One crazy month

Hello to the two people left who probably are still checking this blog! It has been a tough January at the Dholakia household, as both Sameer and I had big meetings on the 22nd and worked like crazy to prepare for them. I don't think I've worked that hard since about 1995 (and maybe not even then), and it turns out that I don't like it. Sameer, on the other hand, is a closet workaholic, so actually seems to thrive on it a bit. The good news is that both of the board meetings we each had on the 22nd went very, very well which at least somewhat made up for the long hours. And I at least have had a bit of a break since then (including taking Thursday and Friday off this week for some serious Mommy-Sonia bonding time).

Anyway, despite the craziness, there were a few highlights from the month. Most notably, we made a trip to Austin to attend Patrick & Heather's wedding, and it was a great chance to catch up with all of our old friends there. We left Sonia at home with Dada (who managed to watch her all by himself for the entire weekend!), so it was like one big date night. Friday night we hit Sullivan's, which is no doubt not the cool place to go in Austin anymore, but we did see Michael Dell there and they are still serving the pineapple martinis, so I was happy. It was like we got in a time machine and went back to about 1999, and for one night it was great fun. The next day we had brunch with BJR and Lisa (breakfast tacos being just what the doctor ordered after a late night) and then went to the wedding, which was a very nice affair. On Sunday, we met Isabella R. (such a cutie!) and also got to see Ben R. and Peyton P. (and their parents, sans Andy who was at home watching Sloane). We even saw Thad, which was kind of pathetic since he actually lives near us and we had to go all the way to Austin to grab lunch together. But, best of all, they all met us at Freebirds, which was my other can't-be-missed Austin meal. Yum. I must admit seeing all of our friends and imagining the house we could actually afford to buy in Austin made for quite a bit of conversation about moving back there (compounded by me being cranky about having to work so hard). I can't imagine that we would ever actually motivate to move, but it's always fun to think about returning to the land of margaritas and queso.

Sonia is getting more fun by the day...you'll have to take my word for it since this entire month we've managed to take about 5 photos. She is picking up more signs, still doing "more", but also now "eat" and "milk" (the latter one about every 5 minutes, since she is a milk addict). Sameer also taught her to shake her head for "no" -- I can't imagine why he thought that was a good idea -- and she is now doing that all of the time, especially when you try to get her to eat anything that is not fruit or Cheerios. On Friday she and I took the train up to San Francisco (which Sonia thought was great fun) to meet Sameer who was up there for a meeting, and then we headed to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito for a quick visit. Despite being a "museum" it turned out to involve a lot of going outside, which in the pouring rain was not tons of fun. But, Sonia did have a great time in the room dedicated to toddlers, and because of the rain we had it mostly to ourselves. Sameer in his suit was definitely the best-dressed dad there (admittedly, since there was only one other dad, it was not stiff competition). After the museum we headed over to the Dodsons, where we got to hang out with the whole family plus the Glotzbachs. I'm not sure Molly's kitchen has fully recovered from 5 kids attempting to eat dinner (with varying degrees of success), but it was certainly great to see everyone and catch up in small bits in between chasing the kids. :-)

Here are a couple of pictures from our outing to the Discovery Museum...for those of you wanting to replicate my awesome hairstyle, the secret is to stand out in the rain for 30 minutes and then let it air dry.