leenaok

This weekend we went to Port St. Lucie to celebrate (Sam & Sonya’s daughter) Jasmine’s first birthday party. It was a good weekend to be out and about. The weather was perfect for outdoor water play, not a cloud in sight! Alisha was concerned that only babies would be at the party. Fortunately she had nothing to worry about; Alisha made friends with another 7 year old girl and they had lots of fun together. Jacob, the social butterfly, ran around, ate plenty, and slept well. What more could you ask from a 15 month old?

Jamilla & her family came over last night. They flew into Fort Myers and got to our house by 9pm. It was great to see them but I felt bad that Alisha couldn’t stay up late to play with the kids since she had to go to school this morning. If only Florida schools started after Labor Day! I just don’t get the reason for the August start date, but whatever it is, I don’t like it!


The Three Stooges: Arya, Alisha & Noah

By the time I woke up this morning, they had already left. Sanjay woke up early (around 5am) to see them off. When they said they wanted to get an early start on their drive to Orlando they weren’t kidding! I can’t imagine how the crowds will be, considering it’s Labor Day weekend.

Even though I’ve lived in Florida for 10 years now, I’ve only been to the Orlando tourist attractions a handful of times. Disney: 2x; Sea World: 1x and Universal/Islands of Adventure: 1x. The theme parks are SO expensive; I think a one-day Disney ticket costs more than 70 bucks per person. Sea World is the least expensive, but it’s by no means cheap. I’m just glad that the parks offer Florida resident discounts. Alisha has been talking about going to Disney, even though she just went there with her grandparents in June 2008. They just drove from Tampa (which is 1 1/2 hours away) for the day. In my opinion, the best way to visit Disney with a family is to stay at an on-site hotel. This way you can get an early start on your day and go back to your hotel room to eat lunch, relax and take a nap. Then, after you’ve showed/napped/rested, you return to the park around 5 and stay there until closing, which could be anywhere from midnight to 3am if you’re a resort guest. I wouldn't mind going back to Disney, but I don't see it happening until Jacob gets a little older. He's the kind of kid who would get lost in Disney without a leash!

We are BACK!!! All in all, it was some road trip. Was it worth all that driving for the convenience of having our own car?? I don’t really think so. But, at least we enjoyed some mini-vacations to break up all the driving.

So, where did I leave off...

Monday, July 6th: We drove to Nanuet and spent the night at Jamilla’s house. Kids had a great time. While Jamilla and I hung out (with Jacob), the dads took the remaining kids to watch a movie, which they thoroughly enjoyed.


June babies - Alisha & Arya - 7 years old! 

Tuesday: Next destination – Boston, Mass. On the way we stopped by to visit Jenna & Hannah (who is almost 15 months old). 

It was my first time being in their neck of the woods, since we usually meet up in New York. We had lunch at a Thai place and visited the West Hartford library (which has a FANTASTIC childrens’ section btw; you can even check out toys!!). From there it took 2 hours to get to Boston; it should have taken less time but there was traffic. It’s easy to forget about rush hour when you’re in vacation mode!

Tuesday night & Wednesday night: We stayed at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Boston. I don’t think I would have stayed there if we didn’t have our own set of wheels; access to mass transit was not close by (nor in the best of neighborhoods either, I don’t think). Space-wise, the hotel was great! Once again Sanjay’s points came in handy; he had enough Hilton Hhonors points for one free night so we only had to pay for the 2nd night. Hotel room was spacious enough for us not to have to share our bed with either Alisha or Jacob. Alisha and Jacob stayed in their own room; Alisha slept on the pull-out couch and Jacob slept in his Pack ‘n’ Play. It was really the ideal traveling scenario!

Here’s a summary of the sights we saw in Boston: Boston University, Boston Common, Fanueil Hall, Harvard Square.

Here's Alisha at the Boston Common Frog Pond.

The weather was actually pretty decent, so it was nice to walk around and enjoy the better-than-Florida-in-the-summer weather. Alisha's favorite things were the swan ride, the frog pond and (of course) the playground. On Wednesday night we got together with some of Sanjay’s friends from “back in the day” at Fire & Ice, a Mongolian BBQ-style restaurant. All you can eat dinner for $17 in Boston, not bad at all!

Thursday: We drove back to Commack, NY. It was quite a drive and we were stuck in some traffic along the way. Fortunately we weren’t in a hurry to get back, so we didn’t have to stress out about it.

Friday: Aside from packing for our return trip, our day was pretty open, which was nice. My parents went to the church retreat so we said our goodbyes when they left in the afternoon. We then met up with Sandy’s family for dinner at an Indian/Thai/Chinese restaurant. Guess what we all got – Thai! Food was good although the boys (Ethan and Jacob) were a little on the high maintenance side. I suppose we are getting to that age where it’s going to be difficult to go out with a toddler. I don’t remember Alisha ever being like that. Then again, Alisha was like the perfect baby. Or maybe she wasn’t and I’ve just blocked out all the not-so-perfect memories?

Saturday: We drove to Staten Island for Sanjay’s annual family reunion. If you remember, we flew up last November for the first reunion. Fortunately the “committee” agreed that summer would be a better time for family members to get together. So, what goes on during a family reunion?? Well, there was a lot of picture-taking, speeches, and various discussions about the future. When it came to voting for the 2010 reunion, it was pretty tight between Florida and Philly but ultimately Philly won. I have no problem with that because it means the Florida chapter of the family tree (which is basically us and Sanjay’s parents) gets to put off dealing with all the headaches of planning a reunion. We might get our chance in 2011 or 2012 though, but maybe the midwest family members will want their turn before we do. Hey, I’ve never been to Chicago, might be fun!

After the reunion we drove to NJ and spent the night at Joel & Namita’s house. Alisha & Joshua were so cute together.

The bookworms :) 

Joshua was especially sweet; he followed Alisha around the house and hung onto her every word. As for Jacob and Lily, we attempted the “Ultimate Bully” rematch and Jacob took the trophy. What can I say, Lily might look tough but she’s still a girl (and there’s nothing wrong with that!). Jacob may be small but the boy’s got SPEED! I don’t know how he makes every kid cry, maybe because he’s so loud and in-your-face??

Sunday: We went to church in Philly. Got there a little late but who’s complaining?? After service we went to Sanjay’s cousins’ house for lunch. We hadn’t been to their house since we got married (back in 2001) so I guess you could say we were overdue for a visit. By the time we’d all changed into our traveling clothes and stuffed ourselves with food, it was about 4 o’clock. Man, it was SLOW DRIVING down the interstate. I mean REALLY SLOW. So slow that the traffic caused a 2+ hour delay in getting to our destination. It was depressing watching the GPS add more minutes to our arrival time as we moved along at 20 mph. Ideally we wanted to get to Savannah but we barely made it into North Carolina before stopping in Rocky Mount for the night. We got rooms at the Best Western. Exterior corridor rooms but we literally needed a cheap place to lay our heads for like 7-8 hours, that was it. So, why be choosy?

1st note to self: NEVER DO INTERSTATE DRIVING IN THE NORTHEAST ON A SUNDAY! Either leave on Saturday or wait until Monday. It’s just not worth the aggravation.

To add insult to injury, Sanjay got a speeding ticket in Maryland! Everyone was speeding, but the cop waited until we passed him to pull us over. Why? Because he wanted to make sure he pulled over someone with an out-of-state license plate; it’s less likely the driver will show up in traffic court to plead his case. Cost of the ticket: $160. Add that to the gas we spent and the hotel stays and at the end of the day, flying instead of driving up north might have been the better deal. At least my in-laws saved $ because they drove back with us. If they hadn’t stayed with us, we might have left on Saturday (after the reunion) and made our return drive over 2 nights instead of one. Doing the drive to New York with just one overnight stop is just too much, especially with kids.

2nd note to self: Until all passengers are elementary school age, take 2 nights to drive up/down the Interstate between FL & NY!

Monday, July 13: Left the hotel at 7:30am, spent most of the day in the car. It was a L O N G day. Fortunately my in-laws didn’t mind me sitting in front during our travels. They sat on either side of Jacob (in the middle row) and Alisha enjoyed having (what we call) the “way back” to herself. If Jacob started crying, we’d put in a DVD, otherwise we tried to avoid it; since Jacob refused to wear the headset, we all had to listen to the audio on the DVD. I love the Cedarmont Kids, but how many times can you listen to their songs on a 20 hour drive?????

After dropping off my in-laws in Tampa, we finally arrived in Fort Myers at around 10pm. After 2 weeks of being on the road, being home felt FANTASTIC!!!! I just appreciate my home sweet home even more when I haven’t been there!

We’ve made it to New York! It has been quite the trip so far. Let’s see how well I can summarize our journey up to this point:

Monday, June 29: We spent the night at the Marriott, Coral Springs. Hotel itself was fine but we ate dinner at the hotel’s restaurant and experienced the SLOWEST SERVICE EVER. Only a few other tables were occupied but it looked like there was just one person working in the kitchen. S-L-O-W.

Tuesday: Jacob turned ONE! Sanjay had work so Alisha, Jacob & I spent the morning with my grad school friend Shara. She recently joined the parenthood bandwagon and has a 5 month old son. Jacob had fun walking all over the place and checking out all the toys (and non-toys). Alisha went into the pool and never wanted to leave! We started our drive up I-95 by 4pm and kept going until we reached St. Augustine, where we ate a late dinner at Sonny's BBQ. From there we drove until we got to the Savannah, GA exit, where we stayed at the SpringHill Suites.

Wednesday & Thursday: It felt like we spent most of the day in the car. We couldn’t wait to get to our first vacation spot – Virginia Beach! We got there in the late afternoon so we had plenty of time to start enjoying the beach.


Jacob is probably thinking, "Yay, I'm no longer stuck in that carseat!"

We stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites which was right on VA Beach. Hotel room was a little cozy, but then again we don’t pack light and Jacob’s Pack ‘n Play took up some space. The best part was that this hotel didn’t cost us a cent; we used Sanjay’s Marriott Rewards points to pay for the 2 night stay. Finally, those out of town trips did us some good! I think if we ever go back to VA Beach, we should stay at the SpringHill Suites, so we have extra space to spread out.

It was nice to relax and enjoy the beach with nothing to do and nowhere to go :). Alisha wanted to go for a ride on the surrey so we rented one for 2 hours. The beach has a bike path but it was hot and going uphill was no picnic.


Next time I think Alisha should do the pedaling!

Friday: Ate brunch at Pocahontas, the "Best Pancake House in Virginia Beach in 2002" by "The Food Network". It lived up to the hype; the pancakes were delicious!! We left Virginia Beach in the afternoon and started the drive to Nueva York. It was a LONG drive, but we got to Commack around 9:30pm.

Saturday (the 4th of July) & Sunday: Steve drove up from Jersey to hang out with us on Saturday. On Sunday we invited the family over for a low key lunch/BBQ to celebrate Jacob’s first birthday. My mom always insists on whipped cream as the cake topping, even though she never eats any cake. I think most people prefer butter cream topping. I actually prefer Carvel ice cream cake to all others, but for some reason Sanjay hates ice cream cake. I just don’t get it. 

On the picture-taking front, the birthday party indoor shots came out quite blurry...what a bummer! 

Our friends Reggie & Sneha became first-time parents yesterday! The 4 of us went to the hospital to meet their daughter, Nithya. Jacob was busy showing off his walking skills so didn’t even pay attention to the baby until she started to cry. Then he just stared at Nithya with this look on his face like, “What is that?!” It was very cute :)

Reggie and his 1-day-old daughter, Nithya

So much to say! Our friends Sam & Sonya came over for the weekend with their now-almost-8-month-old girl, Jasmine. I was hoping Jacob would behave (and not try to crawl on top of Jasmine or attempt to grab her eyes), and he DID! Unfortunately there was nothing he could do to impress his “girlfriend”; every sound that came out of his mouth made baby Jasmine cry! We just couldn’t figure out what it was. By today she was 100% AOK around Jacob but (of course) they went back home this afternoon.


Just look at Jacob & Jasmine. They're bonding over tupperware :) 

Alisha really WOWed us with her dance performances! She had 3 numbers: 2 ballet and 1 tap solo. I did not realize that her dances were to modern pop/R&B/hip-hop music (until I went to her dress rehearsal on Friday). I was most impressed by her first ballet performance and her tap solo. The girl can really move! The first ballet routine was to the song, “Welcome to Miami” (by Will Smith), her tap solo was to “A- You’re Adorable” (click here to listen) http://www.sillybooks.net/books/A_Adorable/adorable.html and her other ballet number was to “Independent Women” (Charlie’s Angels soundtrack by Destiny’s Child). You weren’t allowed to videotape the program but of course I brought my camcorder, sat waaay in the back of the auditorium, and recorded what I could, using the viewfinder. Trust me, it was not easy watching the dance and recording at the same time! I wasn’t in the audience for Alisha’s solo (I was on the side of the stage) and because she went on stage earlier than we’d expected (because another girl hadn’t shown up on time), Jim wasn’t ready with the camcorder until the middle of the solo. I was so happy that Alisha didn’t get stage fright; she really and truly exceeded my expectations. Anyway, we were debating whether or not to cough up the 45 bucks (a complete rip-off) to buy a copy of the recital on DVD but ultimately we did, just because of her tap solo!!

The dance recital felt like it took up our entire day; it went from 3pm-7pm...yes, 4 hours!! Alisha & I got there at 2:30 and everyone else got there by 4. Technically it ended at 6:30ish, but then the owner of the dance studio came out on stage, thanked everyone and announced the name of every single student/stage mom/helper; that took 20+ minutes. Needless to say, we were really tired by 7 o’clock. Why didn’t we leave early, you might wonder. Well, after the ballet girls performed their second act, they were kept on the stage until the very end. It’s actually a smart idea because it kept (the majority of) the audience in their seats until the very end.

To celebrate a job well done, we all went to dinner at Stir Crazy, Alisha’s second favorite place (the first being Steak ‘n Shake). 



BTW 1. That’s not Alisha’s costume (dancers are only supposed to wear their costumes when they’re backstage) and 2. Alisha is wearing make-up. I was instructed to have Alisha wear the following: eyeliner (I used purple because black was too harsh), mascara, rust-colored lipstick and blush.

And I finally mastered the hair bun! I went to the dance store and (with the purchase of a bun kit) they provided me with a demonstration. If Alisha wasn’t such a wiggle-worm her hair would have only taken me 3 minutes, but because she is who she is, it took me more like 8-10 minutes. But I was really pleased with how everything turned out.

The funeral was yesterday, so sad and still unbelievable. Sandy & her family are holding their own. Jacob & I spent last night at their house. It was fun watching Ethan and Jacob together. They are such BOYS!


BFFs Ethan & Jacob

They’re already getting each other into trouble. For example, Sandy’s mom caught them sticking their hands in the VCR. I blame Ethan because he’s older (even if it’s only by 5 months). I didn’t know how Jacob was going to behave during the (4 hour) viewing. Fortunately the basement of the funeral home was pretty spacious so Jacob had lots of room to roam around and plenty of kids to keep him company. He wasn’t as well behaved during the funeral (although more squirmy than anything else). Fortunately Cheerios work wonders to keep tots quiet and occupied!

BTW Sanjay called and told me he pulled out Alisha’s tooth. This will make it number 6 (the lower left lateral incisor). Father & daughter have been enjoying themselves without me. So far they’ve gone shopping, golfing and out for ice cream; I wouldn’t be surprised if Alisha wanted me to stay in New York (although she claims she misses me). In any case, I’m ready to go home. It’s been an exhausting weekend. I’m just thankful that Jacob is in good health, unlike the last time when we were in New York (Christmas time) and he caught a cold.

Sad news to report today. Sandy’s dad died suddenly from a heart attack around 2 this morning. When my dad called me this morning to relay the info, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Even when I talked to Sandy I couldn’t believe it. I just feel like part of me is in a daze. It’s just awful and my heart aches for them. I don’t know what to do or what to say but I definitely feel like I should be there. So, I booked a flight to NY. I leave on Friday. I was debating whether or not I should take Jacob but ultimately decided he should come with me. I mean, how can I fly to New York and not take Jacob when his ticket doesn’t cost me anything and my parents would love to see him? Well, it could cost me a headache, but we’ll see about that.

In any case, I gotta start packing. Yesterday I was like, “Wow, an open weekend.” Today, I feel rushed!

You just never know what God has in store for us. How precious is life!

Sandy came over yesterday and spent the night in Commack. We got to spend some quality time together & also stayed up watching movies 'til we could no longer keep our eyes open!  Even though we live 1100+ miles away from each other, I actually see Sandy more than my own brother, who ony lives 2 hours away from me.  The last time we saw Jim was at Alisha's 3rd birthday!!!  I refer to him as Alisha's invisible uncle - he's out there and he sends presents, but is never seen...

I booked my tickets to NY for Joel’s wedding. I actually booked it 2 days ago for $69 each way but when I checked it again today, the fare went DOWN 10 bucks each way, so I called JetBlue and got my $20 credit. They put the credit in my JetBlue account so I can use it next time I book a ticket. I love when I get a great deal on airfare, especially from Fort Myers, cuz it doesn't always happen!

Anyways I have to finish packing my stuff for our trip...I hadn’t even finished UNpacking from the Atlanta trip, so I guess it works out?!

Alisha is still sleeping – she was VERY cranky yesterday so I let her have a longer-than-usual nap (3 hours) and then she took another half hour nap at 8:30 and then went to sleep at 10:45. She is still trying to get back into her schedule (since this past weekend threw it off) which is why I am letting her sleep so much.