Andrew's 6th Birthday

We held a birthday party for Andrew with the theme of Avatar: The Last Airbender since we love that cartoon series in our family.  We had to do a quick change of venue from the park to our house due to a rainy morning, but it all turned out fine and the kids had a great time.  In true Andrew fashion, he invited his entire kindergarten class, his primary class at church, and some friends from preschool last year.  It was kind of a relief that not everyone came, but it was super cool that one of his school teachers came with her two kids.

I made a snack to represent each of the four elements in Avatar world.  There was chocolate pudding with crushed oreos for Earth, blue jello for Water, meringue cookies for Air, and nacho cheese doritos for Fire.  The top of the cake was divided into quarters and frosted with the colors of the four elements, with a cut-out of a show character from each element.

We also had balloons to represent the four element colors: green for earth, blue for water, yellow for air, and red for fire.  Paul drew the symbol for each elemement on the balloons.  I realize these are also the Google colors.  The things you think about when you live in Silicon Valley.

The kids had a blast playing duck, duck, goose, London bridge, releasing rocket balloons in the backyard, and hitting a pinata.  

Bonnie's Visit

My sister, Bonnie, was our first out-of-town visitor to come help after Charlie was born.  She was a huge help cooking, cleaning, holding Charlie, and playing with Andrew during Paul's first week back to work.  

She also took some great photos:

Can you spot the balsa wood airplane?

I love that Andrew is spending part of his childhood playing in a backyard in California, just as I did.

We've been playing a lot of Cut the Rope lately

Look at that little baby monkey hand silhouetted against her dark sweater!  So cute!

Aunt Bonnie was a good sport to watch and play so much Cut the Rope during the week she was here

Charlie Benjamin

On September 11, I quite quickly went from this:

35 weeks pregnant

To this:

Little baby Charlie Benjamin was born, weighing 5 lbs 8 oz

with my doula, Tara

Here's the quick version of the birth story without too many gory details:  I went into labor while at orientation day at Andrew's preschool.  It was about 2:30 pm that I decided to sit down and take it easy and write down the times of my contractions.  They were about 3 minutes apart(!), but not so strong that it was clear that I was in labor.  Once preschool was over at 2:45 we drove home and I called Paul and told him to come home from work, just in case.  I sent Andrew to a friends house to play, and I called my doula, Tara, at 4 pm and asked her to please come over.  While she was on her way, Paul packed for the hospital while I told him what to pack from my position in bed.  Per Tara's instructions, I was lying in bed on my side with one knee up to try to intensify the contractions and make them longer (a plan which didn't sound at all appealing to me, but I did as I was told).  Intense they were, and I'm sure all the neighbors who were home that day heard me screaming.  Tara arrived shortly after 5 pm and massaged my back through just 2 or 3 contractions before my water broke with a pop during a contraction.  We headed into the bathroom, at which point, I felt like I needed to start pushing.  We quickly decided that driving to the hospital my OB delivers at 16 miles away in rush hour traffic on the freeway was not a good idea, so Paul, Tara, and I got in the car together and headed to the nearest hospital.  The drive to the hospital was pretty scary and uncomfortable.  Tara was in the back seat with me, who was on all fours with my butt in the air so as not to push the baby out while in the car.  She coached me through every contraction to blow through it and not push.  Once we got to the hospital, we signed a few papers, got into a delivery room, and I was finally able to push.  I pushed about 20 minutes and then Charlie was born at 5:46 pm.  He came out crying, pink, and perfect.  I'm so happy that I was able to have a completely natural birth.  It was pretty much the best birth I could hope for.

Andrew got to come to the hospital to meet his new baby brother just 4 hours after he was born.  Andrew is very happy to finally be a big brother.

Despite being born 4 1/2 weeks early, Charlie was healthy and able to come home with us after my 2-night stay in the hospital.  

Andrew's already teaching Charlie how to play x-box

Spring 2013 Update

Here's an update on a few things we've been up to since we moved to the Bay Area:

Bonnie was our first out-of-town visitor after we moved.  She came down in February and we had a great time.  The first night she and I had a girl's night out in San Francisco staying in a hotel, stuffing ourselves to the gills with great Italian food (seriously, did we need to share a piece of cheesecake after our bruschetta and pasta/gnocchi?), breakfasting at a cafe with the best fresh-squeezed orange juice ever, and shoe shopping.  Then with Paul and Andrew we went miniature golfing, I made Pad Thai, and we checked out the San Francisco Botanical Gardens.  It was such a nice visit and I loved that Andrew and Bonnie got to spend some time bonding and playing together.

Andrew took this one of us

Pad Thai!

It's not often that there's another adult around to take a photo of Paul and me together

Those are some tall redwoods

And they're really big around too!

Andrew and I got an open spot in a co-op preschool here in late March, so he has been going there three mornings a week and I have been working in the classroom one of those three mornings a week.  Both of the teachers and several of the other moms have commented on how well Andrew adapted to the new school.  They said it was as if he had always been there.  He just jumped right in to the routines of the school, made friends, and enjoyed himself.   Maybe that's because we've moved around so much already in his short life, or maybe he just has that personality.  Here's a photo of him riding one of the bikes at school, one of his favorite pastimes.  

The preschool here is very open-ended and play-based, so during the two large chunks of free time the kids had each morning, Andrew got to choose his activities.  They had art projects, science or cooking projects, a carpentry area, a games room, a dress-up/playhouse area, a puppet theater, a block room, and painting easels always set up.  I think Andrew spent most of his time riding bikes, swinging on the tire swing, running around, and playing in the sandbox.  (And we paid how much for this?)  School is now out for the summer, but Andrew and I will be returning in the fall for another year there.

In April we continued the family tradition we started last year of celebrating Andrew's half birthdays.  I'm really trying to keep it from getting out of hand.  Andrew got really excited and started making all sorts of birthday requests/demands.  I kept telling him that it's not a real birthday and that we're just having half a birthday cake for fun.  I still did get him another little monster truck from the toy store that day because he loves monster trucks so much and it had been quite a while since he'd gotten to add to his collection.  He also ended up getting his face painted (that's a green cat on his right cheek) as well as a glitter tattoo on each hand thanks to our kind neighbor, Shelly, who's an artist and art teacher.  We had to go over and borrow a couple of eggs so I could make Andrew's half birthday cake while our car was in the shop, and she really spoiled him.  By the way, I really like our neighborhood.  We're actually getting to know our neighbors for a change, and they all seem really nice.  I learned that day that Shelly painted all the many, many murals on the walls of Andrew's preschool.  Cool!

We have been loving having a backyard for the first time ever!  Somehow this dirt hole developed in the middle of the grass back there, and Andrew turned it into his digging hole (and occasionally it becomes a mud hole).  Here he is, ankle deep in mud and loving it.  He had just asked me if I wanted to join him in the mud because it's so fun.  

Paul and I got bikes this spring so we can keep up with Andrew while he rides.  We had been riding our scooters while he biked, but those limit the terrain you can go on to smooth pavement and they're slower.  We have gone on some bike trails around here already, and we look forward to lots more riding through the summer.

Andrew made this plate for me at preschool for Mother's Day.  I don't even know how he transitioned from not being able to draw people at all to drawing stick figures, but it happened sometime this late winter/early spring.  That figure on the plate isn't him or me, though, it's Sonic the Hedgehog which is his favorite these days.

Andrew is now in his second recreational soccer class offered through the city.  He really loves soccer and is good at hustling to get the ball.  In his first class he was with 3 and 4 year-olds, and I think all those kids were new to soccer.  Not to brag, but I think Andrew was the best at listening to the coaches, remembering not to use his hands, staying within the lines on the field, going after the ball, scoring goals, remembering not to leave his ball behind, etc.  I now have him in the 4-5 year-olds class, and the skills they're working on are more challenging for him.  Both classes mostly play games and do drills that are designed to teach the kids the basic skills of controlling the ball and playing the game.

We found out we are expecting another baby boy, and we're all pretty excited that Andrew will have a brother.  I'm enjoying being kicked from the inside.  No, really, it's such a neat feeling.  Here I am, 22 weeks pregnant on Sunday.  

I'm super excited about that peach tree behind me in our backyard, too!  I have jam-making plans.

Paul is enjoying his job here at a start-up that's building a database search tool.  (Really, I'm not the one to explain what the project is).  He's the only UX (user experience) designer on the project, so he really has ownership of the interface design and he's loving it.  We're also enjoying getting to know his very small group of co-workers.  One of them has Paul going rock climbing with him once a week or two at a local rock climbing gym.  

My parents visited, but I'll have to cover that in a separate post.  It's time to put this baby to bed.