Homeward Bound

The countdown has begun. On Saturday the three of us (plus bun in the oven) will be jetting off to a week in San Francisco with my parents. I can barely wait to see my parents, our last visit was in August. Trust me, when you are 27 weeks pregnant, sometimes the only person you want is your mother! I am also excited by the thought of how much Cupcake has changed since my folks last saw her. Chatterbox, aka Mrs Pleasant (when the tantrums appear) often engages in a dizzying stream of constant dialogue. She is definitely taller than last time, and has an absolute ton of hair that is curly, which I can guarantee you my mother will LOVE. I was tortured as a young child by the constant rolling of my hair in those stupid sponge curlers. Unfortunately for my curl loving mother, my hair was completely stick straight and absolutely refused to do anything other than lie flat. Once in sixth grade I even got a perm (and coincidentally or not a fat lip from my brother on the day of school pictures). At least she has one photo to document the hair she always wanted me to have.

We have a whole host of things planned as per usual. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to squeeze in everyone and everything. We will get the chance to see my family at a Dos de Mayo party (Cinco is a work night for some), we have scheduled a visit with my best friend from college so we can coo over her 6 week old daughter. We will also be attending a good high school friend's wedding (to an Irish guy no less) and hanging out with my very best friend and her daughter (who come hell or high water will be my daughter's very best friend.)

So all in all, many exciting things to look forward to!

Holidays!

Our holiday in Chicago was wonderful. Despite my misgivings about how I would get around in the weather it was actually not a problem at all. Obviously a place used to having such adverse weather conditions (cough cough unlike the place I live...) the roads and sidewalks were all salted and only once in week did we come across a patch of ice that I had to navigate with caution. I would have loved for my husband to see the city during the summer as it really is a city you need to get out and explore, especially with all the museums and different ethnic restaurants. We did manage to take in Navy Pier (which I liken to Fisherman's Wharf in SF), the Chicago Museum of History and the Field Museum. The Field Museum was AMAZING. I probably could have spent a week there, especially in the evolution exhibition with all these cool dinosaur skeletons. Cupcake loved seeing all the taxidermied animals, especially the tigers and the bears.

And of course the wedding was fabulous. The other girls in the bridal party were so much fun and reminded me of my friends at home. Cupcake really stole the show and was up crawling on the altar the entire wedding ceremony although my friend didn't mind. At one stage when the priest was blessing the eucharist she stood in between the matron of honour and the bride and extended her breadstick to the crowd. It was hilarious!

Now the pictures to ooh and aww over...

Tales from California

The trip home to visit my family was an action-packed adventure. Keeping in mind that my parents had not seen the little one since Christmas, we were hoping to spend quality time with them. First we spent several days at home; we went to my Aunt's house for a swim party (I guess it is what all the cool kids are doing these days- at least those with pools!) and my closest friends came over for a BBQ. It was great to see all the girls and the girl's girls. I was especially envious that my best friend has taught her daughter to kiss her fingertips in a dramatic flourish after finishing a meal when she says, "Magnifique!"

We went to Yosemite on the Wednesday and spent two nights in the tent cabins at Camp Curry. This is where the real adventures began. The first night saw an encounter with a small mouse in the little one's portacrib. I was surprisingly calm as I flipped on the light and this little furry rodent darted around her bed like it was on speed. I even kept my cool when through my drunken haze I heard a bear clawing frantically at our bear locker, which by the way I had only previously stashed Cupcake's cheerios in five minutes earlier. My sister and I hiked to the top of Vernal Falls after everyone else whimped out in the 95 degree heat. We also celebrated anything and everything with copious amounts of food and alcohol at the Awahanee Hotel, after which my husband, sister and I drank three bottles of wine in the back of my dad's pick-up truck. Real classy.

After driving through Tioga Pass at an elevation of 10,000 ft, we made a long four hour journey up through California and Nevada before arriving at my parents' cabin in South Lake Tahoe. The showers were a welcome sight for all of us, especially my darling dirt-encrusted daughter. Dad quickly tacked up the hammock and soon we were vying for our favourite napping spots. A surprise to all of us was the 10 year old boat that my father bought on our fifth day there. He had been talking about it for years but no one every believed that day would come. Nono (spelled incorrectly for you Italian buffs) decided it was proper order to name it after his most cherished, no not yours truly, but his beloved Cupcake. Our new watercraft will proudly bear the name, Nono's girl. In fact Nono's girl was the first to drive it aside from our new captain.

Time went by quickly and before we knew it our vacation had come to an end. As I sat in the front seat of my mom's car, my hand resting on the door handle, for the first time I felt as if I didn't have the strength to get out. I thought to myself, "I can't do this anymore, I can't say goodbye to my family again." Watching my mom take a private moment to say goodbye to her sleeping granddaughter broke me. I am not a carefree twenty-something, I want my child to spend more than two weeks every 10 months with her grandparents. I want to move home.

I am back and mad as hell

Hello blog land. I have returned from my two week hiatus and I have tons of stuff to write. But first let me start with the very last thing. About 7 hours into our 11 hour plane journey home my darling husband turns to me and says, "Well, I have waited to tell you this but there is some bad news." My stomach dropped. "Remember when my mom texted in Yosemite?Someone smashed the back side window of our car." WHAT???!!! At this stage of the flight I was so tired and upset about leaving my parents that I didn't really process exact what that meant. Then it dawned on me, just before we left I went to renew our car insurance as I get a better rate now that I have my full Irish license. Darling husband told me to hold off until we get back so we could shop around. When we got home the entire plastic covering around the steering column had been removed. Another Eureka moment. SOME SCUMBAG TRIED TO STEAL OUR CAR! I'll admit once in a blue moon we get the occasional joyrider around the neighborhood but seriously I never expected this! Himself is now off to the Honda dealership to find out the cost of this failed adventure.

I'll post pictures later on after I calm down. Of my trip, not the car.

One Week

I am anxiously awaiting next Friday. I am going home for the trip I have been looking forward to all year since Christmas, our last visit home. Allow me, for a moment, to tell you about all the wonderful things we will be doing. 

Friday: Arrive home and hug parents. Watch parents cry when they see Cupcake. Eat tacos.

Saturday: BBQ at my aunt's house, beer for mommy and daddy, swimming for Cupcake.

Sunday: BBQ for all my friends at my parents house. 

Monday: Visit 89 year old Uncle Cas and Go to Berkeley, eat pizza at Zachary's

Tuesday: Undecided, Eat tacos.

Wed- Friday: Yosemite with parents and sister

Friday- Saturday (week): Go to Lake Tahoe and hang out at family cabin, hike, swim, BBQ, sleep in hammock if we can get it away from dad, watch DVDs, play Rummy and Gin, possibly go to Virginia City so husband can experience the Bucket of Blood Saloon, eat ice cream at Snowflake Lodge, drink Rum Runners at Camp Richardson Beach.

Friday Night: Celebrate 5th wedding anniversary with love of my life.

Sunday: Leave for Ireland, cry eyes out. Cue parents crying eyes out. 

Let the good times roll!

Our Spanish Getaway

You may have been wondering where I have disappeared to. Alicante to be exact! We arrived home yesterday evening totally exhausted. But let's not rush the retelling of the trip...

My in-laws have an apartamento in Rojales, a little village about 25 minutes away from Alicante. We arrived in on Friday evening to the exuberant welcome of two cousins, a Nana we haven't seen for three weeks, an anxious sister-in-law who wanted to hold cupcake the instant we arrived and a nice brother-in-law who happened to swing by the airport on his way down from Valencia to collect us.  We dumped our things and then went downstairs for some well deserved beers. The weather did absolutely nothing to diminish our thirst as it was easily still 33*C or about 90 degrees F.  Thanks to our pseudo-Spanish relations we also enjoyed many different tapas.

Day 2 we ventured to the pool located up in Quesada in a little village complex. To our complete surprise, Cupcake was very unimpressed. Later that afternoon, about 4 we headed out to the beach and again it was not a big hit. Later that evening after a well deserved siesta, I grilled up some spatchcock chickens and some mini chorizo sausages. I also made up a huge plate of grilled veg and a salad with donut peaches, serrano ham, feta cheese and dry rosted almonds. I was most excited to see the donut peaches there as they are probably one of my most anticipated fruits that I have whenever I return home to San Francisco. Their season is incredibly short - just about 4-5 weeks so it is best to fill up while one can. In Spain they are called paraguay - like the country. We asked at the local fruit market why that was the case but our question was just met with a shrug of the shoulders. I must have eaten about 20 of them when we were over there. We got 1 kilo for 1.50 euro!

Day 3 we went to the local market where I attempted to haggle for a very cool South American sweater for Cupcake. I think it is from Peru - it has llamas and a sun and a rain cloud with big blue drops falling out of it. We made the mistake of sleeping too late and then arriving at the market in the mid day sun. It was probably about 100*F and cupcake was miserable. After having a long over-due siesta we ventured to the caves which are traditional domiciles in certain parts of Spain. My in-laws hang out at one that has been turned into a little bar. The owner, Carlos is a sculptor who has a workshop in the cave below. He makes these really interesting welded sculptures that are a little Dali-esque or Surrealist.  Cupcake and the cousins spent a lot of time scrambling around on the carved benches and stone stairs.

Day 4 we headed for the pool and beach again. Cupcake hated the pool leading me to comment how could it be possible that my child was such a wuss. To fully understand my annoyance you need to know that I used to swim competitively for about 7 years and played water polo. Surely that screaming child could not be the product of my buoyant womb! We went to Bar Avenida for menu del dia - a large lunch that is served in several Spanish cafes. For the first course I enjoyed abendigas, turkey meatballs in a chicken broth. My second course was TO DIE FOR grilled lamb and my dessert was a lethal whiskey cake and un cortado. After a little sleep we arrived at the beach this time with a fully awake little girl. We eased her into the water, first by playing in the sand and building a giant hole for her to splash in. Next we sat along the water's edge and let the surf come up just to our legs. She enjoyed throwing handfuls of wet sand into the water as it retreated from us. A breakthrough!

Day 5 was really just packing and buying tons of chorizo and ham to take home. We enjoyed another menu del dia - this time I had grilled swordfish. Cupcake polished off her 3rd ice cream of the trip (was I really the anti-sugar mom?). Then came the trip to the airport. She cried the WHOLE way. I think she is teething, loads of drool had drenched both of us by the time we checked in for our flight. Then came the plane. 2 1/2 hours of screaming. Nothing absolutely nothing could calm her down. It was the flight that every parent dreads. I had a migraine by the time we touched down and I never EVER wanted to see any of those people again I was so mortified. I don't think that the later Spanish hours we maintained helped matters. She was well and truly exhausted, the poor dear.

I am not looking forward to my 12 hour flight to San Fran in August!