Carter's had a 70% off sale on their baby clothes. I stood there, overwhelmed, staring at the giant wall of adorably soft and crazy cheap little newborn outfits and while Amy and my mom peppered me with questions about what clothes I need for the baby.
It hit me.
"Huh. I have absolutely no idea. I have done nothing to prepare for this baby yet, except throw up!"
I don't have a clue what I need. I just assumed I pretty much already have everything I need, since it's our fourth kid, and I had a boy most recently. Amy pointed out that the boys will be exact opposite in seasons for clothing, and that it was the heat of summer last time I had a newborn, while this time around it will be fall. This thought never occurred to me, because my girls were almost exactly 2 years apart, so everything fit Quincy the same way it had fit Reese.
Both my mom and Amy were in less of a freak out mode than I was, so they bought some long sleeved outfits, knowing there would be zero of those in my baby stash. I bought a pair of tiny jeans that were probably the only thing in the entire store that weren't on sale, but I don't care because they were super soft and had a soft stretchy waistband and I know I don't already have any. The prices for everything in the store were totally amazing and it killed me to not take advantage and pick up a few more things, but I really have no idea what's in storage from Corbin, so I passed. I need to get the boy 0-6 clothes bin from storage this week and sort through it.
Aaron and I left around 5pm and drove to Santa Cruz for the night.
We stayed at the Babbling Brook Inn...which is the same B&B where we honeymooned 11 years ago. It was fun to go back. We relaxed, slept like 16 hours, and left all the windows open so the freezing ocean breeze would balance out the fireplace that we let crackle all night. You'd never have known it was June. We stuffed our faces with fancy cheeses and breads and flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegar. Aaron's favorite was the blueberry vinegar, I couldn't get enough of the chipotle olive oil.
The gardens at the inn are charming and serene.
Breakfast at the Inn was huge and fabulous. They had an assortment of breads and croissants and jams and cheeses, yogurt, granola, fresh fruit, cereal, and delicious broccoli and mushroom quiches that I got the recipes for before I left :).
We had planned to go to the beach, but there was a safety advisory issued that there was some kind of bacteria in the water from San Francisco all the way down to Big Sur, so it wasn't safe to get in the water. We drove along the boardwalk, watched the surf for a bit, then walked around Pacific Ave and Ocean Drive for awhile, I'm pretty useless as far as walking goes, these days and get light headed easily so I have to sit down a lot or I feel like I'm about to pass out, so we didn't of places. Instead, we had lunch at Pizza My Heart and people watched. Man, Santa Cruz has a lot of ugly people. No one is allowed to judge Arkansas for homely looking people with missing teeth anymore. We saw more methmouth in 2 hours in downtown Santa Cruz than you see in a month in Arkansas.
It just isn't a trip to Santa Cruz without at least one hippie junk car sighting. The people watching was just classic that day and by the time lunch was over, we really missed our kids and just wanted to get home to them. We loved our little romantic escape for the night. Our room had a jetted tub and down mattresses that were just heaven for my always aching back and legs. We had great time just being alone together and reminisced of our honeymoon. It was the perfect little date. I bought a pair if Roxy shoes and Aaron got a t-shirt, another chinaman hat and a fat parking ticket at the O'neil shop.
My parents and Paul and HolleeAnn had taken the children to the kid's summer dollar movie at the theater in the morning, and we were home before Corbin was even up from his nap. The girls had gone back over to HolleeAnn's and were busy cooking us a fancy pretend dinner in the playroom.
"ANYthing??!"
They were on stimulation overload and we were there for like an hour while they made their selection.
Quincy picked out a set of two plastic mermaids within minutes and stuck with her decision. Corbin ran from toy to toy and just played like a happy little maniac until it came time to leave, we just bought him the most recent thing he had in his chubby little hands, a red hot wheels car. Reese was dissatisfied with everything because she knew that she couldn't possibly see everything in the entire store during her time allowance and the fear of missing out on something better caused her to resist making any decision at all.
At the last minute, when she was about to "just settle" on something, she saw a talking play iphone. "Mom, can I uh, have a phone?" I relied, "Sure, you know it's not a real phone, right?" (I didn't want her to be disapointed when she got in the car and couldn't call up her bestie.) She didn't care. She pulled a purple phone from the rack and ran to the counter, finally happy with her choice. Many of her cousins already have cell phones and she loved the idea of fitting in with the big kids. She was attached to it like a freaking teenager the rest of the trip, and I gasped when I heard the threat, "you will lose your phone priveliges..." come from my mouth. Ahh!
That fake phone entertained her the entire way home from Ca, has been a prop in all of the dramatic play between Reese and Quincy this week, and is now serving as the ideal behavior consequence/reward. $1 well spent. I'm so glad my kids have good imaginations and can still be satisfied with cheap thrills.
And Quincy's head actually blew off her neck with excitement.
