Thanksgiving in San Diego

This was the first Thanksgiving in six or seven years we haven't gone back to Virginia to spend with Marc's family. We decided to take this holiday season off from travelling since Grace is so young and Caiden is at that really crazy toddler age. It definitely didn't feel like Thanksgiving since it was 85 degrees and it's usually rainy/snowy and cold when we go back to Virginia. Instead, the Coleman's hosted the occasion. Becky's mom was in town and cooked an impeccable Thanksgiving dinner all from scratch. We are so lucky to have such good friends that let us crash their Thanksgiving. Thanks, Colemans!

A little play time before dinner

Sleepover with Aunt Sara and Uncle Dustin

A few weeks ago Caiden went up to Huntington Beach on a Saturday morning to have a sleepover with Sara & Dustin. He's never slept well in places other than his room and bed so I was a little scared that he would keep them up all night long sleeping in the pack n play at their place. Apparently he did okay, but I don't doubt there was some crying to accompany having to take a nap or going to bed.

We met half way between our houses to do the drop off. Caiden and Dustin both took naps on the way back to their place.

They introduced Caiden to chocolate soy milk...

...they played with swords...

....ate some dinner...

...did some yoga stretches...

...and took some naps...

...and me and Marc enjoyed our day and a half with just Miss Grace.

On Sunday I had a baby shower where they live so I picked him up when it was over. I think it was a successful sleepover (although they haven't offered to do it again, so not 100% sure ;)

Grace 3-months

So I kind of remember three months being the semi-sweet spot with Caiden. He started to get a little more predictable, he wasn't pooping every single time we fed him, he started sleeping a little bit better and he could entertain himself longer than 30 seconds while alone on the play mat. That seems to be the case with Miss Grace as well.

She's a much better sleeper than Caiden. Last night we put her down at 9pm and she didn't wake until 6am! That is about as good as she'll sleep so far...usually she's up around 3 or 4am...and every once in a while she's up at 2am. She's eating every 3 or 4 hours during the day. In the morning she'll nap for 30 minutes to an hour after eating but in the afternoon she'll take a 2-3 hour nap between eating.

She's not as good with tummy time as Caiden was but that's my fault...I just don't do it enough with her. I probably do 5 minutes every two or three days. This probably means she won't sit up or roll over as soon as Caiden did. But she has gotten the hang of rolling over to her back when she's on her stomach during tummy time.

She is starting to recognize all of our voices more each day. I'll be five feet away and talk to her and she'll just smile and smile, it's so adorable. When Caiden is within a few feet from her she'll listen to him and try to watch him as he darts around. She's starting to show a lot more interest in him the last few days. And since she'll smile at him now Caiden is starting to talk to her and try to get her attention. Marc spent the entire day with her on Sunday because I had a baby shower in LA and since then she's showing more interest in him, too!

She's a big grabber! She gets fist fulls of my hair, the back of my upper arm or my neck, all of which hurt like hell when she's squeezing and pulling, especially if we haven't cut her nails. I gently have to pry her tiny fingers (which have an abnormally strong grip) off while wondering if I have a bruise or have lost a crap load of hair.

She loves to "try" and suck on her fingers which makes me nervous. I try to give her the pacifier when she's cranky and tired since that might be a little easier to get rid of then her own fingers. And since one time she stuck her fingers so far down her throat that she gagged herself and vomited all over.

She's pretty awesome and we are having fun figuring out our family of four! We've even ventured out for breakfast a few times which was a success! It's usually the car ride home where Grace starts to get cranky so we try to stick to places within a 10 minute radius. Cheers to more outings!

FALL into Halloween

I'm cramming a lot in this post.

A few weeks ago Craig and Becky's neighborhood had their Fall Festival complete with a full petting zoo that had a baby cow, llama, donkey, sheep, goat and chickens. Caiden was in heaven. They also had a ferris wheel, carousel, a small roller coaster and a ton of carnival games...all FREE! They also had a beer garden and bands all night long. It was such a good time. We are so happy they invited us to join them -We can't wait until next year! ;)

Last weekend we carved pumpkins, unfortunately they rotted after two days of being left outside which was a total bummer. But you live and learn, next year we'll wait until a few days before or maybe bring them inside and take the top off so they don't get so moist???  

I've taken Caiden and Grace to the pumpkin patch three times in the past few weeks. It was such an easy activity to do with both of them. It was just 10 minutes from our house so we could go in the morning for a couple hours while Grace napped in the stroller and Caiden burned a ton of energy on the slides, bounce houses and all the rides.

This was hilarious -one of the goats from the petting zoo got loose and was on the run. Once the worker got a hold of it all the kids, including Caiden, wanted to get in on the action.

Marc and I went out to dinner for our 5 year anniversary last weekend! Sara and Dustin came down to babysit. We put Caiden to bed so they only had to deal with Miss Grace and went to dinner at The Grand Del Mar. We also had the same person who made our wedding cake make a replica of our topper for us. Don't we both look a wee bit tired? We each had a fun drink and glass of wine and were not feeling so hot the next day. Especially since Grace had us up at 3am and Caiden had us up at 7am.

And finally Halloween arrived. Marc and Caiden both dressed up as pirates. It took a lot of bribing with candy to get Caiden to wear the bandanna all night. Any time I'd see him go to rip it off his head I'd bring out another piece -and it worked! Our neighbors had a party and some others had their annual haunted house. Even more spectacular was we had Caiden in bed -on time!

"Arrrrrrgh"