Big Boy Bed

About a week ago Dylan decided that he did not want to sleep in his crib. The first night he insisted on sleeping on the carpet and the next night I convinced him to sleep on a sleeping bag on the floor. The crib though was out. So a friend is lending us the toddler bed that her husband made. It has been used by three kids so far and now it is Dylan's turn. One drawback is that it doesn't have a rail so now I have to check on him every so often to see if he is close to falling out of the bed. I put a lot of padding underneath the bed but I think it is still a rude awakening when he falls off. Despite all the falls, he loves his new bed.

Picnic Day

Last Saturday was Picnic Day at UC Davis. I used to go every year when I lived in Davis but I hadn't gone since I moved back to the Bay Area. As much as I enjoyed going to Picnic Day, Vic did not, so he stayed home. I had originally planned to just take Gina but she had a soccer game that she didn't want to miss so it was me and the boys. I got them up early and we were on the road by 7am and driving onto campus by 9am (First time I've driven that far with the kids and no stops along the way). Of course the campus has changed a lot in the last 10 years but with only one slight misdirection I found the parking lot.

We walked over to the parade with a short detour to the bathrooms and the Coffee House for smoothies (Because to get kids to use the bathroom you have to promise them more liquids). We ended up standing next to the grandstands where the parade starts and the Aggie Band-uh puts on a show before the parade starts. This was the first time I had seen the start of the parade up close. Other times I've watched it from downtown or other parts of the campus. It was fun seeing the Band play but it was sure loud. Andrew covered his ears the whole time. Once the parade started I found my friend Kristi who was there with her family. I had tried to find her before the festivities started but it was a little crazy with all the people. After watching most of the parade we went to the kids area where they had bubbles and craft stuff and most importantly for Andrew, candy.

Then we headed over to the animal exhibits. There were lots of goats and sheep and horses. Dylan got to hold a rat and they were both fascinated by a tub with baby sturgeon. In the Animal Science building I ran into my grad school mentor. She hadn't seen the kids before so it was fun to talk with her for a bit. Then the kids got to see baby chicks and baby quail as well as an incubator with newly hatched chicks.

Then it was off to the Arboretum to watch the Battle of the Bands. Andrew did a lot of walking and despite some complaining, he did a great job keeping up. We were a little late getting there so we ended up sitting in the sun. Can you tell it was a very sunny day? Dylan loved all the marching bands, that is what he talked about most. The crazy Stanford Band was there, along with the Humboldt State Lumberjacks, UCSD, and Berkeley. Andrew was fascinated by the Aggie cheerleaders standing on shoulders and hands. We only stayed long enough to hear a few songs. I would have loved to stay longer but I had wanted to meet my mom in town before we headed back and it was very HOT in the sun. Dylan was fast asleep in the stroller before we got to the car. He stayed asleep while Andrew and I visited with Nana. Once we got back to the car, he woke up and was very ticked off that he had missed the whole visit (we didn't mention the ice cream). Once on the road they both slept and we were home by dinner time. I can't wait for next year.

Treasure Chest

A few weeks ago, on a rainy weekend Gina asked about the wooden chest in our room. I got this chest from my grandmother and I don't think I have looked in it for about 10 years, since we moved into this house. So we decided to explore the treasure chest. Some of the things in the chest are table clothes and such, not so interesting to the kids. But we also found this blue silk cape which they both tried on. It is showing a lot of wear on the inside collar but the color is beautiful. There were also a variety of old undergarments, mostly slips and bloomer type underwear from the early 20th century.
Most of the things in the chest came from my grandmother's aunts who lived in Gilroy. There were six girls: Bessie, Evie, Mollie, Millie, George and Jo and one boy, Tom (George and Jo were twins). One item in the chest is a wedding dress. It is cream colored silk (probably darker from age) and it has a pleated panel that has come apart from the rest of the dress. It is fairly heavy but very fragile so I didn't let Gina try it on. However, the shoes that go with the dress were in the chest as well. Gina had fun trying those on. This dress was for Aunt Mollie (I think I got that right) but she never wore it. Her fiance was sick (consumption?) and her father didn't want another sick son-in-law. A very sad story but one I always loved hearing my grandmother tell. Going through the chest reminded me of all the things she used to talk about but were never written down. Hopefully I will remember a few more of her stories to pass down to Gina and the boys..

Easter Fun

Once again we hosted an Easter brunch for family and friends with lots of food and an egg hunt. The kids were very anxious to get started looking for eggs but they sat for the required photo op. Julian decided that screaming for the picture was the thing to do. The three 2 year olds were not sure what to make of that.

We let the three littlest ones go first for a few minutes before letting the big kids loose. It took a while to find all the eggs and there may still be a few left out there in the overgrown patches. Then they feasted on gold fish, cereal and chocolate eggs. Luckily it was a nice day for playing outside and they all seemed to have fun.