My cousin Diana is getting married next March and I am the matron of honor. She has been assignment to Hong Kong, but back to NYC to move her stuff back to LA by end of July. Her fiancee (John) is in LA, and she hopes to work out a remote office deal with Citi. Two of her bridesmaids live in NYC (although one was out of town this past weekend) and Joyce had previously planner her trip to be NYC this past weekend. I decided to go for a short trip, a total of 40 hours in NYC and 28 waken hours. I arrived very late on Friday night and left on Sunday late afternoon. Although it was not the best weekend, because my parents went with my uncles/aunts to Yellowstone for the week and Bill would be alone caring for the kids, it was a rare opportunity to get us together before the wedding. The kids are older and easier to manage with one parent.
I stayed with my friend Julia, who I know for 25 years since we were in 6th grade. She has moved back to NYC a little over a year ago. It was great seeing her and catching up, we had some long talks about life, work and relationships. She has been seeing a new guy for about 4 months, and things seems to be headed the right direction. I also needed her help to take some documents back to Brazil for my name change, and I don't trust sending via mail or FedEx. Luckly, her sister is coming from Brazil next week and will be able to take it back after her visit is over.
Saturday was packed with wedding planning. We selected our bridesmaids dresses at J Crew Bridal, it was quick and easy. Then went to three places to look for wedding dresses for Diana. We ended the day with two dresses that would be great, one is $500 and the other $1,200 (excluding any tayloring fees). They are both beautiful. She will show them to her Mom before making a final decision.
We ended Saturday at Mario Batali's Eataly, where we had dinner at the seafoot restaurant and dessert/coffee in another part of the store. It was amazing!
On Sunday, Julia came out with us and we had Dim Sum in Chinatown followed by some shopping in Soho.
Somehow, I didn't take any pictures the whole weekend! It must have been the heat. But, it was great seeing Diana, Joyce and Julia, and meeting Diana's bridesmaid Helen. I can't wait for the bachelorette weekend in San Diego, when we will be all together again.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Mason's 4th year check up
We took Mason to get his 4th year check up today. It's been a couple of weeks since his birthday, but it's been busy, so we couldn't fit it in until today. The 4th year check up, along with the usual weight and height measurements, come with an eye exam, ear exam, blood pressure and BMI calculation. Mason did great in all.
Height: 42.75 inches (97%ile)
Weight: 40.5 lbs (90%ile)
BMI: 15 (50%ile)
No shots this time, but he had some Molluscum bumps he had to have frozen, and that was not pleasant!
PS: I'm blogging from the plane on my way to NYC to meet up with Diana and her bridesmaids to shop for dresses. Wi-fi on the plane rocks! Specially since Bill connected with me to do Face Time, and I got to video conference with Bill and the kids. Worth the $5! Amazing what is possible these days. (One day when Mason or Audrey reads this, they probably won't have an appreciation for what feat it is to be connected while flying.)
Height: 42.75 inches (97%ile)
Weight: 40.5 lbs (90%ile)
BMI: 15 (50%ile)
No shots this time, but he had some Molluscum bumps he had to have frozen, and that was not pleasant!
PS: I'm blogging from the plane on my way to NYC to meet up with Diana and her bridesmaids to shop for dresses. Wi-fi on the plane rocks! Specially since Bill connected with me to do Face Time, and I got to video conference with Bill and the kids. Worth the $5! Amazing what is possible these days. (One day when Mason or Audrey reads this, they probably won't have an appreciation for what feat it is to be connected while flying.)
Friday, July 8, 2011
Swim Lessons
Mason and Audrey have started swim lessons at Swim Otters. It is a swim school close to our house that specializes in teaching kids ages 6 months to 12 yrs water safety and swimming skills. They are private lessons, so parents don't need to get in the pool. The lessons are relatively short due to the kids' attention span, 10 minutes for Audrey and 20 minutes for Mason, but they are 3 times a week for 8 weeks! The lessons are Mon, Tue and Thu at 4:30, so I need to leave at 4 or earlier to pick them up from school, take them to the pool, get them dressed and ready. I committed to Bill that I will take the kids to swim lessons, unless I am out of town for work or for the last lessons where they want a parent in the pool to coach us on how to work with them.
A few main reasons compelled me to spend a small fortune and taking up the commitment of taking them to lessons 3 times a week:
1) Probably the main reason is that I don't swim. As a kid (about 8) I had a near drowning experience in the pool of my apartment complex while playing with some other kids. One of their parents saved me and I was too terrified to tell my parents or enter the water again. When my parents asked me to go to swim lessons, I told them I wasn't interested. As an adult, I am more comfortable in the water, even went snorkeling in Hawaii in our honeymoon at Molokini, but I still don't swim. I want both of my kids to be strong swimmers like Bill (who swims, grew up spending his Summers at Lake Rabun, water skis and scuba dives).
2) We have access to the pool at my parent's place, and we often vacation at a place near a pool or lake. I don't want to have to carry their floaties everywhere we go. Mason was happy to wear his floaty until he saw the older kids swim around without them. At the end of the day at the pool, he got out and wanted me to take his floaty off. I did thinking he was done, but he went back into the water because he wanted to try to swim without it. He sank, as Bill carefully watched and pulled him out. I asked him if he wanted to learn to swim like the bigger kids, and he said yes.
3) I have no doubt that Bill would be able to teach the kids how to swim, but we don't have the time. Also Mason is at the age he listens to teachers/coaches better than us. We have tried the rec center group lessons when he was 2, he didn't get much out of them. At this point, Bill doesn't have the time to go into a pool 3 times a week, and it would need to be him alone doing it.
And finally, Audrey probably would still be happy wearing her floaty. But, once she starts seeing Mason swim without them, I think she would want to follow as well. Since we are taking one to lessons, might as well take 2 at the same time.
So, here we go. Their swim coach's name is Mr. Brendan. He is very nice to the kids. So far, both are doing great, although Mason is more excited and focused, according to Brendan, probably a week away from floating on his own. When Audrey is in the pool, she is looking for me and suffering from separation anxiety. Next week, I will try to leave the pool area and see how she does. Updates to follow.
Fun packed 4th of July (Part 3)
On Tuesday, we went to Elitch Gardens (the big theme park in Denver that used to be a Six Flags park). We dropped off Audrey at school because there are not many rides for her at her age and she would need a nap during our time there. The older kids went to the big thrill rides as Bill and I took Mason to the kids section, with smaller rides.
The mini roller coaster still throws the kids around, giving them the thrill of the bigger rides. We couldn't go on with him, so we were not sure how we would react. He watched the other kids and seem excited, but I was fearing tears would breakout when it came his turn. The ride goes around 3 times, each with a break in the middle to give the kids a chance to get down. As it came to his turn, he choose to sit in the front! I grabbed on to Bill as I nervously encouraged Mason and told him to have fun, but after the first drop and corner, I exhaled as I saw the biggest smile on his face. As you can see from the video, he love it. He went on that ride 5 times by the end of the day.
Mason is about an inch or two taller than the minimum 42 inches in most bigger rides, but we were unsure how he would react. He seemed interested in the Dragonwing ride, which he called the "Batman" ride because of the wings. It is pretty much a large swing that just goes around, but it gets up very high. Ben took Mason on it (you can see their size difference).
Cotton candy on the way home - Mason choose cotton candy over ice cream.
The cousins went home on Tuesday night after dinner. We all had such a great time! They are all delightful young men and young woman. They were all great with Mason and Audrey. We missed Nikki (Tommy's sister) who is in college at Carleton and is working at a Summer camp. The other cousins, Julia, Laura and Alec (Sandra and Shef's kids) live in NZ, and we would need to win the lotto before we could fly all of them over for a weekend trip.
Mason got up on Wednesday a little depressed, I think from missing all his cousins, his roommate Candler and for having to go back to school. We will have to plan another trip for them or for us soon.
Cotton candy on the way home - Mason choose cotton candy over ice cream.
The cousins went home on Tuesday night after dinner. We all had such a great time! They are all delightful young men and young woman. They were all great with Mason and Audrey. We missed Nikki (Tommy's sister) who is in college at Carleton and is working at a Summer camp. The other cousins, Julia, Laura and Alec (Sandra and Shef's kids) live in NZ, and we would need to win the lotto before we could fly all of them over for a weekend trip.
Mason got up on Wednesday a little depressed, I think from missing all his cousins, his roommate Candler and for having to go back to school. We will have to plan another trip for them or for us soon.
Fun packed 4th of July (Part 2)
On Sunday we went to Washington Park on our way to auntie Heather's (where Nai Nai and Grandpa Jack were staying). At the park, we rented a 6-person bike and all the kids went around the park twice (which took almost a full hour). Bill and I sat and enjoyed sitting under a shaddy tree. After a kick run to the famous Bonnie Brae Ice Cream shop, we drove down to Heathers.
I had made reservations to Skyventures (indoor skydiving) for all the kids over 3 (including Mason), Bill and Nai Nai. We gave Mason the option to watch and go if he wanted, and he did it! Each person went on two "flights" of a minute each. Here is a video of Mason's first flight.
We had a wonderful and delicious dinner - thank you Grandpa Jack! Cousin Edward (the oldest of the cousins) is graduating from CU Boulder later this year and is working in Boulder for the Summer. He and his girlfriend Tasha came by and lit up some fireworks (little legal ones allowed in Colorado).
We had no plans for Monday, other than to see fireworks. So in the morning, we decided to take the kids to Mt. Evans. Once of the only 14ers in Colorado you can drive up to and hike the last 1/4 mile. Bill and I hiked up a few years ago (before kids) with Sasha. It was a hard hike over rocks, with many false peaks, and at the end, you hike the same last 1/4 mile with the folks getting out of their cars (not as rewarding when you hiked the whole thing). The drive was longer than I remembered, but thank goodness for the minivan and the DVD player, both which paid for itself this weekend taking all 8 of us everywhere and entertaining us on long rides.
We stopped for Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs after Mt. Evans, thinking it would take us maybe an hour to get home. We didn't anticipate it taking us more than 3 hours instead. A semitruck packed with fruit had rolled over closing all lanes of Eastbound I-70 the main highway down the mountain for most of the day. We saw signs of the closure, but went as far as we could until being turned back. All other small highways down the mountain were also very congested! And thanks to AT&T we had no connection to call or see which other ways we could take. Thankfully, Tommy's Verizon phone had reception and we called auntie Heather to guide us to a better way home. Don't believe the commercials, AT&T's network sucks! I was exhausted when I got home. But the cousins were still excited to go see fireworks at night. I stayed behind and put our kids to bed (Mason is not a big fan of fireworks yet).
I had made reservations to Skyventures (indoor skydiving) for all the kids over 3 (including Mason), Bill and Nai Nai. We gave Mason the option to watch and go if he wanted, and he did it! Each person went on two "flights" of a minute each. Here is a video of Mason's first flight.
We had a wonderful and delicious dinner - thank you Grandpa Jack! Cousin Edward (the oldest of the cousins) is graduating from CU Boulder later this year and is working in Boulder for the Summer. He and his girlfriend Tasha came by and lit up some fireworks (little legal ones allowed in Colorado).
We had no plans for Monday, other than to see fireworks. So in the morning, we decided to take the kids to Mt. Evans. Once of the only 14ers in Colorado you can drive up to and hike the last 1/4 mile. Bill and I hiked up a few years ago (before kids) with Sasha. It was a hard hike over rocks, with many false peaks, and at the end, you hike the same last 1/4 mile with the folks getting out of their cars (not as rewarding when you hiked the whole thing). The drive was longer than I remembered, but thank goodness for the minivan and the DVD player, both which paid for itself this weekend taking all 8 of us everywhere and entertaining us on long rides.
We stopped for Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs after Mt. Evans, thinking it would take us maybe an hour to get home. We didn't anticipate it taking us more than 3 hours instead. A semitruck packed with fruit had rolled over closing all lanes of Eastbound I-70 the main highway down the mountain for most of the day. We saw signs of the closure, but went as far as we could until being turned back. All other small highways down the mountain were also very congested! And thanks to AT&T we had no connection to call or see which other ways we could take. Thankfully, Tommy's Verizon phone had reception and we called auntie Heather to guide us to a better way home. Don't believe the commercials, AT&T's network sucks! I was exhausted when I got home. But the cousins were still excited to go see fireworks at night. I stayed behind and put our kids to bed (Mason is not a big fan of fireworks yet).
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Fun packed 4th of July (Part 1)
For the long weekend, we invited Mason and Audrey's cousins (Tommy 16 - Heidi and Greg's son, Ben 16, Haylie 14, Candler 11 - Holly and John's kids) from Vancouver Washington to come visit. We had a full house and a fun-packed weekend!
Haylie slept in Audrey's room. Audrey sleeps very well these days and would wake up around 7:30 AM and say to Haylie "diaper change". Candler slept in Mason's room on his tundle bed. Mason couldn't be happier to have Candler read him bedtime stories. Ben and Tommy were in the guest room on their own beds.
They arrived on Friday afternoon and we all went to pick up the kids from school. Mason was anticipating his cousins' arrival and warmed up right away. Audrey was shy and looked out the window the whole car ride home, but she eventually warmed up after an hour. We had a BBQ Friday night with Kathryn (Ben, Haylie and Candler's aunt) before she left town on vacation.
On Saturday, we went to the pool at my parents' place. It didn't take long until a game of Marco Polo started. In the afternoon, Bill took the kids to see Cars 2 and met up with Nai Nai/Grammie Helen as Audrey and I napped.
Haylie slept in Audrey's room. Audrey sleeps very well these days and would wake up around 7:30 AM and say to Haylie "diaper change". Candler slept in Mason's room on his tundle bed. Mason couldn't be happier to have Candler read him bedtime stories. Ben and Tommy were in the guest room on their own beds.
They arrived on Friday afternoon and we all went to pick up the kids from school. Mason was anticipating his cousins' arrival and warmed up right away. Audrey was shy and looked out the window the whole car ride home, but she eventually warmed up after an hour. We had a BBQ Friday night with Kathryn (Ben, Haylie and Candler's aunt) before she left town on vacation.
On Saturday, we went to the pool at my parents' place. It didn't take long until a game of Marco Polo started. In the afternoon, Bill took the kids to see Cars 2 and met up with Nai Nai/Grammie Helen as Audrey and I napped.
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