BlogHer Trip Day 1

 My BlogHer 2011 plan had been contingent on Baby E following my birth schedule for her. She would be born mid-June so Stewart could take a week vacation the first week of August even if he did take off a few days around her birth. But unfortunately, like all daughters do, she had her own idea of when she would appear and wasn't born until the beginning of July. And of course, Stewart had to have the bad luck of contracting pink eye at the hospital so he ended up taking a week off so he wouldn't go into work with bloody watery eyes. Nice. So there was no way he would be taking off another week at the beginning of August for our trip to San Diego. Which left me with a huge dilemma, do I go to BlogHer or try to sell the ticket? I held off making the decision until the end of July when it was clear that Baby E was a good baby. She slept for long stretches during the day and rarely cried. The boys had been promised a trip involving a hotel stay since before Baby E was born so that was another factor in the decision.

We decided to go for it. Stewart would take off two days. This meant we could spend Wednesday night with Baby E's namesake who flew in from the East Coast for the weekend. We slept a few hours that night and then started driving at 5:00 AM. No fuss from the boys, we were finally on our way to the hotel! The drive went a lot smoother than anticipated and what I had feared would be a 12 hour journey ended up taking only 9 1/2 hours. If you factor in potty and feeding stops with two toddlers and a baby, that is actually pretty amazing. As long as Stewart was going over 60 mph, Baby E was content to sleep. We made it with time to spare for the first event on my excel spreadsheet: The Big Toy Book Sweet Suite Event. It was at the Hard Rock Hotel across the street from the Marriott, the official BlogHer hotel. (To digress, it was very interesting, everyone staying at the Hard Rock dressed as if they were rock stars. Women wearing sparkly cocktail dresses and super high heels with blown out hair and huge sunglasses. And there I was with Baby E strapped to my chest, diaper bag in one hand and R's hand in the other.)

The Sweet Suite Event was sponsored by The Big Toy Book and KidzVuz. I had fun making bracelets with H and R's names and meeting up with other mom bloggers from Silicon Valley and from Los Angeles. Somehow I completely missed the Pinkberry but had enough chocolate covered strawberries to make up for it. Baby E and I also had a great time looking at all the new toys coming out for fall and the holiday season. I especially loved the life-like dolls from Adora Doll Friends. I've been searching for a while for an Asian doll to get for Baby E and it has been really difficult. I asked them whether they had one and they showed me their catalog which had a Korean doll! I was so excited! I hope I win the Adora Doll Friends $500.00 ADORA-ble Dolly Giveaway which runs on their blog till the end of August. The baby dolls actually look and feel like actual babies. I could tell they weigh as much as a newborn since I had Baby E with me!

Next I headed over to the Glamour Suite sponsored by Dermalogica, Stila, Paul Mitchell, CND and Beautisol at the Robert Cromeans Salon. I had my hair done by one of the salon's great stylists and a facial treatment by Dermalogica. I even got a photo with Robert Cromeans, the global artistic director of Paul Mitchell! I was so happy they did my hair with a flat-iron because they told me that it would last a few days meaning I would have a frizz free head for most of BlogHer! I had wanted to get a shellac manicure from CND (lasts 14 days without chipping!) but didn't have time as I could feel the pressure in my chest signalling my need to get back to the hotel to feed Baby E. Maybe next year? Anyway, I was happy to get back to the hotel room and get some sleep to prepare for the first official day of BlogHer.