On Valentine’s Day, a bunch of my high school girlfriends and I drove up to Philadelphia for a day trip to visit our dear friend Debbie! (Dan was a great sport about watching the girls while I got to spend time with my friends, and we had already had our own Valentine’s celebrations in the days prior.) Jen, Mimi, and I headed out in the morning, and got to Philly in time to enjoy soup dumplings for lunch with Debbie! Juli flew in to join us afterwards for post-lunch dessert at Audabon Bakeshop!
Audabon Bakeshop with the ladies
Mimi and I at lunch right before.
Neat signage at Audabon Bakeshop
Delicious macarons from Audabon Bakeshop
Strawberry brick toast at Audabon Bakeshop
It was so amazing that it necessitates posting another angle of it.
Walking to The Barnes Foundation museum as the flurries fell around us.
Lovely Mimi!
Us at the Barnes Foundation
The snow made everything look so romantic!
Cool crystals hanging from the ceiling of the museum.
Juli, Debbie, and Jen at dinner
We enjoyed dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant called Kanella. We didn’t realize that we’d be dining off of their Valentine’s menu, so it ended up being quite a meal!
shepherd’s pie
lamb chops
Lobster from Kanella
Chocolate cake with lavender ice cream. My favorite dessert there!
This was also delicious.
Our day trip to Philly was quite eventful! It was a fun and memorable day, and it was so enjoyable getting to spend Valentine’s Day with these amazing ladies!
We got caught in a bit of a blizzard on the way so it took us a while to get home, but thankfully we made it back in one piece around 2 in the morning. Can’t wait until we are all reunited again!
We got our first true snowfall of the winter on January 6th! The girls awoke to a world blanketed in white, which they admired from the window.
This reminds me of how much it snowed last winter, and how we were constantly stressed about me possibly going into labor during a blizzard. The snow is beautiful, but hopefully we won’t get as many snow days this year!
Mio is turning into more and more of a silly goofball these days! She’s always been a little unintentionally quirky and funny (as is apparent in the many embarrassing photos I’ve posted of her that she’ll likely resent me for in ten years), but she’s been starting to develop her own sense of humor and tries to crack jokes recently. Her latest favorite thing to do is to pick up objects and then suddenly hide them behind her head or her back and say “___ is gone!” (or sometimes in Japanese, “___ doko?!” meaning “Where’s ___?!”) and play dumb, as if it’s disappeared and she had nothing to do with it… and then she’ll whip it back out in front of her after a while and say “It’s here!” It was funny at first in a “Aww it’s her first deliberate attempt at a joke” kind of way, but the “gone” disappearing act has quickly gotten old and lost its charm as she does it at least twenty times a day with various objects, and we’re far from thrilled when she chooses to do it with food since it inevitably gets in her hair or on her clothes when she tries to “hide” it. Still, it’s endearing to watch her personality emerge even more and see her attempts to make others smile and laugh. Below are some fun videos I’ve captured of her lately…
Boppy Lion: “I am Mio, hear me roar!” (Yes, that is my breastfeeding pillow…)
Family Members as Cookies: Mio has this adorable toy cookie set that our dear friend Megumi gifted her when we visited Los Angeles last spring. She loves it and plays with it often, and we always encourage her to “share” the cookies with everyone. In the past couple months, we noticed that she has decided on a specific cookie for each member of the family, including her grandparents and aunt and uncles, and the cookies she’s assigned them never changes. It seems Mio’s carefully selected a cookie for each family member based on her perception of them. It’s funny to see how she sees each of us in cookie form!
Peekaboo with Wipes: Ever since the arrival of baby Mirei, Mio’s suddenly taken an interest in pulling out wet wipes and playing with them. Her favorite thing to do is put them on her face, for some reason… maybe because her skin feels dry?
Several parts of the country are currently getting hit by a winter storm, and our area was definitely not immune! We got over a foot of snow last night, and woke up to our cars buried and much shoveling to be done. Dan is working from home today and needless to say, the girls and I will not be going out anywhere for a while… good thing I have my own little miss sunshine with us to brighten our days!
It’s been pretty cold and snowy here, and Mio’s been experiencing some major cabin fever! Snow days can be fun, but between winter break, MLK Day, and snow days, Mio’s only gotten to go to preschool 3 days so far this month and she’s been bored to death at home. She keeps saying she wants to go to school! (I wish she could go to school or have makeup days, too, since it pains us parents too to pay full tuition when over half her school days are off/cancelled…)
I’ve also been stressed out because since Friday night, I’ve been experiencing what is called prodromal labor… Also called pre-labor and misnamed as “false labor,” it begins like traditional labor but does not progress to the birth of the baby. I started having strong contractions (clearly different from Braxton Hicks) at around midnight on Friday night, which grew to be 3-5 minutes apart for 3 hours. I called my OB and just as we were about to leave for the hospital, they slowed down and got weaker, and completely fizzled out around 5am, so we stayed home and I was eventually able to fall asleep. Since then, I’ve been having irregular contractions on and off almost every day — usually in the evening or at night, though none have been as consistent or as strong as they felt that first night. It can be quite stressful because I never know when it might escalate to true labor, and is exhausting because it’s depriving me of sleep (the baby gets really active each time and moves a lot, so even when the contractions stop, her movement prevents me from falling asleep). According to what I’ve read online from women who’ve experienced prodromal labor, this can continue for days or even weeks before baby actually arrives. It’s apparently not all in vain, though — these annoying contractions supposedly condition the uterus, and prepare the cervix for dilation and effacement, and oftentimes active labor will be shorter (and hopefully easier?) as a result. I didn’t experience this at all when I was pregnant with Mio, so it’s totally new and unfamiliar. It’s just frustrating to wonder “Could this be it?!” every time the contractions start… we made sure to have the hospital bag packed and ready to go at any time, and Dan’s shoveled the driveway to be clear of snow and ice in case we do have to run over to the hospital.
Here are some photos and video of Mio recently… not very exciting, since we’ve been stuck indoors, but cute all the same. 🙂
Mio helping me top homemade pizza for dinner.
Mama’s little helper.
Here’s a video of her topping the pizza: “Okay ~ Put it ON! Bounce! Bounce!” She cracks me up.
Family lunch out over the weekend… probably one of our last before baby comes!
Mio lunging for the desserts. She couldn’t wait to dig in!
Playing dressup with auntie’s accessories.
“Ready for my close-up.”
Hope everyone is staying warm in the snowy weather!
