Two weeks of activities to post! The Friday before Valentine’s weekend, Zachary’s class had a party. James went since it was during work hours. That weekend, I took Zachary to a science demo at Michael’s craft store. Zachary was the only kid that showed up! He got to make fake snow, mix cornstarch and water, play with “moon sand”, and watch these colorful gel balls expand in water. When we left, Zachary said,”Maybe other kids don’t know that science is fun!” (Haha)

On Sunday, we went to Sam and Melissa’s for a lunch playdate. We had mushroom risotto with lots of parmesan – yum! – and Alex taught us a  new board game. The same weekend, James took Zachary to see the 3-D IMAX movie Under the Sea. It must have been pretty realistic because when it first started, Zachary pulled his legs up and asked,”Are we in it or not?” After the show, another patron asked if he liked the show … and Zachary responded with,”Yes. And I was NOT scared.”

This past Thursday, James’ parents came over to visit. And this Saturday morning, James took Zachary to the library story time and craft event. Later the same day, we went to Keith and Jovan’s birthday party at Pump It Up.

Zachary had a great time running and jumping around – since it was a rainy weekend, an inflatable play arena was the perfect outlet. For their cakes, Shan made a chocolate coffee cake and a carrot cake with plump raisins and chunks of pineapple. Delicious - a perfect ending to a party in my opinion! Happy 4th Birthday Keith and Jovan!

Today, it rained all day, so I took Zachary to play mini golf. Oh – and I’m sure everyone’s waiting for the stats … For Calie’s 6 month appointment, she was 17lbs 3.5oz (75%) and 27.5″ (95%). So she’s a good sized girl. If her growth pattern is anything like Zachary’s though, she’ll start falling off that trajectory. .

As for other milestones, according to James, she can pull herself up from sitting to standing (which prompted him to lower her crib mattress). I don’t know though – I’ve yet to see it myself. She also scoots backwards; which technically probably isn’t a milestone since it’s negative progress – and it makes her furious. She bops and waves her arms to music, which is cute to watch – and brings back memories of when Zachary did the same thing. One major difference between the 2 babies though – so far, Calie has taken to solids a lot better. In addition to the cereals, she now also eats pears and peas. We started with 1 teaspoon of solids, and we’re up to 3-4 tablespoons of cereal and half a size 1 jar. She’ll actually open her mouth and lean forward, even for the peas! <- removed due to fear of jinxing!

Hi – it’s been awhile! But I have a good excuse … I’m back at work and Calie has reverse-cycled (more on that later. ) My last week at home before heading back to work (full time!) was pretty eventful. On Friday, we added Calie to our living trust … so if you think you lost a lot of money recently, talk to Zachary … his inheritance was cut in half! Saturday, James and Zachary took advantage of the good weather and headed to Tahoe again. Zachary had a great time and basically conquered the kiddie area … he wanted to head up to the real slopes. Maybe next year, as his form is still pretty bad and the thought of my little boy on a ski lift makes me REALLY nervous.

That evening, we had dinner at Ed and Lori’s house. Zachary had a plate of Greek pastitsio, which we were very pleased about. We have finally weaned Zachary off his limited diet – he now eats what we eat or nothing at all. (Of course, in this case, it helps that Lori is basically a gourmet chef, so the dish was very yummy.) When Zach was younger (12 months+), he was underweight and we brought food to other people’s houses/restaurants because he was stubborn about trying new foods. We were afraid he wasn’t getting enough calories and vitamins. We’ve since realized what a mistake/bad habit that was – and it took us a few years to turn it around!

Zachary had a great time with Claire – she’s a natural leader and he loves rules. He was also impressed that she was “in Kindergarten and knew how to read so many words.” James and I were also impressed by the kids (we haven’t seen them in awhile!) - James by Andrew’s knowledge of Star Wars trivia, and me by Hannah’s art work … which is seriously frame-worthy!

On Sunday, we hosted a small Super Bowl party/playdate. Since James and Dana had birthdays around that weekend, we had ice cream cake. Happy Birthday James (37th) and Dana (38th)!

Monday morning … it was back to work for me (and the start of James’ 3 month bonding leave). My team did a great job decorating my cube and making me feel welcome back - I was seriously impressed!

There is a mother’s room (that I go to twice a day) close to my cube, and an online message board to connect with other nursing/pumping moms. I feel pretty lucky to work for a company that has a support system for reintergrating new mothers. (Of course, I’m not so naive to think it’s completely altruistic - my guess is that it’s more about retaining women in their workforce.) Now there IS a downside. Calie is refusing the bottle. She waits until I get home for lunch and off work. She will take a few bites of cereal to ‘take the edge off’, but otherwise she doesn’t eat during the day … instead, she wakes up to nurse at night every. two. hours. By Friday, I was ready to collapse from exhaustion! Supposedly, reverse-cycling is common for babies who aren’t used to taking a bottle. So we are working with her, using different bottles and (sadly) also letting her cry it out more at night.

Friday evening, I went to Dana’s house for a “fondue and facials” party. We had cheese fondue for dinner, and a friend of Dana’s led a Mary Kay class. Dana bought me a blush and brush with her hostess dollars – thank you, I love it! Then Saturday, we went to Sam and Melissa’s for a spaghetti dinner … where I ate more than my fair share of the delicious meatballs. They even made guacamole for appetizers (despite it not “fitting with the Italian theme”) because they knew how much I liked it … what great friends I have!

This week, we also decided on private kindergarten for Zachary. While we like the public elementary school in our district, the logistics would just be too difficult. Public kindergarten is only 3 hours, and it wouldn’t fit with James/my work schedule, leaving Zachary to take a bus by himself. The private school is a little more structured and academic than I like, but truth be told, it’s probably a good match for Zachary.

As for Calie milestones, at the end of 5 months, she started standing for a few seconds while holding on to something. She also consistently makes a few sounds clearly – “guh”, “ah”, and “dah.” Her favorite is “dah-dah” because it gets her the most attention … and she likes attention. At 6 months, we started rice cereal … and now (a week later), she also takes oatmeal. She still loves playing with her feet and grabbing things – just today, she knocked over a big bin of animal crackers. Her 6 month appointment is tomorrow, so stay tuned for the stats!