Kokochi

The weekend

Admittedly, I'm getting slack about blogging...which bothers me since this is my diary and I do want to document for myself (and Tesla) about my daily life. But the more active she gets, the busier I am. Feeding, cleaning, & playing with her. Blogging is taking the back seat slowly but surely. Anyway, we had a good weekend. Friday, after saying bye to Tesla's grandma (last pic), we headed to M&J's - our cool neighbors with a toddler cutey girl. We're hanging out together more and more. For Friday, we had dinner at their place - at their toddler's cute small table - then we all filed over to our house where we shared a babysitter so us adults could have some Friday fun. It's so nice to have neighbor friends...makes the kid thing so much easier & fun. In fact, the very next night, we all had dinner at our place, and as our babies slept away, we shared wine and giggles over silly YouTube videos. Sunday, Dav and I had a slow brunch, then headed to our neighborhood park with Tes. She was napping when we arrived, so we waited. Then we had some swing and slide fun. Caught up with dear Rachel for some tea...it's hard to realize how much time goes by between hanging with good friends. In between, I'm so busy that I don't realize how much time flies by, but when we finally sit down, I feel how much I miss our regular girl talks...Luckily, Rachel is very understanding. : ) Back at home, I gathered stuff that Tesla has outgrown...to give to a friend who is expecting any day now. It's so strange to pack up her gymini. I remember so clearly when I got that for her...and she was still a bit too young for it. We watched her slowly notice how fun it could be for her...and now she is way past being content just lying on her back. Amazing...

Thursday mamas

When I was still on maternity leave, I enjoyed hanging out with other mamas, letting our babies interact, and us catching up on all the issues of new motherhood. In particular, Katia from my Burning Man group organized a Tuesday gathering. I used to join & hosted once. But now that I work, I have only Thursdays off, so I proposed a mamas gathering this past Thursday. I loved seeing how much Lucia and Leanne had grown. They were standing up! And Leanne's mommy, Stacey, is preggy with #2!! Wow. Elida stopped by too on her way home from work. Super nice to see her laugh with the babies. Life is indeed marching on...so fast.

New vocalisations

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Like your ride?

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On all 4s

In the morning at Tahoe

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Daddy making Tes laugh

And finally getting to record it.

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While everyone skied...

Tesla and I went shopping. Here, the dressing room mirror entertained Tesla.

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Tesla at Lake Tahoe

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Waking from a nap

Lots of energy!

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Lumos Labs

Check this out. This is a new service that provides brain games. Yes, since mommy-hood, my memory has been shot so this is good. But the real reason I'm blogging this is that Lumos Labs was launched recently (in beta now, but they are serious and already have funding) by my dear 2 housemates. I've watched them gather a team, work to get funding, quit their regular jobs, find an office, and then launch. I am very VERY proud as I know how hard they work. And they are brilliant, truly smart, hard-working, so I have a good feeling about this. Kunal is the most sincere (and cool) finance & business guy. Mike is the brain dude...Stanford neuro-scientist. Oh, and Dav assisted with his programming fu. What is cool is that their games are original and fun. I confess that I haven't played enough to personally document my progress yet, but geez...I have so little time - give Tesla a dinner and bath, or play a brain game? For now, I choose the former. But in due time, I will very much need to give my brain some exercise., and I will indeed look to Lumos Labs. So, please try em out. I lo(i)ve these guys. More importantly, they are getting recognized. They initially thought this would be for the baby-boomers, but they are also getting a lot of interest from child psychologists who work with children with developmental delays. Their games WORK. Area of Cognition: Memory Memory Match trains your working memory, an important factor in many cognitive processes. This memory task is very challenging initially but becomes easier as your memory improves with training. Area of Cognition: Attention Birdwatching improves attention and the ability to process visual information. These abilities are important in many everyday activities including driving. The task gets progressively more challenging to accommodate your improvements in visual attention and processing speed. Area of Cognition: Processing Speed Raindrops is designed to improve processing speed through a numerical reasoning task. It emphasizes both speed and accuracy. Processing speed is important in a wide variety of cognitive functions. Area of Cognition: Memory Monster Garden improves your memory and attention with a spatial memory task. As your spatial and working memory improves, you will be able to navigate through progressively harder levels.