Bonding

Just a cute photo of Hansel bonding with Mathis.

Mathis Feeding Himself

Mathis likes to feed himself. It occupies his time, and it allows me to eat. Below is a photo of him eating avocado and tofu.

Sibling Sleepovers

In Los Altos Maile and Beck shared the same room. But during the summer, they often slept in seperate rooms on the bottom floor, which was a lot cooler. In Palo Alto, the kids have their own rooms. Lately, we've let them have "sleepovers" in Maile's room on the weekends.

Below is a shot Hansel took. The lights were actually off, and only a night light was on.

Last Gilroy Garden Trip of the Year

Since we had season passes to Gilroy Gardens but had only gone twice, we decided to go one more time before the passes expired at the end of November. Mathis fell asleep on the ride over, so I stayed in the car with him while Hansel and the kids went in first. When Mathis and I caught up with them, Maile and Beck were walking on top of (vs in) the mini hay maze.

Hansel had a lot of fun with the SLR camera that day.

While I took Beck on a fish ride, Hansel took Maile on a little roller coaster. The ride is tucked behind other rides. You can see the entrance but not the ride. So no suprise when Hansel and Maile ended up being the only ones in line.

Hansel took the below photo on the ride.

Doesn't the first photo look cooler than the second.

A couple of parting shots.

Scrunchy Face and Heavy Breathing

So for the past month or so, Mathis sometimes scrunches up his face and starts breathing heavily through his nose. Maile did the same thing around the same age. The photos of Mathis are from 11/15 when he was 10 months old. The video of Maile is from when she was a little over 10 months old. I think most of the breathing you hear in the video is from me.

Hansel's Birthday, Veteran's Day and the SF Zoo

Both Maile and Beck had Veteran's Day off. Hansel's birthday is on Veteran's Day. So we decided that Hansel would take the day off and we would take the kids to the California Academy of Sciences. At breakfast, we gave him one of his presents -- a camera bag for the SLR. I had taken the kids shopping earlier in the week. We gave it to him in the morning, so he could use it that day.

As we were about to turn right on 9th Ave to go to the California Academy, we saw that cars going into the park were backed up to that intersection. So I suggested we go to the SF Zoo, which ended up not being crowded.

Beck waiting for the Zoo train

Maile trying to get Beck to look at the camera

Maile measuring her span against a gorilla's

Later we gave him his second present, which was a laptop fan pad he could use when watching TV (which is pretty much every night). I did better this time on gifts. We didn't return or exchange either of them. After the kids went to sleep, Mathis and I presented Hansel with a home-made pumpkin cheesecake. It hadn't cooled in time for Maile and Beck to partake. Oh well, more for us :p

Mathis' Security Blanket?

Mathis doesn't have a set bedtime. I haven't followed the same schedule I did with Maile and Beck, much to my own detriment. So, he typically falls asleep on my lap while Hansel and I watch TV. While he's on my lap, he plays with my hair. I've told Hansel that I want to get Mathis a Barbie for Christmas that he can sleep with, esp since I plan to cut my hair. Is that weird? Am I encouraging a future fetish?

Fun with Cups

These days Mathis likes to raise objects over his head. I usually say to him in Chinese when he does that that that he's wearing a hat. This day he was doing it with one of his stacking cups, so I decided to put it on his head for him.

Isabella's 4th Birthday Party

Sunday, 11/8, was Isabella's 4th birthday party at Pump It Up in San Francisco. Isabella was outgoing and definitely in her element with all her friends and family. Maile and Beck had a great time and especially liked the big slide in the second room.

We got a shot of the birthday girl's younger sister Sophia, but not one of Isabella. I actually brought the stacking cups in the photo. Funny thing is that at one point Isabella and some of her preschool friends were playing with them.

Our New Used SLR Camera

At the end of October, Hansel bought a used SLR camera off eBay. Below are photos from the first week of using it.

The very first photo taken on the camera on 11/1.


It was sometimes hard to get a photos of Beck, so we settled with some photos of him in the background. We like the look of these types of shots.



Here's an action shot.

More shots of Mathis. The first shot is a little blurry, but I love his expression.

Mathis trying to get my phone.

Breakfast at Jimmy's Place

On Saturday, November 7, I took the kids to Jimmy's Place in Union City (http://www.yelp.com/biz/jimmys-place-union-city). Vanessa's mom and dad were having a soft opening for their new breakfast/lunch place. I was looking forward to going because of my love of breakfast food. It only took 20 minutes to get there. A lot faster than I had thought it would take. The food was delish, fresh, and very reasonably priced. We got 5 beignets for only $2. The menu is really diverse. And if you like omelettes and eggs benedicts, they have a great selection. I want to take Hansel back there since eggs benedict is his breakfast of choice.

The restaurant has a large patio area, which is about the same size as the indoor space. The kids had a great time playing with Mia after they were done eating, and we had no problem keeping an eye on them from the patio.

Mia's 5th Birthday Party

Sunday, November 1, was Mia's 5th birthday party. Hansel was still in Toronto, so I took the kids on my own. Since I was so preoccupied by all the Halloween festivities, I hadn't yet bought Mia's birthday present. Call me last-minute Lisa. So we left a little earlier to buy a gift on the way.

When we got to Valley Dance and Cheer, they had just finished doing a dance routine and were about to start on the obstacle course. The place had a great set up. There were two large gym floor areas and a loft area above, where tables and chairs were set up and where you could look down on the action. Maile and Beck loved the obstacle course. I was setting up courses for the kids for days after the party.

There was a plethora of desserts including cupcakes that Lynna made. Maile and Beck used potato chips to scoop off and eat the frosting. Not a combination I'd try.

For party favors, the kids got hula hoops. All the kids immediately started playing with them in the first gym area. Beck didn't really know what to do with it. But a few days later when the kids were playing with them at home, he got the hang of it.

Halloween Cookies

We had some cookie dough left over from the Halloween cookies I made for Beck's school. So we made some pumpkin shaped cookies with the dough, and the kids decorated them. Below are the results.

Halloween Party

For the past few years, my two cousins who both live in Los Altos have taken turns hosting a Halloween party. Since we had not hosted Halloween before, we offered to host it this year. And, it was also a good opportunity to invite them to our new home. We also invited our good friends and neighbors, the Yaus.

One of the days leading up to the party, I took the kids to Diddams to buy some party stuff. Afterward, I took them to the Peninsula Creamery for a milkshake. It was their first milkshake. We got strawberry.

Hansel unexpectantly had to go to Toronto, and I would have managed okay (thanks to the Yaus who watched Maile and Beck earlier in the day) if it weren't for these darn spiderweb eggs I decided to make. It took me like 10-15 minutes to peel each egg, and for a lot of the eggs I didn't even peel off the entire shell. The reason it took so long is because I had to peel off the shells while keeping the thin membrane in tact to keep the spiderweb effect. Other than the spiderweb eggs, we had Carrot Fingers, Mummy Hotdogs, Pizza Mummies, Blood and Guts with Eyeballs (linguini, spaghetti sauce, and mozzarella balls stuffed with olives), Halloween-themed cheese and crackers, pumpkin mini-muffins, and green juice (kiwi and mint). I got all the recipes online. One of my cousins brought Halloween cookies while the other brought vegan pumpkin muffins.

After dinner, I stayed home to pass out candy while the rest of the mom and dads took the kids trick-or-treating. We didn't get as many kids as I expected but more than we had gotten in Los Altos. Around 7:30 I heard a gaggle of kids ring the doorbell. To my delight it was all of our kids returning. Oh how I wished I had a camera at hand. It was a sight to see all of them thrusting their buckets at me and saying "Trick or Treat."

Another Phone Photo

Some of my favorite photos of Mathis I took with my phone. Below is the most recent one from 10/30. In the photo, the canopy of his carseat is down. He did that himself. He likes lowering it. It's funny when he wakes up after falling asleep in his carseat, his hand will shoot up and he'll pull the canopy down and crane his nect to look out. I want to get a shot of that.

Halloween Parades

Sadly, on Saturday, 10/24, Hansel's paternal grandmother passed away. She lived a long life surrounded by her loving children. Hansel flew out to Toronto Friday morning to attend the service.

On that Friday, both Maile and Beck's schools had costume parades. Maile's was going to start at 8:30, and Beck had to get to school no later than 9:15. But then, I had also volunteered to help bake cookies for Beck's school and was asked to try and drop them off as close to 9:00 as possible. I knew that wasn't going to happen; I was hoping to get there before 9:15.

We took the below photo of Maile before Hansel left. It looks like it's night time but it's actually 6:50a (before the time change).

Beck, Mathis, and I stayed long enough to see Maile's class parade around and then bolted for our car. Beck's school has a tiny parking lot that is always full, so we had to park on the street. When I dropped off the cookies just before 9:15, I was relieved to see that the other cookies hadn't been distributed yet, so we weren't late.

Beck already had the train conductor costume. We had gotten it for him for his birthday. Hansel made the train to go with his costume, which Beck helped decorate. Not many kids had home-made elements to their costumes. So the teachers were impressed.

Not sure what Beck's classmate is looking at. As far as I know, he didn't have any candy stashed in there.

After the parade, some of us parents in Beck's class helped set up an art project for decorating pumpkins and then set up the potluck. I had let Mathis hang out on their circle time rug. Normally, he's cooped up in his carseat.