Christmas in Cali

Beau and I got to spend two weeks in California and it sure was nice! I was very nervous about flying solo with Beau, but everything went smoothly. Would I do it again? I doubt it. My biggest mistake was packing a carry-on that was way too heavy and walking throughout the airport was such a pain.

We were very busy helping my parents with their kitchen remodel and spending time with family.

Beau adjusted to west coast time seamlessly and did great with naps and bedtime. I, on the other hand, had a harder time. There were roosters right outside my window that seemed to be on east coast time and would sound their alarm between 3 and 4 am. The wind machines for the orange orchards were also on and seemed right outside my window and sounded like a helicopter throughout the night. Once we finally caught the roosters in a big cage on the other side of the house, my sleeping greatly improved!

My mom found my brother's old box of trains. Beau was in heaven. The box was too heavy for him to carry it so he would get down on his hands and knees and push it along the floor wherever he went.

One of the first nights we were there, my Dad was making dinner and Beau dragged their play mat into the middle of the kitchen because he wanted to be where everyone was hanging out.

Dad even got down and played trains with him in the middle of the kitchen! That's an easy way into Beau's heart which made Papa a favorite playmate.

 We also spent many mornings at a huge, new playground that is close to our house. This was the first time Beau bolted from my side and climbed all over the playground.

Somehow Beau went head first down the slide and he was face first in all the mulch. He still had his legs up on the slide so he couldn't get up by himself. When I helped him up his face was COVERED in mulch. I tried to snap a picture but he turned around to go right back down the slide. I finally got a picture, but there was only a little mulch left.

Christmas morning did not disappoint! Beau wanted to help hand out the presents, and he did ok for awhile, but then he got lazy and decided to just try opening them himself. 

 I got my wireless remote! I'm so excited to use it on a family picture.

Before we left for California, Beau had become deathly afraid of bath time. And the first two days we were there, he screamed bloody murder until we took him out. So I made it my parents mission to get him back to loving his bath. And it worked! He loves it now and he has acquired quite a few bath toys to help that happen.

 We also celebrated Beau's birthday while we were there. We were so glad that we could celebrate with our west coast family this year!

 He loves being outside at our house. 

He thought it was funny to kick the ball under the cars. He didn't always get it all the way clear and Travis had to fetch it.

He also loved giving the dogs (puppys) a treat. We had to hold him back to twice a day or he would have given them a 100 treats a day.