Still catching up and CA trip

Does anyone else feel like they are still catching up from the holidays?? Thankfully my decorations are put away, but I can't seem to get my house back in order! Our friends and family were very generous with Tommy's gifts so now I need to find a place to store all of his new toys. Ideally I would like everything to have a permanent place in my home, otherwise stuff gets left laying around everywhere. But instead of putting things away, I decided to blog. ;)

Part of the reason I'm still catching up is that Tommy and I took a quick, winter getaway to California. It was wonderful to spend a few days with my family, especially since we weren't with them at Christmas. My poor hubby was left home alone. We sure missed him and I know it was hard for him to be apart from Tommy.

I was a little nervous about traveling by myself. It was Tommy's third time flying and he continues to be a great traveler. The flight was 5 1/2 hours going west and only 4 hours coming back east. Crazy how that works, isn't it? I was soooo lucky that the seat next to me was empty both flights. Thank you Lord for looking out for me! That seriously made a world of difference because when he wasn't sleeping, Tommy could sit in the seat and play by himself. I was also blessed to have friendly people sitting around me.

On our return flight I started chatting with a woman who had a baby around Tommy's age. It's such a small world because it turns out that we have a lot in common. First of all, her 7-month old son's name is TOMMY! Can you believe it? She is from Southern California, her husband is from the Midwest, they live a couple of miles away from us and she's also a stay-at-home mom. Her husband is a professor at Gallaudet (it's a deaf university here in DC - her husband is deaf.) Since they have only lived in this area for about a year, it sounds like they haven't made many friends yet. We exchanged emails and we're going to plan a play date soon!

Here are a few pics from our time in CA. We didn't leave the house much and it was wonderful to rest, relax and spend time with family.

Checking out Grandma's orange tree

Fun times on the swing!


Maybe next summer Tommy can play in the pool


Getting love from Uncle S and Aunt N (his Godmother)

Playing on the floor with Grandpa


By the way, Tommy is 8 months old today! It's hard to believe how quickly the time is flying by. Here is a picture of him from this morning, checking out last night's snow.