We were fortunate that there was babysitting set up for the event in the morning, so we left Santi with the girls (all high school/college aged girls). There were two girls who were in love with the two babies who were there (Santi and another little little one) so they took over with them and we just checked in during breaks and for food and other than that he was fine which was a relief. And the girls were in love with him so that made it easy to leave him.
After the symposium
We had lunch on the campus (symposium took place at one of the UCSD campuses) and totally felt like we were back in college again at the Union (despite the different feel of having a baby there with us!) After the event, we had several hours to kill so we figured the only thing to do was to go back to the pool (had to take advantage of the sunshine while we could!)
Note the water on my face as Santi had discovered splashing!
Beach baby
Sleepy baby back in the room - I noted to Tito how Santi sleeps the same way I do
After a nap, we got dressed up and headed to a VIP reception for the gala. There was wine and appetizers on the terrace. We had Santi with us until the baby sitters were available.
Our guest speaker was Jimmy Garcia - he's the oldest KD kid - wasn't diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease when he was young and had it and didn't know he had it until about a year ago when he had a heart attack at 51 and they went in and discovered he had KD. He is an amazing individual and has the same mantra of "live your life and don't let anything hold you back" that I do. He is also a camera man on American Idol (he does all of the "home" stories and also when you see Ryan Seacrest waiting to greet people outside of the auditions, he is the camera man for those scenes.) So of course, Tito and I got the chance to pump him for AI insider info. :) We confirmed that Ryan Seacrest is short (about 5'8"), that they shoot the home stories before they even know who is going to go through (it'd been Tito's theory that they only shoot the home stories on those who go through), that all of the kids who have come through AI are really nice and humble, with the exception of Jennifer Hudson who was apparently pretty demanding even before she was a "star".
Dessert
Kimberly Caldwell from Season 4 of American Idol was our emcee. Justin Guarini was supposed to do it but had something come up at the last minute so he asked Kim to stand in for him. She did a great job and wasn't as tiny in real life as I'd imagined her to be (she's taller than I thought and looks normal, not super skinny.) She sang Melissa Ethridge's "Come to my Window" and was great!
With Dr. Burns - the doctor who tirelessly researches KD in the hopes of finding a diagnostic test for it. She recently discovered a genetic link in the disease. She's one of the most amazing people I know.
With Jimmy (he's short too as I'm wearing 3 inch heels here which makes me about 5'5"). He's such an amazing person and he introduced me to his whole family who was there as well and was telling them all about me and my KD story. His girlfriend was so sweet and said she thought I was 23 years old and I had to correct her and tell her I was 33!
With my "story" which was placed with others throughout the silent auction room
Santi spent some of the event with us at the table and then the rest in a back room being watched. I went in to check on him to find him crying as the girl was feeding him. I said I'd take him and the poor kid had a major blowout then and there. I had to change him (thank goodness for extra clothes!) and then we took him back to the table until he was tired so we brought him back to the room and put him to sleep in his stroller.
At one point during the dinner we'd discovered that the girl who had been watching Santi (he was the only kid being watched) had left him sleeping in the room alone. So we ran back there and stayed until we found another girl to watch him (thankfully only about 2 minutes had passed in the time she'd left until we saw her and ran back there.)
After the event was over, we headed back to our room and put Santi to bed officially while we enjoyed some wine and relaxed.
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