A Look Back - October 2024
This is going to be a long recap. We’ve had an incredibly busy October. As I’m writing this on November 3rd, we are only a few days away from the election, and we just arrived back from California seven hours ago. The clock has fallen back, and Jenn and I are celebrating 21 years together. But that will be for next month’s post. Let's start with four weeks ago.
We started the month with Jenn not feeling well again. Her stomach was bothering her like it was in for the first few recurrences of c-diff. Fortunately, she tested negative for it this time, but she tested positive for Norovirus because her immune system is still recovering. It took her almost 3-weeks to get back to normal, and she was on a strict diet (a lot of fish, rice, and carrots). I can’t say any of this has been easy on her, but she’s handled it all with grace and strength while taking the best care of Elle and not being anywhere near 100%. Even amid it all, we took Elle to the Central Park Zoo on Sunday, October 6. We walked from our apartment to the zoo on a beautiful fall afternoon. Elle fell asleep in her stroller right when we arrived, but she was awake and in awe when we made our way to the penguins. I’ve heard it said many times that living through your child’s eyes is one of the joys of parenting, and that has never been more true for me yet than watching her get so excited with the penguins. We only spent 2 hours at the Zoo, which is much smaller than we realized, but we enjoyed the afternoon. We still don’t love zoos, but it was great to see Elle light up.
The following Saturday, we drove Elle and Frasier upstate to Outhouse Orchards (first visited in 2021) for apple picking. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect fall day to do this. The drive took over an hour, and Elle slept most of the way there. When we got there, we put Elle in the baby carrier (rather than dragging the stroller through the dirt), and we were off. Jenn had been dreaming of an apple cider donut, so we got a 6-pack, and unfortunately, although good, it was a bit underwhelming. From there, we walked with our bag and picked apples throughout the farm. It wasn’t as picked through as last year's outing, and we got a great mix of red and green apples. Elle and Frasier were both enraptured with every aspect of the day. It was much more work than it used to be, but it was worth it. We quickly stopped at McDonald’s on the way home while Elle and Frasier slept.
We picked up Elle's high chair when we got home from apple picking. This is a big milestone for Elle, and she did pretty well in her first time sitting in it. The dynamic of her sitting with us during meals feels surreal. Family dinners will be different going forward, and we are all for it. With Elle sitting next to us, we voted by mail. We’re proud to have voted for Kamala Harris for President and have our daughter be there with us while we did it.
The following weekend, we went to Central Park and met up with the same photographer we used last year to take family photos for our holiday card. We arrived at 8 AM (which wasn’t easy) and spent over an hour (we used to do 30 minutes) taking photos throughout some of our favorite spots in Central Park. Elle didn’t give us many smiles, but she and Frasier were angels. They were patient and understanding, making what we thought would be a stressful experience relatively easy. When we took our last photo, Elle was asleep in her stroller, and Frasier was throwing sticks in the air. They had enough.
We didn’t have much time to rest because, on Friday, October 25th, a black SUV picked us up and took us to JFK to take Elle’s first flight to California. We spent a lot of time researching the best time to fly with a baby, and during their evening sleep seemed to be the consensus. The drive to JFK was the most challenging part of the evening. It took us almost 2-hours to get there, and Elle was not having it. Even the luxury of an Escalade and two parents trying to entertain her didn’t quell her anger at New York traffic. When we finally arrived at JFK, we went through the new Delta One entrance, which made security with Elle a breeze. We had dinner at the Delta One lounge restaurant, a delicious 3-course meal. That allowed us to board the plane and focus on feeding Elle and getting her to sleep. When the plane took off, Jenn immediately gave her a bottle and helped rock her to sleep. The worst part was putting on the baby headphones for her ears, which she hated. Jenn and I stayed awake the entire flight (even if I dozed off a few times) and were exhausted when we arrived at LAX. After disembarking the plane and waiting for our stroller, we grabbed our bags and took the bus to the Hyatt Regency across the street. We arrived at the hotel at 1 AM. We weren’t sure how Elle would fall back asleep in a new place, but she did great and allowed her parents a few hours of sleep.
The following day, I left the hotel early to pick up our rental car at Hertz. After a quick panic that they might not have our car seat, I sorted that and drove over our small Cadillac back to the Hyatt to pick up Jenn and Elle. It took us almost 20 minutes to install the car seat and maneuver the luggage. From there, we drove nearly two hours to Riverside, making only one stop for Taco Bell breakfast. When we arrived, Elle met her cousins, Aunt Amy and Uncle Ryan, for the first time. We also met our handsome nephew Weston, born a few months after Elle. It was so good to be back home among family on a beautiful fall day. Elle took immediately to her cousins and was mesmerized by all their ceiling fans.
We only stayed for a few hours before driving to Newport Beach to The Pendry, where we booked a week's stay. We dropped off the car at the valet and were immediately greeted by the team there with a choice of stuffed animals for Elle. She gravitated towards the teddy bear, and we were off to our ocean-view room near the top floor. They treated us so well throughout the entire stay. One of the best parts was the diaper genie they brought up, which made disposing of Elle’s diapers much better than an open trash can. After settling into the room, we returned and walked Fashion Island with Elle for the first time. I remember walking Frasier there for the first time in 2020, and now, walking Elle here feels like coming home. We met Jake for dinner at Cucina Enoteca and got a seat on the patio. We split some bread and meatballs and had pizza and pasta with red wine (except for Jenn). It felt like we never left.
On Sunday, we drove to Menifee, and Elle got to meet her great-grandma for the first time and see her Mimi and Papi again after a few months. We have a sibling’s text thread, and one of the long debates was whether we should do professional family photos. After a lot of back and forth, I hired someone to take the family photo a week before we went to California. Everyone met at a park in Murrieta, and for over an hour, we took pictures. That’s where we met our other new nephew, Theodore (Teddy), for the first time. Teddy was born a few weeks before Elle, and they immediately hit it off. Elle also met her Aunt Ally, Uncle Tim, and cousin Abby. It wasn’t easy to have six kids under 5, but I think we got some great photos, and all the kids did great. Afterward, we returned to my parent's house, and the entire family was together for dinner that night. It’s been a long time since that’s happened, and it was great having everyone together.
On Monday, we went to Jenn’s Dad’s house, where Elle met Joan for the first time. Elle did fantastic with her grandparents and had a lovely time on a beautiful Laguna day. We had lunch at The Ranch in Laguna Beach, where Elle made it clear she wanted a nap. Jenn and I drove up and down PCH for almost an hour, letting Elle sleep in the car before wrapping up the afternoon at Jenn’s Dad’s house. The next morning, we met my Dad, Mom, and Grandma at Fashion Island and had breakfast at Great Maple. It was surreal to be back and having lunch with Elle there. We had a nice lunch. When they departed to go back to Menifee, Jenn and I took Elle for a trip down memory lane and snuck her into the Villas where we used to live. It was a surreal experience. I got a coffee at the cafe, and we sat in the sun and enjoyed a great afternoon.
On Wednesday we made our way back to Laguna for Elle to spend more with Jenn’s Dad and Joan. Elle took to both of them and had a great time. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant in San Juan Capistrano before taking Elle back to the hotel for a much-needed nap. That evening Jenn got to introduce Elle to her cousin Holly. The three ladies had dinner at the hotel while Jake and I grabbed Mexican food at South Coast Plaza.
Thursday arrived, and we drove down to Riverside to spend the morning of Halloween with Amy, Ryan, their kids, and my parents. We got a late start to the day, so we picked up In-N-Out for everyone on the way in. Elle seemed to be getting more and more comfortable with her cousins and had a great time. The kids were all getting their costumes ready when we left back to Orange County. We. met Jake for dinner in Newport at Bello by Sandro Nardone. It's a Michelin Guide Italian restaurant in the Bluffs shopping center that blew us away. We had great pasta, wine, and tiramisu. The service was incredible, and I could see us returning on future visits. That evening, we dressed Elle in her Halloween costume, a pumpkin. She was adorable. I am so happy Jenn picked this one out. We walked her around Fashion Island, where they used to do a lot more for Halloween, but Elle was turning heads at every corner. We took a ton of photos before going back to The Pendry. Jake and I had a drink in the bar while Jenn put Elle down for the night.
And that closed out October. We had a few more days in California which I’ll cover next month. I remember the night of October 31st when I got back up to the room and talked to Jenn about how exhausted I was. Traveling with Elle is equal parts tiring and exciting. Letting her experience things for the first time is magical but it takes a lot of work. Needless to say we all slept well to close out the month.
TV WE WATCHED
Given how busy of an October we had we didn’t watch a lot of TV and if we did it tended to be the 30-minute variety. The highlight of October had to be the second season of Colin from Accounts which didn’t hit the highs of the first but still was very funny. We also enjoyed the third season of Industry which is by far the best of the series so far. We’ve been close to giving up on it but this season made it worth it. And of course we’ve been devouring both the latest seasons of Shrinking and Only Murders in the Building.
BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)
I read a lot of books in October. Most of that was thanks to a lot of walks during a very mild and beautiful October. The standout of the month was You Like it Darker by Stephen King. I’m always a fan of his books but this string of short stories was some of the best he’s written in a long time, maybe since 11-22-63. Although I didn’t love where the book went Intermezzo by Sally Rooney might have been the best-written book I read all year. The prose and dialogue was exquisite.
MOVIES WE WATCHED
I did not like the movie Twisters. I wanted to, I love the original and I know how much Jenn liked watching it with her dad but it was just not for me. The best movie I watched this month was on the plane to California called Rebel Ridge. A very simple, intense, and well-acted action movie. We watched a couple stand-up specials and both Ali Wong and Elle Dengenerous were good, not great. We also over several days watched Inside Out 2 which continues to show why Pixar is the best.
GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING
My normal evening after putting Elle to sleep is to play a game of Madden and Top Spin. Usually takes 15-20 minutes between the two and then I join Jenn to watch a show before going to sleep. I’m looking forward at some point to jump into some more substantial games at some point.
2024 GOAL TRACKING
Goal #1: Read 35 Books: I read 37 books and completed my goal to read 35 books this year.
Goal #2: 12 Monthly Recaps: 10 for 12 and hopefully no end in sight!
