April visits from Opa and Tutu and Nana and Papa

The highlights in April were my birthday and visits from Opa and Tutu AND Nana and Papa, as well as the constant rain finally coming to an end.

Our awesome friends Elise, Veronique and Justin watched Valerie on my birthday so Rich and I could go out for a nice birthday dinner at Lure + Till in downtown Palo Alto. It was a wonderful delicious meal with excellent cocktails and perfect cool weather on the patio (under a heater). Very memorable.

a delicious chickpea appetizer at Lure + Till

dinner at Lure + Till

I also got to enjoy a fabulous birthday brunch with Elise and (the other) Liz at Local Union 271, my favorite brunch spot with the famous mimosa tree (six different 4 oz mimosas). Who could ask for anything more? It was a special treat to have dry, sunny and beautiful weather on my birthday, since it always rains in Cincinnati.

brunch at Local Union

The next weekend Opa and Tutu came to visit, and unfortunately the rain made its last, final appearance during (pretty much all of) their visit. Fortunately we did not let that get us down, and we still had a wonderful time. We spent time just hanging out at home and I made an admittedly outstanding garlic parmesan halibut with roasted asparagus for dinner. Their last day we had brunch at Bumble and drove up to Half Moon Bay and had a lovely wine tasting at Barterra Winery.  It was great fun as always and too short.

The weekend after that, Nana and Papa came to visit. They picked the perfect weekend to visit, with the spring sun finally coming out for good and gorgeous weather. We went for a picnic at Foothills with Oren's Hummus, and of course went to Stanford Shopping Center to spoil Valerie. She got a cupcake at Sprinkles, new shoes and bathing suits and a kitty in a purse, and was a rotten mess by the end of the day. It was of course wonderful as always to see them and too short.

Valerie also got her first haircut in April, at the age of 3 (whoops...) and she loved her swim lessons at the "frog slide pool" at the JCC. We were all happy to finally see spring and the return of sunshine!

California poppies, the state flower

Half Moon Bay

flowers in our garden

Owning the potty in 2016

Let's go back one month and cover our adventures in potty training.

It started back on December 9th, which I'll always remember since it was my father-in-law's 75th birthday. Valerie woke up with a dry diaper and I asked if she wanted to sit on the potty. She said yes, and she chilled out on the potty while I read her stories for a while, and then she peed on the potty. I cheered and maxed out my excitement and gave her candy, and suddenly, the connection was made. She knew she could pee on the potty for treats and we were off to the races. Well, I should say, I still put her in a diaper for school that day, since putting her in underwear based on peeing on the potty once seemed a bit hasty. But, her teachers said go for it, so we started sending her in underwear the next day.

The first week was definitely hit and miss and 2-3 pairs of pants per day at school, and then that weekend was the big Timm family get-together followed by norovirus, so we totally gave up on the potty for about a week in all that chaos.

Around Christmas, we started getting back on track, and while we were gone, Grandpa took over potty patrol with mostly good results, though he faced a few nasty accidents at the park that week. Upon our return home, though, we seemed to have made it through the woods. In our first full week home, she had just one accident, on Friday night, while we were watching a show together. (Suffice it to say, I look forward to the day we kick our couch to the curb.) Otherwise - the week was a blue ribbon victory, and I feel it is safe to say we officially have ourselves a potty trained child!!! So exciting!!! We even leave her in underwear at night and for naps since she was always waking up dry. Knock on wood - we haven't had any nighttime accidents yet!

I think being back on her usual schedule and going to school was the missing link. December was so crazy, with her only going to school one week of the month, and lots of traveling and visitors and sickness. Now that we are back in our normal routine, she is like an old potty pro. She even told me yesterday she had to pee while she was in the bathtub, and I hoisted her out of the bath to pee on the potty. #soproud #shediditallforafruitsnack

It feels so good to be home and together as a family. We had a nice first weekend of the year with Valerie, who was and still is SO, SO glad to have Mommy and Daddy back home with her. Most days she still excitedly says some variation of: "Mommy/Daddy, you came back!" "Mommy, you always come back." "I miss you." "I love you so much!"

It's the sweetest thing in the world, and really the most affection she's ever shown us, so we are eating it up with a spoon. We got to do lots of cuddling on the couch and playing together and I got all the hugs and kisses I could want. It is a wonderful change of pace from the terrible behavior and whining leading up to the holidays.

Friday night the 8th we watched planet earth (that's when the big couch accident occurred) and ordered sushi from Fuki Sushi, and walked over to pick it up. They have the BEST miso soup. I could drink it all day every day.

Saturday morning we went to Véronique, Elise and Justin's place for brunch - loaded waffles, sausage, melon and mimosas. Soooo delicious and so good to see everyone after a long holiday break! Then we did some shopping at the Stanford Shopping Center. Oh my god Becky, the sales!!! I got leggings and socks from baby Gap for lower prices than at consignment shops and Rich got some new shirts and pants. I may need to go back this week and take better advantage of all these crazy sales. Valerie did great walking all around by herself and then we came home and she took a FOUR HOUR NAP. What!?! We couldn't believe she slept so long. It was amazing. We made popcorn and  watched Wild and had some relaxing downtime.

Sunday morning was Valerie's beloved friend Kalinda's 3rd birthday party and we headed to her house for some preschool age chaos. They just got a new swing set and a weather miracle occurred: the clouds parted and the sun shined down on the party for a reprieve from the rainy and overcast winter. It was a beautiful day, maybe 55 degrees and with the sun shining, it was fantastic. Truckloads of 3-year-olds ran in circles, played in the sandbox, went down the slide, fought over the swings and tricycle, and basically had the best time ever, shrieking at the top of their lungs.

Valerie had the time of her life chasing Kalinda all around the yard, playing with her toys and trying to blow out the candle on her cupcake. She fortunately did not succeed. On our way home, she wanted to facetime with Kali. They truly are sisters at heart.

It was an exciting day, but after a four hour nap the day before, there was no nap to be had. Amazingly, she was in great spirits and a pleasure to be around all day even without one. We put together her new puzzle, played with Cinderella and the prince, read lots of books, played with her baby doll, facetimed with friends, sang Let it Go, made words with bananagram tiles, and snuggled on the couch watching Finding Nemo. Nothing beats those sweet snuggles. A wonderful winter weekend.

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!

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.

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.

skip everything else and just devour as much sticky toffee pudding as your stomach can hold.

how pretty are these cookies and cake balls!

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.

Grandpa's birthday, Redwoods at Big Basin, children's museum

We were very excited the first week of November to plan a last minute visit from my dad, whose birthday we got to celebrate on the 10th. It was his first time coming out to see us in the bay and we unfortunately disappointed him with unseasonably chilly weather.

After a scorching hot August and September and a gorgeous October, we saw highs in the low and mid 60s in early November and I finally caved and let Rich turn on the heat in the house.

We also saw some strange, foreign liquid fall from the sky several times, which we had hardly seen since we arrived. The first two Mondays in November were washed out and I drove Rich to Stanford and Valerie to school (normally he rides his bike and Valerie and I walk). The first two times it rained I had to dry off the convertible interior with a towel. Schwoopsies! I got so spoiled by the total lack of rain I wasn't prepared. I am now aware though that on occasion it does rain here and I check the forecast and make sure to put the top up ahead of time.

We keep hearing that a crazy El Nino is coming and we should expect lots of rain this winter but I am sticking my fingers in my ears, singing "La La La" and hoping it doesn't happen. I know, I know, this poor state is in dire need of water, but I just got here from Cincinnati, cut me a break!  I so enjoyed the bone dry late summer. I think I am secretly a lizard and I belong in the desert. That climate does so appeal to me.

On November first we turned the clocks back (for real this time) and Valerie amazingly slept in until 8 am (which felt like 9 am), instead of her usual daylight savings wakeup around 7-8 am. I woke up early as always but greatly enjoyed laying in bed undisturbed until 8 in what can best be described as mom nirvana. I know I have done nothing to deserve the greatest sleeping toddler in the world but I will joyfully bask in my good fortune as long as it lasts.

A few days later Dad booked his flights and he arrived Friday night the 6th. We always love having him stay. He plays with Valerie and is ever so helpful in every way, with cooking, dishes, trash, cleanup, vacuuming, shopping.... if only all parents were so lucky to have a Grandpa this awesome around! We could never thank him enough for all he does and know we really are as lucky as can be.

We drove down to Big Basin to see the redwoods and do some light hiking on Saturday. It was too chilly for me with all the shade from the trees, and walking at Valerie's pace did not allow us to warm up at all. When we found sunny spots I would stop and bask in them; it was SO much warmer in the sun!

The trees were pretty awesome though. I would love to do a longer hike there in the spring when it gets warm again, although the winding, twisty drive there had us all slightly nauseous. On the way home, Valerie complained that her tummy hurt, and that she had "ten babies in her belly." Whenever she gets a stomachache she tells us she has ten babies in there. I have no idea where she got that from but it cracks me up every time.

We went out to Fiesta Vallarta, our favorite Mexican spot in downtown Los Altos, for dinner that night and enjoyed a pitcher of margaritas and excellent food on the patio.

Sunday it rained and we took Valerie to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose since I had bought some groupons for discounted admission. This was not the best idea because everyone else with a toddler in the bay area had the same idea. They were having a Diwali celebration that day, and I have never seen such a crowded children's museum. I don't typically get claustrophobic but this was a horrible experience, waiting for every exhibit and feeling scrunched by all the people in my personal space. Once or twice Rich and I made eye contact: "kill me now." This kind of place on this kind of day will deter anyone from ever having a child.

I would never go back there again if I could avoid it, but I will admit it didn't seem to bother Valerie; she had a great time. I am just glad we had the discounted tickets because I would have been pissed if we had paid full price for that experience. She enjoyed herself, which is what matters. Rich, my dad and I could not wait to get the heck out of there.

It rained again Monday and we eagerly awaited some sun on Tuesday, Dad's birthday. He said he would like salmon and salad for dinner - two things he and I can always agree on - and I found a recipe I thought he would like, for a salmon BLT salad. It came out really good. Salmon with a rub of brown sugar, salt, pepper and paprika, with avocado, bacon, tomato, ranch dressing and walnuts. DELISH. No bacon on mine, of course. We just gave Valerie some salmon and bacon and she was happy. No lettuce gets past her lips yet.

She "helped" me make the chocolate cake from scratch with ground oats for flour, and I also made chocolate buttercream frosting, with half coconut oil since I ran out of butter. I found a great recipe which I will definitely use again  - no boiling water, no coffee, no creaming butter and sugar - the easiest cake-from-scratch recipe I could find. And it came out so good!

We sang happy birthday, Valerie got to help Grandpa blow out his candles and the birthday was a success! We are so glad we got to celebrate with Grandpa.

Super Rich Oreo Chocolate Peanut Butter Explosion Ice Cream Pie

My friend Sarah hosted a get-together this weekend to celebrate fall birthdays (since both she and her fiance have one) and she emailed me earlier this week to ask me where I recommended she get an ice cream cake.  She thought I might be an authority on the topic! Imagine that!

I immediately knew what I had to do:  I had to make a variation on the ice cream cake my mom always made (at my request) growing up.  She got it from my elementary school cookbook back in the day. It involved an oreo crust, a layer of homemade fudge, a layer of ice cream and cool whip topping. This thing absolutely embarrasses any store bought ice cream cake. And seriously Coldstone has a pretty great one. But I brought it to a whole new level and I couldn't not share it on here. 

First of all I had to make it gluten free since Sarah's fiance Peter, one of the birthday honorees, can't eat gluten. That was a super easy modification for this recipe, I just needed gluten-free Oreos for the crust. I bought a pack each of K-toos and Mi-del's and I used all 35 cookies (leaving one for a garnish on top). You definitely could not tell the difference from regular Oreos!

The second, very important edit was to make this a chocolate peanut butter cake. The ice cream I chose to use is one of my all time favorites, UDF Homemade Brand's Peanut butter & chip. And I added a layer of peanut butter to the cake.  CLUTCH I TELL YOU. I am obsessed with Smucker's Creamy Natural Peanut Butter. I don't know how they do it but it's the best peanut butter for real.

The third edit was the cool whip, which had to go.  I hate that stuff... so gross and fake and horrible for you. I made real whipped cream from scratch instead with heavy whipping cream.

I found a recipe for the fudge layer at Pinch of Yum using Pinterest since I couldn't get the original recipe from my mom in time.

Here goes. I am calling my version:

Oreo Chocolate Peanut Butter Explosion Ice Cream Pie

Crust:
 35 oreos (or gluten free version)
1.5 stick butter
Crush the oreos, melt the butter, mix together and spread in bottom of 9.75x14.75x2 dish. 35 yields a nice super thick crust.  You could use fewer for less crust.

Fudge:
1.5 (ish) cups of chocolate chips
1 stick butter
1 can evaporated milk
2 cups powdered sugar
combine in saucepan, bring to boil and stir continuously while it boils for 8 minutes, then let cool before layering over crust.

 Peanut Butter:
majority of a jar of Smuckers natural creamy peanut butter

Ice cream of choice. 
My choice:  3 pints of Homemade brand Peanut Butter & Chip, softened just enough to spread
4 pints would have been better but my 9.75x14.75x2 dish would have overflowed! A deeper dish would be perfect.

Whipped cream:
carton of heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup (ish) powdered sugar
splash of vanilla extract
whip together using hand mixer (preferably in an ice cold bowl using ice cold beaters) on increasingly high speed until it forms stiff peaks.

Toppings: go wild, get creative! I used rainbow sprinkles, birthday cake M&Ms, mini chocolate chips, a Reeses cup and an Oreo to make it festive and birthday-ish. You could use any sort of candy or decorations that strike your fancy!  The plain white whipped cream top layer is a perfect canvas for any theme or inspiration.

 I made this in 3 stages. The first night I made the oreo crust and refrigerated it in the glass dish, and made the whipped cream. The second night I made the fudge and added it as well as the peanut butter layer over the crust and refrigerated it, and the morning of the party I softened and added the ice cream, whipped cream and toppings to then be frozen. This worked out great.  But you could certainly do all of it at once if you have time, it just needs to freeze together for several hours before serving.

I can't even explain to you how good this is.  If you are a chocolate, peanut butter, ice cream and oreo lover like I am... this is dessert nirvana. It is SO rich. This recipe will feed a LOT of people, at least 20 depending on how huge of slices they want. Maybe not 20 NFL players.

But... go ahead and make it.  If you dare. I can't promise you won't eat piece after piece like me, and when you find someone else's abandoned piece at the end of the night that you won't also eat that, like I did. It's that good. And I am that shameless. OCPBEICP (Oreo Chocolate Peanut Butter Explosion Ice Cream Pie) for the win.