Bahamas - New Year 2015-16

We had the amazing fortune of ringing in 2016 in Nassau, Bahamas with some of Rich's family. We spent just over 5 days there, in a condo on Sandyport Beach, and we did not bring Valerie, so this was classified as a "vacation" and not just a trip. My dad, the best grandpa in the world, came out to Palo Alto to stay with her while we were gone, so we knew she was in great hands.

It would be an understatement to say I was looking forward to this vacation.  We were gone Saturday-Saturday, and spent our first night away in Charlotte, NC, since our flights worked out that way, so 6 nights on the island - a whole week away. Sun, beaches, cocktails, mimosas, sleeping in... no potty training, no laundry, no tantrums, no time-outs... yes, this would be glorious.

It was glorious. The weather was perfection. I nearly forgot what maximum humidity is like, living in dry California. Wet things dry very quickly here. In the Bahamas, the bathing suit I wore on Monday was still slightly damp when we left on Saturday. When I got home and hung it up, it instantly finished drying. Things drying fast is nice, but I really don't mind humidity very much. My skin felt so wonderfully moisturized there, my lips did not crack and peel, and my face was not flaking and parched. I soaked that up while it lasted.

We had so many fun adventures throughout the week, with much thanks to Susan's stellar planning. Monday we had a chill day while most of the group went to the Atlantis, and we enjoyed frosty beverages at the Twisted Lime and naps on the gorgeous Sandyport Beach a few steps from our condo. We had planned to get a weekly pass to the gym across the street that morning, but it was closed for the day, and then we never made it back the rest of the week so... oh well. I ended up doing beachfront yoga 3 days out of the week so it wasn't a total loss on the fitness front.

strawberry daiquiris and mango passion at Twisted Lime - yum!

Sandyport Beach

Obviously, mimosas are an important part of a true tropical vacation

Tuesday, those of us who didn't go to the Atlantis got all-inclusive day passes to the Breezes resort at Cable Beach down the street. That day was amazing. There was a yoga class by the pool when we got there so I started with that, then a pina colada and lunch, then ocean kayaking, lying on the beach, more drinks, more kayaking, and finally more lying on the beach. Five stars, Tuesday.

Cable Beach, at Breezes

the pool at Breezes

yoga!

Rich and his dad sailed the sailboat

Wednesday we took an hour-long boat ride to the Exuma Islands where there were iguana and stingray feeding, shark wrangling, open bar, snorkeling, lunch and the most eyegasmic brilliant blue water you will see anywhere on earth. Absolutely stunning for photos - we took a lot of photos that day.

feeding the stingrays

Rich wrangling the shark

omg that water tho

right!?!?!?!

the whole Exuma crew

Thursday was New Year's Eve, and we went to Blue Lagoon with Adam, Justina, Whitney and Kelly. Again... such a fun day. I almost bailed on going because I got sunburned on Wednesday, but I'm glad I decided to go after all. I wore my rash guard and visor and tried not to get too much sun. We played in the floating inflatable park (where Justina, Kelly and I were starkly alerted to our lacking upper body strength as we could barely pull ourselves up onto the floats) - it was a blast though. We bounced on the trampoline, went down the slide, and crashed into the water like kids. In fact I think we were the only adults playing in that park, it was mostly kids. Then we did the water slide and obstacle course that were on land. Also very fun, except when we crashed into each other at the bottom of the slide. We ate lunch and got yards of mudslide and chilled in the hammocks for a while, played cornhole and jumbo connect four, and then went to see the dolphins and sea lions until it was time to take the boat back to Nassau.

that's us on the trampoline

excellent enormous alcoholic milkshakes

Kelly got the best pictures! she is awesome

Thursday night a local chef came to the condo to prepare a Bahamian New Year's Eve dinner and we had pina coladas and feasted and listened to Kevin (Sara's late father)'s tropical music before a champagne toast on the pool deck at midnight. Some of the group headed out around 1 am to go to Junkanoo, the local New Year celebration. The thought of heading out to a very loud, crowded place at 1 am was utterly repugnant to me, so I went to bed instead and had no regrets, though everyone who went said they enjoyed it.

the ladies! champagne toast

the whole group on NYE

Kelly took this at midnight! this is amazing! thank you Kelly!

Friday, New Year's Day, was our last day, and I had a lazy morning and then did 108 sun salutations on a ledge overlooking the ocean, and then jumped into the ocean, which felt absolutely incredible after the sweat and exhaustion of 108 sun salutations. I got the idea from yoga_girl on instagram and it was the perfect start to the new year. I didn't even know if I'd be able to do 108, but I did, and I felt like a champion afterwards. I was really soaking in that moment and feeling that life is good, that I am unbelievably lucky and every day on this bright blue earth is a gift. It looked particularly bright blue from that beautiful spot.

Speaking of that beautiful spot... a few words must be said about the condo we stayed in. It was.... well, it was memorable for sure. It had SO MUCH potential. The location was incredible. Right on the beach, walkable to restaurants and a gym, and super close to the airport. And it had an awesome, huge main area with doors opening out onto the pool deck. Too bad some of the doors didn't open, one was full of broken glass, and some had the handles broken off. The pool would have been so great... too bad it wasn't heated or filtering, so was basically unusable. It was usable the first day, but then it started looking green as the days went by, and I'm too much of a weenie to get into ice cold water anyway so no go for me.

the main area

thanks to Clare for taking pics of the condo!!

So many little things that should have been there, like toilet paper, towels and trash cans. We found one tiny trash can in the entire 7 bedroom condo.

the only trash can

A few light fixtures were broken, with broken glass on the ground. The kitchen had no oven and looked pretty thrown-together on a minimal budget but it was fine for our purposes. The biggest fail for me was that when the first of our group arrived, the property manager was sitting on the couch watching TV, and the dishwasher was packed full of nasty, dirty dishes from the last renters. JUST EW. She was dead to me after that.

While we were promised Wi-fi in the condo, only one small area along one wall received a signal. This actually ended up working out all right because it prevented us from being on our phones all the time all over the condo, but still... seriously?

here we are at the wi-fi wall on our devices

And while not technically a problem, each of the bathrooms in the bedrooms had a window to the attached bedroom, without curtains or anything to cover them. So, if you went into the bathroom in your bedroom to shower or use the toilet, anyone in the bedroom could see you. I'm sorry but THAT IS WEIRD AND UNCOMFORTABLE for me. I mean okay, I only shared a bedroom/bathroom with my husband, so not THAT crazy, but still!!! Doesn't everyone want total privacy for pooping? WHY WHY WHY would you put a window between the bathroom and bedroom? So you can see the ocean while pooping? Does not compute. Lose the window, bring back privacy! So weird.

this was our bedroom, featuring, on the left, the window to the bathroom, and to the right, tiny inadequate curtains

The worst thing of all was the tub/shower situation. This was also probably not the manager's fault, since we were told water pressure is a problem all over the island, but most of the bathrooms had tubs rather than showers, with a handheld shower sprayer and incredibly sad, slow water pressure. Two thumbs down from me. When I come in from the beach all sandy and salty, I want a hot, high-pressure SHOWER, to blast all the grime off. Not a cool, slow-trickle of water drizzling from a handle that I have to direct myself. When we came home on New Year's Eve and several of us tried to shower at once, the water completely stopped after I had soaped myself up and I sat shivering and soapy for a few minutes before I figured out I could turn the knob all the way to cold to get three or so drops per minute to rinse the soap off. It was the single worst "shower" of my entire life and it took everything in me to contain my rage and not burn the place to the ground.

the tub nightmares are made of

A few other complaints, in no particular order:
-A break-in at the condo next door to ours (scary!)
-Housekeeping only one day, should have come 3 more times
-The front door loudly scraped the floor when opening or closing
-Nasty stains all over the tablecloth
-The curtains did not cover the windows in the bedroom - very bright in the morning
-Empty mounts in the walls where TVs should have been
-Did I mention the shittiest water pressure in the history of plumbing?
-Mattresses on floor / no bed frames, crappy bedding
-A rat

the door that scraped the floor

Also, unrelated to the condo, I got absolutely eaten alive by mosquitoes. Skip this paragraph if you are squeamish. It is gross. By the last day I had at least 20 bites, mostly on my legs, feet and ankles, and most of them were itching me to death, extremely swollen, red, and leaking pus. I fantasized about clawing at my bites with sharp bristles until they bled. Another thing to appreciate about California: so few mosquitoes. I hadn't been bit since we moved here. Possibly the single greatest thing about California.

Okay, all of that being said - we had the best time on this trip and will look back and laugh about all the "problems." It was an interesting mix of beautiful, awesome and total shit. And as much fun as we had, I was so, so happy to be home when it was over, and bask in my shower with adequate water pressure, and sleep in my own bed in my own dark room. And poop in privacy. And know that there are no rats, and no mosquitoes.

It was still a real vacation, and we got to rest and relax, and enjoy the perfect weather, the sun, the gorgeous beaches, and quality time with family. When we got home, Valerie was soooooo happy to see us. Even weeks later, she still sometimes says, "Mommy/Daddy, you came back!  I'm so glad you came home!" She really missed us, and we missed her, and there's really nothing better than coming home to your baby refreshed and thrilled to spend time with her. A lot of parents aren't able to get away very often, if at all, and we are so fortunate to be able to. Life is good. It's really, really good.

And, if someday an epic plague wipes out the entire mosquito population on earth, preferably before this summer, I won't even be a little mad.

Valerie at age 3

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.

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.

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

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!