Moms Love Nap Time

A few weeks ago Louisa had a hard napping week. I'd put her down too early or she'd wake up too early (and too crabby). I decided later that the problem was two-fold. First, I was out of touch with her signs of sleepiness, and second, I wasn't doing a good job tiring her out in the mornings. So the past two weeks I've been making a concerted effort to get out and do something each morning. We always try to at least take Ries for a walk in the mornings, but that, I reminded myself, was not nearly as tiring for Louisa as it was for me and Ries. 

So here are a couple photos from this week. On Monday we went to the beach in Santa Cruz. Gorgeous. 70 degrees. Lou could dig sand and fill buckets for hours. 

On Friday morning we went to the library, exchanged the books from Tuesday, then walked to Starbucks. I remembered my cup, Lou's (a Hawaii themed tumbler from my mom), and a banana from home so I wouldn't have to spend $1.00 on one when Lou saw them next to the register. Our coffee date was delightful and I learned to share Nate's love for morning buns thanks to the barista's offer to warm mine up. Thankfully Louisa is still excited enough by her own cup that I can fill it with free water instead of buying her a sweet drink. She decided that she likes morning buns too. To make sure Lou was good and tired, we went to the zoo after our mid-morning snack.

M.B. Alicia = morning bun, warmed especially for Alicia :)

Notice she ditched the sweater. Her newest  thing is to say "HOT" and take off any clothing I'll allow 

And the last picture is from our outing today. Nate mentioned that he hasn't spent much time walking around downtown Palo Alto (25 minutes northwest) so we went to browse and eat lunch. We happened upon a PlanToys store holding a "warehouse sale," so Louisa got a new set for her play kitchen. PlanToys were probably in the original list "What White People Like" alongside all the other wannabe-hipster/eco-friendly things people of my race and generation are drawn to, but oh well. That's a silly reason not to like something, right? So Lou ate her breakfast set as an appetizer while we waited for our equally trendy sliders and fancy fries to arrive.

Mmmm....wood

One last thought before I leave you. Nate and I both got iPhones last summer/fall and despite my reluctance to transition to a smartphone, I'm happy with the change. BUT, one complaint I still have (and it's my own fault, absolutely) is that our "real" camera rarely leaves the house anymore...it's too easy to rely on the portable, decent quality camera on my phone. So I mention that because all four pictures above were taken on my phone. I guess the thing to remember is that you take different types of photos with a digital SLR than you do with a camera on your smartphone. Even if I had the SLR with me at Starbucks or the restaurant, I wouldn't have pulled it out to take pictures of Louisa across the table. Hmmm. That was helpful. I wasn't sure where I was going with this last thought, but now I feel better and have gained respect for my iPhone camera.

In summary, our outings are working! Lou had a two hour nap every day this week and today she stretched it out to nearly three hours. Woohoo! Moms like nap time. Moms need nap time.