Thursday, January 31, 2013

San Diego day 3, 4 and 5

Thankfully Henry slept fairly well last night, so we got a good night's sleep. We headed into Old Town again for a bite to eat before our short road trip to Los Angeles. We decided on Cafe Coyote. It was alright, but now we are comparing every meal to Casa de Reyes. The drive to L.A. took about 2 hours. We met Nick (Raj's best friend from High School)at the Convention Center. He lives in New York and was in L.A. for a gem convention. With us being so close, we couldn't not go see him! After he finished work, we ate dinner at an Indian Restaurant near USC. It was great! We finished dinner, and dropped Nick off at his hotel and started our drive back down to San Diego. We were pretty exhausted when we got back to the hotel room, but it was all worth it! Nick hadn't met Henry yet, and it had been over a year since we had visited with him. We were so glad we were able to connect.

We got up Monday morning in search of some Chiliquilles. I love these when ever we go to Mexico and can not find any here in town. We found some at Casa de Reyes, and a bonus since it was Monday kids eat free, so Henry got a bean burrito. Score! After breakfast we headed to the San Diego Zoo. We were really looking forward to this. It was a bit expensive, $44/adult, but it was worth it! We took a tour bus when we first got in the park to get the layout, and see some of the exhibits. I highly recommend this, and it's included in the cost of your admission. Next we decided the few exhibits we HAD to see and went about our day. The Pandas were on my list of exhibits to see. When we got there, they were eating. It was amazing to see them rip up a piece of bamboo. The last exhibit we did was the petting zoo for Henry. He got to pet goats and play around. After a full day, we left the zoo, and drove around downtown just looking around while Henry napped in the car. We then found a nice Italian restaurant in the Hilltop neighborhood. It was delicious! After our busy day, we had hoped Henry would go right to sleep when we got to the hotel room, but he was still having trouble sleeping in the crib, so after a few hours, we pulled him into bed with us and finally got to sleep!

Our last day in San Diego, we woke up to a beautiful sunny day! It was exactly what we had been looking for in our trip. We checked out of our hotel, and headed to the ocean to walk on the sand. It was beautiful. Next we headed to Old town to eat lunch at Barra Barra. Kids eat free everyday at this restaurant! How lovely. We had a great lunch while sitting in the sunshine. I got a text from Southwest saying our flight which was scheduled for 5:55p had been delayed until 10pm. We quickly called their customer service and was able to switch to an earlier flight, which meant we needed to head to the airport immediately. We rushed there, and were able to make our flight. This new flight we had to switch planes in Oakland, but the transfer worked fine. Henry actually slept the whole first flight, which was a nice break. On the second flight, he played with stickers, books, pulled all of the pamphlets out of the seat backs and put them back in, and played with ice from our drinks (he was actually able to get it on his fingers, it was the kind of ice with the holes in it). He also ate. We fed him kind of salty foods, so he would want to drink during take off and landing. It worked- we had minimal screaming! He also liked to play peek-a-boo with the passenger behind us. All in all it was a great trip, even with the rain, and the exhausting nights....We were together experiencing new things and making memories.

Here are a few pictures I took from my phone. I have a ton we took with my new camera I got for Christmas, I plan on making those into a photo book of our trip. Also, we have decided that instead of buying silly trinkets from our trips, we are going to pick out a post card and write down in it things Henry liked on the trip and mail it to him. Then we will put them all in a book for him to remember his travels. Also, we always look for smashed pennies machines. We started this when Raj and got married. It is so fun to find new a machine while on our trip. . 

Friday, January 25, 2013

San Diego Day 1 & 2

We really wanted to get away to see some blue sky and feel the warm sun on our faces...so we decided a quick trip down to San Diego was in order! We left Portland Friday at 12:30 and arrived in San Diego at 4:00. We had a small layover in Sacramento.  We arrived however to a grey, water filled sky....yes...the rain followed us! It is however 30 degrees warmer, so we'll take that! The forecast says it should be dry on Monday and Tuesday. I hope so!

Henry did well on the plane. A few screaming moments during take-off and landing, but nothing too horrible. Thankfully there were several kids on the flight so Henry wasn't the only kid crying. On out 1st leg he had a seat to himself, which was nice to have a little more room, but the 2nd leg it was a packed flight, so no extra seats. Henry did manage to fall asleep on me for about 40 mins, thankfully! He ate lots of snacks, enjoyed playing with stickers, window clings, feeding Daddy fish crackers, and reading books.
We are also on the look out for some awesome Mexican food! We can't wait to dig in! :)
Day 1 of travels ended poorly, barely a nap for Henry, he was exhausted and sleeping in a new place was too much for him. He screamed most of the night and I had to swaddle him like a newborn. It was frustrating for us, cause he is never like this, even when we travel. Maybe his stomach was upset...or could be teething...I'm not sure, but we r exhausted.

Day 2 we started with a lavender bath. Hopefully that helps everyone! Its still raining, but not as much as yesterday. After Henry's short morning nap, we headed to Old San Diego for some Mexican food. We ate at Casa De Reyes. We ate there years ago and it was just as delicious. Thankfully the weather held out and we were able to walk around and enjoy the site with no rain! We had dinner at a pizza place near our hotel, it was alright, nothing to rave about. The most exciting thing to happen today occurred after dinner. We got Henry ready for bed and he was crawling around the hotel room, I glanced over near the kitchen to see Henry standing in the middle of the room and all of the sudden he took a step! I squealed in excitement. He laughed, dropped to his hands and knees and took a victory lap crawl around the room. Then he did it again and Raj was able to see him! We then decided to get the camera out, but of course,  he was done at that point. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! :)

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Balls and a muffin pan...

I saw an activity on pinterest with balls and a muffin pan. I thought I'd try it with Henry since he loves balls and he loves putting things inside of containers. It was a big hit, even though while we were doing it, he was in the process of pooping...which for Henry can be a big ordeal. ;) He was so busy with the balls, he wouldn't even look at the camera.

Please excuse the state of the muffin pan, it's past it's prime!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Laundry...it just got a whole lot better!

I am so excited about my new washer and dryer! My new machines do practically everything but fold and put them away! LOL There is even a sanitise feature on the washer which will come in handy for Henry's diapers and a steam feature in the dryer...hopefully no more ironing, because I hate ironing!

Ooh, the things we get excited about as we age....! ;)

Friday, January 4, 2013

Big boy bath time!

I still have to blog about our first Christmas with Henry and Henry's 1st birthday, but I just took some pictures with my phone of bath time last night and couldn't wait to share them! Henry received some great gifts for his birthday! He truly is loved! My Mom/Dad and friend Julyla got Henry bath toys and he absolutely loves them!

I have known for a while that Henry was getting too big for the sink but was dreading switching to the bath tub because I thought it would be a hassle with bending over and dangerous cause there is so much more room for him to wander about in. Well, I was wrong. I simply moved one of our ottomans into the bathroom during bath time so I have a comfy place to sit and he has enough mobility and is strong enough to maneuver in the bath well, so its all good!

So the other night, I put him in the tub with all of his new bath toys. He LOVED it! He was practically trying to climb into the tub while the water was filling up the tub. Henry has always loved bath time. He typically screams when its time to get out and this time was no different. It was really fun to watch him explore the tub and play with all his toys. And I'm loving that it is tiring him out right before bed time! He is standing in the tub, which I don't like, and I keep telling him to sit down. I know he understands what I'm saying because when I tell him to sit or bath time is over, he sits down. Little stinker!