"This Time It Counts"

14-May 2011: They had a bench facing a nice view of the Los Angeles basin under the May Gray. So that made for a pleasant feeding experience for the both of us (not that Tahia noticed the view though she did notice the surrounding mountains and even a helicopter). The only thing that made me a little nervous was a loud buzzing bumblebee that wouldn’t leave us alone…

Today, we had to take Julie’s mother back to her apartment so she could run her own errands as well as take a break from helping out with our daughter. I figured since we were headed out her way anyways, why not bring Tahia along for a quick outing to Monrovia Canyon Falls right after we drop off Julie’s mum?

So after running this idea by Julie, we decided on going for it. But first, we had to tend to the usual tasks of ensuring Tahia wakes up after 7am, making sure she’s fed and changed, and making sure Julie gets her pumpings in. We also had to time everything so that Tahia would be napping by the time we put her in the car.

When all was said and done, it wasn’t until 9:10am when we left the house.

The relatively early start meant that traffic was pretty light on the way to Alhambra. However, when we were within the city limits of Alhambra, Tahia was wide awake. It was only about 9:30am, and 20 minutes definitely wasn’t long enough for a restorative nap.

After dropping off Julie’s Mom off, we were then headed over to Monrovia Canyon Falls. We chose this waterfall because we remembered it being pretty easy. Sure it had a parking fee, but when it came to family outings with a four-month-old daughter, we could only consider the easy ones.

Anyways, when we got into downtown Monrovia, we came to realize that we had forgotten to pack a drinking bottle for Tahia. So we had to quickly make a detour to the nearest Target and pick up a bottle so we could transfer both expressed and formula milk into it when it came time for Tahia to drink.

She was asleep from around 9:45am, and it was about 10:45am when we finally left Target. Helping me pass the time while I watched Tahia in the car was all the Laker talk on the radio where practically everyone wants to play General Manager and guess what their next moves would be after their disastrous post-season.

As we were finally headed back through downtown Monrovia, we noticed that there was quite a bit of activity in town. When we made it past some park, we saw there was a banner indicating they were celebrating Monrovia’s 125th anniversary.

As we went beyond the downtown area and into the residential area, there were a bunch of cones set up on the streets, but it looked like some of the city workers were picking up the cones. Eventually, we made it to Scenic Drive and then Canyon Rd where the mountain road was lined with even more cones as well as signs indicating “Fountain to the Falls Run-Walk.”

Julie and I were concerned that the waterfall might be closed, but this run-walk was supposed to end at noon, and it was almost noon anyways.

Anyways, after paying our $5 parking fee, we found a parking spot at the uppermost car park at around 11:45am. There, we changed Tahia and fed her. However, she was fussing at first due to the unfamiliar surroundings. Eventually, she was able to get over it and focus on the task at hand of feeding.

They had a bench facing a nice view of the Los Angeles basin under the May Gray. So that made for a pleasant feeding experience for the both of us (not that Tahia noticed the view though she did notice the surrounding mountains and even a helicopter). The only thing that made me a little nervous was a loud buzzing bumblebee that wouldn’t leave us alone.

At 12:20pm, Julie was done pumping and we were finally ready to get started on the hike.

At first, Julie was carrying Tahia in a baby bjorn. And in the beginning, the walk through the picnic area as well as the early part of the hike was pretty straight forward except for one stream crossing at the start.

However, as we went further along the hike, the trail gradually went uphill as expected. Yet with the baby bjorn and Tahia sitting within it, Julie felt the uphills a lot. So we eventually switched about half-way through, and it was decided that I would wear the bjorn for the rest of the excursion.

The hike was otherwise uneventful save some fussiness from Tahia who seemed to fret when other folks would pass by her. She did have some stranger anxiety before, and we figured she was exhibiting it again at this time. It was either that or the unfamiliar trees and foliage surrounding her that was cause for concern.

Every once in a while, there would be women going the other way who would see that we were carrying our little girl and comment how cute she was.

At around 1pm, we made it to the waterfall. There were already quite a few people here so we just waited our turn for a chance to take photos in front of the falls while letting Tahia take a look at her very first waterfall.

Sure we had taken Tahia on a waterfall excursion a couple of months earlier to Solstice Canyon Falls, but she was asleep by the time we made it to the falls. This time, she was awake and able to see the falling water as well as feel the cool air for herself. So as far as we were concerned, this time it counts!

At first, she seemed to enjoy the experience with us, but then it seemed like she was lulled to a sleepy state after a few minutes. So as her fussiness increased, that was our cue to leave at 1:20pm.

We had tried to get a family photo, but Tahia wasn’t in any mood for that.

Eventually, at 1:40pm, we were back at the car. She awoke again when we put her in the car seat, but once we got moving again, she was back asleep for her somewhat belated early afternoon nap.

By about 2:30pm, we were back at home. All of us were tired and a little sleep deprived, but I’m sure this time spent together might be the start of bigger and better things…