Kellybean

Consider me jinxed. :o(

Oh well, she had a good run - back to the beginning.

I’m probably jinxing us as I write this…but it’s been one week since Peanut has woken up with a dry diaper, sorry, a dry PRINCESS diaper!

The idea of one child completely off diapers is really exciting!

Potty training Peanut was trying at first - stickers, chocolate and candy (even though the MD told us not to use candy as a reward), as one may recall…

It had to be just a matter of time, since Peanut has able to stay dry while napping more or less she started wearing undies.

All it took was one leaky princess diaper and a wet bed to spur Peanut into waking up at night and using the potty.

Bye-bye nighttime pull-ups!

Thanks to the savior that is TiVo (and the internets), I was able to watch the big game, abbreviated, and, of course, the much anticipated Super Bowl commercials.

(We weren’t able to watch the game, as we were tending to a sick Peanut - final diagnosis here.)

I don’t know about you, but, meh, I wasn’t too impressed overall - with the commercials, that is. The game must have been a real nail-biter, however.

There were a handful that I did garner a chuckle, even a tear or two (or many - blaming my postpartum state). Also, I don’t think that I have even seen so many commercials for Doritos. Ever.

Here are some of my picks…

Fresh off the Conan-Leno fiasco, Letterman cashed in on this chuckle-worthy commercial:

You can’t go wrong with a Golden Girl and Abe Vigoda:

Tugging at nostalgia with Sparky and Ellen Griswold:

The one Doritos commercial I did like:

What SF will be like in 10 years (yes, especially with the garbage inspectors):

And the commercial that made my eyes water (I’m such a sap…)

this place doesn't seem so bad...

Sometime in the recent past, I came across this piece on SFGate.

In a city that seems to make families, especially those with kids, want to move, be it for affordable housing, quality schools, space(!), more affordable living, leaving SF is hard thing to even think about for a 2nd generation native like myself. Even moving down south to where I went to college was difficult for me to consider. But now, as a mommy of two, I’m starting to reconsider staying in the city by the Bay.

I thought the timing of the article was quite coincidental since S & I have been contemplating moving out of SF…even contemplating moving out of state, even out of the country. Even in conversation with friends, moving out of the bay area was a topic that seemed to come up. Family seemed to be the main reason for leaving, but quality of schools and generally, a better quality of life was the motivating factor to even consider leaving the Bay Area.

Now, S & I had always talked about moving to France one day. It wasn’t until we met the family we bought our car from that we started to contemplate moving out of the Bay Area…again. (The family was packing up their home in Oakland and moving to New Zealand!)

As it is a known fact (of course, it is!), that all native San Franciscans/NorCal-ers move north, heading north to Oregon seems to be trend among some of our friends. This place in Oregon in particular. So don’t be surprised if I blog, sometime in the future, about a family vacation to Oregon.

Nice, but it might be too cold for this CA girl

Of course, this couldn’t come at a more difficult time, with the economy in it’s current clusterf* state. Thankfully, Peanut & Ringo are young enough that a move wouldn’t traumatize them too much.

Who knows what the future will bring and where we’ll end up? I’m just thinking out loud…for now.

images borrowed from the internets

Crap. January is well under way and I already have a “catching up” post.

I’ve been on m-leave since Thanksgiving and sadly posted nothing. Nothing substantive, at least.

So here’s how I’ve been spending my m-leave…

S’ nesting project

About a month before I went on leave, we took it upon ourselves and decided that our kitchen needed to be remodeled. Granted, our kitchen needed to be remodeled when we moved in x years ago, but taking on a project of this type about a month, month-and-a-half before a baby is due seemed like too much to me. But, really, when would be a good time? I’m just glad it was all finished before Ringo made his/her appearance.

Though our contractor said everything could be finished, inspections and all, in about 4 weeks, the project only ran over by 2 weeks (or so) - which is pretty good, no? I was only home for one inspection - the final one - and it was quite interesting. The inspector arrived, met with our contractor and before really “inspecting” anything, she was quick to comment on our backsplash. How she’d hadn’t seen anything like it before. Honestly, I think she had more questions about our backsplash then the overall construction of the kitchen. Though, she did check one bedroom for smoke detectors, or CO detectors, or whatever they’re called these days.

Once everything was painted, closed up, installed, we could start finding homes for our kitchen stuff. Though it’s been a month since the project finished, we’re still figuring out the flow of the kitchen and where things should be placed, functionally.

French Toast

So, not even 48 hours after the kitchen was completed, the constructions guys gone, my water breaks. Good timing, huh?

Before you know it, S and I are en route to the hospital, and in less than two hours (with NO drugs) later, we welcomed Ringo into this world!

The funny thing is, within 15 minutes of giving birth - this supposed amazing, life-altering, moment in one’s life - I was back in bed, eating hospital french toast for breakfast. Okay, maybe 25 minutes, after this momentous occasion it was back to business as usual. French toast. Just like that. French toast. And caffeinated coffee. Mmmm…

And yes, Ringo turned out to be a boy.

Though, I do not recommend birth au naturelle for those who are faint of heart, or any woman, really, there has to be something said about the recovery time. Within two days, I was up and about and feeling just fine.

Perhaps it’s the lack of pharmaceuticals, but there’s this rush of adrenaline one gets (at least I did) postpartum that leaves you, eh, not so tired. I’m still waiting to hit that wall of complete and utter fatigue, but, knocking on wood, I haven’t gotten there yet.

You’re a Big Sister Now

Due to a H1N1 flu scare precaution, Peanut wasn’t allowed in the hospital. No peanut under the age of 16 was allowed in hospital for that matter.

Two days had passed without me seeing her - she was informed that the baby here, though, and she did call me regularly to see how the baby was doing. I didn’t realize how excited she really was until we we were all home. Happy to see me, happier to see baby Ringo. So happy, that she was jumping up and down and smothering Ringo with love. And, I really mean smothering him with love. She is really in his face. It’s a matter of time before [1] Ringo gets sick or [2] Ringo punches her in the face.

Oh man. The last day of the year snuck up on me sooner than I thought it would. And now I’m trying to meet this self-imposed goal of one last post for the year. Damn you time, for moving along so quickly!

And, boy, is it moving quickly.

It’s that time of year where we all think about what we’re going to do (or not do) in the coming year to better ourselves (lose those last 10, 15, heck 30 pounds), better our lives (lose those last 10, 15, heck 30 pounds). Though, I try not to make resolutions…why set myself up for disappointment when I don’t meet those resolutions…I am resolving to not buy any new books for 2010 until I finish every single book currently on my nightstand AND to finish a book before starting a new one.

Seriously, I cannot see my alarm clock, as the pile of books is getting higher and higher - thanks to my Secret Santa for providing the latest additions to the pile.

At some point in 2008, I spent a small fortune at Books, Inc. buying a handful of books. Of the 4 that I posted at that point, I’ve finished only two of them. (Obama’s book and the Chez Panisse tome, if you must know.)

So, here are the books that are piling up…

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier

Spent: End Exhaustion and Feel Great Again by Frank Lipman

The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It by Tilar J. Mazzeo

A Friend Like Henry by Nuala Gardner

Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman’s Life by Joan Gould

got this for my 30th bday from D and will be getting to it soon - should be interesting as my daughter is full on in the princess phase…

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

yep, about the jump on this twilight bandwagon…

WordPress and Firefox are doing something funky with the layout - deal. I’m way too tired to figure it all out - perhaps I’ll fix it in 2010. Or not.

So to all, wishing you a healthy, happy and peaceful 2010. See you on the flip side!

Hello.

You’ve reached the Kellybean blog.

I’m not really out of the office - but do have my hands full at the moment.

I hope to be back to regularly scheduled programming soon - am aiming for at least one new post before the new year.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock…

Am I ready?

Heck no!

Am I starting to freak out?

Um, yes, because when your doctor hands you the “when to call” slip of paper at your visit, you know that it really could be any day now.

Yikes!

So Mads has been taking swimming lessons for a few months now.

As you may recall, we had one heckuva time trying to get her acclimated to the water. Of course, it was that last class before vacation where she really enjoyed herself. Lucky for us that it kicked in right then as Mads thoroughly enjoyed the pool during our Maui vacation.

A few weeks after we got back from vacation, we re-enrolled her. Things were different, though. Now that she had turned three, she had “graduated” from the toddler and me classes to the class without the parent.

Mads being awarded her Rainbow Ribbon!

I was a bit nervous for her first lesson, since she kept asking me to put my swimsuit on so I could go in the water with her. Umm…So, she reluctantly got in the water with her teacher and for the first few weeks, it was going well. The best part of these first few weeks, Mads was the only child enrolled at that time slot/level - so it was really private lessons for a few weeks. We had only one bad week, where she cried for the entire 30-minute lesson (yah, that was pleasant) - from that point on, we made sure she ate and slept, even if it was for 15 minutes, BEFORE class. Next thing we know, Mads is following instructions (shocking!): wearing both the goggles and the fins, waiting her turn, etc.

A week or two pass, two little boys join her class, and we can see her progressing a little bit quicker - she’s one to do what the others are doing. Before we know it, Mads has earned her rainbow ribbon (read: graduated to the next level)! To earn her rainbow ribbon, Mads had to follow directions, safely wait for her turn, make “Balloon Faces” and no crying for at least 3 weeks in a row.

Next up: the Green ribbon!

To earn the green ribbon, Mads has to doggy paddle swim six feet, using her arms and proper breath control.

This may take a bit longer…

Also known as Halloween.

All ready for trick-or-treating!

Last year, despite having a sweet tooth already, Mads wasn’t too keen on the whole trick or treating concept.

This year, was a whole different story. This year, Mads was more excited about Halloween…and this year, I was able to coach her to say “trick or treat” and always reminded her to say “thank you” after she received her candy.

So, on a tip I received from another parent, the three of us made our way to Belvedere Street in Cole Valley.

When we were getting close and saw the decked out houses and blocked off streets, we knew parking was going to be challenging, especially in this part of the city. Luckily we found a spot at the top of the hill and trekked down. The trouble was definitely worth it.

Homes were decorated in full Halloween regalia - from the fun to the almost-but-not-quite-scary-for-kids scenes. People everywhere, kids everywhere, candy everywhere.

As we made our way up and down the street, Mads was doing a great job trick-or-treating, saying thank you everytime she got candy and by the end of the evening, neither S or I had to prompt her to say “trick-or-treat”. At one home, she walked up and said, “trick-or-treat”. The woman handing out candy was talking to another person on the stoop and didn’t hear Mads, so louder, Mads yelled, “TRICK-OR-TREAT!” Still, no response. So even LOUDER, Mads belted, “TRICK-OR-TREAT!!!”, finally the woman apologized and gave her a handful of candy. Mads, then said politely, “Thank you!” and made her way to the next house.