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.