Current obsession: Maca + cacao smoothies

I bought some maca powder at Whole Foods a while back after reading about it but then didn't use it for a couple months. Last week I finally decided to break it open. So glad I did!!!! Officially obsessed. I started by putting it in my oatmeal, along with bananas or raspberries, pecans, shredded coconut, soy milk and some cinnamon - DELICIOUS!! I love the mild, nutty flavor - some people describe it as similar to butterscotch, which I would agree with.

I kept reading conflicting articles about whether it should be eaten raw or cooked and I finally decided to just start putting it on things, specifically oatmeal and smoothies.

I also bought some cacao powder after reading about how much better it is than cocoa powder -it is raw, whereas cocoa powder has been roasted and loses health benefits in the process - and didn't do much with that for a while either. But now that I have discovered maca + cacao in smoothies, it is ON!

Yesterday I made my first smoothie with maca, which I found on pinterest. Holy chocolate ecstasy!

this is the photo from 40aprons

I didn't follow the recipe exactly - here's what I used:

• 1 ripe banana, peeled
• 1 tsp flax seed ( I always add flax but it's not necessary)
• ⅔ cup frozen raspberries
• ¾ cup soy milk
• handful of raw almonds
• 1 tablespoon maca powder
• 2 tablespoons cacao powder

Blended in the Blendtec. Oh how I love my Blendtec. This smoothie though.... OhMyGodYouGuys. So thick, smooth, chocolatey, and so guilt free. I tried a variation on it today without the raspberries, just more banana, some of it frozen.  I always keep some chunks of peeled banana in the freezer for smoothies - so easy, and our bananas never go bad. Plus I like my smoothies cold, without a lot of added ice, and frozen banana does the trick.

I also added protein powder today, and it did not compromise the deliciousness at all, so I'll definitely be making these as protein smoothies from now on! We buy unflavored whey protein. 

So, voila my latest obsession! Can't recommend highly enough trying some maca and cacao powders in your smoothies (or oatmeal). Sooo delicious, and good for you too!

Read about cacao versus cocoa here

And be sure to let me know of any other favorite uses you have for maca or cacao! I'd love to expand my repertoire! 

Binkies, macaws and the garbage truck

Today was a pretty typical day at home with Valerie. It was a busy one - I had decided I would start with a barre class at the gym on my last day of our free trial there, then we would go to the zoo (which is really more of a kids amusement park than a zoo but they have a few animals), and then we would come back home for naptime and I would get some laundry done while she napped. At least, that was the plan.

We started the morning with the sweetest snuggles, followed by a totally insane meltdown at breakfast that she was tired, and wanted to lay in bed instead of going to the gym daycare.

We usually only let her have her binkies (pacifiers - she has two of them) at night and at naptime, and also when traveling, but when she's really lost her mind and needs help calming herself down we sometimes make exceptions. I decided to let her have her binkies in the car on the way to the gym and it worked like a charm. She calmed down, said she felt better, was in high spirits by the time we got there and had a great time in the kids' room.

When I finished my barre class and went to pick her up, she came running excitedly to see me and shouted, "We're going to the zoo!  I'm so happy to see you, Mommy!"

Another mom picking up her baby said to me, "That sounds like a fun day! She is so cute! I could just take her home with me!"  I just smiled and said thank you, rather than "please, take her, she is 50% off today only. She comes with a carseat, two binkies, crayon on your hardwood floor, pen on your leather couch and an utter refusal to pee on the potty."

I get it though, she was maxing out her cuteness right then. She's always SOOO happy to see me and I admit I'm that happy to see her too, after I've had a peaceful, child-free hour to work out.

She said so many funny/cute/nonsensical things today.

• It was garbage day so she ran outside to watch the workers collect our garbage and they honked and waved at her, which she loved. Then the truck pulled up to the next house, and she came running back to me, saying "It's scary! I don't like it!"  Huh?

• At the zoo, she sat with 3 or 4 other kids learning about macaws, and the zoo employee asked a few times, "Does anyone have any questions?"  After seeing an older girl ask a question, she started raising her hand every time and saying "I do!" We would lean in to listen to her "question," and she would sign with her hands and mumble something unintelligible about butterflies, or flowers... "When.... the butterflies.... come... mumble mumble..." The poor zoo employee was clearly making a maximum effort to make sense of her babble. She leaned in and said, "....what?"  I said, "I think it was more of a statement than a question."  Moving on...

•  Later, I'm sitting at the computer and she comes running in from the next room and says "Don't worry Mom, it's trying!"

           "What's trying?"
           "The carpet got wet, but it's trying!"
           "You mean it's DRYing?  What's drying?  Did you spill your water?" I get up to assess the damage and see that she has gotten a towel from the kitchen and placed it over the wet spot on the carpet. Can't be mad.... at least it's just water. And she tried to clean it up herself!

•  While tucking her in at night, we said "I love you, Valerie." She doesn't often say "I love you, Mommy and Daddy" unprompted, although once in a while she does. So sometimes we encourage it: "Do you love Mommy and Daddy?" "I do." Then Rich, to his detriment, asked her, "What do you love more, Mommy and Daddy or your binkies?" "Mommy." Okay, so she loves Mommy the most. "What about Daddy? What do you love more - Daddy, or your binkies?"  She thinks about it.... "Binkies." So, now we've established what Valerie loves most in the world:

             1. Mommy             2. Binkies
             3. Daddy
            At least, I said to Rich, you can take comfort that she really, really loves her binkies, so coming in next after the binkies isn't too shabby. Haha.... sorry babe. 

OH vs CA : A Totally Scientific Comparison

It's impossible to move 2,413 miles across the country (I just mapped it) and not compare your new home with the old one. So, based on extensive research my opinion, here are a few notes of comparison:

WEATHER:

CA

Well, duh. We've only been here 2 weeks but ohmygod it is amazing. 10 stars for the bay area.

OH
Sweltering, humid summer. Buckets of rain. Six months (November-April) of freezing hell. Gray skies. And let's not forget biblical plagues of mosquitoes.  Maybe 2 stars for a few hard earned nice days in the spring and fall.

this is how we feel about cold winters

HOUSE:

CA
Better here: backyard, floors, kitchen, kitchen storage, fridge, stove, quiet street, space for toys, 2 full baths, all one level.
We don't have a garage, but it's not needed. I love our house here! The space is perfect for us... minus the tiiiiiiny master closet. Tiny closet, you make me sad.
Walking distance to: nice park, Walgreens, sushi, pizza, daycare, library, Starbucks, a Korean place, a sandwich place, a donut place. The parks here are spectacular.
Biking distance to work for Rich. The location is awesome!!

OH
Better here: carpets upstairs, basement for storage, bathroom storage, closet space... really can't overstate how nice it was to have enough closet space now that we don't have it. Basically, though, our house in OH was bigger, and that's really all it has going for it.
Walking distance to too many things to list! Location was also awesome.  Although we did not have a nice park within walking distance.

COST OF LIVING:

CA
Here we are poor. We can't afford to buy a house and certainly not a house with as much space as we would like to have, in a decent location. Real estate is BANANAS. The price of a decent gym membership nearly made me spit my cheerios across the room. And holy babysitting and daycare! (!) Let's just say I better find a job soon.

OH

Sweet, sweet Ohio! Where we can comfortably afford a house of our dreams, belong to a nice gym and a good daycare, and basically roll around in dollar bills in between luxury vacations.*

*Possible slight exaggeration.

WASTE MANAGEMENT:

CA
How obsessed am I with the pervasive recycling and amazing curbside service here?!?! They recycle EVERYTHING and they compost everything else. Practically all our trash is diapers. If you know how I feel about waste and recycling, you know I FREAKING LOVE IT SO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS.

OH
Boo. Hiss. So much extra effort to recycle everything.

FOOD:

CA

The farmer's markets here blow the Ohio markets out of the water. The quality and variety of fresh produce and fresh made products is mind-blowing. The peaches! The strawberries! The tomatoes! The apples! The lemons and limes! The avocados! The wine! The beer! I could go on forever.

We haven't gotten to try many restaurants yet, but the ones we have have been excellent. The best mimosa sampler at Local Union 271, sushi at Fuki Sushi, several good sandwich delis, and who knew, Greek food is super hot here. There are tons of fancy and casual Greek places we haven't tried yet, but we got to try Oren's Hummus Shop and nearly died of deliciousness. The soft pitas! The creamy hummus! The sabich pita with eggplant and tons of other stuff was absolutely to die for. And there are sooo many more things I can't wait to try! It's a vegetarian's dream - and Rich loved it too.

The cookie sandwiches at CREAM were fun and super cheap, although they mostly inspired me to try making my own at home. Clearly I could go on for pages about the food here. Everything grows here and it is heaven. I can't wait for some weekend trips to Napa and Sonoma!!!

The mimosa sampler at Local Union = everything

Acai bowls at BARE bowls

ice cream cookie sandwiches at CREAM

our trip to Sonoma in 2013 - cannot wait to go back!!

our trip to Bi-Rite in 2013 - again, cannot wait to go back!!

strawberries from Half Moon Bay

Palo Alto farmer's market haul

salmon salad heaven

OH
Cincinnati shouldn't feel too bad though. There are so many restaurants I love there and I miss already. Boca, Sotto, Table, Orchids, Metropole, Barresi's, Mazunte, Wildflower Cafe, Red Feather, Maribelle's, Holtman's, Nada, Via Vite, Bakersfield, everything popping up in OTR, and there are even some juice bars opening around the area! I love the food and drink scene in my hometown and you can't beat some of the prices!!

Holtman's

Boca scallops

Orchids

PROXIMITY TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS:

CA
We are very lucky to have a few friends and connections here already and hope to meet more in the coming months! The hardest adjustment for me so far has been the drastically reduced social calendar.

OH

We are missing everyone so much already!!! Poor Valerie doesn't understand how far away all her favorite people (besides Mom and Dad) are, but this is definitely for the best. She still wants to go to Nana's house and Carter's house, play with her friends and cousins and see Grandpa, but luckily "they'll come visit us" and "we'll see them at Thanksgiving" are acceptable responses when she's missing people, along with Facetime. Can't award OH enough stars in this category.


In conclusion.... both places have a lot going for them and could hardly be more different. We've only been here about 2.5 weeks so far, so it will be interesting to look back on this list and see how my perspective changes over the coming year.

In further conclusion, I just need all of our family and friends to move out to the bay area and to win the MegaMillions jackpot, and then everything will be perfect! Got that guys? Come on out here, please and thank you!!  xoxo

Baby-ar-scar, lions, becoming Californian

We don't have anything terribly exciting to report from our second week in California.

We are gradually assimilating into our new identities as Californians. We now know firsthand the pain of dealing with the CA DMV. In our first, failed attempt to get CA driver's licenses, we drove 30 minutes in a huge rush with Valerie in tow to make it to the San Mateo DMV before it closed, only to wait in line for another 20 minutes and then be turned away by some bozo who said we needed appointments, although every source we checked including the DMV website indicated we did not.   We were luckily able to secure appointments (separately) within the next few days and at least did not have to drag Valerie along for those. It took about 40-50 minutes, but we both passed the written test and are now officially licensed CA drivers. (Woohoo!!)

After my first failed attempt to get a library card, because I did not have any documentation on me proving my CA residency, (is there a theme here?) I also successfully obtained a library card and checked out my first items. Valerie selected Madagascar on DVD, which she calls "Baby-ar-scar," (I think it's a hybrid of Baby Einstein and Madagascar, and it's so cute I will not be correcting it again). It's her latest movie obsession, now competing with Frozen for most frequently demanded. She loves Sacha Baron Cohen as the lemur king's rendition of "I Like to Move it Move it," and I think she also loves that the lion is a nice, friendly lion.

The Lion King would probably still be way too scary for her, especially considering that lions are one of her biggest fears. She still confirms with me from time to time that no lions can get in the car and get her; she is safe from lions in the car.

This morning she also said something about lions getting her breakfast.  Nope, no lions are going to get your breakfast. Happily, she doesn't go through life in a state of terror, she's just casually checking to confirm there is no threat of lions at any given time. She needs regular reassurance that she is safe, and no lions can get her.

It must be human nature to invent something scary to focus on if you don't have anything legitimate to fear. What else could explain a constant, (apparently) unfounded paranoia that lions will get you?

It's funny, when you're 2, you aren't aware of the world's problems, and the only "problem" you have is not getting to do whatever you feel like all the time. Although, you do get to do whatever you feel like some of the time. It seems like a pretty good setup. Someone always cooks for you, cleans up after you, dresses you, washes and organizes your clothes, bathes you, reads you stories, puts on shows for you, takes you on fun outings, and gives you hugs and band-aids when you get hurt. You get to take a nap every day, and you don't even have to walk anywhere for very long, you can just ride along in your stroller.

Despite all this, you go through your day on an emotional roller coaster. You are happy, excited, scared, sad, and angry from one minute to the next, and you have no control over your emotions, or much of your day.  It's determined for you. On second thought, it doesn't sound like all that much fun.

Sometimes when Valerie gets hurt, stubs her toe, or gets a splinter, she'll say, "that hurt my feelings."
"You mean it hurt your foot?"
"...yeah."

It's fascinating to see her learn the difference between physical and emotional hurt and be able to articulate them. She's started talking about her emotions more, like saying "that makes me so sad" about all kinds of things, though we still have to remind her to use her words sometimes.


I wish I could break into her brain and install empathy, but it takes years, growing up, and a lot of life experience to learn to approach life with gratitude. At least, it's taken me that long to get there, and I still struggle with it. There's definitely still a whiny, bratty, entitled 2-year-old inside me, always complaining and thinking about myself, and it's only with practice that I can sometimes overrule the brat with some adult perspective.

 Maybe there are some toddlers out there who appreciate all their parents do for them, but I don't think there are many. Boy do I now understand everything I put my parents through. The saddest part is that you can't appreciate it until it's all long behind you. "Thanks for putting up with me, Mom/Dad" doesn't quite seem to cover it.

On the bright side, there are lots of redeeming moments. Wet kisses, hugs, cuddling while reading bedtime stories, hilarious conversations, the feeling of being so loved to the point of near worship. Yesterday we took a bath together and she washed my face. I closed my eyes (because she kept trying to wash them) and soaked in the feeling of those tiny little hands soaping up my cheeks... so sweet. I just have to hang on to those moments. And remind myself, as my favorite blogger likes to say, "these are the days."

I love my child... I love my child...

I have now survived 8 days of staying at home with Valerie while Rich is off biodesigning, which is a new experience for me, being accustomed to working full time. It's been interesting, but again confirms that SAHM life is not for me. I have nothing but respect and hero worship for those who excel at staying home with their young children. Especially terrible two-year-olds. It is tough and exhausting, and for me, not the most rewarding.

I haven't hated every minute. We have had some fun. I get to steal as many kisses as I want all day long, and I get to witness a lot of serious cuteness, which happens more on good days. My favorite thing she does is knock on the wall and sing this part from "Do you want to build a snowman": "Elsa!  I know you're in there! People are asking where you've been! They say have courage, and I'm trying to, I'm right out here for you, please let me in!" Some of the words are off but it's really the cutest thing I've ever seen. When she sees me watching her do it, she yells, "NO MOM!!! DON'T LOOK!" So I look away and she'll do it again. I really hope I can catch it on video while it lasts.

She also loves flipping through her books and reading them out loud to herself, which cracks me up. She recites certain phrases she's memorized, which may or may not correspond to the book she's holding. Some I've heard several times are "a most careful count," from the Lorax; "the greatest, toughest girl" from My Name is Not Isabella; "bring me a pumpkin" from Cinderella; and amazingly long sections from Daisy's Birthday Party, which is one of her top favorites right now, along with Sleeping Ugly, The Awesome Book, The Color Book with Mr. Paint Pig, Egg in the Hole book, and every version of Cinderella she can get her hands on.

I don't know any other toddlers as well as I know my own, and I have no doubt there is much worse behavior out there, but boy does she know how to push my buttons. First there is the mess. The constant, widespread, infuriating scattering of every toy all over the house, not even because she's playing with everything, but because she dumps out every container of toys/hair accessories/stuffed animals/blankets from her bed/books/crayons on the floor, leaves it and goes on to the next thing. I could deal with the mess if she would later help clean it up. But asking this child to lift a finger to put anything away is like commanding your cat to prepare you a gourmet four-course meal. It will just look at you, laugh on the inside, if not loudly in your face, and walk away. It's less stress for all parties if you just do it yourself, but SOMEDAY you want that cat to be able to cook for you, dammit, so you suffer the torment of walking it through every step so it begins to learn.

Okay, I'm not sure how well that analogy is working, but in real life, I had to count to 3 several times, put Valerie in time-out twice, threaten to sit on her to hold her in time-out, tell her to clean up no fewer than seven billion times, walk away and take breaths to maintain sanity, tell her exactly where to put each toy, sing the Barney cleanup song, and ultimately do most of the cleanup myself. It was kind of like how I imagine running that Death Valley ultra marathon might be. And this is what it's like getting her to help clean up EVERY. SINGLE. TIME so far.

In a similar category is leaving the house. Before we leave the house, we need to do things like eat breakfast, get dressed, put on socks and shoes, brush and style the hair, fill our purse with random toys to bring in the car, put on a jacket even if it's pushing 80 degrees outside... I think you can see where this is going. Every trivial item becomes a battle some days. We nearly reached a help-clean-up level of combat this morning over putting her hair in a ponytail. When she sees me getting frustrated, it's like she's winning points. She laughs and it becomes a game in finding my limit.

Honestly, she is not always this bad. Some days leaving the house is really not a problem. Most of the time she'll let us fix her hair, and put on her socks and shoes when we ask. I really think she saves most of her worst behavior for when she's alone with me. There's something so comfortable about Mom that makes her feel like she can unleash all her inner demons. I swear she doesn't act like this for other people. Certainly not at daycare!

Today had some particularly rough moments. So, this afternoon while she was hanging out in her room not at all napping, I started brushing up my résumé and beginning the job search.  Nothing gets me feeling more enthusiasm for corporate America than white-knuckling through another long day with an anti-napping toddler!

First weekend in Cali: Summer Delights

We spent 3 brutal days getting totally unpacked and situated in our new house and it was so worth it to be able to enjoy our first weekend here!

The first thing I wanted to do was check out the Palo Alto Farmer's Market which is Saturday mornings from 8-12 and we just barely made it at 11:45. I was stressing on the way there that everything would be empty and closing down and why are we even bothering.... but I was stressing for nothing! It was AMAZING, the most incredible quality and variety of fresh fruits and veggies and all sorts of foods and it wasn't picked over at all. We dashed from stand to stand buying stuff as fast as we could and in 15 minutes I was blown away by our haul.

We got lettuce, basil, mint, parsley, grapes, avocados, peaches, apples, potatoes, garlic, onion, the biggest shallots I've ever seen, walnuts, sausages and hummus - and we didn't even have time to cover the whole market!  I can't wait to go back next week ...hopefully before 11:45... and have more time to explore. As we were walking back to the car loaded down with goodies, Rich said to me, "What do you think?  Was that 5 times better than the markets in Ohio? 10 times?"

"I think maybe 10 times better," I said.

I could not wait to put together some salads for that night; we were having our first dinner guests! Rich met them back in grad school at MIT, they live about 30 minutes away and they brought their daughter, who is the exact same age as Valerie - the girls were born one day apart.

They were so excited to finally meet each other; they'd seen lots of pictures of each other but never got to meet until now, and they were so sweet and loved playing together.

As soon as they arrived, Valerie insisted on changing into a dress and hair bows so they would match. They were definitely twins at first sight. So cute. We can't believe our amazing luck at having such great friends nearby!

I was pretty excited about the menu, based on all our fresh produce purchases. For appetizers we had jalapeno cilantro hummus and guacamole with chips and veggies, and for dinner I made an heirloom tomato salad with basil and truffle flavored oil, mint and lemon infused water, watermelon mojitos, and a dinner salad, which was definitely the highlight: a mix of greens, fresh peaches, blue cheese and walnuts, and a lemon shallot dressing which was so easy to throw together. I stole this recipe from Vogue , used white wine vinegar since I didn't have any red wine vinegar, and added lemon juice:

1 tsp. Dijon mustard
½ tsp. honey
1 T red wine vinegar (preferably Banyuls)
½ small shallot, finely minced
2½ oz. extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

From left: guacamole, mint lemon water, so much fruit, heirloom tomatoes, peach walnut salad

OMG... I will toot my own horn.  The salad was RIDICULOUS. So good. Of course, the credit really goes to the incredible fresh ingredients from California and not to me. I am in absolute salad heaven here. I have been making salads every day since we got here and it's pretty impossible to go wrong. Everything is just.... so... GOOD.

Rich made sausages for the protein portion of dinner, and we also had tortellini and red sauce for the girls.  Valerie doesn't eat any kind of lettuce yet... I can't wait for that day! Life is going to be so easy when I can make a big salad for dinner and she will eat it too. I still need to make something separate for her most of the time.

 We had a lovely meal on our back patio, and then took a walk to the park down the street so the girls could play. They had so much fun, Valerie insisted she was going home with them, and kept asking for one more minute, one more minute. She finally conceded to a hug and our friends had to go home. So hard to say goodbye!

Sunday we decided to drive to the coast and check out the beaches.

We packed lunches and left first thing in the morning for Half Moon Bay, where we found Lemos Farm, which was hopping with parents and kids around 10 am. It was cool and overcast in the morning, too chilly for the beach, so we decided to stop and check it out. Valerie has been talking a lot about riding horses lately and we saw that they had pony rides, along with a hay ride, train rides, playground, petting zoo and bounce house. All of her favorite things!!

feeding the goat

waiting for the hay ride

The pony ride was her dream come true.... if only the pony had been pink. It was adorable. She sat so still on the pony as it walked around and around for close to 20 minutes and we finally had to get her down. She wanted to go again and still talks about riding the pony. She is well on her way to becoming the cliche little girl who wants a pony, in this case, a pink pony. What is it about little girls and horses?? I don't think I was ever into horses and now I'm really not a fan. But I will admit it's sweet how much Valerie loves her some horses and ponies, and farms in general.

She loved feeding and petting the baby goats. She loved riding the train. The playground and bounce house were hits and the hay ride was just okay, but we definitely got our money's worth between the pony and train rides. This place was seriously toddler heaven. We were so glad we found it; it was the perfect morning activity while we waited for the sun to come out.

From there we went on to Pescadero to get the famous artichoke heart bread from Arcangeli grocery / Norm's Market, which our friends had recommended the night before. While we were there we got some giant pastries to tide us over til lunch... yum!!!

Then we stopped at San Gregorio beach for our picnic lunch. It was lovely but there was a big lagoon blocking the beach access so we just ate there and headed back to Pescadero beach.

We weren't sure what to expect of these Pacific beaches; I had low expectations of cold water and lots of rocks. I wasn't wrong; the water is ice cold and we definitely saw some cliffs and driftwood and rocks.  But wow, my expectations were blown away... the beaches are absolutely gorgeous!  And the weather got so perfect in the afternoon, it didn't even matter that the water is ice cold. Between warm sun and cool breeze it was perfectly comfortable hanging out on the sand, no need to even go near the water, although Valerie enjoyed sticking her legs in and shouting, "It's too much, it's too much!!!"

We had the loveliest afternoon hanging out on the beach, flying the kite, playing in the sand, tossing the frisbee... and yes, there was also some bad behavior, sand throwing and time out... we'll skip over that part. Overall it was a delightful day and none of us wanted to go home. We stopped at a farm market on the way back through Half Moon Bay and bought a huge box of local strawberries that are utterly to die for.

When we got home we sat on the back porch and gorged on strawberries, peaches, grapes and artichoke bread with butter. So many carbs.... I died and went to carb heaven, between the luscious peaches, the candy strawberries and the warm buttery bread....... heaven.

It was our first California adventure. We discovered that there are amazing beaches less than an hour's drive from our house, cute Pacific towns, farms, wineries, and stunning views of the hills and valleys along the way. So beautiful. What an incredible place to get to spend this year. I still can't believe we're really here living this opportunity. I can tell it's going to fly by so fast and be over before I even realize it's begun. What an awesome first weekend!

Moving cross country with a toddler - A Cautionary Tale

It's Sunday night, August 2, 2015 and we just arrived in California on Tuesday so we have officially survived our first 5 days here. The first 3 or 4 days were about as rough as I think you can expect a cross-country move with a toddler to go. Throw in some jet lag and a super over-tired 2-year-old, and the unpacking of our new house stressed me out to the max.  I am not proud to admit I snapped at Rich more than my fair share of times in 4 days. He is pretty much a saint for putting up with me at this point.

On Tuesday we arrived at SFO and stayed in a hotel in Redwood City since our truck wouldn't arrive until Wednesday. Not a fun day. It was off to a good start - the flight went great, we got upgraded to 3 seats together in economy comfort, and Valerie was pretty well behaved since we had the kindle loaded with Dora and Sesame Street for her to watch. Once we arrived it was downhill from there. She melted down in the airport while we collected our luggage (poor thing, it was past her naptime) and then we went in circles trying to find the rental car pickup. She fell asleep in the stroller as we finally found our car and headed to the hotel, where she of course did not nap anymore.

Are you laughing at me?

Then Rich had to go meet the landlord so I took her to IHOP for a mid afternoon snack, where she chose the happy face chocolate chip kid's pancake and then refused to take a single bite of it. Some days, this child. We power struggled over the pancake for a bit, I ate some of it, and then finally she decided she wanted some after all. Thank. God. And then she pooped so we had to make a hasty exit back to the hotel for a clean diaper.

At this point, I thought, hooray! She pooped, so now we can go to the hotel pool and I don't need to worry about having a swim diaper on her. HAHA #fail. We made it to the pool and were having a lot of fun, until I noticed she seemed like she might be pooping again.  AHHH!!! I quickly grabbed her out of the water just in time. Pool time cut short, back to the hotel room again for a bath and rinsing poop out of her suit. At some point she also dumped a whole container of trail mix all over the floor in the hotel room. By this time I was beyond frustrated and ready to sell her on craigslist.

Luckily Rich returned to give me a sanity check. We decided to find a park and some dinner since it was imperative that we get the hell out of the hotel room until bedtime. We found a great park and got some swinging and sliding in (as well as some more whining and power struggling), and then we hit up the sandwich spot for dinner al fresco - and by dinner for Valerie I mean goldfish and milk. The sandwiches were excellent though. She was in extreme meltdown mode on and off by dinnertime so we couldn't linger on the patio and we headed back to the hotel for bedtime. We put her to bed at 8:30 and I was so exhausted myself I passed out immediately after that.

Thanks to jet lag I was up again at 4:30 am, but mostly just thrilled to have gotten 8 hours of sleep. We packed up and went back to IHOP for breakfast, which went MUCH better this time. We got Valerie the Rooty Jr with a waffle, sausage and blueberries, and she devoured it. I was so glad she got a good breakfast because we then had to go meet the moving truck at the house and begin 3 days of max-stress moving hell.

I shouldn't say max-stress - we actually had full service moving and unpacking so the movers unpacked all the boxes and removed all the boxes and packing paper, which was definitely clutch. However, we were still left with a house full of crap - EVERYWHERE.

We also had the challenge of a toddler demanding our attention while we busted our tails getting organized. We relied heavily on Netflix to entertain her but it could only do so much. Suffice it to say that cleaning and organizing your house with a 2-year-old underfoot can be compared to brushing your teeth while eating Oreos. Every time my back was turned, she would dump out all the bananagram tiles, or all her play food, or all her books, or color with pen all over herself and the white leather couch.

yep this happened

I can't stand having everything we own scattered around in total chaos; it makes me twitch, so we worked for 3 very long days to get everything organized and I'm now really pleased with how it's turned out. Our house in Cincinnati was about 1600 square feet, plus a basement, and our house here is 1300 square feet, with no basement. We did leave quite a bit of stuff behind for the year, but even still, it's a fairly significant downsize and it took some creativity to find storage for everything we brought, plus a pile of more things to donate that missed the first donation round pre-move. It always feels so good to get rid of stuff you don't need!  I love it. Although I am a pack rat by nature so sometimes it takes some internal struggle, combined with encouragement from my husband, to make the leap to get rid of stuff. I'm always glad after the fact though!  It feels so much lighter.

There's not much to say about Thursday and Friday except we were balls to the wall unpacking until we collapsed into bed still jet lagged each night.  By Saturday it was finally starting to look livable, we were adjusting to Pacific time, and life was looking up. We made it!!