bonnie & jason

Ashlyn’s first birthday party

Alissa made friends with yet another baby today at Ashlyn’s first birthday party. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to stay for the whole thing as it was way past Alissa’s nap time and she was getting cranky. As such, I didn’t take that many pictures (link to them here) but here are a few highlights.

To infinity, and beyond!

We had bought this pop up Buzz Lightyear spaceship as an “emergency” gift a while back but decided we might as well put it to good use so Alissa has been having a ball with it the last few days. It’s even more fun than the big Amazon cardboard box she was playing with a few weeks ago. The main difference is that it’s big enough for her daddy to crawl in and out of.

0.3235

That my friends, is the statistical probability of having two girls in a twin pregnancy. Ironically, that’s also the probability that the father of said twin girls ends up prematurely gray. I kid. (More precisely, I kid-kid.)

The important thing is that everything appears normal with the twins as far as size, heartbeat, organ development, placenta location, etc. They’re both about 7 oz and are right on target for their gestational age. Also, since they’re both girls, we’ll be able to re-use all of Alissa’s stuff as well as “store” them all in the same bedroom for who knows how long. Anyone know if they make triple decker beds?

Anyway, more to come as we’ll be having monthly ultrasounds. Hopefully, there are no more surprises now that we know the genders. In the meantime, spread the word… and let me know if you see any sales for anything pink.

Nicholas’ red egg and ginger party

Another weekend chock full of fun. The first order of the day was for Alissa to wear a dress that Bonnie made her for the first time:

What’s the occasion? Nicholas’ red egg and ginger party. It seems like we go to one of these every month these days. I guess we’re just in that phase of our lives. If it’s not a red egg and ginger party, it’s a kiddie birthday party. Soon enough it will be recitals and plays and soccer games. I’m starting to see the genesis of the mid-life crisis! =)

Before I get too far ahead of myself, here are a couple more pictures from the party.



This last one is a 2/3 preview of what I have in store for me. The other preview I got was watching Alissa spend about an hour chasing after all the little boys. Andrew seemed to be particularly fun to chase, probably because he’s closest in age to her. He was also the first boy to kiss her so that might have something to do with it. Of course, he was like 8 months and she was about 4 months or something like that at the time so I’m not sure if that really counts. Regardless, will be interesting to see how all these kids grow up together.

So after a brief rest at home, we made our way down to Deeann and Calvin’s place for a feast of a dinner prepared by Deeann’s aunt and uncle.

Man, such great food! It was like going to a fancy wedding banquet except the food was tastier! After stuffing ourselves while watching the Eagles lose a close game to the Bears (Boo!), we observed Alissa and Abigail play sort of together.

Alissa was really into the pretend tea party. Abigail was amazing with her letters. And otherwise, the two kinda played in parallel. Again, it will be fun watching them grow up together. It’s going to just get more hectic once we throw the twins in the mix along with whomever else happens to be born over the next few years. Remember that game, “Life?” I guess it’s not a game anymore!

Conservatory of Flowers

We tried to make it to the opening day of the California Academy of Sciences but it was amazingly packed. We even went 30 minutes before the doors opened and by the time we got there, the line was literally around the corner, probably about 1/2 mile long. Here’s a shot of the poor souls who probably waited in line only to be turned away.

Bonnie overheard someone say that she was there 2 hours before the doors opened and was told to come back at 4:00 for her entrance window. Crazy. Anyway, instead we had a nice morning with Calvin, Deeann, Abigail, and Deeann’s relatives visiting from Vancouver. We walked to the Conservatory of Flowers and endured the high humidity for a little while. Then we hit a playground for the kids to run around in for a while before heading to lunch at Cafe Bakery. Here are a few highlights:

Potty training begins… warning: Poop humor

One of the most severe downsides of growing up with a blogging parent is no doubt the plethora of embarrassing posts that will come back to haunt you some day. This is one of those posts. But I digress.

I am happy to report that we actually had a successful trial run! Everything seemed almost preordained. First, the UPS man showed up right after Alissa’s nap with the ubiquitous Amazon box with potty trainer inside. Second, Alissa played with said Amazon box in 20 different ways, surely supplementing the peristalsis process. Then, since it was time to change her diaper anyway since it had a fair amount of pee in there I figured let’s put her on the seat and see what happens. Well, after keeping her occupied with some reading material and hearing no less than three farts, she suddenly kind of bent over a little and did her business. I’ve never been so proud in my life.

Since we’re trying to encourage this kind of behavior, we gave her a sticker (which she loves and incidentally, came with the seat) and an M&M, which she’s never had. I think she was confused. “Umm… I just pinched a loaf and these crazy people are giving me stickers and candy? I don’t want to eat anything when there’s a big stinky cigar staring back at me!” Anyway, thank goodness for everyone, I didn’t document anything stinky, but we did take a couple pictures of Alissa during try number 2. Since she was taking a bath anyway, I thought maybe she would go pee pee if she heard the water running. No luck. But that’s ok. She does seem to enjoy sitting on the thing anyway. The second picture below looks like she’s bearing down, but she really isn’t. But I thought the picture was hilarious. To be fair (ok, it’s still not quite fair) I included a couple pictures of me in a similar situation. Feel free to make your own comparisons.

Reid’s third birthday

Another weekend, another birthday party! Alissa is very lucky to have so many friends. This time, we were at a park down in Atherton. After using chips to eat a bunch of salsa, she enjoyed some mango and chicken sausages followed by chocolate cake and lots of fruit. The jungle gym and swings next door also provided a bunch of entertainment but was overshadowed by Alissa’s first pinata experience. Hightlights below, entire album here.

Alemany Farmer’s Market

We went to the Alemany Farmer’s Market this morning with Connor, Jen, and Ken. We’ve driven by it a bunch of times before but never took the time to actually go. So today, we ended up going, looking, and buying. The tomatoes were really good and we picked up some grapes and kettle corn as well. Here are a few pics of the produce:

Totally off topic, but here are some pictures of Alissa making her self comfortable in Bonnie’s body pillow and boppy:

A cow says what?

As you might expect, Alissa is starting to pick up words at an accelerated pace. She knows cow and that a cow says moo. She knows lion and roar, dog and woof, duck and quack, and maybe one or two others. Her first real two syllable word came out the other day as well. Notebook. Although she technically knows thank you, it really just comes out as the same syllable twice. And even that one syllable isn’t all that clear. Anyway, here are a couple videos of Alissa saying moo.

Happy Birthday Benita

Dinner at Broadway Prime, mocha cake, and an hour of Rock Band. Good times.