Lunch With Daddy!!!

Today we went on our first lunch date with Daddy down at his work in Irvine. Don has been working at Allergan for a year now and we wanted to celebrate his 1-year anniversary. We loved our lunch with you today Daddy!!!

Chino State Park Fires

As many people know we have been experiencing some really bad fires here in Southern California. One of those fires came very, very close to us. Below is one of the latest fire damage images that is on google. We are located to the left of the 71 Fwy circle (just below the fork in the freeway on the right side of the picture).
These are some pictures Don took from our front porch.

At this point we were told to pack-up and be ready to evacuate if need be. We packed until about 2am and then decided to get some rest.

Luckily we have not had to evacuate but there were times last night when 10 or so fire trucks were just down the street setting an offensive back fire to protect our neighborhood. They called it a "controlled burn," but that name still makes me laugh. Controlled burns are managed, but never truly controlled.

Anyway, the winds have stopped and now the smoke is starting to get pretty thick around us. I'm planning to unpack Brixie Lee's and my stuff, so we can head to Bakersfield tomorrow to get out of the smoke. Here we come Goma!!!!

Another tooth!

It's been ages from the last time Brixie Lee had a tooth come so I totally missed all the signs. I was brushing her teeth on Saturday and thought that she hurt her gums because she had a big-o chunk missing (sorry, kinda gross). The next day I could see the little white tooth starting to poke through. These 2nd molars are HUGE! Poor baby! No wonder she had been waking up at 4:15am and being so cranky. I thought she was starting her terrible 2's a little early. We've got 1 down and 3 more to go. Hang in there baby girl!

2 Weeks & Fingers Crossed...

Today marks 2 weeks for Brixie Lee wearing her mama panties all day and all night. Little explanation for that... we called her cloth diapers her "big girl panties" (used those for a bit hoping she would hate being wet... that didn't work), we called her pull-ups her "princess panties" (they have princesses on them), so when she got around to "real" panties she called them "mama panties" (reasons I assume are obvious).

Many people where quite shocked when we started sitting Brixie Lee on the potty when she was almost 7 months old.

I have always hated changing #2 diapers, so I started reading about early potty training when BL was about 6 months old. Everything I read had a basic point of putting them on the potty as soon as possible so they get used to the potty and sitting on one becomes routine. We were shocked when she peed on her potty the very first time she sat on it. That didn't happen again for a couple of days, but she really enjoyed just sitting there reading whenever she got up from sleeping.

Withing a months she was going #2 on the potty quite regularly and the momentum gained. The most exciting transition was when she was about 15 months old and we started putting her on the adult potty. It was great! No mess to clean-up! I never wanted her to feel pressured to start going on the potty, so we took it at her pace. About a month ago she started waking up with a dry diaper so two weeks ago we decide it was probably time to take the plunge and get into "mama panties" full-time. Our fingers are still crossed that she is really done with diapers! She has a little over 2 months before her little sister gets here so we're hoping it will be very routine by then and she wont digress.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!!!

13 Year Relationship Has Ended...

After 13 years at Cal Poly Pomona as a student and/or staff, I've called it quits. It was not an easy career decision, but it was an easy Mommy decision. I started Cal Poly Pomona in Sept of 1995 as freshman in the Collins School of Hospitality Management and I worked nights/weekends at Longs Drug Store in Upland. In my sophomore year I started working at Cal Poly in the Facilities Management Department as a student assistant because the commute to Upland was just too hard. My student assistant position in Facilities turned into a full-time position just after I graduated in June 2000. I decided to take advantage of the employee fee wavier benefit and started the evening MBA Program while I worked full-time in Facilities. I graduated from the MBA Program in June 2003 and then received Senior Budget Analyst position in the College of Science Dean's Office in October. I started my leave of absence when Brixe Lee was born in January 2007. What a ride!

Thank you to everyone that helped and supported my career at Cal Poly Pomona! I learned so much from so many people there. Thank you all!