Hello! It’s been a pretty hectic few weeks. First of all, as a few of you know already, Dana and Dave had a baby boy July 10th! I had the honor of being the only non-family (medical staff excluded) to see Jason Reese.  Dana was a real trooper – made it almost all the way to fully dilated and only needed the epidural for the pushing part of labor. She’s my new hero!

Jason is really cute – and super strong too (look at that middle picture of him lifting his head up – he was only a few hours old!). CONGRATULATIONS DANA & DAVE!  (For more pictures, visit Dana’s website)

Two days after Jason was born, I flew off to Austin for a get-together with my college roommates Carol and Natalie. Natalie just moved to Austin, and decided that in lieu of a big baby shower, she just wanted a weekend with her close girlfriends. Carol did most of the planning and also hosted me – thank you!

Here we are at Rudy’s and Chez Zees … it was nice to eat out without wrangling a toddler!

We scheduled a spa day …  Carol and Natalie got massages, and I opted for a body scrub. (Hint: don’t shave before a salt scrub!) We spent the entire day there, walking around the grounds, swimming, and just napping/relaxing by the pool. The place was gorgeous.

This is the waiting room, complete with magazines, books, and really good complimentary tea. We lay out by the pool until we realized the mosquitoes liked our scented lotions as much as we did! (I did end up buying a lavender hand lotion from France as a souvenir … since I live in cubeland, there are no mosquitoes to worry about.)

We also spent one full day shopping … baby consignment shop, IKEA, outlets, and Babiesrus. We helped Natalie spend a $400 gift card from her Vermont shower thrown by her coworkers. Carol and I decided to get her the crib and mattress. Even though Natalie wanted only the necessities (ie “Monitor? Can I just keep the door open?” … “Why can’t I just use a regular trash can and put it in the garage?”) we went through the gift card pretty fast! 

Natalie didn’t want a traditional shower, but we decided to have a small one with just the 3 of us anyway - I think we just needed an excuse to eat good cake! After cake, Carol took us to a neat popcorn shop near the University, where we could sample many different flavors of popcorn. I picked up a few bags – to snack on and also to bring back to Dana’s mom, who is the biggest popcorn fan I know.

The last day, we went to Natalie’s apartment to set up the baby’s room. Basically, we just moved some boxes and put together baby gear. It’s pretty exciting to think there will be a new baby in mid-September! For our last activity in Austin, Natalie treated us to a movie “Evening”. It was a really nice weekend … kind of  crazy to think I met Natalie and Carol at an MIT ice breaker when I was 18-years-old. In a few years, I’ll be twice that age!

So while Dana was delirious from lack of sleep (I mean, the thrill of motherhood), I was living the good life in Austin. To redeem myself, I did drop by the day after with a steak and salad dinner. Unfortunately, the popcorn from Austin was a little stale, but I’m hoping that since they’re so sleep deprived, it wasn’t too obvious.

(Doesn’t he look a little like Dave in that middle picture? And it looks like he’s smiling in the one where I’m holding him. I guess he’s too young to sense evil!)

Of course no post is complete without a picture of my Zachary – who is now finally telling us when he needs to use the potty. Hurrah! (Notice how nice he’s sitting and smiling for the camera in that last picture? I showed him pictures of Jason on my camera, and he said,”No. Pictures of Zachary only.”)

On the work front, I can finally publicly announce that I have a new position as a graphics driver certification manager. It’ll be the first time I’ll have direct reports (8), so while it’s not a promotion per se, it has a lot of potential … not to mention it’ll be a fun challenge and something new to put on my resume. Since I know and like the team reporting to me, I’m pretty excited about the job! (For me, the people I work with are crucially important.) The only problem is that while transitioning positions, I’m supposed to work 50% on each job. And for those of you who have spanned responsibilities before, you know that it ends up being more like 75% … so for the next few weeks I’ll be eating lunch at my desk and logging in after hours. Goodbye lunch time pedicures and errand runs!

It worked! FREE t-shirt if you post the link to their website on your blog … I got it today! Zachary is wearing a pre-washed size 4T, so my recommendation would be to order at least one size up!

http://www.trendytadpole.com

July 4th fell on a Wednesday this year, but I think we made the most of it. Dinner and games at Sam/Melissa’s the day before and then the annual neighborhood potluck pool party on the 4th. Zachary loved being in the pool - he went down the waterslide with us! Since we had work/daycare the next day, Zachary didn’t stay up for fireworks – maybe next year.

We went to an El Dorado Hills picnic on Friday…once again, the bounce house was a huge hit with Zachary. He’s going out in underwear now … we brought along his potty to this event. (We still use pull-ups when we visit someone’s house though – so please don’t let that stop you from inviting us over!)

Saturday … we drove down to the Bay Area for Alice’s huge (75 guests) birthday masquerade party! She went all out - decorated the backyard with white lights, bought 2 fire pits, and provided masks. People came dressed up in cocktail dresses and suits. It was an awesome party!

It was great to see my cousins Dyhana, Benny, Spencer, and Will … and my grad school friend Benjie. The party ended at about 1am, after the cops came. At my age, it’s almost flattering to have the cops show up. Although, still embarrassing because I thought they were strippers. Whoops.

It was a fun BIG party, very appropriate for a milestone birthday like the 30th!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALICE!

Sunday… went to a meet-the-new-baby open house. Congratulations Joe and Sara! They are the first friends of ours to have 3 kids. Baby Mark was more than adorable! Afterwards, we had a few people over for dinner and played a fun card game (Bang!) that Dana gave me.

Oh – and speaking of Dana, I have to admit I left out some pretty important news. I’ll just recommend that you keep checking her website!  

Hello again! It’s been a pretty busy 3 weeks … mid-June, we went to Folsom Lake for jet skiing and a potluck lunch. Thanks to Larry for sharing his *3* jetskiis and organizing this fun event! Zachary had such a great time playing in the lake. Which is interesting, because he fights baths. I guess he prefers dingy water.

That next Friday, we met up with some friends at a park for live music and a picnic dinner. There were kids activities, including a jump house, which Zachary and his friends loved. Then on Saturday morning, my coworker Chris invited Zachary and one parent (James volunteered) to ride the Skagit train. They won the tickets in a charity raffle, and were generous enough to share their winnings! That evening, I went out for drinks and a movie (‘Waitress’) with my girlfriends. I’m thinking I need a girl’s night out at least once a month!

The past weekend, my sisters and I flew to Palm Springs to celebrate Alice’s 30th birthday! We stayed at the eclectic Parker hotel, which had the most amazingly comfortable beds. The decor was very trendy. The day we flew in, we hung out at the pool, walked around downtown, and had dinner at Europa. It was really nice to get dressed up and eat at a restaurant where it would be completely frowned upon to bring a toddler! After dinner, we hit a casino, where we donated money at the 5 cent slots.

The next day we went to a yoga class at the hotel. And after that, outlet shopping – nice stores like Dior and Gucci. Imagine Alice’s glee when discovering the soaps she stocked up on at the hotel were worth $7 a piece! After ~5 hours of shopping, we limped back to the car, and drove to Morongo Casino for a buffet dinner. We eeked out every last minute, and didn’t even have time to stop for gas on the way to the airport. Fortunately, Sophie flashed the rental car guy (a smile) and he only charged us for 3 gallons!

Happy 30th Alice! … and thanks to Sophie for organizing this fun trip!

As a side note, Zachary’s making good progress on potty training. We started off bribing him with trains, but now he doesn’t need any incentive. (Actually he loves watching feces spin in the toilet and get sucked down, so the “show” is his reward.) He also seems pretty reliable at night. I’m guessing (hoping!) he’ll be one of those kids who potty train later, but train both night and day at the same time. Please, please, PLEASE let that be the case!