Mem Day weekend was nice with a bday party for a friend, some park time, meeting J and K and a fun bbq. Long weekends are awesome... Even better without gmat studying, but I am glad that it is over. After the test (thank you pmogi for driving me) we went to perbacco to celebrate yummy as always and even made it to Burlingame for some shopping.

Monterey was amazing... The beach was great (although K found the ocean too wavy...) the aquarium was fantastic --- I highly recommend the river otter exhibit - slides, stamps, face to face time with the otters. Great to spend some time with the mommy group and just fun to snuggle with the girl.

Now we are on our way to NC for a wedding followed by a few days in the Bahamas... As always my travels are interesting and the LAX flight was delayed and so we were cabbed from SJC to SFO and are now waiting and adding ona few more hours on to our journey.... We are going to miss our little girl SO much.

How to make a Sat morning breakfast fun

K sings you are my sunshine to mommy and gma... She requests we light candles... And most importantly she puts the cereal in the bowls!

How to make Sat mornings fun for mommy... K sleeps until 6:30.... and then wakes up with a dry diaper and requests to sit on the potty.... wakes up in a great mood ready to play.

3 days and counting...

Two more practice tests, twenty more hours of studying, the real four hour test and then hopefully this will be over... We are almost there and I do mean we as T has been helping me with math till 11 every night... Gma C has been putting K to bed after we eat dinner as a family, pmogi has been bringing necessary dessert breaks and Gma S has been helping on the weekends... I asked my trainer to pray for me this morning as he mentioned his sister had just finished the process.... Luckily the three day weekend will allow us some necessary breaks! Keep your fingers crossed.

And more importantly, K is doing great... T had a frat dinner earlier this week and so I picked K up and grabbed a jamba... I don't think we will be able to share much longer as I got the last sip before throwing the cup away as she was already playing at the park... She loved the smoothie and sat for 40 minutes drinking her jamba while pointing out all the other people drinking jamba.

The potty training is going well. Only one accident this week. I think we are going to be in nighttime diapers for quite a while.

Counting down till the mommy's group beach house in Monterey next Tuesday and Wednesday!

Fun at the water

All the ways to avoid studying

I am taking the GMAT again on the 29th! After a kaplan course and another million hours of studying I am feeling more prepared for the test... The 800 is just around the corner! However this is one of two weekends before the test and was supposed to be the power studying weekend.... Somehow I found a million ways to avoid the festivities(I know hard to believe)
highlights:
- running through the water fountains with K and T in downtown Los Gatos
- sharing an ice cream sundae (k's first ever with pmogi, t and k) and shopping for wedding presents at the boutiques on Santa Cruz
- sampling cherries at the market
- wandering the weekend fairs in Mountain View and Los Altos
- catching up with friends on the phone
- meeting friends for lunch
- going out for sopapillas with pmogi and t to celebrate pmogi's end of finals
AND The best part of the weekend.... K waking up from her nap and curling up with me on the couch while I studied and snoozing on me for another half hour)

There are a million more interesting things to do... somehow I also managed a practice test, essays for the b-school application and studying this weekend.

Looking forward to the test being over (I hope I don't take it again) and starting on my next goal... a half marathon.

too crowded

We were all hanging in bed this morning before starting the day when K looked at T and said it was too crowded. She proceeded to tell him to go take a shower because it was too crowded in bed with the three of us... I think they have been chatting in the early morning to try and convince me of the king bed purchase. When T got up we asked K if the bed was still crowded. She replied with a no and requested her daily book routine with Mommy.

Another funny story - T typically wears a baseball hat when he goes golfing and so the other day she saw one of his baseball hats and put it on and looked at us and said I am going golfing.

Mothers Day and pizza party

drive with caution

I got my first ticket (ever) a few months ago as the officer suggested my brake lights weren’t on long enough at a stop sign near downtown… although he did mention he saw them. Last week I avoided a ticket by slamming on my brakes after initially hoping to run a yellow as K informed me while wearing underwear she had to go number 2. Today on my way to the gym (the gym that is two minutes from my house) I noticed a police car near the coffee shop next to the gym. I grabbed my seat belt (the one I always wear) which wasn’t on at the time to see the cop circle the shopping plaza to get behind me… panic… put my gym shoes on while he stops behind my car… still trying to be nonchalant when he rolls down the window. Luckily when I said hi he told me it was safer to drive with my seatbelt and drove off. Apparently the nondescript SUV looks like a red convertible these days so I am going to be driving the speed limit for the rest of the year. I guess K is right Mommy’s car drives slow, but Daddy’s car drives FAST!

K's making progress with the potty and had a dry nighttime diaper this morning and a dry nap diaper yesterday. Still having one accident a day even though I have resorted to chocolate bribery to make sure all no2s are in the potty.

Thank you daddy pizza

T met K and I after our morning adventure to the neighborhood parks with beautiful flowers on Sat afternoon... We wandered around before getting K down for a nap and wandering to the mall for some new clothes for T... It was funny to be at the mall just the two of us as it is something we used to do (once again thank you for being such a good sport with my shopping)... We were able to get T some things and even snuck in a quick trip to La Baguette (my fav) before heading home to play with K for a few hours... She decided she also had to get ready for the engagement party we were going to and so she hopped in the shower with me and even blow dried her hair... She looked stunning for bed! T and I got more time together at our friends amazing engagement party. The food was awesome (another fav - grilled cheese 0nly made with truffle oil), neat to meet people and great for T and I to hang out and catch up. Weddings are so much fun and we have some really good friends getting married this year.

Mothers Day was crazy - I had my last gmat class, Aunt J and some of her kids came down, pmogi and both grandmas were there.... A lot of moms! T let me sleep in till 7 and just as I was heading downstairs I heard T and K whispering she is up... tell her to get back in bed before K shrieked at me to get back in bed. T made another amazing presentation with a mommy salami song which the two of them sung. I scored some light reading for when we are in the Bahamas and I am done with this gmat and reading again. A few gift cards (one already redeemed at Kate Spade due to a coupon that happened to expire today) and we were off to celebrate as a group. We went to the gamble gardens in the afternoon and had a group dinner at Universtiy Coffee Cafe. The night finished with K screaming happy mothers day to me from bed and more gmat studying with some yummy cherries from the market. Pmogi made me an amazing photo album with pictures of the family and pictures of my childhood at similar places and ages as K. Very neat. Thank you for all the great presents....

Thank you Gma C and Mom for being wonderful moms! Happy mothers day to all the mommies!

Our girl!

Another crazy week

HAPPY BDAY DADDY PIZZA!!!!!!!!! Yesterday, was Ts bday which I missed due to a gmat class and conference. Luckily tonight we are going out for a family dinner followed by my first try at homemade caramel crepes. T had one in Paris a few weeks ago that he enjoyed... let's see if I can do a decent job.

This week I spent part of the week in Half Moon Bay for a conference. Unfortunately Gma C had a minor operation and so T had to stay to cover K and couldn't join me. Luckily he didn't miss any good weather... The firepit smores were freezing and so the hotel staff were offering blankets for over our suits... I made it about an hour before I went in for a luxurious bath and time by the fireplace. Yesterday's outdoor lunch was moved inside. It was cold! After three conferences in two weeks I am conferenced out and am ready to be home for a few days...

K's big news this week... First pedicure. She always notices when I return from a pedicure, and so when I showed up to pick her up from school she was very excited to show me that G (N's daughter) had painted her toes. As T pointed out between G who is 15 and me we are going to have one girly girl!)

Picnic

The weather is great! I love the warm weather - and K loves being able to wear her pajamas with shorts to bed. Last night we met early and had a fantastic picnic at the park running around chasing squirrels and saying tadaaaaaaaaaa after every bite of dinner!

The iron supplements are going horribly. K can taste the medicine in anything and hands back the juice or food telling us it tastes funny. She has also thrown up 3 of the last 4 times we have given it to her so we have to figure out a new solution.

Mommy, would you like a bite of ice cream?

I am not used to missing so much of K's daily activities but with work, gym, gmat studying and some nights away I have missed a lot of the last few weeks... We made up for it this weekend.

Yesterday T decided to play two rounds and so I took K to meet a friend at the park in the morning after Gma S came over to play with us. It was about all the excitement I could handle due to such a hectic schedule this last week. After her nap we were supposed to meet some other friends at the mall. We stopped by my mom's and K wouldn't get back in the car. She wanted to stay and help pmogi wash her car and so I ended up meeting our friend solo. A bit funny to wait for someone else to grab their toddler when you don't have yours. I picked K up headed home and after much convincing lured her away from the neighborhood park to play with Aunt J who came down for the weekend...

Sunday K and I made rice crispy treats together to take to the coffee shop. Let's just say her idea of throwing the cereal into the pot is a bit different than mine. We had a lot of fun! T took her on the train to Borrone and they visited Keplers for storytime. We all reconnected met friends for lunch headed to the park and went to the mall for an ice cream cone and a smoothie. K made it the whole day with no accidents!!!!!!!!!!!!!

potty training

N told us not to bring any more diapers to school... Should be interesting. Gma C loaded up on elmo underwear yesterday. K is very excited with the purchase!

Last night I went to the aquarium for an event. I have decided I must take K. We took her to the Maui Ocean Center last spring, but she was still pretty young. I think she will really enjoy the adventure especially if it also involves the ocean which she loves. I spent 20 minutes checking out the otters. Very cool animals.

first dentist appt

K had her first dentist appt this morning. T took her as I am not a huge fan of dentists (giant understatement) and so before the appt we went to the park and spent time as a family. It was a lot of fun and K as always spent most of her time on the swings. The appt went well, she had a lot of fun and got a new stuffed animal out of the deal. With the way she loves stuffed animals we know she is going to love the dentist if he gives her an animal every time she comes. She was pretty excited about the appointment and practiced opening her mouth really wide for us. They had mailed her a book that has her name in it explaining everything with dinasours and so she was definitely prepared.

I am bummed to be missing her this week due to back to back conferences - one in Carmel for the next few days and one in the area. Since they include evening events she is Daddy's girl again.