Surprise Visit

This evening we had a surprise visit from my friend Gigi and her husband Brian. Gigi is pregnant and due in 7 weeks. They had been visiting San Juan Batista for the day and dropped by on their way home. Vic was on his way out to pick up dinner so he wasn't here to help with the kids, and they were bouncing off the walls. It was partly due to not going outside today but mostly with having guests over that they haven't seen in awhile. Dylan had just awoken from a three hour nap so he was in happy baby mode. Gina and Andrew were in wild kid mode, throwing pillows and wrestling on the floor. Gigi and Brian were both amused by their antics.

Brian had brought his camera along and took a lot of pictures of the kids. He took some good ones of Gina when she was a few months old, so hopefully these will be good as well. He also had a video of Andrew on his phone from when Andrew was around 1yrs old. That was fun to look at as well. Andrew had very little hair and was making faces for the camera.

Earlier in the day, Gina was in dress up mode. Noemi commented the other night that Gina is mischeivous, good at getting into things. What she most likes to get into is my stuff. So for dressup, she had taken off her clothes and put on my long sleeved maroon shirt, some sneakers and put a pair of underwear on her head like a hat with some hair peaking out of the openings so that it looked like bear ears on the top of her head. It looked pretty funny.

Dylan's New Quilt

Dylan's new quilt finally arrived. Our friend Becky Takano made it last spring and gave us a picture of it when they visited last fall. She works part time at a quilt shop so it was hanging on display for the past few months. It is gorgeous with lots of different colors and black and white patterns. I got some cute pictures of the three kids with the quilt. I even let Andrew hold Dylan for one of the pictures; he was excited.

Dylan is now three months old and is still a very mellow, easy baby. He has discovered his hands and loves to chew on them. He makes lots of cute baby sounds when happy. When we are out and about he still sleeps a lot. He still sleeps well at night, going down around 7 or 8pm and then just waking up once around 3 or 4am, much to my friend Noemi's annoyance. Her baby Katrina has been having a lot of problems going to sleep and staying asleep.

Three days ago was Valentines Day and the kids were very excited to receive books and lollipops. I also received some very pretty flowers. I got Vic some Chai and vanilla flavored caramels. Vic liked them though I thought they were a little strange. Dylan got to wear his cute Valentine's Day outfit.

Gina's New Skill

Gina has been practicing riding a bike. At preschool, they have several two wheeled bikes that the kids can ride around the sand box. Teacher Lynne said that she has been trying for the past two weeks and today she succeeded in riding the bike. She wanted to show me when I came to school but unfortunately it had been raining so it was too wet. It will be fun to watch her in action the next time the playground is dry. So I guess we don't have to buy her a bike with training wheels.

More Pictures from the Mustard Walk

As usual, my camera froze up yesterday so I couldn't download any pictures. So here are the pictures that I took of Gina and Andrew in the orchard.


Andrew was fascinated by an old time tractor and we got to see it moving across the field to the trailer. Andrew didn't want to leave until we saw the tractor being pulled onto the trailer.






I also got a very cute picture of Dylan in his bassinet.

Saratoga Mustard Walk

Today did not get off to a great start. I was fast asleep and then suddenly was awoken by Andrew. I was still sort of asleep and thought it was Monday instead of Sunday. I even told the kids to get ready for preschool. I felt half asleep all morning.

Andrew had his first Super Beast Little Gym class today. This was the first class that he participated throughout the whole class time. He did the beginning song, the warmup (though he held my hand the whole time), and the group activity. He even sang along with the goodbye song.

This afternoon was also the Saratoga Mustard Walk. I had a LM meeting so I took the kids afterwards while Vic studied for his upcoming job interview. Gina and Andrew were looking forward to getting ice cream.

It was a beautiful day today. Gina and Andrew wandered around the orchard, picking flowers. Dylan wanted to take a nap but instead he got a bumpy ride in the stroller. He was all smiles for the woman who was taking pictures at the orchard.

Cereal Bars

Tonight while I was making dinner, I discovered I was missing one of the ingredients. Since I had to feed Dylan before dinner was going to be ready, Vic offered to go to the store to pick up what I was missing. Gina and Andrew were busy coloring with the stencils so I left them alone while I fed Dylan in the living room. Once Dylan was finished, I walked into the dining area to discover that the kids were raiding the boxes of Trader Joe's cereal bars that I had bought that evening. There were SEVEN empty wrappers on the table and Andrew had another unopened bar in his hand. Gina's explanation for all of this was that Andrew wanted a blueberry bar. When Andrew wants something, Gina is always willing to help, especially if it means that she will get something too. Needless to say, I will definitely be more careful about putting groceries away and out of reach and Gina has been warned about getting food for herself and Andrew without asking first.

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.

Happy New Year

I miss sleep. Yesterday, Dylan was awake for a few hours, started to get a little fussy, so I wrapped him up and put him down. He went right to sleep. However, the rest of the day he continued to sleep, waking to eat every so often. As a result, at night he woke up at 1:30am, then 2:30am and then 3:30am. So today I am really sleepy (I did get a little extra sleep thanks to Nana visiting). Today, Dylan was awake more so hopefully tonight will go better.

Gina has been missing preschool so today I invited her friend Gabriel over for a playdate. She was very excited to have him over. Gabriel immediately headed for the train table, but Gina talked him into going outside to play soccer. It was mostly her keeping the ball away from Gabriel but he seemed to have fun chasing her. Gina was especially eager to try out her new shovel that she got for Christmas so next they headed for the backyard and took turns digging up rocks and getting dirty.

Ever since we moved to this house we have hosted a New Years Eve party with my friend Becky and the Creeches. This year the Creeches to decided to have a party at their house. The one plus to having it at our house is being able to put the kids to bed at a reasonable hour. But having going somewhere else means that I didn't have to clean and prepare everything. The kids had fun at the Creeches, playing with Merrick's old toys, drinking juice and eating a lot of sweets. Dylan slept the whole time, waking up only when all the kids started to blow horns.

The past year has had definitely had its ups and downs. But this year is ending on a high note with three sweet kids, tucked in bed. Happy New Year.

Here is Dylan at 6 weeks. He is staying awake a bit more each day, though once he is asleep in the car seat, he sleeps very soundly. I tried to get a picture of both Gina and Dylan (each are wearing clothes they got for Christmas from Rich and Toni) but wasn't very successful. I guess I need to practice a bit more.

Yesterday we took the kids to the park. Both kids love the swings. Gina is now very good at pumping the swing herself while Andrew is just getting the hang of the big kid swing. They also had a lot of fun on the airplane. Gina picked flowers. It was very cold at the park, but the kids didn't mind.

Christmastime Fun

Last weekend when Vic was on his trip to Seattle, I took the kids over to my Dads house to help decorate his Christmas tree. Gina and Andrew had a lot of fun putting decorations on the tree. Andrew wasn't too sure about putting the decorations on the tree so he just pointed out where they should go (Dylan of course slept the whole time). I'm glad we went to my Dad's house because with Vic going to Seattle and then coming home with a bad cold, we never did go out to get a Christmas tree for our house.

During the week I found time to make gingerbread cookies. Noemi came over with Julian and Katrina to help decorate the cookies. The three big kids had fun decorating the cookies, using the food coloring pens that I bought last year. I also got tubes of colored frosting which they also enjoyed trying out.

The two babies were also very good. Katrina is a very cute and smiley baby but she is also very wiggly as Noemi often describes her. It will definitely be fun when Dylan gets a few weeks older and is more smiley and interactive.

During the week, Dylan finally got his first hairwash. He was definitely due. He wasn't completely happy about it, but afterwards his hair came out very curly.

Christmas started early with my Mom and Alice coming over on Saturday for a visit. Alice was only up here for the weekend and so they could only come over on Saturday. The kids got an early start on opening presents from Nana, Auntie Alice and Big John. John had a lot of fun buying presents for the kids such as a blowup Bozo the Clown, Wikisticks for Gina and a toy VW bus for Andrew. They were big hits with both Gina and Andrew.

Christmas Day didn't start very early. The kids slept until 8:30am which was great and then they were eager to go see their stockings and presents. With no Christmas tree, I had piled the presents in front of the fireplace.

The kids were very excited about opening presents though as always, it was a little too much. Gina was very excited to get her shovel, robe and dora slippers. Andrew loves his John Deere lawn mower. That was definitely a big hit.

Later in the morning we also opened presents from Uncle Rich and Aunt Toni. Gina loves her toy sewing machine and Andrew enjoys playing with his MegaBlock castle. Both kids also got cute outfits. The biggest hit though was the toy phone and car keys that were meant for Dylan.

In the evening we all went over to my Dad's for Christmas dinner. This year, Kathie and Bruce drove down from Washington and Erica was here from LA. Mollie and Andrew also came over so it was a full house. The kids were a little wild, running up and down the hall way (which now echoes since the carpets are gone). Andrew was doing his best to get into trouble, such as banging his fork on his plate during dinner and banging an old key on whatever he could find. He was also very cute at times, entertaining everyone with singing Holly Jolly Christmas and Jingle Bells.

Just before we left, we were able to get a group photo though without Dylan who was fast asleep. Big Andrew is wearing Cliff's old bomber jacket. This is the last year having Christmas at my dad's house since he is planning on selling in the spring. It was great seeing everyone (especially Mollie who is due to have a baby boy in May - Yeah).