So I’ve been talking about how Raley is getting more mobile. Here’s a little bit of video proof:
What moves!
Today she made it from the middle of the room over to the vertical blinds, stopping to chew on the cat toy on the way. Of course it took her about half an hour, so we don’t really have to worry about not being able to turn our backs just yet (I know it will happen all too soon).
We’ve been working on baby sign language with her for a little while now. We’ve mostly focused on one sign - the sign for Milk - just before giving her her bottle (and whenever we say milk). She’s just started making it on her own! Of course, she makes it while she’s drinking and eating, so I’m pretty sure in her mind it means “I’m being fed.” One day we’ll get her to make it as a request! Dan thinks it might also mean “Lean down so I can maul your face with my tiny hands with crazy strong fingers,” since she makes the sign, he leans down, and his goatee, cheeks, and/or nose is usually the worse for wear. You’d think he’d learn!
The last post in our vacation weekend recap is from Monday’s trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Well, Dan and Raley’s trip. I listened to talks about gray whales. And had some good discussions and networking, so it was a productive day for me. But not nearly as much fun as the aquarium! Just check out the pictures:
Big fish tank!
Turns out it was pretty hard to get a good picture with a 10-second self-timer, squirmy baby and all. This was the best one of Raley… too bad only Dan’s chin made it. But you can see which picture I chose!
We made it home around 1 AM and went to work all day, so bed is calling and this is going to be a short post!
Here are the photos from Sunday. I sat in a meeting all day. Dan and Raley drove south from Monterey down the Big Sur Coast. They ate lunch (OK, Dan ate, Raley took a bottle) at Nepenthe. Then they hiked around Point Lobos State Reserve. And along the way they saw some pretty awesome scenery. Why no, I’m not jealous at all - why do you ask?
Anyway, you can check it out for yourselves:
On the beach at Point Lobos - Raley loves the Ergo!
OK, I’m just a tease I guess! I decided not to pay $9.95 for hotel internet access just for a blog post (or two). So if you’re just looking for pictures, come back tomorrow!
So I’m posting from my phone on our drive back down to LA. We’re hoping we don’t run into any closed highways due to the wildfires - we have the phone # for California DOT to check the status when we get closer. We could theoretically choose between the 5 and the 101 without too much difference in time (some but not too bad), but we need to decide early. On Saturday both were closed!
Today Raley and her Daddy visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium so I hope to have some good pictures from that over the next few days!
Ok, consider this a teaser post. Today I went to day 2 of my meeting. Nothing to blog about!
Dan and Raley went to Point Lobos and Big Sur. He took some great pictures, which I’ll put up here once we get home and I can post from my computer and not my phone!
Last night we drove from Long Beach up to Monterey, CA. We left at 7:15, missed most of the traffic (just a bit around LAX), and made it to Salinas where we decided to spend the night around 1:30 AM. Dan and I would both rather drive at night (and Raley likes to sleep) than get up early to finish the drive. Raley fell asleep about 3 blocks away from our house, woke up at a rest stop for a bottle, and then slept the rest of the way.
Today, I went to a meeting all day (where I’ll be tomorrow and Monday). Dan and Raley have been having fun. Today they went to Santa Cruz, where they visited the Beach Boardwalk, the Pier, and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Just see how much fun they had:
This past weekend, we went to Burbank to visit a resale store that sells clothes from movies and TV shows. If you were a fan of the looks in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, you would really like this store right now, as they have the entire wardrobe there. The interesting thing (to me) is that it wasn’t a lot of designer stuff, but a lot of things from Kohl’s and Ross and the like (some still had the tags on). I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’ll be sure to look out for the clothes! There were also clothes from many of the studios, and some other recent movies. Prices are higher than thrift stores (of course), but from the looks of the price tags they take frequent markdowns. I didn’t buy anything, but it is definitely fun to look, and I’m sure I’ll be back!
Once we left there, we drove up to Griffith Park Observatory and walked around a little bit. We managed to be there for the sunset and the amazing light at that time of day. And of course we saw the iconic Hollywood sign:
Welcome to Hollywood!
Also, we went to a (real) thrift store and bought Raley a bouncy Exersaucer. I think the model is from a few years ago (it’s a Fisher Price), but it’s the perfect kind for Raley because she can actually bounce up and down, which she loves. A little bit of soap and bleach and a couple of trips through the washer and dryer for the cloth seat, and it looks as good as new! And Raley loves it. Just watch:
1. I went to a 3-hour training today on record-keeping. It would have been a complete snoozer but the speaker (a lawyer) could have been a stand-up comedian. It was amusing. The subject was a bit scary - record-keeping in the digital age. Did you know that twitters could be considered a record?
2. We’re watching Bones and some of the aerial shots and mentions of Bowie this and Langley that make me miss DC a little.
3. I’ve started my Christmas shopping already (this is early for me!) - Reid and Dan have one each so far.
4. Once I finish typing this post I’m going to knit some more and hopefully finish up the baby dress!
5. I just read that a book that I really, really like has been greenlit into an HBO pilot. If it gets picked up, it might be enough to get me to pay for HBO.
6. This morning, half of the public parking lot that I park in was roped off for “BL Crew.” Driving into work I passed by a church with the stained glass windows curtained off, tons of trucks outside, and even some director’s chairs. One of the chairs said “James Spader.” Boston Legal, baby!
7. Since living here, I’ve also seen CSI Miami filming twice. Apparently that show loves Long Beach, but “CSI Long Beach” just isn’t catchy.
Many thanks to all of our nation’s veterans. I told Raley a little bit about her grandfather’s time as a POW in WWII and her greatuncle’s time in the Air Force. I think I’ll have to tell her again when she gets a bit older, though.
Thanks to the holiday, I have the day off work. So Raley and I got to hang out today! We went to the doctor’s office to get her cough checked out. She’s been sniffling and coughing for over a week now, and it doesn’t seem to be going away, so I decided it was time to suck it up and go to the doctor. Since I had the day off it was a good time. The end result is that she looks fine other than the obvious nasal congestion and cough - no ear or throat infection. So, we’re going to go with a vaporizer at night and saline for the nose (to use with the nasal aspirator - which, by the way, she loves and thinks is really funny. She giggles when you suck out her snot!). No antibiotics. We’ll go back in a week or so if she’s still bad.
Then we hit up some thrift shops! (Those who know me know that I am a big fan of the thrift!) A few weekends ago, we all went up to Santa Monica for some sight-seeing and some thrift store shopping. My favorite of the day was the Bargain Bazaar, which is a thrift store for the Assistance League. They have a very cool pricing scheme. Everything that is less than 1 month old is full price ($3/blouse, $5/skirt or pants, etc.), everything from 1-2 months is 1/2 price, and everything older is $1. So I went on the Assistance League website and found some more of their stores around the LA area (link is to all of California).
After the doctor, Raley was sleeping in the car, so we went to the farther away one - in Huntington Beach - first. Unfortunately, this one didn’t have the fun pricing scheme, but it did have a pretty good selection. I wound up getting a vaporizer for $3 (doctor’s recommendation, check!), a baby life jacket for $1 (haven’t gone on a boat yet but it’s only a matter of time), and a shirt and a pair of shoes for me.
Then we visited the store in Long Beach, which does have the fun pricing scheme (yay!) but a much smaller clothes selection (boo!). There’s a good books selection (which I contemplated but didn’t buy), and I did get some baby bibs for $0.25 and a skirt for $2.50. And I bought the video of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off so that we can see the exterior shots of Ferris’ house, and then go find it in Long Beach (we’ve driven by already but didn’t really remember the movie).
And then we came home and played! She slept for a little bit and I actually got to knit some on my day off! And then daddy came home, and here we are. Hope your day was good!
