Ahhh…one of the biggest blessings about going away for a few days is coming back home! No matter how great of a time you had, there’s nothing sweeter than sleeping in your own bed, and just being in your own home and back to your own routine. Makes me so thankful for all that I’ve been graciously given…
Our trip was really nice…we typically go down to L.A. late Friday night and come back up on Sunday mornings…so it makes for a hurried, chaotic time trying to fit in various sets of family homes and good luck making it to see dear friends. So, figuring that this was the only time I’ll ever be able to do this sort of thing without eating up precious vacation time, Henry and I made the trek to Hell-A (as Andy calls it) alone. (I think I’ll copy Brianna and post about the trip over the course of a few days or this will be the world’s longest blog post.)
First stop: Laguna Niguel to have a playdate with my best friend Liz and her cutie daughter Emily. We had a nice lunch (homemade Calzones!) and then wandered around a mall in Mission Viejo! What a treat! Can I just tell you that as much as I love living on the Central Coast, I sooo miss the shopping of Orange County!!! Potterybarn Kids, Baby Style, Janie and Jack, Gymboree, Children’s Place, Restoration Hardware…oh Heaven! I am such a shopper! Okay, really, I’m a window shopper…but I just love wandering through stores and I don’t even need to buy anything! I found Henry’s wedding outfit at Baby Gap. So cute! (Pics to come soon when I get to the wedding) AND, can I just tell you how much I appreciated the baby friendly mall?! It was stroller central…okay, so every stroller was Bug-a-Boo or Peg Perego with babies donning Juicy Couture and moms toting Coach diaper bags, but hey, whatever. Apparently, lots of stay at home moms who shop while hubbies are at work…so even though Henry is a pretty happy kid, it was nice to not get glares if he fussed in stores and not feel like my stroller was in the way all the time. The best part of all was the NURSING ROOM. Yes, a room with white leather couches and a plasma TV (playing Blues Clues) exclusively for nursing mommies! How nice to not have to nurse my son in a fitting room, out in the parking lot, or just plain having to leave early so that I can get home to feed him. I think I’ll post about the trials of a nursing mom and my frustrations later…hmmmm…
Emily holding Henry’s hand. So sweet.
Checking out the older woman.
New mommies.
And then there was the traffic. Took me TWO HOURS to get from Laguna Niguel to Norwalk (my gma’s house). Yahoo Maps tells me it’s 39.4 miles and should take approximately 38 minutes. Uh-huh. Oh, and let’s not forget that Henry decided he was starving and literally SCREAMED for an hour of my crawl through the OC. Poor kid was hoarse and choking on his own spit. Nothing I could do…couldn’t reach him, not that it would have helped. I actually started crying at one point. Felt so bad for my little famished bird, felt so helpless as a mommy, wanted to kill every other driver, and so exasperated that at one point it took me 20 minutes to go 2 miles. I could have walked faster. Reminded me, however, to be so thankful for Santa Maria. I always feel so bad complaining about living in SM…really, it’s pretty awesome. Sure there are icky parts, but there are icky parts of most cities. I really love our neighborhood, our house, the community has lots of fun events, and oh yea…no gridlock! :)
More to come!
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I can totally relate to you on the hatred of traffic – that’s the worst part of living down here. I’ve had quite a few of those stuck-in-traffic-with-starving-baby trips and they suck! I’ve cried, too! Hopefully the rest of your trip was better! Oh, and how awesome is the mall you went to – the closest thing that Brea Mall has to a nursing room is couches in the womens bathroom. I would have loved a nursing room!
welcome back! yes, i’m also so thankful for no traffic in our town!! i’m so not okay with it! (and it seems whenever i’m in traffic in a city, i always have to go to the bathroom. what’s up with that?)
so fun to get to see an old friend! ah yes, shopping…it’s seriously exhilirating to go to a “real” mall!
and i agree, you’ve got a great neighborhood. you’re right, every place has some less-than-ideal areas. santa maria is really NOT the hole everyone makes it out to be!
Your neighborhood is nice too, Brianna. The problem is everything in between us and you….Can anybody say Donovan and Railroad? Or how about little TJ at the west end of Main where the van with the full size cow mock up resides on top? Nice.
A nursing room! How nice. I used to day dream about opening up a nursing room in down town SLO. It could be run by volunteers, all the stuff inside could be donated. I think it could work. I always had to find somewhere random to nurse when I was downtown, never very comfortable or private. At least in SLO, I never got dirty looks (I can’t believe the people at the wedding!!)
yeah andy this is true…there are some pretty icky parts. as a town it’s a little depressing, just a lot of run-down stuff (and not in a charming sort of way!) i haven’t seen that cow, i gotta go check it out!!! (part of me wonders why so many of the middle-class haven’t left altogether, but then i remember why we’re here at all–affordability!!!!)