The L.A. Dime

Brad and I love having family and friends come to visit. It’s so wonderful to catch up in person, have the house full of voices and it seems that those are the times we tend to take full advantage of what wonderful sights and experiences LA has to offer. With Mom-Mom and Pops spending the last 10 days here, we had a beach day (Clays’ first and he really loved the ocean sounds and fresh air), a Sunday brunch at the “Inn of the Seventh Ray” to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary, a really fun dinner at Bubba Gump and a whole lot of hanging out at home and the pool just chatting or being silly with the kiddos. Thanks for the visit you two!!

….include food and anything that goes fast – swings, her tricycle & carnival rides. Below are a few pics from our recent adventures with our little toddler….and a visit from Opa & Nana. Hover over the pic to read a brief description

Yes, we’re still here. Life has thrown us a couple of curve balls lately so we’ve just hunkered down and slowly worked out way through them – the “to do” list is still fairly long but some of the most time sensitive issues have been taken care of.

Please note that the list below is not in any particular order – mainly just my thoughts of why we haven’t been as active on the blog or maybe even been bad family members or friends.

Here’s a recap of what’s kept us hopping these past few weeks:
- Brad got slammed with a ton of school work, plus is on assignment for a re-write (a good thing, but also meant lots of nights with only 4-5 hours of sleep and very little quality family time)
- Our triple-osmosis water filtration system, the faucet that dispenses that purified water and our regular sink faucet all went bad in the same week….Brad, never really having claimed the title of fix-it-man, took on all three projects himself and did a fabulous job!! Thank you also to cousin Ines who helped crawl under the sink when my 7-month belly couldn’t even allow me to bend down and take a look
- Our master bathroom shower has had a leak for a while and after a video-recording (brilliant idea Brad!!), we finally learned exactly where it was. The contractor who initially put it in was called, showed up and fixed it — it’s been drying all weekend but tomorrow morning’s showers will be the real test
- We’ve been spending a lot of time talking and researching various refinance options as our 5-year fixed loan is due in July and we want to be informed about our options beyond that
- Trying to keep some kind of composure and find a way to de-stress through all the above mentioned madness, Brad’s been going to yoga three times a week and is running is much as he can
- My workload has been absolutely insane and while I am blessed to have a job and do enjoy it, I am even more tired by the time I get home tonight which makes spending quality time with Sophie a bit more challenging
- The good news is that Sophie continues to be our little “active, happy and always surprising us with new vocabulary or questions” sanity check – she gets us to laugh when we feel like the house is falling apart, have had yet another “i got glutened experience” or we are absolutely exhausted by 6pm

Overall though, we are healthy, have a roof over our heads and seem to somehow manage keeping income flowing into the household (even as the film industry is completely changing and corporate trainers aren’t exactly the type of positions companies are typically keeping around). We’ve also had 3 wonderful house guests over the past few weeks who reminded us of the importance of family and friends that you can spend an evening chatting with and connecting on that “ah, I feel refreshed again” sort of way.

I also want to take this (rambling) opportunity to Thank all of you for checking in on us and me regarding the pregnancy. We are into our 7th month and baby (and I) are doing well. Lots of movement from the little one and my waist line is growing daily. We decided not to find out the sex so are also working on finding 2 names that we both agree on – see previous post on name options we’re considering. While physically speaking things are going great, my emotional state is a bit all over the place. Obviously I am thrilled to be having another baby and really do enjoy being pregnant, I am constantly struggling with feelings of guilt about how my relationship with Sophie is going to change. I hear over and over again that the love you feel for your first and second child doesn’t have to be split, it simply grows – I understand that intellectually, but my heart is always worried about what I can do (now and later) to never make her feel second or not as important. While I am sure we will somehow find our way through the transition, neglecting her in some way or not being able to do it all, is a constant concern in my mind.

Well, geez….if you are still reading this…thanks for listening. While the above list really is just “material” matters and in the grand scheme of things don’t matter, it does explain why we’ve been so crazy busy and probably not as social as we usually are.

Hope you all are well and feel free to drop us a comment below to catch us up on your lives:)

Not wanting us to have to spend Easter without any family, Mom-Mom came to visit us for 10 days around the Easter holiday. She brought with her lots of Easter activities for Sophie – including coloring eggs, making an Easter bunny bag and learning Easter songs.
Easter Sunday began with Sophie hunting for her baskets – she seemed very pleased with her new book, underwear and candy but doesn’t want to take off her new Elmo pajamas. We then hosted a small brunch for the Dempseys & Perdue/Okanos and finished off the day with a trip to the park where Sophie kicked the soccer ball and we all walked off a bit of the Easter candies we’d consumed throughout the weekend.

Thank you Mom-Mom for visiting and making these memories with us.

Spending a week in Venice, FL to visit Nana & Opa was quite a treat. We were able to enjoy lots of time chatting (Sophie had a full emersion in the German language), take walks on the beach, visit the Sarasota Animal Park (and hold an aligator) and Myaka State Park.
One tradition that I think every Grandmother enjoys teaching her Granddaughter is baking a cake. And cake baking Nana & Sophie did!! It was so fun for me to sit back and just watch them interact and share this special time together.
A final treat of the trip was getting to see my Aunt Moni and Uncle Peter who had come to town for a visit of their own but changed their plans so they could enjoy one dinner with us before we left to come back to LA.
Thank you Nana & Opa for your time, your treats and most of all – the wonderful memories for Sophie and us!!

One of Sophie’s favorite past-times is dancing, especially with her Dada. I love watching the two of them sing and dance — Brad shows her new moves, she happily follows his lead and it always ends up with her laying on his shoulder as he sways her back and forth.

Another favorite playtime activity of hers is making us oatmeal, milk and hamburgers in her kitchen. She likes to line us and her bears or dolls up in a row, give us each a bowl & spoon and then fill the bowls up with “home-cooked goodness”. Aunt Mandee added a lovely apron and chef’s hat to the kitchen accessories this past Christmas.

Trying to continuously make progress in preparing Sophie for the transition of becoming a big sister as well as trying to get our house ready for Baby Riddell, we spent this past weekend switching the office/guest room and Sophie’s room. The “new kids room” now holds all of Sophie’s toys, the crib (waiting for the new arrival in July) and Sophie’s new bed. She seemed very excited about her “pink, big girl bed” in the store but we weren’t sure if she’d like sleeping (and staying) in it once we got it home. It’s been about 4 days now and even though she’s gotten up a few times to check on us and in the mornings we tend to find an extra bear or doll in bed with her, she seems to be adjusting ok.

When Brad and I started talking about having kids, we decided it would be wise to pick a name first. We figured that if we could get through the incredibly difficult decision of finding a name that we both liked, couldn’t be turned into some bad joke and would be easy to pronounce in both English and German, we figured having the actual kid to go with the name would be a breeze. Once we settled on a boy and girl name we both liked, we got pregnant.

2.5 years later we are now faced with the same decision, except that we’re already 5.5 months pregnant. We’ve gone through a couple of names that we both thought we were very happy with, only to find a few weeks later to not like them anymore. We’ve searched the baby names websites and are constantly asking each other: “Do you like ____” or “What do you think of _____”.

Well beloved blog-readers, we need your help? What should we name this next Baby Riddell? We didn’t (and aren’t planning to ) find out the sex so suggestions for either would be great!!

I hit my 20th week of pregnancy yesterday and am feeling pretty good. The nausea is gone and although I get tired pretty easily, I am now able to really enjoy this pregnancy. Our little person is quite active, especially at night. It’s not yet hard enough for Brad to feel the kicks or movements on the outside but he does talk to the belly often. Even though we’d decided on some names, we now seem to be back to square one on that but luckily there are still a few months left. If you have any suggestions, feel free to pass them along! We (well, really it was me and Brad seems to have given in) decided to not find out the sex of the baby. We originally wanted to do that with Sophie as well but due to some unforeseen circumstances, we did find out and Brad really enjoyed knowing that this little person I was carrying, was now someone he could start to call by name and form an even closer bond with, even outside of the womb. This time though, we are going to wait to hear our dear friend and wonderful doc Karyn call out: “It’s a _____” sometime in the middle of July. I feel like it’ll be a really nice surprise after the work of bringing her or him into the world.

This weekend we are planning to make a big push on starting the room switch/transition. Brad is going to move into what is currently Sophie’s room and we are going to turn the current office/guest room into the kids room. Our plan is to have Sophie get used to her new room (and new twin bed which we picked up this past weekend but have yet to put together) for the next few months before the baby arrives. We are doing all we can to not make her feel like the baby is going to take over all of her things and she’s being pushed to the side (one of my biggest fears but more on that later). Our pediatrician even recommended covering up the crib so when the baby starts to sleep in it, it’ll seem like it’s brand-new and not Sophie’s old bed. We’re not going to go that far but are planning on having the baby either sleep in the crib in the office (at least at night when Brad’s not working) or in a basinet in our room until it sleeps through the night, and doesn’t disturb Sophie. At some point though, hopefully sooner rather than later, they will share a room.

Lots of you have asked us what Sophie thinks about getting a baby sister or brother but we are not sure yet she fully grasps what’s going to happen. She seems to know that I have a baby in my belly and “it’s not time yet” for it to come out and meet us. She goes back and forth on wanting a brother or sister but does seem to get excited when I tell her that she’ll be able to help me take care of the baby and that the baby is going to stay with us. She is a very caring and loving little girl – just tonight she was feeding her bears a home-cooked meal from her kitchen, changed them, let them watch a little tv and then put them down for naps – so we hope that she’ll share that love and attention with her little sibling once he or she joins us sometime in July.

Below are some belly shots for those of you wanting to take a peek at my ever-expanding waist line:)

…to a hotel for the weekend a finish his script. He wrote 40 pages in 2 days and while it’s not quite ready to be sent out for feedback, it’s very close. Getting paid assignments now-a-days is becoming less and less so I thought it was important to give Brad some uninterrupted time to focus, get in his writing zone and finish off this creative endeavor of his.

We didn’t want to spend too much money on the hotel room but also needed him to be comfortable so a friend suggested we use Priceline.com. It was a bit nerve-racking since you just put in the dollar amount you are willing to pay and the level of stars (quality of hotel) you expect, and they then tell you if your offer was accepted in the area you requested. After having to scale back our expectations a little on the location of the hotel, Brad ended up in a nice Marriott in Camarillo. He’d asked for a quiet room and got the handicapped suite which had an extra large bathroom and a funny shower – but all in all, he said it all worked out and getting that much writing done certainly is proof positive!

We’re now thinking of using Priceline to find a place for a weekend “babymoon” but don’t know where to go. It’d have to be in driving distance…..any suggestions? Oh yeah, and if you’re willing to babysit Sophie, let us know that too:)

That’s the statement made by Chad after his lovely wife Mandee made him a loaf of homemade bread a few weeks back. Thanks to Marion & Manfred who gave Brad a breadmaker for Christmas, Brad now too can enjoy a whole new bread experience. Below are some pics of last night’s efforts….it was fun to watch the ingredients that we just poured in, become kneaded, then expand and turn into a beautiful light brown loaf of bread. Brad enjoyed his first slice as soon as the bread cooled down and the whole family had some “Egg & Bacon Breakfast Sandwiches” this morning!