went and picked up some takeout for dinner and just relaxed.
Tomorrow is our last day in California and we’re planning another low key day to finish the trip.
After a fun-filled and busy day at Disney yesterday, I will admit that I was not all that excited about waking up and driving to Los Angeles today. I’m honestly not that fond of L.A. My mood about it was less than stellar.
Still, Michael had never been, so we planned to drive up from Anaheim and stay one night before heading back to San Diego. We took our time in the hotel room in the morning and left around 9:30-10. Nora was still psyched about her Minnie ears.
I think she thought we were going back to Disneyland today. I actually wish that we would have spent two days there instead of just one, even though it felt like we pretty much hit all of the highlights for her age group. But she was just SO.HAPPY. when we first got up and out, and then it was like, once she realized we weren’t going back to Disney, she was disappointed. She didn’t want to wear her ears anymore after that. Sorry, baby. :(
We got up to L.A. and checked into our hotel early again. We had won this hotel (Hotel Angeleno) on Priceline, and I knew it was close to the 405, but I didn’t realize it was like… ON the 405. The way it was positioned, we were within walking distance of nothing. I was not pleased, which just added to my really fun mood. *sigh*
That’s the view from our room. NOT awesome.
We got out of the room and decided to take a ride to Griffith Park Observatory to see the views of the city and the Hollywood sign. Upon arrival there, Nora started having an emotional breakdown (probably from a combination of no Disneyland + too much time in the car + not enough sleep and in need of a nap). She didn’t want to get out of the car and fighting with and/or disciplining her was beyond frustrating at that point. We eventually worked things out and she turned it around… mostly. You can imagine my mood by this point.
We didn’t spend too much time there, just took some photos and then packed back into the car and tried to figure out what the heck we were going to do next. I was ready to get the hell out of L.A. already, haha. But on our way back down from Griffith, Nora passed out in the car… and suddenly, my mood improved about the situation. It was a nice day, and we decided to just drive around.
We weren’t far from Hollywood Blvd. so we went there, and happened upon the Capitol Records building.
We drove up and down the Walk of Fame area of Hollywood Blvd. a few times, just to see some of the historic sites. All from the car, of course, as we had a sleeping toddler and YOU DON’T MESS WITH THAT.
Eventually we decided that it would be funny for Michael to get out of the car (I was driving) and walk a single block (at the most) to find the most famous person’s star he could.
That person turned out to be Carl Reiner. Not too bad.
From there, we decided to get ourselves to Santa Monica Pier. We took our time (thanks to L.A. traffic, HA!) and then drove around Santa Monica a little bit while Nora finished her nap. Once she woke, we parked at the pier and got out to walk for a bit.
After a walk down the pier and back, Nora was already back in a less-than-ideal form. OMG, the attitude. The disagreeable, stubborn, ridiculous attitude. I tell you what: 2-year-olds sure know how to ruin an afternoon of vacation if they want to. Holy hell.
We spent a good chunk of time trying to reason with, bargain with, discipline, offer choices to, ignore, and pacify Nora. It was impossible. She was having the tantrum of all tantrums… and then she wanted her blankie for comfort. Which we regretfully left back at the hotel. We were trying to get her to agree to chill the freak out and just come have dinner with us at a restaurant. But in her state, I didn’t think that was going to be possible.
Finally, I tried to see it from her point of view. What had we done for HER today? What did we do that was fun and/or stimulating for HER? And the answer was nothing. We had spent much of the day (so far) in the car. And the other half sightseeing in places that were not at all exciting to her. So, it clicked. We had to give her some HER time. I asked her if she wanted to come out and play in the sand with me. And sure enough, her tears dried up and we went and played in the sand.
After a half hour or so, she seemed done with it, so we told her we’d go back up and walk on the pier. Once up there, I gave her a “choice” between two restaurants—we didn’t care where we ate, we just wanted food—and Nora picked Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Haha! Michael and I actually ate at a Bubba Gump when we were on our honeymoon in Maui nearly FIVE years ago.
And guess what? Nora did fantastically. She was the most well-behaved AND ate the most she has eaten at a restaurant during this whole trip so far.
It probably helped that the kid’s meal included pizza AND french fries (dear lord, don’t get me started). WHATEVER, we are on vacation. But the restaurant was fun. It was NICE to be with Nora again, we ENJOYED each other. And that is all that counted.
While we were eating dinner, the sun set, so the sky was pretty cool. We went back down to the beach and Nora played in the sand some more while we took some photos.
On the way back to our hotel, we completed the trifecta of vacation junk food by stopping for ice cream at Sweet Rose Creamery. Nora asked for chocolate and sprinkles, and she LOVED it.
After some serious ups and downs, the day ended on a high note. I learned a lot about traveling with a toddler (and what makes them tick in general). It’s interesting, this parenting thing. You just never stop learning.
Tomorrow… we escape L.A.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
