Our Baby Blog

Happy Birthday Kai James!

2010-11-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

OK OK. so that was like 3 months ago but... well you've heard it all before. busy, busy, busy... you can thank the jury services office for this particular update because i have been on hold with them for an hour. that plus a movie for the kids lets mommy multitask...kai's 1st birthday was celebrated at the oakland zoo on 9/11 (his birthday was 9/10). it was a beautiful day (if not a little warm) and what started out as a party that was to last a couple of hours turned into an all day affair and we closed down the zoo (woot woot! we're a real bunch of party animals! get it! yuk yuk). no one else booked our party spot after us so we could stay as long as we wanted (apparently no one likes to party on 9/11...). we had a blast! for those of you who have not been, the oakland zoo has rides for the kids. one of the benefits of having a birthday party at the zoo is that you can buy unlimited ride wrist bands (which you can't do any other time, even if you're a member) so the kids got to ride the rides for hours! they LOVED it! we did walk around and look at animals too. the above picture is riding the train. the picture below is one of the wallaroos you can see from the train. pretty cool...here's hana and charlotte riding the cars and below is kai's first real ride on the carosel (he rode one at disneyland, while i was wearing him, when he was 3 months old but i don't think it counts). it's was a lot more fun than the picture suggests. hard to get an action shot where everyone looks good... here, hana is complaining because the ride is coming to a close and she wants to ride the panda next but is trying to negotiate not exiting and entering the ride again (there's really no line). this led to one of many "them's the rules..." talks...kai's birthday cake was vanilla with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. the outer frosting, done up like a lion was vanilla butter cream. he also had his own "baby cake" which he (eventually tore into on his own... you'll see).unfortunatley, kai has so much fun frolicing around the zoo, he was totally conked out by the time we got to lunch and cake time. so we sang to him as he slept!but in true walker pettigrew fashion, the boy loves a good song and will wake up from a dead sleep for a good one. at the time, happy birthday and the alphabet song were his favorites. (now it's wheels on the bus and the itsy bitsy spider. when he's upset, hana sings twinkle twinkle little star to him, which he seems to like). so by the end of the happy birthday song, he popped an eye open. and then he got to eat his cake.
so on the date of his first birthday, kai was not yet walking. oh he was physically capable of walking, (he accidentally took steps at 10 months) he just didn't see the point because he was a lightening fast crawler. he took steps but not on purpose. it's as if he would look down and go, "i'm walking, wait... i don't walk" and then would slowly and carefully lower himself to the floor. that is until he was 14 months old. then he started walking across the room and hasn't really looked back.

he says several words now: bottle, mommy, daddy, cat, dog, ball, no, yeah, all done,"what's this/that?", nana (for ms. leona and for hana)... he signs help, more, all done and milk . he mimics sounds and there are other words that he has assigned to things but i don't understand them yet (although i think he calls bailey the cat "ba-ba" with a particular inflection). he seems to understand a lot and doesn't feel the need to express himself because we always seem to guess what he wants. for example, if he starts fussing, we'll say and sign, "you want more?" and he'll smile. which means "yes... don't hide it divide it!". but if he's all done then he'll continue to fuss until we say and sign "all done". the only other thing he usually wants is milk. and i'm not exaggerating when i say that he drinks a gallon of milk every 2 days. he doesn't care for juice, he doesn't drink water. just milk. of any kind (except soy - which gives him a wicked bad diaper rash). milk milk milk... the dentist remarked that he has "nice strong enamel!" no doubt. i have the bite marks to prove it. and about that... on his first birthday, he had 4 teeth... barely. and until a couple of days ago, he only had 4 teeth. 2 top teeth poked through about 2 days ago bringing the grand total to 6. despite the lack of teeth, he is much more of a biter than hana was (in fact, that's how he "weaned himself" when he was 9 months old whereas hana weaned because i got pregnant and the milk changed flavor...). the dr. says his teeth are big (which will be particularly uncomfortable for him), and when he's cutting teeth, he's particuarly mischeivious.

in general, kai likes banging things, throwing things, balls, trucks/cars and puzzles. he doesn't solve the puzzles so much as walk around with the animal pieces and say "what's this?" for his birthday, he got these trucks from grandma peggy and grandpa al that he loves. they play music, and rumble and issue commands like "take that dirt away". he also enjoys putting any and everything in his mouth, particularly if there is a razor sharp edge or an electrical current running through it. he, of course, also likes to do whatever his sister is doing. we did a month of swim lessons with him when the weather was warmer and he loves the water. his favorite book is "bears day out" and he has ripped it to shreds... and we have dutifully taped it back together. but he loves books and board books are among his favorite toys. he wears size 24months/2T and at his 1st year check up, he was 23lb (60%tile) and 31" long (90%tile).

hana is still doing her swim lessons by the way, for another few weeks. she is nervous about dunking her head in the water but if i had it to do over again, i would have dunked her sooner. live and learn....

little miss hana is becoming the charasmatic little girl. she is very tall (wears size 6 clothes... and has outgrown all of her hand-me down donors, which means we have to actually buy clothes for her.) and very bright. people often mistake her for being older which sometimes puts undo pressure on her since she is not yet 4, but she looks like she's 5 or 6. at preschool with ms. leona, she keeps pace with kids a year older than her and she is writing her letters now. she LOVES books, disney princesses, hello kitty and watching movies. she is also a TOTAL night owl. which means that even though she goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. every night, she is frequently up past 10:00. sigh. but she generally stays up talking or singing to herself or playing with stuffed animals, or "reading" books to herself.

so consider yourself updated. i will try to add more pictures as time allows... so i say that to say, see you in 2011! LOL!

Visiting Uncle Pootie

2010-08-30T23:41:00.001-07:00

Hana and Kai visited their Uncle Pootie at his cool job where he gets to play with airplanes all day.

This was Kai's first time meeting Uncle Pootie.

Hana was in full Diva mode. Here she is posing with Daddy.

Here's Hana, the camera hog, seemingly pushing Mommy aside for this shot.

The aquarium

2010-08-30T23:41:00.000-07:00

the daycare where the kids go went on a field trip to the preschool and jon and i were one of several parent chaparones. the aquarium has one of those water tunnel thingies. here briefly are some of hana's highlights...

kidlet update...

2010-06-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

OK... i know that you all think that i'm a bad blogger and that i don't really care if you all know what's happening with the kids. not true. the reality is that in order to update the blog i need two hands free and i need free time. unfortunately, most of the time when those two instances occur, i am asleep. i have not yet figured out how to be productive while i'm asleep so there you are. but it's one thing to be able to write stuff... let alone download pictures. so who knows when this is actually going to get posted.

ok it's 8 weeks after paragraph one... see what i mean? i'll cut to the chase. here are some pictures from summer vacation at dillon beach, which also coincided with my birthday. we went with jen and the twins, nad, paul and cole. we rented a house for a few days. it was awesome! cold but good. funny thing about that... in the bay area, people go to the beach because it's fun, but in l.a. where i grew up, people go the beach because it's hot!

on my birthday, we drove to the hog island oyster farm situated right on tomales bay. there you can buy a bag of oysters, get a shucking lesson and go to town. the last time i had a raw oyster was in 1989 right after my high school graduation... and i couldn't get it down. i tried them again on this day and i. fell. in. LOVE!!!!! in the picture, you can see that hana and cole actually tried an oyster too. cole couldn't get his down, but liked it. hana started out saying that she just wanted the oyster liquor (or "the juice" as she calls it) . but after having that, she decided she wanted to eat the rest of the oyster. so here she is eating her first oyster. she said it was good and had a big smile. but she didn't want any more which was OK by me!

running around hog island oyster company, while we feasted on oysters and beer. i braided hana's hair after a day at the beach because between the dryness in the air, the wind, and the sand, the tangles were pretty unreasonable. so braided prevented some intenst battles over daily grooming. she liked it!

the day after my birthday, we drove down to the point reyes light house. it was pretty cool and the kids had a great time. they seemed to be really intersted in it. there were 366 stairsdown to the light house (and therefore back out again) and hana did all of them by herself! i did them all while wearing kai. here we are, with nadia, right before the climb back up.

ok this is not a vacation picture. just a cute picture of kai at a sunday night dinner at jen's house. kai is 9 months old in this picture.

back to vacation... the first day at dillon beach. there was a sand bern that the kids LOVED. the vegetation made for good hiding places. the slope was fun for them to run and jump down. we have a bajillion cool pictures of them here.

this was kai's first trip to the beach. he really, REALLY enjoys sand. he ate it by the shovel full. oh, we tried hard to prevent it but we were no match for his desire for it's salty goodness. note the sand mustache.

just after taking a big bite of sand... he was frustratingly quick with that. he had sandy diapers for days after returning from the beach... but probably a very clean colon!

sigh... hana looks so grown up here. she's not so much a toddler. she's a full blown kid now. where does the time go!

so the quick run down of what they're doing:

hana is 3.5 and keeps us on our toes. she's very clever and VERY funny. she's as tall as a 1st grader practically. she wears size 5 in girls and size 11.5 shoes. she can write her name and identifies every letter of the alphabet and counts to 20. she's working on writing all of the letters and numbers and she's doing great. she's doing work that kids that are starting kindergarten in the fall are doing. she is becoming more and more of a night owl each day. i think when she can read, she will be a voracious one. she loves books and story time and "reads" books to herself all of the time. i think we will survive the bedtime wars by her learning how to read and reading books at bedtime by herself. until then, we'll just have to "supernanny" it.

kai is 11 months old now... where did the time go! just yesterday he had us under seige as he
cried out his colic for months on end. he is a very easy going baby like hana was, but also very different. he's just begun standing on his own (but only when he doesn't know he's doing it). ms. ashley, ms. leona's assistant, said that he was jumping in the crib today without holding on to anything. he didn't know he was doing it at the time. kai is also tall for his age... he's quickly out growing 12-18 month clothes. he says is name and he says mommy and daddy, but not when we're around. i guess he figures he only needs to use those when we're not there. he does sign things. his first sign was "help" (help me out of my high chair, help me get my "kramer", help me get some more food...). he also signs "milk", "cereal", "more" and "all done". i predict he will be walking soon but we'll see!

family portrait

2010-03-22T00:24:00.000-07:00

this family portrait was taken at a wedding for friends leah and stuart. it's one of the rare shots of us all together. also, kai's outfit is the first one that i have purchased for him since i realized the day before this event that he actually didn't have anything to wear!

camera strike!

2010-03-22T00:22:00.000-07:00

ok, when i promised that i would have pictures of thanksgiving, i was apparantly lying. i know we brought the camera, but evidently, it never made it out of the bag... mostly because hana has been on a camera strike, but also because it's a lot to keep track of when your thanksgiving dinner involves 30+ people. but these pictures are from november so this will have to do.

kai is now 2 months old and he's pretty alert. and by alert i mean he really doesn't sleep all that much during the day. which of course means that i spend my days doing whatever it takes to make him happy. which of course means holding him all day and/or enduring his crying for every minute that i'm not holding him. in retrospect, i have learned that this is colic. however, in the moment i did not recognize it as such because i always thought that colicky babies were inconsolable even when you were holding them. apparently, colicky merely refers to those babies who cry 1.5 to 3 hours per day for at least 3 days a week. well kai could do that daily so he definately qualifies. i'm not sure what that would have changed for me, at the time because i knew that i was doing everything for him that could be done and i concluded that he was just very, very particular. it was definately exhausting and it is probably one of the reasons i got back to running so quickly.

of couse, he wasn't always crying. there were many people who remarked that he was the happiest and most peaceable baby they'd seen. and i would agree that when he wasn't crying, or asleep (which at the time, he had to do on my lap or while i was wearing him in order for him to have any substaintial daytime napping), he was definately happy and full of easy smiles. in fact, his first smile was at 2 weeks (which is fairly early since most babies smile between 4-6 weeks). but perhaps that was a survival instinct because it was those memories i could draw upon when he was screaming his head off because i had the audacity to set him down to use the bathroom.

despite his 2 colds that he's suffered up this point, he contined to gain about an ounce a day. his pediatrician says that i have some supercharged milk because while i was concerned about how infrequently he was nursing when he was sick, dr. bean reminded me that his growth was either at the top, or actually off the charts "so he's doing great!"

it is also around this time that he starts to outgrow his 3-6 month clothing, despite the fact that i continue to cram him into them. some outfits were just so cute and he hardly got to wear them. fortunately, i have not had to buy any clothes for him (except the halloween costumes) because everything was either a baby gift or one of the many, many, many, fine hand-me-downs from jack, cole or tony.

hana has been flirting with potty training but not really committed as of yet. she's trying to make sense of grandma kay moving in and worries that she sometimes doesn't feel well. she continues to be totally enamored with her baby brother, and loves to cuddle him and make him smile. he has a special extra wide smile that he only flashes for his sister and it's pretty cool to see.

she has also been on a bit of a camera strike for the last several months. it could be because there are literally thousands of pictures taken of her first two years of life, but i dunno, i think it's cause she's almost 3. in the series of pictures below, hana has decided that she will only cooperate with the picture of her and baby kai if cinderella can be the focus of it. sigh.
this first one was candid and she didn't know the picture was being taken. after we convince her to allow us to take another picture with kai, she insists on getting cinderella and having her be the subject of the picture...

oh we try several tricks to get her out of the frame...

... including putting her down so low that she can eventually be cropped out. but hana's on to us. she wants to see each shot after it's taken (damn digital cameras!)...

when i insist that i want a picture of her and kai and no cinderella this time, she channels her inner norma ray and decides to go back on the camera strike and refuses to cooperate. and so it goes... (this is the "what-EVER" pose)

an early november shot of kai wearing one of the 3-6 month outfits that he's outgrown but is so cute i can't resist cramming him in it one more time. note how short the legs are on this long-sleeved long-legged outfit...

alright, alright... so kai is 6 months old.

2010-03-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

ok, before anyone chastises me for being an absentee blogger, let me first remind you that i have 2 kids now and when the latter, who is just 6 months old now, was 12 days old, we had to move a sick relative into our home (she's much better now, but still lives with us nevertheless).

when i left off, kai was just 4 weeks old. we pick up the story at the halloween festivities, of which there were many (which i hope also explains why it has taken me so long to catch up). we went to the pumpkin patch a couple a times, which was always a hit with hana. she talks about the patch year round so to finally get to go back after ll months of waiting was just too exciting for hana. the first trip was with jack and charlie. hana was dressed as tinkerbell and kai was dressed as a skeleton. these pictures show just how close jack, charlie and hana really are.

our little tinkerbell

for some reason, kai really enjoyed being on the ground amongst the pumpkins. he gave many gratuitous grins to be amongst the big kids and all these crazy pumpkins.

i LOVE this shot...

this might be my most favorite picture of kai ever!!!! such a sweet baby.

sometime after the pumpkin patch trip... hana asserted herself for the first time ever about how she wanted to wear her hair. she said that she wanted it "curly". so after a bath she had that afternoon, i put a little product in it, combed out the tangles and let it fly. personally, i LOVE it. it kinda gets on hana's nerves after a little while and she wants it out of her face but she still asks for curly hair every now and again. the major downside is that there are plenty of tangles that i have to spend a good about of time working through each day and hana definately does not love that. you might also note how much taller than the twins hana is at this point. shortly after this, the twins had a growth spurt which shortened the gap slightly, but it's hard to believe that these kid are only two weeks apart in age!

the second trip to the pumpkin patch she went with butterflies preschool (the daycare). the weather was unseaonably warm this day (in the 80's) but the big beautiful blue sky made for awesome pictures and fun times. the very first picture of this post, of hana on a play structure with said blue sky in the background, is from this day. this is jon's favorite picture of hana of all time (now you KNOW how many pictures that is, so that's saying a lot...).

the butterflies.

meanwhile, on halloween proper, butterflies had a big halloween party, and as with tradition, they walked in the halloween parade at the elementary school down the street. last year the parade was rained out so this was our first experience with this. lets just say that this was an excercise in barely controlled chaos. i don't know that i ever need to do that again, but hana had a good time. when we got back to ms. leona's we had a big party with plenty of treats and dancing. we supplied "hana's special dance party" playlist on my ipod which was a hit with the kids. ms. leona was grateful that she didn't have to play her alvin and the chipmunks cd for the 1 millionth time. i tell you, she has the patience of a saint.

kai loves being around all of the kids and the kids are so taken with him as well...

as you saw, all of the costumes were pretty cute, but there were several girls sporting some rather elaborate princess shoes that deserved documentation. check them out! fabulous.

the dance party in full swing... you might be able to tell the song by the choreography. that's right, "single ladies" by beyonce.

this. was. hilarious!

after the dance party wound down, (and believe it or not, there were naps), we headed to auntie daniela's and uncle aaron's for some trick-or-treating. their neighborhood really gets into it and there were hundreds of kids out it seemed.

hana was scared of this mummy but we convinced her that it was ok to be scared and if she was also brave she could hold her ground and get her candy and come on back. i don't know what she said to the mummy, but she handled her business for sure!

kai slept through much of the trick or treating. this was the debut of his peapod costume. it kept him nice and cozy on a chilly night.

surveying the haul... it was quite substantial acutally. it's almost six months later and we still have halloween candy.

p.s. kai seemed fine once we got back the house with the kids and started checking the candy. we got him out of his costume, he was up and social and in good spirits. we got his jammies on him, he nursed mightily and we drove home. when i took him out of his car seat at home, he was burning up with fever (102.5). this meant i had to take him on a late night run to the emergency room. they tested him for h1n1 but they did not wait for those results (he was negative) before starting him on tamiflu (which by the way, was $25 copay for less than an ounce!!!!). we were lucky because the week after halloween most of the kids at daycare were sick, one of them with h1n1. this cold of kai's took 2 weeks to recover from but he never had another fever after that night. it was scary how fast it came on, but he was feeling better by the next day.

so given that halloween night was kinda hectic (the picture we did get of him from halloween night was from jenny's camera), we didn't get any pictures of him really. so we crammed him back into his halloween costume once he was feeling better. (and i do mean crammed.) he cannont staighten his legs in this and it was all we could do to snap the top. and note how short the sleeves are on him. this costume was a 3-6 month costume but in this picture, he is 6 weeks old.

so there, now i'm done with october. there will be more... but you will just have to wait until i have another moment, can't sleep, or both. but you can expect to see some thanksgiving shots, christmas pictures, and many shots of the first trip to disneyland. and let's not forget kai's first school picture day in february. stay tuned.

visitng auntie noelle

2009-11-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

kai being born at the advent of the cold and flu season meant that some visits to loved ones were delayed. he didn't get to meet his auntie noelle until he was over 4 weeks old.
here's hana dancing with her kitty cat in auntie noelle's living room. she always has such a good time with her.

grandpa jim's visit

2009-11-20T14:46:00.001-08:00

my dad came for a visit to meet the new baby and visit hana. it was a whirlwind tour but one of the highlights was that we took hana to children's fairyland for the first time. for those of you not from the bay area, children's fairyland, based in oakland, is what walt disney based his idea for disneyland on. however, walt disney made disneyland 100,000 times more elaborate.

hana dragged grandpa jim all over fairyland... she rode this merry-go-round by herself but grandpa jim escorted her off.

here's the little ferris wheel at fairyland. really cute. i'm surprised that hana was willing to ride this by herself. none of us could go with her so she would either have to go alone or not at all...

i feel like i'm in the belly of the whale... ooooh oh oh oh oh.... (that's a song for those of you who didn't grow up in the 80's).

hana and kai

2009-11-20T14:21:00.000-08:00

these pictures sort of speak for themselves. on night after hana's bath (hence the hair) she showed some interest in holding kai, which she hasn't done since we were in the hospital. we thought: photo op!
however, hana wasn't really into that so therefore would only make silly faces, or none at all. the one above is the best of 23. here's a sampling of the rejects. this is not incidental blinking. this is her making a funny face. there are several pictures like this... sigh.

the kids at play...

2009-11-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

i can't tell how good it feels to say that. "the kids"... sigh. i love our little family.

here are some random shots of the kids at play. hana and bailey are still tight, tight, tight. my folks asked me if bailey takes as much interest in kai as he did hana... well, the answer is sort of. you see, bailey doesn't care too much about newborns, he just cares about their stuff. when they start playing with their stuff, well, that's when he sort of sees them as playmates. so he's not so into kai yet, but i think that will come. maceo, on the other had, has always been more interested in babies. that is, until they start moving around. he was very protective of hana as an infant, standing over her as she slept, and alerting us when she stirs. he continues his baby sentry role with kai. while he won't go so far as to hang out in the living room with us, because hana still is a bit much for him, he will stay close to him if he's in our bed. and whenever he cries, he comes to check on him no matter where he is in the house.

here's kai "playing" for the first time... i think he's 3-4 weeks old in this picture. he's especially taken with the mirror. he thinks that other baby is handsome... and i agree!

bailey's not the only one taken with all of the baby stuff. hana was helping her baby "go to sleep" in the swing.

hana's fake smile... this is the precurser to hana's camera strike. after several hundred thousand pictures, she's finally becoming disenchanted with posing for pictures... you will see more evidence of this in later posts...

and this, my friends, is what happens when your child leaves her dolls unattended around a sleep-deprived, but pretty-silly-anyway parent.

but seriously, it sort of lends perspective to his size, since close up pictures don't really do him justice. he's big for a newborn, but still pretty small.

"stomp the yard"

2009-11-20T12:52:00.000-08:00

hana has become a fan of music and dance. correction, SUPER FAN! she loves all of the big shows: "so you think you can dance", "dancing with the stars", "america's best dance crew"... dancing with the stars, particulalry the results shows when they have the special guest performances, have been a huge hit for her. these all have come on after bedtime so ife we start them for she's settled into her lion king sound track, she'll sneak down the hallway to watch it... until she gets caught. she usually can't contain herself so she'll start dancing and of course that makes noise, which gives her away... we have to stifle laughs before sending her to bed because the whole thing is pretty cute despite her defiance...

when the broadway production of the lion king performed circle of life in the season opener, she watched it about a dozen times a day every single day for about 3 weeks. we tried to mix it up to get a little variety for us. sure, she liked the trojan marching band from the following week. and she really liked the step dancing. but she would finish those and ask for the lion king. i was growing tired of this so i hipped her to fact that she's not the only fan of the dance in the house. her budding fanaticism with musical theater she comes by honestly. i shared with her that i actually own the original broadway soundtrack to the lion king on cd and that she could listen to it at bed time. i have never seen her go more willingly and stay in her bed so consistently as she did on this night. and from that night forward, she has listened to the lion king every night at least 1.5 times before going to sleep. she has even learned how to restart the cd herself. well, anyway, she's a super fan now, but she is at least content to listen to the cd. this revelation enabled her to move on. to other things.., thank gawd!

so as i said, she's really taken with step dancing and did her own rendition. she chose to do it in the laundry basket for the superior sound quality.

kai's first bath at home

2009-11-20T12:22:00.001-08:00

somewhere between kai's 1st and 2nd week, we did give him his first bath at home. you can't really give babies a proper bath until their umbilical stump falls off which usually takes a couple of weeks. but with kai, i think it took 5 days. but newborns don't really need baths. i mean, they don't go anywhere and they don't really get into anything... so giving those baths are really ceremonies for parents (and big sisters as it turns out). hana was really interested in helping kai with his bath.

it was during this bath that i really began to notice just how much kai really looks like his sister. i don't know how to do this fancy photography but if i were to split screen the two of them during their respective firsts baths, you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart. keeping hana in the picture helps me not confuse one baby for another in pictures. that sounds pathetic but those who have recently had to care for a newborn understand... i'm tired. tired all of the time... but anyway, the bath was fun and it felt like way less of a production than it did with hana. plus, he actually liked it. hana didn't like her baths until she was much older -almost a year -and could sit in the tub and play with toys...here's she's telling him "it's alright baby brother" in her soft whisper voice. "you'll be ok". it's enough to melt your heart. and in the picture below, she's lamenting that he's still crying. when i explained to her that it was ok, and that he's just getting used to baths, she settled down and went back to trying to comfort him.

she was very excited when i let her help him shampoo his hair. she was saying to herself "gen-to, gen-to, gen-to..." reminding herself of her trianing to be gentle with babies. such a good sister! brought a tear to my eye then... and now just thinking about it.

and in these two pictures, this is where i SO grateful that he is not swaddled in hana's pink bunny towel from when she was a baby. i would not be able to tell these two apart if it were for this clever blue and white towel. at first he didn't like being taken out of the water, but once he was swaddled in the towel, he settled down and actually liked that too. but that's a crap shoot, literally (!), if you spend too long without a diaper, so that sense of calm didn't last long either because we had to unwrap him to get him dressed.

first smile! - kai at 2 weeks

2009-11-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

i just happened to be sitting on the couch with him. he was looking so pensive and alert, i thought i'd snap a couple of pictures using my cell phone. and then he smiled! i wasn't expecting that for weeks. how fortuitous that he happened to flash his first smile when i was poised and ready with the camera. lucky me! he didn't do that much later...

in fact, the day after this picture was taken, kai was circumcised. he didn't smile again for a week. but we showed this picture to dr. bean and he agreed that it was a real smile! so it's not just me. you be the judge...

and about that circumcision, i'll spare you the pictures, but yes there are some. jon took them. dr. bean invites photos and videos because it's such a big day. instead of doing the circumcisions
in the hospital right after birth, dr. bean prefers to do them in his office before they are three weeks old. i imagine that he feels more comfortable there. and frankly i'm down with that. whatever makes the dr. feel more comfortable when working with my baby's boy business is good for me too. it was quite an experience. i believe i was traumatized. but i'm glad i was there because even though i may never be the same. it's a huge decision do to it and it will forever change our son and i can't imagine not being there (like they do in some hospitals where they don't let parents attend or they only let one attend...). and besides, if he's a punk teenager, we can pull the pictures out and show them to his prom date... heh heh heh!

kai at 1 week

2009-11-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

for those of you not on facebook, you probably have not seen regular pictures of kai. i tell you, getting my iphone has made posting to facebook quite easy, but to the detriment of our blog. if my iphone had some sort of blogger app for blogspot, i would probably be better about that... now that i think about it, i bet they do. i'll check it out. anyway, we are admittedly behind on posting pictures. and these pictures are from the "real" camera so they'll be different than the facebook ones anyway... and perhaps better.

these are pictures from when he was a week old. it was a busy week indeed. we were getting ready for jon's mom to move in. she moved in when kai was 12 days old.

it's amazing how different he looks from the pictures in the hospital. he's growing fast!

here he's looking like "the thinker". his sister used to sleep like that too...

2009-10-12T17:14:00.000-07:00

hana has lately become obsessed with tinkerbell, fairies, princesses, and magic wands. this is why it was a stroke of brilliance when grandma manzy and grandpa jim sent hana a care package for halloween that included this lighted wand. she LOVES it. she keeps this, and other wands she's collected - not all of them lighted- in the closet "so bailey won't eat them". but at bedtime, she likes to have them with her.

"i da big sister!" - meet kai james walker pettigrew

2009-10-12T01:20:00.000-07:00

kai james walker pettigrew was born on 9/10/09 at 10:57 p.m.as suspected he was a big boy, weighing in at 9lbs 12 oz and 22.05" long.

with the stats out of the way, let me back up and recount the days leading up to lil' man's arrival.

unlike hana's pregnancy which was virutally asymptomatic and fairly easy, this pregnancy has not been without its challenges. for starters, much of the 1st 20 weeks, i was fraught with anxiety (and of course, morning sickness). after losing a baby boy last year (finding out at our 20 week ultrasound when there was no heartbeat), i really couldn't relax and enjoy expecting a new baby until i knew he was ok. the 20 week mark was a big milestone. but right before the ultrasound, we got a troubling genetic testing result, which turned out to be a false positive (so, OK ultimately). at the 20 week ultrasound, our doctor was concerned with hydronephrosis(dilation in his kidneys). this is usually caused by, in this case, a partial blockage in the urethra. normally this condition resolves itself in utero, but in rare cases, surgery is required shortly after the baby is born. generally, they monitor the baby's progress more closely so that they can see if the situation is resolving. sometimes, it doesn't resolve until after the baby is born, when the baby starts peeing... something about equalizing the pressure now that the baby isn't floating in amniotic fluid. i had an ultrasound at 36 weeks where his kidneys finally had a normal reading, however, baby brother was breech!

a breech presentation (in my case, head up and legs folded in front of him) was going to neccesitate a c-section. i was desperately trying to avoid a c-section so i was willing to try a "version" (where a doctor manually, externally, and painfully for me, flips the baby). if it worked, then i could carry the baby until i went into labor naturally and have a standard delivery. if it didn't work, not only would i need a c-section, but i would need to take extra care that i didn't go into labor prior to the scheduled delivery... also known as bed rest... and generally pretty crappy.

but on the day said baby flipping was scheduled, and indeed in the hour preceeding the flipping, baby brother flipped on his own. i attribute this miracle to several things: daily coaching from me and hana to go "head down baby brother!", playing the black eyed peas's "i gotta feelin" for him right before the procedure, learning that the doctor doing the procedure is an onery s.o.b. (so he probably figured it would be best for him to keep his hand off his mama), and the collective baby flipping vibes sent by the facebook universe. anyway, he flipped with the doctor not having to touch me so we moved on.

by this point, i'd stopped working which was good because i was pretty tired and uncomfortable most of the time. but this meant that i was home a lot, in my hot, non-airconditioned house during a ridiculous heat wave. at least the office had a/c... sigh.

jon's scheduled last day of work was 9/3/09, the baby's due date. i didn't expect the baby to be early, or even on time so i wasn't worried about jon working until the last minute. jon happens to have a number of staff either having a baby (or two!) or who've just had babies and their respective leaves were going to overlap with his. needless to say, he was working at a fever pitch in preparation for his departure since he was leaving behind a skeletal crew.

at about 8:30 p.m. on 9/3, jon's last day at work (he'd planned to work late into the evening to get everything done), we learned that jon's mother was in the hospital in southern california (where she lived). so instead of jon, finishing up work, and spending some quality time awaiting the baby, he flew to southern california to be with his mother. he was to be gone from 9/4-9/8 and we just hoped that baby brother was going to wait for daddy to get home. well, he did. and he probably would have waiting even longer had he had his choice... fortunatley, my mom had already planned to be in town on 9/4 so that she could spend about 3 weeks with us attending the birth and helping out with hana. so i wasn't alone while jon tended to his mom. while jon was away, we quickly became aware that his mom shouldn't live on her own any longer (at least, not so far away) so it was decided that she would move in with us temorarily until she could find a place close by that was a supportive living environment (jon's an only child so there were no other family members who could take this on). so now, instead of adjusting to going from 1 to 2 kids, we were also going to have to adjust to caring for an elder family member as well. (kay moved in when kai was 12 days old...)

dr. gentry, my obgyn, had set me up for antepartum testing where they check baby's heart rate and amniotic fluid levels to make sure he's still doing ok. they repeat these tests every couple of days until the baby comes so that the dr. can determine if it's safe for you and the baby to carry on with the pregnancy. my first appointment was on 9/10/09. baby brother's heart rate was a little high (perhaps excited about starbucks debuting pumpkin spice lattes that week) and his amniotic fluid was low (signaling that the placenta was breaking down and he was no longer getting adequate nutrition... because he was GIGANTIC). dr. gentry determined that baby brother's time was up, and served an eviction notice. she pondered not even inducing me and just doing an emergency c-section, because of his heart rate, but once again, baby sensed that mommy doesn't want a c-section and settled down. i think that makes him a mama's boy from the start!

so i was induced at 2:30 p.m. - while jon was out getting me a sandwhich to eat after the baby was born (we weren't going to be relegated to hospital snacks in the middle of the night like last time). i got an epidural at 7:30 p.m. and kai was born at 10:57 p.m. after 3 pushes. believe it or not, the labor was the least eventful part of the whole pregnancy!

kai was actually delivered by dr. sandhu, who delivered hana as well. and once again, we were greeted with a collective "whoa!" when kai came out because he too was a big baby.jon got to cut the cord again as well. kai looks just like hana (and ergo, jon)... right down to the angry "hulk" face shortly after birth. this picture was taken within minutes of his birth. here's nana holding baby kai shortly after his birth... i'm so glad she got to attend the delivery again this time.
kai getting his first bath at the hospital.

i should take a moment to explain how we arrived at kai's name. we wanted a name that would be meaningful to us and we also liked the idea of another hawaiian name, as long as it would work well in the context of oakland. also it needed to sound good with walker pettigrew, since we decided that both of our children will carry both of our names (as i do... with no hyphen). this also meant that the name should probaby be pretty short, since there was a lot of last name. this limits a lot of names. we liked kai because it means ocean in hawaiian and also means rejoice (a fitting name after such a difficult year). kai's middle name is named after my father (and his father, who died before i was born). since kai was born, we have heard that many languages claim the name kai (we've heard thai, norweigian and vietnamese so far) so it will be interesting to know what it means around the world.

in the above 2 pictures, kai isn't just wearing mittens over his hands, he's wearing a 12 months shirt so the sleeves are little long for him. he was too big to fit into the traditional newborn shirt and this was the best the nurses at the hospital could scare up! this was also true for hana...

this time around... jon slept and i sat up all night looking at kai, which is the exact opposite of the first night with hana. soon we were all sleeping all of the time, trying to keep up...

we got several visitors at the hospital.... jenny (party of 5!) came by...

as did leah...

and did paul, nadia and cole...

dr. bean, kai's pediatrician (as well as hana's), came by the check the "little" guy out. he said he was great! dr. bean is pretty great too...
but the most special visitor was his big sister hana. she'd been so eagerly awaiting kai's arrival. her first remark upon laying eyes on baby brother was "he came out!" it was priceless.

she is a very attentive and gentle sister and likes to show him off to people... "that's MY baby brother!"

the first of daily kisses...

we all got to go home on 9/13. here's kai in his going home outfit clearly trying to figure out what's going on now...

and here we are being wheeled out of the hospital. there had been a big electrical storm followed by a good rain shower the night before, breaking the heat wave that had been gripping the bay area for weeks. it was muggy but not nearly as hot. had i known it wasn't going to be hotter than hades, i probably would have packed him a warmer blanket...

and here we are home at last... hana is super excited that we're all home now.

to thank hana for "sharing" mommy and daddy, baby kai got hana a very special gift...

for which she FLIPPED HER LID!!!!! it was a great homecoming.

baby brother's blistering shower

2009-10-12T00:39:00.000-07:00

i must apologize that is has been many moons since i last published. i am trying to catch up now but a lot has happened as you will see over the next few posts. bear with me...

august 29 was really really HOT! but that didn't stop the girls from throwing me another fantastic baby shower. we anticipated nice weather and i wanted something low key, casual and involving nadia's fabulous heated pool. the affair was a brunch thing which involved lounging ladies, good food (including nadia's signature dish, white chocolate and cashew waffles) and no shower games. the weather was beautiful... but near the triple digits... yowza! what else is a pregnant girl to do but spend the day wading in the pool?

not long after noelle and i arrived, i hit the water. that is where i spent practically the whole rest of the day (i did dry off briefly to eat brunch). the invitation told people to bring their suits but i don't think people really believed that we would actually swim. the couple of people who actually did swim were glad they came prepare. most of the others eventually dangled their feet in the water because the pool was just so doggone pleasant!but those that didn't swim lounged in the shade and we had great conversation. everyone looked so good too althogh some questioned why they were wearing pants!here's a shot of the gift table... we made out pretty well. lots and lots of cute clothes n' such.for those of you who don't recall the baby shower they threw for me with hana, these girls are masters of decor. the setting was beautiful and devoid of the cliched baby shower detritus...all in all, i couldn't have asked for a better day. the day was just supposed to be a couple of hours over brunch and swimming. but 6 hours later, we were all sitting around wondering where the time went. everyone was so relaxed and many people stayed way longer than expected as we all simply lost track of time. so many of the group have young children at home so it had been a long time for most of us that we were able to sit leisurely, poolside no less, and chat. it felt quite luxurious indeed!there were several complaints through out this pregnancy that there weren't enough belly shots... i must say it's hard to rally oneself for a photograph when you feel hot, puffy, sweaty and is as big as a house such that not even maternity clothes fit anymore. in fact, my swim attire here is really a running outfit because i'd outgrown my maternity swimsuit 2 months before. so there i am, in my preggo glory.

"auntie nani's race" - headlands 100 mile endurance run

2009-08-14T17:48:00.001-07:00

my friend nadia recently completed yet another 100 mile race - the headlands 100 mile endurance run - through the beautiful marin headlands . a couple of years ago, i was a pacer nadia at this event. a pacer is someone who goes with the runner to assist them with meeting her goal. in most 100 mile races, the runner must do the first 50 miles alone and then you can have pacers in the final 50. i took the brutal overnight leg with her 2 years ago. i was out of commission this year, obviously, but i boy did i want to be out there... the overnight leg is brutal, not only because it's well, night time (i think i started with her after midnight), but also because, nadia's been running all day. and at this point, she's basically sleepwalking. for nadia, the overnight pacer keeps her awake and moving, more than anything. for a point of reference, she did the first 50 miles in about 11 hours 44 minutes and then at night, paul, her husband took over the bulk of the overnight piece. it took them 7.5 hours to do 12 miles. jenny (party of 5!) ran the last 30 miles with her. nadia usually perks up later on in the morning, with the help of jenny's special brand of "encouragement" although this time around, that didn't happen for her until mile 92. jenny practically dragged her along for about 22 miles and then she ran the last 8 as if it were her first... jenny sent her on ahead because none of us can keep pace with nadia if she's actually awake while running...

anyway, hana was excited to see "auntie nani's race". her first race was back in march when nana and auntie dee dee did a half marathon in atlanta. she caught the fever and she wants to "get bigger and bigger and i gonna run a race". so watch out!

so here are some shots of nadia approaching the finish line.

and then just after finishing... she doesn't even look that tired. what's up with that!

jen came in not much further behind nadia.
baby brother gives auntie nani a high-five.

hana and cole are amused by grandma glenda while we tend to the runners.

practicing her "balance". hana still takes her "tuff tumblers" class at daycare and it has really helped with her coordination.

hana is "helping" auntie nani by bringing her chips... in addition to helping herself.

another belly shot for those who have complained about the lack of belly shots this pregnancy.

this picture of hana is one of the coolest of the day. i'm not sure why she looks so much older here, but it is a little freaky... it's like glimpsing into the future.

hana at the beach version 3.0 (aka daycare's closed)

2009-08-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

hana's daycare's annual summer vacation happens to correspond with my birthday week. i generally take a little time of then, but this year i was planning to be more conservative about it so that i could save up time for maternity leave. but since daycare was closed, we decided to make it sort of a last hurrah vacation for 3 (well, there turned out to be 7 of us) before "baby brother" comes. so for my birthday, i decided i wanted to spend some time at the beach. hana has been lucky enough to enjoy a beach vacation every year of her short life, (hawaii at 6 months, bodega bay and the central coast at 18 months, and now again at 2.5 yrs), which is not bad since she didn't grow up in los angeles like i did. i LOVE the beach so i'm really glad that hana likes it too, or these wouldn't be very relaxing vacations for her. jenny and the twins (party of 5!) shared a beach house rental with us and nadia, paul and cole came and crashed with us for a couple of nights.

the house we rented was REALLY NICE... it was in the community of irish beach, which is about 22 miles south of mendocino. irish beach is hard to find on any map but i believe it may be one of the nicer, less pretentious places to be. not only was the house well-appointed, but it had a dishwasher! since we don't have one at home, just being able to wash dishes with a machine felt like a luxurious retreat. the views from this place were amazing. and it came with an access card to a private beach - irish beach - that turned out to be our favorite beach in the entire area...

the kids were excited to both be together, and to be in this really cool new place. and we fought hard so that they wouldn't ruin it. outside of a little crayon on the couch incident, they did pretty well.

don't let this relatively peaceful moment fool you though, while in this photo, they are thoroughly engrossed in the movie "ice age" - which hana calls "ice stage"- we generally had to run them down pretty hard to get them to be mellow. by the way, "ice stage" was the only movie the kids watched all weekend... and by that, i mean they watched it over, and over, and OVER again. not that they had much idle time, but when we needed to make dinner or clean up or something, we would offer them many movies from which to choose, and they always picked ice age. i guess it's better than madagascar (which is funny... the first 50 times you watch it).

one of the strategies we used to tire the kids out each night was going for a walk after dinner each night (that's hana in the white sweater). the community is really quiet and there's hardly any auto traffic so it was perfect. the kids really got a kick out of the deer running around too.

we spent our first full day "in town" at irish beach. we were there for a looooooong time. it's amazing how time flies at the beach. the kids were really enthralled with the environs, and dug in the sand, making "cupcakes" and sand castles, for hours. we had life vests on them for the first few hours, until we could be reasonably assured that they wouldn't take off into the rough tides on their own. we did take them to dip their toes in the water... which. they. LOVED! but we held on to them tight... the currents were no joke. but back at the beach, they seemed pretty content just playing in the sand...

this family "self portrait" (taken by jon) is not my favorite picture of me (i look a lot more tired than i actually felt) but i thought it was a cute picture of jon and hana. we have so few pictures of the 3 of us... but i don't think taking them while 7.5 months pregnant is the best time to begin... sigh.

after we got back from the beach, we shuttled the kids into the shower (they have a huge double shower in the master bedroom) and hosed off the 500 lbs of sand the brought with them (you should have seen the car!). hana is not a super fan of showering so it takes her some convincing to get in. but once she's in, she's hard to pull out too... we forgot to bring conditioner for hana, so her hair was lookin' ca-razy! if only i'd had a pick to at least make the 'fro kinda even... anyway, after showering, hana decided to brush her teeth. this series of pictures is so funny to me...

i call it progress that she's actually making some brushing motions and not just sucking the tooth paste off the brush.

examining her handiwork...

... and pleased with the outcome.

the next day, which happened to be my birthday, we ventured into mendocino proper. i must say it was forgettable. it was a tuesday and apprantly, everything is shut down on tuesdays in "mendo". we did find a coffee spot open that happened to have magnificent baked goods (mendocino baking company?) so that turned out ok. but this seems like more of a weekender town for hippies and couples... in that order. i was "over it" almost as soon as i caught a whiff of patchouli as we entered town.

on our way out of town, we stopped at big river beach (?). the kids got a kick out of throwing rocks in the river and watching the kayakers paddle by. it was pretty peaceful there, with placid waters and soft (but buggy) sand. we attempted another family portrait before leaving... hana wasn't having it because she knew it would be the last thing we do there that day. she wasn't happy about that.

she also wasn't happy that this was where cole and his parents would part ways with us. nadia had to get back to work (and the wifi was down at the house... that was when there was that interantional internet attack that effected wifi service globally).

on the drive back to irish beach, the kids fell asleep and jon, jenny and i hoped that this would mean a good long nap, since the kids had been nap-free for 2 days... not so lucky. shortly after they got back to the house, the kids were ready to go again, so we headed back down to irish beach. i really can't imagine a better birthday than a day at the beach with family and friends. it was also a little less windy on this day, which made for a very pleasant afternoon.

and again, time slipped away effortlessly. the kids played peacefully for hours.

i love how hana sticks her tongue out when she's really concerntrating on something... she does this when she's doing a puzzle, building a tower of legos...

here hana is delivering the first of many, many, MANY "cupcakes" for my birthday. hana, jack and charlie sang happy birthday to me a few dozen times... it was really cute.

it was also nice for be to lay on my belly for the first time in many moons. i dug a hole in the sand and it was really comfortable. i could have easily napped there, but the singing and the always simmering anxiety that the kids would suddenly take off to the ocean kept me alert (but definatley relaxed).

there aren't many pictures of me these days that i like very much, but i thought this one was cool. happy birthday to me!

"i yov you mommy" - hana at 2 1/2 years

2009-06-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

hana's getting excited for "baby brother's" arrival (due 9/3/09). she talks to him just about everyday and strokes my belly like she's petting a cat. she varies her voice tone based on what she thinks he's doing. so if she believes he's awake she'll say "HI BABY BROTHER!" in a more playful tone. if she thinks he's sleeping, she'll whisper "hi baby brother" and instruct me to be quite so as not to wake him.

hana's expressions of affection have been a lot more purposeful these days. hana has been saying "i yov you too" in response to us telling her that we love her for many months now. sometimes, she also says "i love you anyway" like in the "olivia" book she has. at the end, olivia's mother tells her that she really wears her out but "i love you anyway", to which olivia responds "i love you anyway too". well, hana has also recently started telling us that she loves us unsolicited. it's amazing really because it often just comes out of the blue. she also has been giving kisses too (and not the slobbery baby kisses either). she'll say, "i wanna kiss you face" expecting us to offer up a cheek and then she instruct us "i wanna kiss you other face" so she can kiss the other cheek. as she kisses you, she cups your face in her hands. ah! it is just the BEST! if she only knew how much heart melting goes on when that happens. i mean, she could diffuse any potential time out with some well placed kisses and i yov you's...

that said, she's also been getting reprimanded for sassing people lately. when jon and i are reprimanding her about something and using firm tones, she'll say "stop it mommy!" at daycare, when ms. leona or ms. susie (ms. leona's assistant) redirect her about something she had been saying "i'm gonna tell my mommy"... that is until they started saying "no I'M gonna tell your mommy". she isn't particularly obsitinate and will rethink her entrenchment when she sees it's not serving her or if she's given an out. she once went back to ms. susie and said "i sorry i tell mommy" realizing that it wasn't really a winning situation for her. with us, when she turns it around, she'll proclaim "i yistening!" (as if to say "look mom i'm listening now") and then suggest that we give her a sticker for it. we have never given her a sticker for anything but using the potty, but it's funny that she lobbies for it nonetheless. jon and i have decided that she's being strategic and that this will only spell trouble for us in the teen years if she does not use her powers for good.

she has also been "reading" books to us lately. her letter recognition is getting quite good. she has memorized books and can guess what some words are that she has seen time and again. here's a video of reading one of her favorites right now... "CAT" she's actually got the whole book memorized practically, but it's hard to tell from the video because she's distracted by the taping and hasn't figured out yet that you can't see what's being taped and be taped at the same time (at least not with our meager set up... prehaps when she is older, she can have that kind of set up in her broadcast journalism career...)

"opa!" - greek festival 2009

2009-05-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

we went to the greek festival again this year. once again, it was a fantastic time. and once again, it was hotter than hades. and once again, the food was a-maze-ing. apparently they had to cancel the festival on sunday because i ate all of the food. i'm only half kidding (festival was apparently cancelled on sunday, but there was at least one other pregnant person, my friend alexis, who reports she also ate plenty as well). this year, jack and charlie and "jen jen" (party of 5!) came with us and we've decided that this may well be an annual tradition. this year, hana also got into saying "opa" and repeated it everytime she heard someone call it out (like when they lit the flaming cheese - de-licious!).

for those that don't know, the greek festival in oakland is thrown at the greek orthodox church and is part of their easter celebration. we visited their chapel and it's pretty amazing. we did not get a good picture, but it's hard not to be impressed by the inside of the structure. you can see glimpses of the exterior of the dome in many of these shots. traditionally, the exterior is pretty simple (symbolizing our earthly existence) and the interior is pretty ornate (symbolizing your heavenly existence). i was pretty impressed by the exterior so, you can imagine how blown away i was by the inside... neato!

after the chapel, and a lap around the festival, we hit the bounce house - not so greek, but the ya just can't go wrong with the bounce house. i think that's like an internationally accepted truth.

here, charlie is requiring a little coaxing before going in. jenny eventually had to get in with her.

after the bounce house, and some loukemides (honey dipped fried dough thingies... can't go wrong with that), we hit the play ground. hana pretty much stuck to that sing thing you see in the top picture (and video below), but jack and charlie were more adventerous, exploring the entire play structure.

this video captures to most fun part of the day in my opinion. it starts with the kids on the play ground, but you can hear the music in the background. the kids seemed really interested in the music so after the bounce house, playground, and a couple of meals, we went to the main stage for a little dancing. the kids really got into it. hana was especially taken with the musicians. the video shows her thwarted attempt to get on stage, but then you see her scampering off to the other side of the stage and then the video cuts to the next scene. what's not in the video is that after she sprinted to the other side of the stage, she climbed on it and proceeded to run around macauley culkin style until she was cornered and carried off by her unamused father. it was a little embarrassing, but still pretty funny to me, because the musicians thought it was so cute. in fact, in between songs, hana engaged the musicians about their various instruments and she (surprising) could name quite a few of them (violin, drum, guitar...). the kids really got into the dancing. while we were dancing around, a greek woman came up to me and invited me to hold her hand. she proceeded to teach me the syrtos (pronounced seer-toes). hana made for a complicated dance partner but by the end of the song, i got the hang of it even though i had to carry her part of the time. it was really fun to have all of the people dancing around and the kids twirling to and fro...

after the regular folks cleared out, these adorable kids came in and did some traditional greek dancing. they performed for about 30 minutes or so and hana, jack and charlie were totally enthralled (that is, until jack fell asleep). hana seems to think that when ever she sees a dance performance of any type, she then should have "my turn". in fact, this has dissolved into a tantrum on a couple of occaisions, but because she got to dance before, and it was blistering hot, she was easily redirected with ice cold lemonade. i think we need to get that girl into to dance classes likety-split! anyway, while the kids performed people threw money and festival tokens (worth $1 a peice!) out to the dance floor (and sometimes, directly at them). they were so composed through it all, but it was all they could do to get through the bow before they were scrambling to collect their dance booty like that candy that falls from a pinata. that's gotta be pretty fun for them. made me wanna take up the greek dancing, i tell you what...

hana's only nap that day was the 20 minute cat nap she had on the car ride home, which occured right after she said "mommy, i not tired". as soon as the car stopped when she got to the house, she perked right up again. so she was nap free... that is until about 6 p.m. when she passed out in her chair while watching sesame street. we moved her to her bed without incident and she slept straight through until 7:30 the next morning. that's pretty unheard of for this one, who will go to bed between 8:00-8:30 every night but talk and sing to herself for at least an hour after that before conking out.

apparently, she was all festivaled out. last year, there's a picture of hana all passed out at the greek festival too (it would be in the blog archive in may 2008). must be something in the lemonade.

coffee house chic

2009-05-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

i unearthed this video that jon shot at one of my favorite breakfast places (venus in berkeley). sometimes, at places that serve soy milk (hana can't drink regular milk) we ask for them to steam it and get it all foamy and serve it in a little espresso cup. hana loves this, and though we call it "special milk", she sometimes calls it "special coffee". there's no coffee in it mind you (what, you think we're crazy?!), but she just gets such a kick out of drinking "coffee" like mommy and daddy. in the video, she's having special milk and doing some people watching. she's always trying to see who's attention she can capture from across a crowded room. but in this case, she also did a lot of kicking on the guy sitting next to her. he was mercifully forgiving as he was brunching with his two young daughters as well. incidentally, one of those girls is who she's gloating to when she says "no, my milk" as if to say, "you just have regular milk in a glass... so sad for you".

and on the special beverage note: one thing with hana that we have tried to do is not use cutesy names for grown up beverages. for example, wine is not "mommy juice", it's wine. beer is not "daddy's medicine", it's just beer. we did this because the very first time she noticed, which was many months ago now, that we all had different beverages at the table, she was calling them out in some sort of libation roll call. she asked, "this is hana juice?" to which we replied "yes". and then to daddy's wine, she said "that's daddy juice?" to which he also replied affirmatively. but then she said she wanted to drink "daddy juice" and that pretty much did it for me. i declared, no euphamisms for that stuff. she would know beer, wine, margarita, whatever... and know that they were grown up drinks and she was not to have any. she's a smart and industrious kid. i didn't want her thinking "well, if it's just juice, why can't i have any?" she seems to get there's a difference and will say as much when she points out that one of us has a grown up beverage. let's just hope this carries through the teen years!

mommy takes the hard line... sigh.

2009-05-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

lest there be any paternity questions: behold jon and his mini-me (in a skort).

this picture was taken at the tilden park merry go round. in april, we had been graced with several days of warm, summer-like weather (well, summer-like if you live somewhere else... summers can be pretty overcast sometimes in the bay area). i think the merry-go-round is a historical landmark and it is pretty cool. hana has not been there in over 6 months. when she went last time, she talked about it daily for months. she got to ride it 7 times before the good times were cut short...

you see, we took a break to eat a little picnic on the lawn and have a little bit of a frolic break in the sun.hana picked flowers...
and then decided that running around the parking lot would be fun. normally i can catch her, but in my delicate condition, she was too quick for me. she did not listen or respond to calls to turn back and the countdown to three ("if you don't come back by 3, we will go home and there will be no more merry go round") was met by more giggles.

so we packed up our blanket and went home. we had stern tones and expressed our dissapointment at having to leave the merry-go-round early, but she didn't really get it until the bell sounded and the merry-go-round started without her. she wailed pathetically as we strapped her in her carseat. it wasn't easy to cut it short like that. i wanted to play in the park some more. but a parent's got to drawn a line in the sand... at the parking lot.
ironically, jon captured the march of shame back to the blanket for posterity. i'm sure this indignation will be in her tell-all memoirs someday.

"happy peater" - part 1

2009-05-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

in order to get ready for "happy peater" - on of the many ways "happy easter" comes out of hana- on the saturday before easter, nadia, paul and cole had the kids (jack, charlotte, tony and hana) over for easter egg dying. hana got very into painting the eggs as well as dying and stamping them. she is still learning about the delicate touch that eggs require so many eggs were cracked in the making of this easter.

after breaking this egg and realizing that it wasn't so easy to stamp the whites, she decided to just eat this one... and then stamp it some more.

all of this egg dying was in preparation for the big annual easter egg hunt at grandma glenda's and grandpa dan's house. glenda and nadia stuffed easter eggs with candy and coins to add to the real eggs that would be hidden. glenda really got into the spirit of things with her fashionable head gear...after the eggs were dyed, the kids had a blast playing in nadia and paul's back yard. the kids got to play in the mud in what cole calls his "outdoor kitchen" which is really to big clay pots with dirt and a nearby water source (not the pool). many mud pies made in that kitchen... they say that messy play is good for a child's development. well, i would say all of the kids developed A LOT that day...

in this picture, hana seems so small. but that's just the angle at which she's being shot... it seems that hana started a growth spurt a few weeks ago and hasn't really stopped yet. those are not shorts. those are sized 3T capris! admittedly, they had a slightly higher hemline than some of her other capris, but those don't even pretend to be capris anymore. she can still wear a few of her 3T clothes, but for the spring, we've had to buy her 4T clothes. and her feet are sized 9 - 9.5, which is the same size that tony, who's nearly 4, and a boy, wears. she's still pretty lean and has good muscle tone. so even though we buy her 4T clothing, if the waist does not adjust, they just don't stay up. in fact there are many 3T pants and skirts that she's grown out of in length, but if you don't cinch them way in, they are around her ankles in seconds. for those of you familiar with the adjustable waists on clothing, she is frequently on the 5th button-hole on each side and we still have to tell her to pull her pants up all the time. thankfully, her diaper helps protect us from the peek-a-boo crack scenario, but with any luck, we won't have that for long... hana is also wearing one of her favorite shirts. it's a tinkerbell shirt that cole and tony brought back from disneyland. she asks for it often (but we don't do laundry that much so she's frequently dissapointed).here is jack riding around. had easter egg dye, mud, strawberry and chocolate all over his face and hands. we tossed him a towel to wipe his hands and face and it landed on his head. he just sat there for a few minutes like... "uh guys..." and peered at us giggling adults sideways, almost humorlessly, until someone mercifully pulled the towel off his head and handed it to him. note how filthy his hands are...that level of filth is pretty much how all of the kids looked. although they're clothes were way worse than jack's. so we threw them all in the shower for a hose down and they all borrowed some of cole's pajamas for the ride home. hana was really into cole's dinosaur pjs and wants a pair of her own.

hana had so much fun that day that she, and all the kids, had a collective meltdown upon leaving... a situation compounded by all of them being totally nap-free. so hana was in a pretty foul mood when she got in the car (which jon thought was pretty cute so he mocked her by taking her picture).i'm swooping in here for a little attitude adjustment... there isn't much an attack of the smooches won't take care of.
returning smooches to mommy. she's into that now and i LOVE it! "mommy, i wanna kiss yo' face" and then "mommy, i wanna kiss yo' otha face" (meaning turn the other cheek). good times. i love this phase!

telling jokes now... looking a lot like jon here...

and speaking of jokes... hana is starting to tell jokes. well, she has the one joke done several ways. it usually begins with "knock knock". you say "who's there?" she says "me" we say "me who?" and then she's say "hana!" - as if to say "duh!" but then start laughing. or she will also say "come on in" followed by some giggles. but the funniest version of this joke is when she uses the set up to ask for something that she wants. for example, it'll go: "knock knock" , "who's there" , "me", "me who", "please have shark cup hot" (which is her short hand for asking for warm milk in her favorite shark sippy cup).

yes, i get that's not really funny, but she's trying to be clever and mix it up. she doesn't quite get the whole notion of a punch line yet... and how they are supposed to be funny in unexpected and ironic ways (well, i supposed it's unexpected to ask for milk as the end of a knock knock joke...). but it's funny that she tries.

anyway, back to easter:

easter sunday, we went to church in berkeley and they had an easter egg hunt after church. hana loved her "pwincess dress" that her great aunt dee dee made and she got many compliments on it all day. she's also into wearing her sunglasses when it's bright out and the weather was beautiful on easter. these butterfly sunglasses have a bit of a retro look to them. here's hana searching for easter eggs.

...and demonstrating the fruits of her labor. but since she was going to another easter party after this, we re-hid the eggs so the other kids could find them. hana liked doing this as much as finding them, but it was impossible to stop her from tossing the eggs into their new hiding places. we're still working on the gentle handling of eggs...

a better look that the diva shades...

"happy eater!" - part 2

2009-05-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

after church, we drove out to grandma glenda's and grandpa dan's for the big easter egg hunt and party. jon found the cutest easter basket for hana this year, but the felt handle is unreinforced, so there were frequent egg-a-lanches until i stepped in to help out. the weather was beautiful: sunny and warm. all of the kids got a little early season tanning because we all forgot to put sunscreen on.

in order to let the easter bunny do his work hiding the eggs, we took the kids on a walk. it was our very own easter parade!

the easter egg hunt started with a kid stampede. the little ones (hana, jack and charlie) were allowed to go first, so as to avoid an "us festival" debacle.

i held hana's basket while she looked for eggs.

charlotte looked especially cute on easter. her egg hunting strategy was pretty amusing as well. she would pick the eggs up and shake them. if she didn't like the sound of the rattle, or if it had no rattle at all (as in the case of real eggs) she would toss 'em back. as a result, she grossed a lot of eggs with candy and money, and far fewer eggs containing stickers or actual yolks n' such.

hana and charlie stayed pretty close together. hana collected her own eggs, but reaped most of charlies rejects.

"look mommy! that's a big one!!!" when i told her that it was a ball and there there was nothing inside, she tossed it. she's becoming a shrewd candy consumer.

midway through the hunt, hana wanted to bust into the the booty and eat some candy. since i didn't have a chance to weed out all of the chocolate, jaw breakers and gum, i encouraged her to press on since there would be plenty of time for candy later. and let me just say, it's not like hana ate anything but candy before this time. i think she had a little nutrition at home (in the form of a muffin) but she ate jelly bellys all through church, which kept her pretty happy and quiet.

at one point, one of the kids discovered an egg in the tree. this prompted hana to start searching the skies for eggs...

after the little kids hunt, there was a special, more challenging hunt for the 3 older kids (2 middle school and 1 high school), these eggs all had money (bills) in them... with the "big money egg" being the one with the $20 in it. all the little kids "helped".

when that was over, and eggs and candy had been sorted, the kids found their respective corners in the yard where they commenced to eating an inordinate amount of candy.

jack and hana have a pretty special bond. well, all of the kids are pretty tight. but jack has been known to throw a midweek tantrum or two because hana's not around. here they are "sharing" a seat on a rock... just before hana pushes him off.

it was a really fun (totally nap-free) exhausting weekend. next stop: mother's day!

"my biggirl bed" - hana at 28 months... sigh.

2009-04-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

well, we finally got around to getting a toddler bed set up for her. it's been a couple of months since hana let us know that she was ready to step up. and when we went on our trip to atlanta, she slept in a twin sized aero bed, which she LOVED!!! the only complication with that is that on all but one night, she would shimmy off the bed in her sleep and then end up under the bed that mommy and daddy were sleeping in. that's right. i said under. i would wake up to a whimper that sounded like it was coming from right beneath me. because it was. sometimes she was completely under the bed and sometimes, her legs were sticking out like the witch's legs from under the house in wizard of oz. it was pretty easy to pull her out and put her back in the bed, because she was sound asleep. i figured this would not be a problem at home because the toddler bed has rails.
i was right, that wasn't the problem. but there were other complications. she was totally into the toddler bed the first 3 nights. she was pretty good (not perfect of course) at staying in her bed all night and she slept really well, back to her 11 hours from infancy. however on night 4, she climbed into her crib. she did this for the next 3 nights. we have been trying to convince her that she needs to stay in the big girl bed because that where big girls sleep and that she can't sleep in the crib becuase that's where babies sleep.

by the way, hana has a baby brother on the way. the crib is still in the room because our plan is to have both kids in the same room. i hope that by september, when "baby broder" arrives, she will move out of this phase. but she's not embracing the big girl bed as her place. she still thinks she has choices. additionally, she appreciates the new found freedom and so she has taken to marauding around the house for over an hour, sometimes close to 2 hours, after she has been put to bed. this has seriously cut into her sleep time and we end up waking her up in the morning, when means she groggy and cantankerous. in that way, she is just like her father (and her mother in her youth). naps have also been impacted as she has had more nap free weekends than i care to admit.

i have been employing the techniques the supernanny espouses, unemotionally and without words return her to bed every time she gets up. jon's approach involves more talking and reasoning. we'll see how either goes. this has been one of the more frustrating transitions.

as you can also see, bailey likes the big girl bed. she will stay in bed as long as he is there. but you know cats. they do their own thing. so when he gets up, which is most of the time, so does she. sigh.

***UPDATE: after about a month of vigiliance, hana is finally staying in her bed at night night time once we put her down. she's still up for a while singing to herself, "reading" her books, and generally talking to herself. but at least she's in her bed. yesterday, 5/2/09 was the first nap she has taken on a weekend in a month. before, we'd put her down, but she'd just get up and goof off for two hours. yesterday, she slept for about 90 minutes. today, she's "down" for her nap but i've already had to remind her that riding the scooter is not for nap time. she went to bed 20 minutes ago but she's not asleep yet... so the saga continues.

"I wanna go Nana's house."

2009-03-31T22:15:00.000-07:00

We flew to Georgia to see Nana and the Great Aunt Dee Dee complete a half marathon in Atlanta. Hana got to have some fun at the marathon expo, like checking out this bungee trampoline thing. Hana was a little intimidated by the contraption. She got all strapped in and then was too freaked out to actually jump. Nice picture, though.

To the marathon, Hana brought a sign that she made for Nana and the Great Aunt Dee Dee. She had a little bit of trouble holding it right-side-up but it was awfully cute to see her there holding the sign! The marathoners seemed to appreciate it.

It was cold in Atlanta the day of the marathon. So, Hana was pretty bundled up. She hung out in her stroller and watched the marathon. Though at some point she got a bit grumpy from the cold weather.
Grandad was crew chief in support of the marathoners and organized the MARTA travels into ATL. Here he is on the phone, near the finish of the marathon. Note the tower in the background, still missing window panes from the tornado that had swept through months earlier.
Here's Nana, just steps away from the finish line.
Here, you can see here on the left, behind the photographer. That blue banner at the top of the picture reads "FINISH" and that bit of a blue strip at the bottom of the picture is the actual finish line.
Crossing the line! Go Nana, Go Nana!
Here's Nana with a smile on her face as she's just crossed the finish!

Marathoners and crew assemble at the conclusion of the event. Crew chief makes sure Nana gets a blanket to keep warm. Congratulations to the marathoners!
The Georgia visit wasn't all about serious athletic events, though. Hana got plenty of fun play time too. We visited a park near Nana's house with lots of play structures, room to run and jump, and even a monkey!

Here's Hana at the top of one tubular slide, about to slide down. This one was fast!

Here she is at the top of a smaller, tamer slide.

There were a couple of ride-on dinosaur toys at the park, which Hana thoroughly enjoyed.Here's Hana pointing out a monkey who came to visit the park.

Hana liked the monkey, but kept a respectful distance (not like with the cats).

Nana and Hana share an embrace at the park.

In addition to the marathon and the park adventure, Hana experienced her first actual ice cream cone. Here's the vid:

"the boat is making bubbles" - angel island

2009-03-23T00:31:00.001-07:00

on january 8th, i ran the pacific coast trail runs angel island trail run. they had many distances but i ran the 8k (around 5 miles) this time. i have always wanted to do this race and i was excited that i got to do it this year. if you aren't familiar with the area, angel island is a small in the bay kinda near alcatraz. the island has a pretty rich history as the "ellis island of the west" and military outposts (there are still old wwII bunkers on the island). there are several trails traversing the perimeter of the island as well as up to the summit. and honestly, the panaramas are breathtaking. especially at the summit where you can literally see 360 degree views of the san francisco, marin headlands east bay, 5 bridges (including the golden gate) and of course alcatraz. sadly, my picture at the summit was not so flattering. although i was having an awesome time, i look like i was gasping for my last breath. and the angle at which the picture was shot showed me less as trail runner and more as jabba the hut with legs. needless to say, i don't like it and i didn't buy it. but you can look it up on their website if you are so motivated (note the absence of a direct link). someday, i would like an awesome picture to mesh with awesome surroundings. but i digress...

the weather was georgeous! hana got to ride on her first boat ( the ferry over from tiburon, ca) and she liked it so much that she didn't want to get off once we arrived. in fact, it took a LOT of coaxing to get her to turn around for this pictures. her eyes were fixed on the water (see below), and she just kept alternating between squealing, giving her excited giggle and exclaiming "the boat is making bubbles!!!" in reference the wake.

anyway, as i said, the race was fun, and hana had fun with daddy while i ran the trails. she cried when the runners left the start line. it was pretty pathetic actually, she just kept calling "mommy, come back!". we all tried to reassure her, but i figured it was best to just go and she would recover. she was fine but it was hard not to have at least a transient pang of guilt.

as i said, despite the beautiful environs, there is nary a good picture of me. this one is the best, even though it's out of focus (or maybe because it is). this is me approaching the finish line. it was so much fun, i'd love to do it again next year, if for no other reason than to try for a better picture.

the new frontier... hana at 26 months

2009-03-23T00:26:00.000-07:00

hana and bailey have grown very close. when we get home, bailey is always there to greet us and he mostly follows hana around the house. when hana is watching a movie on the couch, bailey will snuggle up close to her and watch with her (almost like they're on a date or something... gasp! did i just say date in reference to my daughter?!). if hana is playing on the floor, he's not far away. hana often refers to bailey as "kitty cat" but will call maceo by name. hana often says "kitty cat is so my fwend!" or "kitty kat so cute!" she also has this certain giggle she gets when she's excited about something. it's hard to describe but she uses it a lot when she's talking about bailey.

our other cat, maceo, is a little more skittish and spent most of the last 2 years living in the back bedrooms and cursing us for bringing hana into the house. he's affectionate, and protective - even of hana - but on his turf, and at a reasonable distance from hana. but he's starting to warm up to her... well as much as maceo warms up to anyone. lately, hana has been assigned her first chore of helping daddy feed the cats in the morning; a tasks she gleefully fulfills. now that hana is associated with cat food, i think this is has raised her stock with him and he's more open to seeing her as an asset to the household, as opposed to an irritant. he still does not appreciate her attempts at affection with him, but over time, i think her will find her undeniable (just as he was as a kitten to our late beloved poo poo kitty).

lately we have found hana getting more and more interested in shoving things up her nose. we don't like this much. i fear that someday, it will be a cause for the trip to the e.r. we don't give her many things she can shove her nose (except raisons and cheerios) but she has taken to ripping tissues into small peices and shoving those up her nose. we hope this phase passes soon.

hana is also very into music... she's lately been into singing "this little light of mine, i'm gonna let it shine..." it's pretty sweet once you figure out what she's saying. she often sings herself to sleep at night in her crib. singing is also a good distraction sitting in the car during traffic jams.

here she's listenting to beyonce. she's been listening to beyonce since day one... literally. "crazy in love" was the first song i ever heard her sing along to on the radio "oh no oh no oh no oh no". i think a future superfan is born...

hana learns that she does not walk on water

2009-01-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

jon got a flip mino hd for christmas. that means that taking video of hana is now easier than ever (although uploading it to the blog is still painstakingly long... as is evidenced by the delay in posting).

i'm not sure if that's good news or bad news in the blogosphere. but we have some cute video of her singing (sheepishly) into her new microphone among countless other selections.

one day while we were on vacation, we took hana to the park/beach at lake chabot. the weather was nice and since i'd been sick, hana had been a little house bound the previous couple of days. around the shore of the lake is a little man-made beach where hana likes to make "cupcakes". in truth, hana will make a cupcake out of anything at anytime: sand, dirt, blocks, pure air... what was especially endearing was how she would make her cupcake and then sing happy birthday. the first time she did this was the week before, at home with a cupcake made from thin air. it was so sweet, both jon and i were a little misty.

also at this trip to the park, hana and jon made several trips to the water's edge to get buckets of water and wetter sand for the cupcake operation.

the water was pretty calm and glassy that day so hana thought she would go darting out on it... that is until she she realized that she can't walk on water. she fell in face first to about 6" or so of water. hana was freaked (as were we all) but fine. of course, we didn't bring an extra change of clothes so we had to strip her down to warm her up, which left her wearing nothing but her diaper and her jacket, which she'd fortunately shed before the incident. needless to say, that ended our day at the park. jon did a post-splash interview once we got back to the car where hana discussed lessons learned.

"aaall done cwib" - hana at 25 months

2009-01-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

hana has unceremoniously let us know she is ready to move on from her crib. you see, she has been physcially able to climb out of her crib for many months now. she's just not be been terribly interested in it. now that she's all into "i do it 'self" - doing things herself - she would prefer to determine on her own, when it is time for her to go to sleep.

for a little background, i'll explain that sometimes on a weekend night, when it's getting close to bed time, instead of the usual routine, she's allowed to pick a movie and have "quiet time" on the couch before bed. she calls it going "night night couch". specifically, she expresses "no wan' it night night cwib. i wanna go night night couch". generally, she asks for this at every sleep opportortunity. i however, do not consider her chillin' on the couch to be any sort of night night time becuase, at best, she will usually watch the entire movie and not fall alseep at all. at worst, as most frequently, she waits until mommy falls asleep (because it's hard to be riveted to the 13,oooth showing of "madagascar") and she gets up and runs around getting into stuff. she's still watching the movie, but it's not "quiet time" and there is no rest involved (well, at least not for her).

so one day last week, after failing her requisite campaign to have "night night couch", jon put her down for her nap in her crib. she resisted quite a bit and cried about it for about 15 minutes. and she settled down, as she usually does and just kept herself enterained in her crib, talking to herself, playing with her furry friends, singing to herself... this went on for another, say 45 minutes. then it grew quiet and we assumed she fell asleep.

after some suspicious clunking, we opened her door to find her out of her crib, with her hair smoothed down with a half a bottle of leave-in conditioner which she had personally applied. i suppose she thought she was "helping" since she likes to "help" put in the product when i style her hair in the mornings... but this was really ridiculous. we tried feebly to stifle our laughs but eventually, we couldn't help it. we know we were sending the wrong message, but if it's any consulation to you she did have to have an immediate bath which she found most unpleasant.

this crib hopping has become a thing for her and we've decided that until we get the bed set up for her, we're going to try and facilitate her getting in and out of the crib less perilously. of course, she won't do it herself when it's convenient for us... you know, it would really be ok for me if in the mornings when she calls out:"moooooooooommyyyyy, i wake up! all done cwib!" she then just got herself out of bed and met me half way. when i encourage her to do that, she claims she needs "help up". yeah right.

so i think we are going to set a bed up for her in the next couple of weeks. in the meantime, we need to keep her form marauding the house in some way that doesn't involve her being locked in (like the literature from our pediatrician says to do!). ironically, what seems to be the most effective is leaving the door open. that way she can hear what's going on in the house and we can hear her and check on her more easily. we'll see how long that lasts...

"i'm TWOOOOO!" - hana at 2 years

2009-01-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

we are a little late on this but this year, we held hana's birthday party at gymboree again. it was a great party again this year. sadly, i forgot to do things like make goody bags or have party favors of any kind, but hopefully, the kids didn't miss it. the party was a lot bigger this year since there were 15 kids this time, compared to last year's 5. there were a mixture of the cousins, a couple of mom's group friends and quite a few friends from ms. leona's, and a few various and sundry others. the kids really had a great time... so much so that there was a collective meltdown at the end becuase they didn't want to go - hana included. when it's your child, you're embarrased and irritated. but when it's everyone's child - then it's just plain funny. i mean what are you gonna do?

hana didn't take long to start really showing us her terrible twos. she has suddenly decided that things she was totally into one day, she's utterly against the next. for example, bath time, grilled cheese sandwhiches, wearing her white sneakers, sitting on the potty, eating large and complete meals were all things that she willingly, if not gleefully, participated in. now, not so much. we are instead greeted with responses ranging from "um, no." to the more whiney "no waaan' it" to full on you-won't-take-me-alive style temper tantrums that include such gems as "'top it!" (for stop it) and "let go!" and then she has the audacity to insist on occaision "say sorry, mommy" for putting her through the torture of a diaper change. it's especially fun when she's whining "'top it, let go mommy!" in the grocery store, as if to suggest to the general public that i am somehow endangering her by putting her in the shopping cart.

she is also getting quite good at her fake cry: scrunched up face, pathetic wail... no tears. and then i remind her, "uh oh hana, there's no tears coming out. you've got to squeeze harder!" although she is clearly not amused by this, she often stops to ponder this, as if to say "oh yeah, tears!" and sometimes, she just moves on to the next thing.

fortunately, she is pretty easy to redirect if we grown ups are not super tired. she can often be plied with a chastisement whilst being cuddled. sometimes, singing one of her favorite songs ("row, row, row your boat", "the wheels on the bus", "if you're happy and you know it..." or "jingle bells") will change her mind about just how commited she is to having a tantrum. another strategy that seems to work sometimes is if i pick up one of her toys - say, this new awesome microphone that she got for christmas - and start playing with is as if it is the best toy in the house. and then she insists "that's MINE!" and i hand it to her (after i make her say please) and then she's all about playing with that toy. i don't know how long that trick will last but everytime i do it, i feel like i have won one for the mommies.

"circle cars"

2008-12-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

hana got to meet santa claus earlier this month. she was excited about it and almost cut in front to two poor defenseless babies to get her chance.

hana alternates between calling him "santa" and "circle cars" (which i think is her attaching familiar words to a new concept/person). as it turns out, those two babies took for-EVER selecting their pictures. santa was annoyed. he uses the time when the parents are selecting the picture to say catch up with the kids. that's usually a couple of minutes. however, because these too babymamas couldn't get it together, hana ended up sitting on hana's lap for almost 20 minutes before she got to take her picture.

santa was worried because he said usually kids fall out by then and the pictures are horrible. but hana was a champ. we found ways to pass the time. she told santa that she wanted an "alligator" for christmas. santa looked to me for help. but i told him that hana told me in line earlier that she wanted an alligator, so she is probably dead serious, and she wants a real alligator. he looked worried. i'm sure he was thinking that he didn't want to have to put a live alligator in his sleigh. i think she got the idea from the "cajun night before christmas" book that we read just about every night. it's "the night before christmas" story but it's written in cajun - super fun to read once you get used to it - and instead of a sleigh and reindeer, santa rides in on a skiff pulled by alligators with creole names (like gaston, renee and nanette). so i'm sure she was thinking a live alligator would be no problem.

then i suggested that she also liked the scooter that cousin tony had. santa, relieved, told hana that the scooter was more appropriate for little children and admonished her to always wear her helmet. we also had time to sing jingle bells and twinkle twinkle little star. while in santas lap, hana was pretty star struck so she didn't say much above whisper over all. but she really loved meeting him and still talks about it for days after.

thanksgiving with stephanie

2008-12-24T08:19:00.000-08:00

we had a very relaxing thanksgiving week. while jon had to work, i had the week off. my cousin stephanie came to town and visited for the week. thanksgiving day was spent with paul, nadia and cole and about 25 other friends and family. despite the size of the group, it was a pretty low key celebration. the food was awesome... and paul made a turkey that was TO DIE FOR!!!! not much in the way of left overs on that one. we all ate ourselves silly, as is tradition.
this is jon's favorite picture of hana from this day. he says "it just shows her personality..." i think it's pretty cute too.

hana wore a bow in her hair and to my surprise, the bow lasted like 4 hours! usually, when we do a bow, like for daycare or something, she forgets it's there until one of her friends comments on it. then she yanks it out because she wants to see it too...

paul and nadia set up their downstairs for the kids where a "kung fu panda" marathon and a bowl of tortilla chips kept the children transfixed, and for the most part, out of trouble.

perhaps, the biggest turkey at thanksgiving...

this shot reminds me of the pictures my grandfather used to take at family parties. he especially liked to line up multiple generations in profile and take our pictures... you can almost see the halo in this picture.

the day after thanksgiving, jenny, nadia and i got up at "0-dark-30" to hit the black friday sales. it was CRAZY!!!! but we got some really good deals. we will do it differently next year, but we'll definately do it again. after we got done with the shopping, we met the kids and the rest of the family for lunch and a trip to the park. we were pushing nap time so we didn't expect the park to be more than about 30 minutes or so (plus i'd been up since 3:30 a.m.), but the kids had so much fun, that we were there for a couple hours.

stephanie and charlotte got to bond...

hana is getting faster and faster. i may run long distances, but i'm not known for my speed. this could spell trouble down the line...

stephanie left the saturday after thanksgiving. we were so used to having her around, it was sad to see her go. we escorted her to the airport on BART. this was hana's first trip on the "choo choo train"... she's seen them around when we've been driving and she's been very interested in them. this isn't her first train ride... she had that a year ago around her first birthday, when we took the (amtrak) train in oregon from portland to eugene. but this is the first mass transit ride that she's been on where she knows what's going on and is totally into it!

after we dropped stephanie off, we had lunch at the airport, which she thought was pretty neat. and then she napped the whole way home on the train back.

showing auntie noelle and auntie simone the zoo

2008-12-24T07:59:00.000-08:00

auntie simone and auntie noelle are my oldest friends. simone lives in hawaii now so we don't get to see her very often. so when she came through, she brought great weather which called for a trip to the zoo.

i love this picture of noelle... unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of simone because she was behind the camera most of the time...

hana tries on a tortoise shell for size.hana and mommy singing jingle bells, i'm sure...

it's official, i have seen if for my own eyes, hana is big enough for some big kid rides. she drove the cars for the first time on this trip and she LOVED it... we also rode a roller coaster. which she also loved.

"i wanna go syide!"

2008-12-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

on a sunny november sunday, while some friends were visiting from new york, we took the kids out for a walk around the lafayette reservior and a visit to the playground there. hana is familiar with the reservior now. the walk around the reservior is almost 3 miles around, which is not typically a very long distance for me. but hana knows that it ends at the park. so the trip becomes much longer when hana starts in at about the 1 mile mark with "i wanna go syide!" this means that in order to avoid the melt down, mommy has to push the pace a bit. so it's not always so leisurely for me...
she loves a slide. in fact, for the last few months, she finds the slide on in the baby play ground (ages 2-5) to be a bit anti-climatic. it's more like a warm up slide. she quickly wants to move on to the big slide on the big kids side. she can hold her own for the most part but i have to watch her because she thinks she can swing from the monkey bars and slide down the pole. she's a bit of a dare devil that way. both her and charlotte can be a little more on the adventerous side... which means that jenny and i have to be ever vigilant in order to put of the ER visits we are sure are in our future...

after the park, we all went back to nadia, paul and cole's house for a little impromtu dance party. i continue to be impressed by the stylie moves...

note the breakdancing featured in this clip... future b-boys and girls of america, take notice... you have been served!

"i makin' eggs"

2008-11-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

occaisionally, hana gets to help mommy cook. one of her favorite meals to help with is scrambled eggs. i've been trying to teach her about the gentle touch required when breaking eggs but i really underestimated how nuanced that whole thing can be... i mean, we teach her to be gentle (she even knows the sign for it) but that's usually in the context of petting the cat or not hitting other kids. so the first time i demonstrated how to break an egg, i told her that we must be very gentle, and then i lightly tapped the egg on the side of the bowl and emptied the contents. when it was hana's turn to try, she petted the egg and then crushed it in her hand. i guess to her, gentle and breaking something are more consecutive operations, than simultaneous.

as you can see, we also work with her on scrambling the eggs in such a way as to leave some in the bowl.

dinner time sillyness

2008-11-22T00:30:00.000-08:00

so everyday for the last 3 months or so, we ask hana about her day at school and what she did all day. and everyday, she says matter of factly "um... i ran 'round" and makes a circular motion with her hand. everyday, that is, except on this evening when we were trying to capture a conversation we have had hundreds of times - ad nauseum - on camera for posterity. you see, we realize this running around thing is some kind of phase, and judging from the video, that phase ended on this evening.

i mean, the "ran 'round" thing was such a sure thing! she would even do a roll call of her friends who also ran around: "indya ran 'round, kymani ran 'round, genesis ran 'round..." and on and on. but not tonight. despite our obvious coaching. sigh. but rest assured, this particular evening was only a brief respite from the running around because, you guessed it, she picked it up again the next night. it's probably not as funny or intersting to anyone else, but we think it's pretty funny. and it's been such a signfigant phase... oh well.

before hana, jon and i had gotten into the habit of eating dinner on the couch in front of the tv. it is what it is... we're not proud. with hana, we have been pretty consistent about eating at the table and making attempts at engaging hana in conversation. she generally likes to take that much concentrated attention from mommy and daddy to a silly place. hence, the next video, singing the alphabet song, with her dinner napkin on her head. nice.

"brakabama"

2008-11-22T00:08:00.000-08:00

we tried to involve hana as much as possible in this year's voting process on the hope that she may have some memory of this historic election. ms. leona has also exposed the kids to a lot of the election process by having the debates on tv for the kids and the historic speeches n' such. it really made an impact because one day right before the election, we were driving home from daycare and hana, (totally out of the blue, mind you...there was no debate or anything on that day), requests: "i wanna see brakabama!" needless to say, we were stunned... when we got home, we turned on the news and there was coverage of the last days of the campaign, and hana pointed to the screen and said "brakabama!" when obama was on, and then went into some sort of happy dance. and even now, when she sees his image in the paper or a magazine, she will call him out and request to see him. so if anyone has inauguration tickets they want to unload, i know a certain almost-2-year old who'd love to score a pair. HA!

on election day, hana wore her "vote for my better tomorrow" shirt. i dressed her in an extra cute outfit to go with it. she went to the polling place in style for sure. of course, at by the time that we took these pictures, at the end of the day, she was in the extra daycare pants with the broken zipper and she wanted to dress up like a tiger.

she had a blast at the polling place. we all did. we could really feel the energy and excitement in the air. and the line was kind of long (it took us over 90 minutes to vote) but hana entertained the crowds, and met a friend or two. i'm glad that she didn't violate any polling place rules by requesting to see barak obama repeatedly...

the princess of soul

2008-11-19T23:07:00.000-08:00

hana had been home sick for a couple of days. at the end of the 2nd day, she was feeling more herself again and back to her usual hijinx. i noticed that she was marching in a circle around her chair, clapping her hands, stomping her feet and saying what i thought was "quack quack". i listened more carefully and discerned that she was singing her version of "if you're happy and you know it..."

in the video, she seems to focus on the the clapping hands and stomping feet parts. before filming began, she was also doing "hooRAY!", but she wouldn't do that much for camera.

you may also notice that the hearth of the fire place is her stage... but that she's the kind of performer who likes to mix it up with the "crowd" - of one - and therefore, doesn't stay on stage very long. such a rebel. and evidently, she likes to see the playback right away as well. next, she'll want the green bunny gummy treats picked out of each little bag.

and by the way, i think when she is looking away from the camera, she is looking at her reflection in the window. i don't think that makes her vain... just concerned. what's wrong with that?!

the next video is of her singing "twinkle twinkle little star". she sometimes sings this to herself at night in the crib. when you hear that over the monitor, it's hard not to melt...

apparently, daycare is working with her on the christmas carols. i LOVE christmas music (much to my husband's chagrin), but even i have not taught her any christmas carols. i do believe that now that she is singing "jingle bells", i feel vindicated for whipping out the christmas stories for night-night time (particularly "the cajun night before christmas"... so much fun to read!), which started november 1st. hey, if macy's can put up their christmas decorations before halloween, the this really just shows my restraint. i believe this also makes it perfectly acceptable for me to start playing my christmas music - sorry, jon.

southern cali whirlwind tour part 3: the summers-sandoval family

2008-11-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

the third stop on our journey (after dropping off kay and anna in joshua tree again) was in pomona (another 2+ hour drive). tom and mindy have two kids, benito and lili. this was our first time meeting lili (who turns one in december), and we'd hadn't seen benito since we were all in hawaii together.

hana and benito hit it off.
a diaper explosion, and indian summer, left hana running around hillbilly style, in a shirt and a diaper. she didn't seem to care much, but i did break down and put some pants on her, lest she suffer another explosion and soil the rug... or worse, the good summers-sandoval same in the (historic) neighborhood.

although hana was generally pretty easy going throughout this whole road trip, she was clearly getting a little road weary... more specifically, she had been staying in people's houses who were "sharing" with her and she got tired of nothing really being "hers". so by the time she got to benito and lili's house, she just started claiming stuff. and she threw the mother of all tantrums at one point, over god knows what. as did benito. so i didn't feel quite so bad.

nevertheless, benito and "baby lili's" house was relatively relaxed because it was so kid friendly. at night night time, we got share hana's favorite story these days, "grumble bunny" with benito. he thought it was a pretty good story too.

the next morning hana, claimed this microphone as hers... such a diva. and then she got all naomi campbell about it when it was time to share, and bonked benito in the head. time outs ensued... cabin fever was setting in.

before we hit the road, we figured the better part of valor was to get her good and tired out and then take off around nap time so she'd sleep at least part of the way in the car ride back to oakland. this park was just a few blocks walk from tom and mindy's house. it was a beauty and hana had good time smelling flowers and picking up sticks on the walk over.

she really liked the swing. she did explore the slide, the jungle jim, eating the tan bark ("yucky!"), but she always came back to the swing. that's another thing she gets from her mama...

i don't know if this picture makes hana look big or jon look small...

southern cali whirlwind tour part 2: "gramma kay"

2008-11-19T21:42:00.001-08:00

jon's 20th high school reunion was in palm springs. grandma kay and anna (11 year old "neice" of sorts) watched hana while we went to the party. the day before, we drove from oakland to palmdale. on this day, we drove from palmdale to joshua tree, to pick up kay and anna (about 2+ hours) and then drove from joshua tree to palm springs (about another hour). hana handled these long drives like a champ. hana enjoyed her time with anna, and anna was great with her. they really had a good time together. it's too bad they live in southern california because anna could make a mint baby sitting for us. hana was really taken with "gramma kay" as well, and grandma kay seemed equally charmed by hana. kay hadn't seen hana since she was 8 weeks old (it's hard for her to travel these days) it was a really treat to see the two of them get reaquainted.

in fact, hana has so much fun, she literally passed out at 6:00 p.m. after snapping this picture, we put her pajamas on and she didn't even wake up! well, until about 9:00 p.m. but then she was pretty mellow and watched tv with anna for a little while before falling back to sleep (we were at the reunion party at that point).
in case you're interested, the reunion was super fun. it's great to see jon's friends at these things because he went to catholic school for 13 years, so of course there are fantastic stories. but the best part is that much of the juicy stories are the grade school ones... there were about a dozen people in jon's senior class that he'd known since kindergarten, and many more still that he'd known since grade school. they all had such affinity for one another they really weren't super cliquey... which is SO unlike my high school experience. i think i was the only spouse that was also at the 10 year which was kind of interesting too. his classmates remembered me well (better than i them) and regarded me fondly as a "cool chick". it's kinda weird to fit in better with school mates that i didn't actually go to school with... and didn't meet until 10 years ago. all in all, it was a fun party.

southern cali whirlind tour part 1: "baby gyorwia" and "uncle poo"

2008-11-19T21:31:00.000-08:00

baby gloria is my new niece such a sweet baby. she's still in that sleepy newborn stage and she was just a dream to cuddle with. she was born on 9/17/08 (a few weeks early) and we finally got to see her as part of our whirlwind trip down to southern california.

this trip was most fortuitous as it coincided with grandpa jim's (my dad) trip to california (to see the new grandbaby, attend a couple of trojan home games, among other things) and jon's 20th high school reunion (aquinas high school, class of 1988). my brother and hana seem to have some weird goofy twin connection because even though they don't get to see each other often, when they are together, it's as if no time has passed. hana alway reacted strongly to his voice in the womb - he would say "helloooo pootie poo" and she would just turn and kick and have a good ol' time it seemed. this has carried on since then and she really had a blast with her "uncle poo" this trip. hana was a huge fan of "baby gyorwia" and spoke often of giving her a bottle.

here, grandpa jim is singing "signifyin' monkey" (the oscar brown peterson version) to baby gloria. this is tradition. well, it's more like legend actually. grandpa jim has been called the "baby whisperer" because he can sing this song and engage even the fussiest baby. in fact, we requested him to sing signifyin' monkey to us well into high school (and by "we", i mean about 200 high school campers as every talent show he emceed - which was annually for about 6 or 8 years it seems)...

we also go to see my neice bre'ana, gloria's older sister. she's 10 1/2 and as tall as i am . so clearly, hana will not be the only leggy super model type in the family... this was her first time meeting hana. hana loves hangin' out with big kids so she was quite enamored with bre.

more horsing around with uncle poo on the day we move on from palmdale to palm springs (via joshua tree).

representin' for grandpa jim, hana displays the trojan helmet. between my ucla bruins, jon's (and my) cal bears and grandpa jim's usc trojans, the poor child will share her mother's dissonence about which team to cheer for. when my brother was a kid, you could ask him which team he was rooting for, and he would say "i vote for whoever wins". if she used those standards, she certainly would not be rooting for ucla... it's sad really.

my other neice, jaz'mine (bre'ana's older sister) had a baby, devin, 2 days after gloria was born. she dropped by for a visit just before we had to head out so we could see the baby.
jaz'mine and her fiance seemed to be fairly relaxed for first time parents....

here's devin... super cute! he makes these little pucker faces like he's always giving kisses. he was very alert. he's pretty much the same age as gloria, except he was full term. so in some ways, it's like gloria is younger.

"the punkin patch"

2008-11-09T08:59:00.001-08:00

this year, hana got to go the pumpkin patch twice: once with the cousins and once with daycare. it took 3 cameras and about 35 photos to get this group shot below. if i put all of them here, it would look like some wacky-toddler-mayhem flip book.

they had a little train there that hana enjoyed. fortunately i was able to go on the train with her, but i barely fit in the cars. there's not much leg room to speak of so jon was relegated to the sidelines to take pictures.

they had a small carousel there, of which, as you know, hana is a big fan. interstingly, this little merry go round is what some would call "more than a notion" since it was completely devoid of safety features (note my death grip on hana, and eventually, hana had a death grip on me) and as you will see in the video, it gets up more than enough speed to put wind in your hair. needless to say, there was only one trip on the merry go round, and hana seemed OK with that.

the very nice bounce house attendant gave the kids extra time and the kids loved bouncing, hopping, flopping, and falling around inside the bounce house.

we knew it was getting close to time to go when the kids started showing signs that it was nap time: droopy eyelids and big yawns.

on this trip to the patch, the big boys, cole and tony, went on several attractions together that hana and the twins skipped. but while on her patch trip with her daycare, she was tall enough to ride the big kid rides (!) so she actually rode a roller coaster! she apparently loved it... another thing she gets from her mother. (i have seen pictures but i don't have any to share).

"i wanna ho'd a punkin" : hana at 22 months

2008-11-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

at 22 months, hana has just finished a massive growth spurt. she started wearing 3T clothing over the summer but it started fitting her well this month, rendering all of her 2T clothing, just plain ridiculous. well... except for some of the dresses which i make work by putting leggings or jeans under them. and by the way, leggings are the ONLY reason to enjoy the return of the 80's... the rest is just sad and i fear this new generation of fashonistas will look back in horror as we did. but i guess we all live and learn, right? i digress.

her grandma beppy (elizabeth in L.A.: she is simone and noelle's mom, my 2 oldest friends) made this dress for her. it's so cute on her. while it's pretty long on her (which is a rarity in her wardrobe) and the sizing is pretty generous, she can wear it now, and probably well into next year. she loves this dress, and twirls around in it when she has it on. to give her something to do for this picture, i asked her to hold a little pumpkin. now nearly everyday she requests: "i wanna ho'd a punkin" and she'll carry it around for a good 15-20 minutes like it was her purse or something.

september was safety month at daycare. ms. leona arranged for a guy from the railroads to come in and talk about train track safety and this began an obsession with "choo choos". she doesn't have a train set herself, but cousin cole has thomas trains does and there are trains at grandma glenda's (both are the kind with those little wooden tracks), so when she's not running around chasing the cousins, she's playing with the trains.

during safety month, hana also had visits from the police and the local fire fighters. the firefighters were a big hit. they showed up in their big truck and they they talked to them about fire safety and gave out stickers and these clever hats (which makes a mighty fine addition to the basket of dress up hats here at home) and the kids got to climb on to the big truck. apparently, hana had a blast (and that there are pictures but i have not yet seen them). in fact, i'm told that hana may well be as big a fan of firemen as her mama.

also as part of safety month, ms. leona annually invites a dentist to come in and talk to the kids and give brushing and flossing demonstrations and stuff. it seems like a stretch of the safety theme but whatever...hana was into it. after the dentist came, the quality and interest in tooth brushing went up noticably. during his visit, the dentist showed a video about visiting the dentist office to prepare them for what to expect. i think that was genious really, because i'm wondering if he takes our insurance. i suppose that guy's no fool because i know i'm not the only parent who has plans to call him at the number he left on the free toothbrush that hana got her dental goody bag.

hana modeling her fire hat on the catwalk

My Review of Baby Giraffe Costume

2008-10-09T11:47:00.001-07:00

Originally submitted at One Step Ahead

Now here's a baby costume you don't see everyday! Tots stand out from the herd in this wild 'n wonderful jumpsuit, complete with giraffe horns, attached "hoof" covers, and sweeping tail. Exceptional quality; fleece is velvety soft. Imported.

Way too small...

By hana's mama from Oakland, CA on 10/9/2008

Pros: Breathable, Lightweight, Fun, Colorful, Durable, Warm especially the hood

Cons: Easily Outgrown, Poor Fit

Best Uses: Dress-up, Halloween

Describe Yourself: First Time Parent

after waiting over a month for my back ordered costume to come in, i was dissapointed by what i recieved. first off, it was clear to me that someone else had returned the costume i recieved. i'm not so naive as to think that i won't sometimes be buying something that someone else has returned, but you certainly don't want to feel like something you bought new looks "hand-me-down". in fact, it looks like it's been washed which may be part of the problem with the sizing. don't get me wrong, it's still a cute costume. the description says that the costume fits sizes 2T-3T and goes up to 32lbs and 38". my 22-month old is is fitting 3T clothes and is definately tall for her age. but she's only 29.5 lbs and maybe 35" tall. i did cram her into the costume, which is labled "2T", but the body of it was too short by about 3". her little sholders were all hunched up when i put the hood on (which i must admit, was kinda funny) but then she just kept saying "mommy off" (which was kind of pathetic). luckily, a friend of mine ordered the tiger and zebra costumes for her twins, in 2T-4T sizes and they are way too big for her kids (who are only 2 weeks younger than mine) so we are swapping one of the costumes. but when we put the giraffe costume on her child, who normally wears 18-24 months, it fit her perfectly (and is SUPER CUTE). when i called OSA customer service to let them know about the costume, the operator said she'd not heard any other complaints about the sizing on that costume. so maybe it was just mine. but it's a shame because it's so dang cute! hard to say if i would recommend this to a friend... i mean, it's affordable and definately cute. but if you have to wait a month for it only to find the fit way off, with no time to return it and no larger sizes then, it's not really worth it...

(legalese)

"choo choo and mer mer": hana at almost 21 months

2008-09-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

last weekend we decided to take a trip up to tilden park in the berkeley hills and visit the steam trains. not to be confused with the train at the zoo that we've been to many times, the steam trains are actually miniature trains that run on steam power. also unlike the zoo, the steam trains are only open on the weekends and it's a little further from the house, so we have only been there once before. but this seemed like the perfect day to go since it was hot, and our non-air conditioned house can get as warm as the exterior weather outside, making it like a dry heat sauna. since the berkeley hills can be a little cooler, we ran for the hills.
hana insisted her "gyasses" would be the perfect compliment for her sundress.

the first time around on the steam train, we all sat together. hana was excited but seemingly pensive as she took it all in. she's been to the steam trains once before but she was only 17 months old then... just a baby (ha!). it seems like a lifetime ago.

sitting in daddy's lap... on our subsequent rides, she sat on the bench by herself, like a big girl.

the trains are run and maintained by train enthusiatists who volunteer to maintain them and run them on the weekends. it's a nominal fee to ride and it's usually not so crowded that you can't just ride time after time, as it was on the saturday that we were there.

the train winds its way through the verdant scenary of tilden park. the trains have been there for a long time (over 50 years?) so the trains themselves are absent any noticeable safety features like seat belts and sides to keep you from falling out. when i sit in the train, my knees are level with the sides of the train! they just don't make'em like they used to...

here's the engineer tooting the horn...

part of the trip takes our train over this trestle, which you can see is not very high. the trestle covers a path you can take to even smaller working live minature trains. they were under construction so you can't ride them now but apparantly, you can go on those too... anyway, hana loved the train so much i'm convinced that she dreamt about it the next couple of nights. you see, hana's not really a morning person, so she generally sleeps until 7:00 or 7:30 a.m., and even when she awakens, she's pretty mellow. she usually just waits in her crib, talking to herself, until we come in to get her ready. but for the next couple of mornings she was up before 6:00 a.m., and through the monitor, you could hear whining "mommys [she still on the plurals kick]choo choo... mommys i want go cars... go cars uh uh choo choo!" i think we are entering a train period.

all blissed out from the train, hana was not looking forward to getting back in the hot car. but we wanted to drive down the road a couple of minutes and visit the merry go round. she's been on the one at the zoo, but this one is supposed to a historical landmark (i think it was built in 1929). she was unhappy for the next few minutes until she got her first glimpse of the building where the merry-go-round was housed. and then she exclaimed "wooooooh wook it"...more oohs and aahs ensued. then a bell rang and hana went "uh oh mommys". when i assured her it was just the merry-go-round getting started, she made this face you see above and went "ooooooh mer mer". a love affair was born.

all three of us went on the first trip. with daddy on board, i got to ride on my own horse. this mer mer's no joke! it picks up a good amount of speed for a merry go round and i actually had a little wind in my hair...

hana getting strapped in for ride 2 of 7... jon did not accompany us on the final 6 rides, choosing solid ground to spinning platform.

"woooooooh wook it" ... "horsie mer mer"

this one's blurry but i like it because you can really see the joy in her face. she loved waving to daddy on every lap.

it's been 8 days since we went to the steam train and the merry-go-round, but hana still talks about wanting to go to the "choo choo" and the "mer mer" several times a day, even standing at the front door wondering why we are getting ready to "go bye bye cars mer mer" (get in the car and take me to the merry-go-round).

good times...

in other news, hana's gotten some new fall clothes since most of her 2T clothes look ridiculous on her. here, she's showing off her new "boofwys shirt" a.k.a. butterflies shirt. she thinks daddy's shoes go well with this ensemble... but she can't seem to decide which pair she wants.

and here's you see the lego indoctrination... you may all be aware that jon is a lego maniac... so it's no surprise that hana is totally into "bwoks". since jon has put his real legos away in the garage because they're still too small, he's had to settle for these.

meet the sillys

2008-09-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

this is the last of the catch-up photos... i hope this blog blitz will satisfy those who chastised us for going 2 months without an update, and in some cases lowering our blogs status to second from the bottom (di-ane!).

this is from labor day... hana, jack and charlie thought it was fun to carry this basket all over the house. this was fun for about 15 minutes, until they starting fighting over who was going to stand on top of the basket. then the basket went "night night"... and soon after, so did the kids...

most of these other pictures are from the hot, august "family date night" when we watched the justin timberlake concert on TV (woohoo!) and had a picnic dinner on the living room floor. dinner was followed by general sillyness.

here, hana has discovered the mommy horsie for the first time and finds it superior to her rocking horse.

hana took this series of pictures of "daddys" - she's pluralizing everything these days ("mommys", "daddys", "i want some oatmeals"...)

i must preface this video by saying that hana has her favorite books at story time and she wants to read them every night! while some more enlightened people believe that repeating an act in ritual form can be meditative, i think that reading the same story night after night can drive a person batty (as you will see). so instead of reading "today i feel silly & other moods that make up my day" by jamie lee curtis, which is actually an awesome book the first 50 times you read it, i chose to sing it like a country song. now i'm not a good singer, but i think the lyrics match well with a country melody. so when carrie underwood, or reba mcintire record this, remember, you heard it here first...

just too darn cute...

2008-09-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

jon had the camera in the video setting so instead of getting this shot as a still, it's a video. her eyes are just amazing here! they're like giant chocolate pools of cuteness. i had one of these images as a still, i would blow it up, maybe in black and white, and hang it on the wall and probably miss a lot of work staring at it... i just think this is ridiculously cute!

little hana's growing up!

2008-09-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

hana is like a sponge and seems to pick up new skills everyday. this video is from august, when quite suddenly it seems she started counting to 10. but of course, will only do it when there is no way there can be any photographic or video evidence of it... observe my feeble attempts to get her to count for the camera while she is more interested in getting ready to count (as opposed to actually counting), or helping me take the picture:

now, to be clear, it's not always reliably correct. for example, she pretty routinely forgets 2 and in this video, she repeats "...7, 8, 9..." several times, ending in 14.

but perhaps the biggest news of august was that she went pee pee and poo poo in the potty!!! she mostly does this at daycare where other kids are potty training. in fact she went poo poo in the potty before going pee pee at daycare, which they dutifully took a picture of (both process and product - i will spare you that)...

at home she has only gone pee pee in the potty twice out of about 20 seatings. she likes to sit on the potty sometimes. we usually try right before she gets in the bath because she has started the annoying habit of peeing in the tub. so i'm trying to put her on the potty when i know she goes so she gets used to it. most of the time however, she sits on the potty and reads her book or blows bubbles... but then urgently wants off the potty to get in the bath... to pee in it. sigh. we're trying to keep it low key around potty training. i know the old school way would be to train her right now, but i'm a fan of the new school because i think, when she's ready, it will go quickly. for now, she's more interested in flushing the toilet (which leads to a lecture from daddy about wasting water) but peeing in the tub. we'll be sure to get her straight before she gets invited someplace royal.

when hana and jon are left unattended

2008-09-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

as a father, jon is generally very reliable and attentive. you now how sometimes, when you're out and about and you see some kids acting a little crazy or doing something totally unsafe, but you're not in the ghetto so it's not that they're unattended... yet they are not old enough to be without adult supervision so you know someone must be watching them... and then sure, enough you see the dad letting the kids play "tight rope walker" with the yellow safety line on the BART platform, as you shake your head incredulously wondering what the mother might do if she saw this... sound familiar? yeah, well, that's not jon. he's way WAY more reasonable. nevertheless, when jon and hana are left alone, hijinx ensues...

recently, i have had a standing 7:30 a.m. appointment which leaves jon alone to handle the morning routine with hana. here's jon's first attempt at styling hana's hair unattended. not bad. i think the final clip count for this style was 17...

jon is also on solo hana patrol on tuesday nights...

it starts out innocently enough with a little coloring...

and then a little playtime with the cat. bailey is one of hana's most loyal buddies. whereever she is, he's not far behind, despite the fact that hana is a toddler and does typical toddler things to animals: like try to wag his tail for him, or use his tail as a handle or a jumprope, or try to take kitty-back rides, or get him to play catch with a ball....

here she is sharing her chalk from a little chalk board she has. i can't get her to share that well with other kids, but she will share just about anything with bailey: toys, ball, her dinner, her snacks... she thinks bailey should do whatever she wants to do. she wants bailey to wear shoes. she wants bailey to jump up and down in her crib with her. in fact, she asks "i want jump kitty cat jump kitty cat...", like, everyday.

and then there is the time that jon introduced hana to this clown horn he's had for years... mind you, this was happening on a warm evening with all of the windows open. this prompted the neighbors to say "what is that?!... is that a muscial instrument?! ... is someone trying to play something?!... is that geese?!" jon overheard this and realized that the horn was probably a little loud for open windows but there was no taking it from hana until she was good and ready, which was pretty much when he pried it from her fingers after she'd fallen asleep.

ok, maybe that last bit was a tad hyperbolic... but suffice it to say, jon realized only in hindsight that giving a horn to a toddler was perhaps ill-advised.

"hana's delight" - the lil'ist dj

2008-09-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

i got a birthday card from my dad and marianne that played "rapper's delight" when you opened it. i thought it was cool. but hana though it was REALLY cool and the next two nights became "hana's old school dance party", hosted by hana, who played about a minute of the same track... over and over again. sadly, but perhaps mercifully, the card wore out after 2 nights of opening and closing...

other random shots from costanoa...

2008-09-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

there were so many pretty shots we got from our travels this summer that i thought i would play a little catch up and fortify our previous postings with more pictures...

if you recall, jon and i hiked down to the beach, austensibly so that hana could play at the beach. however, on the walk down, and for all of the time that we hung out by the water, hana was asleep. we found this look out and jon and i hung out here for a good 45 minutes or so before hiking back. it was really amazing and i wish that i'd brought a picnic, because only hunger inspired us to walk back...

this was the view from our room at costanoa... i woke up early in the morning and got to run those trails before hana and jon woke up. the part the i was on took me up to the first ridge you see (as opposed to the 2nd one that's more hazy). it was fun running and the views are amazing. they offer sweeping vistas of the coast.

hana sleeping... and missing out on the beach. but this is one of those pictures that reminds of how sweet life is for a toddler (outside of the fact that no one understands what you're saying half the time...), get to ride around in a back pack, napping, with the sounds of the crashing surf as your lullaby... that's goooood livin'.

there was a playground at costanoa (although it's a little old and clearly not the highlight). after breakfast (and before our walk to the beach) hana played at the playground and picked this flower/weed, or as hana calls it "fwowah".

here's hana picking the aforementioned fwowah.

hana and i liked the swings... although i think swings of a more recent vintage are more comfortable...

Hana and the lemon

2008-08-19T02:25:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of our time in Bodega Bay, we stopped to have breakfast at a local restaurant and Hana decided that she wanted to partake in one of the lemons the server had brought. There's really no need to comment here, Hana's face says it all...

bodega bay

2008-07-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

for the fourth of july weekend, we joined my mom and fred at their vacation rental in bodega bay.

we were gone for about 4 days and each of those days were dripping with luxurious nana and grandad time and lazy days at the beach.

hana and granddad appear to be building stonehenge ("spinal tap" style)... as you can see, there was much digging done by all that day.

baby and the beach - 19 months

2008-07-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

well it has been a busy month for the walker pettigrew family. since father's day, we spent a weekend in lake tahoe, a weekend in cambria and costanoa and a weekend in bodega bay. needless to say, very little dust has settled on us lately.

our tahoe weekend was fun but we didn't take very many pictures. some friends gave us a back pack carrier think so we got to use if the first time. that was a good time and hana really liked it.

the next weekend, was our trip to cambria and costanoa. cambria is a town on the central california coast near hearst castle. we stayed on moonstone beach drive, which i highly recommend. most of the rooms are surprisingly affordable for beach front property and cambria is a pretty cute town.

we visited hearst castle where we once again go to break in the back pack for hana (they have 170 steps and don't allow strollers) and that was a fun outing. thankfully, hana did tolerate the back pack pretty well because without it, we would have fighting to keep her out of the neptune pool.

she kept saying "wa wa" (for water) and "bath" and asking to get down. thankfully we moved on before things got out of hand. hana seemed really interested in all the over the top decor there and the gardens, which were dripping with flowers.

her curiosity nearly got the best of her in the "assembly room", which was basically a living room. there lots of couches, down filled to boot. it was hot. i wanted to sit down myself. hana starts repeating " walk... walk... walk", and when she realized this was a losing campaign, she started to throw a tantrum but then just fell asleep. it's a good thing too because, she probably would not have tolerated not being to bathe in the "indoor pool" too well.

after our time at hearst castle, we began to have car trouble. there were some tense moments, and poor jon spent the better part of the afternoon dealing with our car. and it wasn't until i had a major freak out with AAA that our issues go resolved (i still owe them a strongly worded letter). the rest of the weekend went off without a hitch.

from cambria we drove to costanoa. for the record, we would have stayed the whole weekend at costanoa but it was booked solid the other two nights. costanoa is located about halfway between santa cruz and half moon bay on highway one. we LOVED this place. we stayed in the lodge which was very, very nice, but actually i think the camping opportunities (family cabins, tent cabins, and plain ol' tent camping) is where it's at. they have a pretty good restaraunt (organic food, interesting recipes, if not a little overpriced... but not your average campground fare by a long shot) on the grounds and a cool general store if you forget something. i really wanted to camp there since i used to be an avid camper. i chickened out when i was making the reservations. this weekend trip was a family vacation for us on the weekend our son would have been due. we needed it to be relaxing and fun and chill and all of those things that don't include worrying about your toddler running into a campfire ("hot" - as she says...) and scurrying off into the woods. that was definitely accomplished.

i think the highlight of this weekend was the hike we did on the last day. jon and i put hana in the pack and hiked down to the beach (about a 3 mile round trip). it was GORGEOUS! blue (smoke free) skies, amazing landscapes, crashing waves, a snake carrying a lizard crossing the trail and jon hopping around like a girl... good times.

on the way down to the beach hana fell asleep in the pack and slept through the best part. but she enjoyed hiking that way so we plan to do more of it...

it should also be noted that hana came to truly appreciate the soaking tub this weekend. you know those luxurious bath tubs that are deeper than the traditional tub and big enough for two. well, she got to bathe in those all weekend and every time we walked into our room she would head straight for the tub saying "bath! bath!" and climb right on in if you let her. i love a good tub too so she comes by this honestly. but she might be a toddler out of control. when we arrived in our room at costanoa, mommy and daddy were starving, but hana wanted a bath immediately. normally i could redirect her but this time she climbed in and staged a bit of a sit in. when i pulled her out, she turned the water on. so i caved and gave the girl her bath. i was tempted too, but i wanted to eat more so it was a quick bath for her alone. also i had a massage schedule for after dinner so my pampering would come in due time...

since we've returned, she seems to have adjusted to our regular tub, and doesn't seem too ruined by the lap of luxury. but there's always that potential... now we know.

lil' cap'n turkey bone

2008-06-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

today be the firs' day o' de pappy's day weekend bonanza. we marked this hallowed occasion by sailin' our camry to vallejo for the pirate festival. aye, a fine tyme was had by all mateys, including our lil'es' pirate, "lil cap'n turkey bone". her name be fittin' as you will see... she ate 1/2 her mudders drumstick! ...all while still managing ter say "cheese" fer da camera...

me fingers still smell of smoked turkey, arrgh!

aye, that be "cap'n rum-n'-coke" in his fine pirate 'air do...

... an' here be de "party o' five"...

lil' cap'n turkey bone sittin' "princess style"

"ah ah aaah" - almost 18 months

2008-06-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

hana has a book with an elmo hand puppet in it and she likes to look at it and point out the sesame street characters: "eh'mooo" (elmo), "cookieee" (cookie monster), "gro'er" (grover) and "ah aaah" (the count - like his laugh). that last one is my favorite. so, so, so funny.

at night-night time, she is continues to add additional steps to the routine. soon, it will take us hours to get her to bed! it's hard to cut her off though cuz she's so darn cute! currently, we have a bath, and then read a bunch of books and then she wants to blow on the fishie mobile (but she doesn't want to take the pacifier out to do it), and then night-night cuddles from mommy and daddy, and then she needs no less than 17 million stuffed animals kissed and cuddled in the crib with her and then we can usually back out. but usually within the hour of putting her down, i miss her and just want to cuddle a little more, but i contain myself.

unlike the early days when hana ate like a linebacker, she eats more like a traditional toddler. i think she eats well at daycare, but at home, most meals are hit and miss. she's asks for "cereoooh" all the time and is frequently dissapointed because she can only have cereal if she's eaten a decent dinner (or for breakfast if we're serving it to her). so on this night, hana gotta to have some cereal. she was most pleased.

and then this is what happened when she was done with the cereal...

jon and i took this video one night after dinner. she was a regular chatter box that night (wonder where she got that) so we tried to capture that for the blogosphere (especially the grandparents). but wouldn't you know it, she got camera shy so she wasn't as expressive as usual. as you can see, most of the time, when she communicates with us, she uses both her word/pronunciation (for example "epicank" for "elephant") and the sign. and thank god for that because half the time, we wouldn't know what the heck she's talking about. especially because sometimes she says the same word for a bunch of different things, but uses the correct sign. for example, she says "cookie" to refer to cookie monster (which i guess really doesn't have a sign but she's usually pointing at him), an actual cookie, and what she most commonly uses it for is cracker. but wait until she says "'love you"... it melts our hearts every time.

"hewoh" and other cute stuff

2008-05-19T21:03:00.001-07:00

have i mentioned that the cutest thing ever that hana is doing these days is putting her hand by her ear as if she talking on the phone and saying "hewoh"? aaah! i could watch her do that all day. it makes me laugh every single time. i'm chuckling just thinking about it.

one of the ladies in my mom's group arranged for a bunch of us to get the special hook up at the oakland greek festival. we really had a good time, despite the heat. and it was HOT. like the surface of the sun kinda hot. but maybe not at hot as arizona. but it was hot. did i mention the heat? seriously though, we were treated like honorary greeks practically. they had THE most AMAZING food. i swear i ate the best lamb chop i've ever had in my LIFE that day. i still think about that lamb chop and it's many days later. mmmmm. sweet little tasty lamb chop. how i miss you so.... uh. sorry. i digress. apparently this greek festival is no joke after dark. it's like a big night club with wall to wall people and dancing and everything. jon and i have been intending to come to the festival since we moved up here (almost 14 years ago!!!) so it was nice to finally do it. someday, it will be cool to experience the greek festival after dark.

it's up on the hill and there are beautiful vistas from the church, so outside of the festive atmosphere, and the amazing food, it's probably pretty to see too.

(all partied out)

and speaking of the heat, this most recent heat wave sent us in search of a baby pool. after visiting 5 stores in search of the cheap plastic shell baby pool thingy we still couldn't find one. apparently, it was not an original idea. in several places, they couldn't just say, "sorry, we're sold out". oh noo. they had to mock us. "shya... those have been gone for daaays!" so i settled on a pool that requires what feels like 50 gallons of water to fill it up. it also requires that we be on absolutely flat ground. which we are not. so before hilarity and refreshment could ensue, i had to figure out had to make this darn thing work. i could fill it so that it's only very shallow but then the sides don't stand up. and if i fill it too much, because it's not on flat ground, water is spilling out of one side, while i can barely keep the wall up on the other side. sigh. but once i sorted that out the pool did the trick.

jenny brought the twins over (party of 5!) and the kids splashed around in the pool, and they got to cool off signifigantly. which was fun until they discovered that they could bend the sides down and make huge tsunamis of water spill over the side.

i was hoping, prehaps delusionally so, that they wouldn't figure out how to undo what i'd worked so hard to correct, but i guess you just got to roll with these things. and since, the day after i bought this stupid pool we were informed that we are now under water rationing (we have to cut back our water use by 20%!) and any watering causing "run off" is strictly forbidden, i'm a little paranoid that the water police are gonna come by and give us a citation. because of our little baby tsunamis. so for now, the pool is closed.

fortunately, the weather has cooled off and the pool use doesn't seem quite so urgent. i'm hoping they sort this water thing out before the mercury surpasses 90 degrees again because we don't have air conditioning, which makes our house more akin to an easy bake oven on hot days. but i realize that too is somewhat delusional and we'll just have to pack up and head off to our friendly neighborhood lagoon on the next scorcher.

"mah baybeeeee" -- 17 months and counting

2008-05-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

feeding a goat on a recent trip to little farm

hana has developed into a regular 28.5lb chatter box. jon and i continue to be amazed at how her language has emerged lately. almost every day, we hear her saying something new or being more responsive. it's been a lot of fun, except when she tells us to "move" because we are inconviently between her and her object of desire (which comes not from us, but her daycare provider who must quickly shuttle around a lot of kids).

over the past couple of months she has grown an attachment to certain toys and foods and asks for them by name and sign. several times a day, she asks for some "cereo" (aka cereal). that is her favorite snack/meal. reminds me of my high school days when i could eat cereal 24/7. she also has this baby doll that has grown very fond of. it's cute to see her cuddle "mah baybeeee" at night-night time. she continues to love "buhbohs" (bubbles) and asks for them every bath time. and her favorite color is "yeyow" (yellow) and every morning when i'm styling her hair she asks for yeyow clips regardless of what color she wearing. although today, when i presented another option to her because it matched her outfit better, she correctly identified it as "orncha" - although she sometimes calls it "ornt" - which shocked the heck out of me. this, of course, is orange -- she doesn't get the soft "g" sound quite yet. she also really pays special attention to the last syllable and so she really emphasizes it. at daycare, they have a color of the month. although she has always liked yellow, even before she could say it, the month of april being spent on the color yellow really solidified her love for it. this months' color is, you guessed it, ornt.

she has also begun to take interest in dressing. for months now, she's been interested in putting on mommy and daddy's shoes and walking around in them. now she sometimes, she tries to put on her own socks and shoes. she's a long, long LONG way from having the motor skills to do it but it's cute to watch... that is until she becomes frustrated and starts whining. then it's not so cute.

almost a perfect fit!

but prehaps the most exciting news, which i will freely admit is only exciting to us and other parents of small children, is that she has started to be able to notice and accurately identify when she has gone "poo poo". apparently there's another 2 year old at daycare that is starting potty training so it's starting to have an impact on her. sometimes when i ask her if she's gone poo poo, she'll say yes. sometimes when i ask her she'll say no but look at me fiendishly and run away... so i take that as a yes too. we're a long way from potty training (she can't even pull her own pants down...) but it was an encouraging sign. of course, "poo poo" is not to be confused with "boo boo" which is the way she pronounces "beebo" which is short for belly button... you follow?

saying cheese and wearing her ornt clips

mother's day

2008-05-13T20:47:00.000-07:00

mother's day this year was a little bittersweet for me. it certainly wasn't the mother's day i was expecting to have this year with the loss of our son. so i was a little sad but i tried to focus on hana, who i often refer to as my little "pun'kin sugar muffin".

i'm so grateful for hana and she makes me smile every day. she's healthy and happy. she made the most precious card for me which was by my bedside when i awakened in the morning. then we went to brunch at the taylor's house where all the kids got to hang out together... somehow, all of the mom's ended up in the kitchen cooking but the dad's were on kid patrol so i suppose it all balanced out.

we went our separate ways for nap time only to reconvene for a survivor pajama party at nadia and paul's house. on that day, we mommies (nad, jen - party of 5! -, glenda and i) were able to reclaim a little relaxation time. paul and jon formed a sort of daddy daycare while the mommies sat on the deck sipping a fabulous wine and watching the sunlight fade out out sweeping vistas of mount diablo. when we put the kids to bed, hana and the twins were in their respective pack n' plays in the same room. after some initial screaming in protest for being put to bed in an unfamiliar location, they realized they were all in this together and after that, all we could hear was uproarious laughter coming from their room for the next 90 minutes at least. we all agreed that we would have to whisper an apologetic "she might be a little tired..." to our respective daycare providers the next day before sprinting out of there - and then hope the day was OK after all when we went to pick them up. those kids didn't fall asleep until after 9:30 p.m.! it was pretty funny.

overall it was a nice day - except the part where parvarti won survivor... i mean, really?! parvarti... ugh... i can't even talk about it... but the rest of mother's day was really nice.

elephant day at the zoo...

2008-05-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

oakland zoo had this big elephant extravaganza... being regular patrons, we had to check it out. one of the special features of ele-palooza was a special behind the scenes tour of the elephant barn. we would have had the opportunity to get up close and personal with a 9,000 elephant. we thought this would be especially fun since elephants were the first animals she identified (besides cat, which was her first word). alas, the tours were sold out until 1:00 p.m. which would have been dangerously close to nap time. on top of that, there were no strollers allowed in the barn so not only would hana have been tired and cranky, but we would have had to carry her. personally, i would rather be trapped in a barrel with angry rattle snakes then with stand the smell of an elephant barn (and it's 9,000 elephant by product) on a hot day with a cranky toddler. besides, hana wasn't feeling her best so we thought it best not to push it. we passed on the special elephant features and just had a regular day at the zoo...

well, except we did see "circus finelli" which was a little clown show, uh, i mean animal free circus (but they will never be mistaken for cirque du soleil). it was cute and hana got her face painted. i was dubious of how she would tolerate that and i assumed it would be all over me. but actually, she did well with it and it ended up all over her crib sheet from her nap when we got home.

i mentioned that hana wasn't feeling that well that day, well, as it turned out, she was working on some little sickenss that ended up scaring the bejeezus out of jon and me. at dinner that night, we noticed her shivering but she didn't seem cold. she did feel a little febrile so i took her temprature (like 17 times) and it was 105!!!!! EEEEK! after a bath (which usually helps regulate her temperature), dressing her light for bed (to help cool her off) and me taking her temprature about 17 more times to confirm i wasn't crazy ( i wasn't) we called the doc. dr. bean sounded like he was at his usual saturday hang out - yoshi's - but he was no less patient and helpful. he even offered to see us sunday morning at his office if her fever hadn't broken by morning. we followed his advice (give tylenol and ibuprofen) and she was fine in the morning. the funny thing about it is that she didn't act abnormal at all. she was tired, but it was bed time, but she wasn't even whiny. she wanted to talk to dr. bean on the phone (she kept saying "hewoh"... so darn cute) and she stayed up about 30 minutes or so watching sesame street before drifting off to sleep.

i took her in for a follow up just so the doc could lay eyes on her. she was fine. everything was cool. she stood on the big girl scale for the first time and she weighed in at 28.5 lbs. that's mama's little beanstalk!

2008-04-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

for those of you statis-ta-philes out there i was able to get the length and height measurments from hana's 15 months check up. she was 26lbs 10.5 oz (although, it was apparently hard to get her to lay still for the measuring) and 33.5 " long. clothing wise, she's wearing mostly 2T clothes but now she's wearing some 3T stuff too. it just depends on the measurements the garments use. all of her 24-months clothes look kinda funny on her.

mood-wise, she's always a surprise. somedays she's grumpy and whines about everything. other days she's happy and silly and just super fun to be around. there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason for the shifts except when she's teething.

i have noticed that she has been saying some short sentences lately. the other night at dinner she said "me play baby" repeatedly. i don't really know if she was saying that she wanted to play with her baby or if she was telling me that she played with her baby that day (which is what she was doing when i picked her up from daycare). she has also been saying "go to sleep" in reponse to us declaring "night night time".

she is really beginning to enjoy bubbles as well and now says that word pretty regularly although it sounds more like: "buh-bohs!" and speaking of tiny bubbles. she also pointed to the liquor bottles in the bar and said "juice". i don't know if she's just generalizing all beverages in bottles as juice or if she's referencing that i some times refer to my alcoholic beverages as 'mommy juice".

one night at dinner, she was painfully cute and in the mood to sing. so naturally, i whipped out hte camera. one of these is her favorite songs right now "shoo fly", which she requests by name ("shoo shoo shoo!") or by doing the hand motions (tapping on her chest for "...I belong to somebody").

she is also a very big fan of "ring around the rosey"... especially the end part.

and here is "ring around the rosey" the remix...

i have been working on getting her to take the pacifier (aka "kramer") out of her mouth when she's talking. sometimes when i take it out for her and ask her to repeat what she's saying without the kramer she just signs "please" over and over again as if begging to have it back. she often smiles when signing please which makes me feel a little more guilty. and she never repeats what she was saying before i took it out which must make her think i'm some sort of sadistic manners nazi, taking away her kramer just to teach her to say please. sigh. i'll keep working at it and hopefully she'll pick it up...