Fab Five

Waking up with crazy hair: she went to bed with wet hair so we put a towel on her pillow...

So she is five years old and she loves it! She feels so much older and different already, I mean wouldn't you? The last few weeks she has been a lot more into writing and recognizing words and into school-things. But Thursday morning was all about celebrating her birthday so we served her "breakfast" in bed which included some cookies with marmelade filling and chocolate on top and orange juice.
A huge thanks goes to Anna who helped us Wednesday night to get a couple of balloons, Lucia was thrilled to have balloons in the morning and even tried to engage Espen to play with them too. Her first gift was a StarWars encyclopedia of Lego sets, so it shows all the sets that has been made and what figures are in them and their relationships etc. Really cool book, too bad the only StarWars Lego sets in sale these days are total crap. Her other gift was a set of "magne tiles" she used to play with these at OGS and she totally loves them. She uses them to build dollhouses and garages for her cars. Totally awesome!

Mimi is awesome

Here's why my mom is awesome. BEHOLD. 

Or Not

I saw Pete's post from last night proclaiming ear infection and thought, well if that doesn't sum up how things are in our household, I don't know what does.

We don't think it's an ear infection, actually. In the hustle and bustle of last night, I didn't get a chance to fully explain to Pete what the nurse said. His symptoms: low fever (i.e. 99), chewing, pulling his ear, rubbing his face, crankiness are all symptoms of teething. They said to wait it out for a few more days but to call back if his fever goes up. 

Life adjusting to two kids with one in kindergarten and one with a ever changing nanny schedule has been incredibly challenging. We are at capacity and exhausted and running on fumes. Let's hope things improve soon. 

Ear infection!

So tired...

We thought we saw signs of teething;  low fever, restless and cranky, chewing his gums, chewing on toys, fingers, rubbing his ear, etc but instead we got another milestone: his first ear infection.
It was the lady who watches Espen during the mornings who saw similar symptoms in her own son and she took him to the doctor. We called the nurses and they told us antibiotics would not make this go away since it was most likely a virus, we would just keep an eye on him and ride it out.

Lucias latest car design: The GPS

I think surprisingly Lucia has drawn some cool cars lately, and I will post them as I find time to scan them. But today she was very proud to show Mimi and Big Papa her latest Lego car. She calls it the "GPS":

  

I guess it knows where it is going..

Crazy last couple of weeks

As soon as you think things cannot be any more stressful you're sometimes proven wrong. This was the case this week. For a while now Lucia's new school schedule has been killing us because they let them out right after lunch so between then and dropping Espen off in the morning, theres 3 to 2.5 hours of time to get work done. With this in mind, it came to my attention that the deadline for my current project would be in 7 days, so things got interesting on Tuesday when our nanny told me they had to skip town to go to a funeral, next day and not be able to take Espen until next Monday. Crap we also have to shine up the apartment a little before Dick and Linda arrives...

Hike in Muir Woods

Great time in a special forest. 

More pictures to come..

Good morning!

New Bay Bridge Opening - Maiden Voyage

Late evening of September 2 we were among the very first to go over the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge! When we heard they were planning to open the new bridge nearly 6 hours early we decided to go check it out that night. We got in the car and waited close to one of the onramps and then a few minutes after 10:15PM traffic started slowly moving. The first thing you notice when you drive over the bridge is how nice and clean it is. The pavement is smooth and even the lighting is super even, I think they did a great job setting up all the lights because you are never blinded by them, yet there is plenty light. As you approach the main tower the whole bridge tower fills the view and it almost looks like a cathedral.

Somebody we know didn't last to see the return trip.

The new school

Heres a picture of the front of the new school. Its very nice except theres only like 9 parking spots for "visitors" and no street parking on the street in front of the school because it is too narrow and too busy so we have to park on the surrounding streets and walk 2 minutes. But I dont think thats too bad I think.

Click on image to enlarge it:

The school sits on this hill in a nice residential neighborhood with lots of trees surrounding it and has a huge open paved lot and a couple of play structures behind the buildings where the kids can run around. Not nearly as nice as the old school but a lot easier on the clothes and shoes! Unfortunately, theres another larger school directly next to it with several hundred more kids so the traffic can be completely insane at critical times of day (drop off and pick up times). Its best to be early.

Espens First Avocado

Will he like it or not?

Change is Hard

Change is hard, my friend and I agreed via text tonight. Lucia starting kindergarten has been incredibly stressful on us. There's the uncertainty with the teachers and if she's making friends and if she eats her lunch and NEWTOWN NEWTOWN NEWTOWN and if she falls on the playground will anyone be there for her and gahhhhh it's a lot. Then there's the logistics: her school is on a hill that gets craazy super busy every morning, so while her class doesn't start until 8:45, you have to arrive by 8:15 if you don't want to get caught in insane traffic and/or not be able to find parking. I tested this on Friday and was so frazzled having to park so far away and speedwalk down a sidewalk-less hilly road jam-packed with cars and Lucia wondering why are we walking so fast mommy? So this requires a hour-long drop off and timing feeding Espen strategically so he doesn't melt down. There's also the fact that we are 37th on the waitlist for aftercare program.

I could go on. It's a lot to process.

So I'm trying to focus on the good:

• We love the school. She started at another school and after a few days we did not like it. We didn't like her teacher (frosty), the principal (out of touch) and the other parents weren't particularly friendly or eager to make friends, it seemed like. At the aftercare program they handed out juice boxes and put on a movie one day, unlike what they advertise in encouraging the kids to play or do structured activities. So after taking lots of advice from other parents I hustled and made a million phone calls and sent persistent emails to principals and in the end, got her reassigned. She started at the new school last Wednesday and we're still getting used to it. But we like it a lot better so far and I'm sure we'll feel more adjusted in a few weeks. 
• We like her teacher a lot. We hear she's amazing and so far we really like her. We hear she takes the kids on 12 field trips a year (!) and that we'll be amazed by how much she has learned by the end of the year. Great!
• Lucia seems to really like it. She's happy to do her homework and happy to go to school each day. 

I guess we'll just continue to hang in there. It'll get better, I know. It's just the adjustment period that feels so hard. 

Month Five

Here he is in all his wiggle worm glory. Espen is 5 months today. This month we've seen him learn to roll over, push up with his arms and the ever so slight beginnings of the inchworm scooch about. He's "talking" more and more and likes to chew chew chew on his hands. He's spitting up a lot more, which we asked the doctor about, and he shrugged and said he'll probably outgrow it in the next few months. We think the other baby at the nanny share is encouraging him to start crawling and interacting. Our nanny said that when her son tries to play with Espen and he isn't ready, he now holds his hand up as if to say, gimme a minute, yo.

Also noteworthy this month: we finally figured out side-lying nursing, which enables me to get some sleep in the middle of the night. It's glorious. 

Someone commented on a picture recently and said he was getting so big, and instead of feeling sad, I beamed. I know, I thought. He's my boy. In the journey to get him here, there's still a part of me that can't believe it's real, so I'm so thrilled he's doing so great and growing up to be yes, super strong. My little love bug. 

tumble

Lucia took a tumble in the hallway tonight. I cant believe how she managed to do it but she basically fell forward on her face and then her body continued the motion bringing her around for a full 360-degree rotation with her feet flailing up the wall. Incredible. Heres a picture of her upper lip, but she said "my breast hurts more".

Its kind of hard to see in this photo, (click to enlarge) but her lip had indentations from the carpet on the inside of her lip.. ouch!

Clouds!

A rare sight in the Bay Area this time of year: real clouds! (not fog)