California love: San Diego edition

Finally! I harassed Beau enough to convince him that we NEEDED to make a pilgrimage back to my homeland, Southern California.

Somehow, my BFF in the whole wide world had never meet my son or my husband. (And by "somehow" I of course mean that we have billions of miles separating us. OK, not billions. I do have a basic grasp of geography. But it sure does feel like billions most days.) It was definitely time to get out there to visit. Fortunately, Beau had a class in San Diego, so Little Man and I simply tagged along.

We spent a few days there in sunny, perfect San Diego and then ventured into Orange County and even made it up into Hollywood long enough for a meal and a drink with one of Beau's childhood friends. And some classic L.A. traffic on the way back. Perhaps I don't miss everything about California.

Because I could (and probably will) wax poetic about California for far, far too long, I will probably break our vacation into a few posts. Because everyone needs to see all of my photos.

Oh, crikey, this is the modern-day equivalent to the family photo slide show. Geesh. I'm sorry. (But really I'm not.)

Beau had been to San Diego before, but he hadn't been to my San Diego. I wanted desperately for him to see it through my very rose colored glasses. Obviously, there are about a gazillion things to do there, but when I'm the tour guide, there are a few places that are a little off the normal list of tourist spots. If we had more time we might have gone to the zoo or Hotel Del Coronado, but time was short and I had to revisit some very special places.

See, I lived in San Diego for the four years I was in college. It was an amazing time and because I enjoyed my college years so much, San Diego will forever be a favorite place in the world to me. One of our very first stops was to my Alma Mater, the University of San Diego. It is, in my humble opinion, one of the most stunning college campuses in existence.

Nearby is the equally stunning Balboa Park.

We wandered around there, had a nice iced mocha at the pond and then stumbled upon this exhibit.

Beau was very intrigued. Until he realized it didn't involve samples. So, we skipped it, went along to  the rose garden and then grabbed a bite.

I'm supposed to be completely honest with you guys. I should fully disclose that I might have had In-n-Out for two meals that first day, but I am too embarassed. I don't think I'm capable of adding numbers as high as that calorie count would be!

We stayed at the Sheraton San Diego Harbor and Marina and while Beau was attending his second day of classes, Little Man and I took walks, played in the pool and made plans for our adventures that night. Exercise never looked so good, huh?

Long, long ago, I did my student teaching in La Jolla at Muirlands Middle School. While I didn't take Beau to the school to show him my ocean view classroom, I did think it important to show him the seals at La Jolla Cove. (On a semi-related note, who gives a student teacher a classroom with an ocean view? That just seems mean since my first two years of teaching were spent in classrooms that didn't even have windows that I could see out of. Lets just say after my short stint in La Jolla my expections were a little bit high.)

Little Man loved the ocean breeze and didn't really understand that the brown lumps down on the beach were really cool living animals. Whadda expect? He's one!

Since it was prime traffic time when we left La Jolla, we decided to drive down the coast. One of my favorite things to do when in crazy expensive neighborhoods like that is to have my Zillow ap open and check out the houses that are for sale. (Don't worry, I wasn't driving...) Holy moly are there some crazy expensive and beautiful houses on the California coast. While playing starnge voyeur/co-pilot, I planned a route that would take us past the Wahoo's Fish Tacos in Mission Bay. (I blogged about Wahoo's once before here.)

Beau and Little Man were pretty happy with the fish tacos and I was in memory-lane-heaven. So, so, so good.

The next day Beau had his class in Long Beach, another place I called home for a happy period of time. I met him up there and my OC portion of the trip began. (Beau had one more day of class in SD.)

Orange County adventures are coming soon, but what are your must-sees in the San Diego vicinity? Have you been? If not, seriously, get there.   

First birthday party

Let's be real. I'm not one of those moms who can execute a perfectly organized, adorable themed party. I'm just not really that much of a detail person. More so, I'm not one to remember to take photos of everything.

And, Little Man is one. So, really the "perfect" party would have been more for me to show off than for his enjoyment. So, we kept it pretty sweet and simple.

I did put quite a bit of effort into designing the invitations because I figured I couldn't let my vast experience in graphic design (read: eight years of advising a yearbook and ten years of school newspapers) go to waste.

This is what I came up with:

I simply designed them using Adobe InDesign, printed them on card stock at Staples, stuck a mustache sticker in the middle and glued 1/4 of a piece of 12x12 scrapbook paper to the back of the invitation. I got a combo pack of paper at Target, so there were different patterns of paper for every 4 invitations. The argyle above is my favorite. Because of that "vast experience," they were pretty quick and easy to whip up.

As far as theme went, I decided that a "Little Man" party seemed appropriate since I refer to him as Little Man here. There were mustaches, and that was pretty much as far as I took it. I got finger 'staches, but totally got so busy with everything party related that I didn't take many pictures of kids and adults "wearing them". Mom fail number two: an improperly documented first birthday party.

Take my word for it, finger 'staches are fun.

I kept decorations pretty simple. We did balloons and streamers, a "Happy Birthday" banner I plan to use for all future birthdays (from Target), and some chalk "art" to welcome guests and show where activities and beverages were.

The only mustache decoration that I did get was a wall decal that I put on the glass of a shadow box frame with some of the paper from the scrapbook pack I got for the backing of the invitations. It'll hang in Little Man's room as soon as I get around to figuring out where exactly it belongs.

It looks off center, but I had to put it where it was for the "e" to fit on the glass. 

The only other mustaches were on the cakes.

I got a cake from Costco because, really, who doesn't want an excuse for that chocolaty goodness? They say that they don't do custom cakes, but I put a note on the cake order form that I'd like a mustache, but if they couldn't customize it I'd take a dinosaur for my son's mustache party even though a dino made no sense at all. 

They did a mustache. 

Because Costco freaking rocks. Even though they left off "First" between Happy and Birthday. Whatever, we got a fat, brown mustache on our cake. 

I wanted Little Man to have his own cake to smash and go crazy with, so I had a dear friend who also happens to be an incredible baker make some cupcakes.

They were adorbs.

They were also pretty healthy. (Especially when compared to the Costco cake with two pounds (!) of fudge mousse in the middle...). She used fresh strawberries for a strawberry cake and a cream cheese/whipped cream type frosting. And, as you can see, she also used chocolate molds to make chocolate mustaches. Isn't that the cutest thing ever?

Anyway, on with the smashing. Notice I removed his shirt in preparation for some messy eating.

 First, he took a look at the cake. (This was after "blowing out" the candle. Where I inconveniently stepped in front of the camera. Mom fail three.)

He's eyeing the cupcake as I remove the paper. He's so going to dig in and smash away. Look at him sizing up that cake. He's at the ready. He's going to pounce.

Oh, wait. No, there is not an ounce of cake smashing joy there.

But he liked looking like a Big Man, so that was cute.

After that anti-climactic thrill, I went inside to cut and serve the big cake. After that was done and I was enjoying my slab piece of cake, I thought maybe Little Man takes after me and would rather dig into a slice of quadruple chocolate, super sugary cake.

This was a little more of what I was expecting, though he still wasn't as messy as I thought he'd be when I envisioned his cake smash.

 After getting cleaned up, Little Man played at the bubble station with his friend Ellie.  By played, I mean he shook a bottle of bubbles as Ellie stood next to him and played with a plastic cup. One year-olds are cray cray.

 After Ellie went to play on the swing, Little Man pretended to drink from the empty cup.

I know, I know. I throw a wild party.

Because our neighborhood is full of kids of all ages, I tried to have activities that would amuse them all. I had a sidewalk chalk area that was fun for the older kids for about 27 seconds.

Or however long it takes to trace everyones' feet and draw a few pictures. I think after that they went next door and played in the play house. After the party I brought over the streamers and balloons and they decorated it and made a fairy play land. It was pretty cool, and they enjoyed it very much. Yay for imaginative play.

The party was a success. There was snack food, more than enough cake, and just enough beer to keep our neighbors and friends chatty without anyone waking up the next morning on our lawn. 

One of my favorite images from the party is of these two future and forever BFFs.

Hey, it is hard to get a 12 month old and a 6.5 month old to look at the camera at the same time. (Or at all, apparently...) Despite that, there's a whole lot of cuteness going on there.

All of this happened on Memorial Day, but Little Man's actual birthday is the 29th. Here he is on the morning of the 29th. My one year old baby. Sigh.

Even right out of bed he's a happy guy! I'm a lucky mom!

Since he'd tasted and enjoyed refined sugar for (pretty much) the first time on the 27th, I thought I'd give him a breakfast treat on his actual birthday.

I made homemade waffles with fresh strawberries and real whipped cream.

 Holy yum.

I'd never actually made "real" waffles. I always use that boxed stuff.

Never again.

Perhaps soon (after I experiment a bit more), I'll post that recipe. You'll love me for it.

Little Man liked the waffles almost as much as I did. Here he's blurrily signing for more.

My new plan is to do waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for every birthday!!

After breakfast it was time for the reveal of Little Man's big present. Dude got a trike! 

He loved it. Look at that concentration.

                                                

Look at him showing off for the neighborhood ladies. Heeeeyyyyy, ladies. I've got a ride now. 

I could just eat him up. 

I can't believe it has been a year. In so many ways it seems like so much less than that, but then at the same time it seems like I've loved that little person forever. 

I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us. It'll be an adventure, for sure!

Do you have any birthday traditions like waffles or a banner? 

Peace Out 2012, You Were Good to Us

What a year.

I'll try to be brief, but really, so, so, so much happened this year that it'll be tough.

1) Life changed drastically

The best things in the world happened. I married one of the loves of my life, and I met the other:

 

2) Travel was abundant

We went to the Dominican Republic for our babymoon.

I went to California to see my dearest friend Cyndi, her beautiful family, and some wonderful friends I don't get to see nearly enough.

 

 

We visited family in Massachusetts. (Twice!!)

 

Somehow though, I have no photographic evidence of our first trip when Little Man was just three weeks old. I was a sleep deprived new mom. We drove there. Crazy? Perhaps. Worth it so that Beau's entire family could meet the little guy? Absolutely!



 

This fall we visited the Outer Banks with my family.

 





Little Man and Grandma waited patiently at the bottom of the Currituck lighthouse as mom, dad and PopPop climbed to the top for some amazing views of the Sound.

 Not all of our travel was to a beach. While in Massachusetts the second time, we snuck away to check out the foliage in New Hampshire. It was stunning.

 

We also fell in love with the mountains of West Virginia. We traveled there three times. This view, as well as the kind people we've met keep drawing us back.

 

 

And, since Grandma and Pop Pop live near Williamsburg, we decided to get a little Colonial up in here.

 

 (Blurry, but you get it, right?)

 

3) Milestones came and went

 

It is hard to believe that Little Man turned seven months just two days ago. In those seven months we've watched him grow and change from a sleepy cuddle bug

 

 

 

 to an alert, smiling, chattering extrovert.

 





 On Thanksgiving he got to taste (and wear) solid food for the first time.

He looks good in sweet potato.

 

We use mooshy Cheerios to work on fine motor skills.

 

 

It's a work in progress.

 

 

At this point (seven months and two days), he's rolling, scootching and saying "momomommomoomoomm", "baaaa", and "daaaaa" lots. He loves to laugh and be social. And he loves bath time.

 



 

(And not just because of the stylish post-bath garb.)

 



4) Superstorm Sandy hit

Sandy could have been much worse to us. She was devastating to much of the country. We just got a little wet, but being our first big storm with a baby at home and living in a flood prone neighborhood, we were on high alert.

5) We love to learn

Little Man's mom is an English teacher, Grammy is a librarian, and all three aunts on dad's side were English majors, so the poor kid is going to be forced to read. He seems to love it so far.

 

Since he seems to have an early love for learning, when we were in New Hampshire we subliminally planted the seeds of an Ivy League dream into his little head. (Though Beau refused to let me buy the "Dartmouth Medical" romper. Spoilsport.)

 

 

As a true product of the 21st century, he seems to love technology. Especially to discuss stock trends with dad.

 

 

 

6) Sophie

 

When you've got a Great Dane in your life, you know life is good. Carter loves his Sophie.

 

Uncle Andy ain't so bad himself. Shoot, he's pretty cool. He's got an awesome wife, a cool boat, and a dog that can work as a horse in a bind. Carter thinks spending time here is the bee's knees, so we try to do it as often as they'll let us.

 





7) Love was everywhere

More than anything, 2012 showed us what pure, sweet love looks and feels like. Sometimes it is a reassuring hand on your shoulder when you need a pep talk.

 

 

Sometimes, a fierce (?) lion and tamer.

 

 

Or, friends and students going out of their way to throw a amazing showers to show how loved Little Man, Beau and I really are.

 

 

 

I know I've left out so, so much of this year. There are so many moments where we just lived and neglected the photographs. There's something to be said for that.

 

It doesn't make for good blogging, but it does make for a good life.

 

All in all, this year was by far the best year of my life. I'm not sure what 2013 has in store, but I imagine it'll be interesting. These guys have my back,

 

 

so I'm pretty confident that it'll be a good year.

 

 

Even if Beau and Little Man are stuck with a crazy person.

 

Are you guys sad to see 2012 go, or excited to usher in 2013? Or maybe a little of both?