A Snapshot of Valerie's Favorite Things in January 2016
Valerie is totally obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and would prefer to watch it on an endless loop. She asks lots of questions about it. "Does the Cheshire cat live in the dark hole in the tree? He has pink and purple stripes."
Do you love the Cheshire cat?
Yeah.
"What does the Caterpillar say?"
"What's the lady in the purple dress's name?" (Alice's sister)
"But but but but but but but - the rabbit says that."
"Allison's cat's name is Diamond." (She sometimes calls Alice Allison)
No, it's Dinah.
No, Diamond!
It's Dinah.
No, DIAMOND!
Okay. Sure.
"Who's the other one at the tea party with the March Hare?"
"The Mad Hatter."
"The Mad Hatter and the March Hare gave Alice a birthday cake!"
"The cards are painting the roses red."
"Why is Alice crying?"
She also loves to say "What nonsense!" or "Ponsense!" or other versions of nonsense.
Another phrase she's picked up is "Stop kidding me, Mom/Daddy!" with a wave of her hand. We are not sure where that came from.
Her newest favorite food is the bell pepper. Preferably orange or yellow but will devour any color and keep asking for more. She also loves apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, freezer waffles, pancakes, bread, pizza, PB&J, and of course, fruit snacks and M&Ms are still the center of her existence. She'd live on carbs if you let her, but also likes chicken nuggets or fish sticks with plenty of ketchup, sausage, shrimp, and salmon.
She still goes to bed like a dream and sleeps like a champion, sometimes until 8:15-8:30 am. She still sleeps with her binky (pacifier) every night and we are dreading taking it away and messing with her amazing sleep habits.
She LOVES books. She loves being read to, and also "reading" books herself. If it's a book she's read before, she'll try and recite it from memory as best she can, and make up words to fill in what she can't recall. She will make up a story for any book she can find, including adult books with no pictures. She knows all her numbers and letters and can spell her own name, but can't sound out words very well yet. She often asks how to spell things.
She loves flowers and plants in general. I told her she can't pick flowers or leaves off of plants, but she can smell and touch them gently. Every day on our walk to school, she stops to pick a weed, or leaf, or some kind of plant to give to me or one of her teachers. She calls dandelions "sunflowers" (even after I told her they are called dandelions. She insisted that no, they are sunflowers) and loves those the most, since she is allowed to pluck them. We are anxiously awaiting spring, when we will see more flowers on our way to school.
She likes dinosaurs and pronounces T Rex "teerix" which never fails to crack me up. Her main concern is what do dinosaurs eat? And she has told me that the dinosaurs are dead. I don't think she quite grasps what that means.
Other things she loves:
her baby doll, which she named Caiya after her friend at school
puppies
cats
Cinderella
ballerinas
anything princess related
anything sparkly or pink, or brightly colored
Halloween
Christmas
her birthday
blowing out candles
the beach
being upside-down
having her nails painted
stickers
presents
sprinkles
cake/cupcakes, though she will only lick the frosting off the top.
trains
block towers
lip gloss
bubbles
balloons
splashing in puddles
the zoo
pretty much everything in life
We asked her if she would rather have a puppy or a baby sister/brother, and she chose a puppy. Sorry kid.
She misses her friends from home and her cousins a whole lot and asks about them all the time. She asks every day if it is summer yet, so she can play with Sophie, Hannah and Harper. She also wants to move to "Indy-apolis" and live with cousin Carter. You can tell she loves Mommy and Daddy though. She's in a pretty big Daddy phase right now - totally crazy about Daddy, since he is the most fun to play with. But she also loves Mommy, and we get to read lots of books and snuggle together. She finally started saying "I love you" without being prompted, which is amazing.
Her first year as a baby seemed like it would never end. I felt like I
would be the mother of a baby forEVER. But time seems to be speeding up
now and I can hardly believe she is 3 and such a big girl. When people
would tell me to enjoy that first year, "the time goes by so fast," I couldn't believe
them, it was dragging by so painfully. But now it really is flying and suddenly I believe that she is going to grow up into a teenager and an adult one day. Some days she looks so grown up it makes me want to cry. I'm trying to hold onto the sweet toddler moments while they last.
Although we have our challenges, tantrums, and plenty of frustrating days, she grows more fun and sweet every day. I love getting to know her more and more as her verbal skills improve and am so looking forward to what this year will bring.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Monday, January 4, 2016
Christmas break with Grandpa, Grandma and Noi
On Friday December 18th Valerie's school had their Christmas party and the kids sang and danced for all the parents. Well... some of them did. Valerie had missed the week of school leading up to the party and a lot of the rehearsal time, and she froze in front of all the parents and didn't really participate in the show. She stood and looked at us for a few minutes, and then she turned and faced her back to us for the rest of it. She did better than some of the other kids, who ran to their parents crying and refused to even stand up with their classmates, and some who laid on the floor.
On the bright side, she totally rocked her gold party pants.
The 2- and 3-year-olds were kind of a hot mess, but the 4- and 5-year-olds were extremely cute to watch. Then they gave out crowns and presents to the 5 kids having birthdays over the winter break, including Valerie, so that was really sweet too. I found out her best friend at school, Caiya, is actually only 2 days younger than her - their birthdays are December 30th and January 1st. Who knew?
That was the last day of school before they closed for 2 weeks, the same 2 weeks Rich had off from Stanford, and Grandpa arrived that afternoon, much to our delight. We all walked together to pick up Valerie from school and then to Papa Murphy's to get pizza for dinner. I'm fairly obsessed with their gourmet vegetarian. It has artichokes, onions, mushrooms, tomato, spinach and zucchini... soooo delicious.
Our Christmas cards also finally arrived that day from Snapfish. They had forgotten my order and had me stressing until they discovered it, sent me an email to say they were sorry they delayed my order and were express-shipping them to me. I was surprised that I was able to address, stuff and stamp all of them in just about 2 hours and had them ready to mail on Saturday the 19th. Nothing like a little last minute xmas card stress!!
It was an all-around last-minute kind of Christmas this year. I ordered Valerie and her cousins' presents from Amazon the week of Christmas so they would arrive just in time, and I bought wrapping paper from walgreens on Christmas eve and wrapped the candy canes, fruit snacks and M&Ms from Santa that night. The presents from Santa were in gold paper and I got Sofia the First, Disney Princesses and Minnie Mouse paper for all the family gifts. Valerie's favorite part of presents is the wrapping paper. She gets the most excited for the ones wrapped in her favorite characters, so I definitely came through there.
We packed the last few days before Christmas with social visits and holiday fun - Saturday morning we got Happy Donuts on our way back from the gym, and then we met Rich's old friend Heather in San Francisco and they took Valerie to the Exploratorium while my dad and I walked around the Fisherman's Wharf area. Sunday was our date night for Rich's birthday, and Monday we went on the Holiday Lights train in Santa Cruz with Anjuli, James and Kalinda, and then to Saturn Cafe, a vegetarian restaurant for dinner. Oh how much I love the vegetarian restaurants here in California!!!! I will miss that scene so much. We got nachos served over sweet potato fries instead of chips (YUM!) and I got a barbecue "chicken" salad... SO much food. I just get so excited at these places, where I can order anything off the menu, that I go overboard. I'm used to having two, maybe three options on the menu at most places. Although I have to admit, that does help make the decision-making process easier.
Tuesday we went to dinner at some new friends' house in Mountain View and met their son Rush who is about a year younger than Valerie and an adorable cherub with fine blond curls. I brought cookies and champagne, and they made a delicious dinner of sauteed artichokes, salmon, mashed potatoes and green beans. We had a great time with them so I'm sure we'll have them over for dinner soon. They are expecting another little boy in March.
Wednesday we met Angela and Tushar at the Fogarty Winery for a wine tasting, which was enjoyable if extremely chilly. It was too cold to stand outside and enjoy the gorgeous view but always fun catching up with them.
The most hilarious moment was after Rich took Valerie to the bathroom, and she emerged into the wine tasting room full of people and shouted, "I PEED ON THE POTTY, MOM!!!!" Just keeping it classy at the winery, it's what we do.
Rich's mom and stepdad arrived that night and we got to see them briefly before everyone turned in for the night. Valerie was in her element, with Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma and Noi to play with her. It poured rain on the 24th but we sneaked out for a quick walk at the Dish during a break in the rain, which we timed perfectly.
Grandma Julie cooked a fancy dinner on Christmas eve of cheesy scalloped potatoes and ratatouille and Rich made salmon, and then I (with a bit of "help" from Valerie) made the chocolate chip cookies for Santa. I used oat flour, which is my new signature flour I always bake with, and both white and dark chocolate chips. They came out sweet, chewy and super delicious. Here's the recipe I used, which I will definitely use again. I omitted the coffee, and I used only brown sugar and 2 cups of oat flour, and omitted the granulated sugar and flour it called for. Santa gave them 2 thumbs up.
Valerie dictated the note to Santa:
and we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and called it a night.
There isn't much better than Christmas morning with a 3-year-old. Valerie was SO excited to open every present and she wanted to immediately open and play with each one, so it took close to 3 hours for her to open everything. I think her favorite thing was the baby doll from Nana, which she named Caiya. She also got a baby stroller, Cinderella dress-up dress and shoes, sweater dress, train tracks, princess Barbies and ballet slippers which were big hits. It was so much fun just watching and helping her open everything. The grown-ups drank ho-ho-ho-sas (which is what I call champagne with a splash of cranberry or pomegranate juice) and opened one or two presents each. It was lovely.
We went for a walk at Foothills Park that afternoon since it was much drier. It was a bit chilly but sunny and really beautiful. Then we came back and had Grandma's vegetarian chili with bread for Christmas dinner. A successful California Christmas!
The 2- and 3-year-olds were kind of a hot mess, but the 4- and 5-year-olds were extremely cute to watch. Then they gave out crowns and presents to the 5 kids having birthdays over the winter break, including Valerie, so that was really sweet too. I found out her best friend at school, Caiya, is actually only 2 days younger than her - their birthdays are December 30th and January 1st. Who knew?
That was the last day of school before they closed for 2 weeks, the same 2 weeks Rich had off from Stanford, and Grandpa arrived that afternoon, much to our delight. We all walked together to pick up Valerie from school and then to Papa Murphy's to get pizza for dinner. I'm fairly obsessed with their gourmet vegetarian. It has artichokes, onions, mushrooms, tomato, spinach and zucchini... soooo delicious.
Our Christmas cards also finally arrived that day from Snapfish. They had forgotten my order and had me stressing until they discovered it, sent me an email to say they were sorry they delayed my order and were express-shipping them to me. I was surprised that I was able to address, stuff and stamp all of them in just about 2 hours and had them ready to mail on Saturday the 19th. Nothing like a little last minute xmas card stress!!
It was an all-around last-minute kind of Christmas this year. I ordered Valerie and her cousins' presents from Amazon the week of Christmas so they would arrive just in time, and I bought wrapping paper from walgreens on Christmas eve and wrapped the candy canes, fruit snacks and M&Ms from Santa that night. The presents from Santa were in gold paper and I got Sofia the First, Disney Princesses and Minnie Mouse paper for all the family gifts. Valerie's favorite part of presents is the wrapping paper. She gets the most excited for the ones wrapped in her favorite characters, so I definitely came through there.
 |
| enjoying a few sprinkles |
 |
| the tree at Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf |
We packed the last few days before Christmas with social visits and holiday fun - Saturday morning we got Happy Donuts on our way back from the gym, and then we met Rich's old friend Heather in San Francisco and they took Valerie to the Exploratorium while my dad and I walked around the Fisherman's Wharf area. Sunday was our date night for Rich's birthday, and Monday we went on the Holiday Lights train in Santa Cruz with Anjuli, James and Kalinda, and then to Saturn Cafe, a vegetarian restaurant for dinner. Oh how much I love the vegetarian restaurants here in California!!!! I will miss that scene so much. We got nachos served over sweet potato fries instead of chips (YUM!) and I got a barbecue "chicken" salad... SO much food. I just get so excited at these places, where I can order anything off the menu, that I go overboard. I'm used to having two, maybe three options on the menu at most places. Although I have to admit, that does help make the decision-making process easier.
 |
| Valerie and Kalinda had a blast on the train |
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| Santa even stopped by for a picture |
Tuesday we went to dinner at some new friends' house in Mountain View and met their son Rush who is about a year younger than Valerie and an adorable cherub with fine blond curls. I brought cookies and champagne, and they made a delicious dinner of sauteed artichokes, salmon, mashed potatoes and green beans. We had a great time with them so I'm sure we'll have them over for dinner soon. They are expecting another little boy in March.
Wednesday we met Angela and Tushar at the Fogarty Winery for a wine tasting, which was enjoyable if extremely chilly. It was too cold to stand outside and enjoy the gorgeous view but always fun catching up with them.
The most hilarious moment was after Rich took Valerie to the bathroom, and she emerged into the wine tasting room full of people and shouted, "I PEED ON THE POTTY, MOM!!!!" Just keeping it classy at the winery, it's what we do.
Rich's mom and stepdad arrived that night and we got to see them briefly before everyone turned in for the night. Valerie was in her element, with Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma and Noi to play with her. It poured rain on the 24th but we sneaked out for a quick walk at the Dish during a break in the rain, which we timed perfectly.
Grandma Julie cooked a fancy dinner on Christmas eve of cheesy scalloped potatoes and ratatouille and Rich made salmon, and then I (with a bit of "help" from Valerie) made the chocolate chip cookies for Santa. I used oat flour, which is my new signature flour I always bake with, and both white and dark chocolate chips. They came out sweet, chewy and super delicious. Here's the recipe I used, which I will definitely use again. I omitted the coffee, and I used only brown sugar and 2 cups of oat flour, and omitted the granulated sugar and flour it called for. Santa gave them 2 thumbs up.
Valerie dictated the note to Santa:
and we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and called it a night.
There isn't much better than Christmas morning with a 3-year-old. Valerie was SO excited to open every present and she wanted to immediately open and play with each one, so it took close to 3 hours for her to open everything. I think her favorite thing was the baby doll from Nana, which she named Caiya. She also got a baby stroller, Cinderella dress-up dress and shoes, sweater dress, train tracks, princess Barbies and ballet slippers which were big hits. It was so much fun just watching and helping her open everything. The grown-ups drank ho-ho-ho-sas (which is what I call champagne with a splash of cranberry or pomegranate juice) and opened one or two presents each. It was lovely.
We went for a walk at Foothills Park that afternoon since it was much drier. It was a bit chilly but sunny and really beautiful. Then we came back and had Grandma's vegetarian chili with bread for Christmas dinner. A successful California Christmas!
Gerry's 75th birthday celebration part 2: Norovirus
We had planned to go bowling on Sunday night December 13th to celebrate the 4 other Timm family birthdays within the month: Rich's on the 14th, and all 3 grandkids, Aubrey, Elon and Valerie. We went to Homestead Bowl in Cupertino and luckily got 2 lanes right away.
My stomach had started hurting before we left for the bowling alley. It was very strange. I figured my pants were just too tight after all the dessert I had at the holiday party that afternoon and it would go away. It didn't let up for an hour, though, and kept getting worse instead. I wasn't nauseous, my stomach was just killing me.
After we had bowled a couple frames, Susan noticed the look on my face and asked if she should take me home. I was planning to just power through the game, but upon being asked, I realized I should probably go home. I was in agony by then.
In hindsight, thank heaven for Susan. She saved me from puking at the bowling alley. I changed my shoes with some effort and waited inside while she went to get the car. On the 20 minute drive home, I felt the nausea begin to set in. I focused all my efforts on not puking in the rental car. By some miracle, we made it all the way home and I made it into the bathroom in time for the first, horrible evacuation of my upper digestive tract.
I spent the rest of the night lying in bed with the bowl of Valerie's potty on the pillow next to me just in case. Fortunately I did not use it. I ran to the bathroom every 1-2 hours to empty the contents of my stomach, for the last time around 11:30 pm. The worst of the virus mercifully only lasted about 5-6 hours. I was ravenously thirsty and tried to take only tiny sips of water, since they would shortly be rejected. Sometime around midnight, cautiously hopeful that the worst was over, I started chugging more water and was able to get some sleep.
The rest of the family had finished bowling, ordered pizza and came back to the house to eat mini cupcakes and sing happy birthday. I could hear the commotion but could not get out of bed to say hello from the doorway by then. Or goodbye, because everyone went back to the airport and home the next day.
We woke up around 5 am Monday morning (Rich's birthday) to Valerie crying because she threw up in her bed and on the wall next to it. NOOOOOOOOO.... it got her. I was wobbly and exhausted but at least done with the puking, and the last thing I was hoping for was being on toddler vomit alert for the day. Poor baby. It was all in her hair, on her clothes, her sheets... we stripped her down, stripped her bed, laid new sheets and towels down and tried to comfort her. Thank goodness for Adam and Justina, our houseguests for the weekend, who helped clean off the wall and clean up the living area before they packed up and hightailed it out of there.
We set up the kindle by her bed so she could watch shows and I started the first of many, MANY hot loads of laundry.The worst part scratch that - everything is the worst part about watching your toddler battle norovirus. Seeing her suffer and cry is clearly the worst. But the mess is way up there too. We couldn't get Valerie to aim into a bucket or onto a towel very well since the episodes came on so fast. We tried to aim her but with only moderate success. Every time she puked, clothes, sheets, the rug, furniture... anything nearby was in danger of getting hit. And she had it worse than I did - her puking lasted 12 hours.
By the time she was done, I needed to launder everything in the house that could go in the washing machine. Over the next few days I definitely set a personal lifetime record for most loads of laundry, all on the hottest setting. Sheets, towels, blankets, pillows, mattress pads, clothes, cleaning rags... did I mention we started potty training just a few days earlier? Combine weekend guests, potty training and norovirus and what do you get? Near-homicidal volumes of laundry, along with bleaching every bleachable surface in the house.
My dad was coming to visit the following Friday so I wanted to get everything disinfected by then. It was a long week. I was still getting over the lingering effects of the virus, cleaning and doing laundry as fast as I could, and Valerie was home with me all week since we did not want to send that virus to school with her. She seemed totally back to normal on Tuesday, thankfully, but still had to miss school.
Poor Rich really got the shaft on his birthday. He worked from home all day and helped take care of Valerie, and we didn't do any presents or cake or sing. I hadn't even gotten a card yet and I forgot to give him his present (a Betabrand bike-to-work jacket) that day amid the chaos. I made it up to him a little bit on Sunday when my dad was here and we were able to have a night out to celebrate. We went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the theater and went out for sushi in Mountain View - his dream night out. And I did eventually remember to give him the jacket, and a card. I think he has forgiven me for dropping the ball pretty hard this year.
Next year he hits the big 3-5 so I'll have to do something big for that one! Valerie and I sure are lucky to have such an awesome guy to take care of us. And he is lucky - he somehow dodged the virus and never got sick. It must be his blood type. He certainly was exposed!
My stomach had started hurting before we left for the bowling alley. It was very strange. I figured my pants were just too tight after all the dessert I had at the holiday party that afternoon and it would go away. It didn't let up for an hour, though, and kept getting worse instead. I wasn't nauseous, my stomach was just killing me.
After we had bowled a couple frames, Susan noticed the look on my face and asked if she should take me home. I was planning to just power through the game, but upon being asked, I realized I should probably go home. I was in agony by then.
In hindsight, thank heaven for Susan. She saved me from puking at the bowling alley. I changed my shoes with some effort and waited inside while she went to get the car. On the 20 minute drive home, I felt the nausea begin to set in. I focused all my efforts on not puking in the rental car. By some miracle, we made it all the way home and I made it into the bathroom in time for the first, horrible evacuation of my upper digestive tract.
I spent the rest of the night lying in bed with the bowl of Valerie's potty on the pillow next to me just in case. Fortunately I did not use it. I ran to the bathroom every 1-2 hours to empty the contents of my stomach, for the last time around 11:30 pm. The worst of the virus mercifully only lasted about 5-6 hours. I was ravenously thirsty and tried to take only tiny sips of water, since they would shortly be rejected. Sometime around midnight, cautiously hopeful that the worst was over, I started chugging more water and was able to get some sleep.
The rest of the family had finished bowling, ordered pizza and came back to the house to eat mini cupcakes and sing happy birthday. I could hear the commotion but could not get out of bed to say hello from the doorway by then. Or goodbye, because everyone went back to the airport and home the next day.
We woke up around 5 am Monday morning (Rich's birthday) to Valerie crying because she threw up in her bed and on the wall next to it. NOOOOOOOOO.... it got her. I was wobbly and exhausted but at least done with the puking, and the last thing I was hoping for was being on toddler vomit alert for the day. Poor baby. It was all in her hair, on her clothes, her sheets... we stripped her down, stripped her bed, laid new sheets and towels down and tried to comfort her. Thank goodness for Adam and Justina, our houseguests for the weekend, who helped clean off the wall and clean up the living area before they packed up and hightailed it out of there.
We set up the kindle by her bed so she could watch shows and I started the first of many, MANY hot loads of laundry.
By the time she was done, I needed to launder everything in the house that could go in the washing machine. Over the next few days I definitely set a personal lifetime record for most loads of laundry, all on the hottest setting. Sheets, towels, blankets, pillows, mattress pads, clothes, cleaning rags... did I mention we started potty training just a few days earlier? Combine weekend guests, potty training and norovirus and what do you get? Near-homicidal volumes of laundry, along with bleaching every bleachable surface in the house.
My dad was coming to visit the following Friday so I wanted to get everything disinfected by then. It was a long week. I was still getting over the lingering effects of the virus, cleaning and doing laundry as fast as I could, and Valerie was home with me all week since we did not want to send that virus to school with her. She seemed totally back to normal on Tuesday, thankfully, but still had to miss school.
Poor Rich really got the shaft on his birthday. He worked from home all day and helped take care of Valerie, and we didn't do any presents or cake or sing. I hadn't even gotten a card yet and I forgot to give him his present (a Betabrand bike-to-work jacket) that day amid the chaos. I made it up to him a little bit on Sunday when my dad was here and we were able to have a night out to celebrate. We went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the theater and went out for sushi in Mountain View - his dream night out. And I did eventually remember to give him the jacket, and a card. I think he has forgiven me for dropping the ball pretty hard this year.
Next year he hits the big 3-5 so I'll have to do something big for that one! Valerie and I sure are lucky to have such an awesome guy to take care of us. And he is lucky - he somehow dodged the virus and never got sick. It must be his blood type. He certainly was exposed!
Friday, December 25, 2015
Gerry's 75th birthday celebration - part 1
Just four days after we got back home from our Thanksgiving trip, the Timms were due to arrive in Palo Alto to celebrate Rich's dad's 75th birthday. This equaled four days of cleaning, unpacking and preparing for our visitors, which turned out to be exactly how much time I needed.
The first things to do were order our Christmas cards and decorate for Christmas. We got home late on December 6th so I already felt way behind.
The only Christmas decoration we brought to California with us was a small mini fake tree, since we didn't have anywhere to store Christmas stuff for the rest of the year. We didn't bring any ornaments, our stockings, or anything else. I ordered a bunch of indoor and outdoor lights from Amazon (I may have a slight obsession with string lights, any and everywhere. They make everything so festive year round!). So our backyard, front yard, and also inside the family room are colorfully lit now, which is plenty of Christmas spirit for me.
We got our first (and probably last) real Christmas tree from the Sea Scouts Christmas tree lot; we thought we would get something very small that might fit in the front window, but they didn't have anything very small, so we went ahead and got a full-sized, bushy 6+ foot tree for the family room.
We were disappointed that it didn't seem to bring the piney smell home from the lot, and it also required daily watering and crapped pine needles all over the floor. Not a big deal, but just annoying enough to make me not want to do it again. Maybe it would be worth it for a nice piney smell, but I never discerned a pine scent in our house at all, even the first day. I'll be glad to go back to our nice, low-maintenance, pre-lit fake tree next year.
I decided to do the tree in full Valerie style this year since we didn't have any of our usual ornaments. I got pink and purple string lights and hung various princess and ballerina accessories on it, along with Carter's picture and a Santa hat for the top. It looks a bit sparse but it will have to do this year.
I was a domestic machine that week, catching up on laundry, changing sheets on the beds, vacuuming, cleaning the floors, dusting, hanging lights, making and ordering our cards, and stocking up on all kinds of snacks, drinks and breakfast foods. I got a break on Tuesday night for the second book club meeting at Elise and Véronique's place, where we had wine and cheese and chocolate fondues. It was a great time catching up with the girls, talking about the book (At the Water's Edge), and gorging on way too much cheese and chocolate and cheesecake and wine.
On Thursday, Gerry and Susan arrived and we toasted with champagne before we picked up Valerie from school and attempted to eat at Terun for dinner. They had a long wait so that was a no-go and we found ourselves at Cafe Brioche instead. Rich and Gerry ordered the lobster ravioli special and Susan and I shared the trout special, and for dessert we had macarons, chocolate mousse and chocolate ice cream for Valerie. Everything was delicious. This was clearly a place that did not see a lot of 3-year-olds, but they were very accommodating and kind enough to make chicken nuggets and fries for her.
Friday was a great day. Susan brought me to Costco (for the first time ever!) and we stocked up on wine, champagne and treats for the big fiesta at our house on Saturday night. They had a ton of tasty samples out and so many great deals! I can see why people pay to belong there. I'm sure a Costco membership is in our future.
Then I took her to Oren's Hummus in Mountain View for lunch. Still the best. And we picked up ice cream from Rick's to go with the birthday cake. Rich took Gerry to lunch with his team, and then we all met back at the house to meet the rest of the family arriving from the airport. Adam, Justina, Aubrey and Joe arrived from St. Louis and we all headed over to the Magical Bridge playground to sneak in an hour of playtime for the kids before dinner. David, Jenessa and their kids met us there. We got a great family photo on the slide hill at the park before dinner.
We had reserved a big table at our favorite Mexican place in Los Altos, Fiesta Vallarta, and it was the perfect choice for our group. We had a table next to their aquarium full of huge tropical fish, and a mariachi band came to play Feliz Navidad, La Bamba, and Happy Birthday to Gerry. The service was quick, the margarita pitchers kept coming, the food was excellent as always, and the live mariachi band was the cherry on top of a perfect meal. The kids were entranced by the fish and after they scarfed their meals and danced to the music they glued their faces to the aquarium. It was absolutely perfect.
On Saturday, most of the group headed down to Big Basin to see the redwoods, which we had just done a month before, and I went to the gym instead and enjoyed a lovely, quiet morning before the party.
The caterers were due to arrive at 4 and the dinner was to start at 5:30. We set up videos to play in the play room to entertain the kids and the adults successfully enjoyed a lovely and peaceful meal together, starting with a champagne toast and some group pictures. The catering - Cheat-a-Little catering - was great! The appetizers hooked us and nothing disappointed, although they brought enough food to feed a party many times larger. We reflected on how much things had changed since Gerry's 70th birthday celebration 5 years ago - from zero kids to 6. A slightly different family dynamic these days! And much to celebrate.
Susan had ordered a spice cake for the birthday cake and we all sang happy birthday and ate cake and ice cream while the boys argued about slinky physics and conducted experiments around the table.
We all agreed the night was a great success.
Sunday afternoon Rich and I stopped by the biodesign holiday party for an hour or so, which was probably the most spectacular party I've ever seen in someone's home. Wow. I wish I had taken pictures of the kitchen. The whole house, but especially the kitchen, was the stuff fantasies are made of. I did get a picture of the dessert spread, which included the most amazing sticky toffee pudding.
About an hour after we left the party, I went down like the the Titanic, and the iceberg that took me out was the norovirus. For more on our adventures in puking, read on to part 2.
The first things to do were order our Christmas cards and decorate for Christmas. We got home late on December 6th so I already felt way behind.
The only Christmas decoration we brought to California with us was a small mini fake tree, since we didn't have anywhere to store Christmas stuff for the rest of the year. We didn't bring any ornaments, our stockings, or anything else. I ordered a bunch of indoor and outdoor lights from Amazon (I may have a slight obsession with string lights, any and everywhere. They make everything so festive year round!). So our backyard, front yard, and also inside the family room are colorfully lit now, which is plenty of Christmas spirit for me.
We got our first (and probably last) real Christmas tree from the Sea Scouts Christmas tree lot; we thought we would get something very small that might fit in the front window, but they didn't have anything very small, so we went ahead and got a full-sized, bushy 6+ foot tree for the family room.
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| bringing the tree home on top of the car |
We were disappointed that it didn't seem to bring the piney smell home from the lot, and it also required daily watering and crapped pine needles all over the floor. Not a big deal, but just annoying enough to make me not want to do it again. Maybe it would be worth it for a nice piney smell, but I never discerned a pine scent in our house at all, even the first day. I'll be glad to go back to our nice, low-maintenance, pre-lit fake tree next year.
I decided to do the tree in full Valerie style this year since we didn't have any of our usual ornaments. I got pink and purple string lights and hung various princess and ballerina accessories on it, along with Carter's picture and a Santa hat for the top. It looks a bit sparse but it will have to do this year.
I was a domestic machine that week, catching up on laundry, changing sheets on the beds, vacuuming, cleaning the floors, dusting, hanging lights, making and ordering our cards, and stocking up on all kinds of snacks, drinks and breakfast foods. I got a break on Tuesday night for the second book club meeting at Elise and Véronique's place, where we had wine and cheese and chocolate fondues. It was a great time catching up with the girls, talking about the book (At the Water's Edge), and gorging on way too much cheese and chocolate and cheesecake and wine.
On Thursday, Gerry and Susan arrived and we toasted with champagne before we picked up Valerie from school and attempted to eat at Terun for dinner. They had a long wait so that was a no-go and we found ourselves at Cafe Brioche instead. Rich and Gerry ordered the lobster ravioli special and Susan and I shared the trout special, and for dessert we had macarons, chocolate mousse and chocolate ice cream for Valerie. Everything was delicious. This was clearly a place that did not see a lot of 3-year-olds, but they were very accommodating and kind enough to make chicken nuggets and fries for her.
Friday was a great day. Susan brought me to Costco (for the first time ever!) and we stocked up on wine, champagne and treats for the big fiesta at our house on Saturday night. They had a ton of tasty samples out and so many great deals! I can see why people pay to belong there. I'm sure a Costco membership is in our future.
Then I took her to Oren's Hummus in Mountain View for lunch. Still the best. And we picked up ice cream from Rick's to go with the birthday cake. Rich took Gerry to lunch with his team, and then we all met back at the house to meet the rest of the family arriving from the airport. Adam, Justina, Aubrey and Joe arrived from St. Louis and we all headed over to the Magical Bridge playground to sneak in an hour of playtime for the kids before dinner. David, Jenessa and their kids met us there. We got a great family photo on the slide hill at the park before dinner.
We had reserved a big table at our favorite Mexican place in Los Altos, Fiesta Vallarta, and it was the perfect choice for our group. We had a table next to their aquarium full of huge tropical fish, and a mariachi band came to play Feliz Navidad, La Bamba, and Happy Birthday to Gerry. The service was quick, the margarita pitchers kept coming, the food was excellent as always, and the live mariachi band was the cherry on top of a perfect meal. The kids were entranced by the fish and after they scarfed their meals and danced to the music they glued their faces to the aquarium. It was absolutely perfect.
On Saturday, most of the group headed down to Big Basin to see the redwoods, which we had just done a month before, and I went to the gym instead and enjoyed a lovely, quiet morning before the party.
The caterers were due to arrive at 4 and the dinner was to start at 5:30. We set up videos to play in the play room to entertain the kids and the adults successfully enjoyed a lovely and peaceful meal together, starting with a champagne toast and some group pictures. The catering - Cheat-a-Little catering - was great! The appetizers hooked us and nothing disappointed, although they brought enough food to feed a party many times larger. We reflected on how much things had changed since Gerry's 70th birthday celebration 5 years ago - from zero kids to 6. A slightly different family dynamic these days! And much to celebrate.
Susan had ordered a spice cake for the birthday cake and we all sang happy birthday and ate cake and ice cream while the boys argued about slinky physics and conducted experiments around the table.
We all agreed the night was a great success.
Sunday afternoon Rich and I stopped by the biodesign holiday party for an hour or so, which was probably the most spectacular party I've ever seen in someone's home. Wow. I wish I had taken pictures of the kitchen. The whole house, but especially the kitchen, was the stuff fantasies are made of. I did get a picture of the dessert spread, which included the most amazing sticky toffee pudding.
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| skip everything else and just devour as much sticky toffee pudding as your stomach can hold. |
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| how pretty are these cookies and cake balls! |
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Thanksgiving and two weeks in Cincinnati
I took my first Uber ride by myself (I've always been with other people who've called it before) to the airport and am now practically an expert on installing and un-installing the carseat in different cars. My pickup was delayed after the first driver dropped me and I didn't notice right away, but the second driver finally made it to pick us up, and although I was stressing a bit, we were making okay time when I realized I forgot the kindle. 911!!!!!! It was too late to turn around and get it. Sweet 8 lb 9 oz baby jesus.... we had a 10 hour travel day ahead of us and I had nothing to entertain my toddler except approximately 6 books. I freaked out for a second and, realizing there was nothing I could do about it, decided to hope for the best.
Amazingly, it was probably for the best that I didn't have it. Valerie was actually incredibly well behaved the entire day, only expressed anger very briefly when I told her there was no kindle, and was totally happy with the 6 books, snacks, a nap, and running around the SLC airport between flights. I could not believe my stupendous good luck. The trip out was a smashing success, with the biggest challenge being getting from the Uber to the check-in desk with two suitcases, a stroller, a car seat, a purse, a child backpack, and a Valerie. We are a sight with all our stuff. Once I checked the large suitcase and the car seat, and then the smaller suitcase at the gate, I had a manageable amount of stuff.
When we arrived in Cincinnati, my mom and stepdad were in the airport to help us bring our stuff to the car and boy were we happy to see them. Traveling alone with a toddler is no joke. Especially on a two-week trip to a cold destination requiring coats, boots, heavy sweaters... basically hundreds of pounds of stuff. It probably looked like I was taking my child on an expedition to the Arctic.
I need to learn to pack light.
We made it, and the next morning Rich made it with our rental car, and tried to squeeze in a couple hours of sleep before we had to drive to Lima for a friend's wedding at 1:30. He squeezed in a bit more sleep than we had time for, and we raced about 90 mph north to the wedding but of course did not make it to the church on time, and followed the bride into the nave around 1:32. So close!
It was the biggest wedding and the most people I've ever seen in a church. Someone said there were 380 people there. Both the bride and groom grew up in this small town and their parents still live there, so I guess that makes it probably the biggest wedding I'll ever see.
We knew more people than we expected and were so happy to see old friends and celebrate. It was a great party that went on for hours, with tons of dancing, including square dancing, cheesecake with toppings, stunning flower centerpieces, and seven different speeches from all the maids of honor and best men. Whew! We had a blast but didn't make it to the karaoke after party; by midnight poor Rich was dying on 2 hours of sleep.
The next morning we hurried back to my mom's to get Valerie and start making the rounds seeing friends. It was so wonderful to see and hug so many people we'd been missing so dearly. Valerie was in heaven seeing all her friends and favorite babies.
I was shocked to see how much all the babies had grown in 4 months, and all the men had grown beards. I hardly recognized some of them and felt sad to miss out on so much. Time has been flying by so fast, it's hard to believe our stay here is nearly half over already!
Our visit flew by in no time as we raced from visiting friends, to appointments (I got my hair cut and my tooth fixed, and I feel like a new woman these days!) and spending time with family. It was so great to see my nephew Carter, who has grown up so much in the last few months, into a sweet boy full of hugs and smiles and lots of babbling and talking.
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| Carter and me :) |
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| sweet cousins eating their Thanksgiving dinner |
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| Thanksgiving with family <3 |
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| Nana with Valerie and Carter <3 |
The kids helped decorate my mom's house for Christmas and she got them Hershey's kiss advent calendars so we can count down the days til Santa comes... although the concept of counting down the days may not be entirely clear to Valerie yet. She still wants to see her friends and open presents and ride the train and sit on Santa's lap and do everything fun NOW.
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| Cassie, Sam and Valerie hang ornaments on the tree |
She had the best two weeks visiting Nana and Papa; she got to play with play dough, see the trains at the museum center, eat lots of treats and lollipops, watch Mother Goose Club, pet Lucy the cat, and go shopping for sparkly new shoes.
We went to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo one mild Thursday night and got to ride the train, see the elephants and reindeer and sit on Santa's lap. We couldn't believe she actually sat on his lap this year! She was petrified and when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said "I don't know"... she always has an answer when we ask her! Haha. I think she did it all for the candy cane... she saw the bowl of candy canes by Santa and knew she'd get one. She was terrified of Elsa and Anna at the Frozen display and of the gingerbread man by the entrance so we were sure she wouldn't go near Santa again, but she surprised us and did great.
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| she did not crack a smile with Santa though. |
One of my favorite moments was when she held baby Wesley, who's only six weeks old, when we visited his family one day. I got the cutest video ever ... it makes my ovaries hurt. :)
We had a blast seeing all our friends on this trip. We miss everyone so much and can't wait to be reunited next summer.
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| these three just could not be cuter! |
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| Harper came over to play on Thanksgiving |
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| so much fun playing with Wesley's big brother, Max! |
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| holding Wesley <3 |
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a rare sweet moment with Hannah - these two love each other to death and also fight like cats and dogs!     |
We made it to the rental car drop-off, and the very nice man at Alamo found me a luggage rack to load my two suitcases and the car seat on. It didn't go super well though. The car seat kept falling off the rack, no matter which way I loaded it. Valerie and I were a barely mobile struggle bus, making our way from the rental car return to the Delta check-in counter. My faith in humanity was strong this day, though, as no less than five different kind strangers offered to help me push my luggage rack along our way to the counter. Such nice people in Indianapolis!
We made it to the counter, ditched the rack, checked our bags and car seat, fumbled through security (where Valerie threw herself on the floor fussing that she didn't want to get out of the stroller) and finally made it to our gate intact. A big thank you to the man behind us in the security line who told me Valerie is still really cute as she threw a nasty fit on the floor. This time, we had the kindle, but I had spent all our travel luck on the trip out. Valerie was absolutely terrible on the way home, fussing and crying for daddy and shredding my nerves to threads.
As we got ready to disembark from our second and final plane, she went for the grand finale, hurling herself on the floor of the aisle rather than walking off the plane when our turn came. I arranged my purse, her backpack, and our coats on one arm, picked her up with the other arm, and hauled her off the plane, beyond thankful that we were nearly home. Neither of us was ever so glad to see Rich waiting for us at baggage claim. Valerie made an immediate, miraculous recovery and ran to hug daddy, and I nearly collapsed with relief.
Boy was it good to be home!
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