As the weather is getting nicer (thank goodness), I’m looking forward to running again.  I’ve done three runs already this season and I plan to log in two more by the end of the week.  Gotta get in shape for the 5K I’m running with Jean at the end of the month.  Ack!

KK is getting bigger and more mobile by the day.  She’s blabbering a lot now too and her little personality is really coming through.  Can I say inpatient?!  Ha, she must get that from her dad, ha!

I’ve got a few trip coming up in April that I’m looking forward to.  We’re doing a practice “away form home” trip to Philly before the big trip to Hawaii with KK.  I also just found out that I’ll be in NYC for work too.

More details later peeps!

I had my brother and Eric over for lunch on Saturday.  We had Chinese hot pot so it was very little cooking or prep on my part.  However, I did have to venture to the Asian grocery store and babies R us that morning.  Those two places are my least favorite places to go to.  The Asian grocery store is basically filled with rude, bad driving people all packed into one small parking lot/store.  I hate to be stereotypical but I have encountered so many rude and awful drivers there that I think the stereotype is pretty true.  Babies R us is just the most unorganized and incompetent store.  I had to return something there and pick up some baby food.  I’m trying not to ever go back there again, haha.

We took KK to the mall on Sunday.  She loves people watching and checking out all the sights and sounds.  We met up with a friend and her son.  It was great cause I hadn’t seen her since my baby shower.  KK was hamming it up and giggling at them in her highchair.  She was so tired she fell asleep in her stroller for a bit.  She usually stays awake watching everything going on around her but I guess she couldn’t stay awake any longer.  Then she wouldn’t take her afternoon nap when we got home and ended up going to bed early.  Well, its good and bad.  She got up an hour early this morning and wouldn’t go back to sleep.  The thing is, she is able to pull herself up to a stand in her crib but once she gets up she doesn’t know how to get back down so she’s stuck standing. hahah.

So needless to say, I’m a bit sleepy today.  Zzzz zzzz.  I can’t wait till P gets back this weekend.

This will be the longest we’ve been apart and definitely the longest with only one of us with KK.  My mom is coming over to hang out with us and to help me out.  I think I would be fine on my own.  Its a little tiring having to watch a little one constantly and its really nice to have someone else there so I could run out to the store or just to the bathroom!

We still haven’t baby proofed the house yet.  We let KK play in the basement where there’s carpet and less furniture.  She has a ton of toys that people have given us.  I joke that we can start our own toy store or daycare with all the stuff that she has.  She’s a lucky lil girl.

I don’t know if other moms have ever felt this way but is it silly to think that KK doesn’t like me too much?  She smiles a big wide giggle when she sees her daddy but with me she’ll smile but its not as dramatic.  I know she’s still little and obviously can’t communicate with words yet but she always seems so “eh” with me.  She’s not a clingy baby and she doesn’t have separation anxiety and she’s not to the point where she can let me know if she wants me or anyone else.  Is it just too early to tell if she “likes” people?  I say this to P all the time and he thinks I’m nuts.  haha.  I used to say the same thing about Heidi liking P more too.

I think that the mom and dad dynamic is just different.  Mom’s nurture and take care of the baby while dad plays with them.  So perhaps its viewed that Dad is more popular but when baby gets sick or hurt, they cry out for mommy.  Is that right?  Am I being silly being all jealous that KK likes her daddy?  Ugh!

What a strange combination you might say…..well it caught me by surprise too, people.

I added this new show called Spartacus to my Netflix instant queue.  It looked good and I was a big fan of the movie Gladiator.  It plays on the Starz network but I don’t have that channel.  So P was gone one night at a business dinner and after dinner I snuggled up on the couch with Heidi and a luscious piece of brownie.  More on the “best brownie I have ever eaten” later.  (That obsession went away with the snow storm).  I started the series and much to my surprise it is filled with half dressed, really abtastic men (oh and pretty much nude women too but I’m not into that).  Yeah the plot stinks and the acting is pretty mediocre but I was totally entranced by the show.  Its done in a very 300-ish manner with lots of gore and blood everywhere.  It seems that all the ancient Romans did was kill people and have sex.  Interesting cause they were supposedly so “civilized.”  Oh well, back to the nekkid men.  I was sitting on the sofa and as I was about to take my first bite into the “best brownie I have ever eaten” I saw three if not four completely nude men!  OMG!  Are they allowed to show that on TV?  I know its cable and all but I did not know they could show full frontal male nudity!  So there I’m sitting, brownie in my hand, mouth open in shock.  I think I’m loving this show!

Ok, once again I was minding my own business flipping through channels last night.  We were going back and forth between the Olympics and American Idol and there it was…..the new commercial for the McDonald’s Filet O Fish.  Do you remember how nuts I was about them this time last year?  I was preggers but still.  The obsession was unnatural.  I swear I ate 15 filet o fishes the two months before I popped K out.  I haven’t had one since.  Well, its Lent and they are offering their special once again.  Not two minutes after the commercial was over did I get a phone call from Sophia.  She too was enamored with the FOF deal!  Haha.

We haven’t fully baby proofed the house and honestly, unless we wrap everything in the house up in bubble wrap and pads, she will hurt herself.  There are things and places that you’d never expect a lil one to get into or to be interested in and Voila!  that’s the one thing or place they want to get to.  Ack!

All that being said, she’s a ton of fun right now.  She’s blabbering up a storm and very giggly.  Hee hee.

Ok, I have my first 5k run of the year at the end of March and I think I will have a heart attack and collapse on the side of the trail.  I hope Jean, who will be running with me, will roll me over to the side so others don’t step on me as they pass by.  hee hee, no I seriously need to work in a few outdoor runs before then.  I have been slacking of big time and using the snow storm as an excuse to consume everything in sight.  I think I ate one tray of brownies during the storm.    But if you could only see and smell those brownies, you’d understand.  They were that good. So I finally weighed-in this weekend after missing the past month and of course I gained weight.  No surprise to me but still not a good thing.

P and I are contemplating going to bed 30 mins earlier cause the lil dumpling has been waking up about an hour earlier than normal.  We think her teeth on top are coming in so she hasn’t been sleeping as well.  She wakes up about an hour after going to bed and fusses a lil.  And instead of waking up at 6:30 or 7 she’s been getting up at 5:30 or 6.  Grrrrrr.

As for food, I have two birthday lunches this weekend.  One at Maggianos and one for Dim sum.  Both will involve massive amounts of yummy food for consumption by moi.  Its nice cause lil KK will be attending both events with P and I.  I’m eager to have her practice sitting nicely in the highchair and eating her baby food while we have our lunch.  I just hope she is well rested and not itching for a nap during either of these gatherings.

My food cravings have gotten the best of me this week but alas, Monday brings a brand new week that I can start being good again.

I have a friend who I’ve known forever and she’s always been a bit of a wild child.  She’s an avid traveler and she embraces different cultures like I embrace cakes.  hee hee,  here I go with the food again.  I always kind of worried about her because as much as she wanted to find that special someone, she would also often sabotage those efforts.  I have never known her to be in a long term relationship.  But like the saying goes, when the time is right, it happens.  Well, voila!  its happened and I am so very overjoyed for her.  She was married on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii and I just got her evite for an informal gathering at her parent’s house in Virginia in March.  I can’t wait.  Happiness…..

Oh and the dreary cold winter has me not in the smurfiest of moods….so I think its important to have things to look forward to.  I just planned out a girls day at the spa for the end of February.  My cousin, mom and I will be enjoying ourselves.  I think its totally warranted especially because I will be on my own for the week before while P is away for training and his mom’s 75th b’day.  I’ll need some pampering after he gets back.

We also have our vacation in April that I’m soooooo looking forward to.  Whenever the cold is really getting to me, I pull up the website with the house we’re renting and I just take in the pictures of the beaches and start daydreaming about beautiful Hawaii.  Ohhh please go away Winter!!!

Her love for animal prints is waning and she no longer desires to dress like a mamma bear.  So I was thinking of finding a comfy yet stylish outfit for her to wear when we go on vacation in April.  She may no longer like animal prints but she still likes the bling.  I shouldn’t talk because I too am a fan of the bling just not in excess.

I also need to stop by William Sonoma for a gift for Eric who loves to cook.  I totally forgot to look for a gift for him when I was in NJ last weekend.  those two stores are close to home so I could hit them on my way to pick up miss KK.  Sad how my errands now have to be crammed into daily chores.  So much more thought and planning needs to go into getting everything done.

A side note on my totally crazy eating lately.  I was so good and was eating so healthy for a few weeks and after my girls weekend, I have gone totally nutso.  I won’t even go into detail what I had for lunch today cause I’m just plain ashamed of myself ….but it was soooo yummy and worth it. Ha!  Ok, I will start eating healthy again tonight.  This weekend is an eating death trap too cause we have lunch for Eric’s b’day at Maggianos and Dim sum with my family for my mom’s b’day on Sunday.  I can’t be good even if I wanted to!  So I guess it’ll have to be Monday before I’m back on the wagon, ha.

We spent our Saturday afternoon shopping and chit chatting.  We had a lovely dinner at the chic and hip Chakra where the food was beautiful and delicious.  After dinner the real party started.  We changed into our sleek PJs of t-shirts and sweat pants and spent the evening talking about celebrity gossip, our guys, kids, movies and everything else under the sun.  We brought with us an abundant supply of junk food and a cooler filled with beer and wine.  What more could a girl ask for?

We stayed up way past our usual bed times and fell asleep after midnight.  Party animals!  The next morning we slept in to the late hour of 8AM, got ready and headed over to a nearby diner for some breakfast grub.  After breakfast Mich and I headed back home.

We’re already planning out our next gathering.  Shall it be Atlantic city? Philly again?  Baltimore?  Ahhh the possibilities.  Now we just need to find a weekend that works for everyone.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting up with some of my favorite people for dinner to celebrate my birthday.  its been a while since I’ve been to the Lebanese Taverna and I was craving their toasty warm pitas.  Yum!  it did not disappoint.

The weekends are always a blur now.  Usually they are filled with errands, chores and lots of KK time.  P and I are taking turns going to the gym too.  The gyms are currently pretty full due to the New year resolution crowd but I went Sunday morning and it was empty.  Was able to work out, shower and get out of there before the 9am crowd started filtering in.

On a random note, there are several stores that I HATE to go to because they are so unorganized and the customer service is so lacking.  I swear the people who work there and manage these stores are probably a bunch of kids that could care less.  I don’t know what your experience has been but there stores are awful, consistently awful.  The stores themselves are often unorganized and the shelves are not well stocked and good luck if you want to ask someone a question.  More often than not, when you go to the counter the prices don’t ring up correct and then you have to get them to correct it with the sale price. Ack!  I’ll make a little list of the worst offenders.

- Babies R Us (I hate this place.  If it wasn’t for the coupons, I’d never go)

- Radio Shack (I predict they will go out of business in the next two years)

- K Mart (I will go out of my way not to go there)

- Finish Line (Had to exchange a pair of shoes for KK and several people were asking for the number to corporate)

And on the other hand, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the service at the grocery stores lately.  Super helpful and friendly.  maybe the retail stores have been forced to cut down on staff and to hire less “experienced” employees to cut costs but I’ve noticed with certain stores its not just one store that has problems, its all their stores.  This leads me to believe its a corporate culture thing.

Okie, rant over.  I had my first Cognitive Neuroscience class last night and it was really interesting.  Next week we will study the brain and all its parts.  Coolio!  There’s a lot of brain power in the room and I felt during certain discussions that I was not getting it.  I’ll have to make sure I do the readings ahead of time.  I have to come up with a paper topic.  I was thinking last night that maybe I could write about the affect of pregnancy on the brain and its functions. haha.

Ahhh, no worries. I’m enjoying the downtime to get organized and to get ready for the chaos when it does start.  I have class starting next Tuesday and that should take up some of my precious weekend and evening time.  I’ve taken a class with this professor before and he’s very organized.  he’s already sent us our syllabus and first reading assignment.  We don’t have work due every week but we do have a paper, project and two tests through out the semester.  Ack!  Next semester I will have to double up and take two classes, double ack!  I’m hoping to get my Masters before KK goes to college.  hee hee.

Why is it that the process of getting organized involves making a mess first?  I have to take out a bunch of stuff and then find a home for them.  I also make tons of lists so that I don’t forget anything.  I don’t how many times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night with a thought and then it torments me the next day cause I can’t remember it!  Was it a crucial detail or just something minimal?  I dunno, I can’t remember!!

I have yet to clean up all the holiday stuff in our living room.  I also need to organize my closet cause I only seem to access the same things over and over again.  Its like I have clothing amnesia.  I’ve forgotten what I have.  Yesterday on Oprah they were saying that there’s the one year rule.  If you haven’t worn it in a year you should donate it or throw it out.  Hmmmm, is that true?

I have my new desk calendar where I jot down everything I have to do and what’s going on on what date.  I’m still getting use to this new format.  My calendar last year was Dilbert and this year I got this Zen calendar with relaxing phrases like “Practice smoothly exhaling, then inhaling- Calmness of mind is betond the end of your exhalation.”  uhmmm ok.  Did you hear that/  That was the sound of my calmness.  hee hee.