Kid Photography

I love taking pictures of BB.  It became my favorite hobby the day he was born.  Granted it was much easier back then when he'd just lay on his back and not move.  Now, he's a blur of activity in most pictures.

When I do get a nice shot though, it just melts my heart.

Scrapbooking

As previously mentioned, I finally finished Max's first year scrapbook!

I used Shutterfly's photobook web app which was surprisingly nice.  I'm sure power users like Monkey will still stick with Photoshop, but for your average scrapbooker who has A.D.D. and trouble making choices, the Shutterfly app was perfect.

I ordered a big 12x12 book for ourselves, each grandma, and our aunt in taiwan.  So happy with the result.  It really looks amazing.  I've flipped through it numerous times since it's arrival.  Love seeing BB's face blown up (pic below taken with my iPhone 3GS and therefore really crappy).

Lucky for you readers, I can share my project online via a link. Feel free to bask in BB's cuteness here.

Note: the book is sprinkled with song lyrics.  Most of them are songs Badge and I made up and sang to BB throughout the year (the Wildflowers and Blackbird are of course not).  

Update

Alright, time for a long overdue update.

The biggest news in baby world is that BB is walking!  Crazy.  Around 14 months, he finally decided to take a few steps on his own without holding onto anything.  Slowly but surely, he grew more confident and ventured further.  Now, he's happily wobbling about.  Monkey made a very observant comment that having a toddler around the house is like having a little zombie.  Lots of lurching, grunting, screeching, and lunging at objects.

In other news, Badge got a new job!  He just signed an offer letter to become Director of Men's Department Stores for Puma in their Lifestyle division.  Pretty amazing opportunity for him.  Very proud.  My work is super busy as usual.  I'm going to a conference next week in Vegas.  Nothing else terribly exciting to report.

Since my memory only extends to the last couple days, here's what we've been doing over the holiday break.  Monkey and I have been obsessively watching Once Upon a Time episodes.  It's a TV show about story book characters stuck in the real world.  Pretty entertaining.  We've watched a few Netflix movies at home (Prometheus, Contagion, The Amazing Spider Man).  Yesterday, Badge took me out to Q'ero for my birthday.  Very tasty upscale Peruvian food.  Other than that, we've just been doing a whole lot of cook and relaxing.  A more noteworthy accomplishment is the fact that I finally finished Max's first year photobook (Shutterfly makes it so easy to put one together).  Can't wait to see it when it arrives!

In another couple of weeks, Ah Ma, BB, and I will be off to Taiwan.  Quite nervous about having BB on our laps for a 12 hour flight but hopefully it'll go alright.  Fingers crossed!

Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving come and gone.  This year, Monkey and I signed up for turkey, stuffing, and corn casserole.  Easy peasy compared to years past.  Kris took up the mac n cheese helm and Lala even made a sweet potato casserole (Badge's request)!  There were lots of other goodies, all of which tied together for a delicious incredibly filling meal.

Wrangling the family together for a group photo was rather challenging, especially with four kids.  I couldn't figure out how to use the timer on my camera so I took the first picture while Monkey took the second.  

Attempting to get a picture of just the four kids in their respective chairs was flat out impossible.  The girls were angels while BB was trying to escape every chance he could.

He eventually squirmed out of Frog's arms and escaped.

Fresh Fruit Tart

Alright, I know I've fallen off the blogging wagon, but I'm back!  And I come bearing gifts, namely in the form of this delicious fruit tart.

This was my first time making a tart.  There were several steps, but none of them were terribly troublesome.  First, you make and bake the crust, then make the pastry cream, then assemble.  Tada!  In the cream, I used a vanilla bean instead of extract since I love the flavor it adds.  I was supposed to use an apply jelly on top but I couldn't find any at Whole Foods, so substituted plum jelly instead.

Verdict?  So good.  Despite knowing the amount of cream and butter that went into this sucker, it tastes surprisingly light and refreshing.  The filling did tend to ooze once you cut into it (perhaps I added too much?).  Will definitely make this again now that I finally have a tart pan.

Pork Buns, I Love You

I did it. I finally tried the Momofuku pork bun recipe that Monkey sent me ages ago. The opportunity presented itself in the form of a causal coworker get together at my house, meant to be centered on board games (namely Settlers of Cataan) and food. I decided to use my guests as guinea pigs in this pork bun experiment. Verdict?

Pretty damn good.

The pork belly took a while to cook but the flavor was delicious. The dough for the buns didn't puff as much as I would have expected (probably because my yeast was old) but they still turned out surprisingly fluffy. This recipe definitely took effort. I cooked the meat last night and was sweat shop bun making/steaming this morning. In retrospect, I should have made everything in advance and frozen the buns till ready to cook (as the recipe suggests). Maybe I would have had more time to actually hang out with guests instead of running around like mad.

Sadly, my tooth was acting up (I believe I have yet to blog about my missing tooth...don't fret I know you're dying for the gory details so I'll post soon) so I didn't really eat as many as I wanted. That is to say I ate like 5 instead of the 20 I would have liked.

Here's the spread. One of my coworkers helped me make chicken wings (deep fried and slathered in delicious teriyaki style sauce). Others brought aloo gobi style cauliflowers/potatoes, an asian noodle salad, and beer. Everything was tasty. Sadly we spent so much time eating and chatting that we didn't have time to play board games. Next time!

Baby State of Affairs: 1 Year!!

Today we took BB in for his 1 year check up. Aside from 3 tear inducing shots, it was a great visit. He was an angel to the pediatrician (compared to last time when he was sick and wanted nothing to do with the woman). As suspected, he's still a big ass baby.

Weight: 23.75 lbs (83%)

Height: 31 inches (87%)

Head: 18.5 inches (75%)

On the sleep front, he's still sleeping a solid 11-12 hours at night and taking one 2-2.5 hour nap during the day. He typically wakes up around 7:30, naps at 11:30, then goes to bed at 7:30ish. Usually we can put him down awake after feeding him a bottle and he'll just play by himself until he falls asleep. Every now and then he wails and you need to go back in and hold him but it's less and less the norm.

On the food front, he eats 3 large meals a day. Breakfast is usually a blend of fruits, lunch a blend of veggies and beans or rice, and dinner a meal of oatmeal with cinnamon and sometimes fruit again. I know, it's a bit strange that he eats oatmeal at night. We'll start making the meals more like adult meals in the short future.

As of last week, I dropped the night time feed, mostly because I was taking a two day trip to Vancouver for work and I really didn't want to bring the pump. It was with mixed feeling that I ended the breastfeeding. Sad because you lose that precious moment with your baby (I never really understood this description until I experienced for myself), but relieved that you can move on and do things like sleep on your stomach again haha. I'm pretty amazed that I breastfed till almost a year. It seemed unfathomable to me when I first started that someone could nurse for so long, but now I understand the appeal.

Anyway, BB currently drinks about 28 oz of formula, but we're going to switch to whole milk as soon as the current batch of formula runs out. The doctor also recommended we start giving him more snacks (we give him puffs sporadically) and reduce the milk intake to 20-24 oz. He's got 7 teeth and one more coming in. Two more seem like they'll come in in the next month. Ah Ma has started brushing those itty bitty teeth. I'll have to watch and learn how she convinces him to bear the grooming.

On the language front, he babbles like crazy and sporadically says "mama" and "dada". Sometimes he attempts to repeat what you say if you say it often enough. More than anything though he understands word associations. Badge claims he knows around 20 words. I definitely agree it's > 10 but not so sure about 20...maybe 15. We're continuing to do controlled experiments so this really has been proven. Aside from the words I previously mentioned in his repertoire, he knows "monkey", "lion", "bunny", "ghost bear" (our nickname for this bear blanket he has) and "doggie" as it relates to his stuffed animals. He turns and looks at me for "mama", Badge for "dada", my mom for "ah ma", and even Monkey for "auntie alice". He looks out the window when we say "birdie" or "airplane", and even looks around for the cats when we say "kitty cat". Crazy!

On the walking front, he cruises around the play pen perimeter like a drunken sailor. Once I turned around and caught him standing unassisted for a couple seconds. I imagine in the next month or so he should be walking. We'll see! Overall, he's still the same silly lovable bundle of joy. Welcome to toddlerhood BB!

First Birthday Party

Last Thurs, Aug 30th, Baby Burrito turned one year old! I can't believe it. To think that last year, I was at the hospital pushing a tiny baby out of my body (sorry for the visual). Astounding. It's been a crazy year. Lots of stressful and difficult moments, but they're far eclipsed by the wonderful heart-bursting-with-love type ones.


On Saturday, we had a small birthday party at our place. As previously mentioned, I had many small diy projects going on. I made yarn letters for his name, created cute garlands out of cut up paper and yarn, cut out "happy birthday" (admittedly rather messy looking, oops), made a photo timeline (forgot to take pics of it), cut out cute paper birds (first word he recognized) and bought some blue poms poms and balloons as additional decor. Not bad! On the food front, Monkey and I made a crack-like spinach artichoke dip, mango salsa, and guacamole (chips on the side). We also made spiced nuts and chopped up fruit and cheese. For the cake, I made a delicious yellow double layer cake with chocolate frosting. It was a new recipe and turned out quite nicely.



Though I'm sure he was oblivious to what was going on, I like to think Baby Burrito had a good time and enjoyed the official passing of his first year of life. He got to try some cake which was his first time eating sugar really. I think he was dubious but liked it after a while. Badge tried to enforce a no gift policy which everyone ignored. Thanks for all the gifts everyone!!


Many more pictures here

Yarn Letters

While poking around the internet for first birthday ideas, I found a diy project involving yarns and letters. Basically you just take letter blocks and wrap them completely in yarn for a nice rustic look. Pretty easy.

Here's a sneak preview for Max's birthday. There are other diy projects in the works (nothing major). Monkey will be arriving next Saturday to help with the sweat shopping. Can't wait!!

I'm also torn on what kind of cake to bake. Should I go traditional yellow cake with chocolate frosting? Or Black Forest Cake which I LOVE, but might not be appropriate for a child's birthday? Dilemmas dilemmas....

Baby State of Affairs: 11 months

Thank goodness Baby Burrito is almost 100% better. It's been a week since the roseola rash first started and it's mostly gone now. I'm sure by Monday it'll have disappeared completely and his beautiful skin will be once again perfectly snowy white.

I'm a couple weeks behind on this update. Since the 11 month mark, I've dropped the morning pump/feed and am now just feeding him right before bed. I'm probably not producing that much milk but I'd like to continue until the end of the month before stopping altogether. He's still drinking about 25 oz of milk (formula + breastmilk) a day I think, and eating 3x a day (fruit meal, veggie meal, and oatmeal).

He sleeps like a champ. When my mom is here, he takes 2 naps during the day. On the weekends, he tends to take just 1 nap, maybe because we take him around more and the day is busier for him. At night, he sleeps 12 hours. No walking yet, but he enjoys standing around and throwing his toys out of the play pen. Notice the pile of toys below.



He's still a damn good natured baby. Very silly.

I'm currently planning his first birthday party which is coming up at the end of the month. I can't believe it's been almost a full year since he was born! Amazing.

Poor Baby

Ack, the rash got worse! Here's day 3 of the rash. I'm not really sure why I'm posting this. It's mostly just to document in case this happens again in the future.

Hopefully things will look better tomorrow...

Roseola

AHHH Baby Burrito has baby measles!! I have no idea how he contracted this given that he's been home all week with Ah Ma. Badge and I take him on short walks when we get home from work but we don't take him out of the stroller. It's really a puzzle where he picked this up.

Nevertheless, Big Baby Burrito Head woke up with a fever on Friday. It lasted all day despite the tylenol we gave him. It was gone Saturday morning only to be replaced by a red rash that slowly spread all over his body. After some frantic googling, I decided Roseola was the likely culprit. Also known as "baby measles" (not to be confused with normal measles which I guess is much more serious), Roseola starts with a high fever usually lasting 3-5 days. Once the fever clears, a pink or red rash appears for several days. Aside from the fever, the baby usually seems otherwise healthy, i.e. no runny nose, cough, or congestion. Although Max only had a fever for 1-1.5 days, he seemed to follow this pattern. No cold symptoms, currently covered in an unsightly rash. We called the nurse on call at the hospital and she agreed that it sounded like Roseola. Not much to do except wait it out.




The rash doesn't seem so bad in these pictures but it's really much more red in person. Poor Little Man looks diseased. At least he doesn't seem to notice. That's all that matters. To recovery!

Strawberry Cream Cake

Last weekend, we were invited to my boss's house for a BBQ/pool party. I made Strawberry Cream Cake, a recipe I had previously made a couple years ago and forgotten. It was just as delicious as I remember. Light but creamy. Great summer dessert.

Unfortunately, Baby Burrito was in LA at the time so we didn't get to bring him to the party. Too bad because he would have loved to be in the water. Nevertheless, there was much delicious food and alcohol to be had. Here's to summer!

Controlled Experiment

These last few days, Badge has insisted that Baby Burrito understands what "ball", "car", and "firetruck" mean. I kind of roll my eyes and say it's too early. If he reaches for the ball when Badge says "ball", it's likely coincidence.

Today, we did a controlled experiment where we set all three objects at the far end of the playpen and I held Baby Burrito at the other end. Badge would ask "where's the BALL" a few times, then I'd let baby go. Sure enough, he went to the ball and picked it up. We reset and repeated the experiment multiple times with all three objects. Baby burrito went right to the correct object each time!

Holy $h!t, my baby understands the English language!! Very exciting.

Garden

Thanks to my mom's care, the garden is going quite well. We've harvested many batches of green and red chard and lettuces to cook.

We've also got a couple apples that grew quite large (and tasty to boot). Our grape tree has several clusters on it that will hopefully continue to fatten up as the summer progresses, and our peach tree has a few peaches but they're quite miniscule. Sadly, we have just one lonely fig on our fig tree.

Lastly, I just noticed our large bird of paradise tree finally bloomed! Pretty cool.

At Last

Baby Burrito is finally going to sleep on his own without much hubbub! Over the last couple weeks, he's been crying less and less when I put him in his crib awake. These past few days, he hasn't cried at all! Even my mom, who notoriously rocks him to sleep is now putting him down for naps awake. Hallelujah. I thought this day would never come. Hopefully this continues.

Here's a picture of Baby Burrito dozing when he was just a week old. You've come a long way!

Baby State of Affairs: 10 month

Baby Burrito turned 10 months last Saturday. I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by! In the last couple of weeks, he's perfected the art of pulling himself up to stand, and gingerly lowering himself back down to seated (rather than plopping down). He's quite a little terror in the walker as he bounces back and froth grabbing anything he can get his hands on. When we let him crawl around on the carpet upstairs, he loves to chase after you like a little bulldog. It's adorable.

Last week, he started waving bye bye which was exciting. We haven't been really diligent about teaching him things so it came as a big surprise. Motivated by this recent trick, I'm now trying to teach him to clap. Other than that, he loves to sit in his playpen and flip through books. I think the color blue is really grabbing his attention these days.

On the food front, he's still eating 3 meals a day. We've started giving him little puffs from Whole Foods. At first, he was confused by the notion of finger foods but now he's become quite a pro in feeding himself. On the sleep front, he's still sleeping 11 hours at night and 2 naps a day (each anywhere from 1-2 hours). Thank God. Getting him to actually fall asleep on his own is still a challenge but if he stays asleep that long, I don't care haha.

In the last month, he's also started to say mama and ah ma (means grandma in Taiwanese). He only really says it when he's upset (like if he's crying because I put him in the crib awake), but hey at least he's saying it! Last weekend, we went to a friend's house for lunch and Max's first experience in the pool. I was nervous that he'd freak out but actually he seemed to really enjoy himself. It probably helped that the pool was super warm. Here's the fam!

Seriously?

How did Badge and I produce such a damn cute baby???

It's just too much.

This week he suddenly started pulling himself up to standing. Where'd that come from? I also noticed his 7th tooth has broken through! Crazy.

I've decided to stop pumping at work. Hasn't been bad so far in terms of engorgement since I already dropped a pump session last month. Now I just pump in the morning and feed him at night. It's not enough for the day but I'll start supplementing with formula once the frozen milk runs out.

German Chocolate Cake

Last Saturday, I made German Chocolate Cake for Badge's birthday (his request).

I've never been a huge GCC fan. The few times I've had it, it's been overly sweet and heavy, so let's just say I wasn't particularly excited to bake this cake. After some research, I stumbled across David Lebovitz's recipe which got rave reviews from all sorts of food bloggers. So I gave it a go.

This recipe was actually quite involved. There are many steps (none of which are particularly difficult) so it takes time. In particular, the ganache frosting takes several hours to firm up in the fridge before you can spread it.

Regardless, this cake was well worth the effort. Chocolately goodness with the perfect amount of sweetness. It's converted me into a GCC fan! I was in a bit of a rush so my piping is rather ugly but oh well. Looked presentable. I will definitely be making this again for a special occassion (recipe can be found here).

Unfortunately Badge had to leave yesterday for a business trip to China so he only got to partake in a couple slices. I've done a great job polishing it off on my own, though I did hide a slice in the freezer for Badge's return. I'm such a good wife.

Baby State of Affairs: 9 months

Last Wed, we took Max to the ped for his 9 month check up. Here are his stats:

Weight: 22 lbs (86%)
Height: 29.75 in. (94%)
Head: 18 in. (71%)

Unfortunately, Max started having a fever the night before so he was not so willing to be poked at. Many tears later, we hustled him home for some TLC.

So what's been going on in the world of baby burrito? Not too much. He's still eating and drinking the same as in the last update. Mobility-wise, he's definitely crawling. Hasn't pulled himself to standing yet but is starting to pull himself to kneeling. So cute to see him wobble and flop over. Teeth-wise, he's got four now! His top two came in a couple weeks ago. Luckily he hasn't been exercising his teeth on ME when breastfeeding. Sleep-wise, he's been sleeping about 11 hrs at night with a 2 hr nap in the morning and a 0-1 hr nap in the afternoon. Pretty awesome. Every now and then he'll actually fall asleep on his own after playing in the crib for a bit but that's not too frequent. Yes I still nurse him to sleep, yes it's the path of least resistance, I know. Sociability-wise, he's easy going and loves to giggle at mommy's silly faces and daddy's silly antics. He's obsessed with "ba" lately and blowing his lips.

This of course was all pre-cold. These past few days have been pretty miserable. Our wonderful baby has been replaced by a sad grumpy fussy baby. The fever is mostly gone thank goodness, but he's got a runny nose and chest congestion. He's been coughing more and more (throwing up contents of his stomach sometimes) and his appetite is negligible. Poor little man. I can only hope he'll recover quickly.

Baby State of Affairs: 8 months

I can't believe Baby Burrito is 8 months old! He's so freaking cute these days.

Sleep - The past few weeks, he's been back to sleeping through the night. Thank god!! Sometimes he's cry out randomly but usually he settles himself back down. He still takes two naps a day, although sometimes he refuses the afternoon nap. Seems to be more frequent lately (last two days were 1 nap days) He's pretty damn tired by bedtime but even though he's fussy, he's still surprisingly good natured I think. I imagine it's still quite early for him to be going down to 1 a day but after some googling it seems like total sleep is the important number, not number of naps. So I guess if he's still sleeping 11-12 a night and taking a 2-3 hour nap, then we're ok.

Unfortunately, putting him down for naps is still a bit of a battle. Lately, we've tried to get him super sleepy and then put him in his crib while he's barely awake. At first, he'd cry for a hearty 15 min but now he's cries for just a little, then falls asleep (although every now and then he'll still cry heartily). I think putting a stuffed animal in there with him also helps. Why didn't we do that before???

Mobility - Baby burrito is definitely getting closer and closer to crawling. He likes to get up on his hands and feet and do some weird hopping motions, almost like he's going to pounce forward. We definitely need to baby proof the house asap.

Talking - Super babbly baby. Loves to make ba ba and ma ma sounds. In the last week, he's really gotten hooked on blowing his lips over and over...and over and over... and over and over. You get the idea.

Eating - Still drinking three 6 oz bottles during the day plus one before bed feeding from mama. Also still having 3 feedings of solids a day. Pretty consistent. I'm still breastfeeding although since I dropped one pump session at work, I'm pretty much producing exactly what he drinks. Unfortunately, since I threw out so much frozen milk, we don't have much reserves left in the freezer. Next week, we plan to drive him up to LA so my mom can watch him so we'll need to supplement with formula. Hope he takes to it ok!

Baby State of Affairs: 7 months

I just realized I never posted a 7 month update! Oops. Let me try to recount how things were looking at the 7 month mark...

Sleep - Still taking 2 naps a day. Was consistently waking up once a night ever since he got sick. *sigh*

Food - Eating 2 meals a day (1 meal of puree and 1 meal of rice powder). Taking 3 bottles of 6.5 oz milk during the day, and a night time feeding from mama before bed.

Teeth - He's got 2 teeth ahhhhhh!!! Baby Burrito sprouted a tooth around the 6.5 week mark. Then he sprouted his second just after turning 7 months. Crazy! Thankfully he hasn't been nipping at me with his new appendages. Hopefully that continues to be the case.

Mobility - Getting more and more agile. Started scooting a bit on his belly.

Social - He pretty much giggles at anything now. Loves to jump up and down in his jumper. Seems to have no stranger anxiety at all since we've pretty much been passing him around to total strangers (new relatives in LA, friends at Kara's party).

All together - super cute!!

Vaca Sans Baby

Two weeks ago, Badge and I took a vacation sans baby. It was long overdue (we hadn’t taken a week off work since our Taiwan trip two years ago), and we had a fantastic time. Here’s what I remember.

Sunday morning was pretty chaotic. After Baby Burrito woke up and ate breakfast, we madly dashed about packing up odds and ends. The Prius was stuffed to the brim with our luggage and baby gear, but we managed to hit the road without forgetting anything. There was a funny moment when we turned around and expected to see Henry strapped to the baby seat instead of the baby but luckily that was not the case. Baby Burrito entertained himself pretty well for the first hour, then got tired, fussed/cried, and passed out for the rest of the ride to grandma’s. Upon arrival, Badge and I promptly unloaded said baby, and scurried off to El Pollo Inka for some lunch (yes, we brought grandma back some food). After resting up in the afternoon and giving baby lots of kissies, we officially began our vacation.

Sunday – Downtown LA
After checking into our hotel in Little Tokyo, it was off to dinner at Osteria Mozza. After some sleuthing, we tracked down the montepulciano wine from our last visit and ordered a bottle. For apps, I got burrata bruschetta and Badge had buffalo mozzarella with salami salad. So tasty.


Of course, we ordered the orrechiette with sausage and panko topping, which was just as epic as I remembered. For entrée, I had lamb and Badge had ravioli, and for dessert we split flourless chocolate cake and some fruit thing, which escapes my memory at the moment. It was good though ☺.


Monday – Monterey
That morning, we hit the road bright eyed and busy tailed. It was a long drive up to Monterey but nothing we couldn’t handle. Many tunes and a couple rest stops later, we pulled up to Jabberwock Inn, the bed & breakfast where we were staying. First off, I should note that I’ve never stayed at a b&b so I wasn’t sure what to expect. As soon as I walked in, I was won over. Very cutely decorated and owned by the nicest couple. After dropping off our stuff, we visited the aquarium, which was conveniently within walking distance.


The exhibits were great, although I was surprised to find the aquarium smaller than expected. We were able to visit all the exhibits in a couple of hours. Great chance to practice photography (even though most of my pics were blurry because those bugger fish are fast).




We went back to the b&b for cocktail hour (wine and strawberries), then it was off to dinner at Passionfish. After consuming copious amounts of seafood (oysters, crab cakes, scallops, fish), we decided to end the night with a movie. I convinced Badge to watch the Hunger Games, which turned out to be quite good (side note: how is this movie PG-13 with all the violence?).


Tuesday – San Francisco
The next morning, we drove to San Francisco and attempted to have lunch at So (remember those noodles I was obsessed with?), but they were CLOSED and weren’t reopening until the day after we left. What the hell?? So instead we had sandwiches and quiche from a coffeeshop on the corner which was actually quite tasty. After checking into our hotel in Japantown (apparently Japanese hotels are a great place to get special rates), we immediately took the bus to Union Square and swarmed Barney’s. The poor sales reps didn’t know what was coming (side note: I haven’t really been shopping since before I was pregnant so this was a long time coming). With our wallets significantly lighter, we hightailed it to the Mission where we met Maya, Brian, McClain and his gf for dinner at Chilango. Strangely enough, the food wasn’t nearly as good as the last time we went (Maya commented they can sometimes be inconsistent), but the dulce de leche cake still made my day. After dinner, Badge and I went to Maya and Brian’s new home in Nola (super cute) and hung out.


Wed – Sonoma Valley
On Wednesday, we headed back to Union Square to be picked up for our wine tasting tour. Badge booked us on Terrific Tours after deciding the last thing we wanted on our trip was a DUI. Again, we weren’t sure what to expect but it ended up being…well, TERRIFIC! The tour guide Dan was super knowledgeable and personable. There were 4 couples in total and everyone was really nice and low key. We visited 3 wineries (Larson, Bueno Vista, and Homewood), stopped in downtown Sonoma for lunch, and went to another wine tasting room (Roessler) while there. We bought a hefty number of bottles as we went. The piece de resistance was the port at Homewood. AMAZING!!




The tour was an all day affair, ending in a ferry ride back to San Fran. Suffice it to say, I was pretty tipsy towards the end. Once we dropped off our wine purchases and sobered up a bit at the hotel, we went out for sushi, followed by a comedy show. The opener was a very awkward very unfunny Asian kid. Luckily, the second act was better, and the main act was pretty hilarious. After the show, Badge convinced me to walk to North Beach for some late night pizza.

Thursday - Berkley/Oakland
During the day, we decided to go shopping again (I know I know, we had a major itch to scratch). Maya met up with us for a couple hours which was fun. For dinner we booked it over to Berkeley to dine at Chez Panisse Cafe (couldn't get reservations at the dinner room in time). The food was simple and well executed. At this point I stopped lugging my big camera everywhere so you'll just have to settle for the iphone pics.


Friday - Santa Barbara
Friday mostly consisted of driving back down the coast. We got to Santa Barbara around mid afternoon and grabbed Mexican grub at La Super-Rica.


After checking into our hotel (a hipster motel actually), we walked around downtown and got a quick glass of wine from a local tasting room. Then it was off to dinner at Bouchon where we had FANTASTIC french food, and happened to sit next to Maria Sharapova. Go figure!

Saturday - Redondo Beach
In the morning, we rolled out of bed and right over to Float Day Spa for a massage (me) and gentleman's facial (Badge). Then we drove to Thousand Oaks to visit Namita, Kal, and their adorable baby Aria. After a lovely homecooked breakfast, we made the trek back to Redondo Beach to see Baby Burrito! There was much rejoicing when he finally woke up from his nap and graced us with his presence. We promptly whisked him away to Kara's birthday party which was a great time (with great eating). Badge and I ended up spending the night at mom's before packing everything up, baby included, and driving back the next morning.

Fabulous trip. Can't wait to do something like this again! Many more pics here