Saturday, January 11, 2014

We visited some of our old college hangouts today and explored some new places as well. First stop, Durant Food Court. School isn’t in session right now so it was pretty empty.

We bought food from nearby IB Hoagies and Simon was super excited about the curly fries while Ron’s trying to figure out how he can wrangle some away from Simon.

I had the bacon and avocado cheese steak with my favorite side, chili cheese fries! When I was in college, sometimes I could just get the chili cheese fries in a cup and have that for a meal. Oh so good. Just like I remember it.

After lunch, we walked to campus to explore. They are rebuilding the student union which is supposed to be completed by 2015. We stopped by Sather Gate for a quick picture.

We stopped by these statues on our way to VLSB. This awesome hat is from Grandpa Tam and I was laughing so hard because Ron and Simon decided to race to these statues and the side flaps of the hat were bouncing up and down as Simon was running. It was so cute and he was so happy to be running down the hill to beat Daddy there. I didn’t have enough time to catch a video but it’s very fresh in my memory and makes me smile just thinking about it again.

Iris and I walked by the redwood trees near VLSB.

While Simon and Ron went to explore Strawberry Creek. Here they are coming back hand-in-hand.

They saw some people sitting on a log so raced to get on this one. Simon got on first and thought this was a front but he turned around to look at Ron facing the other way. Which way is the front?

We walked around a bit more before heading back to our car but stopped at CREAM (Cookies Rule Everything Around Me) on the way back. Simon was super happy with this M&M cookie and vanilla ice cream sandwich.

I got a snickerdoodle cookie with salted caramel ice cream sandwich. It was only $2 (cash, $2.50 if credit) which I think is a pretty good deal. Simon got a half-sandwich that was the perfect amount for him. A whole one would have been way too much.

It was chilly out but the cookies were warm and delicious. You have to eat them pretty fast though since the ice cream isn’t very hard so melts quickly with the warm cookies. They have two tables inside but a perfect bench right outside as well.

The kids had a good nap in the car on the way home and were full of energy in the evening. Simon had fun playing with Iris by hiding underneath her walker.

Her little belly is off the ground these days but she doesn’t completely crawl on all fours (yet!).

A lovely relaxing day. Just what I needed.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Sleep training for Iris has been pretty nonexistent. She went through a week where she would only wake once per night but then started up again waking 2-3 times per night. So it’s been pretty unpredictable lately and I haven’t had the heart nor energy to let her “cry-it-out” like we did with Simon. I’m afraid of her waking up everyone else in the house and I’m also pretty tired and just not in the mood to work on it. Basically I let her nurse and she will calm down and go back to sleep. Some mornings though, I can’t get her to go back to sleep but I’m awakened by her cutie face which makes me groggily smile no matter what.

Simon’s lunch of pizza rolls, carrots, strawberries, and grapes. Unfortunately, I left Simon’s lunch at home so he ended up having to come home for lunch but at least it was made and ready for him to eat rather than having to cook.

I accompanied Simon’s class to Children’s Fairyland in Oakland today for a field trip. We planned to leave at 9:30am but didn’t end up leaving until after 10am so I had time to look around his classroom and the school. I found a drawing he did this week about our recent trip to Lake Tahoe.

Plus I found his “feather” for the school turkey. I didn’t notice his name until today. Although I do not know what it says. I’ll have to ask Ron to translate…

I drove three other kids and one of the assistant teachers for the field trip and let me just say, it is definitely a challenge with four toddlers in the car trying to talk all at once. I’m glad one of the teachers was with me to help quiet them down. They were just super excited to go on a field trip and some had been to Fairyland before and were excited to go back again. Once we arrived, the kids all had a snack before going inside. It was a good deal for the adults actually, only $4 admission with the field trip rate.

Once inside, the children were greeted by the bubble blower and were super excited to run around catching the bubbles.

There were lots of small buildings for the kids to go in and out of and climb and slide and just run around.

We sat together to watch the puppet show.

Then explored what we could before we had to head back to school. I loved this water fountain, just a bit funny.

Our car buddies.

Sliding down the hill. Simon had a great time here before we had to bring the other kids back to school.

After we dropped the other kids back to school, Simon came home with me for lunch and was supposed to nap and go back to school. But after lunch, he did not nap at all and really did not want to go back to school. My plan for the afternoon was to finish organizing our house so I told him he had two choices, he either had to go back to school so he could hang out with his friends or he could stay home but play in his room by himself while I was cleaning (Iris was being a bit fussy so Annie couldn’t watch both of them). He told me, “I’m sure I want to stay home and play in my room by myself”… so that’s what he did for about two hours before getting antsy and coming to find me. It gave me a good two hours of organizing time and I was actually impressed he was able to entertain himself for two hours. I felt a little guilty for not hanging out with him but there are just times when you need to get things done. Iris’s side of our room has been piled high with boxes since we moved in and I’m not able to sort stuff when she’s sleeping in the room but I’m glad I had some time and got a lot of things done today. I hope this little girl appreciates it!

Above she is in the bean bag chair and it was her first experience trying to move around in it. She couldn’t figure out why she kept on sinking deeper as she pushed with her legs. She still had fun in it.

After the field trip and all the cleaning/organizing, I was not in the mood to cook dinner so Ron picked up food from Pyramid Brewery. He also bought this bottle of Apricot Ale. We had some this evening and saving the rest for Sunday’s football game.

My back was sore from all the box lifting, so I got a night off from bathing Iris. Simon likes to help me pour water over her so today he helped Ron bathe Iris.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

I pulled out my mini 1 lb breadmaker to bake some bread for Iris. She loves baby puff snacks so seems to like starches. She will choose puffs over eating rice or noodles so I thought she might like some fresh baked bread. I started with plain white bread.

“Hmm? What’s this?” (It’s some of the crust cut off into a small stick.)

“Let’s taste it…”

“Yum!” *happily sucking and gnawing*

It was a big hit not only with Iris, but also with Simon who enjoyed some for breakfast. By the end of the breakfast, half the loaf was gone and we finished off the rest for dinner. The loaf of bread is small so it’s good that we can have fresh bread that will only last 1-2 days and then we can try a new recipe. Not sure what will be next, maybe banana bread…

For lunch, Simon had mini hot dog buns, carrots, clementines, and some holiday gummy snacks (from Target’s after Christmas sale!).

Iris’ new favorite place is standing up and holding onto the side of her play bins.

Looking cute crawling around.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

One of Simon’s favorite lunches, mini salami sandwiches with cheese and Asian pears.

Today was a slow picture day, only two good ones of the kiddos with their little grins (and cute Tea Collection clothes).

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Back to making school lunches. I forgot to take a picture of yesterday’s but here is today’s. We bought these mini chicken tacos at Costco that Simon actually liked. He also surprisingly likes Romaine lettuce. He loves croutons and breadsticks. He also has some leftover chocolate Pocky sticks. His meal is finished off with clementines and raspberries.

After cleaning out some more boxes, I found this Niners hat that Simon insisted on wearing today. Go Niners!

Iris’ playspace has been rearranged a bit and she has Simon’s old toy cubby so that she can pick her own toys to play with. She has been trying to pull herself up lately but can’t quite do it on her own yet but her legs are pretty strong.

I feel safer with her crawling on the ground.