It's official!

I can't even believe it, but I am officially done with my MBA... turned our thesis in today... a day ahead of schedule which might be even more amazing... I couldn't have done it without my awesome husband, our wonderful Mom's who supported me by caring for the kids due to classes etc, my amazing company/boss and all my friends many who I have met in the program... It is so great to be done, so exciting to know I won't have to spend any more time away from the girls doing homework, studying or going to class... To say thank you to my husband and math tutor would be an understatement. None of this was possible without his support... Outside of some fun pics at graduation in June no big plans for now.

Nonetheless a new era begins although I am not sure what it will mean minus the five months of boot camp I signed up for starting in Jan so I can get rid of all the yummy lattes I consumed studying for the GMAT and the MBA. And dreams of becoming certified as a yoga instructor and ok there is a lot planned... Lots of fun ahead.

Best Thanksgiving ever

This year was one of the nicest Thanksgiving holidays we have ever had... although it was rather small it was simply the best... We had a wonderful Thanksgiving breakfast at our house and decided to spend the rest of the day just relaxing and enjoying the quiet something we never ever do (my fault entirely)... We watched Beauty and the Beast while C napped, we took the girls to the park and had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's. The kids were happy all day and there was no tears the whole day... a very happy and peaceful day. The rest of the weekend was more of the same, quiet, happiness and family time.

The prep for Santa continues... it is quite the affair this year as we have just ten more days to get everything ready before our annual warm weather vacation... And as C gets older and older she is more aware and way more into presents...

The more exciting countdown, seven days until I finish business school... can't wait! K is also counting down and so excited at the prospect for no more classes, group meetings and study sessions...

The joy of working from home

Listening to K and T sing Christmas songs... K just made a wish, that C never ever dies as she wants to be an adult as she wants to be with her.

K's Xmas list this year
Fairy wings
Dolls
American Girl dolls - every one ever made and all the accessories
Princess dresses
Princess shoes

And whatever else Santa wants to bring her. Translation all toys ever made.

Our smiling girls.

Highlights from our zoo adventure...

We went to the Oakland zoo yesterday... sounded good on paper... K and her bff together... BFF' lil sis and C together... A lot of parents covering... and it went well until we got to the freeway exit... apparently everyone goes to the zoo on Veteran's day... so much so that it caused a traffic jam and the exit was completely stopped.. I would have never believed such things could happen before K.

As it turns out the day was just as great in principle. The highlight watching the elephants eat pumpkins in one bite. C was a bit late on her first zoo visit, but I have amazing shots of utter concentration as she took it all in not even wanting to stop for a picnic lunch.

We split up and decided to take the kids to Berkeley where we tried to go to a cafe in N. Berkeley. As it turned out to go was a good call and we got great pics of the kids wandering on the campus. We headed over to Cheeseboard for pizza, very impressive and happened to stumble on a live band. The kids loved dancing and eating. Really the way they think every meal should be. We ended the night with vanilla ice cream from Ici.

K spent 10 minutes in the car talking about how exhausted she was... completely and utterly exhausted. C demonstrated this by not even wanting milk when offered the choice of nursing or bed during the transfer for car to crib. K was exhausted until she was put in her bed at which point she jumped up and claimed she wasn't tired... Finally when we did get her into bed and on the last check in the one where I threaten to take all fun from the weekend "no more playdates, no ice cream, no anything if you don't go to sleep" I went down the hall and she called me "Mama, thank you for taking us to the zoo. I had so much fun today." And in that moment it was a day well spent and yup, decided a double scoop vanilla ice cream was a must at some point this weekend.

Holiday cards

It is that time of year... holiday cards! Years ago we decided that every holiday season we would take professional photos of the kids as a way to capture memories in a much more stunning manner than my point and shoot capabilities.

The hard part ends up being how many pictures to fit in one card. This year we are using Shutterfly for the photos and are considering all the cards that have multiple shot capabilities... way too many to choose from, but here are some of our favorites
Shutterfly has quite a few options for holiday gifts and invites available such as Christmas invites, Christmas ornaments and Wall calendars
Our pictures were rained out last weekend so now we are in the mad crunch of getting pics uploaded to Shutterfly in time to print them... but what is a little pressure around the holidays. Here is to another year of holiday cards with my two beautiful girls.

Halloween

This was my favorite Halloween yet.

For C it was her first celebration of the holiday. She loved her school party, loved the gift bags and most of loved lollipops. She got to eat two over the weekend and enjoyed every lick. Pics to follow. She was a turtle, beyond cute and lovely.

And for K... she got it, like really got it this year. She was so sweet running up to houses, making sure C got a treat in her bag and counting up her treats and surveying her goods at the end. Our neighborhood as always was simply phenomenal and all the associated activities, parties and adventures associated with the day were fantastic. If this is any indication of what Thanksgiving and Xmas are like we are in for a treat. K also had a great time. This morning she woke up and said she wished it was Sunday again so that she could trick or treat.

The walkathon was a fantastic success. Thanks to all our friends who contributed Kaitlin raised a great amount for the school and had so much fun. I missed the event due to work, but heard it was quite the affair and K came home glowing.

Thanks to the Gmas we spent a wonderful weekend in Carmel watching some great friends marry. The last wedding for the year, but so enjoyable to watch so many couples marry and being able to celebrate their special day. We were treated to a pod of dolphins yesterday. So although an exhausting weekend it was great to celebrate Halloween with our girls and so fun to watch our friends marry.

First fundraiser....

Our girlies.

C is slowly becoming much more in control of her world. The phase of amazed wonder of everything around her is leaving us only to be replaced by a very mischevious and happy little girl enjoying everything around her. Her language continues to grow and now she is saying more and more words although she has been able to make herself quite clear about how things should be without words to this point.

As I put K to bed last night she asked me about when her tooth was going to fall out. She was tired of waiting for it to come out... not that we have any loose teeth, a false alert a year ago, but obviously a false alert. I tried to explain to her that her teeth were late coming in so my guess is they would be late to leave as well. She was bummed, but accepted the reasoning and reminded me not to throw the teeth away when they fall out...

In other funny moments, we are getting daily requests for green veggies... the reason, her new best friend from kinder told her the more green veggies she eats the louder her snap will be when she snaps her fingers! So we are eating lots of green and snapping our fingers after each meal to see and yes I didn't tell her that was totally not true...

Really all those teeth at once...

So C has long been the winner in the most teeth contest comparted to K. K had one tooth at 13 months. C had 8 at 8 months... We returned home to two very very happy monkeys! C unfortunately felt a bit warm to the touch and was a bit fussy. We decided this was all linked to missing mommy and daddy and just spent the time enjoying her. Unfortunately by 4pm in the middle of a bday party for one of K's friends she was really hot... and so the fever began... over 102 degrees lasting for over 16 hours... the medicine did nothing to bring it down and so we worried, called urgent care as if we were first time parents and spent all night Sunday holding our little girl... especially when her breathing became very fast and shallow we became very very worried... As it turns out finally the fever broke the 102+ range and she was finally able to sleep. Monday resulted in a doctor's visit as she still was not her normal self... everything looked ok... except her swollen gums and about five molars who all decided to appear at once. A little dehydration was treated with Jamba Juice and it appeared we were through the worst of it. Unfortunately the fever returned about an hour after the doctor's visit and is still here today. Nothing like it was, but still here... Here's to hoping the teeth do their thing quickly and our little girl returns... we are really missing her. Now that vacay seems like quite a distant memory.

Our first long getaway

We are nearing the end of our coupley get away that was made possible thanks to our amazing mom's who have been taking care of both kids and our kitty, all our wonderful friends who have helped with school pick ups, weekend coverage and countless offers of help.... Thank you everyone for making it possible. We are so lucky!

The trip so far has been awesome and amazing... It is sometimes easy to forget what traveling so light can be like. i.e no diaper bags, strollers etc. In fact we managed to leverage carry on only for the entire trip which would never be possible as a family of four. We started our trip in Florence and ventured out to Tuscanny and some other surrounding towns. One of the towns neither one of us had been since our babymoon before K... It was so wonderful to remember all the hopes and joys you have as you become parents... We went on to Paris, and the end of carrry on only... a dangerous town for my shopping bug especially since we had to bring things for the kids.. had to! The things I bought for me, well those not sure how they ended up there... The trip so far has been full of amazing food, late night walks, dinner at 11pm, loads of museums, cappucinos, wine and exploring parks. The last part of the trip, has us out in Chantilly which is the work part of the trip for me and a chance to continue to try and figure out if we could live in Europe for a short period... one can dream. Heading home on Saturday and couldn't be more excited to return home to our two girls. Lots of pics to follow... and more importantly lots of memories and appreciation for our time as two.

Things I don't want to forget about K

Her favorite month is July... she was sad when it ended and likes it well just because.

Her favorite direction is east and keeps an eye out on the car's compass for when we are heading east. She wishes in fact all we did was head east when driving.

One of her new friends at school is her friend because the first letter in their names is K.

She loves her new school and whenever we drive by it screams that it is her school.

Her superheroes are our neighbors across the street because gasp they are seven!

She told her sister the other day that she wanted to spend her life making her happy. She looks at pics of C or things C does and says that C looks so cute in that pic or can you believe C can do that? "I AM SO AMAZED"!

The start of conversation

C started to talk a bit more on Sat...

After she got up from her nap I asked how she slept? she responded with a good? Next q.. Do you want to eat? Yes, with a head nod... I was so amazed I asked her how she slept about 20 times... she decided that she didn't want to deal with the question yesterday and skipped her nap alltogether... Not so good!

This morning I asked her how she was? response... good. I told her I loved her, she came over and kissed me.

We also worked on identifying body parts this morning. She was able to show me where all her facial features were with some excessive ear pulling. Last week something was too loud and so she covered her ears with her hands unlike K. When we tried to warn her of sirens in London she would put her hands over her cheeks instead of her ears.

Just five days left...

Five days left of summer break left... until hurrah the last quarter of business school. I am so excited. The summer was a very nice preview of just how nice having entire weekends as a family can be. It was great to spend so much time on the coast or in the city and just being together. It was so strange to wonder what to do every once in a while as we had a free day on a weekend where I didn't have to head off to school...  It was nice to hang with so many awesome friends and celebrate with weddings, happy hours and wine. And do a lot of window shopping... I think I considered purchasing about 200 purses this summer... I think I bought two... thank goodness I had some restraint.

Spending all the extra time with my wonderful husband and the kids was very very nice... however the kids were a lot of work!! We had both kids home a lot more during the days whenever possible which was lots of fun and just plain exhausting.

Our house is a lot more organized as we cleaned every closet and every drawer in every room. Even the garage will be looking good after a few more runs to Goodwill. This level of organization is challenged on a daily basis with the little ones.

C's baby book will be done by the time school starts. Still trying to keep everything equal for the kids... So that is almost impossible, but still trying.

The kindergarten transition went well although we are still on the wait list for our first choice school which could result in another transition... not looking forward to it as K is madly in love with her school and her teacher.

Somehow the what am I going to do after the MBA question remains unanswered and still really overwhelming, but luckily I have a few months to figure this out... The other goal, that last little baby weight still remains, but hey 2010 isn't over yet so there is still time to get this worked out as well!

I am sure the biggest highlight of summer for K was Disneyland, C's biggest highlight was learning to play with her sister and mine was spending time with my beautiful family and husband... Yes, still think I am as lucky as I was at the start of the summer despite all the summer adventures!

We are now going to begin our countdown to the celebration of the end of business school, two weeks in the Caribbean. Although this is just us and the kids the real celebration will be when we return and thank both of our mom's for always being willing to help out and be our support system so that I could finish school even with two monkeys.

I do it myself stage...

C is entering a new stage of life... the I can do it myself stage... cereal, she can eat it on her own... even if the spoon is upside down just after she is freshly dressed. K tried to share pushing the cart at Whole Foods yesterday. Definitely a no go manuever, C started to shriek... It appears that the I do it myself stage for C also includes learning how to shriek and stamp her feet....

Goodbye babyhood, hello toddler! And what a cute toddler she is... blowing kisses, saying ba bye, disappointed when her sister leaves her for school, taking our hands and guiding us to where she wants to explore and still loving to eat!

Becoming sisters

For the last year C has been the baby/toddler and K has been the big sister... for the most part a very adoring big sis... unless C starts touching her things... well all bets are off if this occurs.This past weekend something changed and we watched the two of them really try to play together... For the most part the games were simple for K, but she was really sweet and kind in playing... They spent almost an hour collecting rocks and sitting in the water in HMB... that might be more of a miracle, that the weather was just that good! They have continued having moments where they play together all week, from playing with play doh, to little games it is nice to see them have sisterly moments...

a few more pics...

The year of the wedding

K's second wedding of the year. And completely coincidentally both were Indian weddings which meant a lot of festivities... So fun and beautiful to be a part of... Here are a few shots from the second wedding which

took place this weekend.

So this is what it is like

Ok, so  now we know what it is like to have an eater... we have never had this issue with K as she has always been too busy to eat, but now we are quickly learning what it is like to have an eater, basically you need 10x the snacks you thought you needed and really just always have food ready.

Months ago I learned that sometimes if I needed a moment to get something done, and in the earlier stage of mobility where we needed to watch C like a hawk the best thing to do to keep her occupied was cut up a piece of fruit and put her in the highchair... even a few os could give you a moment to do dishes. I tried this again this morning when I needed to wash dishes before heading out... just pushed the highchair up to the sink and washed dishes between bites... here is our watermelon lover.

Week one

Week one was a smashing success... K loved it, loves her teacher, her new friends and is soo proud of her new school. We are, whoops I mean I am very relieved. It is so great to see her so excited and so big! We are impressed with her. Teacher's feedback... after week one, very bright, very social and well the last part is so true to her nature but about a little boy she is apparently taken under her wing as her charge... translation.. she is letting him know who he should play with and what games he can play... Her role as big sister is very very perfect for her... All in all we are proud if not a bit embarrased that she is a bit bossy... I guess the flip side is she is very positive and umm assertive. Some pics of day one.

A new era...

Today was the start of a new era... sorta... K began her first day as a kindergartner... So amazing. She was thrilled and could barely wait to get in the car. I wasn't quite sure I wanted to let her go... ok I was sure... this day came too soon. Our beautiful tiara wearing baby girl has grown up. Looking at her it was clear she was ready for this next stage and really excited. Her new backpack and lunchbox thanks to Gma S were pulled off her back so she could get in the car seat and she really ran in to the new school. She sat down, got right to work and enjoyed circle time..

When I asker her how the day was she said "fun, fun, fun, fun. But I only made two friends" She is in love and can't wait to go back...

We are not sure we are ready to let her go, but are so proud of her. K is a beautiful girl, a loving sister and has such a good heart. Our house has not had a moment of quiet since she arrived and we feel so blessed. Now another adventure begins! She is ready, but are we.

Swimming

DACA is doing an awesome job turning K into a swimmer... we are so impressed! She resisted swim lessons for so long that we really let her take it at her own speed... the good news is she has the bug now and tries to spend every day in the pool... her skills are really improving and she is going to enjoy beach holidays even more now than ever!

K hanging with her family...

T's sis and two kids came to visit and spent some of their around the States tour at our house... K was thrilled to have so many people to boss around  play with. She loved it, especially as it meant lots of time with Gma C who has moved out and in with Aunt J. K had everyone playing princesses, star wars and singing songs from their schools. It was quite cute to watch her as she loves being with them so much and completely idolizes her older cousins. T took the kids to an A's game which K really enjoyed especially as she got to eat a bag of skittles... and we all had a lot of yummy meals and even went to SF for the day. K kept up with the rest of us and did amazing. C stayed home as it was just too long of a day for her. She was pretty excited to hang with Gma C as she is now at Nelly's most of the week.

Our first road trip!

So although we had been talking about going to LA no hotels were booked and there was still a big what if in the air... what if the kids scream the whole way down and what if the road trip goes horribly... C and K have always done a million times better in an airplane but we decided to do it... Monday we booked everything and left a few hours later...  Both girls loved it... chattering and laughing for about two hours until we finally made them go to sleep... got to LA around 1:30 put the kids to bed and were so thrilled the trip went so well...

The rest of the trip went the same way... a lot of smiling, some great attitudes from the kids and adventures... We spent the time down there wandering the Santa Monica pier and beaches, 3rd street Promenade, visiting the Getty, Rodeo, Robertson, trying to squeeze in mommy and daddy moments like drinks at the Ritz in Marina del Rey the moment failing desperately and leaving for a kid friendly dinner after drinking our wine while chasing two monkeys... GOING TO THE HOLY GRAIL... Disneyland... surviving mostly... lots of glowing from K as she is in full princessness right now... spending a few nights on the Newport Coast taking them to Laguna, Monarch and Crystal Cove... So overall a lot of beach time, a lot of fun, quality family time, a considerable amount of driving and even a bit of shopping. The overall trip was very successful... it was hard to find time for naps, getting enough meals in and doing other things, but for the most part everything worked... and we are considering other road trips... so it was a success!

a few pics