BA's Corner: Daycare, Changes, and Family

Leah is getting ready to transition to the next daycare class.  I hope the "Tiny Tots" are ready for a big Peanut.  While she's still an "Infant 1," I thought I'd share some daycare pics we got last month (most are from "beach day").  If nothing else, this proves that she doesn't cry all day long, just when we drop her off and pick her up.  Ugh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daycare has been a bit of a struggle - one we didn't expect.  New rules, new teachers, and new routines take some getting used to, and we're still adjusting.  For some reason, it seems like Leah has never been fully comfortable in her new daycare, and neither have we.  It's a nice facility and they do many great things with the kids.  But for some reason, we just haven't clicked.  There seem to be a lot of rules and things constantly change, so maybe that's part of it.  They are trying to push the kids from 2 naps/day to 1, and it's not going very well.  Aside from that:

• Leah has started to eat everything on the menu since she's turned 1 (which is great, and fun too)
• We continue to try the straw cup with her (unsuccessfully...although she did it once a few weeks ago)
• We are still transitioning from formula to milk (she drank full milk for a few days, but I don't think her stomach was ready for it, which resulted in some extra loads of laundry.  So we are still mixing it with formula and gradually working up to full milk again). 
• Plus she now has tennis shoes, since the "T-Tots" require them. 

 

Suffice it to say, there are many changes going on over here.  But Leah is sleeping very well at night and we are managing through the changes at a pace she can handle.  Plus, it is so wonderful to have AA back.  We feel like a family again - and a family that has control over our lives!  Monday afternoon, when we returned from our mini-vacation (thank you again Nana and Papa!), we took Leah on a wagon ride up to the pool after her nap.  We enjoyed swimming and relaxing as a family again.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is huge.  Leah had a ball splashing and kicking with both of us there, and she especially enjoyed when I would toss her up in the air.  Water splashed all in her face, and she just grinned and giggled.  

 

In our return to normalcy, we have vowed to:

1. Take some time as a family every weekend...no pictures, no blogging, just enjoying the moment
2. Salvage as much of the rest of the summer as possible, so that we don't look back at 2012 as "that awful, wasted summer when the bar controlled our lives."

 

Bar be gone.  We're a family again.

The Other Side

The Bar.  Is Over.

I made it to the other side.  And now I'm sitting on a beach-front balcony, listening to crickets, the waves, and a guitar player, and not studying for the first time in 3 years and 2 months.  BA and I are on a mini-vacation.  We went to Hilton Head to celebrate my freedom and the survival of his single-parenthood this summer.  We left the little Peanut at home with Nana and Papa and took our first vacation alone in over a year.  It is well deserved.  We are eating as much seafood as we can fit into our bellies, and I have spent the better part of the day just staring out at the ocean and feeling the breeze.  It's a good day. 

So how did I celebrate my completion of the bar exam?  Well to kick it off I contracted pink eye.  Yes, that's right.  I'm sure I picked it up at the bar exam.  My eye was red and a little irritated on Wednesday morning (the morning of the MBE exam) but luckily I didn't suspect anything during the actual test, but by Wednesday night it was apparent that I had pink eye.  Thursday morning I went to urgent care and started eye drops.  3 days later, both eyes were full blow infected with no improvement, so on our first real day at Hilton Head I was back at another urgent care clinic.  Now I have steriod eye drops and those babies are finally getting the job done. 

So how do I feel about the test?  Not great, but I think that's how I'm supposed to feel.  I felt good after both morning sessions, but at some point during both afternoon sessions I started to feel like I knew nothing and was getting every question wrong.  To be perfectly honest, I feel that, regardless of how I actually did, I deserve to pass.  I worked so hard this summer, I studied so much, and I think I deserve to pass.  Unfortunately, that's not how it works.  I'll find out in late October if I passed.  Until then, I'm going to relax and take it easy for a change.  And after 2 weeks of taking it easy, I'm sure I'll get bored and realize that it's time to start looking for a job.  But not yet.  Now it's time for vacation.  And then it's time to spend the days playing with Leah, cleaning up the house, catching up with friends and family, watching TV, and just being happy I survived.

Hawaii Part Five - Aloha!

This is the last of our Hawaii posts.  At the end of this post, I will have published fifty pictures from this vacation!  I won't do that to you again - mostly because we won't be able to afford to take such a nice trip for a while, and also because you are probably tired of hearing about our vacation.  I know I bombarded you with photos this week but we just took so many and I didn't want to leave anything out.  On our last night, we attempted one last time to get a family photo.  You can see how well that went ...

Someone is not being a team player!

All tuckered out.

Leah got in some last minute play-time with Nana.

And our FINAL attempt at a family photo.  After all our failed attempts before BA and I didn't have high hopes.  I didn't bother to dry my hair and he didn't shave, but lo and behold, Leah decided to cooperate.  Rascal.

Since she'd been sick most of the week, we were prepared for a rough flight.  But in typical Peanut-style, she surprised us and was the best behaved baby on the plane.  She got lots of compliments on her St. Paddy's Day style. 

The welcoming committee as our fellow passengers boarded

Cheeks for miles

When we landed in L.A. it was 50 degrees and raining!  Say what?!?!   No matter.  We'll always remember the warmth we found in Hawaii.

Aloha!

Hawaii Part Four - Peanut's Post: Hanging Out with Nana and Papa

Okay, so you know we went to Hawaii last week.  I wasn't a huge fan of the hotel pool, too crowded, and I don't know if you know this, but kids pee in there, so ... Anyway, I preferred to spend my leisure time hanging out with the big people.

My Nana and I worked on clapping.

"Put down the camera, daddy-man, and no one gets hurt."

And she bought me a new ball.  It's supposed to be used as a pool toy, but you know how I feel about public pools.  So we played catch in the condo instead.

Papa and I liked to have long conversations.  He's an expert at the markets right now and he told me all his secrets.  Too bad for mom and dad, because I swore I wouldn't tell a soul what I know. 

Sometimes Papa would take me for a walk, and we'd talk then too.

And of course I cherished the time spent in the steam shower with mom and dad. They weren't quite as excited as I was about the idea of hanging out in a steamy bathroom at 3 p.m. or 3 a.m. but I thought it was great fun.  Way better than the pool!

"I wonder if this is what the steam room at the spa is like?"

Hawaii Part Three - Aaron Family Adventures in Hawaii

On our second day of vacation, we took a drive up to the North Shore of Oahu to see if we could find any big waves.  There wasn't much action in the water, but the beach was beautiful.  After we struck out on the North Shore, we drove to the Polynesian Cultural Center to learn about Hawaiian culture.

The North Shore of Oahu.

It looked like the sand was made up of tiny broken shells

Leah with her Nana and Papa Aaron

Boat Parade at the Polynesian Cultural Center

While at the Polynesian Cultural Center we took several attempts at a family photo.

Hum, not quite, Leah ...

Not this either ...

There we go.

What a rascal!

On the last day of our trip, Leah was feeling better and her Nana and Papa offered to babysit so BA and I could hike Diamond Head.  We had a great time, the weather was beautiful, and the hike was the perfect amount of exercise for us.

What a view!

Overlooking the crater - and the hundreds of stairs to the top

Hawaii Part Two - Pool Time

The first full day in Hawaii we decided to introduce Leah to the Pacific Ocean.  The place where we stayed had a private lagoon, where the water was really calm and clear and the sand was clean.  It was almost like swimming in a swimming pool and the water would have been perfect if it wasn't so darn cold! 

We began the process of lathering up.  With such a white baby, I took the idea of sunscreen very seriously.  This meant that we sometimes spent more time putting sunscreen on Leah, than Leah spent in the water. 

First we tried the ocean.  

Chubby Baby!

Dip the toes in

It's cold!

Below are two video clips of Leah's first swim in the Ocean.  It was really windy our entire trip so the noises you hear are wind, not thunder.







She wasn't completely convinced, so we ditched the ocean and hit the pool.  The pools were heated just a little which made the water temperature perfect.

There's a smile

Wait, just kidding, back to frowning.

She didn't last long in the pool either and was quickly back on dry land for the afternoon.  

We did try swimming another day and it went a little better, although she still wasn't sure that this was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

As of 8 months, Leah prefers to be on land.