Good Old Summer Fun

There are times when I am happy I was born and raised in Fallbrook.  Almost every time I go up just to hang out (and not working), I usually see someone from my childhood.  Fallbrook also has those "small town" type of events.  Last night was one of them, Hot Summer Night's Taste of Fallbrook.  They close down Main Street and restaurants from town come and give samples to promote their businesses.  There are also blow-up slides for kids and hot rod cars on display.   My step-uncle Ray's band, Aunt Kizzy's Boyz , also play some of the events and it is always fun to go see them too.  Good old summer type of fun: walking around, eating, people watching, and some beer drinking.

Tim, Alison, Addy, & I went to Hot Summer Nights and enjoyed some food and headed over to see Ray.  If you have not seen Ray perform, you should.  He is awesome.  See, I didn't know anything about blues until I met Ray and listened to his music and he is great.  Ray not only has a great voice, but he has large voice and a huge heart.  He is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. He also recently released a solo CD and has performed at quite a few big blues festivals. Tim & I have gone to see him several times and Tim is also a convert...we both love Ray.  Turns out Addy did too.  The music was a little loud at first, but we quickly realized that if we put our hands over her ears she was happy as a clam and loved "dancing" in my lap.

I couldn't even get her to look at my for a picture, she was too busy watching the other kids dancing and Ray singing.

I understand, Ray is a great performer and it is hard not to watch.

Auntie Alison made sure Addy's ears were covered so she could enjoy the music.

And I loved sharing music with my baby girl.

 Hope you are able to enjoy some good old fashioned fun this summer too! 

Peas...they actually are good!

Thought I would give you a brief update.  Miss Adelyn has decided she likes peas.  In fact she likes them so much she ate a whole jar for dinner. Next food to try, carrots.  Mmmmmm... 
And a funny picture to make you smile. :-)

Naptime

Tim and I have always wondered if the dogs would ever start sleeping in Addy's room when she was in there. Would they ever be protective enough to actually sleep in the same room?  Today I put Addy down for her nap and about 5 minutes later I realized I hadn't seen Lily in awhile.  Usually this means she is up to no good, but this afternoon she just felt like taking a nap with her little sister.

A momma's gotta do what a momma's gotta do

I have always been impressed by moms and how they just seem to know how to improvise when things don't go as planned.  See, I plan everything and try to envision every single thing that could possibly happen and when the unexpected happens, I tend to freak out.  So, I didn't think the improvising part of being a mommy would work with me.  I predicted a lot of panic attacks. 
I am proud of myself though.  I cannot recall one real freak out since I have become a mommy and feel I have done a pretty good job rolling with the punches, whether it means wrapping a dirty cloth diaper in cellophane from my sandwich or washing bottles in public. Today I figured out, if I needed to put Addy somewhere really quick in the bathroom that her bathtub worked well for containing her.  I was just proud of myself for figuring this out without having to get Addy's bouncer. Of course, I got the camera after I was done in the bathroom because who can resist taking a picture of those cheeks and eyes? 

 

And I am so thankful I am able to improvise and just take good care of my little girl.

Peas...good? or no good?

Tonight Tim & I decided to give Addy her first taste of "real" food.  We decided peas would be a good choice because a) they are a vegetable and b) they are not sweet.  We just happened to be having dinner at Pat & Oscars, so we took the peas with us and got her all ready in her high chair and started feeding them to her. 

She kept reaching for the jar, so I took that to mean she wanted more:

Guess not.  I kept trying to feed them to her, but the reaction was pretty much the same the whole time.  By the end of dinner Addy would no longer look at me because she thought I was going to give her another spoonful of peas. :-(  Hopefully tomorrow will go better because we have to stick with the peas for a few days. 

Addy's Best Friends

As I had hoped, Addy has become more and more intrigued with her doggies.  In fact, she now tries to grab them and give them hugs.  When she is eating and the dogs enter the room, she looks around for them and forgets her bottle, which is crazy because you NEVER mess with Addy and her bottle!
Yesterday we were doing some floor time and Lily started dropping the toy by me to play.  Addy decided she was going to play and started grabbing the toy.  So, the "playing" started and has continued onto today.  I think it is adorable and glad my puppies and Addy are starting to acknowledge each other.  The dogs still don't get too close because they have been grabbed a few times, but that is a good thing as well.  They are cautious, just like we want them to be.
So, here is a video.  If you listen closely, you can also hear one of Addy's new favorite things to do, blow bubbles. :-)  She has different types of blowing depending on her mood, for example, frustrated bubbles.  :-)  Enjoy!  Sorry about some of the video quality!  I didn't realize I was moving so much!

Jump Around...

I have been toying with the idea of buying a Bumbo.  I have a problem spending $35 for a new one and I am a little too lazy to drive to pick one up off of Craigslist.  However, instead of spending our money on a new Bumbo, Tim & I decided to buy a Baby Einstein jumper.  We found a coupon for Babys R Us and bought it last week when we got home from the river.  I was super excited about it and when the package arrived yesterday, I went to work putting it together.  Little did I know it would take a hour and half of finagling and sweat to get the thing together, but in the end it is together and working well for our little munchkin.
There were lots of parts:

And I had lots of helpers to keep entertained while I worked:

Mr. Frog helped a lot with keeping Addy entertained:

But in the end it was all worth it for such a happy girl:

May we get many hours of enjoyment out of our Baby Einstein Jumper. :-)

Random

We have had a random weekend.  You know, one of those weekends when you do random things.  Sometimes you are disappointed, sometimes you aren't.  This weekend, I was not disappointed.

I'll start with Thursday, since that is when I started my weekend.  We visited an Allstate insurance adjuster because I was rear ended before we left for Norcal.  Randomly, we got some lumpia and empanadas at the place next door.  They were yummy.

Friday, we randomly saw my friend, Jess at the zoo.  But I already wrote about that.

Yesterday, we went to see my friend, Liz, participate in her first power lifting competition.  Random yes...cool...yes...  I can honestly say I knew nothing about power lifting until yesterday. I not only learned a lot, but I also got to see Liz break a current CA state record in bench pressing.  Pretty awesome if you ask me!  This is a video of her first attempt at the bench press (you get 3 attempts and if you succeed in your first, the weight just keeps going up).   And no, the guys were just spotters, they weren't helping her even though they look like they might be.  This is also not the lift that broke the record, I didn't get a very good video of that one, so this one will just have to suffice.

We also randomly ended up in Pacific Beach at my one of my favorite places to eat, World Famous.My lobster tacos were a good random.  Since we were on the coast, we thought about taking a walk, but due to crummy weather, we ended up going home instead.  Picture of my husband feeding my baby girl on a bench on the bay:

We also randomly had pho (Vietnamese soup) at home where I spilled mine all over our coffee table and permanently took the stain off the wood.  Not a good random... And we had some random frozen yogurt, graham cracker & cake batter for me....yummy.  A good random.

I went to put little one to bed and I randomly smashed my foot into a "present" left for me on the floor by one of the dogs.  Not a good random...a disgusting random.  I will not post a picture of that one...even though Tim took one cause he thought it was hilarious.


Today, I went breakfast with my family to see my cousin, Michelle, who is visiting from Cincinnati with her family. Afterwords, I randomly (I wasn't planning on going) went with my mom to the mall and rediscovered H & M. I think I will be "randomly" showing up there sometime soon. :-)

Danielle (Michelle's daughter) & Dylan at breakfast

They were my flower girl & ring bearer! :-)

Madison loves Addy

 

Candid of Michelle & Bobby

Addy & I came home and she passed out on me. This is not random and happens on most days when we are home in the afternoon.  The randomness about Addy's little nap were my thoughts about her while she was sleeping.  I was just thinking how lucky I am to have my little girl in my life.  She really has changed me and my life for the better.  I never realized having a child would change so much, but in the end it has taught me how to love even more than I knew possible.  Of course, she isn't too hard to love.  She is pretty amazing. Here is a picture of my little girl sound asleep on me.

 

So while my weekend was full of randomness, it was a pretty great weekend.  I was able to hang out with just my two loves and see lots of friends and family.  Hopefully the rest of the summer is full of some more randomness.

Starting to grab....

the dogs...

Hopefully Izzie & Lily realize they are no longer safe.

San Diego Zoo

Today we took a family trip to the zoo.  Funny enough, my friend, Jess, from Northern California is down visiting in San Diego and staying with our friend, Liz.  On our way down to the zoo we found out she was already there, so we were able to hang out with Jess too!   I didn't pull out my camera at all, but I did use my camera phone for some pictures, so here they are.  Today my favorite animal, the pandas.  They were adorable.  Addy still isn't too interested in the animals, but I am sure she will be in a few months.

Addy not looking at the pandas...

So cute!

Baby panda in a hammock...so cute!

More Family Trip

Tim's cousin, Nick, bought a fancy camera before the trip and was our family photographer for the trip.  He took some really great pictures and I wanted to share them with you.  I have messed with them a little (just cause it is fun...), but enjoy the pictures!  And thank you Nick for letting me play with your camera!

See, she wants to feed herself!  

John & Carol Fraher, honorary Manberts

(and co-owners of the cabin)

Carol, Rob, & Jill

Feeding Time...thank you to our fabulous house chef, Rob!

Addy & Her Grandma Carol

The grandchildren & great grandchild

The Lovebirds

To get a Bumbo or not to get a Bumbo, that is the question.

We borrowed this one for the weekend and Addy really liked it.

But is it work $35?!?

KT & Rush

Michael &  Colleen

Our chefs for the weekend

Mormor & Papa blowing out their candle.

I had a partner in doing schoolwork.  Rush had to write a paper too.

He was done before he left the cabin though, but his was also due before mine. :-)

Nick is not only a great photographer, but he is really good at feeding Addy! :-)

Nick was the baby of the family, until baby girl came around. 

If you didn't know, my husband is OBSESSED with hamburgers. 

This was his creation at the cabin.  I believe it was stuffed with cheese & bacon,

had grilled onions and more cheese, and a polish sausage on top. 

Supposedly it was delicious...I didn't want a heartache so I didn't try it.

A Group Shot

Thanks again Nick for all of the pictures!!

My loud little baby

Adelyn has only gotten louder and louder with her talking.  Tonight while she was sitting on the couch with Tim and I she just was talking and talking and talking.  So, I decided I would take a quick video with my phone.  The video quality isn't as good as normal, but hey, it is pretty good for a cell phone (yay iPhone 4!). :-) Enjoy!

Miss Independent

Adelyn has become quite independent over the last couple of weeks.  She wants to sit on her own, she wants to hold her own bottle, feed herself, putting in her own binky, and she wants to grab everything herself without us giving it to her, even if it means falling over in the process.

 Sitting on her own in the glider

Holding her own bottle

Putting her own binky in

She has also started grabbing everything in site and shoving it in her mouth, even the germ filled Southwest magazine on the plane. Ewww...

This is actually a picture of the GQ Daddy was reading...you can't see her hand behind the magazine pushing it towards her face.

While I always kind of guessed any baby of mine would be independent, I don't think I expected to see signs of that already.  And I must say, if she is already this independent (I guess you could also say stubborn), Tim and I might be in for some trouble.  I guess we will just have to wait and see! :-)

Wine Tasting

While we were at the cabin, Tim & I (& Addy too although she didn't partake in the adult beverages) snuck away to do a couple of champagne tastings.  We walked across the street to Korbel and were also able to visit our favorite winery, Iron Horse.  Both days were beautiful and if you are ever in Sonoma county, I would recommend both.

Mormor & Papa's Birthdays, Rob's Birthday, AND 4th of July Weekend!!

Yup, we had quite the weekend this weekend.  Tim's parents own a cabin on the Russian River near the town of Guernville. For those of you who do not know where that is, it is on the western side of Sonoma county conveniently across the street from the Korbel winery and about 1 1/2 hours north of San Francisco. 
To celebrate Tim's grandparents' (Mormor & Papa) 80th birthdays all of the Manbert side of Tim's family journeyed to the cabin.  There were twenty of us total and we had a good time catching up, eating, drinking, playing games, and just chillin'.  I had to work on a paper, but that did not keep me from having a good time.  We also just happened to be at the cabin on Rob's birthday and the 4th of July, so that made the trip just that much more special.  Of course, Adelyn had a great time being spoiled by all of her big cousins, great aunts & uncles, grandparents, auntie, and of course, her great grandparents.  I thought she might be difficult today now everyone is gone, but she is adjusting well. 
Here are just a few pictures:

Happy birthday, USA!

Robbie, Carol, & Papa

Addy layin' in the big kids bed

Elise & Addy

KT & Addy

Grandpa Dennis & Addy

Mormor playing bocce ball (this is a rare picture!)

Tim, Papa, & Addy 

Papa playing bocce

My attempt at a fancy photo without a fancy camera. :-)

Addy's first time in the stroller without her car seat.  Good thing she liked it, she was exhausted.

Uh oh...which one of you did it?

Carol behind the camera

Happy girl

Papa & Tim enjoying a beer

The Temecula Manberts

The San Jose Manberts (plus Logan)