Morning/Afternoon

Our Morning

Our Afternoon

Our time in California has flown by and since it's coming to an end we're trying to pack in as much as we can.  This morning we went to the playground and met Aunt Shannon's friend Annie and her daughter, Leila.  Then after a lunch of In-n-Out burger Bea and Charlie went down for a nap, with Grey on baby duty (thank you Charlie!!!!  After several days of not napping you FINALLY went down without a fight!!!!) and we headed to a local winery, Concannon, to check out their new wine bar, Underdog.

Sadly we only have one more day before heading back to a very hot New Jersey.

Heather  

Charlie, 7 months

Charlie turned 7 months old on the 12th and what a busy month it's been!  It seems like he's changed so much in the last two months.  Going from only being able to sit for a few seconds to army crawling everywhere, much to the dismay of Bea.  With his new found mobility he's also found that his sister's toys (which were previously out of reach) are just as fun, if not more, than his.  I feel like this is just the beginning of us hearing "No Charlie!  Charlie has my x, y, z..." oh well, it's to be expected.

This is literally the happiest baby I've ever seen.  He will laugh like crazy when you tickle him, when Bea dances for him, when you make funny faces or dance, pretty much anytime.  And he's such a cuddle baby.  He loves nothing more than to nap next to mommy and daddy.

We started solid foods a little earlier with Charlie so he's already had quite the variety of foods.  So far the only dislike has been green beans (and it was only once).  He loves cherries, strawberries, avocado, and yogurt and we're adding new foods everyday.

He also took his first cross country flight last week.  He's at that awkward flying age where all he wants to do is be on the floor moving around so it wasn't the most relaxing flight but all in all it went well.

We're also having a sleeping set back, unfortunately.  Up until a few weeks ago Charlie would nap 2+ hours every afternoon, the same time as Bea, which meant that I had 2+ hours to do things around the house (or catch up on shows).  For some reason he's refusing to nap unless I'm lying beside him and going to bed at night has turned into a 45 minute ordeal of crying, rocking more, crying, etc.  I'm hoping that this is related to teething (so far we have 2 bottom teeth and I can see a top tooth coming in) because I felt so lucky to have such a good sleeper!

I can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Heather

The Oakland Zoo

Yesterday morning we took our much anticipated trip to the Oakland Zoo.  Back in March we went to Turtleback Zoo near us in South Orange and Bea had a wonderful time.  So Bea's grandmother (Gray, as Bea calls her) planned a day to check out the Oakland Zoo while we're in California.

We decided to rent Bea one of the "special" zoo strollers so she could easily get in and out and see the animals.

We managed to see almost everything:  bunnies, alligators, macaws, giraffes, lemurs, tortoises, we really tried to fit in as much as possible in the few hours we had.

The children's area had a few playground pieces and Bea loved this slide.

This sign had me a bit confused though

What I'm wondering is where the half hog exhibit is.....

After lunch and a train ride we picked up a few new friends to remember the day and headed home.

This was about 5 minutes after leaving the zoo.

Heather

Charlie's New Best Friend

Charlie has found a new best friend since arriving in California and her name is Rosie.  He absolutely loves watching her through the sliding glass doors and is in heaven when she is allowed inside.

Heather

A New House

We arrived in California yesterday and this was waiting for Bea.....her very own playhouse!  And if you're wondering, behind the garage door is a tricycle.  After all, what good would a new house be without a new ride?

Bea's grandparents assembled it from boxes used to ship organs and her aunt Shannon and Shannon's friend Annie painted it.  Bea absolutely loves it and was constantly asking (when we would come inside) to go outside and "play with my new house".

Heather

California Bound

Heather

Bea's Art Corner

Every once in awhile Bea will do or say something and I'm reminded just how much she pays attention to everything we do and say.  Monday night after dinner she wanted us to come into her playroom and color.  She gave us both pieces of paper and crayons and then sat with us at the table and worked on her own coloring.

After a few minutes, when T and I had stopped coloring she grabbed one of our pictures and said she wanted to hang it up and then took it over to her "kitchen" and put it up on the wall.

I do this with everything she paints (or draws, etc) so of course she wanted to do it with our pictures.

As you can tell, we're quite the artistic group.

Heather

New Friends

How adorable are these little guys?  They're Anamalz and I ordered them for Charlie's room (eventually they'll move to the playroom for him).  I found these three as a group on Zulily for a huge discount and I'm hoping this will be a start of a growing collection for him.

Heather  

Chillin with a snack

On one of our morning walks to Starbucks.  Bea loves the Peeled apple snacks they carry.

Recent Finds

A few weekends ago our little town of South Orange had a city wide "garage sale".  There was nothing specific I was on the hunt for, but I love going to garage sales, thrift stores, flea markets, etc.  We only ended up going to a handful of homes but that's because I hit my spending limit early on.

Here are a few of our finds.

Cute Melissa & Doug abacus.  Not really sure if I'll put this in Charlie's room for a more decorative piece or leave it out in the playroom for the time being.

A huge group of Dr. Seuss books.  They were $1 each and this isn't even everything we picked up, Bea has several in her room.

Melissa & Doug ice cream set.  Bea wasn't even that into this when we were at the sale but I thought she might be soon.  It's an understatement to say that she plays with this multiple times a day.

Box of Mr., Mrs., and kiddo potato heads plus TONS of parts.

Two vintage Sesame Street books.  I love these!

And finally the "catch of the day".....

A Thomas the Train figure 8 train set and a basketful of trains as well as additional tracks, a train wash, a crane, and risers.

I had been considering a train set for Bea but wasn't really sure where to begin.  Then we came across all of this for, get ready, $40.  I knew this was a deal, but wasn't sure how much of one until last week when we were in Toys R Us and I saw that just one of these trains could run anywhere from $16-22.  I'm not even exaggerating when I say we easily have 30 of them.  The only thing we don't have is a bridge for the figure 8 set.  That's what eBay is for, right?

I think we ended up spending around $70 for all of this.  All in all, a great garage sale day!

Heather