Happy new year!

I made my family ring in 2012 by getting them up at 7 to take me to a race in the east bay. Lake Chabot is gorgeous for anyone looking for a nice hike in Castro Valley. I shaved a minute of my pace... Easy to do when this little guy is cheering for me at the finish line!

Reindeer video

You really need to see it in all media forms to really appreciate it!

Reindeer

This year I finally got some pictures that do justice to my favorite Christmas decorations in the world. One street in our neighborhood displays a sleigh being pulled by reindeer. It spans six houses. It's the best and my dream is to one day live in one of the houses, or talk my five consecutive neighbors into doing the same thing.

Merry Christmas!

Will was a little overwhelmed by everything

Yes! A Monster Jam ramp from Auntie Kathy!

Brotherly love

Figures I'd get shots like these *after* Christmas cards are done

Sous chef

Will helping me with dinner tonight. (Stainless steel + tile = LOUD)

Look who's home!

Unfortunately I didn't get video of Will squealing with delight.

Park

Jake has been asking for "a playground in my backyard, like Katie's" for Christmas. Katie lives back east and has a backyard the size of our entire block. It's kind of set Dave and I into a tizzy and after discussing maybe removing our dying peach tree and measuring every "playground" available at toys r us, we decided its just not possible to fit any kind of swingset into our tiny back "yard." So today I took Jake to the park to remind him of how we can easily walk to our playground. On the way home after a fun-filled couple hours I talked it up -- it's bigger than Katie's! There's more grass than Katie's! Katie's doesn't have a giant (germ-filled) sand play area! He said, "Yeah, but Katie's playground has a dog." Crap.

Neighborhood watch

Ever since the car bandit incident, Will has taken our neighborhood watch program verrrry seriously.

Big strides!

Yes that's me breathing heavily/yelping in the background.

New kicks

It's getting cold and Will seems to be getting ready to walk, so I had to do something about his feet only fitting in socks. As if the poor kid wasn't self conscious enough about his chubby watermelon feet, turns out stride rite only offers extra-wide sizes in stark white booties. Poor Will isn't even one and he's already looks like he's in orthopedic shoes!

Oh Christmas tree

Warning! Posts this month are all out of order! Here are some photos of us cutting down our tree. It didn't look that big in the forest, but when we got it home it took a lot of sawing to get that puppy to fit in our living room.

Yawn

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever sleep 8 hours again. Last night I was up with Jake at 1:30, got him down...up with Will at 2, got him down at 3:30 after a bottle and the two of us watching a gripping 20/20 on 'gender-cide" in India, and then, when I finally think I can go back to bed, I notice someone breaking into my neighbor's car. I chase him off (I wanted to yell "Dude, I'm so f&$#%ing tired and don't have time for this sh#t!!!" but instead I politely yelled "I see you and I'm calling 911!" - from behind my jasmine bush in case he had a gun), and THEN I waited for the cops to arrive so I could give a "description" of the shadowy figure that took off running down our road when he heard my threat (apparently "I'm sure it was a man and he had to be young -he ran so fast!" wasn't good enough for San Jose PD). Then it was up at the crack of dawn for a conference call with Chennai where I had to try so hard to contain myself from asking about "gender-cide." It's only Tuesday and I already feel like superwoman. A totally exhausted superwoman... but an exhausted superwoman with the cutest boys in the world! (Look at that damn face!)

Merry Christmas

From the best darn garland-applier that ever existed!

11 months

Will is 11 months old! And no trips to the ER yet, despite a "helpful" big brother. (Here he is trying to get Will to look at the camera.)

Biggest fan

I treated my biggest fan to a donut and chocolate milk this morning (a thanks for his support!) on the way home from my first ever trail 5k - a race in the Santa Cruz mountains. I planned on going by myself since it was so early this morning, but Jake came running out in his PJs half asleep and said "mommy! I have to go to your race so I can clap for you!" (His PJs are still on under that hoodie). ;)

Standing

Top, back, and side view of my soon-to-be walker (!!!).

Thank god he's a country boy

My favorite thing to do when I'm visiting my parents is take a walk alone. There aren't many places I think are more beautiful than that area of Massachusetts (I'd even put it before Hawaii and Fiji). But the past few visits I haven't been able to go any walks because of weather or pregnancies so I was thrilled to get out a couple of times this visit (thanks to balmy weather and an awesome husband). One late afternoon, Jake asked to go with me. I can't say no to that little face so I put down my iPod an bundled him up for what I thought would be a 10 minute walk. But he loved it! And he's only 3, but you could tell he really appreciated it. He commented on how quiet it was, how big the sky was, and how many trees there were. He was a little thrown off by not being able to 'go around the block,' the lack of sidewalks, and how 'big the piles of kitty poop' were (horse crap). An hour and a half later we were making our way home in the pitch black. One of my favorite memories of this trip.

BOS -> SFO

Hour 1(through about hour 1.5)! All smiles....

Hour 2.5: through vigorous rocking and bouncing in his seat (seat belt sign was on) Dave finally manages to get a cranky Will to sleep. We got 1 hour of sleep out of him. 

Hour 3: Jake remained in his Dramamine-induced coma for 3.5 hours! 

Hour 6: Landed. We went through an entire box of Baby mum mums, lots of lollipops, two iPhone batteries (almost an entire iPhone when Will got a hold of mine and chucked it into neighboring row 22), gallons of apple juice and water, 3.5 bottles (hey, when your baby's crying on a plane shoving formula into him is your only option), two diapers, and a freaking whole lot of our sanity. The kicker was Jake wailed while we descended (how dare the flight attendant tell him he had to get off his knees and sit down in the seat for landing). And those red eyes? That's totally not the photo, we're all just crazy and devilish after x-country flights. But as I returned to work on Monday, just so happy to not be anywhere near an airport or airplane, a message came through on the parents' email DL asking for advice for a 10-hour layover in Hong Kong with two kids. Maybe I don't have it so bad!

Grandpa Yim

I feel so lucky to have met (and loved with all of my heart) this truly remarkable man, and I'm so glad he got to meet Jake and Will. We will always love you, Grandpa.

Packing up

I'm taking a break from packing up for our 6.5 hour flight tomorrow (GAH!) to share some pics from our awesome east coast visit.

Grammie makes the best monster truck ramps/slides

Grampy planned Jake's dream day - we went to the Mayflower and then to Edaville Railroad

Jake's observations about Mass: "Walls are made of rocks, people put stars on their houses, and the trees are broken." (stone walls, decorative stars that everyone does seem to put on their house now, snowstorm of 10/11)

It was so warm we could even take Chase and Kyle's powerwheels for a spin!

Cousins are the best. And no holiday is complete without a photo of children on mom's awesome floral sofa. 

Gold help me

T minus a few hours until we board the red eye for Boston. 'Tangled' is loaded on the iPhones, Cheez its and baby mum mums are packed in the diaper bag, and Jake's backpack has new toys in it. We also have antibiotics, Motrin, and Benadryl for two little sick kids (and one sick mom). Nervous as all hell but I'd be so much worse if Auntie Jeanne wasn't here to help! Will these x-country flights ever get easier??

10 months old!

Will turned 10 months old at 1:11 on 11.11.11. (No, I will not shut up about his birth date and time.) He looks underwhelmed because he was home with me all day and I have no idea how to care for my own child so he hasn't really napped. As for Jake, lately his hand is either up his nose or down his pants so it's hard to grab a picture of him not doing something rude - sorry.

Honesty is Jake's policy

I darkened my hair yesterday (main purpose: go longer between pricey hair appointments without 3 inches of roots showing). I honestly didn't think it was all that noticeable. But then Jake saw me, stopped dead in his tracks, and said "Your hair's brown. I don't like it. I like it when it has lots of yellow stripes in it." I can always count on my little buddy to tell it like it is!

Hair cute

We went and got that much-needed hair cut tonight. When we got home, Jake asked "Why did you say 'Jesus' to the lady?" Why? Because it really irks me when you sigh in frustration, roll your eyes, and snap at my three-year-old who is trying his best to stay still on a freaking HORSE-chair while you use clippers on his ticklish little neck... then I say "JESUS, maybe you shouldn't work at 'Kids Salon' if you have such a problem with kids!" That's why, Jake.

Hey bitchy Kids Salon hair cutter - no tip (and scathing Yelp review) for you.

Christmas card photo fail

If you're looking forward to our Christmas card this year, don't hold your breath. (Yeah, I know Jake needs a haircut... but do you see that's the least of my worries?)

Boo!

Happy Halloween from my little chicken and astronaut! We had a great time trick-or-treating in our prime trick-or-treating neighborhood. I've become one of those people that gives the stink eye to the people that come, park, and take up all the room on our sidewalk and STEAL the candy bowls off of the Murphy's front porch. Hmph.

My little (sweaty) chicken

He's an astronaut, people... not a "space man" 

Brothers!

A bee, astronaut, firewoman, and a chicken in a car

Eli ("Bob the Builder"), Jake, & Will.
Any tips for getting 3 year old boys to smile normal?

Jake was a little shy at first - thanks to our neighbors who came out to him!