My son is an acrobat, my Husband is a superhereo, and my daughter is a genius..

At least I think so. Last week we were sitting with Christian at a Johnny Rockets restaurant down the street from Christian's school for dinner. We were having fun with French fries, milkshakes, and burgers, when leif decided to dive bomb from his high chair, he put his hands up in the air, leaned over sideways, and dived, I caught this from the corner of my eye and let out the biggest gasp possible, which caused the whole restaurant to turn around and look, amazingly though, Christian somehow managed to put his food down and catch him by the ankle just before his head hit the floor, and I mean JUST BEFORE....we heard no thunk and Leif cried for only a second, probably from me gasping so loudly. Anyways, it must have taken spider man reflexes for Christian to catch him so quickly like that, maybe there is something he is not telling me.....

Last week Grace wrote her name all by herself, she is not even 4 years old and has never been to Pre-school, we do mini lessons at home. The girl has been singing her ABC's and has known her 123's since she was 18 months old....so kindergarten might be boring for her, but, she is a social girl so I think she would enjoy it. I would totally send her to preschool, except preschool in San Francisco costs about $1300/month, but you have to get into a good preschool here, inf act, when you find out your pregnant you put your name on a waiting list, because if you can't go to a good preschool forget about a good kindergarten, and if you haven't gone to a good kindergarten all your APPLICATIONS for 1rst grade will be rejected and you'll be sent to one on the other side of town....and most of us in our urban white part of town never cross that line after mission/market street.,....it's another world which takes us out of our comfort zone.

I would love to post a picture of Grace's handy work at writing her name, except I think our camera was stolen, along with our DVD player out of the car. This is the 2nd time I have caused ruin to come to one of our cameras, yikes. On Friday we decided last minute (as in, Hey, let's go to camarillo for Doris' briday shower..Ok, I'll pack up and let's leave in 1 hour type of last minute). we drove down the PCH 1 highway and stopped at an adorable Organic Berry farm just outside of Half Moon Bay. We delighted in fresh strawberry shortcake, berry cobbler, boysenberry truffles, chocolate covered brownie with strawbeery cheesecake centers, and hot starwberry apple cider, all of it was SO delicious I would drive down that way again. This place was so cute, there was nobody there to even take your money, it was all on an honor system, there was a cash box, you paid what you owed and took your own change, honesty and innocence still do exist in America, how refreshing.

The bridal shower was amazing, it reminded me of Maroe Antionette, the scene with all the pastries and decorations. It was beyond what anybody could expect, and the desserts were so tempting I don't think a soul out of the 80 people who attended left on without some sort of sugar high. Howeverm it was a fun weekend but sleepless one for me. I had some strange allergy attack on Friday night which I am blaming on the Blue/red ICEE from the movies, I had to get up at 2am and eat ice cream because my throat was on fire, and sunday morning I got up at 4:50 to take my mom to the LAX to fly home, she flew in from SLC just for the bridal shower. It was fun to see Eric and Cristin, and Grace loved playing with Luke and Isaac. They remind of a pack of wild kids when Grace is with all her cousins, in fact, sometimes I am reminded of the book Lord of the Flies when I see them all together and really worry what would happen if we left them alone together. I think Wyatt would become the King (like the old primitive days when kings and rulers were the strongest) because he could throw his brute strength around and perform half nelson's on anybody who dared to challenge him (he has been performing those since he was a year old I think, no joke).

We are looking forward to Halloween and the upcoming holidays.

Six Flags was Fun

On Saturday, October 17th, we journeyed to Vallejo, Ca, and went to Six Flags amusement park. The day started warm, but ended cool and cloudy. We saw all kinds of animals, elephants, leapords, tigers and lions. W also saw the dolphin and killer whale show, which Grace and Leif loved. Leif was so captivated by the flipping and jumping dolphins that his mouth hung open most of the time. The water in the fountain at the front of the park was dyed red, and there were skeletons hanging above it so it looked like blood was splashing all over them. Thriller was performed by a group, and the leader dressed in the Michael Jackson red outfit like the original. There were people dressed up like monsters and zombies walking around the park scaring little kids. At the end of the day we got a huge funnel cake topped with cold stone creamery ice cream, whipped cream, and strawberry.mmmmmmmmmmmmm.even Leif couldn't resist. We bought season passes, which total we paid $35 each for our ticket that day and tgat invcluded the upgrade to season pass, we're excited to go back. We watched Grace go on lots of cute rides, by herself, the flying elephant, the swings, she had so much fun!

I am so grateful for my little family, I love them all so much and am so blessed they have been sent to me, and that Christian is such a wonderful husband. He works hard at school and then comes home and helps me with the kids ans dinner, it's great! Life in san francisco has settled down a bit, we've found our little niche and routines, which keep us busy, like the parks, playgroup, the gym, trying different restaurants, visiting new places. I love watching Leif begin to explore his enviroment, watching him use those big, gentle hands that were made to do great things. Grace is so friendly wherever we go, she will run up to anybody and ask them to be her friend and play. We recently went and checked out peek a doodle, an indoor kids playground (for members,not too expensive to join, at least for san francisco) Afterwards we ate a Kara's cupcake in the Ghiradelli square buildings, soooooooooooo good, we picked out Raspberry Chocolate and it like melts in your mouth.

It rained today again, Grace watched Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time, I wasn't sure if it would be too scary, but she loved it. I felt bad, I was pretty lazy today and took a nap and let Grace veg out on TV.

We are all so excited for Halloween, everyday Grace is talking about her witch costume, or her birthday, or Christmas. She is so excited for Trick or Treating.

Leif doesn't have a costume, but he's only 8 moonths old, I'll just put some freaky make-up on or something.

Anyways, we are enjoying life!

The Week in Review

My oh my, and the rain came down this week! Tuesday morning I awoke to find it literally pouring rain. After getting back from the gym, Christian and I got the kids up and we drove him to school. What to do on a rainy day in a small apartment? Grace and I read stories, made magic cookie bars, and Grace copied and practiced her letters, she wrote all of ur names, even Christian and Halloween! Leif was busy napping, then crawling around and playing with toys, it's so fun watching him pull himself along on the floor, he must be getting some good upper body strength. And, of course, the boy loves to eat. It doesn't matter how much he has eaten, he always wants more, and he cannot stand it if we are sitting at the table eating and he;s not, he has to be eating whenever someone else is eating, even if he has just eaten! Watch out Leif, childhood obesity is on the rise! In fact, he loves to eat so much he ate one of those white rubber tips off the door stopper yesterday which resulted in a trip to our local ER on Cherry St.. luckily, it was not crowded, in fact, there were about 4 nurses in my room, you could tell one was training by the way she followed the other nurse, which brought back memories of all the clinicals I did in nursing school, and reminded me there are more to come. Would you believe we were in and out in under 1 hour? They X-rayed his stomach and lungs and the only thing the doctor found was alot of poop in his colon, I said,"Yeah, the boy loves to Eat alot." Not that rubber shows up on X-rays anyways. but I was relieved to hear that it was not lodged somewhere funny, like in the back of his throat which he could later regurgitate and choke on! After that, we went and picked christian up from school and hot up one of our favorite spots, Bittersweet cafe, they make the best hot chocolates, not your powdered mix in kind, real, melted chocolate. Christian got the spicy kind, which tasted like a kick to the mouth. Grace and I shared one, but I don't think she really liked it because she only took one drink, i must have not really liked it either because I gave mine to Christian. We then went home and made pizza from whole wheat dough I made earlier that day. Grace ate the pizza and Leif cried until we gave him some crust. Grace told us it was snowing in her bedroom and that she was having a party for baby Ariel, she has quite the imagination. She is already excited for Christmas, and her birthday, and Halloween, we got her witch costume from The Childrens Place, a really cute witch costume. Not sure what Lewif will be, Grace says he should be a pig. Leif is smiling that sweet smile at me right now, which is just heart melting! Yesterday we wnet and checked out this place called Peekadoodle, an indoor playground. It was really cool, every mom's dream (except the price), but they let you come and play for free one time to check it out. it's in Ghiraddelli square, which also meant we had to go and sample the chocolate in the Ghiradelli store, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........mouth watering. Grace picked out a raspberry cupcake from Kara's cupcakes, which also is mouth watering and melts in your mouth. Pekadoodle was fun though, they have a mini golden gate bridge, castle, house, gym, a cafe, nap room, classes, and a boutique, it was pretty cool and Grace had a blast running around and I loved sitting in the baby section with Leif while he crawled around.

On Tuesday we braved Union Square with my friend, Emily, who is 8 months pregnant! The kids were good, and we got fresh cream puffs from a place called Papa Beards, oh man, that custard filling was delicious, except when you take a bite the custard might shoot out the back and splatter all over the floor...

Sunday we made cookies and brought them to a girl who just had her 4th baby, they are also dental students, and she is very brave, I thought 2 was a handful to have while in school.

This morning is extremely foggy, today I want to relax and play with the kids, maybe visit Christian for lunch...and bake sweets.

I love this time of year, I always want to bake pumpkin bread and all sorts of treats and make yummy soups. I also reflect alot on how much our family is blessed, even though we are poor students, we have everything and I feel I want for nothing. I read Grace the book A Christmas Dress for Ellen and I can't believe how much it made me cry while I was reading it to Grace, either i've become a huge sap or it's all the extra oxytocin in my body from breastfeeding (you know that feeling you get before your milk comes in, your either going to bawl or get so happy)

this year I'd love to donate to the giving tree, we do something every year for another family or child, lst year we brought present to Primary Childrens Hospital, this year it might be to the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit in San Francisco. My kids are healthy, and from the little experience I have I know how heart breaking it is to have a sick child, but I don't know what it is like to have my own child sick, in and out of hospitals, and the grief, strees, and helplessness the parents feel. I'm still debating on what type of nurse I want to be when Chrsitan is done with school and I can actually start working, but I still want to work in pediatric oncology. I am so grateful for all we have been given, and I do not know why my children are healthy and others are not, but I am so grateful and pray to God every day and thank him for this. I hope this season we can all reflect on how much we have, even if all we have to live on is student loans and food stamp, because there are millions out there who are struggling to get even fresh water, or food, or a rag o cover their body.

The Sixth

The Fifth and Oh my gosh, cuteness!

Love, love, love this little boy. What do I love about him? besides the fact that he has my DNA and I grew him inside my tummy for nine months and got so big people thought I was having twins? HMMMMMMMMMMM, I think the combination of a good looking baby and a baby who sleeps all night long is the real reason mothers fall in love with their kids right? Egh! Wrong (Although it helps, alot). I think it's like any other relationship, you've gone through the tough stuff together, we made it through the first 6 weeks of what felt like hell, I mean, aka learning to breastfeed, and we really got to know each other well at 12am, 2-4am, and 6am when he decided not to sleep, there I was, sitting on the edge of the bed rocking this little baby to sleep and just wanting to go back to sleep so I could get a few hours of sleep in, when he would open his eyes and start cooing, for what felt like forever.......after an hour or two so I'd have to call in back-up (Christian) to come relieve me before I lost all sanity...night after night this little tiny little boy would cry for me, and time after time, I would get up, feed, change him, cuddle him back to sleep. You would think that this wears a person out (it does) but for some reason it made me love him more and more, maybe it's all the time and energy you invest into your baby that helps grow the bonds of love, maybe it's all the oxytocin rushing through my body that tells me holding my baby and nursing him is pure bliss, or maybe it's just being human, we all need love, we all learn to love. All I know, is I love Leif and am grateful for such a sweet, tender, little boy. I am excited to watch him grow and experience life, and I am glad I get to be the one who guides him. (Dear God, please help me........).

The Fourth and Morning Time

Morning in our house currently, is very fun. I start the day super early, 5:30am, and go to the YMCA where I work my butt off doing Spin class and weights. I rush home by 7:20 and shower and get dressed just in time to get the kids up. Leif starts the day off with a nursing session, and grace sits at the table for a good half hour at least eating her cereal. Leif then rolls around all over the floor, he is trying to crawl on hands and knees but for now just scoots along. He loves anything that rustles....he is such a smiley, cuddly baby, I love it! He loves to pick things up and examine them before sticking them in his mouth. This morning I fed him mashed bananas and set the bowl down next to me, what does Leif do? He crawls over and grabs the spoon out of the bowl and licks it! Around 9am, I then nurse him again and get him ready for his nap. after he falls, asleep, Grace and I work on preschool lessons until eLif wakes up again then we head out of the door for an adventure!(Usually a park). Today is library day.....why do I get up so early? Isn't it a little crazy? Well, I decided I prefer having my workout out of the way, it's so much easier to enjoy the whole day with my children that way. so for now, 10pm bedtime, sometimes 9:30pm, is a welcome guest in my home.( but I think it always has been that way for me, early to bed always feel so much better).

The Third and Disneyland

It has been ten years since I have been to Disneyland, we went yesterday (Friday, October 2nd), and I am so happy to report that Grace and Leif were so wonderful we are going to try and go again in November with my parents. I felt giddy as we got closer and closer to Disneyland Dr., john was driving, and Debi, Hans, kirsten, Addy, Audrey and Isaac came along as well. Nathan met us there. We started the day off with with the Rocketships in Tomorrowland. Grace went with Dad and I took Leif, I have t say that I couldn't turn my head around to look at Grace and Christian, made me a little sick. Leif loved the ride though, and squealed with delight almsot the whole time! Just before that, there was no line for Star Tours, so I went on by myself, Nathan was not there yet to help watch the kids. I felt kinda funny going on by myself, but I have to admit that I loved going on that ride, I have memories of it as a child, and some things are so good they should never be changed. We then went on buzz Lightyear's ride, which Leif didn't love so much, i think the scary looking evil toys disturbed him and he cried a good portion of the ride, I, on the other hand, loved it and scored over 20,000 points! Nathan came and we made our way over to the Matterhorn, which Grace didn't like very much. Grace loved the hugging the chipmunks, Winnie the Pooh was her favorite ride. She even braved The Haunted Mansion, and is still talking about Jack Skelington and the ghosts. We had such a good time, we were so glad we got to hang out with Nathan, it definatley enriched our trip. We did not get to see much of the other family, they went to California Adventures for some of the day. We went on the train around Disneyland, and then ate at a fun Mexican restaurant and got an ice cream sundae to share. We left the park around 8pm, after going on space Mountain. I have to say that was such a thrilling ride, I loved it so much and was lucky enough to go on it twice. Nathan held the kids while Christian and I went, then Nathan waited at the exit for us and was allowed to go right after we got off, so I went with him! It got so crowded, it was shoulder to shoulder with the parades going on, and people kept pouring into the park even though it was after 8pm. (I guess I am not a night owl, early to bed for me please!) We went to the Disney store just outside the park gates where Grace picked out baby Ariel and Leif got a light blue baby Mickey mouse that rattles. We got home around 10:30, the drive was only 90 minutes, and the kids went straight to bed (so did I). Thank you John and Debi for driving us, we had so much and can't wait to go back!

The Second (and my dislike for Santa Ana weather)

Yesterday we went to Round Table with Ditte and Kirsten and Isaac and Wyatt, John and Debi and Jeremy. Grace had fun running around with the boys, while Leif threw his sippy cup down on the ground from is high chair over and over again. After the tenth time I stopped picking it up, but it was interesting to see complete strangers get up from their seats, walk over to us and pick up his sippy cup and hand it to Leif (I guess it really does take a village to raise a child). Afterwards, the boys came to Grandma Debi's and played with Geotrax. It's interesting to watch how intense 3 3 year olds can become over a train that goes 2 miles/hour, but they love it, it keeps them busy, it's educational, and that's all we parents care about, right?

Anyways, the Santa Ana's (and this cold) are trying to wreck my vavcation. I dreamed of lazy days on the beach, watching Leif pick up hand full's of sand and let it run through his fingers, watching Grace run around and squeal with delight as the ocean waves chase her, and taking pictures of Christian as he surfed the waves on one of his dad's longboards, but none of those has happened. Today, the warm, dry winds came, and my cold is rampant. All I want to do is go somewhere air conditioned. So I dropped Chrsitan and Grace off to see the movie "Cloudy with a Cjance of Meatballs" and headed up to the Oaks mall. Leif is a very calm baby, and I hand him starwberry wheels to keep him busy in his stroller while I walk around Nordstrom lazily and browse the selection of over priced merchandise that is more than tantalizing, it gleams and calls your name and says, "You can't live without me!" but I have learned to ignore those calls, maybe if those Coach purses were marked at 90% off, but there not, and so I won't......I feed Leif in the woman's lounge, a place created by Nordstrom so a new mom can feel as though she never has to leave the store. The lounge is dimly lit, stocked with diaper changing suppkies, leather seats, coffee tables, and cozy chairs......downstairs is the cafe where a new mom can get her caffeine fix from the long, sleepless nights, and upstairs is the elegant restaurant where the new mom can pay ten bucks or so for a salad to help her shed her baby weight and feel good about herself as she takes her Nordstroms card and feels like she is not actually spending money because it is all put on a charge card. Yes, Nordstroms is a hole, meant to suck you in and I am glad I have not become a Nordstroms girl.....

Anyways, I left my cell phone in the "lounge" and am too lazy to go get it after I get home and discover my cell phone is missing and Nordstroms customer service has it for me. My point I guess is that the Santa Ana's drove me to the mall where subsequently I lost my phone! E I remember as a teenager in junoir high really disliking the Santa Ana's! I used to wear a hooded sweatshirt and pull the hoody over my hair and tie it down so it wouldn't fly up because my hair would go craazy, whisping this way and that way...I also remember my the back of my leg getting pelted with a baby carrot and it welting up...let's see, fires break out during santa ana's, skin dries, noses go crazy, so basically the santa Ana's can just cease to exist and I don't think anybody would mind!