2.25.2016

Leo - Month 5






Weight:   13lbs 3oz, 25.25"
Nicknames: Wee-Woo, Leeman, Lee-Lee, Forest Boy
 
Clothes: You're mainly in 3-6mths and size 6mths. 
Sleep:  Biggest sleep change this month is that you are sleeping in your crib! One day, I woke up and told your dad, "Today was Leo's last day in the rock and play....and no more swaddle", and just like that, you were done. We moved you to the crib that night and you did great. I just felt like we were both ready - and you proved my mother's intuition correct! You go to bed around 7:15/7:30pm, and sleep until 6:00/6:30am

Schedule:  Biggest change this month is we are rocking two main naps...and maybe a cat nap if we are walking or in the car. It's going well buddy and I feel like we are in a great groove.
wake up at 6:30...
6:30am feed
6:30-8:45am play
8:45-10:45am nap
10:45-1:00  play (maybe cat nap if we are in the car)
1:00 pm feed 
1:00-2:30pm play
2:30-4:30pm nap
4:30pm feed
6:45pm bath
7:00pm bottle
7:30pm bed

Health: We are so thankful for your perfect health! 

Crying: You cry mainly when you're bored and want to move on to the next activity. You've also developed this funny/sad/strange/adorable pouting face and lately you've been doing it a lot.
 
Feeding:  You eat 5 times a day, and Dad gives you an 8oz bottle before bed. You've been exclusively breastfed, but I'm going to introduce some formula this month for your night bottle. 

Likes: You love to laugh and are generally a very happy, joyful baby. You love to be tickled, thrown into the air, and bounced all around. You love the baby classes we go to, you love your jimmy neutron rattle, and to put everythingggg into your mouth.
Dislikes: You don't like to be put into the car seat, but once we start moving, you're good. You don't like to do one thing for too long, so we stay pretty dang busy moving from thing to thing throughout the day.
Milestones:  You've found your feet and love to do the happy baby position whenever you can. You're working on sitting, talking up a storm, sleeping in your crib, and standing firm on your feet.
Places You’ve Gone:  My most favorite outing this month was the day trip we took to Santa Barbara. It's one of our favorite places, and your Dad and I had so much fun showing you all of our favorite spots. You went with the flow the entire day and had so much fun being outside and interacting with all of the friendly people we met. 
Visitors: You finally got to meet your cousin Sulley and Aunt Corie! They came to our house for a sleepover for our annual pizza making tradition. We had so much fun seeing the two of you cousins together!

Postpartum:  Still working on undoing some of that pregnancy damage. I'm running about twice a week, and I'm really looking forward to running with you in the jogging stroller. I think we will break that out this upcoming month and see how you do! 
 
Roscoe: You really like to watch what Roscoe is doing - and you think it's reallllly funny when I tell him to stop barking forty six times a day! 

2.23.2016

Creating Space for a Playroom

 Pre-Leo, part of our living space looked like this - (minus the Christmas tree). 


When Leo came, the area where the Christmas tree was, became his nook. We set up a play mat and hung out there. We also had a swing in the left corner right beside the leather chair.


This area behind the living room was a fun little wine nook and a nice walkway to the patio - but ultimately, it started to feel like a lot of wasted square feet. 

 

Literally in middle of the night a few weeks ago, I got the grand idea to move a few things around to make this area behind the living room "Leo Land". After a little convincing - Joel and I made the switch last weekend - and it actually worked!


We broke up the china cabinet and wine fridge so that they sandwich the TV, and while it's cramped, it doesn't look too out of the ordinary. 

  

The china cabinet is my absolute favorite piece of furniture, so I actually really enjoy looking at it from my seat on the couch. 


 

Once those things were moved, I ordered this SkipHop floor mat from Amazon, moved in a book shelf from our bedroom (that was used as a makeshift changing table in our room when Leo was a newborn), and let my cousin borrow our swing for her baby arriving in April.  


 
I need a lamp for the left side of the book shelf and maybe a few fun prints or big letters, but for now, we are absolutely LOVING a designated area to hang out and play in - somewhat separate from the living room.


As Joel knows well.....nothing is ever done....but so far so good!

2.22.2016

Weekend Recap

This weekend was relatively low key which was actually very nice. Our March and April...and May, June and July...are filling up quickly, so I'm trying to make sure we take it easy when we can.

Friday during the day I drove to Manhattan Beach to do a mommy and me class with my girlfriend Beth and her son. 


The class isn't very aerobic, but it's a fun activity - so it's worth it. Manhattan Beach is such a great little town too. We walked by my newest dream house and it's pretty dang drool worthy...


Friday night we stayed in and made fondue. I was still craving fondue after we had it at a Valentine's Day party a few weeks back. I used this recipe which is so easy because you do the whole thing in the crock pot and it's ready in 45 minutes.


After we put Leo down, we watched Top Chef, indulged in some ice cream and called it a night before 9:30pm.


Saturday morning Joel hosted his running group for a long run in our neighborhood and then brunch at our house. They all run together once a week, but I don't run with the group so I haven't met most of them and they hadn't met Leo yet either. We kept things really casual (Store bought bagels and mimosas) and everyone had a great time.


Leo was such a good boy and was happy to be passed around to everyone in the group. I sometimes worry that Leo is getting a little too attached to me since we're solo most of the week, but he really did great.

That afternoon we took a blanket down to the park and watched a kids soccer game which was freaking adorable. 


Maybe it was the morning mimosa, but we decided to push our luck at take Leo out to our favorite sushi spot. 

We went really early (5:30) and left by 6:30 so that we could get him home and into the bath on time, but it actually went really well. He was occupied by all the new things going on and pretty much let us enjoy our dinner.


Sunday I ran to my cousins a few miles from my house in the morning to help her get her nursery set up. After some coffee, we went and got our nails done which was a nice treat. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon working and playing, and before we knew it, Monday was here again! 



2.19.2016

Five on Friday


::: 1 :::
A large part of this week was spent changing up our living space to make a little more room for Leo. It's still a work in progress, but so far Leo and I are both loving the change.


::: 2 ::: 
 
I've always been a pretty loyal Dunkin' Donuts coffee fan but I have to say, this Target brand/flavor has changed my tune lately. I've seriously had to hold myself back from a third cup! 

::: 3 :::


I think I can officially say that I'm trying to lose these last ten pounds but it's been pretty slow going. I still have my gym membership on hold, and don't really feel like I can afford to take multiple classes each week, so I'm trying to sneak in my exercise wherever I can get it. Mostly its been through 10 minute popsugar workout videos (this and this are my favorites) - or long walks with Leo. Wearing him during walks too has got to count for extra points right???

::: 4 :::
Not only did Leo sleep in his crib overnight this week for the first time, but he also found his feet and somehow turned twelve. How is this happening so fast?

::: 5 :::
We don't have too much planned for the weekend.....fondue for dinner tonight, having friends over Saturday for brunch, and hopefully I'll get a few chances to sneak out for some exercise and much needed mani/pedi! 

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2.15.2016

Valentine's Day Weekend Recap

We had such a packed and fun weekend.

Friday afternoon was kind of a doozy....Leo was fussing, and I had been feeling a little run ragged, so when Joel randomly came home around 4:30 - I took my chance to escape for a bit. My girlfriend and I met for drinks outside, which turned to dinner and before I knew it - Joel had given Leo a bath and put him to bed by the time I got home at 7:30pm.

Not only was it so refreshing to just get out of the house on such a whim, but it also gave me another opportunity to see that Joel is a pretty amazing Dad and Husband. He happily pushed me out the door, never called with concerns or questions, and actually enjoyed the few hours he had with Leo solo. 

Ok, but the real fun started on Saturday.


We loaded up the car around 8am and drove about 90 minutes north to Santa Barbara. We made a pit stop in Montecito but after waiting in line for thirty minutes for a croissant, feeding the baby in the car, and Joel taking work calls, it just didn't work out the way we imagined, so we loaded back into the car and decided to go right in Santa Barbara for a much needed walk.


The weather was a lot colder and muggier in the morning than we were expecting, but Leo had fun looking out, and it was nice to not have the sun beating down on us during the walk. 

Our favorite spot in SB is Corks'n'Crowns, so we stopped there first for a glass of champagne after our walk. We sat out on the patio and just marveled at our favorite city. 


 

If it wasn't for Joel's job, we would move up there in a hot second.

Leo only lasted a bit before he was ready for a nap, so we stuck him in the stroller and went for lunch at Metropulos - the best deli ever, and had sandwiches outside. 




After lunch, we ventured to a new-to-me spot called Santa Barbara Wine Collective. It is a beautiful spot - and we ended up spending the rest of our afternoon there.

              


Leo had such an absolute blast being outside and being constantly held. He honestly had a twenty minute giggle fest that had the entire restaurant in hysterics. It will forever go down as one of my favorite memories, and I was able to catch a little video of it, so if I figure it out I'll try and post it on here later. It was just too sweet. 

It was such a relaxing, low key day spent with my boys. I had dreamed about taking Leo up to Santa Barbara when I was pregnant - and to finally live it out was pretty amazing.


We left pretty early, and made it home in time to make dinner at home (salmon burgers), give Leo a bath, and watch the dunk contest. 

Sunday morning, Joel was up at 4:30am to go for a long run in the mountains with his friends. They did ten miles before the sun even came up.


I was on Leo duty in the morning but when I crawled out of bed to go get the baby, I had this sweet surprise waiting for me. 


Once Joel came home and we had breakfast, I went out for my own run. Part of the LA marathon ran right by our house, so I ran along side all of the awesome runners for 3 miles before Joel and Leo met me and we cheered on some of the athletes. 


That afternoon we made some major changes to our living room. We moved around a ton of furniture and cleared out a bigger space for Leo and all of his things. 


It's not totally picture perfect, but I'm going to try and take a few pictures and get them up here this week. 

Overall it was a love filled, productive weekend - and I hope it was the same for you!



2.12.2016

Five on Friday

::: 1 ::: 

The weather here in LA has been SO hot, I feel like summer has arrived in February. It's been absolutely beautiful and we've been taking advantage of the heat with long walks, lunches outside, and excuses for cute hats. 
   

::: 2 ::: 
I'm blaming the weather for this, but I have a major spring cleaning bug. Yesterday I spent the entire day reorginzing Leo's clothes (for the umpteenth time) and found myself with a pile of things he's outgrown already. I decided it was due time to clear out the materinty clothes too, so I filled a big storage container and said farewell (for now). It's so weird to think the next time I need to open that box I'll be pregnant again....but I'm riding this wave for a while! 

::: 3 ::: 
And with Leo getting bigger, that means all of his toys and things are too. We got this really cute walker from Joel's co-worker and while Leo loves it, its one more thing I need to find a space for. We are staying in our condo for as long as we can, but I need to do some readjusting of our living space because it's driving me crazy.  
 
This weekend I'm going to move the china cabinet and wine fridge (behind the leather chair) to a different wall - and then push all of the furniture a few feet closer to the dining room. 


My hope is that this will give us a little nook to hang out, put all of his things (out of my sight, kind of) and feel like we have a little more room to play. 

I know that I'm not going to love the change, but as my mom said, "It's Leo's house now", so I'm going to do my best to make it work and see how it goes. 
 
::: 4 ::: 
Also....thank you 90 degree temperatures, but all I want lately is a corona light and chips and guac! I'm really hoping some cooler temps roll around here because if we are starting summer now, I'm in big trouble! 

::: 5 :::
For Valentine's Day, the only thing I wanted to do was take a trip up to Santa Barbara. I've literally dreamed about the day when we can take Leo up to my favorite city, and it's finally happening tomorrow. We are going to leave early with the dog and the babe, and spend the day walking by the water, tasting wines, having a picnic lunch, and doing some shopping on State street. I'm hoping everyone enjoys it since it will be a long day away from the house and off of our routine, but I think it'll be good for all of us.



Hope you have a great Valentine's Day weekend! xoxo 

pretty mat: