3 Days Left

So it's been tough posting since family has been in town. The week has pretty much flown by. I'm not sure what we did as it seems like a blur. The beginning was filled with shopping and preparing for Christmas. I got 95% of it done in time. Christmas Eve was spent wrapping gifts. By the time midnight rolled around, we were too tired to finish wrapping all of Lukas's gifts. We decided that since he probably had enough to open, we didn't wrap his new clothes or some of his new books since he had already seen them anyways.

Since Lukas was already good at ripping paper, he was quite happy to open his gifts. Pictures will be coming. He received a lot of electronic toys. I tend to buy him a lot of mechanical or wooden toys. It's not that I dislike electronic toys- it's just that I am not as drawn to them. I'm glad that other people got him a few for Christmas to round out his toy collection. Pictures will be coming.

Since the grandparents were in town, we also took the opportunity to go see a movie. We got to see Sherlock Holmes which was quite enjoyable. I used to read Sherlock Holmes when I was in junior high, but I can't say that I remember much even though I read most Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's series. I did remember most of the characters. We also wanted to catch Avatar, but ran out of time.

Because I didn't post at all while family was in town, I only have 3 more days until my deadline which means that I'll need to post every day until New Years. Maybe I'll even post 2 in one day!

Bebel Gilberto

So I totally forgot to blog about the concert that we went to see her in concert a few weeks ago. She is the daughter of the Gil Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto who sang the song "The Girl from Ipanema." She is from Brazil and sang the song "So Nice" which was the song we danced to for our First Dance at our wedding. We have seen her in concert once before when we lived in SF near our old apartment. We dropped off Lukas at Jeannette's and headed over to our old neighborhood. The area felt so familiar and yet so long ago. We knew where to go since we had done the drive so many times while we lived there for 5 years, but it has been 2 years since we lived there and of course before Lukas was born.

It made us feel like we were that young urban couple again living in the city and on our way to see a concert. This is something we used to do without much effort. With Lukas, we are still able to do it, but with a lot more effort! It wasn't that long ago in terms of time, but it does feel different in terms of life stage. It's just another reminder of how our lives have changed in a short amount of time. If we get to do these types of things every once in a while, I don't think that we will miss much and we definitely feel like we got a better deal with Lukas.

Last Minute Shopping Frenzy

I remember in years past when I used to start Christmas shopping early to avoid the big crowds. I think that with online shopping it has reduced the numbers at the malls. Also, the extended shopping hours have helped to appease the masses. Finally, I think that people are spending less this holiday because of the recession. The mall was still very busy, but there weren't any crazy long lines. Maybe it's because there is still almost a week left before Christmas. Good thing because I still have a TON of shopping to do.

The World Through Lukas's Eyes

Most of the time, I think that it must be pretty easy being a baby. You get fed every 3-4 hours, you sleep 12-14 hours a day, and everyone loves you. This week though has not been one of Lukas's best weeks. He got his shots on Tuesday. He hasn't slept well the last 2 nights. Tonight, mom got home late because she had her company holiday party and then she made him take a bath which he really didn't want to, so he cried the whole time. He hardly got to see mom and when he did, it was not so fun. Life can be rough when you aren't allowed to make any decisions. I'm just trying to make it to next week. Only 3.5 more work days until I get 10 days off of work. Next week should be better for Lukas. He'll get to see his cousins and grandparents as well as celebrate his first Christmas.

9 Month Check-up

Lukas had his 9-month check-up yesterday. He is now 28 inches long and 21lbs. 7oz. That's about 9 inches and 14 pounds he has gained since birth. In other words, he is growing 1 inch and 2 pounds per month. I can easily gain 2 pounds per month, it's the 1 inch per month I was never able to master. He's at about 50% for height and 65% for weight- so he's healthy. He's got 2 bottom teeth and his pediatrician said that his upper gums are swollen, so she thinks his upper teeth may be coming soon. Isn't there a song that goes, "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth...?" Maybe I'll start singing that one to Lukas.

He also got 4 shots yesterday- 2 were flu shots. I mention this because Lukas also woke up screaming last night at 2AM. He never does this. I am hoping and praying that this is not a trend. We have been spoiled because he usually sleeps around 9PM and wakes up around 7AM, mostly uninterrupted. If he does wake, he usually falls back asleep in 15 seconds. He doesn't even need a pacifier to sleep anymore. I rocked him to sleep for what seemed to be at least an hour. This is after Edwin and I stayed up too late decorating the Christmas tree. (Edwin really- I was registering Lukas for a class or something.) I think that Lukas was either having nightmares about the shots or in pain from the shots because he could not get back to sleep. I could tell that he really did try to go back to sleep too, but then he would cry really hard like he was in pain. Anyway, point of the story is that he didn't sleep well and so neither did we. We all hate it when he has to get his shots. Maybe that's why I'm rambling on today not getting any work done. Well, more so than normal anyways.

Lukas and Santa Meet for the First Time

Here is one of the first photos I have of Lukas with Santa. No, I still haven't found that battery charger yet, but thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. I got this photo from the filmmaker that is making a documentary about our street. Unfortunately, you cannot see his face, but I'm sure he's saying to himself, "Who is this guy? He seems so familiar, yet I can't recall how I might know him..." Look closer. You all might know him too. Hint! So there I am as Santa's helper- thus the orange vest. I help Santa remember all the boys and girls names, I help pass out candy canes, and I help people to cross the street so that cars slow down.

My baby likes to party all the time, party all the time! Last Saturday, we were invited to 3 Christmas parties. Believe it or not, we made it to all 3. We weren't sure that we would, so we RSVP'd to the third one as a maybe. Many parents thought that we were ambitious. Others just thought we were plain crazy to think that we could attend all 3 parties in one night. To be honest, we had trouble making 3 parties in one night when it was just the 2 of us, but we really wanted to attend all 3, so we thought we would try. We started early and headed off to our first party at Byron & Liza's at 5. Their party started the earliest and we arrived at 5:30 with rock star parking in Glen Park. Literally, our car was parked in front of their door which is kind of unheard of in SF. We stayed for almost 2 hours and headed out to party number 2 at Edwin's coworker's house in Pacific Heights which was only 10 minutes away. We scored great parking again less than a block away. Keep in mind that we arrived early again at 7:30PM. We stayed for an hour and a half and had to leave because this party was getting a little loud and crowded. Our last party was back in the East Bay at my former coworker's condo which also helped since it was on our way home. Lukas was a trooper and napped between each party while eating or snacking during the parties. We arrived home a little after 11:30.

Edwin and I have a few theories as to how we actually pulled this off. First, we started way early. We knew that we were limited on time and if we wanted to make it to all 3 and spend quality time there, we would need to be there close to when doors were open. Attending parties early is generally good because then you get to talk to the host since they may be busy at the height of the party and you get the best parking. Segue into reason 2, we got awesome parking and no traffic = happy transport for all involved. Reason 3- setting expectations low. We told ourselves that we would do the best we could, but we were not going to promise to attend all parties. You never know when babies are going to get sick, get tired, or just be upset. You also never know what kind of parking, traffic, or weather you will get. You get a bad combo of any of the above and sometimes, it's just better if you go home. If you are flexible and can handle not doing everything, you aren't disappointed with what you could not do, but just happy with the things you were able to achieve. Reason 4- Lukas really likes to see new things and new people. He had a great time meeting happy new people, seeing all the decorations and food, and being with mom and dad. Reason 5- we were just plain lucky.

We just picked up our Christmas tree yesterday, but we have yet to begin Christmas shopping. Anyone have any good gift ideas? We have our annual Christmas cookie baking this weekend. Woo hoo.

I am not a Twit!

I had been introduced to Twitter several years ago by my colleague who was part of the whole social media wave. It was basically his job to know about communities and how to use them to market. He was obviously very good at his job. Since he knew about blogging and twitter way before anyone else I have ever known, I consider him to be my social media guru. But I digress. Why am I telling you about my friend Jeff? When he first told me about Twitter, I told him I had no interest in it because why would I want everyone to know what I was doing at the exact time I was doing it? Very big brother and I barely wanted to carry a cell phone for that same reason. It's not that I was planning on doing anything illegal, I just couldn't believe that anyone would want to know what I was doing in my mundane life instantaneously. I mean, seriously, who wants to know if I have eaten yet besides my mom? Hmm... maybe there is a good reason to start Twitter- to reassure my mom that after more than 30 years I am capable of eating meals on a regular basis and she can check my twitter to see if I have eaten yet. OK, OK, I know, I know, it's a Chinese thing. Now, I don't even have time to update my status on twitter in 140 characters much less see what 100o of my closest friends are doing (no offense!) I figure, if someone makes that time investment to call me or email me, then I'm gonna reply. People always tell me that I am good at keeping in touch, but I think it requires too much effort to keep on top of all the newest, latest, and greatest social media experiment. Otherwise, I really can't stay in touch with people because who has the time? I say this and I work in the advertising industry. What does this say about how well I do my job? LOL. So maybe one day I'll get around to starting that newfangled Facebook thingy so that I can see everyone else's photos and updates, but for now, I am not a Twit!

Goal for the New Year

So instead of making a New Years resolution (which I will probably not keep anyways...) I have decided to give myself a new goal before the end of the year. (I'm much better under pressure anyways truth be told.) I have noticed a drop in the number of posts year over year. My goal is to post at least the same number of posts for this year as last year. That means that I pretty much have to post something every 2-3 days for me to reach this goal. I have 2 things working against me with this timeframe.

First, we cannot find our camera battery charger. This can actually be a pro and a con. I like to post photos because I feel that they are more interesting. However, it is more time-consuming because I have to download the pictures, choose the good ones to upload to Picasa, put comments on them, and finally post them. Without having to go through this process, I should technically have more time for witty content rather than relying on photos to keep my 2 readers engaged. (Hi Dad!) So if anyone has any recommendations on finding a Canon Elph battery charger or would like to donate their old one to me, please let me know. The last time we saw it was in Hawaii, so I am hoping we did not leave it at the hotel... I have done some research online to purchase a replacement and these things are pricey at $40-50! I might as well buy a new camera at those prices- which may be the route we take because our camera is about 3 years old and I think we could use a shiny, new camera...

Second item that may be an obstacle of my reaching my goal is that we have family coming into town for the holidays starting on the 22nd. I may have to do daily posts before they arrive to make sure that I achieve my goal! Not to mention the normal holiday stuff we do like shopping, annual cookie baking, and did I mention that we have 3 Christmas parties to attend this Saturday? Oh and by the way, it's my firstborn's first Christmas, so are there any special traditions I should try and start to initiate this year so that I can say in future years, "Well, we've been doing that every Christmas since Lukas was born...?"

This post is turning out to be a lot longer than I originally intended it to be. I better save up my words for future posts.

Christmas Tree Lane

Some of you may already know that our street is famous for decorating at Christmas time. I had a recent post was to a local news segment about our street. We are also being filmed for a short documentary by a journalist for the Travel Channel. I don't know if our segment will show up on The Travel Channel, but I know it's going to be submitted for a few local film festivals and we thought it would be a fun way to document Lukas's first Christmas. Allison, the filmmaker offered us a personal copy when she is finished of her submission and here is her bio and some photos of her early footage:
Small Dog on the Go

This year, I feel like people have decorated their houses a little more and there has been more news coverage about it even though this block has been decorating for Christmas every year for over 80 years. If you're curious, I also added a link to the Facebook page on the right in case you want to be a fan. I don't even use Facebook and I can't believe how viral it is. Yesterday, we started with about 135 fans and today there are over 650 fans. Anyway, it's fun and exciting to be a part of it.
Christmas Tree Lane on Facebook.

Catching up on Halloween!

OK, so I know that this is coming late, but I am finally posting the photos from Halloween. Maybe I'll try and post the photos from Thanksgiving before Christmas! LOL. Enjoy!

Check out a video about our street!

So I guess that the local public TV station (KTVU) made this video about the Christmas lights on our block. You can actually see our undecorated and dark house next to the one asking Santa to come to their house. I find it so funny that our street has been on TV twice this year. Must be a slow news year... LOL. They didn't come last year.

Gobble Gobble, Lukas!

We hope that everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. So Lukas had a great first Thanksgiving. He tried meat for the first time on Thanksgiving which of course was turkey! We blended it with some water and a little rice. He didn't like the turkey unless it was mixed with the yams or rice, but then, who does? Since our last update, Lukas has also added tofu, applesauce, and bagels to his diet. This week, I think that we're going to try and add fish.

As usual, Thanksgiving weekend went by quickly. My cousin George and his girlfriend came up from LA for a visit. We spent Thanksgiving morning at home while Edwin smoked the turkey in the backyard. For dinner, we took the turkey to Jeannette and Jon's house since Jon was on call. Edwin's mom came up from LA as well. We took some photos of the food and fun which I'll share eventually.

On Black Friday, we didn't go shopping at all. We spent the morning at home making waffles and muffins with Lukas, Catherine, and George. Then we headed south to my cousin Billy's house to spend time with his family and my Uncle Glenn's family. Since Billy has twins that are 2 months younger, it's a lot of fun to see how they react to each other. For instance, we put down a toy closer to Justin who is not able to crawl yet. Lukas was close by and decided he wanted that toy and crawled towards it to get it. You could see Justin trying to crawl towards it, but all he could do was swim in the air. When Lukas reached the toy, Justin started crying in frustration. We can't wait until they really start interacting with each other.

On Saturday, we went to Jeannette's again to visit since their mom was in town. We had a long leisurely lunch at Park Chalet and then met up with George and Catherine to show them around SF since it was Catherine's first time here. We then met up with Billy and his wife Maggie again for dinner (sans twins) at Tadich Grill which is an old school SF seafood restaurant and then for dessert at Bi-Rite Creamery which is Edwin's favorite ice cream shop.

On Sunday, Edwin smoked some more turkey and chicken for a pot luck at the Banerjees. It was a get together for us and our parents, but Edwin's mom had to go home early and so she wasn't able to make it. Lukas took his first group bath with Mena. It was very cute. Lukas didn't like it at first, but then started to have fun playing in the water. He didn't mind Mena's splashing at all and enjoyed playing with the water toys, but did not like the water coming out of the faucet. He wasn't happy during the actual bathing part, but the job got done and we were able to have some fun doing it.

Vacation in Hawaii

So we just got back from Hawaii last night. It went by so fast! The trip started out with a 6 hour delay at the airport from a mechanical error. We were supposed to arrive at 1PM and arrived around 7PM. That was a bummer, but at least Lukas behaved well and didn't seem to mind hanging out in the airport.

Most of our days were spent at the beach. Edwin got to go to surfing every morning. Lukas had a great time playing in the sand. The hotel we stayed at gave him a free pail and shovel which he used everyday. We also got to see our friend Janet who lives in Honolulu. She took us to some great restaurants. She took us to a breakfast place near our hotel the first day we were there. Then, we met up for some awesome sushi at Zen Shu which I would say it was one of my top 5 favorite sushi experiences. They have some very unique dishes and we ordered the omakase which is chef's choice. I normally do not choose omakase because I am not sure that the chef will give me something I'll like and it's usually more expensive. In this case, the sushi was SO good and it was a little more expensive, but worth it because Janet knows the chef and he was very attentive.

We also had a lunch buffet at the Halekulani called Orchids. I ate until it hurt. I have not eaten that much in a long time. We had to sit outside for an hour before I could get up and move again. We also had a great meal at Tokkuri- Tei which is a yakitori restaurant AKA Japanese tapas.

That's not to say that we ate expensive and fancy meals while we were there. We also took a drive on the North Shore and had shrimp truck and shaved ice. We also had ramen and Hawaiian lunch plate while we we there. Lukas did great in terms of eating. He also slept relatively well. The hotel provided a crib and this time he actually slept in it. We had a few nights where he woke up, but he went back to sleep as well. Our experiences in Toronto and Cayucos made me nervous about whether or not he would sleep. Now I know, he can sleep! However, when we returned, it took him a while to get back on schedule and so we had a few painful, crying nights, but after a week, he was back to sleeping through the night.

Lukas also hit another milestone in that he is now officially crawling. He doesn't crawl very fast, but we have had a few falls off the bed/couch. Luckily, most of the time, he landed on pillows. He's also pulling himself up to standing which prompted us to lower his crib. Most mornings now, he'll wake up and sit in his crib. There was one day he woke up from his nap and pulled a clock that is also a foam puzzle that was outside of his crib into his crib and started chewing on it. One thing we already know, this kid is determined. I'll post videos soon. In the meantime, here are photos from Lukas's 8th month and from our vacation in Honolulu:

Weekend in the Suburbs

So it's official, we are really an old married couple now. We used to go out on Friday nights and hung out with friends or at least went out to dinner. We spent Friday night at Costco which included appetizers (AKA food samples) and a gourmet dinner of pizza and a hotdog. We were buying food in preparation for Saturday night.

On Saturday, we started the day by taking Lukas to get a flu shot. He was a real trooper as we waited in line for 2 hours to get his shot at the walk-in clinic at his pediatrician's office. Surprisingly, we didn't see any meltdowns.

Afterwards, we went to the Banerjees for a BBQ to celebrate Mena's first birthday. I can't believe that she's already 1. That means that Lukas's birthday is just around the corner. Happy Birthday, Mena!

Then, we rushed home to clean the house because we had some of my old coworkers over for dinner. It was a good time catching up. We spent most of the night just talking. I'm realizing that it's a lot harder to do with kids.

Today, we had an informal photo shoot with Lukas to take photos for our Christmas card. Edwin's friend and coworker took our photos in a park in Piedmont. He was also our wedding photographer. Lukas did pretty well, but was a little distracted by the dogs walking by. Hopefully, we got a good one. We don't know yet because he used film to shoot the photos. How novel! You'll have to wait to see those photos, but in the meantime, enjoy these photos of Lukas at 7 months:


We're looking forward to a 1 day work week as we're leaving for Hawaii on Tuesday. Woo hoo! Vacation here we come!

Where Lukas Can & Cannot Go

So 2 weeks ago, we took Lukas to a children's concert. It is a local Caribbean style guitar player. He's very entertaining. I took Lukas a few months ago and he loved it, but it was during the day, so Edwin couldn't go. Here is a video of this concert:

I hope everyone had a good Halloween. I'm still waiting for photos from everyone to post our pictures. Lukas had a great time with all his little friends. We gave out 33.5 lbs of candy this year, though Jamie claims the number to be higher since we re-distributed candy from the ones that went trick-or-treating. I'll post photos when I get them!

In the meantime, you can enjoy a few more videos. Here is Lukas's first carousel ride with our friends Johanna, Marty and their son Mason:


So they finally openned up the Bay Bridge yesterday and today was the first day I went over it since it was closed. I would tell you about it, but I was asleep, so I guess I wasn't too stressed about it. Edwin saw it yesterday and claims that it looks like it's being held up by yellow duct tape.

OK- one final rant. So I am invited to a baby shower that is being held by the mother-in-law of the pregnant woman. The invitation said spouses were welcome. I indicated in my response to the evite for them to let me know if I needed to arrange childcare for Lukas. I didn't think that they would actually respond and tell me that I should "consider" finding childcare. Who doesn't allow babies at a BABY shower? Something about them owning a lot of antiques and a dog. Granted, it's not the mother-in-law's house, but still... I'm still going because I have to go since it's for my boss, but do you think I'll be staying long at this hoity toity shower in Tiburon? Sheesh!

Bay Bridge Down

So on Tuesday, a cable on the Bay Bridge broke and caused a 3-car accident right at rush hour. Luckily, no one was killed and only 1 person had injuries. I was working from home that day, but it did make me think because both Edwin and I cross that bridge almost everyday to go to work. What is worse is that it was the part of the bridge that was "fixed" over Labor Day weekend. They were even late reopenning the bridge to take care of it. So did they prevent an even bigger accident from happening or did they screw up the patch job and cause the cable to break?

Since then, the bridge has been closed and no one knows when it will open again. I've been working from home for most of this week, but I'm starting to get a little stir crazy. Check out this crazy picture taken by someone who was on the bridge when it happened.

Hopefully, the bridge will be reopened in time for our annual Halloween party on Saturday. Guess we'll see...

My Baby is Growing up So Fast!

Lukas is definitely changing faster than I can post. He's on the verge of crawling and yesterday, I think that he waved good-bye for the first time. Our nanny was leaving for the day and I told him "Say good-bye to Claudia" and to my surprise- he waved good-bye! Like everything else he does for the first time, he hasn't repeated it since, but I saw it. He waved his hand twice. A few weeks ago, Lukas had just woken up and I usually take him to our bed for his morning feeding. However, I smelled poo, so I started to change his diaper instead of heading to our room. When I put him down, he said, "Mama." I was half awake, but I stopped in my tracks and said to him, "Did you say 'mama?'" He looked at me and didn't say anything else, but his expression seemed like, "Did I say something wrong?" So now I have this game with him and I usually will say, "Did you say 'mama?'" in a funny voice and he will laugh. Hasn't said it since.

We're getting ready for his first Halloween and we are so excited. We went shopping for our costumes last weekend. I won't spoil the surprise yet. I'll let you see if you can figure out who he is in the photos, but we're having a lot of fun with it!

Lukas turns 8 months tomorrow. Where did the time go? I would say that he still seems like a newborn to me, but I don't think that I can given that he's tipping the scales at over 20 lbs. Speaking of newborns, congrats to Sarvi & Aaron in LA who just had baby girl Ameneh! We can't wait to meet her. They do change right before your eyes, but maybe it's just the blurriness from the lack of sleep...

Parents Day

So last Friday, we celebrated our first Parents Day. What is Parents Day, you ask? It's a day that 3 sets of parents decided to take the day off and enjoy SF. We kept our kids in their normal childcare and didn't go to work. We went out to brunch at Brenda's. Then, the women went shopping in Union Square while the guys went to get drinks. Matilde was deliriously happy. I was looking forward to just not working and being able to finish a conversation without distraction.

I did feel a little guilty. It's a day that I left Lukas and it was not necessary. We didn't limit ourselves and say that we couldn't talk about the kids. Of course we talked about the kids. We love our kids, why wouldn't we want to talk about them? It's just that we were able to talk about them to each other.

After shopping, we went out to a late lunch at Swan Depot for a seafood extravaganza. By the time we finished, it was time to leave the city to return to our children and start our weekend a little early. Here's a photo commemorating the event:

Foodie in Training

So we've been a little remiss in posting Lukas's progress into eating solids. We started giving him rice cereal in August, but he really wasn't that interested in it until a few weeks ago. We couldn't figure out why he didn't seem to be that interested in eating. It just didn't seem to be possible given our voracious appetites. We added breastmilk, we added rice cereal, we made it thicker, we made it thinner, we ate with him... the only thing he seemed to like were rice puffs. Finally, one day, I decided to heat the carrots we were giving him. That was the trick. Lukas likes his food warm.

We should have known because Edwin had figured out a long time ago that Lukas wouldn't drink his milk from a bottle if it was cold. I always like my food warm too, so I don't know why it took us so long to figure it out. He now likes whatever we give him as long as it's either room temp or warm. He's had avocado, banana, carrots, squash, green beans, rice cereal, and oatmeal. His favorite seems to be squash and avocado. I wasn't sure if I would be making his food or not. It looks like I'm not really doing it. We have a Magic Bullet, but it just takes so much time and is a lot of work for just a little bit. I am fine with purchasing baby food that is just steamed veggies, so the carrots, green beans, peas, etc. However, I am a little more hesitant to purchase the chicken pot pie or beef and veggie stuff. For the fruit, I just mash it up at room temp like the banana and avocado, so I guess I'm willing to purchase somethings, but not others. For 50 cents a pop, I'm willing to pay someone else to steam my veggies and puree them. I think that I will be making him congee when he starts eating rice.

Here are some videos of his eating adventures:

Birthdays and Colds

So last week, we had quite a few birthdays to celebrate. It was Jeannette and Alex's birthday on 10/2. That makes it easy for me because both of my siblings-in-laws have the same birthday, so I only had to remember one more date! It was also Kaori's birthday on 10/4, Lukas's nanny share Charlie turned one on 10/5, and it will be Kokomi's birthday on 10/10. We also celebrated our friend's son Connor's first birthday on 9/26. Last Sunday, we also attended a dinner for my great-uncle who turned 80. Binh and Bo have birthdays coming up on our third wedding anniversary which is 10/20. So a collective Happy Birthday to everyone. Did I miss anyone?

Last weekend, we also went out to Lukas's first baseball game. We saw the Oakland A's vs. the Anaheim Angels. Jeannette's friend Jimbo came for a visit and wanted to go, so we did. Here's a fun family pic:


Last week , I was battling a cold. I'm not sure if I gave it to Lukas or he gave it to me, but we both ended up getting a cold and then giving it to Edwin and our nanny Claudia. I feel very fortunate that Lukas has not gotten sick until now. However, he hasn't been sleeping as well which is hard. He's been waking up and wanting to be held. When he's not sick, we usually will let him cry a bit, but we feel sorry for him when he's all congested, so we rock him. Edwin and I are pretty much recovered, but Lukas is still battling it.

I guess it's been a while since I have posted some of Lukas's milestones. He is now eating solids twice a day. We give him rice cereal, some cheerio-like puffs, and vegetables. It took us a while to figure out why he didn't seem to want to eat the carrots and sweet potatos. Basically, Lukas likes his food warm. We knew that to be the case with his milk, so I don't know why it took us so long to figure this out. We also have to add the rice cereal to his food to thicken it. His favorite though are the rice crackers. He loves them. We tried giving Lukas avocado for the first time tonight. I think he seemed to like it since he wasn't spitting it out, but he was a bit fussy tonight. I'll post some videos of his eating adventures later, but here are some pictures during his 6th month. I can't believe he's already 7 months!

Congrats to Alex & Greg!

Last week was a blur. Edwin was sick with the flu, so that left me with taking care of Lukas. That means that it was pretty exhausting because when I wasn't taking care of Lukas, I was taking care of Edwin. Also, I was trying to finish a week's worth of work in 3 days since we were leaving for Toronto to attend Alex and Greg's wedding. Luckily, Edwin recovered just in time for the trip. In preparation for the trip, we ended up staying home for most of the previous weekend. We left for Toronto on Thursday afternoon and we didn't arrive at the hotel until 2AM. We were lucky in that my uncle Glenn was able to travel with us the entire time. It was nice to have an extra set of hands and the entire row on the plane. Lukas did great on the plane, but had trouble sleeping in the hotel. Similar to what happened in Cayucos, he would only sleep 2-3 hours and then would wake up crying. He did this until the last night when he finally slept through the night again. I think it's waking up in an unfamiliar environment even if he's sleeping with me and Edwin.

On Friday, we headed out to Toronto for the day since Edwin has never been there. We started the day with some breakfast from Tim Horton's (a Canadian coffee chain similar to Dunkin Donuts), had dim sum for lunch, and then walked to Eton Centre which is a big mall there. While we were there, Toronto was hosting the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) but we didn't see any celebrities. We had dinner at another Canadian chain called Jack Astor's. I would equate it as a cross between TGIF and Hooters. Our waiter was horrible, but the food was decent. We went there with the intention of eating out on the rooftop which overlooked downtown Toronto, but when we got there, it was too smoky because all the smokers were outside so we ended up eating inside. What a shame that the only people that get to enjoy the fresh air are the same ones that are polluting it.

On Saturday, we met up with our Cleveland cousins Lisa et al, Glenda et al, Benny, Eva, and their parents. We had dim sum with them in Mississauga and then got ready for the wedding. Alex looked so pretty as most brides do on their wedding day. It was a beautiful sunny day. It was also one of the funniest weddings I have ever attended. How many vows have you heard that mention farting? There were also some pretty funny quotes from actual text messages sent by the bride and groom.

Text messages? Are those like the love letters of this generation? I knew that people in the dating scene are using texting much more now, but I never really understood why. Why don't you call when you have the phone in your hand? Some would say, why email if you could call I guess, but at least you used to have to use a computer to send an email. I guess that's why I don't twitter either. I just don't have the time. I barely have the time to blog, post photos, and email. No Facebook for me either. I think that I would probably like it and I used it once for work, but I really am trying to reduce my time on the computer.

Anyway, back to the wedding. It was fun catching up with family. Unfortunately, we had to leave early before the music started because it was freezing cold. The day was warm and sunny, but it got really cold when the sun went down.

We went to Niagara Falls the next day to see one of the seven wonders of the world. I have seen them many times, but it was Edwin's first time. We went on our way back to the Buffalo airport. We were a little late getting to the airport, but we still managed to get there in time to buy some food before boarding the plane. It was a long trip, but I think it was worth it. I'll post photos later, but in the meantime, you can check out my cousin Lisa's photos from the wedding weekend:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037826&id=1108507237&l=7f8ca1645a

What Happened to Summer?

Well, I guess that summer is almost over with last weekend being Labor Day weekend. How did that happen? Lukas is already 6 months old. It's been a while since my last posting, so here's what we have been up to these last few weeks. We have been really busy looking for new childcare. I spent a lot of time interviewing nannies and family daycares. Most of them were not right for us. Little things like kids with runny noses, cereal on the floor, kids roughhousing, the TV being on, not having any toys, having too many kids, etc. These are all the little signs I would see that would make me think that this is not the place I want Lukas to be in everyday.

Ultimately, we were trying to decide between 2 nannies. One was in the city that was one block from my office that I found on craigslist and the other was a nanny share at our house from a neighbor's recommendation. I really liked them both, but we ended up doing the share at our house because the nanny in SF was just too expensive. What I liked about that option was that it was so close to work that I could see him at lunch and we wouldn't have to pay for as many hours of childcare. We have been using our new nanny Claudia for 3 days now. I worked from home the first day to show her where everything was. It is kind of strange to invite a stranger into your home and see things moved around, but I figure she's taking care of the most important person in our lives, so why not trust her in our home?

She seems to enjoy spending time with Lukas and Charlie (the 11 month old boy who Claudia also watches in our home for 6 hours a day.) She sings songs to them, reads to them, and takes them to the park. She takes great care of them. I just wish that I didn't need to use her that much.

The other family that we nanny share with just moved to Alameda from Portland. They seem like a nice family. We had them over to the house to see if the boys got along and so that they could inspect the facilities. They also invited us over to their apartment for a day at the pool to discuss the terms of the share. They just closed on a house in Alameda, so they'll be moving next month.

To prepare for the nanny share, we decided to do a little painting. We painted Lukas's closet and then the entryway. The entryway has been painted for a while, but we have been meaning to paint the 6 inches of walls above the moulding. We should have done it when we painted the entryway, but we thought it would make it look too dark. However, it now looks larger because it draws the eye up higher. That was 2 weekends ago.

We also attended Kinsey's first birthday in Marin. They had a farm animal theme which was very cute. I can't believe that she's already 1 because I feel like they had Kinsey right before we had Lukas. I guess it's only 6 more months before Lukas turns 1. Scary.

Last weekend, we went to Cayucos with some friends. Where is Cayucos you say? It is close to Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo where Edwin went to college. We rented a house with 3 other families with young kids or dogs. It was a full house, but fun. I finally got to finish a book that was not completely about babies. It was still related in that it was about one mom's opinion of all the issues you face as a new mom, but it was very funny and I could totally relate. It was not a reference manual on how to care for a baby, yourself, or some kind of pregnancy guide. It was a gift that I got from Priyanka for my birthday. All these years and she still knows what to get me for my birthday.

So here's an update on Lukas's development. He is now able to sit-up (kind of.) He still occasionally will fall over, but his core is pretty strong and he now sits up in his stroller. This is prompting us to think that we may need to get a new stroller so that he can sit up instead of reclining in his car seat. That way, we'll have a stroller in each car which will save me to having to transfer it between cars or worse- forgetting to transfer it and needing it. He's getting heavy. I'm not sure how much he weighs now, but I would guess that he's at least 19 lbs now since he weighed that much with his clothes on 2 weeks ago. He has a pediatrician appointment next week. He still sleeps pretty well at night. We were worried because he didn't sleep well in Cayucos, but I think it may have been too loud or because he was sleeping on his back instead of his stomach. He usually turns over, but he wasn't for some reason. Now we are home and though it took a few days to get back to where we were, he seems to be sleeping better again. Unfortunately, he may be a little sick. Nothing major- he just gets a little crusty around his nose and coughs every once in a while. It doesn't seem to bother him and we haven't given him any medication. Edwin has the flu as well and seems to be doing worse with a fever, sore throat, and achiness. We're just hoping that Lukas doesn't get that, so I have been having to do most of the childcare. We've been lucky so far in terms of not getting sick, so hopefully this will pass quickly.

Running on Empty

This past week has just been non-stop. The drive back from LA was pretty pleasant since Lukas slept most of the way. We met up with Edwin's mom for dinner in SF for her birthday and then picked up my mom from Oakland airport since she and her luggage couldn't fit in the car with us, Lukas, and all his baby gear on the drive back from LA. Lukas enjoyed his time with his grandmothers.

Lukas surprised me this week. He has never really liked getting ready for bed. The books say that you should have a bedtime routine for kids because it's supposed to make it easier for them to know what to expect. However, in Lukas's case, he recognizes his bedtime routine and doesn't like it. He wants to stay awake like everyone else. I can't say I blame him. Anyway, this week while I was getting his PJ's on, his PoPo decided to try and console him by carrying him to the back door to look outside. I usually just let him cry for a bit until I'm done changing him. Anyway, I reach for him to feed him and he looks at me and then deliberately turns away from me back to to PoPo. I couldn't believe it. I birthed this child and at 5 months he is already rejecting me? After recoiling in shock, I reached out for him again and this time he came to me as if to say, "OK- I was only joking." I am amazed at how he even knew he had a choice!

PoPo left on Thursday and she cooked up a storm as usual. I worked from home on Monday while she took care of Lukas. After work, I took them both to Chinatown to shop for groceries for the week. This was a feat for my mom. She very rarely is able to just go to shopping for food once on a trip. It usually takes multiple trips for my mom to get everything she needs. However, I simply didn't have the time to drive her, so I told her that if she didn't get it on this trip, we would have to make do with what we had.

I also had an interviews with several childcare providers after work this week. There was one stay-at-home mom in Alameda that was not a fit. Then, I had an interview with a nanny/stay-at-home mom in SF that lives right around the corner from my office. I really liked her and I hope that things work out with her. This weekend, I also met another nanny share in Alameda that might work. Searching for childcare is time-consuming and frustrating, so I can't wait until it is over. At least I'm starting to feel like I have some options. Both options have pros and cons, but I am hoping that the one in SF works out. I just had great chemistry with that mom/nanny and felt very comfortable leaving Lukas with her.

I also had a job interview myself on Friday. I haven't really been looking, but I have been sending out my resume when requested. Things have been very different since returning to work after my maternity leave. I think that it might be time to look into other options. Friday was very busy even though I didn't work that day. Lukas and I started the day with a stroller walk and then I had to drop him off at daycare so that I could get ready for my interview. I drove into SF and then picked up Lukas. Then, I had to get gas since my fuel light came on. It made me realize that I am running on empty in a lot of areas of my life. Running out of napkins, handsoap, time to find childcare, time to decide what I want to do with my career, time to spend on me.

This weekend was pretty relaxing. Friday night, we went to my old coworker's new apartment in Oakland. We had a good time getting to know her and her boyfriend better. On Saturday, we met up with Steve for lunch at Bakesale Betty's and then I went out with the girls for Girls Night Out. It was a good time with the ladies and we have another scheduled for next month. Having these Girls Nights help me to refuel because there are very few nights I can leave Lukas and have a night of fun. This week, I got 2 opportunities. Since my mom was in town, Edwin and I got the chance to go see a movie in the theatre. We ended up going to see GI Joe. It was entertaining, but nothing special. Being able to hang out with friends and go out with Edwin every once in a while feels good so I don't always have to feel like I'm running on empty.

Good Times

Last weekend, we had a great time with Lukas. We started with a summer Friday for me which meant that I got to spend the day with Lukas. We went to the opening of a place called Play Cafe which was located in Oakland about 15 minutes away from our house. They had a performer named Asheba who is like a Caribbean musician for children. He was very entertaining and Lukas watched him with wide-eyed amazement. It was very cute. Lukas seemed to enjoy it very much. The cafe I thought was just OK. It seemed that since it was just opened, it was very clean, but I have a feeling that it won't stay that way for long. It's a place that is aimed at families with children up to age 5. They had pretend stores, houses, a ball area, and eating area for families. The food was just so-so. I would go back for the entertainer, but the business was not something I would go to unless someone else suggested going there. I ended up purchasing Asheba's CD since it was so fun and I thought that Jon, Jeannette, and Freebles might enjoy it as well.

Last Saturday, we went for a BBQ at my cousin Billy's house. It was a lot of fun because we got to take Lukas out for a swim in their housing development's pool. It was very secluded and we were the only ones there. This was Lukas's second time in a pool and I think it went a lot better than the first time. The first time he was a little younger and the pool was much more crowded, so it was probably more intimidating for him. Also, we bought Lukas an inflatable donut that he could stick his feet into and could float on top of the water whereas the first time, it was just me holding him. Lukas really seemed to enjoy it and Edwin got to see it first hand since he wasn't able to go to the pool with us the first time. Billy had an underwater camera and was able to take photos and videos of Lukas in the water.

On Sunday, we hang out with Tom and Debbie in the afternoon and then had dinner with the Schneiders for some fine dining in Castro Valley. It was very tasty and it makes me eager to try out more cuisines in the area.

This weekend, we drove down to LA. Edwin had his annual surfing safari while Lukas and I visited relatives. He got to meet his great-grandmother for the first time and my mom came out to visit for a few days as well. I'll write more about it later. In the meantime, here are some photos since I haven't posted those in a while.

Happy Belated Bday to me!

So it was my birthday yesterday. It came up very suddenly. We went out to dinner with friends on Saturday at a Chinese restaurant on Sat. It was a good time, but it's definitely different with kids. You start your evenings a lot earlier and everyone was gone by 10PM. I didn't even get to eat my birthday cake until after everyone had left. Edwin baked me a cake from scratch. He's been perfecting his recipe for a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and it was pretty yummy.

Birthdays have changed after having Lukas too. I used to look forward to my birthday with anticipation, but now, I barely realize that it's my birthday even on my birthday. I feel kind of distracted because I feel like I am just trying to get through the day each day. I try to plan some things, but days pass by so quickly that sometimes things just sneak up on me even when I have planned them in advance. I know that I have to do something on a certain date, but then I don't know what day it is.

Work has continued to be stressful and now we also have the added stress of finding another daycare. Even though we love our daycare provider, it's just too stressful for her to care for 3 babies under 1 year. (I can only imagine how difficult it is to take care of so many infants when it's hard for us to take care of just Lukas!) Since Lukas was the newest baby and we were going to have trouble with the new hours which would be closing at 5PM, we got the boot. Also, her assistant decided that childcare was not for her and so she would be doing it all alone. We are disappointed because we really liked her and we felt like she took great care of Lukas, but we also understand the situation. I'm actually glad that she said that it was too much for her to handle instead of letting something slip under her care. I respect people more when they tell me that there is a problem versus just letting the problem compound and hoping it will go away. At least then you know that there is a problem and can begin to resolve it instead of letting it get worse. Still, it really sucks that I have to go through the whole finding a daycare process again when I hated it the first time.

No More Wednesdays

Today was my last midweek break. I've been taking Wednesdays off to spend more time with Lukas so that I was only away from him for 2 days at a time instead of a week. This was the last one. I'll still be working 4 day work weeks because I have 4 summer Fridays to burn, but this will be the last Wednesday. I'm going to miss it. He probably won't remember these days, but I will. It's not like we did anything special. In fact, it was a lot like the days I had on maternity leave. It's just hard since he spends about 9 hours a day at daycare and we only get to see him for about 3-4 hours a day during the week.

Today, we started the day off with a stroller walk with the parents group we belong to. Then, I thought I had a conference call with the client that got cancelled which was a bit frustrating because I stayed up until almost midnight working on a presentation for it. I'm having a tough time at work right now. The work itself is OK, but I'm finding it really hard to work with someone that I don't respect. I love my boss and the team is great, except for one person- my boss's boss. I think it may be time to look for something else. I really loved my job for the first 6 months, so it's sad that it's come to this. It's funny- most of the time, it's bad if your boss is telling you to find a new job. However, this time, my boss told me I should be looking because there is no future at this company and that she's looking too. I guess I should be thankful that she's looking out for me. I remembered thinking to myself that I should enjoy this job as long as I can because it usually doesn't last. Unfortunately, I was right.

After the stroller walk, Lukas and I had lunch with Shannon and Katie. Katie was born on the same day as Lukas. Shannon is her stay-at-home dad. They recently moved to Alameda and Edwin met them on the one time he was able to come to a stroller walk. They moved from NYC and his wife Heather is from OH and works at an agency, so we have some things in common. Then, Lukas and I ran some errands like grocery shopping, dropping off dry cleaning, getting gas, and getting cash. I think I really need one of these days at least once a month. Seriously, we had no bread, eggs, or milk in the house. We had food in the pantry, but no staples.

Like I said, I'll miss these lazy days with Lukas. I could tell that he was happy to be spending the day with me too. He was laughing a lot. He behaved by taking his naps and we got to play together. I'm glad that I'll have Fridays off in August, but it's going to be hard working 4 full days of work in a row. Wait- am I transitioning Lukas into daycare or weaning myself off of maternity leave? Hmm... probably both. What am I going to do when I have to work 5 whole days in a row? Let's not think about that. I know. I'm totally spoiled.

Bliss

Now I don't want to brag, but Lukas is a great baby. We've been trying to get him sleep without a swaddle. Why would we do that since we have been extolling the virtues of the swaddle since his birth? Well, last week he started rolling over. A lot. In fact, it was the first thing he would do after waking up and I found him one morning wedged against the side of the crib unable to move. So even though it was great for months, we decided to wean Lukas off of the swaddle or maybe he just convinced us that he didn't need it anymore.

On Friday, he cried for almost an hour before falling asleep. On Saturday, he also cried for a while before falling asleep. It was terrible. We would try and give him his pacifier or pat him, but he would just get angrier. On Sunday, he fell asleep in his carseat and slept there all night. Last night, I put him in his crib awake and he played for a while and then fell asleep with any crying. It was beautiful. Tonight, he went down again without a fight. Lovin' it.

Last weekend, I got a fever on Friday. I was able to just sleep early on Friday and it pretty much went away the next day with the exception of a little sore throat. I was glad that Lukas didn't get sick at all. I tried to stay away from Lukas except to feed him. Surprisingly, it's good for me to breastfeed him because I give him the immunity through the milk so that he won't get sick. Weird how that stuff works.

On Saturday, we took it easy since I was still recovering. We also attended a Red Eggs & Ginger Party for our cousin's twins. This is the first one I have attended. We thought about doing something to celebrate Lukas's first month or 100 days, but I didn't know what to do, so we didn't do anything. It was fun. It was kind of like a wedding banquet with 10 courses at a Chinese restaurant. They were even advertising for newborn red egg parties. I guess that's the trend now.

On Sunday, Edwin helped the Schneiders move into their new house. YAY! It reminded me of when we first bought our house and sleeping on the ktichen floor for a week and trying to get setup. Stressful, fun, and exciting. I can't believe that we have been in our house for almost 2 years now. Then, we had dinner with a friend from out of town. Vic is a friend that I have known for almost 25 years. Yikes, there's not that many people I can say that I have known for that long and still keep in touch. He was the emcee at our wedding and always makes us laugh. It was great catching up with him and our mutual local friends Will & Chiao. Lukas loved meeting Vic. He wasn't quite sure in the beginning and would look at me to see if it was OK, but then Vic started making him laugh and it was all over. They are best buds. It certainly helps that Vic is an experienced Dad with 2 kids of his own though I'm glad to see that Lukas loves Vic as much as we do. I'll post pics if I can get it from Vic. We also got to visit Vicki who was also in town, so we got to reminisce about growing up in Cleveland. None of us live there anymore, but there is something to be said about how we have managed to keep in touch. It was so nice to see them again. Reminders of who we are and those who helped us become that way.

Back to the Old Grind

So I went back to work last week. It's been OK. The first day was definitely the hardest. More for me than for Lukas. He was fine going to daycare. For me, it was hard to leave him all day long. It was the first time I left him with anyone except Edwin for 10 hours. We had a little scare last week when I had an allergic reaction to a new type of shellfish called periwinkle. I woke up congested and coughing. I thought that I was sick. I couldn't believe it because I didn't get sick while I was pregnant or in Lukas's first 4 months, so it's been over a year. I thought that maybe I had caught something on my first day back at work.

I was having a tough time getting to sleep because of the congestion. I woke up to get a drink of water and saw my reflection in the bathroom. My lips were completely puffy. That was when I realized that I had an allergic reaction to dinner. Luckily, the reaction only lasted one day and I was able to take Claritin and it cleared up. Now I know what I would look like with collogen- not good.

We are still trying to get the logistics of getting to work down, but it's tough. Lukas's daycare closes at 5:30 and I feel like we're racing against the clock to get back to Alameda in time. That's the toughest part. I really like our daycare provider. She was a little more expensive, but I think that she is worth it. I had interviewed several home daycares and many of them seem to have older children that play a little rougher. Some of them had the TV running while I was there and I found the caregivers paid more attention to me than the children. There was one that had a really clean house, but no toys in sight. What kind of daycare doesn't have toys?

Work itself has also been tough. There have been a few rounds of layoffs while I was gone and a lot of my coworkers were moved to another building. It is very depressing to see all the empty cubicles around me. I used to be able to say that I had fun at work and liked the people around me. Now, the work is OK, but I can't stand my disorganized project lead. It really goes to show that work is really impacted by the people that you work with. If you have good people, it makes bad work tolerable. If you have good work, but bad people, you can still be miserable.

Last weekend, we spent most of it at the new Schneider house in Castro Valley. We painted, helped organize the kitchen, and picked up food. It reminded me of how hectic it was when we first moved in. While we are mostly settled now, there are still some things Edwin and I still haven't gotten around to doing. I feel like we are always cleaning the garage. We also managed to lock ourselves out of our house this weekend. After painting/hanging out until 1AM, we got home and realized that we had left the keys in the house. Our next door neighbor has our spare keys, but we didn't feel comfortable waking them up at 2AM to get it. Jeannette also has a key, but we couldn't reach her either. So we ended up having an impromptu sleepover at Show's since she was also a fellow painter. This just shows that we need to hide a key. Edwin and I keep talking about doing that, but we haven't.

Happy 4th of July!

Last weekend was a busy one. On Friday, we went on our weekly stroller walk. Lukas and I have been walking along the Alameda shore every Friday morning for the past few weeks with a few other new parents. This time, Edwin got to attend with us. It was a gorgeous day to be walking. Then, we all attended Freeman's first birthday party. Of course, everyone had a great time and it was a beautiful day out. Pictures will be posted later.

On Saturday, we attended the Alameda Parade. It's like a little slice of Americana. Lots of homemade floats, families with kids, local businesses, and marching bands. Lukas was of course a little too young to enjoy it, but as usual, he likes to be outside and seeing people, so he was happy. We walked to the parade from our house with our neighbor Leilani, Darryl & Susan, and the Schneiders. This year's parade seemed a little more crowded than last year, but it was still fun.

We also hosted a BBQ. The day was such a blur. We had a great time on a gorgeous day. This year, we had the BBQ in the front yard along with all of our neighbors. We had a little buffet table with 3 types of tri-tip, pineapple sausage, veggies, salad, apple pie, choc chip brownies, chips, fruit, and fresh lemonade. On Sunday, we did a little shopping and then went to hang out with the Schneiders and Banerjees because we simply don't see them enough.

Lukas had his 4-month check-up last week. He's now officially 16lbs. 2 oz. and 25.5 inches long. He is growing like a weed. We haven't posted any photos or videos in a while, so here are some recent ones of Lukas and Daddy playing "Stinky Feet" and Lukas in his new favorite toy, the "Jumparoo."

Sunny Happy Days

This weekend has flown by. On Friday, Edwin had a Guys Night (aka Drinks Night) so I stayed home with Lukas. I thought it was going to be a lonely night, but there was an impromptu neighborhood block party, so Lukas and I got to spend the warm evening outside getting to know some more of the neighbors. It was very nice because there were so many people who wanted to hold Lukas that I got to eat dinner without holding him. Another bonus is that I didn't even have to cook myself dinner since people had brought the fixings for tacos. People are so nice on our street. The neighborhood is one of the best things about where we live. I never expected to get to know so many of them. I have never gotten to know neighbors like this before. It's like something out of the 50's. They have these impromptu block parties pretty often, but we generally are not able to attend because we usually already have plans.

I had to leave a little early because Lukas started getting a little fussy because he was tired, but he went to sleep without a fight which is a blessing in it of itself. Then, I got to relax and watch one of my favorite movies that was playing on TV, "Sleepless in Seattle." I own the DVD, but there's just something about watching a movie live. Edwin got home before the movie ended, so there really wasn't any time to be lonely.

On Saturday, Steve and Pablo came by to meet Lukas. We had took a walk to downtown Park St. for some lunch at La Pinata which Pablo had introduced to us so many years ago. It was like old times. After they left, Edwin and I did some spring cleaning. We have been meaning to clean out the garage for a while. We have these garment racks that were in our old garage for our suits and outdoor gear that we never put together. The clothes have been hanging in Lukas's closet. We couldn't put the clothes in the garment racks until we found a place to put them in the garage which we needed to organize. We also were able to organize our front closet because we were able to put some of the coats into the garment racks. It felt so good to be able to clean something up. We're still not done. We are having people over for a 4th of July BBQ next week, so it's good motivation for us to clean more. We just need to donate more to the Goodwill. I'm leaning towards just throwing out the boxes of stuff in the garage that we don't know what is in them. Obviously, I haven't needed what is in them for almost 2 years. I would just remove them, but Edwin wants to go through them (probably because it's mostly his stuff!)

Today, we spent another beautiful day outdoors. We went to a Les Nubians concert at Stern Grove. We purchased tickets to see this band a few years ago at Bimbo's (a club near our old apartment) but realized that we couldn't go because we were scheduled to fly out of town at the same time. We were able to sell the tickets on craigslist, but we never got to see them in concert until today. It was a free outdoor concert where you just pack a picnic lunch and lounge on the grass. We were surrounded by lots of other families with young kids. We haven't been to Stern Grove in a few years, but I think that we will definitely be going more often with Lukas. He loved being outdoors and fell asleep looking at all the trees. He took a nice, long 2 hour nap which would have been longer if someone's football falling near us hadn't startled him.

Sniffles

This past week, Lukas has had a slight runny nose. It's not actually even runny. He's just had some mucus in his nose and a little congestion. We're not sure if he was ever really sick because he never complained. We haven't been with anyone who was sick either, so we're not sure where it came from. We haven't given him any medication since it didn't seem to bother him. He's really such a happy baby. We are very lucky. Occasionally, he'll cry when we try to put him to bed, but once he's out, it's OK.

One more week. That's all I have left of my maternity leave. Next week, Lukas starts daycare. I went to his daycare today to fill out some paperwork. His daycare provider's name is Mallory. It's a family daycare, meaning that she runs it out of her home. She's only allowed 4 infants per caretaker and there are 2 caretakers. He'll be the 4th child and 3 of the kids are part-time. Lukas will be the only one who is full-time. One of the reasons I chose her is the low ratio of children to caretakers. I'm sure that she will have more children over time, but at least in the beginning, he'll be getting lots of attention. Another reason, I chose her is that I like her gentle nature. I saw how she interacted with the other children while she was with Lukas. Today confirmed my feelings. She was taking care of Lukas and 2 other children while I was filling out the forms. She doesn't raise her voice, but she does tell the children to be gentle or distracts them with other toys if they want something they shouldn't have. I also watched one of the children who was 14 months say good-bye to her mother. This was not a child who was crying or screaming as mom left. Her mom did not have to sneak out the door while she was distracted. She happily waved good-bye to her mom as she left. Seeing this interaction made me feel a little better about leaving Lukas there. Still, Edwin is going to have to be the one to drop him off next week because I don't think that I can do it. I'll be sniffling even as they leave.

I'm sure that Lukas will be fine. He hasn't exhibited any separation anxiety at all. It will be me who has the separation anxiety. I'm trying to ease my transition back to work by taking Wednesdays off in July so that I'm only away from him 2 days at a time. Then, in August, I get 4 summer Fridays which I'll use. So for 2 months, I'll only be working 4 days a week, but getting full pay.

Here are the latest photos of Lukas and our trip to Pismo Beach:

Happy Father's Day!

So we did another little video for Father's Day. This past weekend, we went to Mason's First Birthday on Saturday. He has changed so much since we last saw him in January. Lukas had a great time watching Mason eat his birthday cake. More pictures to come later. We also got to catch up with Chris, Dana, and Jayden. They come up from Santa Cruz unexpectedly and so we got to catch up with them as well. It was so cute to see the 2 boys together. They are about 2 monthes apart, so we get a little preview to what Lukas will be doing shortly.

Chatting & Pismo Beach

Last weekend, we went to Pismo Beach for Jon & Kim's wedding. Jon has become a good surfing buddy of Edwin's and he worked with both of us while we were at KSA. It was a nice 4 hour drive down to the Central Coast. Pictures will be posted later. It was a good time, so we wish that we had more time there. We stayed in the downtown area and had some great seafood and clam chowder at Splash Cafe and Brad's. We also got to see a few whales while we were there.

Lukas did well in the hotel room that had paper thin walls. We heard the man next door snoring and the people upstairs pacing, so when Lukas woke up crying at 5:30AM, we hoped that our neighbors would be as forgiving.
We just got a new camcorder- the Mino Flip HD. I think that almost all new parents within the last 2 years have this camcorder. It's smaller and lighter than our camera and is good for making videos quickly. I'm pretty sure that we'll be using it often. We have been thinking about getting one for a while and we saw it at Costco, so decided to bite the bullet. Now, we just need to get the HD TV to watch them. Haha. It was actually good timing that we got it because Lukas has decided that he likes to talk now. He had quite a few conversations this past weekend with everyone he met. I'll post that later too.

This week, we got another surprise visit from our friend Bo from NYC. We got to have dinner and dessert with her and Show and reminisced about old times. Bo's blog was the first blog that I had ever read. She's inspired me to create one because she always has an opinion and can always make me laugh. Bo only lived out here for 14 months, but we have many happy memories with her in that short period. We all reflected on how things have changed and still stayed the same in the 5 years that have transpired since she left SF. Hmmm... I wonder who will show up unannounced in the Bay Area next week. I only have 2 more weeks left in my maternity leave, so I welcome more visitors!

Also, I was informed that my videos of Lukas from 2 postings ago were asking for you to become my friend to view them. I think that I have changed the setting so you can view it. If not, let me know that there are still technical difficulties!

Come Visit Us!

So we have had a lot of visitors in the past few weeks. It's been really great to be able to catch up with people and to introduce them to Lukas. Last week, Alex and Flora came to visit from Toronto. I haven't seen them in almost 10 years. It was great fun even though it was a short visit. We made breakfast and took them around for some quick SF tourist spots. We went down Lombard Street, walked around in Fisherman's Wharf, ate some clam chowder, and stopped by Chrissy Field for some photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. We did all of this in 2 hours. I told them it was a teaser tour to make them want to come back to visit soon. Edwin and I love to travel and we love to have friends take us around to cool spots. It's so much faster and much less stressful.

This week, our friend Vicki came for work and to visit. We walked along the beach and in downtown Alameda and just talked for hours. It was a great time. Chatting with Vicki was like food for my soul. Last weekend, I had Girls Night which helped to energize my spirit, but talking with Vicki helped me to feel like I was me again. I'm not just a mom. It's not that being a mom is bad or that I don't want to be a mom, but I think it is really easy to lose your identity when all your energy is spent taking care of a baby, house, and husband. It is a really hard job. When people say that it is hard for a new mom to shower or even to pee, it's not an exageration. You really don't have a lot of time for yourself or to reflect. You feel like you're living ground hog day over and over again where time resets every 2-3 hours based on feeding and sleeping schedules. Talking with Vicki reminded me of all the times when we lived in Chicago and we would meet each week and talk for hours over dinner. It's as if I went back in time. I used to spend a lot of time hanging out with my girlfriends talking about our problems and relationships. Now, there are usually husbands or children or both around. It's not that I don't want either Edwin or Lukas around, but I can't have the same types of conversations or even have the ability to finish conversations sometimes. Girls Night was great because it was a group of girls and we were able to pack in a lot of activities, but talking one-on-one with Vicki was nice because I could focus on just one conversation and we had no agenda. Edwin and I had a similar experience when Ellen came to town for a visit and we were able to go out with her and float around SF without an agenda and just having a spontaneous night hanging out.

I'm not a very spontaneous person. Most people would say that I'm a planner and I don't like to have changes to preset plans, but I love it when we have plans to just hang out and we go place to place with our friends all day long. It's very freeing.

Today, we got another out-of-town visitor. My friend Binh from college came up from LA unexpectedly. She came to visit the Jamba Juice tasting kitchen and we got to have lunch with Nikki. It was a leisurely lunch and reminded me of all the times in college when we would cut class and go shopping. Another blast from the past.

This weekend, we're going to Pismo Beach for a wedding with a former coworker from KSA. So many reminders of people from our past. Then, on Monday, I am meeting another old college friend Amy and her family for breakfast. I try to keep in touch with people and it seems to get harder as the years go by, so I am so happy when people come to visit and call me up when they are in town. I used to feel a little hurt if people didn't call me to meet up when they came to SF, stay with me, or call me last minute since it felt like I was last on their list to call. Now, I don't take it personally. There have been a few times myself when I have not been able to see everyone I wanted to see on a trip or called last minute to see if people are free to meet. Now, I am just happy if our schedules work and we are able to meet up and catch up. I have come to realize that everyone just gets exponentially busier when you add another person to your life such as significant others or kids. Everyone's got a schedule- even when they are only 3 months old.

My point after all this reminiscing? It would make me so happy if you would come out and visit us! And if you can't visit, call me and tell me what's going on with you.

Blink and You Might Miss It

People talk about missing their children's learning milestones while they are at work like their child's first word or first steps. Well, yesterday, I was home alone with Lukas and I missed one. I had put Lukas down on his play mat for some tummy time. I usually will either play with him or come in and out of the room to get other things. Since it's on the floor, he can't really injure himself too much since he can't crawl. So I stepped out of the room to go to the bathroom. Normally, Lukas doesn't like tummy time and will usually complain vocally while he is on his stomach. I noticed that he seemed a little quiet as I returned to the room, but I thought maybe he has learned to like being on his tummy or just stopped complaining. To my surprise, he had rolled over and turned onto his back! I think he was either stunned or just happy to be off his tummy because he was just quietly looking up when I entered the room. I couldn't believe it. I was there and I missed it!

As soon as I realized what had happened, I turned him over on his stomach and told him to do it again. (I'm not sure he understood me, but he probably knew something was up because I was talking excitedly and looking frantically for the camera.) He actually did it again while I was watching this time, but unfortunately, I couldn't get the camera to turn on fast enough and all I got on video was him lying on his back instead of the action of him rolling onto his back. Of course I tried to get him to do it a third time, but was unsuccessful. I tried to get him to do it again today and even demonstrated to him, but he still wouldn't do it. I guess it will be like his giggle- we'll get to see it a few times before he actually lets us catch it on film.

Here are a couple of videos that we did get. This is a video of a giggle session that Edwin and Lukas had before bedtime:


Here is a video of Lukas and Edwin playing Nai-Nai-Nai-Ba which is basically the Japanese version of Peekaboo (sorry it's sideways!):

Girls Night

What a difference a weekend makes. By the end of the week, I am totally frazzled and exhausted. Last night, I had a fun girls day and spent 8 hours away from Lukas- the longest time I have been away from him since he was born. It was both needed and hard. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. We started the afternoon wedding dress shopping with Show. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take any pictures at Amy Kuschel where Show tried on all these beautiful dresses. Show looked great in every dress since she's tall and slender. Kaori, Matilde, Jeannette, and Corinne all joined in and we had a nostalgic walk down memory lane as we remembered our own weddings. For a future Girls Night, I think that we should all wear our wedding dresses to a fancy dinner so that we get another use out of them. Unfortunately, that would require us all to open the martinized boxes that they are sealed in. I think it would be great fun, but all the girls thought that it was a bit silly.

We went to a second dress shop, but the dresses were not the right style and we got there too close to closing time, so they wouldn't let her try on any dresses. Nikki and Michelle joined us for dinner at Doobu in Japantown and then had some crepes for dessert. Kaori, Matilde, Show, and I stayed for a little karaoke. It was so nice to be with my girlfriends and be able to finish conversations without the distractions (ie-kids!) We had so much fun that we decided to try and plan a Girls Night every other month. Can't wait until the next one.

Here are some photos from our trip to Chicago for Memorial Day weekend.

Throwing out the Books

Lukas has been such a great sleeper since he was born which I say he got from me. I used to feed him, change him, play with him, and put him to sleep about every 2 hours from 10AM to about midnight. Then, at midnight, he would sleep pretty soundly until around 5 or 6AM which people would say was good. Then I started reading more books which say that he needs more sleep like he should be sleeping 3-4 hour stretches in the afternoons and then like 10-12 hours a night. (We're not worried about him gaining weight or needing to eat since he's 14lb and 5 oz as of last Thursday and 24.5 inches long which puts him in the 75th percentile for weight and height.) I was happy thinking that he was getting enough sleep and I was getting enough sleep. Now I have ruined it all by trying to make him sleep more. He never used to cry when I put him to sleep, but for the past few days, that's all he does when I try to get him to sleep. He just doesn't want to sleep that much. His naps have been getting shorter and shorter so he only naps during the day for 30 minutes to an hour. I know I just need to surrender and let him be. That's how it was with the breastfeeding. There were times when I felt like he was telling me that he didn't need to eat anymore and that he would fight me, but when I started listening to him and didn't force him to eat, it all got a lot easier. (All the books said that I needed to feed him both breasts, but I have a good milk supply, so he only needs one side.) I now know that he's a big boy, so I don't have to worry about him not eating enough anyway.

It's been a struggle this week. I used to rock him to sleep and everyone says that's bad because he needs to learn to sleep on his own. Sometimes he does sleep on his own, but sometimes I think that he still needs help. The one thing that I have done is that he is able to sleep throughout the night without eating. He's been going down around 10 and then waking up around 5 or 6AM to eat. I almost fed him last night at 2:30AM, but I decided to just give him his pacifier (for an hour!) and suck it up. (Ha ha! Pun intended.) He slept through the night without eating just fine. I don't want him to start waking up in the middle of the night and expecting to eat so that it becomes a habit. As a result, we took a morning nap from 8:30-11:30AM. Don't ask me what I'm going to do when I go back to work.

I know that he needs sleep, so I'm going to focus on getting him to sleep more, but these books don't seem to be helping me on the how to get him to sleep more. The crying method doesn't seem to work. That just leaves him so exhausted that he falls asleep after crying for hours. He just gets all worked up and then can't calm himself. If I can rock him to sleep in half an hour, that seems faster to me and then neither one of us is upset. He'll learn to go to sleep on his own some day. I don't expect a 3.5 month old to be able to do that yet. All the kid wants to do is eat, sleep, and play. Sometimes, he'll fall asleep himself if he's just swaddled and given a pacifier, but that doesn't always work, so when it does I should be thankful. If it doesn't, I'm just going to rock my baby to sleep. It's like that lullaby- "If that mockingbird won't sing, mama's gonna buy herself a diamond ring..." Well, maybe those aren't the exact lyrics, but I like them better that way!

Memorial Day Weekend

So we spent Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago with my parents and my sister Laura came out with her family as well. As usual, time passed by quickly. Lukas got to meet the cousins from the other side of the family. (He has a total of 4- Freeman, Hannah, Timothy, and Phoebe.) Photos will come later, but we got to see Stacy, Ryan, & Eli for lunch at Lou Malnoti's. We got to have dinner at Big Bowl and watched a Angels & Demons with Santiney & Carlos. We actually watched 3 movies in the theatre while we were in Chicago. It was great. Gong-gong & Po-Po baby-sat Lukas while we also saw Star Trek and Wolverine. We saw Wolverine with Sandy and had breakfast with Vicki. We also got to visit Xochitl, Eddie, and their 3 boys. Xochitl's youngest was Andrew and he was about a month older than Lukas, but their due dates were about the same, so they look about the same age. We also got to see our other friend Ryan who worked with us both at KSA, but unfortunately ran out of time to see his 3 boys. So many boys.

This was also Lukas's first plane ride. We were a bit nervous, but he did great. On the flight there, he slept virtually the entire flight and I fed him on the way down. The return wasn't that bad except that we had to sit on the tarmac for about 1.5 hours, so our time on the plane got expanded to 5.5 hours instead of 4. Though he didn't sleep the entire time, it went as well as we could hope. The main difficulty was that he had a poopy diaper and needed a change, but even that wasn't so bad.

The weather was warm for most of our trip. We also got to go downtown briefly for some italian beef and hotdogs, but we didn't get to walk around as much as we wanted to. The day we chose to go downtown was rainy which curtailed our outdoor adventures. Can't wait to go back!