15 Dolla

Me and Jen took a field trip to Little Saigon to investigate the rumors we've heard of hour massages for $15. The rumors turned out to be...TRUE!!! Unbelievable. Full body massage from a little Vietnamese man with super-strong hands smelling mildly of cigarettes. Hands so strong that I worried for my safety a couple of times - he almost broke my neck and then later I honestly thought my arm was going to be ripped out of its socket. Definitely worth it.

Pumpkin Patch

Our second annual visit to Pa's.
I put Gweener on this car ride - but since it was pretty deserted the night we went I hadn't seen it actually moving. I saw other kids who looked like they were just a little bit older than her and the ride guy didn't blink when I went to put her in, so I thought it would be fine. Theeeen...when it started up it kept going faster and faster, and every revolution I could see Gwen's face changing from kinda bored to terrified. She started crying and they stopped the ride so I could take her off. I felt like an awesome mom, haha.

She liked some of animals at the petting zoo, like the chicks and bunnies, pretty much anything tiny and in a cage.
She was pretty nervous around the sheep and goats that were roaming around, I had to do some heavy convincing to get her to pet anything.

Feeding the Birds

Anyone can watch these, but they may be kinda boring. I figured they were something more for the grandparents who think everything Gwen does is cute and interesting ;) And maybe keep the sound down/off because I HATE my voice on tape, haha.

Guess Who's a Broker

(Here's a hint, it's one of the people in this photo.)
If anyone's planning on buying a house in Cali, call this guy - he'd looooove to help.

La Semana de los Dos Madres

This week we had visits from both me and Ryan's moms - my mom was here Sunday and left Tuesday; and Ryan's mom (and her mom) got in on Wednesday and left Friday.
Above is a pic of Gwen racing my mom to the park (funny that on Monday it was FREEZING and we all dressed in sweaters, and today, Friday, is like 90 degrees).
Thursday was Jill's birthday so we went out for a fancy dinner (so fancy that we got appetizers AND desserts) at a place called Parker's Lighthouse. It was recommended to me by a friend and was sooooo good and right on the water in beautiful Long Beach.

Potty

Gwen used her potty for the FIRST time!!! I'd been putting the little seat on our toilet (someone had told me that it's better that way for some reason, can't remember what it was) and she would never go, but I moved it to the little potty and put her on right before her bath and, miracle, she went. I'm so excited that I had to blog about it right away - this just happened like an hour ago. I don't think she's on her way to being potty trained, she still thinks it's hilarious to pee on me and the floor after her bath, but I'm just glad she's figuring out what to do with the thing.

I'm feeling Bjorn Again

Ryan's firm gave him some tickets to see this ABBA tribute band on Saturday night. He figured it might be more of a girl thing so he gave them up for me and my friends. We were happily surprised that our seats were in the very center of the front row. We were so close that the keyboard player "Benny" gave Alex a high-five and the guitar player "Bjorn" announced that he was enjoying her kicks (she was by far the most excited person in the audience).
(Alex, Sally, me and Jen)

Shark Friday Night

The aquarium has free shark nights on Fridays, when they open up the shark lagoon area and petting zoo (which consists of a variety of little sharks and stingrays), and have live music. Gwen was appropriately frightened of the animals and was mostly interested in the band and little play area.
A family photo (just imagine my face on Jen's body).