Not a whole lot happened over the weekend. I had promised Shortie to take her to the City to look for a dress for her prom, which I keep pretending isn’t really happening. I’m still in denial that this year is her senior year. It feels like yesterday when I was pushing a double stroller down the street or hanging out at the park with my two toddlers and random people would stop to say things like, ‘Oh my goodness, what cuties! Enjoy them mom. They grow up so fast!’
But, as a stressed-out first-time parent, I never really listened. When you are in the middle of raising little kids, your mind is too busy wondering if your children will actually take a nap on your drive back to the house, or if you have enough diapers to make it through another day, so you can avoid another stop, especially if they’ve fallen asleep in the carseats. And the reality is, they do grow super fast, and in the blink of an eye your babies are suddenly 15 and 17, driving or learning to drive cars, and on their way to college!
But I guess that’s the way it is with a lot of things in life. We don’t learn from the things people tell us. It’s only after you go through it yourself that you finally get it, for better or for worse.
We had a nice time in the City. We didn’t find a dress, but Nick tagged along which was fun. It’s not often these days that I get both kids together for a whole day. (Teenagers, you know!) We found some pants for Nick and managed to get a table at a very busy restaurant.
After shopping for about an hour or so, we were tired and hungry, so we went up to the restaurant on the seventh floor, where the host told us the wait time would be 40 minutes – unless we wanted to eat at the bar. We didn’t want to eat at the bar, so we decided to keep on shopping and come back later, hoping it would be less busy.
About 45 minutes later, we returned to the restaurant and got the same answer: the wait time would be 40 minutes. So, I asked if the bar was open. (At that point, I didn’t mind eating at the bar anymore. We were hungry!) The host said that indeed, the bar was open, and pointed us in the right direction. As we entered the bar area, I noticed not one, but several empty tables. I gestured to the kids to follow me to one of the tables in the corner of the room and told them to sit down. A waiter came over a few minutes later and took our drink order and brought us some warm bread. It was a little sneaky, I know, and totally out of character for me, which I think kind of shocked the kids. They were worried we’d get in trouble, but instead we got to eat some decent food and enjoy the beautiful view of the city from the closest table to the terrace. I don’t know what got into me. Hunger, perhaps?
On our way out of the building we also got to see some of the preparations for the Chinese New Year Parade, which we didn’t know was happening later that day; it would have been so fun to see it.
On Tuesday morning, I had to go back to San Francisco and while walking near the Embarcadero, I stumbled upon the parade dragon that had we missed on Sunday. I thought it was an interesting coincidence. Good luck, you think? Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Favorite Breakfast: Blueberry-Ricotta Pancakes
It was President’s Day on Monday and Patrick made pancakes. The day was beautiful, so we ate on the deck. It had been a long time since we’d made these pancakes, which are delicious. (Recipe by Giada de Laurentiis). The ricotta gives the pancakes extra fluffiness and more flavor overall — and I just love blueberries. I also love it when Patrick makes breakfast. I highly recommend these!
Knitting Update
In the knitting world, I’m sorry to say I haven’t made great progress on any of my projects. I have spent a lot of time testing swatches for the diamond blanket I wrote about last week and the more I think about it, I don’t think I have a blanket in me at this time, so I’ve decided to try knitting some placemats instead. The only problem is that the yarn I have has different weights, so finding the perfect needles to make everything fit (this is knit like a puzzle) has been a bit of a challenge. I think I’m getting close to figuring out the needle size and the colors I want to use. I’ll report back soon!
