A LONG week

Thank God for caffeine! I haven't had real coffee for the past two years and this past week I have had coffee every single day. With Gina in Kindergarten, I now have to get up around 6:30am but I'm still going to bed way too late. Without caffeine, I'm in a bleary-eyed state, struggling to figure out what to put into three lunches and get out the door by 8am. Once at work, loaded with caffeine, I'm wide awake and ready to go.

So far, having the three kids in three different places hasn't been too bad. The hard part is getting everyone up, get breakfast, and get all the lunches together. Dylan gets Cheerios while the big kids get their breakfast and he then has more breakfast at daycare. Gina needs a snack as well as a lunch on the days that she goes to after school care. When I plan ahead, Dylan's lunch is already made, but if not, it takes awhile to put everything together. In theory, Andrew is the easiest. He has the same cereal every morning and he isn't too picky about what I pack in his lunch. This week however he decided to sleep in each morning, stare at his cereal for 5-10 minutes before eating, and then balk at getting dressed. Vic took him to daycare on Wednesday because he wasn't even close to being ready when it was time to go.

Luckily, next week is a short week, I need the weekend to recover.

Andrew Swims

I've been meaning to write about this all week. Andrew had his swim lesson last Monday and this time I decided to leave Dylan at daycare and let Andrew have a lesson by himself. It has been tougher with Dylan and Andrew than it was with Gina and Andrew as a baby. I hold onto Dylan with one hand and then Andrew hangs on for dear life on the other side. He doesn't want fins, he doesn't want to sit on the side, he doesn't want to go under water. He reluctantly goes to
teacher Gina and goes under water for her but he is not happy about it. Then during playtime, he sits on the steps and watches the other kids play in the water.

Then on Monday he decided swimming was actually fun.He was still reluctant to put on the fins, but once he went under water the first time he was hooked. He swam back and forth between me and Gina, he swam to the side and pulled himself out, he swam to the platform in the middle of the pool and then launched himself to swim back to me or Gina. He swam for 25 minutes during the lesson and then continued in the shallow area for another 10 minutes. It was hard to get him to come out. He was so proud of himself.

1st Day of Kindergarten

Yesterday was the first day of Kindergarten for Gina. She was very excited. When I went in her room to wake her up, she was already awake. It took very little time to get up, get dressed, and help me put her snack together. Then it was off to school.

Once we got to school, she was a little more anxious and shy. She didn't want her picture taken while we were waiting with the other kids and she wouldn't say anything to the other girls or parents.

When the bell rang, the kids lined up and teacher Vickie greeting each kid before they went into the class. Each kid was given a little booklet with instructions for the parent and child to explore the classroom and the school, such as figure out where the library is and the outside bathrooms. That kept everyone busy for an hour. It was also very crowded, with thirty kids and thirty plus adults in the room.

Then it was circle time and the teacher read a book about the start of kindergarten. I don't know why, but that part made me a little teary. I guess it was realizing that Gina is really in Kindergarten and growing up.

After circle time, it was time for recess and snack. Gina had a great time playing on the play structure. Then it was time to say goodbye. She was fine with me leaving, though her friend Aidan had a more difficult time.

An hour later, it was time to go pick her up. I had hoped to get a picture of her in front of the school sign but she got camera shy again and so this was the best shot I could get.

Grand Opening

Today was the Grand Opening of the new Whole Foods Market, the biggest in California. Of course, I had to check it out. I had Gina with me as well as Dylan and Gina wanted to get lunch there before heading over to the park.

The parking lot was looney, packed full of cars but it didn't take too long to find a space. Then it was another short wait for a shopping cart. We did a full tour of the store, buying a few staples, getting Gina an agua fresca from the Bistro area which wasn't open yet, buying sandwiches from the deli. It was definitely crowded, but a lot of people were just standing around, looking at everything so it wasn't hard to order stuff at the deli counter (and the nice guy at the deli counter didn't charge me the full amount for Gina's sandwich of ham and bread). They have lots of different stations for buying prepared foods, like pizza, dim sum, etc. The bakery stuff looked wonderful. I couldn't resist the cupcake that looked like a sunflower and Gina of course wanted the one with the umbrella sticking out the top. They also have an area for buying ice cream cones, no more Baskin Robbins now.

I was describing the trip to Vic tonight and all he could say was: "You didn't buy fried chicken, or dim sum but instead you bought fluffy, sugary stuff." I guess I will just have to go again soon and buy something for him. It will be fun to explore all their new offerings once the crowds die down.

Last day of Preschool

Today was Gina's last day of preschool. She has been counting the days for the past week until the last day of preschool and the first day of kindergarten. She has been at the daycare/preschool since she was 4 months old and has really thrived there. I know her teachers are sad to see her go. She excitedly picked out Dora popsicles for her class today and she helped Andrew get dressed after I took off his pajama top. Andrew put on his own mismatched socks while Gina helped with his shirt and shorts.

When I picked her up this afternoon, she was set to go with a huge binder filled with various projects from the last year or so. Another bag was filled the odds and ends from her cubby (a missing pair of socks, a ribbon for her hair, several hair bands) as well as all the pictures she has drawn over the past week (always a lot of paper). And of course, we couldn't forget her stuffed lamb. We did forget her princess lunch box and she was VERY unhappy that we couldn't go back to get it. At that point we had exactly 25 minutes to go pick up Dylan and I knew we needed every minute. And Andrew is going to daycare tomorrow so we would be able to pick it up then.

Yesterday Dylan had his first day at his new daycare, a family run daycare that my friend Noemi has used for her kids. He was fine when I dropped him off and was happily playing when I picked him up. He doesn't like formula and I haven't been able to pump milk for him so I've been a little concerned that he will get enough calories during the day but I've been fortifying his various pureed food with formula which he doesn't seem to mind.

With the new schedule, I will have three different dropoffs and pickups with the three kids. It definitely seems like a wacky schedule (as I've been told by everyone who I have mentioned it to). I even decided to go to work on Tuesday mornings, my one half day, which means four days of driving to Palo Alto. Vic may be able to drop Andrew off in the mornings some days since he works nearby but it still means three different pickup points.

Feeding Frenzy

Today was the last day for the old Whole Foods store. I like shopping there, but ever since the kids came along, their isles have become narrower and it is a lot more stressful going shopping. On the weekends, it is very difficult to navigate. Their new store promises to be huge.

For the last day, everything was 25% off. I really wanted to be there at 8am when it opened, but had to settle for 9am. I went with Dylan in tow, and then had to wait for a shopping cart, an indication of how many shoppers were inside. Inside, many people had carts filled with stuff and were waiting in a VERY long check out line. Throughout the store, most shelves were completely bare, with the odd box or jar left. I found plenty of baby food, a few boxes of pasta and plenty of milk. My one gourmet splurge was a jar of Ultimate Chocolate Espresso Sauce to put on ice cream (though there was no ice cream left and it probably would have melted, standing in the checkout line). I didn't fill the cart, but I did get a fair number of things that we needed. Dylan kept himself entertained, watching all the people and chewing on the cart.

In other news, it looks like a Peets Coffee is opening up a few blocks away. Usually coffee from Peets is very good, though there is one nearby with a high turnover rate and no one seems to know how to make espresso. Vic has noticed that a high ratio of body piercing among the baristas usually guarantees good espresso. A local cafe with high school students, not very good, the local Starbucks, better but fairly average, Barefoot Coffee Roasters, lots of body piercings and really great espresso. We can only hope Peets measures up.

Tahoe

I am finally getting around to writing about our vacation in South Lake Tahoe. It took me all week to recover from the drive back.

I drove up to Tahoe with the kids but without Vic. He still had to work and hoped that he would be able to come up Friday but wasn't able to (my brother Steve also bailed because of work). It was just Andrew and Dylan up to Sacramento and then we picked up Gina at Nana's. The kids were antsy in the car and Andrew loved picking on Gina which made the ride a whole lot of fun.

We had to go shopping once we got to South Lake Tahoe. I put Dylan in the shopping cart so Andrew was free to check out all the junk food he could find. It was tricky trying to shop and keep track of him.

It was great once we got to the cabin though. The water and mountains were beautiful. The kids got straight to work playing in the sand, making mud pies.

On Friday, everyone else arrived: my Dad, Aunt Kathie and Uncle Bruce, Mollie and Andrew with baby Declan, Erica, my Dad's cousin Helen and her partner Eric. It was a full house.

All Gina talked about was going out in the kayak like she did last year. So as soon as Boppa arrived, she asked him to take her out on the water. Andrew wanted to go too but wanted off as soon as the kayak was away from the shore. So Gina sat in the kayak, paddling, while my Dad pushed her around the buoy by the end of the dock. Once back on shore, she didn't want to go out again. Oh well, no pictures this year.

We finally got to meet Baby Declan who was born at the end of April six weeks early. After 2 weeks in the NICU, he is doing fine. He is a cute little guy, though very serious looking and Dylan got all the hair. In a couple of years, they are going to have a lot of fun playing together.


Gina loved playing in the water. It was actually warm (for Tahoe), cold when you first get in but warm if you stayed in. With the lack of snow this year, the water level was higher than I expected but still fairly shallow. Andrew was content to stay on the beach and not get too wet.

Eric brought out the catamaran which they took out for a sail. The kids had fun climbing all over it after it came back.

After three full days it was time to head home. It seemed to take forever (or at least 7 hours) with lots of stops, a few wet diapers and even more complaining from the peanut gallery. I really needed a vacation after that.

Birthday

Wednesday was my birthday. It is hard to believe that I am actually 40. For a long time, it sounded old and so far away, but not so much now. Instead of going out to dinner for my birthday, I took the kids to the park for a playdate with Gina’s fellow Kindergarteners. Not my first choice of how to spend the evening, but it seemed like a good idea to get Gina acquainted with her classmates. Once we arrived home, Vic had flowers and cake ready. He bought a very yummy cake from Satura Bakery, a blueberry pound cake covered in jam and nuts. The kids didn’t think much of it, so all the more for me and Vic (though Dylan thought it was yummy too).

This morning, Gina said to me: Do you wish you only had one kid? Because three kids are a lot of work.

Yes they are. Often because said five year old is pestering her younger brothers and won't stop when politely asked.

Visit with Nana

Today Gina went with Nana for a two day visit in Sacramento. She was SO excited to be going. Of course she couldn't resist rubbing it in to Andrew that she got to go and Andrew was too little. Andrew was not happy with being left behind. I left for a little while to get my tire fixed and when I came back, Gina had her sleeping bag in the hallway and was busy packing her two backpacks. I think she took half her wardrobe with her.

I called my mom later and she said Gina was having a lot of fun. But she wouldn't talk to me on the phone. She's funny like that sometimes. It was strange just having the two boys around and definitely quieter. Without Gina, Andrew could play with his toys without interruption and there was no one to pester in the car.

Andrew's Party

Andrew had his birthday party this past weekend at a local park. The weather was perfect and we were able to get the picnic tables in the shade. The big kids had fun running around. Andrew brought his balloon rockets and the kids enjoyed taking turns blowing up the balloons. Andrew opened his presents at the beginning and then convinced me that he should be able to play with them at the park. All the kids had fun playing with his new matchbox car playset. Amazingly, none of the pieces were lost.


I didn't have time to make a cake so we settled for cupcakes from Icing on the Cake, always a big hit. We had both chocolate and lemon cupcakes (Chocolate was Andrews' choice and the lemon was mine).

Dylan and Katrina sat on the blankets in the shade. Dylan was much more interested in the toys that Katrina had. Dylan is showing interest in starting to crawl but he's not there yet. It won't be long though before we have to keep all the little parts from all the big kids toys out of reach.

Swim Class

This week Dylan and Andrew had their first swim class of the season at Water Babies. It took a bit of coaxing to get Andrew into the pool and then he was hanging on for dear life with Dylan holding tight on the other side. Neither kid was crazy about putting their face in the pool. Dylan was happy with Teacher Gina until he got dipped then he started crying. Andrew tolerated it a few times and then told Gina "No more dip". I think it will take a few classes for him to warm up to the idea of swimming. He spent the entire play time sitting on the steps, watching Emily swim like a fish.

Gina spent the time sitting at the table drawing and talking with Spencer, the owner's son. She hadn't wanted to take swim classes at Water Babies and though she had a great two weeks swimming at the Y, she has once again decided that she doesn't like swimming.

Big Boys

This week Andrew turned 3 and Dylan reached 8 months. Dylan is sitting up really well now, he only occasionally falls backwards and he is showing interest in learning how to crawl, though he has a long ways to go. This week he also got his first bath in the big bathtub. He wasn't too sure about all that water at first, but once he started splashing the water with his hands, he had a grand time.

Andrew was so excited about having his birthday. Every time we went to the toy store recently he would point out everything that he wanted for his birthday. This mostly included rockets, space ships, airplanes and cars. I asked him if he wanted cupcakes or popsicles for his birthday at preschool. Lucky for me, he wanted lime popsicles (I don't know when I would have made cupcakes since I had a class the night before). I stopped by his preschool room for snack time and he was patiently waiting for that popsicle. The teacher said that normally he sits on his mat for awhile after he wakes up, but today he hopped up and put his blanket away and was ready for snack. Once he finally got one, he proceeded to eat it (while the other kids were slowly licking theirs) and he was done in just a few minutes.

For dinner we went to the kids favorite restaurant, Flames. Dylan got to sit in a highchair for the first time and you can barely see the red marks on his forehead from where he hit the edge of the table (4 times) when he bent forward too far. Andrew was way too energetic and couldn't sit still so he and Nana walked around outside for awhile.

After dinner he was excited about the cake. He couldn't resist the giant piece of chocolate cake with green frosting and chocolate chips on the outside. Gina of course had the chocolate cake with pink frosting. They each ate about 2 bites from their gigantic pieces of cake (while mama almost finished hers).

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Up a Creek

San Gregorio Creek that is. Today we went to my boss's house in San Gregorio for a party. It was sunny when we left our house, but the fog was in once we passed Skyline. Despite the fog, the temperature wasn't too cold.

David's house is very interesting. Outside among the various trees and plants are large sculptures from Zimbabwe. The house itself is a nice looking farmhouse. Inside are more sculptures, various items from around the world and lots of paintings. One painting, a very dark piece showing a woman visiting a someone who is sick, takes up an entire wall. It is huge.

The food was Ethiopian. My friend Seble made one dish, a red hummus like dish and the rest came from a local restaurant. The food consisted of various meat and vegetable dishes with spicy sauces. It is then eaten with a thin spongy bread that comes in rolls. The bread is used to pick up the food so no utensils are needed. It is very good. Dylan liked the bread too, though Gina was less enthusiastic about it. Andrew liked the non-Ethiopian tortilla chips. My favorite part though was the chocolate rum cake from Prolific Oven, yum!

The highlight of the trip which the kids were excited about was the creek walk. The last time we visited David (before kids), there had been a flood and the creek was easily visited from the house. Now we had to climb down a sandy bank to the creek and then walk along and through the creek. With the dry winter, the creek was low but we still got pretty wet.

I went down to the creek carrying Dylan in the sling with the intention of just seeing the creek but after climbing down the bank, I decided to go on the walk as well. I didn't have real water shoes but it worked out okay. With a curious almost 3 year old, it was slow going, we brought up the rear. Andrew had fun picking up rocks and then tossing them back into the creek. At one point neither Gina nor Andrew wanted to continue in the water and so Vic ended up carrying Gina on his back and Andrew on his front for a short time.

On the ride home, all three kids were fast asleep. Of course taking a nap in the car meant that the kids were wide awake when they were supposed to be going to bed.

Happy 4th of July

Today was Independence Day. Nana and I decided to take the kids to the local morning celebration at a small park which we went to last year. They have a band, balloons, speeches and a parade at the end with ice cream for the kids.

Things got off to a great start with Andrew not wanting to leave his binky and duck behind. Then he wouldn't smile for a photo with all three kids on the porch.

Gina took her scooter and Andrew took the trike with Dylan in the stroller. A block from the house though Andrew was having a tough time with the trike so we ended up carrying the trike for the rest of the way. Once we got to the park, Gina started to whine and complain about listening to the band (a clue we should have left right away) but after seeing all the balloons, she seemed happier.

There were quite a few people there, mostly sitting in the sun on the grass. The one drawback of the park is that it has very little shade. Gina went off to play on the swings for awhile and Andrew was happy with a pinwheel.

After about an hour though, we were all hot and decided to skip the parade and have ice cream at home. The kids though were not happy about riding back. They wanted to go home, just not walk or ride. Gina didn't want to ride her scooter and Andrew still didn't want to ride the trike. So Gina rode the trike even though she is way too big for it and I dragged the scooter along with Nana pushing Dylan in the stroller. It seemed to take forever to go just a few blocks, with Gina complaining the whole way.

The day improved a little later with a visit from Uncle Steve. Nana got to escape the kids for a little while, going with Steve to get coffee and once they returned, the kids had a grand time playing with him.

With the heat, I decided not to cook and instead, we had pizza on the front lawn. Once we were done, they kids had fun running through the sprinklers until they turned blue from being cold. After all that running around after dinner, they went to sleep easily for once, listening to the fireworks going off in the distance. Maybe next year they will get to see the fireworks.

ICE CREAM

Last Saturday, Nana and I took the kids to Happy Hollow Zoo for an ice cream social fundraiser. I had forgotten how bad the parking can be there so I ended up dropping the kids off with Nana and then spent another 20 minutes looking for a parking space. The kids were fine in my absence, eating their first of many ice cream cones and Gina got to ride the merry go round.

The ice cream was definitely the highlight of the trip for the kids. I think they had at least four each. We toured the zoo and saw a presentation on some of the animals. Gina and Andrew were quite impressed by the boa and the alligator.

Dylan had fun hanging out in the stroller.

Graduation Day

Friday evening was Gina's graduation ceremony for Preschool III at Whistle Stop. She had been looking forward to it all week, especially since she would be able to wear her new dress.

The photo above shows 10 kids (one other boy refused to be up with the other kids and stayed with his mom) and six of them, including Gina have been at the center since they were infants.

The kids walked into the garden and then sang four songs with the music teacher. It was very cute. Then the director Laeh handed each kid their certificate, with a hand shake.

One of the moms gave a little speech about how much she has appreciated the care that her kids have received at the Whistle Stop over the years. She is another 3 kid mom and Philip is her youngest (She also has an 11yr old girl and another boy in the middle, and she is 50 years old!). She also had some of the girls hand out flowers to the teachers. Gina got to give flowers to Lynne, her favorite teacher.

Afterwards, it was time to have food and cake. Andrew filled up on watermelon, his favorite food, and then had fun making bubbles.

Every so often, Gina mentions that she is going to miss all her preschool friends. They are all going to different schools next year, from Palo Alto to San Jose. Hopefully, she will enjoy the two months that she has left there before the start of kindergarten.

Friday was also the day that the class list for Gina's new school was posted. It turns out that I know the moms of three kids in her class.

Dylan at 7 months

Dylan is now 7 months old. He started solid food slowly, but now eats everything I have given him so far. He is now sitting up pretty well on his own, though he still has a tendency to fall backwards.

He loves sitting up and playing with toys, or just watching big brother and sister play. He is still a very mellow, easy going baby. When he cries, it is because he is hungry or tired, though it isn't always easy to put him down for a nap.

Often in the morning we are off doing something with the big kids so he gets short naps in the car on the way to the park or swim classes, not the 1 to 2 hr that he really needs. But he does sleep well at daycare in the afternoon. He is starting to occasionally sleep though the night, none too soon for me. Sleep is one thing I miss with having a baby, but it won't be that long before he is no longer a baby.

Show Time

On Sunday night Gina finally had her big show for dance class. She was so excited about wearing makeup and wearing a tutu in the show. She had a dress rehersal Sunday morning and then the big show in the evening.

I had planned on taking Andrew to the show as well and he said he wanted to go. Gina had been showing him parts of the dances. But once Denise showed up to take care of Dylan, all Andrew wanted to do was stay and play with Denise.

The show was very cute. The girls looked so tiny up there on stage. When Gina's group came on stage for their Broadway Baby number, all the girls were looking very intently at their teacher giving signs of the different steps they were supposed to do.

In between each Tiny Tots number they had dance numbers by the junior and senior performing groups. They were very good and fun to watch. One of the girls had started out as a Tiny Tot at age 4 and had been dancing with the studio for 14 years.

After the show we collected Gina from the dressing room looking a little shell-shocked. She got flowers from her preschool teacher who had also come which she loved but wouldn't let us take any pictures of her. Once home and after a little pizza she was back to her old self, dancing around the house and smiling.

Future Scrapper?

Gina got a scrapbook kit from Uncle Steve for her birthday. She has been diligently decorating the cover and one page with stickers and drawings but today I finally got some photos that she could use, various photos from her birthday. She spent the morning carefully cutting the photos, gluing them on the page and then adding stickers. I tried to subtly offer suggestions which she mostly ignored. She definitely had her own idea of what she wanted and was very proud of the results. She already raids my scrapbook supplies for her art projects; I guess I'll just have to buy more.

Rancho Hike

Today I decided to take the kids on a hike at Rancho, the hike I used to do twice a week with the kids in the stroller. Now it is two kids in the stroller and one kid walking. Gina was game to walk up the hill but started getting tired half way up. So Andrew took a turn walking up the hill while Gina rode in the stroller. At the top of the hill the kids pointed out an old tree that looked like a dragon.

They liked seeing all the animals at the farm but past the farm they were both very tired and each wanted to ride in the stroller so they were switching every five minutes or so. It took awhile but eventually we made it back to the parking lot.

Later in the evening the kids wanted to go outside and make bubbles. If you look real close at Gina you can also see that her bangs are missing. While I was changing Dylan and Vic was occupied, Gina found some baby fingernail scissors and decided that she really didn't need to have bangs anymore. I walked into the room to see a small pile of hair on the floor. Thank goodness she didn't try to give Andrew a haircut.