Big Sisters

The other day I was getting Andrew dressed in his Spiderman costume. As I was putting on his socks (beige), he asks, "Are these Spiderman socks?" Of course I answer, "Yes, these are Spiderman socks" He is perfectly happy with the answer. Then Gina chimes in, "Those are NOT Spiderman socks." Aren't big sisters great?

Halloween Fun

It seems like we have been celebrating Halloween for a long time. First it was Gina's field trip to the pumpkin patch, then Andrew's class went to the same pumpkin patch for his first field trip and then there were a variety of activities this past weekend.

On Sunday we first went to the 04 LM group Halloween party. All the kids were dressed up and had fun doing all the crafts and playing outside. At the end they had trick-or-treating with several stations set up that the kids went through in a line. Gina insisted that I stay close by and then she went mute at each station. Instead of saying "Trick or treat" or even "Thank you" she would look quizzically up at me and then refuse to move on without a push from me.

After Dylan's nap it was off to the pumpkin patch again to meet up with other friends. Gina changed from her queen costume to a ballerina costume for this outing. The kids had a great time running up and down the hill, going into the haunted house and jumping in the jump house. At the end we actually got most of the kids on the hay bales for the annual group photo, only Gina and Gabriel were uncooperative.

Yesterday was yet another Halloween event, Vic's work had a Halloween party. So the kids got to dress up again, Gina as a queen, Andrew as Spiderman (there were A LOT of little Spidermen running around this year) and Dylan got to be a zebra. There was a lot of good food, and crafts and candy for the kids. Gina even ran into a couple of her preschool friends.

Today for Halloween, Gina and Andrew both got to dress up for school. Andrew's daycare had a parade of all the kids while at Gina's school, the two kindergarten classes got to parade through the school. They were all very cute. In the afternoon, Gina's school had a carnival which was fun for the kids though Gina spent half her time swinging on the monkey bars.

For the grand finale, Gina and Andrew went out trick or treating with Vic in the evening. They each got a good haul of candy which they promptly started eating when they got home. After a little sugar induced squirrelly behavior, the kids finally went to bed.

A Country in Trouble

So this is a little off topic from the normal posts about kids and life here.

A few friends from work are living in Zimbabwe and it is just incredible how terrible the situation has become. The inflation rate is 8000% so that you never know how much things cost. The exchange rate is roughly 500,000 Zim dollars for 1 US dollar. Milk is now $12 per gallon, expensive if that were here, but unimaginably expensive in Zimbabwe. Gasoline is $8-10 per gallon. The people who work on our projects are paid in US dollars so that they are less affected by the inflation rate, but they have to take the US dollars out of the country to spend it. So they spend money on gas to drive to Botswana or South Africa to buy things like toilet paper.

Maize, the staple of the country which is used to make a dish called sadza (it is like grits or polenta), is not easy to find. My friend Seble said that she would go to a store, discover that they had sausage for sale, call friends to tell them of her find. The friends would go an hour later only to discover that they were sold out. Getting gasoline is a day long headache. It certain areas the power goes out almost every night in the early evening, making it very difficult to cook a hot meal. It is even difficult to buy stuff on the black market. Days are spent calling friends to find out who has food to sell. Seble did say that you can go to restaurants for meals, but you usually don't need the menu. Often there is only one dish available, the chef's special.

Every time I talk with people about Zimbabwe we wonder how much worse it can get and it does keep getting worse.

Dylan at 11 months old

Dylan turned 11 months old yesterday. Hard to believe he will be one next month. He is such a happy kid, but boy when he shrieks, it is earsplitting. Vic has started to wear earplugs during dinner time.

Here is Andrew hard at work, coloring. He is really good at coloring in the lines. Since Gina draws all the time, I guess it is only natural that Andrew would be interested as well. The other day I picked him up from preschool. There were six or seven boys and a couple of girls. All the boys were playing with cars and trains and puzzles on the floor but Andrew was standing at a table with paper and crayons.

Dylan stands up

Dylan pulled himself up into a stand in the bathroom the other day. A couple of days earlier I had pulled him up into a stand but now he can do it himself. He is also good at lowering himself back into a sitting position so he doesn't get stuck.

Here is Gina at just about the same age when she first stood up by herself:














And here is Andrew at a year when he first stood up by himself. He is pictured with his pacifier which he just recently gave up. He had chewed on the last one so much it had holes in it so it wasn't good anymore. After tossing that one, he hasn't asked for it since and we haven't come across any more of the old ones, though I'm sure there are many hiding in various corners.

Back to School Picnic

On Thursday I took the kids to a park for a Back to School picnic for Gina's school. Dylan had a lot of fun sitting on the grass and crawling around. Earlier in the day he kept himself entertained by pushing a ball around and then crawling after it.

Gina and Andrew had a great time running around; it was hard to get them to leave.

Fun Faire Saturday

Yesterday was a local fair and part of the entertainment was the Chicken Dance performed by each kindergarten class. Gina's class was scheduled for noon so off we went after a leisurely morning at home. Once we got there, there were kids and parents milling around, but everyone got sorted out for the dance. Once it started, Gina decided she wasn't going to do it, even with me joining in and once she decides that nothing will change her mind. So she stood on the sideline looking very grumpy, watching the rest of her class do it. The other kids were very cute.

After all that excitement, the kids were ready to tackle the slides. Gina really wanted to try the big slide. Andrew was game at first but then decided he really didn't want to do it. It turns out a parent needs to go with kids under 7 so Vic volunteered to go with Gina.

While Gina and Vic went on the slide, Andrew stood around complaining about not going on the slide. He waited very impatiently for Gina to finish so that she would go with him on the smaller slide. But then he had a grand time and went on it several times by himself.

Baby on the move

Just a few days shy of 10 months, Dylan is finally crawling. He has been on the verge of crawling for a couple of weeks, laying on the floor, stretching out his arms to get something or pushing himself along the hardwood floors. Now he has figured out how to actually crawl. He is finding all kinds of fun things to play with, little bits of paper, little tiny toys and it all goes in his mouth.

Dylan has also started waving hello/good bye. He's very enthusiastic when he does it and his whole face lights up. He also really likes it when I sing "Wheels on the Bus" with the hand motions. He tries to do the hand motions as well.

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).

When you have nothing better to do

like work, instead you can fool around on the internet and find all kinds of time consuming websites, like one that will tell you what kind of American English you speak:

Your Linguistic Profile:

85% General American English 5% Upper Midwestern 5% Yankee 0% Dixie 0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?