Brooke's Newborn Pics (+Sydney)

Pictures were taken on 3/11/10:

"Mom, Watch Movie!" (And The Cake)

A few weeks ago when Becca and I went to Burke Williams I told Sydney that she and dad were going to have a special "Movie" night. They made some popcorn and I told David to try watching Madagascar with her. Mom had been telling me that she would like it but that ended up being an understatement-she wants to watch it all the time and simply refers to as the "Movie". "Mom, watch movie!" is the first thing I hear when she wakes up in the morning, wakes up from her nap or arrives home.
Friday after some prodding from Becca that she probably should have a cake with characters for her birthday party I call Vons and the following conversation ensues:

Kim: Hi I need to order a cake for a kid’s birthday party; can I do that over the phone?
Baker: You really should come in and look
Kim: Can't you just put something Disney on it?
Baker: Well, we have allot of choices
Kim: Mickey, Minnie or the princess will be fine
Baker: You really need to come in and look.
Kim: OK, fine

A few minutes later I walk into Vons and start perusing the cake book. I turn one of the pages and there was a Madagascar cake with a post in note that says "out of stock". In that moment, I realized I was a lame mom (this prompted a Kim is lame Facebook status), I walked out of Vons and drove to another (bigger) Vons and they informed me that the Madagascar cake had been replaced with the Madagascar Escape from Africa cake. This cake wasn’t as cool and I didn’t think she would really be excited to see it so I pre-ordered a Nemo cake with the intention of cancelling if I could find the Madagascar cake somewhere else. After checking several places it wasn't going to happen so I was about settled with Nemo until....I got to thinking I wonder if Becca had any of the Madagascar Happy Meal toys and if she did would they look good on the cake??? Turns out she had the Lion (Alex) and the Giraffe (Melman) and I had the Zebra (Marty) so I called Vons back and told them to make the Madagascar Escape From Africa Cake.

I then went to see if I could get any Madagascar party themed stuff and the bottom line with that story is that it was good effort but too late to make it happen. DARN IT. We ended up with some jungle I vow to never be a lame mom (on birthday parties at least) again, next birthday the party planning will begin 30 days out.

The McDonalds Happy Meal toys came through and the cake was perfect! ( P.S. Can you believe her first real cake wasn't Disney themed?)

New Diet Plan?

Today, at Sydney's birthday party I provided forks and spoons. I made a conscious decision that I didn't need to bring the knives out. Fast forward, I sit down with my hot dog and hamburger sans buns (didn't want the pesky carbs). On the hamburger patty I have: chili, cheese, onions, tomatoes and pickles. On the hot dog I have: chili, sauerkraut diced tomatoes, diced pickles, diced onions and cheese. Anyhow, I use my plastic fork to try and cut the hamburger and the entire plate flies up in the air and it all lands on me.

I guess I should have brought the knives out. Oh well, I ate less.

Sydney Has A Listening Problem

I am suddenly worried that Brooke's may be worse.

1000 Reasons Why It's Not 2007

To The Non-Sydney's Born On April 7th

Francis Ford Coppola: Film Director
Jackie Chan: Actor
Alice Young: Public Adjuster
Ravi Shankar: Indian sitar player
James Garner: American actor
Paula Howard: Longerberger Sales
Sir David Frost: English broadcaster
John Oates: American musician (Hall and Oates)
Russell Crowe: New Zealand actor
Tiki Barber, American football player

Just to name a few.....

Happy Birthday, Sydney!

Highlights: 1. Celebrating with Pooh Bear and Tigger 2. Brooke rides the carousel for the first time 3. Joshua can now do "No Hands" (As seen on the carousel and Casey Jr Train) 4. Grandma and Sydney 5. Elizabeth and Sydney ride the Gadget Go Coaster for the first time 6. Talking to Pluto 7. Enjoying Casey Jr Train 8. Sydney and Mom loving the carousel 9. Finishing off the day (at 11:00 AM) with a Dole Whip

Somebody Is Two

We are headed to Disneyland today, pictures to follow :)

Tennis Elbow is Dumb

Yesterday while at moms for Easter my elbow began hurting a little. By the time I went to bed I could barely straighten my arm and the pain was bad. Fast forward to morning and I couldn't straighten it and the pain had become excruciating. So much so that I called my dad and asked him to watch both kids while I went to the orthopedic doctor.

After x rays and tests it was determined that I have tennis elbow, likely cause is holding Brooke while she was sick. The doctor described the tennis elbow as severe and said that there were significant amounts of tears throughout my elbow tendon. He gave me a cortisone shot into my elbow and I likely have to return next week four another.

A torn tendon sounds serious, tennis elbow sounds dumb so I hereby announce that I have tears in my tendon.

Highlights of Easter 2010

43 Bottles Of Beer On The Counter

David's favorite beer, Yeungling is hard to come by on the west coast. The 43 bottles of beer below were smuggled across the country in our suitcases....years ago. I'm not sure why he never drank them but unfortunately they have gone bad (One more expired item) and have now been disposed of.

He Is Risen

He is Risen, Indeed. Happy Easter!

There Is Nothing Good About A "Runny Mess"

I'm Joining The Club (Part Two)

Unfortunately not everything was true in yesterday's post because it was an April Fools Joke. What was true:

*After Sydney I struggled to go back to work
*After Brooke I am struggling more
*I work with the best
*I love my job but would gladly trade it for Disneyland
*I work with the best people on the planet
*FSO was team of the year

What wasn't true:

*I spent the last two weeks working on my finances
*I will be taking a 3 year work hiatus (Oh so I wish)

I am renewing my membership to the working mom's club. See you all on April 19th ;)

It's A Twin Thing

I'm Joining The Club

After having Sydney I struggled with the fact that I had to leave her and go back to work and I have been struggling even more with Brooke. The last two weeks I have been going over my bills, salary and general financial info and while it will be really hard I have come up with a way that I can actually join the stay at home mom club and I am super happy about it. Granted, it can't last forever but I don't need it to anyway. This won't be like retirement, it will be a 3 year hiatus at which point I will go back to work. Sydney will be starting school and Brooke will be three at that point and she can spend two years at my mom's, like Sydney spent her first two years.

I have a few obligations at work that I will be coming back to finish up before going on my hiatus which will likely start mid-May. (Gotta do that so they want me back-yes I am crazy enough to want to come back to this same organization) Since I have already talked to Steve (and a few of you) I figured it was time to blog it now.

I love my job and I will miss it but trading it in for Disneyland everyday is a pretty good deal. (And yes, I factored in what it would cost to keep our Disneyland passes into my financial plan so we are definitely good)

I have worked with the best people on the planet and I plan on keeping in touch with all of you. Going out with the team of the year is sort of like winning the Super Bowl and retiring-Nice!

Happy Birthday Uncle Kevin!

Great job to Becca on her first cake with fondant :)

Lunch was great, love that greek salad with lemon chicken.

Kevin is sporting a new hair cut-looks great!

Lastly, Rachel is going to need to learn to master the task of turning the kids face towards the camera ;)

What's In A Name?

Sleeping Beauty is the only one of the princesses that goes by multple names. If you don't want to call her Sleeping Beauty you could refer to her as Princess Aurora, Briar Rose or simply Rose.

I guess there werent enough choices for Sydney, she calls her "I Know" because in the princess video Sleeping Beauty is singing "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you, the gleam in your eye is so familiar a gleam and I know it's true that visions are seldom what they seem but if I know you, I know what you'll do, you'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream" And yes, she sings the whole song.

Sleeping With My Little Sister

Burke Williams And Starbucks

Question: What do Burke Williams and Starbucks have in common?
Answer: Becca introduced both of these loves to my life

I mocked Becca for quite awhile telling her she was being trendy about frequenting Starbucks and I refused to go for years until......one day Marian convinced me to try a Chai Latte and approximately 4022 Chai's later (seriously that seems a little excessive). Bottom line: Becca was right, Starbucks rocks.

I went to Burke Williams for the first time before Rachel's wedding. This was Becca's suggestion and I didn't think I would enjoy it that much (stupid). Many massages later it is one of my most favorite places to be. Bottom Line: Becca was right again.

Today, I had a Chai this morning with mom and Becca and I spent the evening at Burke Williams getting their new Burke Williams Signature Massage.

The Burke Williams Signature Massage: This custom massage experience begins with a spray of our Signature blend of essential oils. Warm, moist heat pads are cocooned around the back to relax the muscles. Textured gloves and Chinese herbs are used to polish the skin focusing on the forearms, feet and back. Available in both Swedish and Deep Tissue massage styles the service incorporates our Burke Williams massage lotion, the special blend of essential oils that creates our Signature scent. All of these elements combine to create a uniquely relaxing massage experience. My quote when Becca asked me if I liked it: "I could do without the back scratching"

BTW: The pic was immediately following my massage, so relaxing (even with the back scratching)

Oh and thanks to David and Jason for watching the kids!!! Good Times :)

Droid: The 60 Day Review

I hesitate to even post this episode of the Kim and Laura show. This episode entitled Droid Introduction could also be entitled Kim and her weird pregnancy facial expressions or Kim and her terrible pregnancy posture or Kim needs a haircut something awful or Kim's not funny at 9 months pregnant or Brooke will be here in 19 days.

The episode is shot on Droid day 7 and day 5. Now that I have had my Android phone for 60 days I will offer a more in depth review.

I still often miss my Blackberry Pearl, the biggest misses are as follows:

(1) Camera-While the camera is better from a mega pixel perspective I have big struggles with it. 1. Action shots are always blurry, this is a problem if you are taking pictures of toddlers. 2. Discreet photography you can almost forger about because the camera has a huge delay on it. Although you can turn off the shutter sound which is nice. 3. Too long between shots 4. I struggle with rotating pictures for blog postings 5. Self portraits are difficult
(2) Phone-I'm not a big fan of the phone or contacts access. This is bad for a 5K minutes a month user. I also cant get conference bridges to auto dial. My standard line about the Droid is "It's toy first, phone second"-thats a problem for me.
(3) Blackberry Messenger-I miss my Blackberry Messenger contacts
(4) Size-The Droid is heavy, large and won't fit well in my bra. I miss the size of my pearl
(5) Keyboard- Really hate it. Luckily we found an app called Swype which has improved our ability to type immensely, if I lost the application it would be a deal killer for the Droid. Can't tell you how awful and unproductive all 3 keyboards that come with it are.

On to what I love:

(1) Love the internet access including You Tube
(2) Love all the applications that are available and most of them are free. Favorite applications are as follows: 1. Calorie Counter that includes a barcode scanner. 2. Baby application that tracks diaper changes, naps, bottles, nursing, etc. 3. Our Groceries which links multiple Droids and syncs shopping lists by store-AWESOME 4. Ride Hopper is an application that tracks line wait times for rides at many amusement parks. It's great for a day at Disneyland 5. Tons of Games 6. Free 411 puts anything you are looking for at your fingertips. For example where's the closest Starbucks.

Overall I think the Droid's a keeper.
Now onto this episode of the Kim and Laura Show:

Happy Birthday, REM!

No matter what I do I can't post this picture right side up. Thats too bad because you look awesome in your hot sunglasses the day before your 13th birthday. I think you are Rach1AwesomeTeenager!!!!!!! If you are using a laptop and want to see how hot she is turn your laptop upside down.

Elizabeth's Grilled Cheese

Elizabeth liked her grilled cheese sandwich alot. Almost all the cheese is gone and I couldn't tell you what happened to the bread. The greatest part is she liked it so much she insisted on taking the leftovers home. LOL!

Thinking Of You & You're Lil Cutie Pie

Community Meeting

On Saturday I noticed a digital sign on the side of the road near my house. The sign said:

Community Meeting
March 25th at PHS
For more info call 626-744-7808

I called the number and just got voicemail for a Pasadena police officer. I forgot about the sign and the meeting until this morning when I saw another sign with the same message near my moms house. The following conversation ensued when I dialed mom:

KT: What's with this community meeting?
Mom: What community meeting?
KT: Well I saw a sign by house and now there is one by your house saying there is a community meeting at PHS
Mom: I don't know, we have never had one
KT: There is a number to call for info and I called it and got a Lieutenant from the Police Departments voicemail but it didn't say what the meeting was about.
Mom: (In a serious voice) Well, I guess the police have something to say
KT: Thanks for that insight, I would have never guessed that

BTW: Here is some info on the meeting

The Aquarium Of The Pacific

Can't touch the Georgia Aquarium but the company was great and the kids had a blast.

Cisco Helps Jack

First: If Cisco provides conferencing solutions to CTU and the White House they certainly should be able to help your small business

Second: You gotta wonder how much Cisco paid for their on-air advertisements during 24.