The subject line is one of Otto's favorite things to say: "I knew when Mommy/Daddy was coming in/home." He says it when we get him up from his crib or when we come home from being out. Trevor and I say it too and I'm using it now in the subject line to say that Trevor did his week long work stint and now is back on paternity leave for another month! Yippee. We are all thrilled. The week with him gone was pretty hectic. We mostly stayed home and for better or worse Otto watched a lot of cartoons (a new thing as I did not let him watch TV before 2 years old). He LOVES it. Yikes. But honestly I don't know what else to do when I have to nurse Rae every hour or two (really I nurse her every hour for about 10 minutes at a time) and we aren't allowed to go anywhere under doctor's orders until she is 2 months old. The upshot is that we stayed home most of the time and played with toys or out in the backyard. Goa helped enormously! I REALLY don't think I could have done it with out her. Rae fusses when she is not being held and Otto cries and demands that I pick her up if she is fussing! It is pretty tricky to zoom motorcycles or get food ready for Otto or do whatever while holding Rae so Goa has been so awesome by holding her and allowing me to be there for Otto too. It worked out although like I said it was hectic.
Otto, Rae, and I did take one pretty crazy adventure out of the house-my first time out of the house with both kids. We initially just left to deliver one of Rae's announcements to Polly, Rob, and Marlowe our friends and neighbors so I put Rae in the stroller with a blanket and grabbed a few motorcycles for Otto and headed out-making a very bad conscious decision to not bring diapers as we were only going for a second. Well Otto was in the world's best mood and wanted to keep walking to the park. I couldn't say no because he was so cute. We got there and played for a while and had a great time. Rae was asleep for the first 30 minutes but then woke up and wanted to nurse. I had a big blanket so I covered up and nursed at the park. No problem. Then she pooped (and had diaper rash) so I felt pretty stressed about making sure she had a clean diaper. I asked Otto if he was ready to leave but he wanted to stay and again was being so great that I couldn't refuse. So I borrowed wipes from another mom and decided to let Rae go diaper-less in the bassinet stroller. Cut to about 2 hours later-poop everywhere-her blanket, pants, my shirt, her shirt, Trevor finally got off work and met us at the park. He and Otto hung out and I walked Rae back to take a bath. HA! It was totally hectic but actually so much fun. Both kids seemed to enjpy themselves too. It was the first time that I really felt I could handle them both on my own. That said I couldn't be happier that Trevor has another month
off!
I attached a few photos. One of Rae and Trevor napping, one of Otto and Rae in the morning, one of Rae asleep at Goa's, one of Otto and I in our shades on a walk to the smoothie shop-Trevor, Otto, Rae, and I all went which was wonderful, and one of Otto at the LA Department of Sanitation's open house where he got to sit in a bunch of garbage trucks. Pretty awesome!
Trevor told me as we were eating dinner that night that his Father's Day was one of the best days of his life. I couldn't have been happier! The day started out with the four of us walking up to our local "muffin shop" (as Otto calls it because we typically buy him muffins there-but really it is a Cuban restaurant/cafe). OK...Trevor is taking over now so I can nurse. Otto likes it there because of their wonderful selection of pastries but more importantly because they have a huge bin full of toy cars and planes. He dumps them all over the floor and plays with them while munching on a macaroon....Otto's heaven. I then broke off from the family to get a massage at Raven Spa that Susan gave me for Father's Day....Trevor's heaven. It was great but paled in comparison to what came next. Otto and I went to the 2012 RODEO DRIVE CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE. It's an exotic car show all along Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Otto and I walked up and down marveling at all of the "really fast cars and motorcylces!" Otto sat on a $250,000 motorcycle until we were kindly asked not to. He also loved sitting on the upper deck of a double decker bus overlooking the whole show. We then went to get some food but because we spent too much time on the bus we missed the food trucks and Otto started to get a little cranky. I finally managed to get him to settle for a slice of pizza but he would only eat the dough (he obviously doesn't have much Groth blood in him). As we were walking back to the car he fell in love with a harley davidson and sat on it talking to it gently and caressing it for about 15 minutes. When we got home I grilled up the glorious meat Susan got me from McCalls Butcher shop. We had a fabulous surf 'n turf feast of Copper River Salmon and grass fed New YOrk Strip steak. It was delicious! All of this truly did add up to one of the best days of my life. AWWWWW! I'm so happy Trevor filled in his Father's Day adventures. He did it much better justice than I could have. Ok-I'll finish the rest of the post. Otto is going through a massive growth spurt. He has been sleeping for about 11-13.5 hours per night and taking a 2 hour nap! And he is eating like a champ. The other morning he ate a huge plate-full of berries, a slice of ham, and three eggs for breakfast and had lunch and dinner (I've been cooking a lot of bacon for him which he LOVES and cheers about). Yesterday he ate two whole big cupcakes by himself. Trevor caved into two because our usual little indecisive Otto made a decision of what flavors he wanted so even though he chose two at least he CHOSE! Often we have to walk out of a toy store of bakery with nothing because he can't decide. Anyway, he is eating and sleeping like I've never know him to do so he must be growing fast. We had a little welcoming party for Rae. Tam-Sam, Goa, Uncle John, the Youngs, McKehellers, Morrisons, Lechs, and Stephanie all came over for a breakfast backyard get together. It was the first time we really tried out the playhouse backyard combo and it was a HIT! When the kids got too hot outside they'd just head into the playroom for a little indoor action. We kept the doors open so the adults sitting and snacking on the deck could keep an eye out. It was fantastic! And we have to start doing it more often because we discovered that Otto DOES NOT like to share his toys. He is never put in the position to have to share so it is completely foreign for him to see other kids playing with his toys. He was pretty bad at first then as the day wore on he got a bit better. He never really warmed up and played with the other kids but at least he quit forcing the toys out of their hands. CLEARLY something we need to work on with him...and the best way to do it seems like to have a few more parties! FUN! Rae was a little gem. She slept most of the time and never fussed once. She has been smiling and cooing up a storm lately. I feel like I don't engage her enough. Every time I do she really rewards me with a great smile! We tried to potty train Otto who wanted NO part of it. We took off his diaper and just never put another one on thinking that we could just sort of ease into it but he was on to us in an instant and started bawling for his diaper. Hmmm. Going to be tougher than we thought. I think we missed our window where he was pretty keen on being naked and even trying out the toilet. We just never cleared our schedule to do it and now that we are ready he's over it. Lesson learned. We are re-grouping and trying again in a few months. Other than that life is going along really smoothly. We have a really great routine that sadly will come to an end when Trevor goes back to work...but until then I'm living in the moment and enjoying every second!
