Girls Weekend

My two friends were able to make a trip to San Francisco last weekend! Here they are:



I've been friends with Purple Cardigan Girl since we were about 3, and her husband very awesomely flew her out as a birthday surprise. Blue Shirt and I hung out in high school along with Purple at times, and Blue was also able to fly out and stay for 3 days on a king-sized air mattress in a paint fume-filled apartment downstairs. True to form, I didn't take enough pictures, but here's what I have. I think the girl's itinerary for the 3 days makes for a pretty good City tour, especially if the weather is amazing (high 60s every day with lots of sun--it's typically raining this time of year). Here's what they/we did:

Day 1:

-Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park in the morning (it's free MWF if you get there between 9-10am):





Conservatory of Flowers, also in Golden Gate Park. It costs $5 and has a cool special exhibit right now with model trains running around SF landmarks made from recycled materials. The beautiful grounds outside and the warm, humid, greenhouse feel inside make it one of my favorite places:



-Baker Beach: beautiful views of Golden Gate Bridge and yes, it was warm enough to spot some of the nude old dudes near the north end



Japantown: probably not a top attraction for most tourists, but I love the shops here. My favorites are Ichiban Kan (kind of a Japanese dollar store), Kinokuniya Stationary and Gift and Soko Hardware. Kinokuniya Bookstore, which I hadn't sauntered through before this trip, was pretty great too. Here's Purple and My Boy with a stuffed cartoon character at a video store:



After this action-packed morning, we went to Mama's for Monte Cristos. Getting there at 2:45 (15 min. before closing) on a Friday was deluxe--we walked right in and the restaurant was mostly empty. Beats the 1+hour wait I've done in the past.

Evening activities after a rest: wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. Ate and bought bread at Boudin and got sundaes at the Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop.

Day 2

Slept in then took the bus over to the Fillmore shopping area, where I had some errands to run for a baby shower I was helping with. Fillmore Hardware Company near Pine was a good time--they have lots of handy items and gifts, including a great selection of those irreverent Ann Taintor products I love so much. We got Nick's Crispy Tacos on the way back (on Polk near Broadway-yum yum!).

While I was at the shower, the girls shopped Chinatown on Grant Ave. It's crowded and a bit crazy but very unique. I also advised they stop at the Cable Car Museum near Washington and Powell on the way back. It's free, has some interesting info, and has a pretty great gift shop. We went out for Indian food at Naan and Curry that night (the one on Van Ness near O'Farrell). I like the Chicken Tikki Masala and Garlic Naan myself.

Day 3

The girls went to Alcatraz while we were at church and stocked up on some Trader Joe's treats before leaving. Thanks for the good times, girls!

Ikea Trip

Here's what My Boy did to get through our lengthy Ikea trip last week after a fun-filled morning at a birthday party. We were quite the spectacle:

Christmas '08

Ahhhh, Christmas '08. Our two weeks in Utah with family were very relaxing. I didn't get to hang with my sisters as much this year--3 of the 4 were working a lot at a seasonal coat store, and 2 had in-town boyfriends (one who turned into a fiance Christmas Day)--but good times were had. I slept and ate a lot, played some games, and saw four movies, all of which I'd recommend:

-Ghost Town (with Ricky Gervais from the British Office--funny and also touching)
-Young at Heart (documentary about a group of old people who sing modern songs)
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-Wall-E (I wasn't sure I liked this one at first, but it grew on me. I think we'll end up owning it as My Boy watched it about 4 times in 2 days--Happy Valentine's!)

Favorite gifts

My new ipod Touch is really awesome. And My Husband found a small, $17 speaker system at Marshall's that meets my requirement for having something very portable so I can listen to my music and Armstrong and Getty podcasts anywhere in the apartment. The Touch also holds several movies, which I wanted for backup when My Boy is driving me nuts somewhere (restaurants especially. How I miss the days when he would be entertained sitting in one place and chewing on a straw for 30 minutes!) It's already come in handy, and he's shockingly good at navigating it. The Internet access and cool applications are great too.



It may not be his very favorite gift this year, but I was excited to find the shirt below for My Husband from Mama Robot on http://www.etsy.com/ (an overwhelming but great website where people sell handmade goods). I have a tradition of giving him a funny/quirky t-shirt each Christmas, and I knew he'd like this cartoony robot dad giving a shoulder ride to his robot kid.



I also spent some time at Macy's one day sniffing about every men's cologne they had, then went home and found a new bottle of Versace Man for $20 less on Ebay. Me likey--hubba hubba!

My Boy got lots of great stuff--too much (I keep telling my mom she'd better tone it down because she can't possibly keep this up when she has more than one grand child). But I think the winner was the Buzz Lightyear gun from two of the aunties:



I debated on approving this purchase beforehand--it's hard to know if/when to encourage your gun-crazed little boy these days--but I caved because I knew he'd love it. He definitely did and almost wouldn't open anything else. It makes different space age-type laser sounds and doesn't seem as threatning as some guns. Perhaps there's still a chance he won't end up a juvenille delinquent.

Of course the snow was a highlight of the vacation too:



Trying to play on the playground despite the snow and bulky outfit:



With his one and only cousin being pulled by Grandpa (My Husband's dad):

Our Little "It"

A picture and short video from my 20-ish week ultrasound this week. I'd never had the 3D images done before, so that was pretty cool (they did the shadowy kind too):

We did not find out the gender as planned, and this time I didn't see anything to tip me off. With My Boy, the technician told us when we should look away, but I peeked through my fingers and thought I saw boy evidence. This time she never told me when to look away, and I usually had no idea what she was scanning.

Baby looks good. The only issue is the placenta is too low right now and would come out first in a normal delivery, which is bad news. My Ob-Gyn said there's a 90% chance it'll move up out of the way as things stretch and grow, but if not I'll have a c-section a week before my due date. I really don't want that, but of course I'd do it for the safety of the baby. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Festivities

I am not an arts and crafts-type mom. I don't have a lot of skills in this area and the chaos and mess that often accompanies kid projects can make me feel crazy and mean in no time. One reason I'm slightly afraid of having a daughter is that girls seem to require more craftiness, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it if I have to.

My very capable friend (who has a 1-month-old and 22-month-old!) stepped up and hosted us for gingerbread house fun last week. My Boy mostly ate candy but did help a little with our graham cracker house. Look how cute they turned out! Maybe I could handle doing this myself? But if a friend provides everything and wants to have the mess at her house, I'll go for that (I even stole the picture from her blog--I'm really something!).

I took My Boy to see Mall Santa on Friday, which I've done every year since his birth to help document how he changes. This year there was no pooping through his outfit in line as with the first picture at 4 months (he was in a little Santa suit but ended up bare foot wearing the extra onesie and pants I luckily had in my bag):

The 16-month picture was uneventful, although he looks a bit reluctant:

Last year he had to be bribed with a lollipop to even sit on Santa's lap then promptly burst into heart-breaking tears:

This year he suddenly looked and acted like a kindergartener, walking calmly up to Santa, answering his questions, then giving this ecstatic grin for the picture:

He told Santa he wanted a "musical Leo baton" (a Little Einsteins toy that can be waved around and plays music), and I think he believed he'd get it right away because he kept asking me where it was. It's lots of fun that he can understand the holidays more this year, but we're still trying to get the details down.

Christmas Tunes

According to me, these are the best Christmas albums, in order of greatness:

1) Charlie Brown Christmas

2) Elvis Presley, It's Christmas Time

3) Carpenters Christmas Portrait

Apparently Best Buy and Target don't like the Carpenters because I haven't been able to find their Christmas album at either place. What?! Grrrrr! What are your favorites? I promise not to ridicule you as long as you don't suggest something hideous.

Fairyland

Although the name makes me giggle, Oakland's Fairyland is one of my favorite places. It's basically a storybook theme park with play areas, rides, and shows based on fairy tales or other children's stories. I love the quirky, vintage feel of everything (the park opened in 1950), the reasonable admission price, and the fun My Boy can have there - I think we stayed for 5 hours last time with our playgroup. I owe an official thanks to my friend for the pictures below. She captures my child's memories when I don't bring a camera, which is almost always.

As the "house of sticks" pig:

Making exactly the same face as the Snow White dwarf he's standing over (I don't think this was intentional, just a funny shot):

On an Alice in Wonderland carousel:

Before visiting Sacramento last weekend, I found out they have something similar, Fairytale Town. It's smaller than Fairyland and doesn't have mechanical rides but was still lots of fun. I was especially amused to hear them play a song over the loudspeaker with a chorus that said, "Poop in the potty, poop goes in the potty; poop in the potty, poop goes in the potty."

Going down the "there was an old woman who lived in a shoe" slide:

In Cinderella's carriage:

Going through the "crooked mile," my personal favorite: