Ok… So I recently have gotten hooked on a new product… People who know me know this usually means that I eventually find a way to get it… The problem is the fact that this item costs $1495… Yes you did read that right… So what is it… well it is the Taga Bike (oh I like the site the site I am linking to here… Their store is spiffy). Now I really badly have been wanting to bike to work, but I take Tara to daycare on the way to work. I have been trying to look with ways to bike with Tara. Well seats (front or back) of the bike make me nervous because if I need to get off quickly for any reason then the seat goes over with the bike. Now as for trailers, I think they are a great idea except for the space it would take up and the fact that people don’t always notice those little flags. This means that a car could clip the trailer too easily. So this is where the Taga Bike comes into play. If you go take a look at it, it is a tricycle with the two wheels in front and the child’s seat in front. This helps to keep it from tipping over (one of my concerns with just putting a seat on a regular bike). The bike is also designed to fold up, as it also converts into a stroller. By folding up it means that we could have room for it in the apartment (my concern with the trailer). Other nice features include the fact that it can have a second seat added for another kids and the seat can be replaced by a basket, have to think about the future. So yeah I am hooked on this bike. If only it didn’t cost $1495. What do other people think?
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Well I thought I would update everyone on the sick baby front. Her fever did not come back but she did breakout in a flat red rash afterwords. This is indicative of Roseola. So yep, it was a virus and it looks like I even know what it was, but boy it made a cranky baby.
Just thought I would share with everyone. Of course the week of her being sick has left me pretty drained to start back at work. Oh well.
For those who don’t know, the price of housing in the SF Bay Area is crazy… Not just crazy, but outrageous. Especially when you compare it to the amount people are paid here. Trying to buy a house can be considered wishful thinking, and it can actually cost you less to rent then to buy. So why would anyone want to own a house? I guess for me it is still the wanting to own it and have it be mine. Also the idea of a yard sounds really nice. Honestly my hubby and I have even thought about leaving the bay area and therefore most likely california at some point because of the inability for us to afford a house. Many people think that I must be exaggerating when I say all of this, but the cost of living in CA is 40 to 50% higher then much of the country, but the average incomes are not 40 to 50 % higher to even things out. You do make some more, but that also means you are taxed more. So overall it is just a bad situation. Now I keep trying to come up with a way for us to be able to afford to stay here. I like being near family and I do actually like the bay area. Now first off I don’t really want Tara to grow up living in an apartment, ie what we are doing now. So what does that leave us… well not much. I mean a condo is generally no different then an apartment, you just own it. That really does not seem like the best thing to me. So houses, well if I want to live way out there or in some pretty bad neighborhoods we might be able to afford an older house. This got me wondering about what else is out there… I started wondering about prefab… I know anyone reading this must think I am crazy, especially since many people know I have way too expensive of taste, but there is starting to be a real option for them out there that aren’t so ugly and blah. These are the new eco-friendly prefab houses. When I first looked into these a few years ago the only ones I could find where by Michelle Kaufmann Designs, and I loved them. The problem was that they are really still pretty darn expensive. Recently I was looking at the website again drooling over the designs when I noticed that a company called Blu Homes had acquired Michelle Kaufmann Designs. Blu Homes I found to be much more affordable and I even like one of their designs (Evolution). This leads to the other problems. First there is the fact that I am doing contract work and my funding runs out in 6 months. Now I may find some other funding along the way, but this is a very limiting factor. Ignoring that one there is one other problem, the lack of open land in the bay area. What open land their is usually also costs an arm and a leg. So sadly this all turns back into being a pipe dream, and I probably should get some sleep and try to dream about something else. Night.
As I mentioned in my last entry Tara has been sick. Tuesday night she came down with a 102+ F fever. Wednesday evening I took Tara in to the doctor, and there were no other signs of her being sick then temp and being cranky. So we were told to just wait and bring her back if her temp went to high (~105 F) or didn’t go away by Friday or Saturday… Well Friday she still had a fever but it was down, only peaking around 101 F (it had gotten up over 103 F)… Well finally somewhere in the night between Friday and Saturday her fever finally broke. It has made a crazy week for me. I spent a bit too much time in the house, but it was nice to spend this much time with the baby girl. I just wish she hadn’t been so cranky. Now with a day of no fever and her sound asleep hopefully things will get back in order.
So yet again I am updating to say how horrible I am about updating… Now I know I never finished blogging about my France trip and maybe one of these days I will, but that is not going to be today.
On a different note, if you actually visit my blog (not just off of facebook or an rss reader), you will see some changes. First off, yes I changed the theme… I thought it was about time for that. The other thing you will notice are a few ads. I have decided to place some on the site, but only for companies that I believe in. The first ad is for Signing Time. Many of you may know that I am a big proponent of signing time, and if you don’t you will now. We started Tara watching Baby Signing Time before her first year. Now she is 15 months old, and signs over 40 words. Now this is way more then she can speak, which opens up huge amounts of communication that wouldn’t otherwise be there. We have recently started to add in the Signing Time dvds as well. Now, she is actually home sick today and is waking up from her nap, so I better run. I will post more about the site changes soon.
Ok, so as usual, let me start off by apologizing for not having posted in a very long time. But hey, this time I do have a real update, I am in France. For those who don’t know, I have never left the US before. I have visited much of the us, but never left it. I originally had planned to travel around Europe after finishing my PhD, but I was very very pregnant at that time. Well I am finally here. I am here for the PAHs and the Universe Conference in Toulouse. I left on Saturday afternoon. I flew from SF to Paris direct, so 10 hours on the plane. It wasn’t too bad. I slept some and thanks to my iPad (yes I have an iPad, but that is a separate post) I read and watched movies. I had a bit of an odd person next to me.. She was saving everything. No I grab free things and keep them, but she was keeping plastic cups and the plastic forks and things… It was a bit odd… But the food was pretty good. The salmon on the rice pilaf was yummy, oh and the champagne was good too. So once I got to Paris, getting over to my gate was a bit interesting. The police were blocking my route and not letting me pass. Luckily I had lots of time still and once they opened it back up again I got through. Still not sure what shut down the area, but oh well. The big guns were interesting. Well there I met up with Claire and Christiaan, and we just had a short flight from Paris to Toulouse. Once we got to Toulouse we ran into others for our conference. We were thinking of taking a taxi, but there didn’t seem to be any. So luckily we followed other pah conference people and took the bus to the hotel. I got checked into the hotel and after emails to say I was alive I ended up taking about an hour nap. Then I unpacked, had some room service (I was all congested and wasn’t up to going out), took a shower and went to sleep. Nicely I slept all night. First day of the conference went pretty well. I did keep dozing off. I don’t really think that was jet lag, but instead the fact that I have been so behind on sleep, that my body has just been trying to catch up. Lunch was really yummy and was 3 courses. Yes, this is included in the conference. It was a Cesar salad, then salmon, and then creme bruele (sp?). Yes I know I am focused on food, but I like food, and meals are a great way to track time. So then more talks in the afternoon. This time I had real problems staying awake. But during the poster session they had the best snacks, candy! I know I am crazy. Well since I am thinking people who rad this aren’t real interested in the science side of the conference I will leave that out for now. Anyways, so last night I finally got out to see a bit of the area. A group of us were going to find some dinner. 2 of the people we were with had seen a crepe place the day before so we we going to try to go find it again. We did end up finding it again after a while, only to find out that at night they really only deal with being a place to go smoke and not in food. We did finally find. A neat little sandwich place where I got a yummy panini. Finally headed back to the hotel and I ended up falling asleep while playing online. I eventually actually headed to bed and again slept through the night. I give thanks here to the fact that I am so behind on sleep and I am taking melatonin pills while here too (thanks Barbara for the suggestion). So that leads to today. I am actually feeling like I have more energy today, so we shall hope I stay a bit more awake during the talks.
So for those who don’t know I am a big believer in the fact that my sorority is for life. Many women when they join a sorority in college it is just for 4 years, and some don’t stay active the entire time they are in school and deactivate. For me that was never an option. Alpha Delta Pi showed me that it was for life. Wherever I have lived since graduating I have been a member of an alum association and now I am the finance advisor for the UC Berkeley chapter. So you get the idea, I love adpi.
Now you may be wondering why I am going off about this. A few years ago I bought a ring on ebay. The ring has the adpi badge on it. Now you can tell that the woman who owned this like me believed adpi was for life. The badge is so warn and some of the stones around it are missing. These features made me fall in love with the ring (it also helped to put it in my price range). When I got this ring it was way too small for me. I could kind of wear it on my pinky, well for my birthday the hubby went and got the ring sized for me. He also added a special touch to make it mine. Inside he had them engrave “With Pride.” Now for those who know adpi, Alphie the Lion is our mascot, so the idea of a pride is important. And, I know that its last owner wore it with pride and I hope to continue.
Ok… So I know I have been horrible about updating so I thought I would now. About 2 weeks ago I ended up with a plugged milk duct. Yes, I really am still breastfeeding and yes my daughter is 10 and a half months old. And yes I do work full time. This does mean that I am pumping at work (UGG!). But anyways, back to the original story. So I have been very lucky and haven’t really had any problems with engorgement or blocked ducts. Well that weekend was different. I was all backed up and ended up with a sore on my nipple from it. Luckily the block did pass. Well the sore was not wanting to heal well. By the end of the week I noticed my breast was getting sore again. Well by Sunday I ended up with a fever (which got up to over 101.3), aches, chills, very swollen breast that was bright red, and pain. Oh and I was very tired. Well monday morning I went into see the doctor and just as I thought I had a breast infection. All the symptoms I listed are pretty much it in a nut shell. So she prescribed 10 days worth of antibiotics, taking them 4 times a day. Blah. She also said that if in a week I was still having problems to contact her again. Well today was a week, and unfortunately I was still having some pain. I still had some blockages that weren’t wanting to pass, but also I was getting other pain after feedings and pumping. So I went back in this morning. She examined my breast and has found what she thinks is a cyst. The problem is that with aspiration it can just come back but with surgical removal there can be damage to the milk ducts. And well just leaving it may leave me with more breast infections and general just more pain. Well now I am scheduled for an ultrasound of my breast on Thursday and those results the doctor is going to talk with a breast surgeon about and we shall see what happens. On a nice note, the blockages have finally cleared, as of this afternoon. Now hopefully they will stay away for a bit. This might actually let me heal some.
I made this list a while back. It is things that I want to do with Tara. Some of them are for when she is older, but some we have been able to already do/go to. Those with X’s in front of them we have already done.
X-Shoreline Lake in Mt. View http://www.shorelinelake.com/ You can rent peddle boats when the kids get older
-Brown Bag and Twilight Music Series in Palo Altohttp://www.cityofpaloalto.org/recreation/news/details.asp?NewsID=481&TargetID=7
X-Baylands and Duck Pond in Palo Alto
X-Jr. Museum and Zoo in Palo Alto http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/depts/csd/activities_and_recreation/attractions/junior_museum/default.asp
-Foothills Park in Palo Altohttp://www.cityofpaloalto.org/depts/csd/parks_and_open_space/preserves_and_open_spaces/foothills_park.aspYou do need a Palo Alto resident to get in, but it is great fun for hiking, picnics and fishing
-Gamble Gardens in Palo Alto http://www.gamblegarden.org/
-Palo Alto Art Center www.cityofpaloalto.org/artcenter Does a yearly exhibit of local children’s work that is fun to see
-NASA Ames Research Center Exploration Center in Mt. Viewhttp://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/home/exploration.html
-Winter Lodge in Palo Alto http://www.winterlodge.com/ the first permanent outdoor ice rink west of the Sierras
-Palo Alto Children’s Libraryhttp://www.cityofpaloalto.org/depts/lib/news/details.asp?NewsID=410&TargetID=170 Oldest freestanding children’s library in the country
-Palo Alto Children’s Theaterhttp://www.cityofpaloalto.org/depts/csd/activities_and_recreation/attractions/childrens_theatre.aspputs on some really fun shows
-Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills http://www.hiddenvilla.org/ is a farm and wilderness
-Children’s Fairyland in Oakland http://www.fairyland.org/ an amusement park based on children’s fairy tales that helped inspire Disneyland
-Coyote Point Rec Area and Museum in San Mateohttp://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/portal/site/parks/menuitem.f13bead76123ee4482439054d17332a0/?vgnextoid=563bc8909231e110VgnVCM1000001d37230aRCRD&cpsextcurrchannel=1and http://www.coyoteptmuseum.org/
-Chabot’s Space and Science Center in Oaklandhttp://www.chabotspace.org/
-Central Park in San Mateo http://www.cityofsanmateo.org/index.aspx?NID=718 has a wonderful Japanese tea garden and a mini train for kids to ride on
-Exploratorium in SF http://www.exploratorium.edu/
-California Academy of Science in SF http://www.calacademy.org/
-SF and Oakland Zoos http://www.sfzoo.org/ andhttp://www.oaklandzoo.org/
-Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeleyhttp://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/
Ok… So most people who read this probably know that I am tall, and for those who don’t, I am just shy of 6 ft tall. This has always made life a bit interesting. I like being tall, but the world is not really designed for tall people. My current frustration of this has been umbrella strollers. Now I love the stroller we have. It is our bugaboo. You can go back and read all about my adventures of trying to pick out a stroller. There are multiple entries about trying to pick a stroller and then our final choice. Oh and then there was the adventure of them sending up the wrong stroller (the nicer one then we picked out but didn’t send all the parts). But anyways, I love the stroller. I even wrote a review about it on a website and won an exersaucer because they liked my review so much. So yes, it has been great, but it isn’t a little stroller. I have wanted a smaller stroller has a second stroller for those times where I don’t want to bring our full stroller with us. Also, when there isn’t room to bring the big stroller it would be handy too. Now next week I am headed with Tara to Arizona for a wedding (yippy), and realized this is my first time flying with her alone. Sam realized I could probably use a stroller for this trip, and that our bugaboo would probably be too large for me by myself (it gets checked in its own travel bag cause it isn’t handy to check at the gate). For those who remember, I did try to win a smaller stroller, but did not (I came in third and felt very loved by how many people voted for me). Anyways, so we went off shopping. Now I had done some research on umbrella strollers in the past and found the largest complaint was that they were too short. This leads back to my comment on me being 6 ft tall. So we headed to Babies R Us to look at our options. After much comparison we found that really and trully, the Maclaren umbrella strollers are much taller then every other one we tried. I tried
one that was close, but I kept kicking the wheels when I walked with it. Luckily there was a discontinued color that was on sale. So we finally did purchase a Maclaren stroller. It is the volo, and was the cheapest price I have ever seen a Maclaren stroller for. We actually got the last one other then the floor models. So yes, for all you tall people out there just go straight to the Maclarens. Find one on sale (they are expensive), cause they are really your only option if you don’t want to be leaning over a bunch of kicking the wheels all the time. On another nice note, unlike other umbrella stroller this stroller goes up to 55 lbs (others we saw went up to 33lbs which Tara should be by her second birthday). Having the extra high weight limit will hopefully come in handy when making family trips later on. Anyways, that is my suggestion to all you tall people out there.
