Here are some random pictures of the kids...








Nothing much new to report. They are past their cold and we are almost past ours too. I, for one, am so tired of them (especially David) being sick. He always gets it worse than Belle and it hangs on longer. I guess you either have them sick now or keep them out of the petridish called daycare and have them sick constantly when school starts. Please tell me it's not both??!!

Anyway, one new development is that David has begun to fight back against Isabelle's sisterly abuse. He used to just cry a little and them go on his way. Now she sits on him, he pulls her hair. She takes his toy, he pops her in the head. All's fair in love and family. And it's teaching her that hitting others results in being hit back. Good life lesson I think.

They are both learning in their own way and establishing their own unique and lovable traits. David has always been more of a cuddler and a hugger than Belle, but now she is starting to spontaneously hug and kiss and tell us she loves us. It's nice to see... Isabelle is also so creative I think. She listens to music and talks in pictures about it. For instance John has some "house" music that we play in the car sometimes and Isabelle calls one of the songs "the spider song." Something about the music reminnds her of a spider building it's web, and then the music changes and she talks about how then the spider dances. Then at some point the roly-poly bugs do soemthing else. Is this normal for a 3 year old? Even if it is, I think she's amazing.

David is wonderfully "boyish." He's busy and precocious and persistent. He loves to tear things up and get into everything he isn't supposed to. He walks with funny swagger to show off his big buddha belly, doing everything very deliberately and with rare gentleness. He does know what 'gentle touches' mean and sometimes will use them when prompted to. He's got a great sense of humor and a contagious laugh. His way of learning appears to be less about observing and more about conquering and (still) tasting. He has such a joyful spirit.

Love those kiddos... best thing we've every done. Will we ever get more than 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep again?

Well, the little ones are sick again. But enough about that.


Last weekend we traveled down to Pleasanton for a lunch with my family, and a gift exchange for the girls birthdays. We stopped in at a little brew-pub located on main street near the old historic hotel and train station. The place was all done up in Mardi Gras fare, which was very interesting to David. Isabelle didn't really seem too interested in any of it. I think she may have still been recovering from the previous gut flu. She didn't want to talk much that day either. If you ever find yourself out that way, I'd go with the porter or the IPA.

Of course everyone was glad to see the kids, and they always enjoy seeing family.

David found a new little stinker trick of the week. The kids were in the bath tub, and I was still letting water in. I had Isabelle all shampood up, when all of a sudden, I don't hear the water entering the tub anymore. For one of those very long seconds, just before you know something is going to happen which you may not want to happen to you, I glanced over at David to see how he turned off the water. Then, WHOOSH! My head was soaked, and Isabelle was getting all the spray from the shower. Suddenly, it became very clear how David made it all quiet, for a second.

So, what's worse than a baby with the stomach flu? TWO kids with the stomach flu. Oh, lordy, it's been fun. Somehow I don't feel the need to go into much detail. For those of you who have been through it, you already relate. For those that haven't, it's just not that pretty.
I would like to take a minute to highlight one of the many virtues of my perfect husband. He doesn't think twice to get up at two in the morning and deal with the uh... stuff that results from the stomach flu. All those nights I had to be up with the kids when I was nursing are a good trade to have a dad that gets up to deal with sick kids.
Hope all of you are well!!

These kids sure have developed some fun(ny) games or activities. Whenever Isabelle is in the tub by herself, she does what she calls 'swimming.' What this swimming is is when she gets on her belly, and gets as close to one end of the tub with her feet. Then she pushes off as fast as she can, and belly surfs accross the tub, which pushes a big wave of water ahead of her, only to splash back at her when it get to the other end. She then wipes off her face, and laughs, and gets ready to do it again.

David has a game he like to play around the house. He goes into one of the bedrooms, and gets behind the door. Then he peeks his head around the door to see who's looking at him, and says, "Bye Bye." Then he closes the door, which he can't really open up again, then yells, "Mama!" Then we go open the door for him, he pops out with a big smile on his face, and he wants to do it again.

The other thing we've noticed with David is that he seems to have no fear. At least I hope thats what it is. Either that or no sense. Today we were at the playground, and he just climbs right up as high as he can get on the jungle gym. Then he thinks he can step off any edge like it were a stair. But it's 5 ft. up! Then he was going to walk right down a big slide! He's been climbing up slides for a while, and he likes to go down them on his belly too. Recently he has started to go down slides in a more traditional sitting pose. But today he went down a few times on his belly, then a few sitting runs, but then he just started to try to walk right down it! Fortunately, I was standing right next to the slide and caught him before he went end over. What's he doing? Trying to give us heart attacks?!?

Isabelle occasionally gets a little maternal or nurturing with her little brother. Sometimes its funny and a little inapproprtiate, like when she tells him "No, stay there and take a nap!" at 8 in the morning, and she just happened to cover him up with a blanket. But other times, most times, it's very cute, and she's giving him a bit of her food, or offering him a drink. Sometimes when we redirect him or tell him he can't clinb on top of the TV, and he starts to cry, she will get a toy or stuffed animal and bring it over to try to comfort him. She's so sweet!

Isabelle is three!! We decided to have a big party for her this year, since for the past two there have been reasons that we haven't done much for her birthday. She also has a little more of an idea about what birthdays are and what goes along with them... like presents. But mostly she likes the cake!!

Those of you who are diligent about reading the blog may remember that we went to a birthday party in the summer at a "bounce-house." Isabelle had such fun that we decided back then that we'd have her party there too. For those of you who don't know about these, they are basically a big room with several giant inflated bounce tents, slides of various heights, little obstacle courses in some... you get the idea. It gives new meaning to kids bouncing off the walls. Anyway, we invited a handful of her friends, family and some of our friends who are particularly fond of the kids. There was an hour of bouncing and then an hour in the party room for pizza presents and cake.

We had a super fun time!!

I love that the kids are starting to appreciate each other more as they get older, and I hope they are close for ever and ever...

They seemed to really bond closer during the holiday break, maybe because they didn't have any other kids to play with? Anyway we also tried to wean David off of his a.m. nap. He still sort of needs it, but when we let him nap in the morning he doesn't want to nap in the afternoon until 2 or 3pm. This presents a problem at daycare, as all of the other kids pretty much nap that the same time.

Sooooo... after the break the kids go back to daycare and routines resume. The first day back, David is pretty worn out by naptime. Noah brings out the napping mats that the bigger kids use and David runs to Isabelle's and plops down on it. Since he sometimes takes a bit longer to get to nap than others, Noah goes about taking care of the other kids and by the time he returns David is fast asleep. "Isabelle, " he says, "David is sleeping on your mat... what should we do?' Isabelle had a simple solution. She went over and laid down next to him, put her arm around him and went to sleep too!"

Welcome to Hollywood!!



Dahling, you look Mahvalous!!



I love you Sissy. I love you too buddy, even though your poop makes me choke




She really loves me a super duper lot

David has started to try to say more words. He's pretty clear with "Mamma" and "bye" and "Hi". Now he tries to say breakfast, big red bus and Truck!!!

He loves to wave and say bye to John when he leaves for work in the morning, and climbs up to the window to watch him drive away. That window is also a great place to watch all kinds of very interesting things like cars being towed away, the maintenance workers and the "green" tractor and truck that come weekly to get the grass trimmings from the curb.

Later this month he has his last developmental assessment. I hope they tell us he's all caught up. He seeems to be!!

Here are some fun pictures of him being adorable! And of he and John playing with the giant tiger that Unle Matt and Auntie Joan got us for Christmas. The thing is bigger than David and is a little bit reminiscent of the giant cow balloon!!!

My little sassy girl... so, Isabelle is clearly getting ready to turn three years old. The only close experience I have had prior to having kids was spending time with my niece and nephew when they were little bitty. I distinctly remember that my nephew was significantly more sassy at 3 than "terrible" during the terrible twos. And Isabelle is not so different. She has begun to use a "tone" with us that I don't like, which leads me to say things like "who do you think you're talking to?" and "You don't speak that way to your mother." Being the very independent child that she is, Isabelle has begun to react to this a bit.

One day, while she was busily playing with her stuffies, I said, "Isabelle, are you ready to eat lunch?" To which she replied, "No Mommy, I am not. I said no. No I said." I watched her to see if she was actually responding that way to me or if somehow incorporating her critters into the conversation as she sometimes does. Then she looked up at me with a sly grin and said... "I'm being sassy to you."

Here are some pictures of Isabelle's latest favorite expression when we take her picture.

More pictures...

Here we go again with almost a month transpiring since the last post. Oh well. Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a great 2007.

As far as the last few weeks of December, I really don't remember that much, until Christmas of course. Julies Mom and her husband came out for 12 days. We had a good visit, and with each day Isabelle was a little more friendly with our guests. At first, she didn't really want to look at them, and she certainly didn't want to talk to them or play with them.

We had Christmas morning up here, and we knew that with both families, and all the goods, we wouldn't have enough room in our little living room. So we rented the club house for the complex. Turns out the clubhouse is currently doubling as an office for the management, but we had enough room, and a discounted price. So if you see some file cabinets in our photos, that's why.

It's always good to get the family together for events like this. Unfortunatley, since everyone has to drive so much, there never seems to be enough time to really see each other. Unless, of course, they come and stay for 12 days. ;-)

Here are a few pictures of our excursion to get our Christmas tree. We had planned to get a Christmas card photo out of all this, but since you didn't get one from us, you can tell the photo shoot didn't go very well. At least not for a Christams card.






And then there were the presents. These kids had a great time. Jim and Judy got them a little table and chair set, which was a big hit. And then there were the bows. Yeah, all those toys, and the bows on the boxes were one of the biggest hits. The kids didn't get up too early, but they got tired anyway, with all the excitement. That's why all the pictures in the club house are a bit shy of David. Except for the one with him in Judy's arms.