The Pumpkin Patch

Earlier in October we took a family outing to a local pumpkin patch. It was about 45 minutes away and was truly in the middle of farm country. There are pumpkin patches that are much closer to us, but they tend to be on vacant plots of land right next to the 101 - not exactly the country farm experience we were looking for.

The name of the place we went is called Faulkner Farms and it is in Santa Paula, CA. It is an older farm that has since been purchased by the University of California Hansen Agricultural Center. The proceeds from the annual pumpkin patch are donated to local schools and community groups in the area so that also made us feel good about supporting this particular farm.

There were bales of hay, a corn maze, a hay maze for the younger kids, hay rides, lots and lots of pumpkins, a petting zoo, a working farm, and even a little antique shop right on the property. They did have a live band when we were there but in my opinion they were just a little too loud (I know, I'm getting old). We started the afternoon with some lunch - tri tip sandwiches (a So. Cal favorite) and corn on the cob and then started touring the property. Christopher loved watching the older kids run around and he just likes to check out new things. We found some pumpkins that were bigger than he is and let him play around them for a while. During this time we were constantly trying to take advantage of any photo opp we could. I think we got some good pics and we'll definitely plan to head back there with both kids next fall.

Family photo with the sunflowers

The antique shop!

Chasing an almost toddler

Something very important that I've realized is that blogging with a 10/11 month old is not easy. During nap times I usually take the time to shower, clean up the kitchen, and do whatever other chores I can fit in within an hour. Christopher is an extremely mobile, extremely curious baby. I am not in any way complaining because he is so much fun and I love watching him explore - it just means there isn't much time to sit down during the day. Luckily I'm over the worst of the 1st trimester exhaustion and don't need daytime naps anymore. It also helps that Christopher consistently sleeps for 11 hours at night now. And when evening bed time rolls around Chris and I sit down and have a late dinner together and I don't usually have the energy to write something creative...or write something at all.

Some of the things Christopher is into right now is climbing the stairs in our house over and over and over again. He also likes to "rearrange" all of the shoes in my closet. I let him play in there while I brush my teeth after breakfast and he really enjoys it. Although lately he has decided he should try to close the door while he is inside and I'm not. Not a big deal because there is no lock on the door, but I always open it up pretty quickly.

There is always a new adventure around the corner for him and it is a lot of fun to see what he discovers next. One project we'd like to get done before Baby Straub #2 arrives in March is to convert our upstairs workout room to a playroom for the kids. It will be great to have a place to contain most of the toys and books and where it will be easy to block off the entrance and let Christopher be free to play. Hopefully we'll have the time to make that happen!

I've been away from blogging for a while - but I have to say it was for a good reason. We had visits from two grandmothers during the month of August. It was such a big help to have Nana and then Grammy here, especially since Chris had to make an unexpected work trip to London for a week. I really appreciated the adult company and the help with Christopher so I could get a few things done, including some napping!
Christopher is almost 10 months old - and his personality gets bigger every day. He is such a pleasant, fun boy and he is always moving and trying to get into something he shouldn't. But babies will be babies I guess. We're pretty sure he has figured out that he needs to pose for us when we take out the camera, and to show that off, here are a few recent photos of our little ham.

Out for lunch with Mommy and Grammy

Looking tough at dinner time

Enjoying football Sunday

Celebrity Sightings

Since moving to Southern California I've had a few minor run-ins with so-called celebrities. I wish I could say that I had met some exciting movie stars, but these encounters have mostly been at a distance and without actually speaking to these people. I'm not one to bother someone for an autograph or a picture because I just don't care enough, but it is still interesting to see TV personalities in person.

Probably the most popular actor I've seen was John Krasinski, known for his role as Jim Halpert on NBC's show "The Office." I do admit that I love that show and was pretty excited to see him. We actually saw him checking in for his flight from BOS to LAX on American Airlines while we waited in line for our first class seat upgrades. Luckily for us, we got our upgrade for our flight back home from Boston. It was much needed after a long trip with a tired, wiggly baby. So, we were actually in the same row on the flight as Mr. Krasinski. I was impressed that no one bothered him, and that he seemed like a nice, regular guy just making his way home to LA.
The other TV personalities - I won't call them celebrities as that is a stretch - were Maria Menounos who is a reporter for an entertainment show on TV, also on an American Airlines flight, and William Hung(!!!) of American Idol fame a few years back. I saw him at LAX when I was waiting to pick up my mom and actually wouldn't have known it was him until someone stopped him and asked to have their picture taken with him.
During one of my few trips to Malibu I saw Ricki Lake - who had a bad daytime talk show years and years ago - but I don't consider that very exciting.
We'll see who will be next on the list. I'm hoping for Tom Selleck, Ellen Degeneres, or Will Smith since all of the above are rumored to live not too far way from us. I'll report back here if I do have any good sightings.

They saw me coming...

Last week I took Christopher to a photography studio to get his first (at 8 months old) professional photos taken. I had never done this before because Chris thinks we can do just as good a job taking pictures at home as a professional can do. I know this isn't really true, especially because of the background setting at home and the slow shutter speed on my point and shoot camera, and I wanted some more "official" shots of the baby.

I got what I considered to be a great deal - a whole package of prints for a really low price and no sitting fee. I guess I should have known that is how these studios get you in the door and rope you in to buying more than you thought you would. Mothers who bring their cute babies to the studio and are shown 24 adorable pictures to choose just one print from are also known as "suckers". They saw me coming from a mile away! I could not choose just one print - there were so many very cute poses. So I walked out of the studio spending almost 10 times as much as the so called "deal" I purchased ahead of time!

When Chris got home that evening and I showed him all of the great pictures he knew I fell for the studio trap and that I spent way more money than I should have. All I could do was apologize and keep showing him lots and lots of cute photos of his son. Here are some of the poses (because I of course also ordered a high resolution disk of all the images) for your enjoyment.

Some new gear

Since Christopher is growing by leaps and bounds we had to make a couple of new baby gear purchases. We bought a new convertible car seat - which should last him until he is about 55 pounds. He doesn't need it just yet, but we got a great deal on it so we figured we'd go ahead and buy it ahead of time. In the next month or two we'll have to switch him from his infant seat to the bigger seat. That will actually be a welcome change because he is getting way too heavy to carry in and out of the car in the seat. I've started just undoing his belts in the car and taking him out of the seat these days, especially since I get bruises on my arms and hips when I try to carry that seat around. In related news, I've got some pretty nice biceps now!

The other purchase we made was a new high chair. I was torn whether or not to get a traditional high chair or a chair that hooks on to the counter or table. Based on my research and the fact that most chairs that hook on wouldn't work with our table, we decided to go with the high chair. I read the reviews and the chair I bought is easy to clean, lightweight, portable (wheels to move it around the kitchen), and has a cute design and a toy that came with it. So far, so good! Christopher seems to really like it, and his parents like it too because we can put him in there and know he is safe while we prepare his food and clean up afterwards. Tucker likes it too. It didn't take him long to figure out where he should be hanging out in the kitchen when Christopher is eating.

Christopher says "I like my high chair!"

Tucker knows where to hang out in the kitchen

Baptism

On Sunday, June 12, 2011 Christopher was baptized at St. Gerard's church in Canton, Massachusetts - my home town and parish. We decided to have his baptism there because we were going to be traveling to the east coast anyway, and we knew that this way some of our family members would be able to attend the service.

Godparents

Christopher's godparents are his Uncle Bob and his Aunt Mary. Uncle Bob and Nana made a special trip  from Charlotte for the event and we're very grateful that they were able to be there for Christopher's special day. The baptism took place during a regular Sunday Mass and the whole crew went out to lunch afterwards. 

Out to Lunch

Christopher really wanted that beer coaster!

Missed Flights!

I have never missed a flight in my life. I have come very close, and some have been cancelled on me, but I have not ever arrived to the airport too late to get on a plane.
For this reason, I feel very badly that within just one month, I have been a part of TWO situations involving missed flights. I'd like to add that neither missed flight was my fault or the fault of the flyer involved. We just happened to run into other problems along the way.

The first missed flight was by my Mom/Grammy. She graciously came to keep me and Christopher company in May when Chris had to go out of town for a work trip. I figured it would be a lonely week and asked her to make the visit. She agreed and we had a wonderful time together. Her flight home was on a Wednesday night - actually the red eye back to Logan airport in Boston. We were all ready to go - suitcase packed, Christopher in his PJs, and the car was loaded. As we were about to leave I pressed the garage door opener on the wall and the garage door only opened about 1 foot high. I tried and tried and it just wouldn't work. I googled how I might fix the problem, and I even tried to get some neighbors to help - but no luck. Finally, I called a garage door repair company to come out to help us. Keep in mind that as all this was happening the minutes were ticking by on the clock and the time we had to get to LAX was dwindling. The garage guys came by and saw that the motor on the opener was shot, and the large spring completely snapped because of this. The guys got the door open manually for us which was no small feat and we jumped in the car and took off to LAX. Needless to say, Mom missed the flight. It was just bad timing. We did however get to pick up Chris at the airport that night so it wasn't a wasted drive and we got to spend two more days with Grammy!

The next missed flight happened on Father's Day. We (Chris, Christopher, and I) had spent the week in Ocean City, NJ and had a wonderful time. Chris had to fly to London that night for work so we had decided before our trip that he would fly out of JFK to shorten his total travel time. My dad even flew down to Atlantic City so I wouldn't have to make the drive from JFK to Boston alone. We left with lots of extra time in case of delays. The drive time from OC to JFK should take about 2. 5 hours - unfortunately for us, there was at least one 15 mile stretch that took us at least 2 hours. It was a very stressful drive and Chris, and hundreds of others, missed their flights that night. Luckily he was able to rebook out of Boston the following evening and we all made it to my parent's house in Canton about 10 hours after we started. One thing we did learn is that Christopher is an amazing traveler - he cried for about 15-20 minutes out of the whole adventure!

Back from a break

After a not so brief hiatus, I'm getting back to blogging. I have LOTS to write about, but we spent more than two weeks on the east coast (with Chris in London for part of that) having a fabulous vacation at the beach in New Jersey and with family in Massachusetts. Christopher met lots of his relatives and made some new friends and he is unfortunately still working his way back to being on Pacific time. Thankfully, he does it all with a smile!

Here's a sneak peak from our adventure back east:

A Visit with Grammy

After an initial visit with us at the time of Christopher's birth, we didn't think Grammy would ever want to come back here. BUT- she did! Christopher and I got to spend more than a week having a great visit with my mom. She came to keep us company while Chris had to do some east coast travel. We really had a blast - sometimes just hanging out at home but we also made a couple of day trips up to the Santa Ynez Valley and to Santa Barbara. We would have been very lonely without her here and we can't wait to have her back to visit us again. Here are some great pictures from her visit:

Self portrait on the Santa Barbara Pier

Christopher and Grammy

Braving the SB wind...look at that view!

Feeding Time

Christopher has been doing better and better with his intake of new foods. His new favorite is YoBaby yogurt and he also likes his organic turkey vegetable dinner (yes, meat in a jar). I can't wait to start feeding him more table foods because I think he'll really like eating with us, especially now that he already has FOUR teeth at only 6 months old!

Trash Day

Our neighbors ratted us out. We're not sure which neighbors did it, but apparently we put our trash cans out  on two Sunday afternoons a little bit too early for their taste. We live in a community with a homeowner's association (HOA) and some folks seem to take it pretty seriously. There is a giant rule book that we have to follow to a T - and I guess we are now labeled as rule breakers.

The spies thought we should be notified by mail - so instead of nicely knocking on our door and letting us know the rules (Sunday "evening" is the earliest we can put our bins outside for Monday pick up) they ratted us out to the management company who proceeded to take the time, energy and resources needed to write, print, and mail two letters letting us know how bad we are. The third time would have resulted in a fine.

I must admit that the letters made me laugh a little bit and I wish I knew what neighbor tattled on us. I think I'd like to leave them a nice thank you note in their mailbox...or maybe I'll just put a big smiley face on the side of our trash cans for them.

I'm not completely against the rules of the HOA as I think it keeps the general look and feel of the neighborhood very nice, but it isn't like we were trashing the neighborhood. Other silly rules are that you can't install a basketball hoop in your driveway and if you have a mobile hoop, it must be stored out of site from the street when not in use. Seems pretty silly to me, but we'll do our best to follow the rules...

An active weekend

Last weekend was a big weekend for us. Christopher was about to turn 6 months old and we had some new gear to try out for the first time. On Saturday we went for a 4 mile walk using our new jogging/all terrain stroller. It is a Joovy Zoom 360 Jogging Stroller and so far we love it! It is so smooth and will be great for walking and running. 

We got a new Kelty FC 3.0 Child Carrier so that we could go for hikes as a family. We live right across from the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation area which has many trails for us to explore. We were ready to head out for the first time and we went for a short hike on Sunday. It was a a little cool and windy but we enjoyed the views. Here are some pictures from our outing: 

6 Months Old!

Christopher is 6 months old today! It is so hard to believe this much time has passed already. He gets more fun every day and we can really be more active with him now. This morning he woke up with one of his top teeth breaking through his gums and the other one won't be too far behind. So now we're at 3 teeth at just 6 months old. We'll have to see how quickly the next ones grow in!

The Glamorous Life

It is true, I lead a pretty glamorous life. This is highlighted by the fact that many times during the week I find myself cleaning poop. Yes, I said it, POOP! As a mother and a dog owner there are no ways around it.  If I'm not cleaning the yard or picking up after one of the dogs on a walk, then I'm thinking about when Cotton's next poopsplosion might occur. My gag reflexes certainly get a work out.

This morning the baby woke up in a pile of his own poop. There was no mistaking it when I walked into that smelly bedroom. So I picked him up, took off the sheet and proceeded downstairs to get him cleaned up and start a load of laundry. It was messy, but not the worst I've seen. The gross part about all of it was that about 10 minutes after I thought everything was clean and fresh I kept smelling a hint of poop. Well dear readers, I found a big splotch of it on my arm. Yes, my arm! I guess things don't phase me as much as they used to because got some soap and water, washed my arm, and brewed my next cup of coffee.

I  know you're all jealous of the glamour...and don't worry, I promise I won't post any pictures of it. But I will include a couple of cute ones of Jr. for your viewing pleasure:

Photo Shoots

I try to set up as many home photo shoots with Cotton as possible. I don't want to miss catching his growth on "film" - what exactly do you call it now that everything is digital?
Last night I dressed him for the first time in the Red Sox pjs we bought when we were in Boston last June. They are size 6/9 months and are actually too long. This is interesting since at his last doctor's appointment he was in the 95th percentile for height. But I digress...

I learned a very important lesson last night. That lesson told me not to try a photo shoot for an almost 6 month old at 7pm. This is what happened when I tried:

Fortunately there were no diaper accidents last night, so I was actually able to pose the boy again this morning. Not surprisingly I had a much better result with a well rested Red Sox fan.

Jorts!

Well, I'm back from a brief blogging hiatus. I don't have a great excuse, just a busy weekend and then a quick trip to Richmond. Yes, Richmond, Virginia. Don't ask...

Some of you may know exactly what Jorts are...and some may not. For those of you who don't know they are jean shorts (or denim shorts). Jorts are not an acceptable item of clothing, unless you are a young child - say younger than the age of seven. That is a completely arbitrary age to choose, but I just did it. Cotton has a couple of pairs of "jorts" that he has received as gifts and I must say they are pretty cute. (See photos below) It is true that in my earlier years I have been known to sport some jorts. I had jorts that I made myself. Jorts that were knee length that I actually purchased. And even some jorts that were cargo style with a loop for that hammer I'm always carrying around. Many of you readers have also probably worn jorts, jirts, and joveralls in your time. But again - I want to reiterate that unless you are under the age of seven, you should not be wearing these items of clothing. I certainly make exceptions for stylish jean jackets, and even jean skirts (sadly I don't have clever names for these clothing items).

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here is a photo of an acceptable way to wear jorts:

Help - I'm falling over!

Let's get this over with Mom.

Just relaxin'

Mutant Fruit!

One of the things I love about living in California is the abundance of fresh, affordable produce. Especially at this time of the year - the fruit is just so good. Strawberries are one of my favorites. They are grown at farms right down the street and can be purchased at road side stands as well as at the grocery stores. It is possible to get a pound of strawberries for 88 cents at some times during the year! 

I bought some strawberries yesterday and I must admit that while delicious, they are also a little bit scary. I am even going to call them Mutant Strawberries. They are HUGE!! Some of them are almost as big as the apples I bought, and others are definitely bigger than the clementines we have. I'm not sure if this naturally occurs in nature or if it is done by mutating the strawberry genes so much that they might become unrecognizable. For now, I'll just eat them and enjoy and hope they aren't too bad for us. Here are some pictures to prove I'm not kidding...

This apple is what I'd consider normal size

OK, so this angle fools the eye a little bit

The strawberry is actually larger than the clementine - crazy!