School Visit

Today Vic and I visited Christa McAuliffe School for a tour. Gina has been saying that she want to attend Blue Hills School which is just down the street, but mainly because she is familiar with their play structure. She is now more open to attending either and left me with questions about whether the Kindergarten class has desks (they don't until 1st grade) and if they have a play structure (they do, but not in the kindergarten area).

We ran into Yuka whose daughter Emily will also be starting kindergarten in the fall. It would be cool if Emily and Gina both ended up at the same school but who knows what will happen.

We visited a number of classrooms and had a very knowledgeable tour guide. Jean has four kids, all have attended McAuliffe with the fourth now in seventh grade. So she has been a part of the school for 14 years. She had a lot of good things to say about the school though she was not hesitant to say that the system is not perfect either.

It was very interesting to see the kids at work. In the Kindergarten class, the kids were presenting their stories. Some were short but other were very elaborate. At this age, some kids dictate their stories while the ones that are more advanced do the writing themselves. All the kids were paying close attention. In the third grade class, the kids were giving presentations about the Ohlone Indians. One girl taked about their clothing while the next one talked about their sweat lodges. One thing that we noticed was that the kids didn't seem at all bothered by all the adults standing in the back of the classroom.

One concern Vic and I have is the level of parent participation that is required, especially with the two other kids, though by being in the classroom a lot, we may also have a better feel for how Gina is doing in school. I like their philosophy on homework, they don't give homework just for the sake of having lots of busy work but rather as a way to finish up what wasn't completed during the day or to do things that can't be done during the school day. I also like the fact that it is K through 8th grades. So we will definitely have to think about whether we want to send Gina there.

Busy Sunday

The kids have been looking forward to going to Chuck E Cheese all week for Gabriel's 5th birthday party. It's hard to believe that the kids are turning 5 this year. Gina and Andrew had a great time playing with all the games, though I had forgotten how annoying these places are for birthday parties. It was noisy and hard to talk with the other moms. Dylan of course slept through the whole party while Katrina was awake the whole time.

Right after getting home from the party, I had to leave for a meeting with Dylan in tow. Luckily, Andrew actually took a nap while I was gone so Vic had a relatively easy time with the two kids while I was gone.

Later I got a few good pictures of Dylan looking very cute.

The evening was more difficult with the kids being VERY active, especially Gina. She was bouncing on the couch, annoying Andrew and then ignoring me telling her to stop. And then of course she didn't want to stay in her room despite losing her pick for the nightly video. After a talking to by Vic, she was trying to be helpful but then she regressed by clearing out the two shelves of the bookshelf and then was very slow putting the books back. I was sorely tempted to take away her shows for the month of February.

Pain in the Neck

Somehow I developed this pain in the side of my neck and shoulder Thursday night after going out for coffee. I thought it would go away after a good night sleep (or at least as good as I could get with Dylan waking every so often) but it was still there Friday morning and lasted all day. I've been taking Motrin which helps but it hasn't gone away yet. And it has left me grumpy which is not great for dealing with the kids who were in high spirits of course. Dylan did sleep for a very long time which helped so I was able to take a nap this afternoon.

Gina decided to go to dance class this morning and I took Andrew to his gym class. Andrew as usual didn't do the warmup part of the class but he did participate in the parachute group activity, a first. He had fun on the balance beam and swinging on the bars. He had the most fun getting drinks from the water fountain, which left the front of his shirt soaking wet. Since it was the last class of the session, he also got a little ribbon which he proudly brought home to show Vic and Gina.

Out with the kids

Vic had to prep for a phone interview this week so I had to work hard to keep the kids out of the house.

Tuesday we spent the morning at Creekside park. Stacey and Gavin were there for a short time as well as Kristi and her kids. Then it was off to Noahs for lunch and Los Gatos to buy Gina some new shoes. Andrew was fascinated by the sunglasses at the shoe store so I ended up buying him a pair of sunglasses as well.

We spent an hour at home before it was time to go to the park again, this time with the Las Madres 04 and 06 groups. I finally met some of the other 06 moms which was fun. Dylan was the youngest baby and he was actually awake for part of the time there. Gina and Andrew had a great time running around with 3 yr old boy named Joey (his mom is in the 06 group). I also had a chance to talk with one of the 04 moms whose older daughter attends McAuliffe elementary school. She had a lot of good things to say about it so I am looking forward to the tour to see the school when it is in session.

Yesterday Gina went to preschool but Andrew still hasn't completely recovered from being sick so I had both boys all day. Andrew had a great time playing outside in the morning and then in the afternoon I took him to the Children's Discovery Museum. It wasn't crowded and Andrew had fun climbing all over the firetruck and ambulance. He particulary loved an old Ford car. I was able to get a cute picture of him sitting in it. He also spent a lot of time in the water play area and got very wet.

Today we spent the morning at music class and then the park. Music class was definitely better than last week. Teacher Danny knew the songs and the pace of the class was much better. Gina even gave him a hug at the end. I had forgotten that I used to carry Andrew a lot in music class. This time I had to carry a very awake and somewhat fussy Dylan most of the time. The first time we stood up and walked around for one of the songs, I turned around to see a very distraught Andrew standing by himself. Poor guy! He was okay with just holding my hand the rest of the time.

We spent a long time at the park. It was a very nice day after the fog burned off. Gina and Andrew had a great time running around with each other at first and then later they played with Emily and Ava on the big kid play structure. They were playing some kind of mouse/monster game. Dylan got to wear his cute bear jacket which kept him very warm. So once he finally fell asleep, he was out.

Dylan at 2 months

It's hard to believe that two months have gone by already. When he is awake, he is very cute and smiles a lot. He is starting to bat at the toys in his crib and he likes to stare at the light on the ceiling. Gina likes to entertain him and he is starting to respond to her as well.

Dylan had his two month check up this week. He is now 12lb and 23inches, both are around 50 percentile. In comparison to Gina and Andrew, he is a tiny guy. At 2 months, Gina was 14 lbs and Andrew was almost 16 lbs. If Dylan had been born first, I wouldn't give his size a second thought. But being born third means that he gets compared to the other two. I guess he better get used to it.

The other day Andrew decided he wanted to wear a hat so I tracked down one of Gina's hats from last summer and Gina found her pink hat from the Aquarium. I got a picture of them wearing the hats backwards a la AndyZ.

Dinner Out

Today my Mom came over for a visit after having brunch with her women's group. As a result, Vic and I were able to leave the big kids at home and go out for dinner. We ended up going out for Mexican food at The Red Pepper in Los Altos. It was definitely nice to get out though we did have Dylan in tow.

Haircuts

I finally took Andrew in for a haircut. Gina had her first haircut at 18 months but Andrew's hair has never grown as fast as Gina's. I trimmed his hair once but lately, his hair has looked a little unruly. Gina also needed a haircut so we were off to Lollipop Cuts.

Andrew got to sit in the pink Cadillac chair and watch the movie Cars. He was not happy about having his haircut once the woman got started. But with the help of three lollipops, he got through it fine.

Gina also sat in the pink Cadillac for her haircut. She was quite happy to have her haircut though later she indicated that it wasn't short enough.

Once we got home, I tried to get a picture of both kids with their haircuts, but for some reason, Gina did not want her picture taken. Later during Andrew's nap, she wanted to hold Dylan and let me take her picture.

Baby pictures

Here is Dylan at 8 weeks. He is starting to smile and act very cute when awake. I also tried to get some pictures with Gina and Andrew. I got a very cute picture of Gina though Dylan was crying. The second picture was a little better. Andrew didn't want to sit in so no pictures of him.

I took Andrew to storytime at the Cupertino library while Gina was in preschool. He enjoyed it, sitting in my lap the whole time. Then we spent the next hour in the atrium, with Andrew happily playing with the cars that one of the moms brought. It took a little effort to convince him to go home.

Another week

It has been a week since I last wrote in this blog, though it doesn't seem like a week has gone by already.

Dylan is now 8 weeks old and is still a very good baby overall. Though he does have his moments of being inconsolable. The pacifier definitely helps at these times, though I'm a little ambivalent about having another kid totally hooked on the binky. My friend Seble at work mentioned that her niece who is 9 yrs old, still sucks her thumb. So I guess if I had to chose, I would rather try to break the pacifier habit than the thumb sucking habit.

I went to coffee tonight with Stacey and of course brought Dylan along since he is somewhat unpredictable about settling down for the night. He was asleep when we left, woke up briefly when we first arrived at Coffee Society and then went back to sleep and didn't stir the whole time we were there. Don't know how long I will be able to drag him along to stuff at night in his carseat but so far it works.

On Sunday I finally got around to giving Dylan a bottle. Both Gina and Andrew never took a bottle well and with each, I had to eventually use a soft spout on the bottle to get them to take it. But Dylan sucked down 4 oz without any problem. Hopefully he will continue to take the bottle; it will make going back to work so much easier. The problem of course is pumping. It takes forever for me to get a few ounces of milk. I may end up renting a hospital pump for a while to see if I can get more that way.

Excercise

Today we had planned to go to Rancho San Antonio for a hike which we haven't done for a very long time. Gina was looking forward to walking up the hill. I was looking forward to the excercise. However, the rain changed our plans. It looked pretty wet all morning, though I was hoping it would still be okay for the hike. But as I was getting the kids into the car, it was definitely raining. And then Noemi called with the suggestion that we meet at the Y instead. So I did get my excercise, 45 minutes on the treadmill. The kids got to try out the childwatch, which they seemed to enjoy. So it may make sense to join the Y, especially for these rainy days.

The previous two days were spent celebrating birthdays. My moms birthday was on Tuesday, Jan 2. Vic and I went to Los Gatos to buy a present and cake. The present was no problem, but the bakeries downtown were closed, the problem with having a birthday after New Years. However, we did make it to The Prolific Oven in Saratoga and got a very nice cake. My Dad and brother also came over for dinner for a crab feast. Having cracked crab is supposed to be a very easy dinner to put together, but somehow it seemed to take awhile to get everything on the table. In the end though, everything turned out very good.

Last night was the birthday of my boss David. He had invited all of us to join him for dinner at Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero at 7pm. I had planned on leaving the house around 6pm but of course we didn't get out until 20 minutes after. I did look at a map the night before, but hadn't counted on driving the route in the dark. So I managed to miss a turn and it took a lot longer. When we were almost to the coast, we took the turn for Stage Road which was a lot longer and windier than I had thought. A nice drive on a nice day, a not so nice drive on a dark, rainy night. But we did make to the restaurant, though an hour late. Dinner was great, with artichoke soup to start with and finished with ollalieberry pie. It was great seeing everyone from the lab and I think Vic enjoyed talking with everyone as well. David received a beautiful Persian rug from the visiting Iranian doctor. He also received a razor shaped like a vacuum cleaner (made in santa cruz). Ironically, he had decided to shave his beard that morning, so he will probably get a lot of use out of the razor.

Bathtime

Today I finally got around to giving Dylan a bath. He was quiet the whole time, looking at himself in the mirror. Gina was quite excited to watch the whole process.

Earlier in the day the kids had fun in the backyard. They wanted to play with the Tonka trucks that we got from Judy yesterday. That lasted a very short time. Then Gina started digging holes with her shovel and Andrew rode around the yard on his car.

When I wasn't paying attention, Andrew turned on the hose and created a nice big mud puddle in the middle of the yard. Then they really started having fun, jumping in the mud and getting very dirty. Andrew spent most of his time sitting on his car in the middle of the mud puddle.

I'm always ambivalent about letting the kids play in the mud. On one hand, they have a great time getting completely muddy. On the other hand, it is always a big job getting them cleaned up afterwards.