Anniversary Stay-cation

Shane surprised me with a weekend stay-cation for our 7 year anniversary.  Paradise Point is a resort on Mission Bay and somewhere I have been wanting to go for about 7 years now. Apparently all the cool people of San Diego have frequented their Barefoot Bar on Sundays, for drinks and live music. I was not one of the cool people, Shane was.

When we went to check in we were told it would be longer than they hoped for us to get into our room. Apparently the guests that checked out had “lived it up” the night before and well, you get the picture.  So we had to sit at the bar and stare at this awful view while we waited. Luckily we ended up getting another room other than the one where the rockstars stayed.

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The entire resort is gorgeous, you tend to forget where you are.

View from the lobby
View from the lobby

And the view from our room was perfect.

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Shane got us a bay view suite that suited us just fine.

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Once we settle in we decided on a swim maybe accompanied by drinks and dinner. But the main pool was full of kids and the pool  bar and grill closed at 5….on a Friday. That wouldn’t have been a huge deal but it was a big wedding weekend there and their other bayside lounge was closed for a private event. That forced us back the Barefoot bar we were at earlier in the day for dinner, no biggy but either was their food.

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Saturday was the perfect day. We casually got up and sat out to enjoy the view and the weather, absolutely perfect weather.

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POOL and SUN was all we had planned for the day. We sat there all afternoon, perfect day, perfect day.

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Not a bad way to celebrate our 7th year of marriage.

FET {Frozen Embryo Transfer}

When I started this blog only a handful of people were reading it. I didn’t want to over-share, I didn’t want to shove it in peoples faces and I didn’t want to jinx myself. I kept my pregnancy  quiet {for the most part}, I didn’t share when I went on hospital bed rest and I didn’t post a picture of myself pregnant {aside from this blog} until the very end. I never fully felt 100% things would work out, and after the delivery I still have nightmares about losing her.

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However the time has come to go see the good doctor about getting knocked up….again, but this time it  will, should,  hopefully be a breeze. I called the office and the ball will start rolling once I start next months cycle. I need to get a sonohystegoram on day 7-10 of my cycle. This is where they will “map” out my uterus to prepare for the embryo transfer, it’s basically a test run.

Then the following cycle will be the biggy. I don’t have any more facts at the moment, I assume we will go over everything next month. I do know that a FET is a lot easier than my fresh cycle because my eggs have already been retrieved and that was the painful part. They have been fertilized and now they are just hanging out in the cooler waiting… So how bad can it be? Haha…ha haha. {don’t jinx yourself}

I have been mentally preparing myself for this the past few months, I am going in positive but with the “hope for the best expect the worse” mentality because I now know how rough things can get. But I don’t think this round will be as bad, see postitivity!. We have 9 frozen embys, I don’t know what  percentage of them will make it through the “thaw” but I do know I wont transfer more than one at a time.

So if you are curious about how this journey will go, go ahead and hit the follow button. Once I start the procedure I won’t be posting certain posts on social media. I know some people don’t care about a gal who has to go to the doctor to get pregnant and don’t care how the road to baby #2  will go, so I don’t want to shove it in faces. {Anyhow all the good stories about Shane, the Drs. office old porn stash and the secret handshake are old news} But I do know some people are curious about how IVF works, infertility is bigger than people realize and I want to share my story to give others insight and hope.

Hopefully I will have some positive news come November.

Ramblings

This is going to be a catch up blog post. The past week has flown by and I was shocked to see that today was September 4th…what happened?

I dropped Kaili off at school this morning, actually left her there, I had a hard time leaving. But now I have a few hours of peace and quiet to clean, watch SYTYCD, sit in the sun and read?

Our 7 year wedding anniversary is coming up and Shane is whisking me away for the weekend.  The destination has been a surprise until I finally figured it out this morning in the shower. It’s not far from our house but it’s somewhere I have been wanting to stay. I will tell you on Friday.

Now for the phone dump.

Can you believe how long her hair is getting?

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Friday was “water” day at school.

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Friday night was relax in the tub with a glass of wine kind of night…<—– things white girls say!

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Saturday we were in Irvine for my cousins wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding and she was a beautiful bride but ladies, having your wedding on a holiday weekend isn’t always  best for your guests.

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We had some friends come over to play and Kaili said she wants a baby in the house. I guess I should go call Dr. Garzo to talk about getting knocked up. Stay tuned for that conversation.

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D is for Dinosaur and Dentist

The past few weeks I have been working on Dinosaurs with the kids. We used our  imaginations to take us back in time and explored a world very different from the one we live in today. I branched out a bit with the older kids and they were  surprised to find that “prehistoric animals” didn’t just mean dinosaurs.

Bristle block printing on a Dino cut-out

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Cut, color and glue the T-Rex together

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Dinosaur sensory play in sand

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Dinosaur Tracks

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In other not so fascinating news, Kaili had her first dentist appointment. I was referred to a pediatric dentist through Shane and my dentist, I am not convinced there is really a difference. Well besides the waiting room…

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Our dentist doesn’t have video games in his waiting room. Is there a rule that we have to take kids to a pediatric dentist or do all dentist see all ages?

The good news is that her teeth are fine but he told me I wasn’t supposed to be using fluoride on her yet. But but but our pediatrician said fluoride toothpaste was fine after 2 years old. Why is this so confusing?

He did mention that she has underbite and said she should see an orthodontist at age 5 or 6.  She did just fine. Sat for him, opened her mouth when asked, closed it when asked, just like the perfect little angel she is.

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She has a follow up appointment at 3 years with a cleaning and x-rays, the whole she-bang. I hope she can get through childhood without any fears of the dentist, clowns are bad enough.

3 Years Ago

Three years ago today I found out I was pregnant. I remember shaking as I answered that phone call and I was SO elated when I heard the news. It was a hard, emotional, needle and pill filled road but very worth it.

The kids had their official graduation Sunday, it has also been 3 years since the last time I watched the little ones get their diplomas … I’ve missed  it. The new school year starts next week and with that my 3 month stint is up. I will stay on as a sub and will be working most of September for a teacher who is traveling to Spain. Kaili will continue to attend 3 days a week unless I am needed at school  and Shane isn’t home.

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See how cute she looks in those pictures? What you can’t tell is that she is missing a dire piece of protection. Somehow I managed to bring her to school without a diaper on.  {face palm} No, I wasn’t lucky enough to notice before she peed and no she didn’t tell me when she peed all over herself.  Awesome Monday morning.

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She is starting to show some interest in sitting on the potty but she doesn’t actually go, baby steps in the right direction.

Weekly Favorites

I have amazing neighbors, actually they are more friends with neighbor benefits.  Many wonderful things come with having such great people living next door to you. The only downside is that it doesn’t matter what time of day it is, if I decide that it’s time to take off my bra and get halfway naked, they will surely come over. Happens. Every. Single. Time.

Great neighbors are a favorite in my life but here are some more.

Favorite Recipe- Hold the phone, blackberries on a pizza with burrata? So you’re saying it’s going to be amazing? Yes please!

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Favorite Recipe #2 – There is no way this pizza isn’t delicious, caramelized onions, gruyere, plus pepper bacon. GASP. No way! She makes amazing food.

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Favorite DIY-  Life size lincoln logs made from pool noodles!  Love this idea. Unfortunately the link to the pin didn’t work but we got this!

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Favorite DIY {Halloween style}- Dammit, so brilliant!

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Favorite Funny-  Shane would have something to say about this.

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Favorite Photo- I just couldn’t stop laughing at this.

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Favorite Destination- I have been trying to talk the Mr. into heading to Hawaii for Christmas. But if I am hoping to be pregnant by then, then maybe I should be reconsidering? {Wait…what?  Stay tuned for more on that!} This hotel isn’t too shabby.

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Foam Dough

What do you get when you mix equal parts cornstarch and shaving cream? We shall call it super messy but fun Foam Dough. I saw this on Pinterest and thought I would give it a try. I mean it can’t get much easier then mixing two ingredients together…right?

Well what the pin did not tell me was that it takes a lot of mixing until you reach the desired texture. I was elbows deep in the stuff and my classroom looked like…well a classroom but the sh*t was everywhere. So after all the kids took turns “mixing” it, it started to become firmer, less gooey and crumbly and I could see the light.

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I added a little liquid water color

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Before I left for the day I bagged the stuff up, I am curious to see how it keeps. I have this feeling it will be rock hard tomorrow but who knows?

I would definitely make this again BUT I would either A. put all the ingredients in a sensory table outside and let the kids do their own thing with it.  Or B. pre make it in a big bowl near a sink and then give the kids the dough to manipulate. I think A. is the better choice. Then you can add in plastic knives, or play dough scissors. ,measuring cups, spoons, ect.

No Way!

Me- “Kaili, put your crayons away please!”

Kaili- “No way!”

Me- “Kaili it’s time to get out of the bath”

Kaili- “No way!”

Me- “K bear, give me a high five!”

Kaili- “No way!”

Me- “Kaili it’s still night night time, go back to sleep.”

Kaili- “No way!”

See, her language is coming along just fine!

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Shane asked me where she got that from….umm, that would be me. DSC_8045lo-res

Giddy Up

Last weekend Shane, Wags and I hit the races in Del Mar.  As usual we had a blast and lost money. We placed bets on Big Wags to win the second race.

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We lost that bet. But before we left I wanted to put some money on a beauty named I Know You Know, not a favorite to win but not exactly a long shot either.

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Good thing I did because I won back the money I had spent throughout the day…I call that a win!

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Did I tell you that I pulled Kaili out of speech? Not for forever but at least for a few months. Her language is coming along nicely and the whole process of getting her to the hospital, parking and all that nonsense turned into a 2 hour ordeal for a 20 minute session. She is getting more out of being in school then in a room with a speech instructor. So we will check back in a few months to see how she is progressing.

Instead of speech I took Kaili to Balboa Park to check out the Fleet Science center. They have resident free Tuesdays the first Tuesday of each month and they have an age-appropriate room for kids 5 and under. Holy hell, the place was a mad house, pretty sure all of San Diego was there. But she didn’t seem to mind and had as much fun as she could with other kids grabbing toys out of her hands and pushing her little body out of their way. Brats, their parents weren’t any better.  This reminded me that I will never take Kaili to Chuckee Cheese’s…on purpose.

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After we finally made our way out of the sardine packed building we stopped for a snack on the grass.

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It was a nice relaxing 4 minutes until she was ready to go again.

I have been teaching Kaili how to help me out in the kitchen. She’s not soux chef material quite yet but soon enough people….soon enough.

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Kaili and the Classroom {beach/ocean theme}

Aren’t my blog titles catchy?

So this happened….Preschool initiation some would call it.

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The bite didn’t break the skin but it came close. They told me she didn’t even cry. Funny because this is what I get when I don’t give her a cookie at 4:00 p.m.

Meanwhile in my classroom….last weeks theme was beach/ocean. After reading Rainbow Fish and Swimmy I put out paint for the kids to paint pre-cut fish.

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They made an Octopus craft with cheerios. There wasn’t much crafting going on but they enjoyed glueing one cheerio and then eating one cheerio, so on and so forth.    ( <–did you catch that?  Pun intended. )

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You can make Sea turtles with paper bowls or paper plates cut in half.

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I took the fishing poles out of the magnetic fishing set , I wrote the letters of the alphabet on index cards and then taped paper clips to the back. After scattering them on the floor I directed the kids to “fish” for a letter. Fishing for the alphabet.

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Using the same fishing poles, we tied on a paint brush and had them use motor skills to dip the paint brush into the paint and then paint their whales. Fishing pole painting.

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Sea salt painting was my favorite. The way these dried left a salty ocean effect, the kids got into it.

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Flip flop art. I traced a kiddos shoes and then let them water paint and decorate the sandal part however they chose.

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This is my last month working, unless….well unless they just can’t live without me. We’ll see.