Welcome to the family K!

MoCa decided to finally welcome K to the family this morning... K was in the front room when MoCa came in and brought her a present... she showed her hunting capabilities by playing with the bird in front of her and finally dropped the little bird at K's feet... K has been chatting about her present ever since and telling MoCa don't do that on the floor. K also keeps telling us that the bird wouldn't be flying in the sky anymore. MoCa is happily settling in for her day of leisure after her big hunt for her little sister.

Some highlights from the last ten days

Finding an apricot orchard near our house and picking apricots (we are even trying an apricot crisp tonight)
Mommy and K getting some time as Daddy had a bachelor party this past weekend
Mommy and K going to Daddy’s company picnic at Huddart Park in Woodside.. getting painted as meow meows, eating ice cream, going hiking and getting to meet two horses who happened to wander by while with their mommy and daddy.
Going to grandma’s house and eating apricots from her tree
Sending pmogi off on her exciting adventures (Hawaii and Europe) at Thea in Santana Row
Going out again in Berkeley for some more family time complete with 4th street shopping, ice cream at Ici (we are addicted) and awesome Thai food
Swimming lessons with the mom’s group
Checking out vino 100 (wine club in Los Altos) as a friend’s guest
Daddy getting 66 holes of golf in on his daylong golf adventure

Photos

Does she know?

I am a night person... T is a morning person... K is also a morning person... somehow I think she knows that 6am is a bit too early for me... When I leave K for a trip (work or personal) she sleeps till 7... when I am home we are up at 6:15.

Today T took the day to golf 45 holes... basically however many he can get in... a yearly summer ritual. As a result I was on morning duty... at 5:30 the calls began... Mommy Salami... Mommy Pizza... come here. venga. come here MOMMMMMMMYYY!! I go in and sit down on the rocking chair with her on my shoulder... ok, I am completely dreaming at this point. We had a nice morning. I skipped the gym... the body was in shock from the early wake up and I couldn't muster the strength. Instead we read books and drew pictures while I dreamed of a latte, but once again couldn't muster the strength to drive to Starbucks...

Thank you Daddy for getting the early wake ups! I am SO glad you are a morning person!

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day Daddy pizza... Thanks for being the BESTEST dad ever... We are so lucky!

how do we know it is summer

K looks adorable in her summer dresses...
I searched for a daddy's girl shirt for fathers day (no luck...)
We went to Il Postale last night and sat outside for the entire meal
We went to gelato afterwards and the line wrapped around the neighboring shop
K went swimming with Daddy last night and even shared her toys so a little girl who was afraid of the water would get in.

Hurrah for summertime!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Requests...

About every six months or so we have to switch gears... it is always suprising to me as I just start to get into a groove with the previous stage when all of a sudden it is over... This weekend was another tiny shift... K had a number of ideas on what to do with our weekend... her requests included going to the ocean, the zoo, riding a merry go round and of course the swings! It looks like our weekends are about to change!

We spent most of the weekend reconnecting as a family...

I suggested going to a lake instead of the ocean for her water request so we went to Shoreline Park for a great picnic Sat afternoon... We celebrated my bday with my family on Friday and finished the celebration with an amazing ice cream cake from Ici... YUMMY! We visited the market, met friends for coffee and ran errands. We mostly spent a lot of time hanging as a family and enjoying our time even though I did sneak to the Nordstrom sale, a chai at Coupa and a pedicure at Pinkies with pmogi! It is great to be home...

ten years ago... trying to follow instructions.. sleepy

Thanks for tagging me... here goes..

ten years ago I had just turned 17... not a very exciting time... as K and T weren't with me!!!!

five snacks I enjoy:
lattes
desserts
grilled cheese sandwiches
fruit
smoothies

five songs that I know all the lyrics too...
only one comes to mind... baby got back... =)

five things you would do if you were a millionaire
quit work, start a company, spend more time with T and K
travel all the time
give more money to the causes I care about
give money to my family
buy a bigger house

five bad habits
anal about a very clean house
never nice enough to people
ok too many to list...

five things you like to do
spending time with friends and family (at cafes, eating out, on vacation)
reading books
working out and going to work
sleeping in with moca
shopping

five things you would never wear again
hmm unattractive maternity clothes
I am afraid this one will come back to haunt me... better not list too many things

five favorite toys
blackberry
camera
ipod
laptop
purses

pics...

We're back!

K survived our trip.... EEK! We owe a huge thank you to Gma C, Gma S, and Pmogi for all their help! It is amazing to be able to leave for an entire week and know that your girl is going to be loved, cared for and won't worry too much about her parents. K was talking about all their adventures this morning and gave me and T big hugs when we came in. She even took a shower and read books with me... We both woke before for her (T said it was because he adjusted to East Coast time ... I think it is because we couldn't wait to see our girl.)

The trip was incredible... NC was great - hectic as I was in the wedding and we had a number of fun but non stop couple of days there. T and I spent some time at Duke, UNC, downtown Chapel Hill and a lot of time at the Carolina Inn where the wedding was. It was a beautiful wedding and a wonderful time with friends. I even took T to Maple View Creamery where we sat in rocking chairs on a beautiful porch overlooking a field eating home made ice cream... Thank you to R and T for letting us share your day!

The Bahamas were amazing! We went with our really good friends S&R who we have traveled with a number of times over the last few years and always have fantastic adventues. We stayed at this hotel (Atlantis) which is rather hard to describe... think theme park, Monterey Bay Aquarium, luxury hotel and Hawaii mixed together. We had a great time eating wonderful meals, enjoying the beach, wandering the resort, checking out the rides and chatting as a group. It was fantastic.

On Wednesday we celebrated my bday by heading into town for an incredible meal and enjoying an incredible band rehearsal before heading back to the resort. The hotel had this really great nightclub that Tom and I spent some time at... We spent yesterday my official bday enjoying a great breakfast and a very relaxing morning on the beach before making the trek home. It was really great. Pics to come!

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!