random pictures and a long weekend recap

so much fun, all in one weekend. let's go:

friday

we finally got out to san marino to try out a sushi bar i'd read about (and was recommended by my friend lilcee) - yoshida. the kid was - where else? - at the street fair with her BFF and other friends, and of course she was invited to spend the night. i can't remember the last friday that she actually slept in her own bed. ha!

anyway, we plugged the restaurant name into the trusty navi and pulled into a parking spot right in front. yay! but there was a crowd standing outside, obviously waiting to be seated. boo. so the hub went in to put our names in, and in five seconds came running back - "they can seat us right now!"

we planted our asses right at the sushi bar and plunked the snoozing bean's car seat next to us. contrary to some of the negative reviews on yelp, the waitstaff was really friendly (actually, we've noticed that bringing the bean with us gets us a lot of attention, and because she's either asleep or grinning at everyone, it's usually positive attention) and the sushi itself was really good. we agreed that it was very similar to our #1 favorite sushi joint, ken's in rancho cucamonga - a little hole-in-the-wall, with craptastic decor, the owner working behind the sushi bar, and yummy food. we left stuffed to the gills. heh.

we rented some movies at blockbuster (no country for old men, which we still haven't watched, i am legend, which was sucky and weird, and charlie wilson's war, which i largely ignored as i sat reading e-mails and catching up on celeb gossip) and ended up going to bed around 2, because i had to catch the late-night rerun of that day's oprah show. i wanted to see the tom cruise interview, and found myself remembering how much i used to love tom, before he went couch-jumping-crazy. he spoke carefully and was obviously trying his best to avoid making any more inflammatory statements and adding to his crazy factor.

saturday

the bean and i got up early to get ready for a day at the beach. after i tried giving her a breakfast of oatmeal cereal (which she hated - spit it right out), i got her all dressed in her swimsuit and matching hat. and then i ran around gathering up beach gear, getting myself ready, tidying up a little around the house. the hub left to pick up the kid and BFF, and when they got back, i snuck off to the post office for a quick errand.

i could hear the bean crying and fussing when i came back, and walked in to find her half-asleep, starfished (thanks, thatgirl!) in the pack-n-play, while the hub watched her in amusement. apparently, he was trying the cry-it-out method (CIO), which is quite controversial in some circles - it's where kids are trained to fall asleep on their own by literally leaving them to cry themselves to sleep. parents are pretty crazy about this - they either love it or hate it.

of course, i'm somewhere in between - because i always have to be difficult. ha! okay, well, i did this with the kid when she was about a month older than the bean. i was working full-time back then and i was so tired of being sleep-deprived, and other moms i worked with swore it worked. and after two nights of practically shackling myself to my bed as i listened to her cry in her crib, it finally kicked in, and from then on, she slept right through the night without a peep.

anyway, after a few more minutes of half-assed whimpering, the bean finally dropped off to sleep. this gave us the chance to pack up the car, get everyone dressed, and in the car. whew!

we stopped at quizno's for some lunch, the grocery store for drinks and snacks, and finally we were on our way. and today's destination? malibu!

there's a great little stretch of quiet beach tucked away in a residential area of malibu that the hub and i discovered late last summer. if i tell you where it is, i'll have to kill you. we talked about how fun it would be to take the kid and the bean there, and so that's where we went. it was so nice to park right on the street, walk down a really small hill, and find a spot right near the water. we set up the tent, the umbrella, spread out blankets and towels, and sat back to relax.

the bean protested when i took her to dip her toes in the water - it was really cold! so we went back and had snacks and played on the blanket. and she showed off for her daddy - she's so ready to crawl, and i'm excited and sad. damn, now i've got to buy a bunch of outlet covers and crap like that. good thing we aren't a knick-knacky kinda family. no, instead, our house is filled with baby gear. anyway, here's some pictures from our fun in the sun.

we swung into malibu colony plaza to grab a snack at malibu yogurt and marveled at the bentleys and maybachs parked next to hondas and toyotas while we enjoyed our treats. actually, they enjoyed treats and i grabbed a caramel macchiato at starbucks. and i was glad i did, because not long after we got on the freeway, the hub was complaining that he was sleepy, so i volunteered to switch places and drive.
we'd seen news stories about a new shopping center in glendale, called the americana at brand. it was designed and developed by rick caruso, the mastermind behind the grove in l.a., and from what we'd seen, the two centers were very similar - an outdoor mall with dancing fountains, a trolley, movie theater, and lots of upscale shops. at the americana, though, there are also condos and apartments - i hear there's a concierge service that will pick up clothing at the shops or food from the restaurants and deliver them to your front door. now that would be trouble, considering the fact that juicy couture, anthropologie, kate spade, free people, and lots of other great shops are there. they're even opening a kitson there, later this year.

we ended up having dinner at granville cafe, which was packed. americana's going to have to attract more restaurants, because there aren't a whole lot of places to eat there yet. anyway, the hub managed to grab us a table near the bar, and i ordered the uptown mac & cheese, the hub had the santa barbara sandwich, the kid had the "grown-up pb&j", and BFF went for a plate of buttery noodles. i fed the bean a jar of sweet potatoes while we waited for our food, which was pretty good. i don't know that we'd make an effort to return, but it did the trick for that night, and we topped it all off with the devil's advocate chocolate cake.

back at home, we popped in "enchanted" - and after the first five minutes the hub left to shoot a shotgun or smoke a cigar or something to shake off the utter girliness and cheesiness of it. i managed to get through about half of it before i realized i was snoring, and the girls were long gone, snuggled in sleeping bags on the couches.

sunday

as usual, the bean and i were the first to wake up. we unleashed molly upon the half-awake girls in the living room, and i got busy with making some cinnamon toast for them to munch for breakfast.

we finished watching "enchanted" and then the hub took off to run various errands while we got showered and cleaned up. the girls and i went and had lunch at wing stop, where i ate and kept my eyes on the laker game (we won, whoo-hoo!). the hub thought it would be nice to invite his grandmother and great-grandmother over for dinner, so we hit the grocery store for grub before taking BFF home.

and by 6:15, i was putting ribs, rice, veggies, salad, and rolls out on the table while the grandmas cooed and giggled with the bean. i sat her in her high chair and gave her dinner while we sat and chatted, and had a lovely visit.

after they left and all the dishes were cleared off the table, the kid set to work on her science experiment, due the next day (gee, i wonder who she got the procrastinating thing from). it was a quick little lesson in extracting dna - from half a cup of dried split peas. weird, huh? anyway, she just had to follow the instructions and take a cheesy picture to earn her 15 extra credit points. and believe me, she needs all the points she can get.

um, and this was the LEAST busy of the next three weekends. god help me.