Preschool update

Preschool is going good!

I gotta say I never thought I would actually be able to pull this off and actually do it but we have a pretty good schedule for the most part.

We are really enjoying taking out books from the library and reading them. Bentley will now ask me to read him books and we are up to about 4 books a day which is so nice. I want my boy to love reading books as much as Jon and I do.

Whether or not Bentley is learning is another story, hahaha. I'm sure he is learning some things but this whole letter recognition thing is pretty hard. He is better with numbers and shapes. We are making progress with coloring, he is getting pretty good at it and doesn't complain as much about having to do it. He really loves doing crafts though for the most part which is nice.

I love taking pictures of out preschool days because its so cute seeing the things this boy is able to make and seeing him writing or glueing or doing the work. 

Little by little we are making progress and hopefully he will start being able to memorize the letters.

Surviving

In all honesty I feel like I am on survival mode here.

Having no friends and no adult to really talk to sucks.

My husband doesn't count because if he is home he is always studying and cannot count on him for anything or bother him.

Now I knew this would be hard because I am not young and naive and I have learned that nothing in life worth while is easy but some days it still takes everything in me not to throw myself a self pity party.

Its interesting how much I really miss having someone I can talk to who is going through the same things I am and understands me. Here I do not have that.

Thank goodness on the weekends we head to our families house and then I get some adult time but during the week it's a little bit hard and is taking some getting used to.

I have figured out that in order for me not to feel sorry for myself I just need to go out on a daily basis and it doesn't matter where I go as long as I am out of the house for a few hours it makes the world of difference.

At first I thought depression might be creeping in due to my energy level being so down but after talking to my cousin who is a doctor I just think it has something to do with a vitamin deficiency or something like that.

Bentley has been all on his own taking out his guitar about 3 times a week and trying to play it and he has now learned how to hold it the right way. I have looked into guitar lessons but he is too little they tell me and most people won't give lesson till he is at least 6. On days where I am just really trying to survive due to my all time low energy I make a fort for Bentley and make him some yummy treat and have him watch a movie under there, he loves it and I probably should do it on normal days cause it is fun and I remember doing that as a kid too. 

We have started going to storytime at the library which is fun. Another one of our go-to activities is going to Barnes & Nobles and letting Bentley play with their train set. The boy never gets tired of it and will sometimes even beg me to take him. So what is do is get a book sit down on the ground and read while he plays, its super relaxing. I have also found that the moms that do this with their kids too are normally pretty nice and have given me a lot of tips on things to do for free with Bentley.

Natural History Museum

Every Tuesday this month was free admissions at the Natural History Museum which is at USC. I had been wanting to go but it normally is too expensive after paying for tickets and parking so I was so glad I found out that we could go for free.

Bentley is very much into dinosaurs so it was the perfect way to spend an afternoon there. I was expecting it to be small and boy was I wrong. This place is HUGE! We walked for about 3 hours and didn't get to see everything. 

We loved the dinosaur exhibit's, all of them. I was surprised at how into it Bentley was. He couldn't move fast enough between the dinosaur exhibits because he just wanted to take everything all at once. He had never seen or heard of a woolly mammoth until this trip and was so intrigued by it. The other animal he really liked was the ostrich, couldn't stop talking about it.

I do not like ostriches because they are mean animals. As a young girl in Costa Rica I saw them chase some kids and the fear on the kids faces was enough to scare me for life. Now that I am an adult I realize that they were probably being protective over their babies or something but I still don't like them so it's funny that Bentley is so into them.

We really had a good day here.

I so badly wanted to go and walk around the gardens at USC cause they looked beautiful from what I could see but when I said something to Bentley about it he wanted nothing to do with it unless he could pick flowers. I guess I will have to do that another day.

Our dates

In trying to keep things fun and exciting Bentley and I met Jon for lunch one day at our favorite restaurant near us. They were having a lunch special and we couldn't pass it up. We do love our time with Jon because it is rare that we get his full undivided attention since most of the time he is studying or reading something for school. 

Law school is no joke and now we totally understand why they say DO NOT work your first year of law school. After school Jon studies for about 4-6 hours every single day and that is including Saturday. His only day off is Sunday and that's mainly cause that's when we are driving back from the desert and do our shopping for the week and he likes to watch his football. 

Since we don't get to hang out with Jon too often Bentley and I are joined at the hip. Thank goodness we have trained the boy well cause he just rolls with the punches for the most part. We often go get treats and have our own little dates and they are the best. Probably the one thing I look forward the most towards. Bentley found our favorite bakery owned by Armenians and let me tell those people know how to bake, holy cow. Everything we get there is a piece of art work and tastes just as good as it looks. Will for sure be taking anyone that comes visit us there. 

Zimmer's Museum

Being in a new city and a huge city at that, with no family or friends around can be hard.

Quite honestly I am struggling most days.

With a boy as energetic as Bentley and not having someone for him to play with can be overwhelming at times. 

Since getting here I have done my fair share of internet research into finding things to do with Bentley that will be safe, fun and cheap.

Good thing about LA is that they have a lot of free things to do with children. We still have a list of things to try but with a city this size you have to drive a lot and with out budget being so minimal we try to keep out outings close to home most days. 

My uncle has been worried about us not having anything to do out here so he found a kids museum and told me about it so I googled it and read the reviews and after a week or so finally got to courage to head to it. Its not too far from us but traffic here is ridiculous so it takes us about 15 minutes to get there but they have free parking which is super nice for LA, parking here is the big problem and a big expense. 

It was a little bit pricey for a one time visit but we had plans on possibly getting a year membership which was pretty cheap in comparison to other museums. 

I wasn't too impress specially coming from Utah where we have some pretty amazing kid museums but Bentley was in kid heaven. He played so hard. they even have an hour where they do crafts with the kids which was actually really nice and Bentley enjoyed it so much. 

At the end of our day he met a little boy his age and they played really well so the mom asked for my number so we could try and get together with the kids which was so nice to see that someone was willing to do this cause up to this point mom's have barely spoken to me.

Family day at the beach

Jon had a day off from school due to a Jewish holiday which I was so grateful for.

Thank you Jewish holiday! I hope there are more to come.

Jon woke up early and headed to the library and studied all morning long so he could get his work done before heading to the beach with us after lunch.

It was such a beautiful weathered day at the beach. 

We got to play in the sand, jump in the water and walk the Santa Monica Pier.

Jon loves the ocean and goes out far swimming which gives me a mini heart attack because God knows I cannot do that without drowning. I can swim but not that good. Even Bentley was a little nervous about his papa going out so far.

We really had a good day and ended things by sharing a banana split at the ice cream place on the pier. 

Santa Monica Beach

I love this beach. I have heard people around say that it's dirty and too crowded and not as pretty as other beaches but in all honesty I am not sure what people are talking about. It looks clean enough to me and I go during the week so it's never crowded when I go. There are bathroom nearby and lifeguards all over plus the police comes and does rounds every so often do I feel pretty safe which is important when I go by myself.

Bentley is totally content playing on the sand the whole time, barely gets in the water which makes it nice for me since I'm not freaking out the whole time about him possibly drowning. 

Growing up in Costa Rica and only 30 minute drive from the beach we went often but we were always warned by my mother not to trust the ocean, it would betray you. Because of this the ocean has always scared me so in my whole life there has only been one time a long long time ago when I actually swam in the ocean and rode the waves but during the trip people were getting stung by jellyfish and that was enough to cure me of ever really wanting to go back in the water. I will I only go up to my knees and that it. 

Jon is convince on teaching Bentley how to body surf so I am sure eventually I'll have to get in with my boy but for now I'll enjoy my peaceful time at the beach. 

Shatto

These are some pictures of the park we found within walking distance in the middle of Koreatown. We love this park!

Its normally pretty quiet until about 3pm when kids get out of school so Bentley doesn't like going early too much but I am glad to have the option of walking here. They have gym equipment that here and tons of grassy areas if you wanted to have a picnic plus they have tennis courts and a baseball field.

We did make a friend which is always nice for Bentley. This little boy goes there every day with his mom in the afternoon. His mom brings different toys for him to play with other kids. On this day the brought a soccer ball which Bentley loves so he had a blast running around kicking the ball. He had some rosey cheeks by the time he was done playing, always a good sign.

Fun day with mom-mom

My mother-in-law came to visit so we wanted to show her what we do on Thursdays, which is hit the library, let Bentley play there and then head to the mall and let Bentley do some more playing in the playground. Thursday's are fun around here. 

Thanks to my awesome friend who grew up in LA I was able to find this awesome library that's got two floors and the second floor is all about children. They have tons of toys for them to play with and books galore. The good thing is there is always children around so someone will for sure play with Bentley which just makes his day.   

I always have a good time picking out books for me to read to Bentley during the following week. The librarians here have been so amazingly sweet and helped me out so much and they already know me, ha. I am becoming a nerd but I am okay with it. I just now need to start getting a book for myself every now and then. 

After the library we head to the mall which is within walking distance. We got some frozen yogurt at Pinkberry which was very disappointing. I remember it being different back in the day. Plus it was so expensive, so not worth it when you can go to any of the other frozen yogurt place and pay for two what you pay for one there. Oh and I have to tell you Bentley is normally very polite in the sense that if he smells something funny he quietly will ask me what it is and he will just keep quiet or if someone looks different he will ask me quietly. Well when we get into Pinkberry these two guys came in right behind us. They were either Indian or middles eastern and my understanding is that people from those countries sometimes bathe in oils that to Americans don't smell good but to them they do, at least that's what I had a neighbor tell me once when I asked him why he smelled. All of a sudden Bentley plugs his nose and says "mom what is that smell, it's gross" I try to ignore him but it gets worse and louder. I tell him he sounds like a pregnant lady and then he gets mad and says "mom don't tell me you don't smell that, I could choke up". I knew the whole time it was these two guys but I didn't dare tell Bentley out of fear he would say something. Finally these two guys left. Made me feel bad but not much I could do. 

This made me think of my friend from high school who was suspended for 3 days for bringing in deodorant for some girl she though smelled bad and when the deodorant didn't work she brought some Victoria secret spray and sprayed the poor girl down when she walked by her. She said she couldn't take the smell any longer. 

Anyways after eating our super expensive frozen yogurt we walked over to the playground and let Bentley play with the kids there. It's very common for playgrounds in this area do not have mulch but beach sand and Bentley can't get enough of it. 

Then my mother-in-law took us out to dinner at our favorite Korean BBQ place, yumm and for desert we treated her to the boba place where they have the yummy Korean deserts. We really had an awesome day. Wish she could come once a week. 

Relaxing weekend

On Friday afternoon I got to hang out with my niece while Bentley played with his friend Ellen, which was really nice. We also had movie night which is always fun and relaxing. This week we watch  Mud and I actually really liked it. When it was being explained to me I didn't think I would like it but I was pleasantly surprised. 

Have you heard of Lowes build and grow program they have for children? Honestly best thing ever and where has it been all my life. I heard about Home Depot having a program similar to it from my sister-in-law and got Bentley all signed up for it at Home Depot for the next 3 months but was curious if Lowes had it and they sure do. Not only do they have it once a month but they have 2 different activities in the month and 4 different dates to choose from. This month was all about the movie Planes and I knew Bentley would love it. We had a good time hammering away and building a plane which Bentley named "Francesco" and no one can tell him that it's real name is "la chupacabra" funny kid. I will be doing this with Bentley on Saturdays from now on. If you have a free saturday and have little ones check this out in your area its free and you get to take a "toy" home.

Saturday afternoon Bentley had another play date with Ellen which basically lasts all day long so I invited my sister-in-law to come with me to the spa to go in the steam room with me. We got my wonderful mother-in-law to watch the baby and off we went. It was heavenly to be able to take a long shower with no one calling for you or trying to join me. I got to wash my hair and put some oils in it and go sit in the steam room for a while. It was so relaxing to be able to sit in quiet for a little bit and to be able to talk to my sitter-in-law and catch up with her. It was rejuvenating and so needed. On our way home from the spa, we were walking and we noticed it was drizzling and then it started to rain a little bit harder but people we are in the desert so it never rains and when it does it goes away quickly. I ran to the closest tree near us for cover but it was not stopping so we decided to just run to a little hut they have at the golf course and wait it out there but by then we realized we just needed to jet home as fast as possible. We were so soaked at one point we decided to just enjoy the rain and take pictures. I always have a blast with my sister-in-law she is so down to earth and funny.

Later that night we went out to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. Jon and I took a picture together which never happens so even though we both don't look that great I had to post it on here cause they are so few and rare.

Really one of the best weekends so far since school started. Oh and to top this awesome weekend I finally learned to crochet, hallelujah! It's only taken 4 people trying to teach me till I finally got it.