Browse Author: beakatude

Saying Goodbye

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This is one of my favorite photos of KK and Koa.

This evening, KK heard a dog barking outside and said “That’s not Koa, right?” I said “You’re right, that’s not Koa”.  Then she followed up with “It’s because Koa’s dead and I didn’t get to say goodbye before he died”.  It took me aback since today is the 3rd anniversary of his passing. After a long pause, I  told her “No, you actually did say goodbye at the hospital.” She looked confused so I found this old video that we took before we let him go.

https://youtu.be/Sovj0Ns60XI

She watched it, giggled a little, and said “Oh.” I’m not sure how well she remembers him but she always talks about him. KK turned 4 1/2 years old today and each half-birthday for KK will always leave a bittersweet feeling for me.

https://youtu.be/fh3BAmLXdlY

He left us on the day she turned 18 months old and I will never forget that day – especially when we came home without him that afternoon. I’m so glad that KK had some quality time with him but sad that he couldn’t stick around to meet Peanut. They would have had so much fun together.

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New Watch

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My birthday gift finally arrived in the mail today! It was easy to sync to my iPhone and I’ve already replied to a text message using Scribble. Can’t wait to try it out at work tomorrow. It can track my activity, heart rate, and allows me to receive texts, emails, and calls on it too.  There’s also a camera remote app that should be fun to use later. The best part is that it’s waterproof. Won’t have to worry about it getting wet while I wash my hands over and over again at work.

S’mores Party

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This year, instead of having McWino Night for my birthday, I reserved two picnic tables and a fire pit at SPARK Social SF. We loaded up on food truck food and sangrias before our tasty treat.

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The tables were free and the fire pit was only $30 for an hour, which included all the marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers, and sticks you would need for some a tasty s’mores party.

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It was also fun to see the kids playing together. I love how they are growing up together.

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The fire pit had just the right amount of heat to roast the marshmallows and KK had a blast roasting and eating her marshmallows straight off the stick.

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It was so nice to have the girls together outside of work. It’s been rather stressful there lately and we just needed some time away to vent and hang out like old times.

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After the party was over, we walked home with a souvenir stick with two marshmallows saved for later. I considered it my birthday balloon to take home. 🙂

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

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I’m 41.

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I had a lovely 41st birthday celebration. It started the day before when Jes and KK came home with these pretty flowers for me.  They walk by a flower shop on the way home from school everyday and KK loves to go inside the refrigerated room to pick them out.

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This morning, Peanut woke up bright and early at 6am to greet me as I brushed my teeth.

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After dropping KK off at school and sending Peanut off to the park with Mimi, Jes finished up his morning calls and then we went to lunch at Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

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The last time we ate here was right before KK was born. It was nice to have a grown-up meal without interruptions or picking up food off the floor. I had a tasty beet and tomato salad with fried capers and the house-made rigatoni with chanterelle mushroom ragu.

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We also had dessert, which was bourbon-pecan ice cream with gingersnap cookies. Perfect.

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For dinner, I opted to stay in so we brought home pizza from Amici’s and picked up an Oreo ice cream log from Safeway.

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It was more for KK because she was telling us the night before how excited she was for my birthday and that we were going to blow out the candle. So, that’s what we did. Couldn’t disappoint the 4-year-old, y’know.

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It was nice to have the day off for my birthday and this may be a new tradition from here on out.

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I also ordered my birthday gift a couple weeks ago and it should be arriving in another 2-3 weeks. Can’t wait to play with it!

Los Cabos, Mexico

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We spent 4 nights in Los Cabos this past weekend and it was so much fun. It’s not Hawaii but it was still a great trip for us. We flew out on 8/31 and returned on 9/4 with Labor Day free to unpack and unwind.

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We flew free on Jes’ United miles and stayed free with our SPG points.

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We stayed at the Sheraton Grand Hacienda del Mar, which is a HUGE property with 5 pools. KK literally swam in a different pool each day.

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I also booked a round-trip transfer ahead of time that included carseats for both kids! Score!

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Unfortunately, Peanut had a hard time on the flight over. It wasn’t horrible but the 20 minutes of waiting before the take-off was pretty painful. He cried and carried on until we were off the ground and luckily for us (and everyone around us), he fell asleep. Ugh…boys are crazy.

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The weather was warm and humid, which was nice when we were in the pool but a little uncomfortable sometimes because there wasn’t much of an ocean breeze during the day. The property was right on the beach so most of the pools had a really nice view of the ocean.

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I just drank margaritas the whole time and the servers were very efficient in taking our orders at the different pools.

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Our room had a view of the ocean and a patio to hang dry out swim suits each night. The room also had enough space for the four of us and the A/C worked really well. It was perfect for our mid-day siestas each day.

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Speaking of siestas, I actually got to take a nap on two of the days.

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While everyone was asleep and/or playing with the iPad (KK didn’t nap much), I was also able to read a magazine that another passenger on the plane gave me, sip some wine, and snack on Cheetos. So nice.

There were only two inconveniences on this trip: 1) the fridge was not very cold so we used bags of ice to help keep all the milk cold (worked out well!) and 2) there were these pesky little black bugs that were tiny and gave us bug bites in the evenings.

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Otherwise, the food was decent, the staff was really friendly, and it was SUPER empty! When they said it was low season, we had no idea how empty it would be. They also had golf carts that could take you from place to place if you wanted.

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We went to the buffet for breakfast each morning and I stocked up on beans, rice, and fruit for the baby so that he’d have lunch for the day. They also served soy milk so that Peanut could have some milk after I ran out of his lactose-free milk. (Don’t know if he’s allergic but I took dairy out of his diet for a bit to treat his eczema). The best part of the buffet was that unlimited champagne/mimosas and bloody marys was included!!

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The beach was gorgeous and very empty. Not only was it low season but they had black-flag warnings posted to not swim in the ocean because the conditions were too dangerous.

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Oh well, at least the kids were still able to play in the sand and KK found a water spout for her sand castles.

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What a fun family trip! As expected, it wasn’t as relaxing as a typical vacation without kids but it was good enough.

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Baby Boy is One

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I can’t believe my baby boy is ONE already. Seems like yesterday I was in the hospital having the worst contractions ever from the pitocin that they gave me. Fortunately, all the pain resulted in the birth of our robust, full-of-personality, little boy.

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As frustrating as he can be sometimes with his emotional outbursts and insatiable hunger, he is also the lovable sweetheart who really tugs at my heart.

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He is definitely different from my Baby KK and I’m so glad. It’s nice to have two contrasting personalities in our little family of four. He definitely balances her serious and often-non-social side.

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Happy 1st Birthday to my sweet boy!  We can’t wait to see what else you surprise us with this coming year.

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