Don't hate me because I got to meet Lafayette!

Wow! Last night was a blast! We left Alex with Lizi and had an evening all to ourselves. Even though I grew up in the city, I've never been much into the city and nightlife scene...BUT last night that all changed. After becoming a mom, there is nothing like a nice (non-family friendly) restaurant to make you feel young. :)
It was so nice to get to just chill with my hubby and enjoy a meal rather than chasing Alex around Chuck E. Cheese begging him to eat his dinner. After dinner, we headed to Hamilton's on the north side. Get this...Lizi and Jennifer just turned me on to True Blood this week (man, I'm hooked). And Lizi told me about this bar they were turning into "fangtasia" at which Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette was going to make an appearance). Keith and I decided to take a chance and wait in line. And am I glad we did. With some persistence and a just a little bit of pushing (j/k), I inched my way up to the front. After waiting patiently for Nelsan, the bouncer moved aside and told Nelsan "she's been waiting a while." Nelsan is such a nice guy! I only had a blank piece of paper for him to autograph so he brought out his pic and autographed that instead. He's from Chicago actually! I was so giddy after that. But I'm glad to say that I didn't act a fool in front of him. :)

Alex's Vocab

Okay, so this is an LA pic, but the most recent thing I had to blog on this week's events in Alex's life. I can't believe how much he's talking now. He's definitely past the one-word caveman grunts. This week he said 4 words officially making a sentence, "I wuv you, dada." so cute...He also said "alli 'ta ball." Translation: Alli esta ball or "there is ball." He also says "ta?" for "Donde esta?" I love this age. I can't get over how cute he is, but then I'm sure no parent can get over how cute their kid is. :)

La Familia

The Bradster

The Hubby in Malibu

Venice Beach

Me and Vivien

Our Family Trip to LA

Our big splurge this year was the city of stars...We had such a great time. It's taken me 3 weeks to blog about it, but here's the scoop. We spent 8 days running around Southern Cali and we loved every moment of it (except for the last day actually, more later). Keith, Alex, me, Lizi and mom were all part of the entourage. We stayed right across from the USC campus which was very convenient no matter how I feel about the football team. We were usually out of the hotel by 10 am and trotting around until 9 p.m. at night (which is a late night with a 1.5 year old). Alex loved every minute of it! His first words every day at 7 a.m. were "shoes, outside." Ah, if only life were that simple...We visited Venice Beach, Santa Monica Beach, Huntington Beach, Beverly Hills (of course), Malibu, Hollywood and Universal Studios to name a few. We also got to spend time with some of my mom's side of the family, Lydia and her husband Eugenio who were very gracious hosts. At the last minute, we decided to drive to Bakersfield to see Fanny and Ruben and their kids. We had a great time (in spite of the heat) hanging out with them and swimming in their pool. It was a very nice detour indeed. On Monday, we headed to Hollywood again and got to see Andrew and Christina Irvin and their kids. The meal we shared at Pink's Hotdogs will forever live in our minds and we'll remember we first had it with you guys. :) On our way back to Hollywood that same day, we just happened on the "Inglorious Basterds" movie premiere and who else would be there but Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, Samuel L. Jackson, Kate Hudson and so many other stars. We were like 50 feet away from the red carpet. It was fantabulous!!! Just another day in Hollywood. Later that week, we headed to Universal Studios which is a must-see for first-timers. And on Thursday we got to see the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (one of the initial reasons we chose LA). Robin Williams was the guest star! We were able to sit in the 2nd row. It was definitely one of the week's highlights. On our way out of town Friday, Alex got some kind of stomach bug and was throwing up everything so we kind of freaked. The airplane ride was horrendous, but thankfully we made it back okay on an earlier flight. Overall, I'd give it a 9/10 as far as vacations go. Great time, great memories!!!