Sleepless in San Diego

I'm back from my blogging hiatus and have a ton of pictures to share from our trip to San Diego this past week.  Jason did some research and was able to present it at the Society of Pediatric Radiology conference held in Carlsbad this year.  Since he had all his expenses paid for, we decided to buy me a plane ticket and make it a family trip.  

While the weather was pretty crappy (cold and overcast), it was fun to be together for a whole three days!  Lois decided she didn't like the crib, the hotel room or perhaps even San Diego (much to Jason's horror!) and turned into Nocturnal Lois - so we all slept very little and felt pretty exhausted.  Jason commented at one point that he felt he had been on call for three days straight.  We're glad to be home so that Lois can sleep in her own crib and in her own room.  Hallelujah for separate rooms.  

Needless to say, we were all a little wiped out but still managed to have a good time!  Here's our San Diego trip in pictures!

*Warning: Lots of picture!*

The flight to San Diego started out a little rough, but Lois finally decided she wanted to sleep instead of scream.  We were pretty relieved.

 

A happy mother and an exhausted baby!  We had to catch a 7 am flight, so it was kind of a rough morning for our little Lois!

Nothing like a vacation without some delicious chocolate ice cream.  

Look at that lunge!  Nice move, Lois.

This was one of Lois' favorite parts of the trip - the mirror in the hotel room.  She enjoyed slobbering all over it giving her reflection some loves.  Video to follow.

She's pretty happy she found a friend.

One of the nights she woke up at around 2 am screaming, screamed for a good half hour and then wouldn't go back to sleep.  Thanks to Baby Einstein and a big TV, she was able to hang out between the two of us watching it while we *tried* to get a little shut-eye.  Not so successful.  At least she wasn't screaming. To patrons of room 205, we're really, really sorry.

She later conked out and slept between us for the rest of the night.  You can imagine how much sleep we got.

She loved her long hallway to crawl back and forth.  Notice the exiled crib in the background.  Argh.  Did it look too much like a prison, Lois?  

Love this picture...giving mom a nice smack in the face!

Family picture at Seaport Village -- the last one we took was in December! 

Thank you, random lady.  We really appreciate it.  

Our attempt with self-timer to take a family picture.  Lois didn't really get that she needed to look at the camera.  Oh, well.

Hanging out at Seaport Village

Lois is loving that Ben & Jerry's...Yummy.

And she was also loving her bah-bah.  

Lois' first ride on the carousel.  She really liked it a lot - although that face doesn't exactly portray it!  Jason's does, though.

Jason and Lois

Don't you just want to eat her?  I do.

We were praying that we didn't get pooped on while taking this picture...Lois doesn't seem very phased by all the bird poop, but believe me, I was terrified.

Hanging out in her prison-colored "travel" stroller.

Here's the car we rented.  Note to reader: never buy a Jeep Compass.  I repeat, NEVER.  Glad we learned this lesson firsthand. 

We made it to the Birch Scripps Aquarium.  Here we are in front of the cool fountain...

And Jason and Lois 

She was very intrigued by all the older aged children running around.

This is what the weather was like that whole time!  We really wanted to take Lois to the beach and let her feel the sand between her toes but it was way too cold.  

We're such lightweights. FYI: Sixty-two degrees = FREEZING.

FISHIES!

This was our favorite aquarium display...so pretty!

We also got to eat some delicious Mexican food in Old Town San Diego at Casa Guadalajara.  Best Mexican out there!  Lois really liked the Mariachi band and kept clapping for them.  

And on our flight home, Lois was very concerned with airplane safety - especially since she was such a big girl sitting in her own seat.  She was carefully reading all about the emergency procedures...

...And this is pretty much sums up how we all feel since returning home.

  Lois has been trying to get caught up on sleep from those sleepless nights in San Diego.

And so have we.

Better luck next time, right?

Oh yeah.  And Jason's thing went fabulous.  We're so proud of our man!

Mommy Lesson #257

Vasoline & Hair

Ahh yes.  I'm kind of a nim-wit sometimes.  And as a new mother, I often feel that these "nim-wit" moments are becoming more frequent.  Why is that?  

Do aliens come and suck your brain cells out the second you give birth?

I wonder sometimes.

Well, enough of that "waxing-philosophical" talk of lost brain cells and aliens.  Maybe this will be the topic of a future post.  

Now where was I?  Right...Vasoline and hair.

Here is my story in all its gory details:

So, Lois and I were hanging out together the other night while Jason was working the night away at the hospital.  Lois had been suffering from a mild case of cradle cap and I had been meaning to do something about it for weeks.  I finally got the bug to do something about it, so I did.  

Now, before I go any further, I'd like to preface the story with the fact that back in the day when Lois was about a month old, we went for a "well" visit to her pediatrician.  She had a little bit of cradle cap then and I vaguely remember him saying that all you do is rub some Vasoline on her head and then wash it out.  But you know, I was in a huge, black fog at that point in her life, so who really knows what he said.  

So, there I was.  Tub of Vasoline in hand and a head full of hair in front of me. I proceeded to dig a good amount of Vasoline out and rubbed it all over Lois' head, trying my best to get to the affected area of her scalp.  After about five minutes, I was satisfied with the amount of goop that was in her hair and decided to let her play around while it "sunk" in.

And boy did it sink in.

I gave her a bath and washed her hair twice, just to make sure that I got all of the Vasoline out.

At this point in time, I still didn't realize that Vasoline wasn't shampoo soluable.

Fortunately for me, I took these pictures that night, not even realizing that they'd be great visual aids for my lovely story.

Here we are hanging out after she got out of the bath.  Stupid me thought that her hair was just WET.  Ha!

I just have to note that we have IDENTICAL chins.  This picture totally proves it.

Nice slicky hair, baby!  What's your secret?

Oh, Vasoline?  Nice.

Um, still thinking her hair was WET. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, DUMMMb!

Obviously, when Lois woke up in the morning, it was as if I had never even washed her hair.  I was horrified!  How the heck was I supposed to get this out of her hair?

So naturally, I kind of panicked.  I didn't want to have to take my greasy haired child out of the house and have others wonder why I never washed her hair!

My first thought was to GOOGLE a solution.  Google always has answers - and I was pretty sure that I was not the only nim-wit out there.  So I frantically typed in:  "how to get Vasoline out of my child's hair" and sure enough, there was about twelve entries.  

HA!  Vindicated.  At least I wasn't the only one!  

As I read, the first thing I learned was that the appropriate way to treat cradle cap is to use baby oil, olive oil or some sort of dandruff shampoo.  No mention of plastering Vasoline all over your kid's noggin'.   This could have been brought to my attention yesterday.

Second thing I learned?  The anecdote to getting Vasoline out of hair is to sprinkle corn starch all over it, let it sit for ten minutes and then wash it out. 

Our gray haired ten-month old.

Nice hair, Lois.  What?  Did your mom put Vasoline in your hair or something?

I have to say thank you to Google and other nim-wit mothers for the precious information.  My child's hair is now back to normal thanks to your help.

The good news?  Lois' cradle cap is gone - so this catastrophe wasn't for nothing!

AND I now know what to use when my kids want to dress up for Halloween and want gray hair.

Until my next nim-wit moment...

Happy Easter...

& other stuff

Jason, Lois and I had a great Easter this year!  We went to church, came home and hung out together, enjoyed the beautiful weather and then went and enjoyed Easter dinner with Addie, Cameron and their family.  Addie cooked some delicious lamb and potatoes, and I brought the salad, bread and dessert.  We had a great time hanging out and talking and are so grateful for great friends here in Arizona.  

Also, this Easter season, we are grateful for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  What a great day to celebrate such a glorious event!  Jesus Christ LIVES!  

*Warning:  There's lots of pictures to follow.  I mean, I couldn't pick just one and because this is my blog, I'm going to post as many as I want!

My mom bought this beautiful little Easter dress for Lois and she looked a-mazingly adorable in it!  I just couldn't get enough of her.

Love that smile...

"Mom, why do you keep taking my picture?"

I don't think Lois is quite ready for a new little sister or brother yet (no announcement here...) She likes to throw her doll all around... 

And poke her eyes out.

Yeah.  I think we're going to wait a little while.

"These are my teeth and I'm NOT afraid to use them!"

My beautiful little family.

I love how this picture really shows the shape of her face - like a little heart!

Lois was in heaven during our Easter dinner playing with this toy kitchen.  I think this might have to be a future purchase.  Maybe her first birthday? We'll have to see.

Avery was diggin' Lois' binky.

Avery's little personality is as cute as can be!  She turned and smiled for the camera.  I love her little scrunched nose!  

Unfortunately, I didn't get any picture of the adults...

Kids are more fun to look at anyway.

Before we left for Utah, we had a little birthday party for Addie at our house.  Here's some pictures from the event.

I think Lois had a little too much chocolate cake!  

 She's playing here with her friend Jack.

Jared and Jason

I didn't know Callie had such an aversion to flashes.  She was totally freaking out, as displayed by this picture.  Sorry, Callie! On the other hand, the flash didn't even phase Shaylee!

Michael and Jack.  Notice the band-aids - love 'em buddy!  He thought they were pretty cool stickers.

Aeden was loving the chocolate cake!  Dee-licious!

Avery eating her strawberries.

I have some more pictures, but I fear I might be reprimanded by my friend Kat for posting pictures of her pregnant self!  :-)

Here's to great friends.  We love you guys!