Mommy says "don't throw so hard!" Daddy says "it's just a SOCK!!!"
Ready to Roll?
I think Mathis is getting ready to roll over. He's really started to twist his head around. And this week he's been arching his back, but I don't have a photo of that.
Talk to the Hand
Besides smiling at or talking to himself in the mirror, Mathis has added looking intently at his hand(s) to his forms of entertainment. He'd mostly been looking at his right hand, like below, but now looks at both hands. When he watches his hands, he wiggles his fingers, which I don't recall Maile or Beck doing.
Hardest Week and Beck's Birthday
On Monday, 4/27, we decided to have pizza because we hadn't had the gourmet veggie pizza from Round Table in a while. To be more economical and not have to pick stuff off of the pizza for the kids, we usually make frozen pizza for them. I picked up some Red Baron Singles with Canadian Bacon and Pineapple from the Safeway by their school.
That night around 12:30a I heard Maile cry out. Maile and Beck had both thrown up. OMG, I gave my kids food poisoning. After doing a quick clean up, Hansel slept with Beck in our room (he threw up many more times that night), and I slept with Maile in a guest room. Maile only got sick one other time. When I entered our room the next morning to feed Mathis, there was Beck sitting on a sleeping Hansel. After a very light breakfast, both kids got sick. That was the last of it for Beck. But Maile got sick one more time that evening.
That night musical beds continued, but this time we had both kids in our room. Beck, who still sleeps in a crib, slept in our closet on a mat. He got up several times during the night, running out of the closet and then back in. Then very early in the morning, he insisted on sleeping with us. Meanwhile, Mathis had caught a cold from Beck and was not sleeping as soundly at night.
The next day I took Beck and Mathis with me to Palo Alto's development center to submit revisions. Although Beck was quite active (a gentleman there even pointed out a box of crayons and books to me thinking the distraction would help), he did pretty well. At least I thought so. The clerk told him to be quiet when she first talked to me. I think she felt bad about it because she was a lot nicer later.
I then dropped Beck off at school. When I dropped him off, I remembered I would need to bring stuff to school the next day to celebrate Beck's birthday. I found out I would need to come at 3:30p. After lunch, I took Mathis and Maile to Palo Alto's Dev Center because they only had time to process revisions for one of the permits in the morning. The people I met with were definitely amused by my rotating kids. The plan check person could not approve our revisions until I confirmed there was footing under a post we added. I unfortunately did not have my phone. So, I stopped by the Harker house to get my answer.
Thursday was Beck's birthday, so the night before I ran out to get pancake mix, mini-muffins for his class, and a single-serving cake for Beck. Thursday morning, I made Mickey Mouse pancakes for the first time. I've made pancakes before but not Mickey Mouse ones. They turned out pretty well; they actually looked like the mouse. We then put candles in the cake and sang Beck Happy Birthday. He blew out each candle one by one. He then opened a gift from us, which was a train conducter outfit. For some reason he didn't want to wear it. He just wanted to play with the accessories. We thought if Maile wore it, he'd want to wear it. But Beck didn't fall for it.
Marcus peeked a little under his hat.
Lucas couldn't figure out why his daddy kept covering his eyes.
Beck did it without peeking. His 1 was the farthest.
That night around 12:30a I heard Maile cry out. Maile and Beck had both thrown up. OMG, I gave my kids food poisoning. After doing a quick clean up, Hansel slept with Beck in our room (he threw up many more times that night), and I slept with Maile in a guest room. Maile only got sick one other time. When I entered our room the next morning to feed Mathis, there was Beck sitting on a sleeping Hansel. After a very light breakfast, both kids got sick. That was the last of it for Beck. But Maile got sick one more time that evening.
That night musical beds continued, but this time we had both kids in our room. Beck, who still sleeps in a crib, slept in our closet on a mat. He got up several times during the night, running out of the closet and then back in. Then very early in the morning, he insisted on sleeping with us. Meanwhile, Mathis had caught a cold from Beck and was not sleeping as soundly at night.
The next day I took Beck and Mathis with me to Palo Alto's development center to submit revisions. Although Beck was quite active (a gentleman there even pointed out a box of crayons and books to me thinking the distraction would help), he did pretty well. At least I thought so. The clerk told him to be quiet when she first talked to me. I think she felt bad about it because she was a lot nicer later.
I then dropped Beck off at school. When I dropped him off, I remembered I would need to bring stuff to school the next day to celebrate Beck's birthday. I found out I would need to come at 3:30p. After lunch, I took Mathis and Maile to Palo Alto's Dev Center because they only had time to process revisions for one of the permits in the morning. The people I met with were definitely amused by my rotating kids. The plan check person could not approve our revisions until I confirmed there was footing under a post we added. I unfortunately did not have my phone. So, I stopped by the Harker house to get my answer.
Thursday was Beck's birthday, so the night before I ran out to get pancake mix, mini-muffins for his class, and a single-serving cake for Beck. Thursday morning, I made Mickey Mouse pancakes for the first time. I've made pancakes before but not Mickey Mouse ones. They turned out pretty well; they actually looked like the mouse. We then put candles in the cake and sang Beck Happy Birthday. He blew out each candle one by one. He then opened a gift from us, which was a train conducter outfit. For some reason he didn't want to wear it. He just wanted to play with the accessories. We thought if Maile wore it, he'd want to wear it. But Beck didn't fall for it.
That morning Maile was well enough to make it to swim class. I told a staff member that she just recovered from food poisoning and might need to take it easy. She ended up having the most active class because she was the only student in her group. The other three were absent.
After dropping the kids off at school, I quickly went to Diddams by their school to get goodies for Beck's class as well as for his small family party on Saturday. I then went home to feed Mathis and eat lunch before heading back to Palo Alto's Dev Center. This time I only took Mathis. The revisions for the second permit were approved just in time for our inspection scheduled for the next day. I then drove back to Beck's school for his school party.
The school party was simple. The teachers passed out the muffins, the kids sang Happy Birthday in English and Chinese, and then Beck passed out the goody bags. He didn't realize until the end that he could pick up two bags at once. He had been passing them out one by one. I also noticed that when he gave a classmate a bag he would give it to them on the right. Natural born waiter I guess.
Both Hansel and I picked up the kids from school and then took them to the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown San Jose for Beck's birthday. We decided to eat there because it's family friendly, very affordable, and we had a coupon for free garlic cheese bread. Beck, oddly enough, didn't really eat anything except for his frozen fruit bar.
Since Friday was rainy and the rest of the weekend was forecasted to be rainy, Hansel and I figured we should find an indoor location for Beck's family birthday party. We had planned to have a picnic at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos, which has a kids train and carousel. I was thinking about Bounce-a-Rama at the Great Mall, but then my cousin-in-law suggested the children's store, Little Stompers, in downtown Los Altos. She hadn't been there but had heard about it. They have a play area, which can be rented for playdates/parties. I checked it out, and we decided the novelty of the play area was worth the cost and not having to clean our house. So, I booked the Stompers Room for 1.5 hrs for Saturday. That night and the next morning I made Beck's cake. It was in the shape of Thomas the Tank Engine. I can never figure out how to frost a cake without getting bits of cake in the frosting.
Saturday morning part way through breakfast, Maile suddenly looked green and said she didn't feel well. I suggested she take a nap. With Maile not feeling well and one of my cousin's emailing to say that one of her son's wouldn't make it because of an ear infection, Hansel and I went back and forth on whether or not to reschedule the party. We had pretty much decided to reschedule, but I continued to pack things up for the party just in case. Maile woke from her nap saying she felt better, so we piled everything and everyone into the car. Hansel dropped me off at the store with Mathis and all the stuff, and then he took Maile and Beck to pick up the balloons.
My cousin's wife, Yura, came with Russell, and another cousin's wife, Christy, came with Marcus and Lucas. My cousin Rich came later. When Hansel finally came back with the kids and the balloons, he said that Maile wasn't feeling well. She sat and laid down on some chairs for a little while, but then Hansel ended up just taking her home.
The boys had fun with all the new toys, esp the car/train table (of course). Toward the end of lunch, Beck started coughing and then said his tummy hurt. He wasn't looking so good, so I grabbed a bowl just in time to catch his you-know-what. He seemed fine after and even wanted to eat an apple. I knew we had to wrap things up at this point, so we quickly played the pin-the-number on Thomas game and had cake.
Marcus peeked a little under his hat.
Lucas couldn't figure out why his daddy kept covering his eyes.
Beck did it without peeking. His 1 was the farthest.
We had an issue with the store when we left, which you can read about at Yelp http://www.yelp.com/biz/little-stompers-los-altos.
Maile had a low-grade fever all weekend and pretty much stayed in bed. I took Maile to the doctor Monday afternoon by which time she was back to her old self although she still had a low fever. The doctor offered to test her urine, which took forever for me to get. Maile is not very good at peeing under pressure. Maile and her pee for the most part checked out okay. The next day she went back to school.
During this time, we continued to play Musical Beds until Tuesday night, when she slept in one of the guest rooms by herself. She sometimes doesn't like to sleep with Beck because he keeps her up. Since Maile had been waking up in the middle of the night crying, I had suggested earlier in the day that she sleep with a magic wand to keep bad things away. She asked if it was real, and I said it would keep the bad things away if she believed it. This morning I asked her if sleeping with the wand helped. She said she only used it once.
Going Solo
From 4/19-4/23 Hansel was was on a trip in London. So, I was solo with the kids. It wasn't that bad. Maile and Beck still had school. I figured evenings would be the hardest part of my day.
Each evening I would tell Maile and Beck what our plan of action was going to be, like at 7:30 we're going to go upstairs and you're going to eat your vitamins and brush your teeth, at 7:45 I'm going to feed Mathis, at 8:00 you're going to take your baths, etc., and things would go fairly smoothly. The evening things did not go smoothly was when I had a frozen Indian entree for lunch. It did not sit well with Mathis. I had to hold him for about 6 hours (before my bedtime), and he only tolerated the sling for part of the time. Lesson learned -- don't eat things you don't normally eat while you're nursing, especially when you're on your own.
The Yaus were a saving grace during this week. They offered to come over Monday evening to cook dinner and help. That day had record heat, so after they arrived they hit the pool while I picked the kids up from school. Maile and Beck were able to enjoy a short dip in the pool before dinner. The Yaus brought over spaghetti and salad and we had a nice evening meal out in the backyard.
On Tuesday, I had planned to take the kids to Pizza My Heart after school for make-your-own-pizza night. I figured with the heat wave, we could enjoy dinner at an air-conditioned restaurant. Unfortunately, the place was not air-conditioned, but they did have ceiling fans. The kids had fun making the pizza but took their time eating it. I was trying to hurry them along since I, witht Mathis slung to me, was feeling a little stuffy.
Each evening I would tell Maile and Beck what our plan of action was going to be, like at 7:30 we're going to go upstairs and you're going to eat your vitamins and brush your teeth, at 7:45 I'm going to feed Mathis, at 8:00 you're going to take your baths, etc., and things would go fairly smoothly. The evening things did not go smoothly was when I had a frozen Indian entree for lunch. It did not sit well with Mathis. I had to hold him for about 6 hours (before my bedtime), and he only tolerated the sling for part of the time. Lesson learned -- don't eat things you don't normally eat while you're nursing, especially when you're on your own.
The Yaus were a saving grace during this week. They offered to come over Monday evening to cook dinner and help. That day had record heat, so after they arrived they hit the pool while I picked the kids up from school. Maile and Beck were able to enjoy a short dip in the pool before dinner. The Yaus brought over spaghetti and salad and we had a nice evening meal out in the backyard.
On Tuesday, I had planned to take the kids to Pizza My Heart after school for make-your-own-pizza night. I figured with the heat wave, we could enjoy dinner at an air-conditioned restaurant. Unfortunately, the place was not air-conditioned, but they did have ceiling fans. The kids had fun making the pizza but took their time eating it. I was trying to hurry them along since I, witht Mathis slung to me, was feeling a little stuffy.
Mahalo, Oahu
This post is about the second half of our Oahu trip (post Dave and Winnie's wedding).
The day after their wedding some friends of theirs hosted a beach party at Ala Moana Park. Beck made a friend and Maile showed everyone her hula hoop moves.
That night Chris I. had organized a small surprise birthday dinner for Ann. We took a taxi to the Japanese restaurant and just as our cab pulled into the parking lot, Ann and Chris were exiting their car. Hansel and I ducked while Chris steered Ann around the back of our cab. But the surprise was quickly revealed when we realized we had nowhere to go but inside the restaurant. Ann was surprised but had wondered why Chris was so insistent that they get to the restaurant by 6p.
Leilani and Hannah joined shortly after. The restaurant had a great kids menu that included origami instructions for the origami paper they had on the table. At the end of dinner, they brought out a basket of toys the kids could choose from, like a dentist office.
Chris steathly had ordered a cake from the restaurant ahead of time. It was a "sweet potato" cake but not the orange/yellow sweet potatoes we have here but a purple kind, which is not taro. It didn't taste like sweet potato either, but it was yummy nonetheless. The cake had a cheesecake-type of texture.
Another night we saw Roger, who lives just a couple of blocks from the main strip of Waikiki. Wow, is Waikiki expensive. I think we spent almost $20 on my veggie sandwich.
Throughout our trip, the kids spent a lot of time in our resort's new pool, which had a bunch of different slides. Below is a photo of Maile with Al. Hansel commented that when he took the kids he was too busy watching Beck that Maile went on and off the slides on her own. I only made it to the pool once our whole trip and that was a week after being in Hawaii.
Mathis had a great time during our trip, too. The camera doesn't lie.
The day before we headed home we rented a car and went to the Dole Plantation and the surf town, Haleiwa, with Leilani, Hannah, Leilani's mom and brother, and Al's cousin. I've been to the Dole Plantation a couple of times and have never gone through the giant maze. We thought the kids would love it, and they did. I did not make it into the maze this time either because I had Mathis slung to me and wanted to spare my back.
After the maze, we rode the Pineapple Express, a kids train that goes through the pineapple fields. In the below photo, the train looks like it's far away but really it's just a small train.
It was a great trip even with three, but I'm sure it'd be a different story if Mathis were mobile.
The day after their wedding some friends of theirs hosted a beach party at Ala Moana Park. Beck made a friend and Maile showed everyone her hula hoop moves.
That night Chris I. had organized a small surprise birthday dinner for Ann. We took a taxi to the Japanese restaurant and just as our cab pulled into the parking lot, Ann and Chris were exiting their car. Hansel and I ducked while Chris steered Ann around the back of our cab. But the surprise was quickly revealed when we realized we had nowhere to go but inside the restaurant. Ann was surprised but had wondered why Chris was so insistent that they get to the restaurant by 6p. Leilani and Hannah joined shortly after. The restaurant had a great kids menu that included origami instructions for the origami paper they had on the table. At the end of dinner, they brought out a basket of toys the kids could choose from, like a dentist office.
Chris steathly had ordered a cake from the restaurant ahead of time. It was a "sweet potato" cake but not the orange/yellow sweet potatoes we have here but a purple kind, which is not taro. It didn't taste like sweet potato either, but it was yummy nonetheless. The cake had a cheesecake-type of texture.
Another night we saw Roger, who lives just a couple of blocks from the main strip of Waikiki. Wow, is Waikiki expensive. I think we spent almost $20 on my veggie sandwich.
Throughout our trip, the kids spent a lot of time in our resort's new pool, which had a bunch of different slides. Below is a photo of Maile with Al. Hansel commented that when he took the kids he was too busy watching Beck that Maile went on and off the slides on her own. I only made it to the pool once our whole trip and that was a week after being in Hawaii.
Mathis had a great time during our trip, too. The camera doesn't lie.
The day before we headed home we rented a car and went to the Dole Plantation and the surf town, Haleiwa, with Leilani, Hannah, Leilani's mom and brother, and Al's cousin. I've been to the Dole Plantation a couple of times and have never gone through the giant maze. We thought the kids would love it, and they did. I did not make it into the maze this time either because I had Mathis slung to me and wanted to spare my back.
After the maze, we rode the Pineapple Express, a kids train that goes through the pineapple fields. In the below photo, the train looks like it's far away but really it's just a small train.
It was a great trip even with three, but I'm sure it'd be a different story if Mathis were mobile.
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