My girlie

Breakfast at Cafe Brioche with M&J and Lucy, one of our many many dollies we love oh so much!

K learned how to pump herself on the swings this week... We took her to the park on Saturday to show off her new skills with Sab. The two are attached at the hip these days and we had a really nice picnic after the park.

She has fallen in love with ball games after a park playdate with Pet yesterday. We played golf and baseball before leaving the house this morning.

The other awesome part of the weekend... Cherries! T brought us home a bag of cherries on the way home from golf. K has finished 90% of them. It is spring even if the weather isn't cooperating.

K may not be a dentist after all

K: Mommy... Why are you putting your hands in your mouth?
M: Because I am flossing.
K: Your hands are going to get wet.
M: Flossing is important
K: Mommy, only babies put their hands in their mouth.
M: Flossing is important
K: Ok, can I floss too?
M: Do you want help?
K: No, I will do it by myself!

We spent the evening together and K even chose to stay home with her parents over a playdate. A first for everything I guess. She helped unpack, clean the house and asked for an early bedtime. Definitely a strange evening.

We could live in LA!

LA!!!!!!!!!!

LA rocked with Ang. We are excited about our half and even planning for the LA marathon next year... Let's see if we can do it.... The weekend rocked... On Fri I checked out Urth cafe (yummy coffee), Robertson (one of the best LA shopping streets... Meatpacking District level), Santa Monica beaches (always great), 3rd Street Promenade, my first visit to Fred Segal, Rodeo, Beverly Street before meeting up with Ang. We went to dinner at a great little Brazilian restaraunt and of course appletinis at a great bar with lots of chatting and cosmo quizzes to end the night...

Ang made me an awesome breakfast with homemade salsa.... I think I can make that home, but she has always been the cook.... We wandered Fashion Island and tried a Morrocoan restaraunt as we both wanted to relive a restaraunt experience we had in Madrid... Luckily we left without any baskets... Bummer! We finished the night at another great bar in Orange County where we found the dj we need to make our marathon running mix... And most importantly we finally tried Sprinkles cupcakes. YUMMY!

Sunday we went for coffee, manicures, pedicures and brunch at this beautiful restaraunt overlooking Laguna Beach, wandered the Newport Coast, and went to Little Tokyo where we went to sushi and pinkberry for fantastic frozen yogurt.

The weekend was great as it is always so fantastic to catch up and hang out... Our next trip adventure is going to be a girls Yosemite and Ojai trip...

Weekend

Friday nights are turning to be marathon playdates for K and S. We finally separate them at bedtime as they take turns playing at the two houses throughout the evening. As S's dad was out of town we went to storytime at the library and lunch on Sat once again only pulling them apart for naptime which was two hours delayed.

Sat night we had Aunt J over. K loves loves her Aunt J and so was in heaven. She also loved making cupcakes for M's bday and pizza for our dinner...

Sunday we decided to try and not drive our car for the day and made it almost the whole day. We walked to coffee and the market (where K got some fantastic Hawaii wear from M&J) and took the train to Menlo Park to have lunch with J... A lot more playing. Both Sab and Jam are kids K has been with since she was very little so it is cute to watch them grow and play more and more together. We drove to Gma S's for dinner where K had Gma making seconds and thirds of dinner.

The funniest moment of the weekend: K threw a coin into a fountain and made a wish. Her wish for the coin... Shopping!

Yikes

I got K's kids club cookie today at WF... Awesome program! However I looked at the receipt and realized I spent $8 on apples. This after spending $4 for bananas at Draegers last weekend a small bunch of bananas. We didn't buy that many apples or bananas. Yesterday I heard rice has increased to over $800 a ton (which means it has doubled in the last few months). I guess all those rice shortage articles in the Bangkok Post are more global than I realized. Thank goodness for the farmers market... The raw food thing (all part of the new and improved diet in addition to the marathon training sessions at the gym) is going to be more expensive than I thought. Hopefully in a few months I can say it was all worthwhile.

Back to K... she did my hair for school the other night and told me it was because I had to look nice for my teacher. We had the same why are there no swings at Mommy's school conversation. Especially since she just got another swing set with eight swings at her school.

How was your day?

Every night we try and spend some time talking....

K always asks how was your day? as she gets in bed. We chat every night with the lights off as part of the wind down process (and let's be clear... she is only ready for bed about one in 40 times that we put her to bed)

Last night we started the same way but half way into the conversation she told me ok now ask me how my day was? and so I did Since this is all about her I decided to put her daily summary up...

I played
I ate sopa
I laughed and played with Mar
I sat on the yellow swing
I played
Daddy and I ate raisins

Another good day!

Top weekend moments

Dinner with M&J at the Grill in the SJ Fairmont... Especially the post dinner people watching.

Pedicure at Pinkies with the latest In Style magazine.

Farmers market treats and being told by K when I complained that my arms were going to fall off due to all the groceries that actually it was impossible because my arms are connected.

Playdates! Getting to play with Mar at her pool. Playing with Sab lots and lots. Mommy finding out when going to pick up K at Sab's that she requested a special dinner because she didn't want to eat what Sab's family was eating... even though she wasn't over for dinner...

Having a mellow home weekend with wonderful weather.

Pics and more pics...

Our fashionista!

Our girl has her own sense of style.

While on holiday she stopped wearing her swim vest that she had insisted on wearing for most of the first part of the trip because one of her friends gave her a bathing suit. When we explained that she would have to wear her vest for the boat rides she asked if she could wear the bathing suit on top of the vest.

Yesterday when she was getting ready to go to the park she decided she didn't want to wear her socks that she wore to school. Instead she insisted on getting tights. She was crushed when we made her put on her pants over tights and as soon as she and her friend came in the house she took her pants off so everyone could see her tights!

Today she is wearing a shirt she picked out in Singapore that she fell in love with and wouldn't take off when we got home even for the wash.

She is thrilled to be back with Sab. our neighbor who is three weeks older. They are playing everyday and today K told me to pick her up early so they could play on the slide. When I reminded her that I do come early it just takes 40 minutes to leave school she asked me to remind her that I am picking her up early so that she can play on the slides.

Back home

Our last day in Singapore involved a lot of shopping, good food and the last few moments of warm weather and watermelon for a while.

K charmed us with her travel skills back to the Bay Area... She rocked and was thrilled to be home... As she has been saying for the last few days... "my life came true" she has been having a great time playing at home, visiting MoCa seeing Gma S and today demanded I take her to school early because she missed her friends. We even took her to the market and for coffee yesterday morning after our 18 hour travel day because of the time difference.

Oct 13

Ang and I just heard that we got picked out of the random lottery for the Nike Women's Marathon. We are going to run in SF in Oct. Lots of training ahead. And knowing the two of us lots of cute training gear so we are even faster runners. It can only help!!! Should be fun! Luckily we are planning a girls LA weekend at the end of the month. In addition to our normal shopping adventures we will now have to plan for some runs.

More fun

Our second day on Phuket was more incredible beach time. The ocean is so warm!!! And lots of pool time for K. We also ventured off the resort to Patong Beach for a bit of shopping before going to a beautiful Thai restaraunt that overlooked the ocean allowing us to take in sunset.

We spent the last couple days in Koh Phi Phi where we saw some of the most beautiful views ever, took in even more ocean time on this quiet little bay and did some neat hiking.

Last night ended up being one of our best dinners as we ate at the resort on the beach after collecting sand dollars and watching a lightning storm on the water. K got to run in the sand and the hotel set up little lanterns for folks to light up and fill with hot air so you could make a wish before releasing the lantern into the air. They looked like little stars in the sky. It was beautiful.

Today K got to feed the baby elephant some lychees and we are going to ride elephants and try another fun restaraunt after some beach massages. The grand finale before we head back to Singapore to play with our friends and make the trek home.

Phuket

The last day in Bangkok was more family time. We hit up the beautiful pool, checked out the weekend market, which was so overwhelming we only covered a tiny bit and tried to do some more shopping. The city has incredible shopping.

We arrived in Phuket yesterday and are on a beautiful warm beach with fantastic water and lots of neat resort pools. K got to touch her first baby elephant and even got to feed him papaya and watermelon and sit on him. More beach bumming ahead.

day two

We went to some beautiful temples and the stunning Grand Palace today. It was incredible and K loved the stairs at the Grand Palace as she and Daddy jumped off them, explored in the tunnels and ran around like banchees. She also really enjoyed the National Museum and chose looking at more art versus pool time when I was trying to convince everyone to go home. It was hot! She kept looking for all the Buddhas, which was cute. The evening was amazing as she ended up being wiped from the day and T and I sat for drinks, dinner before shopping. We left the stroller so our arms almost fell off.

Overall the experience has been great, but the fighting with cab drivers, dealing with the lying tuk tuk drivers, the insane traffic, horrible polution and how hard it is to walk around is just tough. We saw two different moms with their toddlers begging on the streets which just breaks your heart especially when you see how lucky K is. It is also sad to tell K to be careful who she talks to and have her hold her hand almost all the time.

the last couple days

We spent the last couple days in Singapore playing with Mad and Gab, shopping for matching outfits, having m&m parties in our hotel room, swimming till we were prunes and meeting Daddy for dinner. One night we went to a Med restaraunt that we tried the last time we were here nd visited the kitties again. Of course we went back to my fav IndoChine as it looks over the water with a backdrop of skyscrapers, very pretty. K pointed out the first time we headed there this holiday that we always went this way. Guess she remembered it from the last visit.

We started our Bangkok adventure yesterday and spent some time at the beautiful pool. Unfortunately they pick up all the flowers and so no bumblebee soup like our last few pool days. Everyone loves K so the staff happily picked a few flowers for her. We took advantage of being in Thailand by eating Thai twice in one day. The traffic here is insane and so we ended up having to abandon our plans for the night market midway by hopping out of the taxi and walking back. As the Four Seasons is next door and our driver from the airport suggested the only sites to see as hotels we went there for the best Thai food ever. K loved the mac and cheese they served, the m&m sundae, the cod pool,the music and family time. Unfortunately we didn't see any sites as K took a giant nap in the afternoon and we didn't get in till midday. Luckily today the adventures really begin!

wow

The day zoo is just as great as the night safari... K got to feed kangaroos, we were just a few feel from a beautiful cheetah and we met some folks from Colorado with a little boy just a bit yonger than K so they played all day and loved the playground. We went back to the fullerton hotel which was just as good although we were very sleepy.

Sunday we decided to just explore the city so we could visit this great Buddhism exhibition at the Asian Civilization Museum before my favorite place... Indochine! Yummy.

The last two days have been spent with Mad. and Gab who are also American, but live in Germany. The girls are claiming to be sisters and are in love especially with pool time, meals out, the water part at the zoo and treats. Of course, the mommies are having a great time too! K is pooped everytime she leaves them as it is 8-9 hours of nonstop playing... Awesome!

We made it!

K is the perfect travler... she did great on all the flights, met lots of kids and loved her midway flight suprise of Lucy who is snug in bed with her now. We seemed to have missed any horrible jetlag and are so excited to be warm! So we may be hot... but that is ok.

We have been meeting friends everywhere we go and are trying to get to know any girls aged 3-6. Tonight at dinner we missed our entire meal because we met a family that is in the same hotel with a couple girls slighty older than K... Lots of pool playdates coming our way.

Today we took Daddy to the Singapore Gardens where we fed turtles and fish.... but the best of all was getting caught in a giant rainstorm! We ended up having to fly through the gardens to get to a gazebo drenched, but after we got there we spent most of the hour splashing each other and collecting rain... We collected lots of rain. Of course the thunder was way too intense, but we tried to sing it away. We also went back to this French cafe that I loved the last time I was here.... and of course we met another little kid... I am sensing a theme to our trip!

We are off!!!

We are improving our packing skills! Got completely ready and packed in less than three hours this morning!!!! Done with finals and now heading on our big adventure. Luckily the Kate Spade coupon came just before I left and I convinced the store to hold my purchase until we return home as I had to explain I was buying the purse and wallet on the airplane. A great way to include it in the trip budget and not my shopping budget!!!

K is ready for her big flight.She picked her travel outfit... Way stylier than necessary. In fact T commented on the fact that I had picked a really fancy outfit for a flight which I didn't understand until I saw that she had tossed aside my choice and picked all white clothes for the flight.

A weekend of playdates

We met Tay and Am on Fri night for dinner, ice cream and of course merry go rounds. Sat we met Carter for coffee and drawing, followed by an easter egg hunt and bunny ride with Fi and Andreeeewww before meeting James for running and more coffee. Lots of playing and lots of fun. We finished the weekend with even more coffee on Sun with friends and a yummy dinner and wine at Mantra with MJ... Lots of fun, lots of studying and a couple pics.