Happy Hour, Happy Baby

Blake apparently takes after his parents in more ways than one. He loves happy hour, and this makes his mom especially happy! Last night, we enjoyed good friends, good food and good wine at Biba. For the most part, Blake enjoyed good sleep. Now that's what I call the good life.



By the way, the running joke is that while the ladies all enjoyed the house red, Blake enjoyed the house white. Yummy!

While we are on the topic of good wine, check out these pics. Recognize the baby on the label? Yes, that's Blake! And if you take a close look, it reads "Nap Time Z Z Z Zinfandel for Blake's Mom & Dad." Awesome. Can't wait for those ZZZZs.





Thanks to Ryan's boss at the Bee for a terrific welcome back gift. (More on Dad going back to work in another blog.) By the way, the wine is from Revolution Wines, a fantastic little urban winery in midtown. Check them out at: http://www.revolution-wines.com. Now why is the glass in the above picture empty? Cheers!

Say It Isn't Snow!

As Blake and I listen to weather reports and see all the video from the latest Spring storm in the Sierra, it occurs to me I never blogged about our ski trip. Ryan and I took Blake to Sierra-at-Tahoe for a day of skiing and snowboarding a few weeks ago.



As tempting as it was to walk into the rental shop with the baby and ask about newborn sizes (this was Ryan's idea btw), we left him in the lodge with Grandma instead. Thanks to my Mom for babysitting! She was actually able to get some work done while Blake took a nap.



Grandma says Blake actually slept most of the morning while Ryan and I and my sister and my dad hit the slopes. As you can probably tell from our parking lot pic, the sun was out, and it was a beautiful day. It'll probably be another two seasons before Blake can join us. Ryan says he'll teach him how to snowboard; I say he'll be a skier. Guess we'd better work on teaching him to walk first.

Road Trip

Ryan and I decided we would try to SLO down last week, and take Blake to the town where we met. After all, Blake should be happy that we did.

We ventured down I-5 and over to San Luis Obispo for a few nights. And although the trip was great, I think Ryan put it best when we got home: "Trips like that aren't as relaxing as they used to be." Enter a new baby and his first stay in a hotel. Blake's first night anywhere is always a little rougher than most. He was really fussy his first night in the world. He didn't sleep well our first night home from the hospital. And true to form, he kept us up most of the first night at the Quality Suites.

Needless to say, we got an early start to our first day wandering around our old town. But it was fun. We explored old haunts and new shops in the downtown area of San Luis. We were staying close to town, so it was perfect walking distance. And since Blake hadn't slept much, he was content to nap all morning in his stroller, making both of his parents very jealous.

After Blake's second lunch (or was it his third?), we took him to the beach! Here we are on the Pismo pier. Much to my disappointment, he slept through his first visit to the coast. Oh well. As you can see, it was too cold to dip our toes in the water anyway. We'll just have to go back.



Later that night, we took him to the famous San Luis Obispo Farmers' Market. The town shuts down the main drag every Thursday night, and people of all ages come out for a stroll. It's awesome. I think Blake slept through most of that as well, but we managed to get one snapshot with his eyes wide open.



Even though he slept a lot during the day and evening, he also slept much better that second night in the hotel. Thank goodness.

After two nights, we headed home. We decided to take the scenic route. And although I'm sure everyone would agree the views are amazing (see the family pics below!), we wound up with a near-10 hour drive on our hands. We hit a lot of construction on Highway 1, and some commuter traffic in Hollister of all places. Not to mention, Blake had to have his 3 lunches, which required several stops along the way (I'm pretty sure it's illegal to breastfeed a baby while in motion). Oh well, at least we had a damn nice view while he ate.




Despite the drive, Blake did very well. He didn't get super fussy until we hit Stockton. I'm not sure what he has against Stockton, but if it's any consolation, Ryan was fussy too. We were all kind of over being in the car at that point. Lesson learned about taking the long way. Turns out, the drive home was the SLOest part of all.

Counting Counties

Maybe it's because Ryan and I love to travel, or maybe it's because we took Blake to Tahoe when he was just two and a half weeks old, but for whatever reason -- we love to make a verbal note of it when Blake enters a new county.
He was born in Placer county, and a few days later, he made his debut in his home county of Sacramento. Both sets of Blake's grandparents live in different counties, so we quickly added San Joaquin and El Dorado to the list. During the aforementioned trip to Tahoe, we passed through Nevada county. Strange that he hasn't made it to Yolo or Solano counties yet, which are both pretty close to home. Should I take him across the Tower Bridge just to cross another one off the list?

Later this week, he'll likely add Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno, Kings and San Luis Obispo counties. The Becker family is headed to San Luis Obispo for a few days to test out our travel abilities as a clan of 3.
If we take the scenic drive back - and we might do so just to add more counties - Blake will also experience the beauty of Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, along with some others depending on which direction we take.

So maybe a dozen counties by the end of the week? Shall we shoot for a dozen countries by the end of next week? Happy travels, baby Blake.

The Baby Blog: The First of Many Firsts

I've done it, and apparently it only takes about 10 minutes to start a baby blog (or any blog, for that matter). I think I can spare bout 10 minutes each day or so to carry out the blog's mission. You should know that the minutes I spend blogging are minutes I don't spent sleeping. Please appreciate that as you read this.

Okay, back to the blog's mission: track beautiful baby Blake as he grows up and gets bigger. I'm already about 5 and a half weeks behind, and you'd be amazed how much he's already grown! Seriously. (This is the part when people who are already parents tell me I'll be saying that for the next 18 years.)

I thought up the idea of this blog in the middle of the night. As I feed Blake -- usually about 2 or 3am -- you'd be amazed at some of the things I think about: my calendar, my to-do list, good blogging subjects. So with that said, I have some ideas for future subjects... as if Blake didn't already provide me with enough writing fodder. For those who are interested in catching up on all the breaking Blake news, check the Blake Blog out every now and then. I can hear him now: "Oh Mom, how embarassing!" Stay tuned.

Day One (Above) / Month One (Below)