Happy Birthday, my little man

I can't believe it was two years ago today that daddy and I held you for the first time. You're "my love, my love, my true love," and always will be. May the coming years be filled with those smiles of yours that I just can't resist. XXXOOOXXX

Say good-bye to the old

We finally have a new garage door. Yeah! Have I mentioned that all you have to do is press a button and it opens all by itself? It's an amazing technological achievement, I tell ya.

I didn't manage to get before and after pictures, but I did get a during one. Travis was pretty surprised that our huge, old, heavy one fit on a pick-up truck. I know from personal experience the heft it took to move that thing.



Of course they needed to add a board to the trim to make the new door fit, and it's unfinished. Not that the existing trim didn't need to be refinished anyway. It's just a bit of a bummer that it still needs a little more work to make our new door look completely finished; but believe me, it's a HUGE improvement to the quality of my life!

First Train Ride

Saturday was the Cupertino City-Wide Garage Sale and a composting class I had signed up for (I'm so CA-hippy-green, aren't I?) so Travis took the kids for the day. They went to The Train Expo, a train museum, and the kid's very first ride on Cal Train. Do you see a theme?

Didn't I tell you guys to take turns?

It's so cute when Olivia and Noah play together, I just had to share these pictures. Doesn't it look like Noah is saying, "Hop in, Olivia!"



Wow, a perfect fit!



Ok, now Noah is saying, "Olivia, it's a bit hard to drive with you all over me..."



Oh no! Someone must have hit a bump!



We got one crying...



And now they're both sad.



What was I doing all of this? That's right, snapping pictures to document the whole thing. And trying not to laugh out loud. I mean, really, I could have TOLD them to not squeeze in there together, but they would have just tried it as soon as I wan't looking. I think they learned a lot better this way.

My fair maiden

This was Olivia after getting back from her friend's Jousting Party. Pretty unique, huh? There were actual knights that did a jousting demonstration. Well, probably as real of knights as you can get nowadays. They were from the California Jousting Association and showed up in their Renaissance garb and brought swords and chain mail to show the kids. The birthday boy sat on a saddle and held the jousting swords and everything. One of the knights asked if Olivia was married yet, she got a kick out of that.

Maybe she will start a trend, next season all the hip girls will be wearing swim robes with helmets and purple icing on their lips while carrying paper-towel-roll/tin-foil swords.

Noah is getting some smarts too

Using the cell phone that is.

Daddy called today on the cell phone from OSH on his way to band practice from work. Needless to say, he wasn't home until late and I was tired, so I easily handed the phone over to Noah when he grabbed for it.

Noah and daddy's conversation pretty much consisted of Noah saying "Hi daddy!" and then giggling uncontrollably when daddy said anything. Then repeat over and over and over. And over.

But the amazing part is that when Noah closed the phone and opened it back up and realized that daddy wasn't there anymore, he called him back! Yep, Noah quite purposefully hit the Talk button twice and got daddy right back on the line.

I don't know if this was a conencidence or not, but he was looking right at the buttons and didn't hit any other ones while doing it. I think I'm in trouble.

School is definately in session

Olivia's teacher sends home a weekly flier to let us know what they are doing for the week. Check out everything on the first one:

Bible Stories: Cain and Abel, Noah Builds the Ark, The Animals Come, The Flood

Mish-Mash: The importance of washing hands, Apple in a Bucket
(Centrifugal Force), Estimating Apple Seeds, Attract and Repel

Theme for the week: Apples, Alligators, Authors, and Anteaters.

Watch for Fabric Apples, Painted anchors, Fingerpaint Alligators, and Torn Paper Ants. We will draw apples, cut apples, make a Johnny Appleseed Hat and make some yummy applesauce! We will learn about Australia, Africa, Aardvarks, Absorption, and Addresses. We will play Animal Action, Where's the worm? and Matching Animals.

Sories this week include: Who Wants Arthur?, by Amanda Graham and The Art Lesson, by Tomie De Paola.

I think I need to go to her school and learn a thing or two! Wow, can you imagine, all this in a week?

The Real Olivia's-First-Day-of-School Post

Olivia had a great first day of school, with a lot less worry on my part than last year. It being right next door and the exact same schedule as last year probably helps. There was a minor incident of her fingers from one hand getting caught when cutting with scissors with the other hand, but she refused the band-aid and bounced right back according to her teacher. Whew!

Here is a picture of her with her teacher today. For comparison's sake, below is a picture of her with her teacher on the first day last year. She hasn't changed much in a year, has she?

On the Road Again

Today was Olivia's first day of school, and I thought I'd use a seperate entry to reflect on the drive. Olivia is in pre-school 9 hours a week, and it causes Noah and I to be on the road 4.5 hours a week.

Needless to say, a lot of thought went into the decision to place her in a school another year that would require so much car time for Noah and I, but after today, I feel confident it was the right decision. I won't go into all the reasons behind it, but I will tell you about our day.

We left the house around 9:40am to make it to a playgroup at church that I host. After being there a few hours we headed right to Olivia's school which starts at 12:30. They began the day at the playground, so Noah and I stuck around to play for a half an hour. Then Noah and I hopped in the car towards home where he fell asleep. While he slept in the car I did laundry, dishes, and watered the lawn. He woke up a whopping half an hour before we had to leave again which we spent snuggling and nursing in bed. Then off at 3pm to get sissy from school which ends at 3:30pm. We hung around and played in the playground for over an hour afterwards! I think we all missed being there all summer.

We didn't arrive home until after 5pm! Keep in mind Olivia left the house in the morning before 10am. That is a long day for a little girl. But, I decided that I really like these post-baby pre-school years, where I spend a lot of time with the kids, but we are busy running around. It's fun.

More influence from the circus

If I was more motivated I would try to get a picture of both of them with their clown noses, but this is the best I could do...

The Circus' Influence?

I walked by Noah's room and my two little dare devils were sitting atop the changing table side-by-side just relaxing and enjoying some Cheerios. I wonder if the circus inspired this new found love of heights?

This Old House Update

This is what Travis did on saturday and monday. Removing the ceiling of our garage. We're on the "one step backward" part of "one step backward, two steps forward," I guess.

We had finally budgeted a new garage door purchase into our spendings, complete with an automatic opener. The thought had me on cloud nine. Currently we have a large, heavy, wooden 2-car garage door that I have been opening by hand. Also, it only locks from the outside. The trips in and out of the house and car to go to and fro really add up. I hadn't been parking in the garage much until I realized that is where I am going to get the most nap time out of Noah, so I've been working out with the garage door.

Now that preschool is going to start this week and I'm looking at 3 days a week of Noah napping in the car, I was gung-ho about starting the process of buying our new garage door. We went to the show room and scheduled several companies to come out for quotes.

The first company that came out informed us that we would loose several inches of clearance due to the ceiling and it didn't look safe to install garage door tracks onto anyway. We were so looking forward to one purchase for the house that we could just order, pay for, and let someone else do all the work. Oh well, we didn't like that ceiling anyway.

And despite Travis spending the weekend ripping it out, we still got a family trip to The Children's Discovery Musuem in. Thank goodness for 3-day weekends!