Better

We are finally feeling better and are doing lots of fun things I should be blogging about. We went and saw a "farm" rental for Andrew's parents and I want to live there. It is in the Los Gatos mountains so it is a bit far for Andrew to commute, but I dream of living like that. So here is a filler picture for the grandparents:

Mending

I guess I am earning my mothering stripes.  The flu has officially cycled through all of us now.  Andrew was throwing up once again last night and then Blake was sick every 30 minutes between the hours of 10pm-2am.  Nothing beats sleeping on the floor!  I am looking forward to a weekend of well.  I wish everyone good health.

Lame

The day started out so well. I found a park in Foster City that is literally on the shore. How fun is that? We played until the kids could take no more:


Andrew biked home from work after throwing up multiple times at Google (sorry fellow co-workers). Reade was sick over the weekend, but we thought all the barfing might have been him getting another tooth. Yeah, vomiting is usually not a teething symptom, but us parents always have to tag something on to it. Looks like it is a stomach bug that is trying its hardest to take me down too. I keep telling myself they are just sympathy pains.

I wanted to make spinach and mushroom quiche for dinner tonight. That will have to wait:


This is an okay dinner for Reade right? These were given to him while I dry heaved in the toilet. Tonight should be a hoot:

"Redfin"ding

Mondays are always so new and fresh so why not pretend we have a new and fresh estate to live in. This house looks super fun and would be an awesome place to raise boys:

15881 Ravine Road
Saratoga, CA 95030
1,959 sq. ft. on .95 Acres
3bd/2bth, built in 1915
Renovated in 1997 by Gary Schloh

$1,198,00

What a great front door:


The back:

The kitchen

The yard:

A small jar will be on my desk and everytime you walk by please put a penny in it. In 400 years I may be able to afford the place.

Still Here

From my parent's list:

posting for a friend who just had an infant:

"I have a small house and just had first child. My husband and I haven't been able to sleep in almost two months and don't know what to do. Tired and sleep deprived- are there any night nannies who can watch my infant son from their own home? "If you know if any or have any info please email me and I will pass along her email.


REALLY? I am trying not to be judgmental, but an 8 week old baby kind of does its "thing" to keep mommy and daddy close by. Someone needs to teach them the old "parents take turns sleeping in 2 hour blocks" routine. Sucks, but that is having an infant!

My infant turned son...

Blake always puts his treasure of the moment in his backpack so he can carry it around with him. At the park, I asked him what was in his backpack and he revealed all of his superhero underwear. Who knew the $8 package of underwear would bring him such enjoyment:

Junket

Fun Friday is here. I have been interested in Daly City parks for some time now so I thought we would go exploring. My main goal was to breathe in some ocean air and bathe in the blanket of fog that always covers the city. Blake asked why there weren't any other kids at the park and I laughed because it was only 9:30am. I guess I was ready to get out of the house today.

Great streets with lots of character:


Nothing like inappropriate "cartoons" at the park:


My child semi-enjoying Indian food:

Reade (Twelve Months)

At 12 Months I:
* climb!
* point to things with my chubby hand and say "that" (sounds like "dthagh")
* say da da for anything related to my dad and ma ma for anything mommy related
* love shoes
* still make an extremely high pitched squeal when I am mad or frustrated
* hit and push things with my head (just like Blake did) when I am angry
* love to cuddle
* crack up and grin that big, daddy grin where you see gaps around my teeth
* convince people I may just be a red-head
* tried to sleep in the same room as my brother, but cried a bunch so am in a room by myself
* sometimes wake up at 3am and cry for one minute, but go back to sleep
* am learning to drink cow's milk during the day because my mom is weaning me
* always have a bruise on my head
* get hurt in ways my mom never thought possible
* worry my mom because I am crawling and scaling things quicker and faster than Blake did
* amaze people at how much food I could eat in one sitting (I have slowed down a bit now)
* am considered my mom's favorite entertainment, boy can I make her laugh
* play rough!
* have the sweetest little mullet that my mom can't get enough of

Check out my Eleven Month photo.

Embarrassingly Late

I am very late to this party. Where have I been? I had never heard of the song Blackbird by the Beatles (here is where everyone *gasps*) before watching it on the show Glee. I am now up to speed with all you all. As punishment, I had to weed through tons of horrible covers on YouTube to find some decent videos.

Let's start with the original. No matter how much people "swear" their cover is the best, it is the Beatles who always come out on top:


Time for a bootlegged version of the Glee episode where Kurt and Blaine's relationship blossoms. This episode locked me in with Glee and now I can't stop adoring Kurt. Here, Kurt is upset because his canary, Pavarotti, died so he is singing through the pain (oh, if only I could carry that guy around in my pocket):


Carolyn: Why are the Beatles everywhere? Ever since you introduced me to them, I can't seem to shake 'em!

Ripples

Andrew's parents sold tons of stuff at their moving sale. Their treasures are now rippling around the community and spreading their love. Although the belongings are diminishing, the feel of the house is still full of laughter, love, and family. The good news is those things get to move with them everywhere they go. Blake also got to experience farm life. The barn cat caught a huge mouse and decided to eat it between the electronics table and the art/atlas table. I have never heard a cat chew through a skull before. You learn something every day:

Mess

It is just one of those days. A day when things go from somewhat organized to disorganized in the blink of an eye. Here is my son cleaning up one of the great messes he started without realizing that it would send his mother into a screaming fit of lunacy and result in some monotonous clean up.

Toddler tip of the day: If you are going to throw Craisins all around a room, remember that little brothers sit and step on them. The radius of clean up is going to be much larger when brothers are invovled.

Create

My sewing nook has become a junk pile. Not glamorous, not productive. The internet provided me with the inspiration to create a sewing corner in our bedroom.

My starting point:


I will try to create a space as tidy as this (ha!):

Photo

Once my space has been created, I can get to sewing projects like these found on the Noodlehead blog:


From this post.



From this post.

5K

I signed up to run a 5K on Father's Day. I have been feeling like I need to add some "oomph" to my spin routine so I thought running might do the trick. I do two mornings a week at the gym and I am hoping to squeeze in one day of running. My goal is to run the whole thing, but I will not be upset with myself if I can't. If you are going to be in the Roseville area on Father's Day then sign up and run with me!

Hmmm?

Complex inducing?

If you need to buy this for a little girl you know (please don't) then look here.

Mums

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mamas out there. Keep up the good work.

I slept in (my only request) and woke up to these (homemade by my good husband):


Our first watermelon of the season:


I don't think I have tasted a great watermelon in what seems like years now. Does anyone know why they aren't sweet anymore? I try them a few times during the season, but they never have that sweet, extra red flesh I remember.

If there weren't more noble things to spend $25 on, I would definitely buy this:

Watermelon Knife from Sur La Table

Pescadero

We drove to Pescadero so we could do some tiny, beach town shopping and enjoy the sand and surf. Ahhhh, relaxing.

Gates to places like "The Barn" to shop in:


Places to eat with VW vans:


The fog was so calming and refreshing for me (to counteract all this horrible sun we have been having!):


Is there a trick to keeping a toddler in swim trunks?:


If only I could bottle up that beach air. So moist and refreshing. I guess I could move there and breathe it all day (hint, hint husband).

Flying

Jessica is flying into Hong Kong as I write this post. She will be boarding another plane and heading to the island, state, and country of Singapore to work at Lucas Films for two years. She can't tell us what movie she will be working on, but it has to be fun right? To the middle of Malaysia and Indonesia she goes:


While there I am sure she will partake in fun things like soaking up the city lights:

Time.com

Maybe she will "cruise down the 650 metres Jungle trail or the 688 metres Dragon trail" at the Skyline Luge Sentosa:

Photo

Of course, she will spend lots of time on beautiful beaches:

Siloso Beach

Or maybe she will explore cities like Geylang. It has "an atmospheric quarter on Singapore's east coast that bristles with great period architecture, leggy street walkers and some of the best local food on the island.":

Time.com

Some Singapore facts just in case Jessica quizzes us:
1. Population: about 5 million people (36% foreigners)
2. Demographics: Chinese (74.2%): Malay (13.4%): Indians (9.2%): Others (3.2%)
3. Languages: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil
4. President: SR Nathan (Sellapan Ramanathan, Tamil). He is the longest serving President in Singapore. Wikipedia states that one survey showed that "nearly 80 percent of Singaporeans hoped for a contest" against him, but he ran unopposed so we will have to wait and hear Jessica's report about everyone's true feelings.
5. Major industries: Shipping, banking, tourism, electrical & electronics, chemicals, and oil refining
6. Local currency: Singapore dollar (1 Singapore dollar: $0.80 American dollar)
7. And 40 Fun Facts about Singapore can be found here!

We miss you Jessica, but can't wait to hear all about your new adventure.
Facts taken from here and here.

Back Home

We are back and semi-unpacked. What a great triathlon weekend it was. I have been trying to create a video of Andrew competing, but things are a bit wild around here. Jessica is staying with us because she is hopping on a plane early Friday morning and heading towards Singapore for a two year movie project. I am trying to unpack us and not totally trash the house. Oh, and cleaning a RV is no easy feat. It was all fun and games until I found myself picking dried banana out of the carpet and scrubbing the place down without using water!

So here are some catch up pictures. I couldn't blog toward the end of the trip because the cell phone reception was so poor and I spent all my time trying to download photos of Kate and William's Royal wedding.

Campers:


Andrew bought Blake his first fishing pole. I loved the rubber fish at the end of his Spiderman pole. He wipped the thing around and got smacked by the fish once. Andrew had to console him while I was giggling in the corner. Poor guy, his mom couldn't even keep a straight face. Blake would beg Andrew to take him fishing throughout the whole day. They would walk down to the lake and then Blake would say he wanted to go back to camp. Then he would stay and fish. He didn't think there would be that big of a learning curve to the sport:


Andrew caught a fish by hooking it in its eyelid. Disgusting:


Now for some competition.

Here is Blake getting his number for the first annual Wildflower Kid's Fun Run:


I have to preface this video. The was the first annual fun run so it was horribly organized. They had the kids lined up for about fifteen minutes (way too long), they switched courses, and they had them all start at the same time. Can you guess what direction this story is heading towards? Let's just say skinned knees and lots of tears. The race will begin and then Blake will appear towards the rear of the pack (thank God) towards the top of the video. I loved how he nonchalantly ran past all the trampled kids. I also disliked how they wouldn't even let them cross the actual finish line. All the parents and volunteers clogged the way. Blake met a girl named Bella and you will see her being consoled by her parents when Blake walks by them after he received his ribbon. She was sobbing as her father picked gravel out of her palms. I hope next year the organization works out those kinks: