Easy like Sunday morning...

Wow, this has been just such a nice Sunday morning! So much so that I actually have time to post! Let's see if the sleep gods allow me to finish this post in one sitting. Muahahaha... right.

Everything is going quite well here at home. I really do feel lucky. Maya has been doing great. H has graciously taken over one feeding at night - I pump a bottle every day for this - so that I can get a solid 5-6 hours of sleep (albeit a brief wake-up when he brings her in at 1 am) before getting up for the nightly rounds. It has made me feel SO much more sane. God bless.

Maya and I have really become much more active. I was getting SO antsy and to be totally honest - depressed at being SUCH a homebody. I posted that about that here before. Well getting out of the house took some transition - getting comfortable with it, building confidence, and so on and so forth. But you'd see us now and you'd think we've been doing this stuff for years! It has made me so much more content :)

On Wednesday this past week, my sister came over and the three of us went down to Lake Balboa here in Encino. It's a reservoir, but it's quite beautiful and there are great paths, as well as a cute playground for when Maya gets a little older.





We took a nice walk around the lake (exercise!) and came home for a bit. Sis was heading over to our mom's house for dinner and to help our stepdad transfer some old home VHS videos onto DVD. She suggested I come over as well, since this was a night when H was down south with steppie. "Sure, why not?", I figured. Better than sitting home solo.

Maya was sleeping, all swaddled, and I knew I couldn't put her in the car seat in that kind of fashion. So I undid the swaddle and put her in the seat. She was still mellow. "Sweet", I thought - "she'll just fall right back to sleep with the vibrations of the car."

Not so. We made it down the hill and as we approached the freeway, she must have gotten a sense of the impending traffic as the little one started to cry. Crap. I needed to just get to my mom's house. Pulling over wasn't going to do any of us any good. She was just tired, and I wasn't going to be able to put her to sleep in 5 minutes on Ventura Blvd.

And the little muffin started wailing her head off. I was SO unhappy about it! I was sshhhing her, I put on an AM station with lots of white noise, I talked to her, I sang to her. Nothing was cutting it. By now we were on the freeway and I just kept hoping the traffic would get moving so she could enjoy the vibrations of the car. We approached Van Nuys Blvd and I just couldn't take it... I needed to get off the freeway and calm the little one down. She was crying so hard she was practically hysterical. Mom's house would just have to wait. But as I made it over to the right shoulder, she magically quieted down! Aaaah, sweetness. The rest of the drive was peaceful.

We made it up to mom's, and she woke up as I pulled her seat out of the car. Damn. I nursed her at my mom's, and about 45 minutes later (rocking, soothing), she was asleep again. God bless, I could eat some dinner.

She let me do just that, and 30 minutes later, she was up again. My dear darling daughter! She was still pretty tired, so mom and stepdad jumped in for some shots.




Ahhh, it was a tiring evening (for Maya and me included!), but we made it. We got home (after she did some crying AGAIN in the car ride), and I put her to sleep, and I went to sleep. It just showed me that we CAN do it... I can get through traffic, crying spells, stressful situations with her, and make it through to the peace on the other side.

Let's see... what else were we up to? On Thursday little Maya and I went back to Lake Balboa for another loop (go, exercise!). We then went to the bookstore, where I bought a book, though who am I kidding? When am I going to read it? We also sat outside at Starbucks to enjoy the beautiful day while I sipped on an iced soy latte. It felt so perfect and nice.

On Friday my mom and I went to the Huntington Gardens in San Marino. The Huntington Gardens are beautiful! It's actually a museum and amazing gardens, that used to be lived in by the VERY wealthy Huntington family.

Mom made reservations at the tea house. It was so sweet! We had such a nice time downing our sandwiches and yummy scones and sweets. We then took some nice walks through the Rose garden and Japanese garden.









There is SO much more to see there but it was hot, and we were tired. By the time I made it home around 4:30 pm, I was so wiped out. Thank god H had just gotten home so he could watch Maya while I ran to lie down for a bit. She conked out too and we just spent the rest of the evening watching movies and just being cozy. I love it.

And yesterday we went to a BBQ over at my mom's house. My stepdad's daughter was in town so we all got together to hang. It was nice. And Maya met her quasi step-cousin. He is about 5 months old. He's a sweet kid, but his mom is so neurotic about him that I fear he may become afraid of his shadow when he is older. Poor boy.




Now H is out surfing... I'm a good wife, aren't I? My plan for today is just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

Here's a shot of my sweet girl :)