Let’s Give Thanks

November 28, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

I am having more side effects this time around. My face seems to break out more and more each day, I don’t know if it’s the pregnancy or the 6 birth control patches on my stomach…or both. I am ready to be done with them. I am super itchy and sneezy, part of me wonders if I have a mild allergy to something I am taking. I am not sleeping great but can’t seem to keep my eyes open past 9:00pm. I visit the bathroom 2-5 times a night already and get really thirsty out of the blue so I must have water within reach at all times.

Ok, enough with my whining…whine= wine..which I would like a glass of….

Tuesday I picked up my in-laws at John Wayne airport. After some Thanksgiving day grocery shopping we took them to Sushi Deli down the road for some non-Walla Walla food. Kaili devoured the entire bowl of garlic edamame, ate the crust off the calamari and dove head first into the rice. She just discovered soy sauce and would probably drink it if we allowed her to.

We spent part of yesterday morning at SeaWorld, we all had passes so we didn’t feeling guilty once we saw what we wanted and split. AKA 2 hours later. They have the Christmas season going on complete with Santa and his reindeer.

Kaili was happy to see Penny Penguin…

But when Shamu creeped up on her she was over it and ran away.

After a big lunch we took a walk to the store to pick up all things forgetten from yesterdays trip. I spent the evening baking. The amount of food we will have tomorrow is nauseating. But eating until we make ourselves sick and then killing someone over a T.V. on black Friday is what the USA is all about, am I right?

I am thankful for our baby maker Dr. Garzo, without him our hearts and home would be empty. I am thankful for my husband who works so hard to give us a nice life and pays the good doctor the big bucks to knock me up. I am thankful for my daughter who has shown me what true love really is and makes me smile every time I look at her.

Except when she is being a little brat.

What are you thankful for?

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

4 a.m.

November 20, 2013November 20, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

I have been dodging a cold for the past few months but for whatever reason it got ahold of me and hasn’t let go. It has taken all my energy to get through the days, let alone start them at 4 a.m.
Kaili came bouncing out of her room at that time this morning. I ushered her back to room countless times. I tried the silent approach, the reasoning approach and the firm approach. None of them worked and we were still at it at 5:30 when I finally gave in and let her come into my room and watch Little Bear. Big fat FAIL. Tell me I am not the only one dealing with this.

Oh and I taught Kaili to put on her own damn jacket. This trick has been working since the 90’s.

I have never said that before, I totally aged myself.

Let’s Catch Up

November 11, 2013November 12, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

Can anyone tell me what happened? This past week is a blur, I was in San Diego then Orange County and back again….back again. I am pretty sure I left off after my Dr. appointment, is that right?

If so, we spent Friday up in the OC. We cheered on David Wagner’s doubles partner Nick as he fought for third place, we didn’t cheer loud enough and he lost.

Sigh.

After, we ate our sorrows away.

Sitting on the Mission Viejo lake we devoured an amazing anchovy and caper dotted Caesar salad and garlic infused pizza.

Later in the evening we went back to the tennis center for the guys’ doubles match. I am so grateful for all the friends and family that made it out for this tournament.

They won.

Of course they did!

Thankful for Grandpa, we were able to go out for a sushi feast after the match. I am still ~~drooling~~ thinking about one of those damn rolls, so good.

The better half of Saturday was spent at the Tennis Center, eating, drinking, tennis.

They won again.

Uh huh, we get the picture.

We drove back home {San Damn Diego} later that evening and spent the rest of the weekend trying our hardest not to move from the couch or from the T.V.

Football, Homeland, Hello Ladies. Are you watching?

We watched David and Nick play their doubles final online, they won!!

Monday, Kaili woke me up early, 5 am early.

Anyone want her? I am trading her in for a new one, preferably one that sleeps in.

We hit the road by 10 am heading back to Mission Viejo to watch David play the Masters final. Kaili was a true monster the whole way up but once I told her I was going to leave her in Mission Viejo, she cheered up, fast.

The finals match started rough, I won’t lie. David was down 6-0 the first set.

Gulp!

However he kicked it into gear and got the job done in the third set.

David Wagner wrapped it up. The NEC wheelchair Masters champ….again.

Thank you to y’all who made it out!

Masters Arrive In O.C.

November 7, 2013November 7, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ 3 Comments

Kaili and I drove up to OC as soon as traffic let up Tuesday morning. Doesn’t this look like the perfect weather for a tennis tournament?

We got to the tennis venue a little before David’s first match. The place is really nice, decked out with a lot of comfy seating, food and drinks.

Wags kept us on our toes the first set of his match, finally winning it in a tie-breaker. My pictures of him playing have not turned out well so I will give you a glimpse and then carry on.

He killed it in the second set 6-0 kicking off his winning streak. Kaili gave her uncle a celebratory hug after the match.

The nice thing about this Mission Viejo tennis center is that center court is really open, allowing me to watch the match while Kaili wandered around in circles. She wasn’t going to sit for more than the allowed time it took to eat a fun size bag of skittles. Bribing them with candy will buy you at least 5 minutes. WINNING!

The second day kicked off almost the same way. With warmer weather and a more stressful first set, our fat heads came in handy. Each day I see the venue getting more and more crowded. This weekend should have a good turnout.

My dad came with me helping me wrangle the kid. He wandered around with her allowing me to actually sit and watch the second set. Thanks dad!

Wags once again killed it 6-0 in the second set reminding us all why he is the best!

We can’t make tomorrows matches but will be up there for the evening doubles match on Friday. I feel another win coming!

Go Away I’m Sleeping.

November 5, 2013November 5, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

It’s taken a couple of weeks but Kaili has finally come to the realization that she can get out of her bed any time she wants. I was woken to the pitter patter of feet then she demanded I “get up” at 6 this morning. I knew it would happen but I hoped it wouldn’t, at least that early.

I am going to give this Ok to Wake clock a try. I was explaining to her that her new clock will turn green when she can get up and leave her room. Well I didn’t realize that the light on our bedroom clock is green so now I have screwed myself because it’s “time to get up” all night long in our room. She comes in a says, “green, get up”, so I think she will grasp the concept but will she actually follow it?

Speaking of following directions. I got her progress report yesterday…yes they do that in preschool. It’s more of a developmental checklist and since it’s the one I chose for the school I can’t complain. She is right where she should be, not behind, not ahead. There are certain things she knows but doesn’t master consistently and it’s time she learns how to hold and use scissors, hopefully with all her hair in tact.

After school we took a stroll along the bay.

We stopped at each playground and chased some birds for good measure.

Swings, can’t forget the swings.

Goodbye Crib

October 30, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

So apparently we aren’t supposed to let our children sleep in cribs their entire life, who made this rule?

I was in no hurry to make this transition, she slept like a champ, hasn’t fallen out and cracked her head open, or let alone successfully made an escape. However Shane has been chomping on the bit to make the change…<—-he will be sorry when she’s bringing boys home, gonna wish she was still in a crib.

I talked to Kaili about her big girl bed for a few weeks before the transition. Sunday morning she watched Shane convert her crib to her new toddler bed and then we all went to Target to get her a night light for her room. The other idea was to make sure that the first night in her bed she was exhausted and that plan was successful. She went right down, a.m.a.z.i.n.g. We were expecting her to hop out of bed and come on out a few times, but nope, she fell fast asleep.

"I"...well you get the picture — “I”…well you get the picture

Transition successful? Mostly, she woke up at 5:30 am I heard her hop out of bed and chit chat with herself but she stayed in there quietly and gave me another 20 minutes to stay in bed. She’s used to sleeping in the dark, no nightlight, door closed. I was concerned that she might need some light if she wakes in the night so she can see what she is doing. But I fear that the light in the room gave her the sense that 5:30 was an acceptable time to start the day…it is not.

Night two, again she went down just fine. When I checked on her before turning in I unplugged the nightlight hoping if she woke early she would just go back to sleep. Wrong. This time she woke up earlier and wasn’t going to go back to sleep. So in and out of her room I went until 6 am and then we got up, 3 cups of coffee later I was semi ready for the day.

Since Daylight savings time is coming up I have been keeping her up 10 minutes later each night and the third night she went down 30 minutes later than normal. She had a bit of a hard time going down but once she did I didn’t hear from her until 6:30 am. Making progress people.

So I must say the transition was smooth and a whole hell of a lot easier than I expected it to be. Phew!

Would You Like Some Wine With Your Pumpkins?

October 28, 2013October 28, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

Friday,we hit Bates Nut Farm in Valley Center. I was wrong to think it wouldn’t be overly crowded on a Friday, wrong I tell ya. We started with the petting zoo, Kaili was slow to warm up to the animals but I ended up having to bribe her out of there with a pony ride.

She had no fear on her first equine, she quite enjoyed herself. Grandma and Grandpa, we would like a pony for Christmas.

After grabbing a pumpkin, taking the obligatory pumpkin patch photos we hit the road. We had some wine to taste.

We brought our growlers to refill at Triple B winery. Sat, sipped, and nibbled away while Kaili enjoyed the great outdoors.

We found our stomachs rumbling and our palates teased so we headed on over to another winery for more sips and some damn good pizza.

No Crying At SeaWorld!

October 23, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

Kaili hasn’t been to speech since July, school has taken it’s place. Her teacher and I decided to just check in every few months. Yesterday I got a reminder call that we had an appointment Tuesday morning, “what time is it?” I asked, “8:30.” 8:30 in the morning? What the hell was I thinking?

Her speech is at the hospital, literally right down the street but somehow I always think we are going to be late so we rush around just to get there early. Nothing more fun than sitting in a waiting room with a 2year old.

In the car, ironically on the way to speech, Kaili was hollering “go people! “Move people” at every red light. Wonder where she got that from?

All said and done, her speech has drastically improved, I was given a few tricks of the trade to help work on her “sh” and “f” sounds. We scheduled another follow up appointment for January and that will most likely be the last of it. Hopefully we wont need to return to Children’s hospital again.

I promised her a trip to SeaWorld on Tuesday so after lunch we headed out. 75 degrees out in the middle of October, who’s complaining? Oh wait I am, 3 hours later, I was exhausted. Defiance and tears were proof that she was too.

The highlight for me, besides the fact that the park was empty were the dolphins…always is. Today we were tossing the ball around with them, petting them, I was in heaven. No offense to Kaili but it would have been more enjoyable if I was by myself {or with help}. Holding her as she whined in my ear really came in between my play time with flipper.

We fed the SeaLions and watched the sharks, you know, the norm.

But the highlight for Kaili came at the end as we were leaving. Low and behold her favorite cartoon character…at SeaWorld.

Good ol’ Franklin. She was stoked and I basically had to drag her away so the other kids could get a chance to say hi. “Bye Franklin, bye Franklin, bye Franklin!

Catching Up

October 11, 2013 ~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday after dropping K off at school and catching up with my Tuesday night shows I found myself rummaging through the refrigerator. We just recieved our Farm fresh to you delivery and since I somehow screwed up our delivery dates this weeks box was the same as last. Soooo I found myself with a lot of extra shit I needed to do something with before we leave for AZ next week.

I don’t love squash and now that Fall is here they are in abundance. I decided I would pawn the two Delicata squash I had on to Kaili. I cut them in half, scooped out their guts, drizzled with Olive oil and roasted them for an hour at 350. While they were cooking I found two lonely chicken breasts in the freezer, along with the handful of lemons hanging around I decided I would make chicken piccata for lunch, you know, surprise Shane with a gourmet lunch once he got home. Isn’t that what good wives are supposed to do? Ha, well once a year aint bad right?

When the squash was cool enough to handle I scraped the meat out and pureed it with a tad of butter and cinnamon. Kaili seemed to enjoy it, a little too sweet for my taste.

Then I went on and made a plan for dinner and spent the rest of the day in the kitchen. All said and done I made 5 dishes, I think that will hold me off until Thanksgiving.

Yesterday my dad and I took Kaili to the Olympic training center to have lunch with David aka “uncle Wags”. Here are some shots of our visit.