Sunday Playdate
On Sunday, I had a playdate with my friends while Kumquat had a playdate with hers. It started out with dim sum in the morning at East Ocean. Vivian played peek-a-boo with me across the table all morning and she was a riot. It’s so funny how at 9 months, she can already let me know that she’s not done playing and that she needs to be the center of attention. Any time I looked away from our peek-a-boo game, she’d squawk across the table to get my attention. As soon as I’d look over, she’d give me a cute but very sly look. She also enjoyed some of the rice porridge that we ordered.
It was fun hanging out with the girls outside of work and I’m glad that Kumquat was able to spend more quality time with her aunties. I love this picture of her and Mai. Hilarious.
Here’s a picture of Kumquat and Vivian together. Their expressions are so funny. This is one of those photos that will need to be reenacted later when they’re older.
Afterward, I met up with Eleen and Zoe. They were already at the shopping center so it worked out great! I even got to stop by Eleen’s shop. I hadn’t been there since they moved locations. The girls got reacquainted while I shopped.
Later I let Kumquat out of the stroller and I loved watching her run free. It’s not everyday that she gets to run around outside like this without my having to worry about her getting hit by a car or bicycle. It sounds terrible but it reminded me of the days I used to take Koa to the dog park in Irvine.
It was such a nice sunny day. I tried to get a photo of Kumquat and Zoe together but Zoe wasn’t having it that afternoon. Oh well, we’ll have to try again next time.
Thanks to Mai, Stephanie, and Eleen for meeting up with us!
Weekends are great and they’re even better when the sun is out like it was this past weekend.
On Saturday, we went to our favorite place, the Farmer’s Market. For breakfast, we shared a red lox open-faced sandwich that had a thinly sliced Meyer lemon that was edible. Yum.
After lunch at Il Cane Rosso (no photos of lunch today), I picked up two scoops of Secret Breakfast for Jes and I to eat on our walk home.
The kid fell asleep so we took advantage of the quiet time and spent the next two hours at Hi-Dive.
Three beers and two glasses of wine later (between the two of us), the kid woke up and we were on our way home finally. Aaaah…what a fun morning.
On Friday afternoon, I came home from work, packed up the kid and her stuff, and headed back out to Oakland for a little Happy Hour with co-workers. When we transferred between Muni and BART, the escalator that does down to the train platform was out of service. That meant we’d have to walk down two flights of stairs together with the stroller. So, I packed everything up, folded the stroller, and took Kumquat by the hand. We didn’t take more than 4 steps before a nice man behind me offered to take the stroller down for me. It was so helpful because then I was able to pick up Kumquat and carry her down the stairs at a quicker pace. I thanked the nice guy and we went our separate ways.
We had to do our taxes in Cerritos this year so it was a good excuse to go home for the weekend. The drive down on Friday wasn’t too bad (8am-3pm) with two stops.
When we arrived, Alice was there and it was fun to see Kumquat playing with her.
She also enjoyed having tea in the backyard like a regular suburban kid. My mom also had dinner prepared (of course, it’s the Magical House!) so we enjoyed some Chicken Rice and soup.
On Saturday morning, Brother and Joy came over.
After breakfast, we packed up the kids and headed out to Huntington Beach. As soon as we got out of the car, Kumquat cried and was in panic mode for the first 20 minutes.
It was nice just being out there on the sand and enjoying the sunshine and view. It’s funny how neither of the kids were very happy in this picture.
For lunch, I planned a big family gathering to catch up and to also celebrate Kumquat’s 2nd birthday. My mom picked up an ice cream cake and we ordered all our favorite dishes. This picture that Brother took cracks me up.
It was also so nice to see the cousins again.
Later that afternoon, Holly and Andrew came over. Andrew as a little quieter than usual but it was nice to do some catching up.
Our tax appointment was at 6:30 so Jes and I left and it took the usual hour and a half to get it all done. There was a bit of a wait so we went to Starbucks to pick up coffee and went back to finish the paperwork when the office assistant called. Afterward, we had a nice Japanese dinner without the kid. It’s so rare that we get a date night. It’s funny (and a little sad) that tax night became date night.
On Sunday morning, we left relatively early and the drive back was easy (9am-4pm) with three stops. I hate these super short trips to LA but always glad that we did it. I miss my family.
Teresa and I signed up for a 5K and we entered the stroller division. The race was on Sunday so I made it a mini vacation for the family. On Saturday afternoon, we drove down to Santa Cruz, which is only about an 80 minutes from SF. I booked a motel located near the beach and the race start and it was good enough for the night. After we checked in and unpacked, we walked down to the beach. I knew it was close to the beach but we were still surprised at how close it really was.
It was fortuitous that Isla’s party favor was a beach set complete with bucket and three tools. So, we put on Kumquat’s swim diaper and rash guard and headed out. I was curious to see how she would respond to the waves this time and I was so proud of how calm she was this time around! She happily walked down toward the water with me and sat down to play in the sand. She loves sand but usually once she sees or hears the ocean waves, she becomes a hot mess of tears and crying. She was even willing to walk down to the water with me until she saw the water roll in toward her. She never made it to the water but she was able to just say “no” or call out to me without crying. 
It sounds silly but I was so proud.
After playing in the sand, we walked down to the famous boardwalk and it was super cheesy. So, we walked back to the nearest bar and sat down for a couple drinks and a snack.
Ah…it was a nice little getaway moment.
For dinner, we picked up Mexican food from the taco stand on the way back to the motel and we spent the rest of the evening in the room. We watched cable tv and just hung out. Unfortunately, Kumquat was not in the mood to sleep and once she fell asleep, it didn’t last long. She woke up coughing and coughing to the point of almost throwing up. Poor thing had a hard time falling back asleep and I ended up having to put her in the stroller. At 3am, she woke up again and luckily it didn’t last as long as the first time. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much sleep and I almost overslept this morning. I thought I set my alarm but it didn’t go off and the only reason I woke up was because Kumquat started to cry again at 7am.
Well, we both got ready and let Jes sleep in. It was chilly outside but the view was so nice on the walk up!
We met up with Teresa and her family at the lighthouse and then headed up to the start. The race started out really slow because they didn’t separate the walkers from the runners.
Pushing the stroller was harder than usual because I was busy weaving, braking, speeding up, and fighting for space to run for the first 2 miles. In fact, my arms are pretty sore from all the maneuvering. T-Rex got a pretty big workout today. Kumquat did a good job behaving throughout the race and afterward.
She even warmed up to Teresa’s dad pretty quickly. Henry slept through the whole thing and he looked so content in the stroller. What a cutie.
This was such a fun event and hanging out with T is always fun.
Rawr! Yay Team Tiger!
I came home at 5 today and didn’t have a moment to sit down until now – it’s 8:30. I had to go to the store with a sick and impatient toddler, cook dinner with a needy and hungry toddler at my feet, then eat and serve dinner to a less-than-hungry toddler, and then bathe the stinky and sticky toddler. So, I let her play to her heart’s content while I sat on the floor of the bathroom and enjoyed a big glass of wine. By the time I was ready to get her out of the tub, her fingers and toes were wrinkled and her hair was almost dry. If only I had a fancy bathroom with a comfy lounge chair in it. If I did, my kid would be squeaky clean ALL THE TIME.
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