Well, by no intentional means of my own it appears I’ve been going without monthly updates on this blog. I suppose given the nature of the blog and the fact that most of you are family and friends who don’t need to hear what Olivia and Jake are eating everyday, a monthly post is sufficient. To that end it’s already December and with less than 14 days left in the year, given my track record, this will probably be the last post of the year.
Since we last spoke we all went back to Baltimore to visit with family over Thanksgiving. It was so great being able to spend a major holiday at home as we haven’t done that in quite some time. The last time Olivia was in Baltimore she was only 11 weeks old and on this most recent trip she was 19 months and Jake was 12 weeks. So needless to say, a lot has changed since our last visit some 16 months ago.
O and Bubby checking out some deer.
This last trip was really nostalgic for me as I made it a point to eat at all my favorite stomping grounds. The neighborhood has changed so much from when I was growing up. It’s just gotten so much busier but that’s mostly par for the course as I’m sure my parents thought the place was built up when they were adults as well. What was really fulfilling for me this time was having the family play with Olivia and Jake. Having family in my life is so important and I want that for them as well. It’s so hard now with us living so far away. As always the trip was jam packed with activity. However, with a slightly different twist this time it took us much longer to get ready. I think sometimes we forget how much work it actually is to get an infant and a just barely toddler ready in the morning.
Livy and Aunt Evie getting in some snuggle time.
Another highlight of the trip was visiting with my sister, Maya. Maya living in Israel has made it even that much more of a struggle to visit with her. I’m deeply saddened that Olivia and Jake will grow up not having a real solid relationship with her. I’d always dreamed of her playing a very active role in their lives; picking them up, taking them out for play dates, etc. Of course, we live some 3,000 miles from Baltimore now but even worse she’s over the pond and then some! Given that she’s in a serious relationship at this time the idea of her living oversees is gaining more permanency. I want her to be happy and if living there is where she finds her happiness then that’s how it is. The unfortunate penalty we all pay is the loss of relationship. We know this too well since we live 6 hours from Susie’s family (driving) and 6 hours from my family (flying) so in essence we have made this same choice. Ahhhh, the joys of conflict. Thank goodness for Skype and iChat though, huh?
Aunt Maya spending time with Jake.
Olivia’s talking up a storm lately, combining words, reading books (well at least she thinks she’s reading) and completely understanding both english and spanish. She’ll actually answer spanish questions with english answers. She repeats EVERYTHING you say. It’s very funny and amazing! She’s been using the “potty” now for 3 months and is doing great. She’s still in diapers (just in case) but she’s not far at all. In fact, if we pushed it I’m sure she’d be out all together but to be honest I like diapers. Why? Well, I don’t have to stop for the bathroom…I know I’m lazy but the idea of being able to poop right where your sitting is appealing to me…albeit, so long it’s other people doing the pooping. I’ll take my bathroom breaks in the actual bathroom, thank you very much.
Liv loves the camera and the camera loves her!
Jake’s growing like weeds! He’s so long and is about 17 lbs now. He just turned 15 weeks old…hard to believe! He’s such a sweet boy! He’s just a happy baby and loves to smile. He’s much more laid back than Olivia was at his age although she was pretty happy too. He’s doing the typical cooing, gooing, and other “ooing” things that babies should be doing at his age. He’s reaching out and grasping things really well.
Happy Jake
Susie goes back to work in mid-January and is not looking forward to it. We’re taking donations should anyone want to cover her salary so she can stay home. I’m doing the commute thing and try to race home as quickly (and safely) as I can to catch a couple hours a day with them. I’m working on potentially creating another blog. This is sort of a project for me and to ensure I’m on top of it I will be posting daily. It’s going to be in a Vlog format which means if you’ve been really missing what this mug looks like you’ll be able to see me daily. It’s still a work in progress but I may (just may) shoot for a January 1 launch. Kind of a New Year’s resolution thing without being a real resolution. They never seem to work and afterall, quitting smoking, losing weight, and getting out of debt all top the chart.
Since this may be our last post I want to wish everyone now a Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas and Happy Happy New Year.
Well it’s been a lot longer than I was intending before my last post. Has it really been almost a month? This whole parenting/work/life thing is getting in the way of my spare time! That’s okay I wouldn’t trade what I have right now for more free time, no way!
I want to first ask you to go check out the new pics I posted off on the right side here. Since it’s been several weeks since my last post I did wind up with quite a few pictures. For those of you who are not on Facebook you probably haven’t seen these.
So what’s been happening you ask?Oh you didn’t ask? Well no worries, whether you asked or not I’m gonna spill the beans…Halloween weekend we took a visit down to San Dimas, California to visit Susie’s family. Her cousins flew in from Tennessee with their 3 children and we thought it’d be a good visit. Susie’s parents actually wound up having the whole family over for Halloween and it was great seeing the “extended” family. The trip down was much better than it could’ve been. We left late at night and Jake and Olivia slept most of the way.
Our Little Butterfly
Halloween night we went trick or treating with Jake (who was a monkey) and Olivia (who was a butterfly). It was the first time either one of them had gone (that was an obvious one for Jake). I’m not sure O really understood what was going on. She didn’t realize she was on a mission to gather as much candy for mommy and daddy as possible. I will say she did a great job. What was her reward if we took all her candy? Well that’s a good question. The answer is she’s not really asking so we’re not telling…No worries, one of these years we’ll send her out to gather candy for us and she won’t be sharing! She did pretty good with her costume until she didn’t want to wear her antennae and wings. I kept pressing upon her that the simple act of not wearing her wings precluded her from being classified as a butterfly. That’s right, she was now a caterpillar. I know it’s tough hearing this especially as an 18 month old but she needs to know that she’s completely converting to another insect just by virtue of going wingless. Hey I didn’t write the rules, talk to God. Jake was alseep mostly and didn’t mind too much that he was a monkey. Kathy’s (Susie’s cousin) kids were terribly cute and were so nice and sweet around Olivia. That went not only for Halloween but for our whole trip.
Our Little Monkey
That Monday we took O to Disneyland for the first time. Thanks goes out to Aunt Liz who got us discounted tickets, even if we had to wait an hour for “Sandy” the Disney Lady to get us in! J/k!! Jake spent the day with Grandma. O had so much fun! We went with Kathy, Jim, and their 3 children since they would be heading back to TN and we wouldn’t be seeing them again anytime soon. O held little Katie’s hand the whole time! Katie is only 4 years old and is just the sweetest! We went on a bunch of rides and Olivia even experienced some waterfall drops on the Pirates of the Carribean ride. Had I known there were so many drops I wouldn’t have taken her but she didn’t seem to mind them. Well at least I don’t think she did. Her stomach muscles did contract to the point I could feel every little one of them…and it didnt’ help that just before we went down the fall screams started coming from either side…Yeah, her 10 year old cousin Kayla and her 39 year old Uncle Chuck…oh and it was pitch black. I think I might have been more scared for her than she was but I’m just being a daddy.
The trip home was a little more hectic. Not because we also had Cody in the car (he spent the last couple months in San Dimas) but because we drove during the day and the kids just had enough of being in the car. Overall though we made it quite well and feel a little more comfortable now for our next car trip.
Back in Monterey, Jake had is first appointment with the Dr; His 2 month check up. He’s grown much more than we thought…He’s in the 97th percentile for height at 25″ long (he grew 4 inches!) and is 90th percentile for weight at a whopping 13.5 pounds! (he’s gained 5 pounds!). Overall, he’s a healthy boy and is doing well, despite having screamed his head off over his 3 shots! Poor boy
It’s funny how much I’m realizing about myself as a person now that I have children. I find myself reflecting on things that I hadn’t in the past. Take for example how frustrated I get when O hurts herself. Just the other day I was in the bathroom getting ready and she was behind me. I was watching her but for those 3 seconds I wasn’t (you know, the 3 seconds that parents always say they turned their backs around and had lost their kids, etc?) and she had a Qtip stuck in her ear! Not literally stuck but she was cleaning her ears! I was so scared that she might have hurt herself (she didn’t) that I started getting really mad. I didn’t take it out on her of course, but I later realized I was really not upset with her but rather with myself for not watching her or for letting her get into something I shouldn’t have. I’m beginning to realize that all those times as a younger adult when I could forsake responsibility and not really care…well those times are gone. I’m forced to not only claim I’m responsible but to own that responsibility. If I’m not responsible now my children will pay the price and that’s something I can’t just blow off.
When I first thought about creating this blog I thought of all the possibilities. What could I talk about? All my loves of course…Susie, Olivia, Jake, Cody, Family, Friends, Monterey, Wine, Technology, etc. etc. As the site was developing I realized that it was pretty child-centric…you think? Well, afterall the title of the blog and the pics and vids are all of Olivia and Jake. Talking about my other interests just wouldn’t work for this and those of you that are here to hear what’s going on with us and the kids probably aren’t going to have any interest in the latest iPhone app or what my new favorite Chilean Cab is. So, I’ve decided to really focus (or try to anyway) on the fam and specfically the stars, Olivia and Jake! I might look at creating another blog to vomit my verbose obsessions there. Stay tuned…
To this end you can see I’ve made some other slight changes. I no longer have a Facebook status widget on the upper right hand side of the page now. That’s right, Olivia and Jake have their own Twitter accounts now! This site’s about them so now you can really see what they’re up to as often as you come here!
Jake @ 5 weeks and 6 days (taken with iPhone)
So, what’s new with us? Jake is starting to plump up a little more now. He was born so long and skinny but his little baby fat is catching up to him. He’s sleeping as much as any other newborn at this age and overall I’d say he’s a bit more mellow than O was at this time. He’s starting to smile now which is really cute! I’m hoping to be able to get some more pics up of him soon.
O and Jake (taken with iPhone)
Olivia is growing leaps and bounds. Not only physically (she’s 34 1/2″ tall now!!) but mentally as well. You’ve heard by now she’s self taught on the toilet but she’s doing other things that surprise us all the time. She understands both English and Spanish (Our nanny is spanish speaking) and speaks in both languages (single words). She’s very particular and clean. For example, when you go to get her out of the crib she wants you to first take out her blanket and fold it up. She doesn’t just want you to fold it over the crib rail but it has to be on a certain side. A little compulsive you might wonder?? Who could she have gotten this from Susie?? Oh, did I just give that away? O loves her brother…I know I keep saying this but it’s just so apparent. A couple of months back she had an infection on her thumb from sucking it. We had to wrap her thumb so she wouldn’t suck it and she would go to bed with no thumb in mouth. She tried sucking her right thumb but she just couldn’t do it so she gave up. Well now she sits in the car next to Jake (with Jake on her left) and guess what? She’ll suck her right thumb just so she can hold his hand with her left!! Too crazy that little girl!
Josh, Susie, Olivia, and Jake (taken with iPhone)
Susie and I are still getting a routine down with the two of them but seem to getting close. Susie has really let me get sleep at night which I’m so thankful for. She’s been taking such good care of both of them and I feel so incredibly lucky to have such an incredible wife and mother for them. She’s going out for the first time next week with a girlfriend of hers so I’m happy that she’ll be able to get away for awhile and relax. I know she loves being home with them for now (at least until December when she returns to work) but it’s important for her to have her own time as well. I get that from driving to and from work everyday but for Susie there’s not that option.
The Lewis' (taken with Canon Xsi/50mm 1.4)
Hang Time…
Well we don’t get much time to hang out with friends but recently we had our dear friends, “The Lewis’” come over. The Lewis’ are swell people indeed. They are made up of Mark, Rochel, and Madelyn. I love teasing Mark and Rochel about how we refer to each other. I always refer to them and all of our other friends by their first names but for them they always refer to friends by their last names. Hey, how are the Smith’s doing? or Man, did you see what ornament the Frankfurters put on their front yard?…Mark and Rochel are the best friends we have here that are named Mark and Rochel and who have a child named Madeyln who is 4 days older than Jake. So you can see how close we are to them? We’ve gone through similar things together such as the challenges in having children. Fortunately, we all got lucky with the recent births of our children. They’ll be moving away about 45 minutes or so to Hollister. We’re going to miss being so close but plan to take trips out there and have them visit often.
Now that I’ve bored you to tears about our fascinating life I’ll promise to share more exciting stories as I’m sure Olivia and Jake will be providing us with plenty of entertainment. Plus, we have a couple trips coming up that should be fun to share including Disneyland this month and a trip to Baltimore next month. Until then…
Well as the picture above depicts I’m sitting here writing this blog as Jake sleeps on my chest. Olivia is sound asleep in her crib for her now once a day nap. Where’s Susie? Ahhh…she’s out getting her hair done. She deserves it too. She’s been such a trooper taking care of Jake and Olivia while still recovering from only having Jake 6 weeks ago. In fact, she’s doing great (I think). She just left the house in her pre-pregnancy jeans. You might be wondering if I’m scared to death having (6 week old) Jake and (17 month old) Olivia by myself for a few hours. Well, don’t fret…I actually took them both out with me this morning as a test. Boy was that interesting. Well for starters I learned that infant car seats will not fit inside the Whole Foods shopping carts. I learned the hard way that is which meant I had to walk back to the car carrying the car seat and Olivia on my hip. Got the Baby Bjorn on put the seat back in the car and carried O back to the store so I could at least get her in the cart. Whoow!…Once I was in the store I was fine. If fine includes Olivia grabbing for everything. She makes up for it by waving to everyone she passes….too cute! Our final stop was the Bagel Bakery where I just carried them both in. We made breakfast for our good friends Mark and Rochel this morning. I would’ve included their baby Madelyn in that above reference but we technically weren’t feeding her. Madelyn is just 4 days older than Jake. Following breakfast we all went for a nice walk along the ocean. Living here does have it’s benefits.
Many of you want to know what new things are happening with O. For starters she’s using the toilet. She’s pooping and peeing and was totally self taught. We were thinking that we should probably introduce her to some form of potty training when she took it upon herself to do it. So now she’ll go to the bathroom, grab the toilet paper when she’s done and even flush the toilet. To boot? If she passes gas or pushes out a stinky poop she waves her hand in front of her face and goes, “Whooooh”….too funny. She loves her brother. She’s always holding his hand in the car or when she’s sitting next to him. Of course, she has to kiss him every night before bed too. She’s very attached to him, it’s very sweet. Jake being 6 weeks old (tomorrow) is doing pretty much what all 6 week olds do which is pee, poop, eat, and sleep. Oh don’t get me wrong he waves his arms and legs everywhere and spits up and whines as well. Didn’t want to disappoint you so I thought I’d throw those things in there.
Olivia holding Jake's hand in the car (taken with iPhone)
For now things are going well although I think if you ask Susie she’d stipulate that “well” assumes that not getting sleep is not only a given but not included in the “well” description. She’s been doing all of the nightly feedings (partly or shall I say mostly..okay for no other reason than my boobies don’t produce milk). She’s been very kind to me in the evenings and I have to find someway to thank her. Yes, diamonds are a girls best friend .
Before I let you go I must say I came upon an interesting perspective on the phrase, “it’s the least I could do”. Yesterday as I was talking to my buddy Mark he said, “Well it’s the least we could do”. He was referring to his offer of Rochel (Mark’s wife) getting us something from Target. I thought to myself, that’s actually not the least he could do. In fact, it’s quite a bit more than the “least” he could do. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s the most he could do but quite a bit more than the least. Again, this morning after he helped clean up the kitchen from breakfast he said, “Well it’s the least I could do”. I thought not only was that not the least but why would he want to settle for the least anyway. I say why settle for the least? Strive for something higher! Take pride and initiative in what you do and offer more than the least. Maybe something like, “Well it’s much more than the least I could do and you should recognize that so give me a break”! or how about? ”Well, it’s a good amount of what I could for you”…that would be much more than the least and would show some respect. So please people the next time you think about doing the least for people think about doing just a little more!
My initial intent was to sit down and write this post over a month ago. I was hoping to take you on a blogging journal with me as we prepared for the birth of our second child. However, being the Tech Geek that I am I couldn’t just sign on to a free blogging service like Tumblr, Posterous, Wordpress.com, or a plethora of other services. With different limitations to each I decided to host my own blog which wound up requiring much more work than originally anticipated. So, I hosted a server with Bluehostand installed Wordpress. Finally, a month later I’m posting my first blog. Well, we now have our second baby so maybe I can start where I intended too…
My parents were coming out to visit for 2 weeks as the due date was firm, September 2nd. Susie had a planned c-section given that’s how Olivia was born. We had a few days until the big day and were excited about spending time with the family. Susie’s family was to come out the day before the birth. We were all set or so we thought…
Sunday, August 30th 2:00am PST…I awoke to the sound of Susie calling my name. I’m a very heavy sleeper so the fact that her calling my name on the 10th try working was actually quite a feat in itself. Startled and tripping out of bed I rushed to the sound of her voice which happened to be in the bathroom. She was bleeding! I was sooo scared and it brought me back to the time she was bleeding with Olivia’s pregnancy. However, this was different because we knew she had Placenta Previa back then and this pregnancy was cleared for that. After rushing my parents back over to the house to stay with Olivia, Susie and I sped over to the hospital. Fortunately, for us this was less than two miles from our house. Of course, I took the opportunity to run as many red lights as I could knowing this might be my only opportunity to have such a legitimate reason of doing so.
After spending 8 hours in the hospital waiting to be seen by the Dr. (apparently he had Sunday mass to attend to) we learned that the bleeding may have been caused by Placental Abruption where the placenta is actually tearing away from the uterus. The decision was made to have the baby then. We had not known the sex of the baby as Susie wanted it kept as a surprise, in fashion with the terms of Olivia’s pregnancy. I wanted a boy since we already had our baby girl. Of course, I figured it would be a girl though if nothing but the simple fact that I wanted a boy. Susie felt it was a girl and I figured I’d be destined to hanging out at Sephora and Victoria’s Secret the rest of my fatherhood. We had only 1 boy name picked out (the same name we had for Olivia had she been a boy) and about 7 girl names we couldn’t settle on.
Sunday, August 30th, 12:04pm: Jake Henry was born 8 pounds, 8 ounces and 21″ long! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Waiting in anticipation for the birth of our child I was snapping pictures (when the Docs said it was appropriate to do so). I knew I’d be delivering the news of what we were having to Susie as that’s how we planned it. When the baby came out all I could see was “the boys“ and I was sooo elated!! ”We have a boy, We have a boy!!” Susie remembers me telling her that I got my boy and I’m done! She talked about having more than 2 children and I guess I was so happy that I knew I had one of each that it completed things for me. The talk of a 3rd one will have to remain on hold at this time…
Over the next 3 weeks as I was out on paternity leave our families came over to help out every day. They were very supportive and although there was a lot of chaos and commotion it was nice to have family close by. Adapting to little Jake has been easy. Partly because we’ve done this before but also because we wanted him so badly. Olivia just loves her little brother! She kisses him all the time and we haven’t noticed any jealousy at all. That might be due to the fact that she was only 16 months old when he was born or the fact that she’s naturally very loving. She’s always going up to strange kids and trying to hug and kiss them. Sleeping is as you’d expect. It’s apparent the stark difference in needs between Jake and Olivia at this point. I’m really focusing on Olivia’s needs at this point given how impressionable she is at this age and the fact that Susie has been mainly taking care of Jake with the feedings, etc. Susie recovered incredibly fast! She lost 26lbs in just 6 days after giving birth. Granted her 13 mile swim across the Monterey bay, 26 mile bike ride through Pebble Beach and the 6 days of starvation did help I think it’s still pretty good. Okay, so none of that is true. What is true? The fact, that I’m still fat!! I gained weight right along with her and have I lost anything? The only thing I’ve lost is the ability to wear my pants! Oh well…it’s taken me a lot of work to get this way, I just can’t get rid of it…to do that would be to disrespect all the heavy eating and lounging I’ve been doing over the past year.
My intent of the blog was to be able to share what’s happening in our lives with friends and family as well for me to have an outlet for my thoughts and feelings. As many of you know I have a lot on my mind… not because I’m busy but just because I think of a lot of stuff all the time. But it’s dumb stuff you say? Well yes, that’s true but it’s still clogging up my little brain and you never know something I might say may just be worth hearing…well not hearing unless you’re reading this out loud.
On that note, I’m hoping to post a blog at least once a week if not more. As you can tell I also have pics and some of our latest videos here as well for you to enjoy. Please leave comments as you wish on our site as we’d love to hear from you guys. Until next time…
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