Today was day one of two of our strategic team offsite. The last time I had a team offsite was two years ago, also in San Francisco, but with our wider customer success team. This offsite was a much smaller, tighter-knit group, more cross-functional… and a bit more “all business.” As much as I like this current team, it’s clear we don’t have the same “magic” and camaraderie as our wider customer success team did. One of our sales leaders knows an owner of an Italian restaurant called Pazzia SF, so he was not only able to get a good rate for our large group, but also a private dining space complete with its own large bar, fireplace, and comfy couches.

The sad thing we found out when we arrived at the restaurant was that they actually got robbed earlier this morning. A few guys had thrown massive rocks into their front floor-to-ceiling windows and stolen a bunch of their restaurant supplies and furniture. The owner almost wanted to shut the place down for the day to recuperate, but he said he couldn’t do that to our large group. So, it ended up being business as usual, luckily for us. The meal was delicious, with perfectly mixed cocktails, good wine, and delicious pizza, pastas, proteins, and salads. The family-sized serving of tiramisu was satisfying, but ever since that incredible and ethereal tiramisu we had during our last dinner in Buenos Aires, the one at Pazzia really couldn’t hold a candle to it.

I had a lot of fun conversations at dinner with my colleagues. It reminds me of all the laughter-filled and stimulating conversation and banter I used to have while working full time in an office. It also made me think about how luxurious it felt to have conversations with other adults and not have to worry about my toddler eating, running around, or breaking things. Chris and Kaia were having dinner at the hotel lounge at the time of my team dinner. While catching up with a team member, who asked me how Kaia was doing, I quickly looked at my phone after it buzzed to see that Chris had sent me two photos: one of a wide-smiling Kaia, standing by her little potty with a big lump of poop in it, and a second photo of just the little potty with her huge, adult-sized poop. That’s what happens when you are backed up, I suppose, even as a tiny human.

I responded, “Things are going well! We’re potty training now, and Chris just sent me a photo of Kaia with a big poop in her potty. Pretty sure you don’t want to see that.”

I will say that despite a fear of pooping in the potty, now being in week three of potty training, I’m quite proud of how far Kaia has come. Just over two weeks ago, she was running around in diapers and being cleaned up on a changing pad. Now, Kaia is self-initiating pee and had very few pee accidents. She tells us when she has to go, and when there’s not a suitable (haha, clean enough) potty for her to use, she very maturely holds the pee in and waits to go. When we had to put a diaper on her for our in-transit time on the plane, she said she didn’t even want to wear the diaper. Our sweet baby is growing and maturing so quickly, even with this one milestone activity (or process, really). Soon, diapers will be a distant memory for all of us, and she won’t even remember what it feels like to have her butt wiped by one of us.