Happy Holidays everyone! We had a great Christmas at my house with both sets of parents and my sisters over. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First … on Friday, I visited my friend Dana and went to her moms group ’cookie exchange’ party. I exchanged my Tollhouse cookies for homemade goodies – score! Then Dana and her mom treated me to sushi at one of my favorite restaurants – double score! Dana was so good with Calie too. Please keep her in your thoughts/prayers as she tries for baby #2.

That evening, I picked up my parents from the airport. Despite the rough start (1.5 day delay and then Southwest ‘lost’ their connecting flight so my parents had to repurchase – and later get refunded – the LA to Sacramento leg) we had a great time. My sisters joined us Saturday morning, and James’ parents visited Christmas eve/day.

It was the first time my dad met Calie in person, and she rewarded him (and everyone else) with lots of big smiles. Zachary and my dad bonded over their love of numbers and what Zachary calls “infinity math”. Opening presents in front of a crowd was lots of fun – especially for Zachary, who raked in the most gifts of all, including an O gauge Lionel train set.

Favorite moments included: The food – especially my mom’s Chinese dishes, singing Christmas songs (with Alice on the guitar), Guess Who x2 (and other games), Sophie’s yoga class, and a walk around the neighborhood park.

On the milestone front, we have major regression on sleeping. Calie started getting up once or twice at night after Thanksgiving, and it’s only gotten worse. Lately it’s been 2-3x. Her stranger anxiety has gotten worse too - especially in the evenings. She will cry and scream unless I’m holding her – and she especially dislikes James. (I was not expecting this kind of preference until closer to 8 months … Zachary was much more easy going in that respect.)

On a more positive note, Calie is starting to sit up (assisted) better. She can tripod for a few seconds before toppling over. She is outgrowing her bouncers and starting to love the Jumperoo and exersaucer. And since she can easily grab things now, so she can play with toys better. She can roll multiple times in row, which resulted in us removing her crib bumper. We’ve also packed away a majority of her 3-6 months outfits and moved her to size 3 diapers. I love that she’s growing and meeting milestones, but I’m also sad that I’m passing that stage of my life where I’m a mom of a tiny newborn. It’s a different feeling with your last I think … I almost want her to be later with milestones so that I can enjoy babyhood longer.

Sorry for the Photobucket issues on old posts. I will try to resolve them during my daughter’s naps in the next few days. I also have lots of xmas pictures so stay tuned!….

Update: Whew, moved all the Photobucket pictures to Xanga. Hopefully I won’t run into ‘bandwidth exceeded’ issues again!

Hello! This week, we went to the mall for pictures. Both kids were very naughty (refused to pose), but we got some good shots. I was quite surprised; I came in with a buy-1-get-2-free coupon and walked out with a $100 framed picture! We walked around the new, expanded mall and had lunch at Cheesecake factory. The plan was to see Santa after lunch, but the line was over an hour long and Zachary had cheese sauce all over the front of his shirt, so we nixed that idea. We went to the indoor playgound, where we ran into Dylan (and his parents).

This Wednesday, Zachary’s pre-K class had their annual Holiday Cantata, where the kids sing 2 songs and then everyone eats a potluck lunch. The school provided the ham, and it was quite good. His class is almost all Caucasian so there was a lot of nice fatty pieces left when I came back for seconds and thirds. Tasty!

And here are this year’s Santa pictures. They are from a storytime event at the local library. Zachary did well – he told Santa that he wanted “Connect Four and a Wii game with water animals.”* Calie was not so good. She grabbed on to Santa’s beard and pulled as hard as she could. Santa was yelping and one of his helpers had to pry her fingers off.

*What he originally wanted was a battery-powered Thomas, but we convinced him that Santa ran out because so many little kids asked for it. He doesn’t play with his train set enough to warrant adding to it … so we convinced him he wanted ‘Endless Ocean’, a game we already bought. Connect Four was fortuitus … he saw it advertised on Amazon, and told me he wanted it. I got that exact game from a gift exchange, and it was already sitting under our tree!

Calie had her 4 month check-up this past Tuesday. She weighed in at 16lbs 1oz (90%) and measured 26″ (95%.) And now that she’s 4 months, we’re really starting to see more of her personality. I would describe it as … happy. But not just a pleasant happy … more of a lunatic, slightly schadenfreude, funny happy.  Example. On our way back from Phoenix, I asked another passenger to hold her while I grabbed by suitcase from the overhead compartment. I almost dropped it on an old lady’s head, causing gasps from people around me. Then I heard someone say,”Did you see? That baby was laughing.” I wasn’t surprised at all. I often catch her laughing at my (or Zachary’s) misfortune.

She seems to want to GO. She’s constantly moving, especially kicking her right leg. She likes facing outwards when we hold her. And she’s a super fast nurser … she’ll be done in 5 minutes so that she can start looking around for something to laugh at. This is a huge difference compared to Zachary, who was a comfort nurser and regularly took over 40 minutes. The plus is definitely sleep (especially since I jinxed myself by stating that she sleeps through the night in a previous post … she’s now getting up at 3am ). The down side is that I can’t watch a full episode of any television show. Many times, I’ve had to turn off the television before the “baby’s real father” was announced.

As for other differences between Calie and Zachary… Zachary spit up a lot more, but I had no idea what was normal at the time. Retrospectively I wonder if Zachary had acid reflux or colic. Zachary’s hair all fell out at 3 months, but Calie seems to be keeping hers. Zachary really impressed me when he was 2 months, and looked around for me when I walked out of sight (ie. he understood object permanence)… I don’t think Calie, at 4 months, gets it yet. Calie does what James fondly calls “emotional crying” … which means nothing’s wrong expect that she doesn’t like the person holding her. As a newborn, Zachary liked it when we bounced him on an exercise ball – that did nothing for Calie, who loves to “buzz” (sit in a vibrating bouncer.) Calie blows spit bubbles and squeals … something Zachary never did. Zachary had strong legs and could stand up at 2 months, if you helped him balance. I have a picture of him at 4 months, standing in a basket, holding on to the handle all by himself. Calie just collapses in a fit of giggles. I’m losing confidence that she’ll be able to walk down the aisle (as flower girl) at my sister’s August wedding.

But enough about comparing kids!

As for what we’ve done since the last post … 2 cookie parties! On Friday, we went to Karen’s house – Zachary made, decorated, and ate gingerbread cookies. He played well with the other kids, which allowed me to chat with some of the other moms. While we were driving home, Zachary dubbed their place “The house we go to in December.”  Saturday, we went to Alex and Nicole’s pajama party … where we ate roast turkey sandwiches and decorated more cookies! It was cute seeing all the kids in their pajamas. Tonight, James went to a Chistmas party, and I got both kids in bed/sleeping at 8:07pm. Yay me!

Adding: Dammit … 9:20pm and Calie is up. It’s a curse to blog about sleep.

What a fun weekend! Calie and I (team pink) flew to Phoenix for a get-together with my online mom’s group. We had a fabulous time. I was very tentative about flying alone with a 4 month old baby, but it all worked out … I was able to get the carseat installed/uninstalled easily and she fell asleep on the plane. In Phoenix, we stayed at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs  mountainside resort. I roomed with Rachael, who brought her 14 month old daughter. The first night, we all got to know each other better; there were 13 of us, and Jane was the only one I met in person before. One of the moms (Karen) gave us all a handpainted ornament. I also received my gift exchange present that night … a stuffed dog for Calie, a Connect 4 game for Zachary, and fragrant soaps for me - Thank you, Rachael!

What else can I say about that weekend … lots of hanging out and talking, like a fun slumber party with your closest friends. We even played the “I never” drinking game, as if we were in high school! Some of the gals went to the spa, but I had to sit that one out since I had a baby with me. Saturday evening, we all got dressed up and went out for dinner. Even Miss Calie put on tights and a dress. Both Calie and Margretty (the 14 month old) loved being fawned over by everyone, which resulted in loopiness and inability to settle down to sleep until very late. They also both reeled in some loot – new toys and like new hand-me-down outfits. The flight back, I didn’t get a seat for Calie, but she was fine sleeping in my arms. The trip was as smooth as I could have hoped, especially given how little sleep Calie got!

While team pink was in Phoenix, team blue (James and Zachary) also had a busy weekend. On Saturday, they went to a karate open house. In the evening, they went to the annual neighborhood progressive dinner. Appetizers were at our house, and  Zachary had a great time playing with the neighborhood kids. One of our neighbors had a snow machine and set up craft stations, where Zachary made a necklace and decorated a sugar cookie. On Sunday, Zachary went to 2 birthday parties – Happy 3rd Birthday Austin and Happy 6th Birthday Megan! (Yea for getting pictures of all the events – I took the ‘real’ camera to Phoenix but James had the iPhone.)

Of course, all good things must end. The fun weekend is over … I’ve caught a cold … our house is infested with ants … I need to unpack … and there are a gazillion Chuck E. Cheese tickets in the dryer.  Blah!

The Friday before Thanksgiving, we had Dana and Dave over for a tri-tip dinner and games. That weekend, we literally had no plans. Which was great because the next few weekends are ridiculously busy. Midweek, I took Calie to Target to get her 3 month pictures. What a disaster – we were 45 minutes delayed because a family before us was both late and slow. By then, Calie was hungry and I was sweaty from trying to keep her from crying. And to try to make up time, the picture taking was rushed. We only ended up with one okay picture. The day got better though – since I was in the area, I picked up Thai food and went to Dana’s house. She took a bunch of pictures of Calie and a number of them turned out really cute!

The day before Thanksgiving, I went to Zachary’s class for a “Friendship Feast” potluck lunch … I took Zachary home early and we went to the outlet malls. (The silver lining to the recession is all the sales!) And when James came home from work that day, the 4-day weekend officially started! We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. On Thursday, we went to James’ parents house for traditional Thanksgiving dinner. As always, Zachary loved playing with Grandpa. Calie enjoyed lots of hugs and cuddles from Grandma.

The next morning, we visited Rad and Danielle. They got to meet Calie for the first time, and  Zachary played with their son Tristen. Afterwards, we headed down to the Bay Area to visit my sisters. At Sophie’s house, she prepared a homemade Chinese dinner for us. Alice and cousin Dave also joined us. We played ‘Ticket to Ride’ after dinner. 

Saturday, we drove into San Francsico to check out the California Academy of Science. Unfortunately, the line snaked around the building, so we bailed and headed to the Exporitorium instead.  It was the ideal playground for Zachary. He spent so much time on some exhibits, that we barely made it halfway through the museum. After the museum closed, we went out for a sushi dinner.

We stayed overnight at Alice’s house, and had dim sum Sunday morning before heading home.

Here are some miscallaneous pictures of the kids … I can’t believe Calie turns 4 months tomorrow!

Oh – and how did I forget .. Calie is now spitting (is that a milestone?) and rolling over.