February 2, 2010

• Happy 18 months to Calie! She is my smiley girl – and such a girl too. At the mention of shopping, she will go get my purse and stand by the garage door. And when she saw the new clothes I had in her laundry basket (the 18-24 month outfits), she pulled them out and insisted on wearing them. She’s going through a phase where she wants to do everything herself – from brushing teeth to spooning up yogurt to putting herself in her carseat. Drives her micromanaging mom crazy!
  
  Calie tries very hard to communicate with us (repeats our words) and has a few 2-3 word phrases … mostly involving the words more and please. She says all done, what’s that, oh no, thank you quite clearly too. I am so glad she is on track with her speech, and I don’t have to do a word count like I did with Zachary … I can actually just enjoy her babbles and not record them – what a concept! As for Zachary, he’s now a few months shy of 6-years-old. He likes reading “in his thinker”, playing games on the computer, and loves math homework.
  
  Here’s a recap of our last 2 weeks. Two weekends ago, we met up with Jason at the Discovery Museum. It’s a cute little museum for younger children, focused on science.
  
  Zachary measured and ranked the density of different materials while Jason and Calie matched rocks. They also watched an animal presentation, worked on an art project, and saw a volcano demo. In the evening, we went to Sam and Melissa’s house for a dinner playdate. The kids always have a great time (while the grownups have great meals) at their house!
  
  
  
  Sunday, Dana, Melissa, and I went to watch Sandy perform at her showcase. We had dinner, and then watched the students and professionals dance. Sandy did very well on her waltz number! I was so impressed – Sandy is a mom of 2 kids, a full-time pediatrician, and as of a year ago, a dancer too. Her daughter Kaitlyn was in the audience, beaming the whole time … what a great role model she is for her daughter. Bravo! Afterwards, we learned a few basic salsa moves – and even I danced!
  
  The following work week was very busy because of focal rating. My team is significantly bigger than previous years, and I had more engineers to represent. I’m pretty sure I worked every single night that week! That said, I’m not one for all work and no play. Friday evening, we celebrated birthdays with free burgers at Red Robin – Happy (belated) 38th birthday to James & Happy (early) 39th birthday to Dana! We played Bohnanza at our place after putting the kids to bed. Saturday morning, I headed to the spa with my girlfriends. What a great time – I had a facial, a mud wrap, and one of the best massages I’ve ever had. After 6 hours of sitting in a focal session Friday, I totally needed it. In the evening, Sam and Melissa treated us to Chicago Fire (pizza) takeout at our place. The kids played until they went loopy.
  
  Sunday, the kids slept in! (8:30am vs 6-7am)  We went to the train museum in Old Sacramento. Zachary now likes the bigger trains that he can walk though better than the toy ones. The kids’ train table upstairs only held his interest for about 15 minutes, whereas he used to play for hours when he was 2-3 years old. For lunch, we went to La Terraza for Mexican food. The weather was wonderful (sunny but cool) and in the afternoon, James took Zachary to the park while I stayed home with a (late) napping Calie. Overall great day with the family!
  
  

  • 1:33 am
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