Catching Up - The Move and Settling In

It has been an absolutely crazy three weeks since we started our move. The house in in contract and we are scheduled to close escrow in two weeks. We are so thankful that this has been such a smooth process! We have a ton to do before we can shut that door for the very last time. I left my job {can I get a THANK YOU sweet baby Jesus!} and I have been able to devote most of my time to taking trips back and forth between Napa and San Ramon to pack and I've been playing a giant game of tetris with our two storage units. We have one last big weekend of packing and we will be done and out!

Grayson has settled in nicely to his new school. He had a little bit of a tough time at first and cried a lot for the first few weeks when I would drop him off. He's connected with his teachers and likes his new friends, and even has a sweet little girl crush. This morning when I was smothering him with a million kisses after I dressed him, he said "No Emma! No Emma, no kisses!" uhhh... insert wide eyed emoji here. Apparently Emma has been kissing him. Heaven help us.

This is Gray's new "smile" ha! 

He was also having a super tough time sleeping. Gray has always been such a strong sleeper and even as a newborn we never really had those new parent sleepless night stories to tell.. until now. He is very much a creature of habit and this move has thrown his routine into a tailspin and he is just having such a hard time adapting. We finally brought his crib from the old house and things are starting to get better. He absolutely refused to sleep in the Pack & Play that we originally had him set up in. He watched me put it together in his room and was jumping up and down to climb in. As soon as it was all set up he jumped in and lied down and pulled his covers up.  He kept saying "my night night!" Sweet baby.

We've been settling into our new hometown and are so in love with Napa. We had our first free weekend last weekend and were able to spend some good quality time together with no real obligations. We went to the farmers market Saturday morning and got all of the fixings for the most delicious freshest burgers. Sunday we woke up early and drove up to Yountville to go to the park and then stopped at the St. Helena Fire Department for their open house. Gray got to see the fire fighters and all of their trucks. While he napped we continued the drive up valley to Calistoga and stopped for lunch at a sweet little deli with a giant train table where G played. We don't do restaurants and this point and we were both so happy to have a meal out where we were actually able to sit and eat and talk.

Grayson loved playing with the chalk at the farmers market! 

We spent the rest of the weekend sitting and snacking on the deck, exploring the property and playing with the bunnies and chickens. 

We were originally hopeful that we would find a house before the holidays. We said for months prior to the move that if we were sleeping in an air mattress with boxes all around us and eating off of paper plates on Christmas that we would endlessly grateful. It is sinking in that it's just not going to happen for us and we are looking at waiting until January. There is just nothing on the market in our price range that we have been interested in.

We are so lucky to have a beautiful place to call home for the meantime. I've said it before but I'll say it again... Nick's parents are saints for letting us take over their weekend house and throw off their own routine and quite space with smudgy finger prints on the windows and toddler toys strewn everywhere. We've loved being able to spend weekends with them!

 This view out of the kitchen window isn't so bad either.

Happy Halloween! We are hoping that the rain stays away for the trick or treat tonight! 

Pumpkin Patching

One of my favorite things about this time of year is going to the pumpkin patch. I have such good memories as a kid of going every year and picking a pumpkin, playing in the hay maze, buying fresh apple cider, and of course taking pictures on the pumpkins. :) 

Grayson's grams has a little pumpkin patch in her garden and so he got to practice picking pumpkins last weekend. I picked up some fun Halloween books and we have been talking about pumpkins and kitties and bats for weeks. We told him we were going to go to the pumpkin patch on Sunday morning when he woke up and he was so excited! 

Our pumpkin patch has a fun little hay maze and Gray loved it and almost walked the whole thing by himself. When he gets tired he says "mama hug" "hug mama hug!" He is such a little stinker. How can you turn down such a sweet plea for a hug? Even if you know he just doesn't want to walk anymore... 

One of G's favorite things in the entire world right now are tractors. He is obsessed with any kind of construction equipment and we are always watching diggers and tractors and dump trucks on you tube and reading every book we can find about tractors. He was so excited to see all of the old tractors at the pumpkin patch.

When it was finally time to pick his pumpkin, Gray was kind of over the whole thing. It was starting to get hot and he just wanted to go down the slide some more and he kept saying "pukin no!" but we picked him one anyway.

On the way out we stopped by the baby animals and fed the goats some hay which G thought was hilarious and then decided that he didn't want to leave, parked himself right outside of the cage and watched for a while.

After the pumpkin patch we drove around for a couple hours while G napped to check out some neighborhoods and drive by some houses we might be interested in seeing. This whole house hunting thing is pretty fun, but we are so ready to find our new home. In the meantime, I can't think of a better place to get to drive around on a Sunday morning. Every minute that we are here I am thankful for this life and this new chapter we are starting!

First Weekend in Napa - Harvest

What better way to kick off our first weekend as official Napa residents than harvest? We lucked out with perfect cool, fall weather on Saturday. Usually harvest weekend is blazing hot and so uncomfortable, but not this year!

Grayson ate his body weight in Cab grapes. He loved that they are so sweet and so much smaller than regular table grapes. 

Before we picked, Gramps did the blessing of the grapes blew the conch shell to the North, South, East and West, a thank you for the blessing of a plentiful harvest. Ever seen Walk in the Clouds? 

We like to blast old school Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin from the Bose speaker while we work in the vineyard and destem the grapes. When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...... :) 

We picked and destemmed {by hand} over 300 pounds of grapes this year. A record harvest by almost 100 pounds! Gramps read off his list from years past, and we couldn't believe that our first harvest in 2010 only yielded 25 pounds of grapes.  This little vineyard has come a long way.

After dinner we soaked our feet in Vodka {to kill the germs, not soak up a buzz} and then started stomping. Grayson thought it was hilarious at first and then started yelling Aw Done! Aw Done!

The next morning we went back to the garden and picked pumpkins from Gram's pumpkin patch and played on the tire swing. After Grayson went down for his nap Nick and I went out to meet our Realtor and started our house hunt! We found a few pretty good ones. Hopefully we are not too far off from completing this crazy transition and will find the perfect new home soon. In the meantime we are counting our blessings that we have such a beautiful family home to live in, and are endlessly grateful to Nick's parents {Grams and Gramps} for sharing their space, their little piece of heaven with us until we find our new house.

Monday morning was Grayson's first day at his new school. We had a really tough time leaving his old school and cried many tears with his teachers the last few days that he was there. We miss all of the awesome staff and all of Gray's sweet little friends, but we know that he will make friends quickly here and eventually he will love them just as much. He cried at drop off the Monday morning and looked at me like I was crazy when I started to walk out the door. He was so happy and having fun when I picked him up and he told us that he had a good day. Until Tuesday... when I pulled in the parking lot and he realized where we were and started shouting NO! NO! NO! NO! before we could even get out of the car.

He's sleeping like complete crap... unless one of us sleeps in his room, which means that all of us are sleeping like complete crap and we're doing everything we can to keep him comfortable and on his regular routine. It's hard knowing that he is having a tough time with the transition and when he asks for his friends at his old school or asks for home it is enough to break my heart. Everyday will get a little bit better, and just as soon as he's used to living here, we will be moving into our new forever home and that is exciting to think about. Even if it means we start all of this over again.

Packing it Up - North to Napa

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This is no doubt the biggest leap of faith Nick and I will make in our lives. We've decided to sell our sweet little home in the Bay Area and move North to Napa! 

It's been a long year of late night conversations with many tears shed over shared bottles of wine, lots of prayers, weighing options, second guesses, and final plans. This all started out as a crazy day dream. Slowly we started to realize that we could make it a reality and suddenly things started to fall together and it just felt right. 

We're going to leave this place that we turned from a shell, an icky rental, into the cozy place that we love so much. The place were we celebrated each of our first milestones as a couple and the place where we became a family. We came home from our wedding and honeymoon to this house. We brought our first baby home to this house. He took his first steps in this house. And now it's time for someone else to love it just as much as we have.

Nick started his new job over a month ago and has been commuting everyday to Napa and he's exhausted. I'm picking up the slack and taking the morning and night shift most days. Nick is missing spending time with G and all of this has made us more anxious and ready to go. Gray starts his new school next week and the house goes on the market tomorrow. 

It's a little surreal to look around and think about someone else living in our house. We are so excited to start this new chapter in a new home town, a place that we love so much. 

So, with that, we're holding hands real tight.  Things are about to get crazy. Wish us luck! 

Labor Day - Lake Camping

It turns out I didn't manage to miss documenting every single of Grayson's firsts on this blog. We went on his first camping trip this weekend! 

We took Friday off and packed every single nook and cranny of the truck with all the camping things and took off to meet our favorite friends at Collins Lake. Gray napped most of the way and woke up just in time for lunch in the car before we rolled into the campground. We got there early enough escape the group of 70 or so that were camped a few feet away from our original site. Thank you little baby Jesus there were two extra sites and they were able to move us. 

We decided that Collins is not going to be our go-to camp for the annual M/H family trip. Too crowded and way too dirty. So. Much. Dirt. I prefer something with a little bit of ground cover. Grass... pine needles... leaves, you name it. Anything is better than all that dirt. Unless you ask Gray. He was a pretty big fan actually and was absolutely covered in dirt all weekend long. We went through two full packs of baby wipes in two days just trying to keep him sort of clean. 

We did not plan matching swim suits! We are just funny like that. Next summer we will have little baby Griffin with us. We can't wait for Gray's future bestie to join us! 

Gray loved playing with his Fishie! pole with Daddy. 

And he loved playing in the water and swimming. He was laughing so hard watching Ludo run and play on the beach with Uncle Darren.  

Grayson is basically a professional camper now. He's got the whole relaxed, dirty thing down pat. And excuse me ... but where did my baby go? He looks like such a big boy here. 

Two nights of camping was perfect for this first trip. We headed home Sunday morning and spend the rest of the day unpacking and getting clean. I let Gray soak in a big bubble bath to get all the dirt out from underneath his fingernails and we ordered sushi takeout and went to be at 8:30. 

We are so thankful for good friends, and an awesome four day weekend and we're already looking forward to continuing our new tradition with Darren and Jeanette and soon to be baby Griffin!

Maui Vacation

We survived our first real family vacation with a toddler! We have done lots of little trips since Grayson was born, and I've even flown solo with him, but we haven't done a big vacation yet, until now. It took me approximately two weeks and three pages lists to get all of our stuff packed and ready.

We caught a super early flight out Wednesday morning which meant leaving the house before five am and having all bags packed and loaded in the car the night before. The flight was relatively painless. I was actually the most nervous about this part of the trip, to the point of actually dreading the trip all together. I'm a major worry wart. I can't help it. Anyway, Grayson kept pretty calm and after playing and then fussing a little bit at the beginning of the flight, he eventually went to sleep for almost three hours.

The first few days we fell into a perfect little routine... breakfast, beach walk and playtime around the resort grounds, nap, and then Grayson's favorite.. pool time!  He did such a good job swimming like a little fishy every day. We couldn't believe how well he was doing in the water by the time we left.

He's now jumping off the side of the pool into the water non stop. We're trying to teach him to say One.. Two... Three!! Before he jumps so we at least have a little warning. He mostly just shouts TREE!! and flings him self in wherever he feels like it, no matter if there's someone there to catch him or not. The kid has no fear... so this mama has lots of fear.

This trip was very different than our Maui vacations pre-baby. We used to go out to nice dinners every night and shop around downtown Lahina or hit up happy hour and order one of every appetizer on the menu. These days restaurants are hard because G refuses to sit still for even two minutes and pretty much hates most food unless he's allowed to throw it everywhere, which, is generally unacceptable. We were able to get out a few times which was nice even if it meant trading off chasing G through the restaurant out to the beach.

We mostly just picked up take out or grilled at the condo. Most nights we would feed G dinner and let him run off the last of his energy. He went down around 7 every night and then we would grill dinner and sit out on the patio for dinner.

We did get to get away for a dinner date and adventure in the mini van. Dinner was amazing and so nice to get away for some alone time. Nick told the restaurant that it was our anniversary to make sure they gave us a good table but we realized at dinner that the next day was actually our five year engagement anniversary. Ha!

We  went to breakfast down the beach from our condo on the morning of the 4th and spent the rest of the day at the beach. It was a really mellow day considering how we usually spend the 4th, but it was nice for a change. That night we lit sparklers on the sea wall and Gray shouted Birdday! Birdday! Birdday! all night long.

Grayson did so good at the beach this day. He collected little shells and carried a cup around and smashed every sand castle we tried to build. Otherwise, every other day he wasn't a huge fan of the beach. For now, he prefers the pool which was just fine with me. Sandy babies are not my jam.

Most nights looked pretty much like this. Comfy clothes, and no make up. Perfection. I only actually did my hair once the entire trip which was useless anyway thanks to the humidity and non-stop misty rain we had all week. It was so nice to have such a long break from having to get ready all the time.

Our best times were spent wandering around the resort looking at all the things. Gray loved watching the feeshies! in the ponds and poking sticks into the water for the crabs to pinch.

One day I dressed him in this adorable Hawaiian outfit and let him wander around and ham it up for the old ladies on the putting green. He's just too much!

The last day we went down to Lahina to see the boats in the harbor and to see the Banyan tree which Grayson more or less ignored completely.

We spent the last night out on the lawn watching the sunset with the family and Grayson ran around like a wild man.

I know G is too little to remember this trip but it was such a special one for our little family. It was the longest consecutive days we've ever spent all together, and the longest I've spent with Gray since I went back to work after maternity leave.

The trip home was easy, except for a rather smelly barf episode in the mini van on the way to the airport. Nothing like a good pukey car ride to bring you right back down to earth. We need to talk to Grayson a little bit about not doing things that will completely freak his Auntie Caitlin out about having kids. We would like so have some cousins on this side too, one day.

We made it back Friday night, picked up the pups and grabbed In-N-Out {complete with two puppy patties!} for dinner on the way home. Gray was ready for bed after a long flight and we took advantage by heading to bed early too. As much as we love vacation, it feels so good to be home.