time for a boost(er)

ah, it seems like only yesterday that the bean was riding around town in an itty-bitty, oh-so-portable infant carseat.  and then when she outgrew it, we moved her up into a regular convertible seat.  when she was about a year and a half old, we finally turned the seat around so she could actually see where she was going.

amazingly, she's now outgrown this seat!  i can hardly believe it.  we've had some good times in this thing, and it's yet another piece of her babyhood that it's time to leave behind.  damn.  i wish she'd slow it down a little...i'm just not ready for her to be such a big girl. 

one of MIL's parting gifts to us was to have me place the order for the bean's new seat - a big girl booster seat that will take her all the way through until she can ride in the car with just a seat belt.  and in california, the law was just revised to require a booster seat for kids either 4'9" or 8 years old.  EIGHT!  yikes. 

after doing research on several sites, i settled on a nice, plush-looking seat by recaro.  yup, the company that designs seats for race cars and airplanes.  it got some great reviews, and it looks comfy.  plus, i managed to find it on sale with free shipping.  can't beat that. 

the bean was super excited to finally get out of the baby seat that she'd been complaining about for a few weeks.  and rightly so, since she was most definitely too big for the damn thing.  every day she'd ask me "mommy, is my new car seat here yet?"  and yesterday, i was finally able to tell her "yes, it's going to be here today!"

when we got back from school, a post-it on the mailbox told me to go into the side yard for the much-anticipated delivery.  and when i brought it in, she totally squealed and came over to inspect it.

then she sat down and worshiped it for a few minutes.

"mommy! i see my favorite number!!" (which is 100, and don't ask me why because i don't really know)

i find it funny that she was excited enough for this thing that i was able to use it to bribe her into her nap.  yes, she still naps, and hell yes, i absolutely dangle stuff she wants to get her to do it.  i'm not ready for her to give those up - and frankly, neither is she.  anyway, we had to hold off on cracking the box open until after dance class.  but the moment we walked in the door, it was all about "moooooom, can we open it NOW?"  of course, as soon as the box was emptied, well...

it was easy enough to snap the two pieces together.  pretty snazzy looking seat, eh?

she clambered out of the box and plopped right in.  "oooh, it's so soft and comfy, mommy!" she said.

i'm pretty excited that now we can move it from one car to another without the hub breaking his back to tighten it to his standards.  i could never get it in there properly, and this buckles into the seat using the regular seat belt.

oh, and i laughed at this:

because obviously, i usually DO opt for cute.  heh.

if food were crack, i'd totally be a crack whore

okay, so i would've loved to mimic the musical stylings of tater and the monkey in this post, but i just don't have it in me. theirs were simply genius, while any sad little attempt on my part would just look lame and pathetic in comparison. heh.

yesterday was a fun day full of friends and food. for real.

first, the bean and i headed out to the shoppes at chino hills to meet my old friend curly and her adorable little girl. i guess we were both so caught up in chatting, getting caught up on each others' lives, and keeping our offspring from being too noisy or messy that i didn't get a single picture of them! oh, well. anyway, we had lunch at one of my favorite chain restaurants, california pizza kitchen. i know, i know, shut your piehole.

i usually go for the BLT pizza on honey wheat dough, but i decided to walk on the wild side and try something new - the asparagus and spinach spaghettini with shrimp. i snuck a quick pic while curly and mini-curly took a bathroom break, so it doesn't look particularly appetizing, but i was surprised to find that it really was pretty tasty.

i plucked the squishy middle out of the bread and broke it up into pieces for the bean, and when she was over it she had fun chewing on the crust.

she's finally sprouting two new teef, and they're SO close to cutting through. i'm really surprised she's been as even-tempered as she always is, since i know that teething can be quite painful. but my kid's a trooper. she smiles through damn near anything. if not for the major droolage over the last week or so, i'd never have guessed that anything was going on.

after we parted ways, i decided to walk off my lunch and busted out the stroller to browse the shops. this little plaza isn't very big, but i managed to scoop up some fun stuff from the victoria's secret "pink" line. the bean ended up falling asleep, so i picked up an iced latte from peet's coffee and then we headed home for a quick break before our next outing.

an hour later, we were back in the car and on our way to santa anita mall to meet up with tater (and later, amber) to do a little shopping before dinner with the joy luck club. we'd finally been successful in coordinating our schedules to meet up (which is damn near impossible), and were excited to see each other and eat some delicious soup dumplings at nearby din tai fung.

at nords, i finally found a couple of things that could possibly take the place of my beloved iPhone for my birthday wish list. i'd really wanted a pair of tall chocolate brown uggs last christmas, but of course, they sold out like tickle me elmos and cabbage patch kids, and were nowhere to be found. and then the warm summer months were upon us, and i forgot all about them.

these hideous things stood next to my coveted chocolate brown boots. tater and i nearly fell over our own feet in our haste to capture them on film. seriously, ugg? UGG!

the food at DTF is laced with crack. i just know it. and the most heavily-cracked-out items are these - juicy pork soup dumplings and sauteed green beans. i couldn't get enough of them, but i was able to restrain myself with the help of the bean, who squealed and laughed and played with everything she could reach on the table.

we walked over to the plaza next door to get dessert - delicious shaved ice with a plethora of toppings to choose from. amber and i chose to share one, since they were absolutely gigantic, not to mention that we weren't feeling as adventurous as the others in our topping selections. we ended up with condensed milk, coconut jelly, almond tofu, rice balls, and strangely enough, flan. plus, they drizzled some other crack-laced brown sugar syrup over it, and it was like a big bowl full of icy heaven.

our friendly, enthusiastic server happily took a group photo of us (which i totally swiped from the monkey. thanks, dude). i love that our joy luck club now includes amber :)

lastly, we finally broke down and ordered a new car seat for the bean. i'd been putting it off because it's just so convenient to be able to pull her out of the car, still strapped in, when she's fallen asleep during the ride. with the new big-girl seat, it stays in the car and i'll just have to hope that she can learn to fall back asleep when i pluck her out and either put her in the stroller, one of my zillion carriers, or bring her inside the house.

it arrived and right now it's in her room, so when we went in there to play, she immediately gravitated towards the new toy and climbed right in.

yay for new car seat!