Main Blog

Earthquake

How did you do in the recent Earthquake? I felt more "rolling" and less "jolting" or "shaking." We didn't have any damage at work. I noticed it right away, but for some reason, earthquakes don't really scare me much. I guess I've lived through quite a few, but some LA natives are scared to death of them, even after experiencing them so much. If I know I'm in a safe place, like outdoors in the middle of field, I quite enjoy the experience.

Tricycle

A few days ago Nathan played with a neighbor's tricycle and scooter and loved them so much, he had his biggest tantrum ever when it was time to go back home. So we bought him his own tricycle. He can't pedal or stear it, but he loves to ride. Thankfully they make one with a long tall pole in the back to help steer. When he saw it first thing in the morning, he just had to ride it.

Pirates!

I've recently become addicted to a new computer game - Sid Meier's Pirates. If you enjoy games like Civilization, this is right up your alley, but with mini games like sword fights and ballroom dancing. Basically you sail around the Carribean, chasing down prized ships, raiding coastal towns, and trying to romance the governer's daughter. I love it.

Yosemite 2008

We're back from Yosemite and had a pretty nice trip. We stayed Wednesday night through Saturday morning in a Curry Village tent cabin. We usually do car camping with a tent and cook our own food, but we figured we take it easy and sleep in cots and eat out. The weather was pretty good, clear and not too hot. We also met up with some friends for a meal. The main draw back was that our cabin was right next to the parking lot and we were kept awake by car alarms and noisy crowds.

Nathan adjusted pretty well. He got rather restless on the car ride, but you can't blame him. He slept alright in his play pen and took decent naps. He loved being carried in the backpack. Nathan also picked up about three new words and a new sign on the trip. Overall, I'd say we had a good time. You can see alot more photos of our vacation online.

Training for Yosemite

I'm getting excited about our trip to Yosemite. We haven't taken a vacation as a family since August when we took a three day weekend to go camping in Morro Bay. Nathan and Gary have been training. We'd like to take a couple reasonable hikes although our expectations for the trip are pretty modest. We might end up spending more time at the Curry Village swimming pool than on the trail. In any case, it should be fun and I'm really looking forward to it.

Here are photos of Daddy and baby with the backpack in August and recently.

Taxing week

Last week was a very taxing week filled with viruses. First I was sick with a nasty cold, then Nathan got his painful mouth virus, then Gary got my nasty cold. I stayed home with Nathan starting Tuesday afternoon and boy, it is really hard to take care of a sick kid while you are sick too. If you look carefully, you can see the blisters on the middle of his tongue.

Besides just feeling out of steam, I ran out of things to do to keep us occupied. Thankfully my mom was around to help some. We went to the farmer's market on Wednesday and Thursday I took Nathan to the Long Beach Aquarium. We probably infected a ton of children while we were there, oh well. He liked the fishies, but had a very short attention span. After about an hour, he was more interested in the people and furniture than the fish tanks.

Nathan was finally better by Saturday morning.

4th of July 2008

Happy Fourth of July!

Backyardigans dance

Nathan has picked up on Gary and my enthusiasm for the Backyardigans. He mostly just likes the intro song. After that, he pretty much ignores the actual story/episode part.

Herpangina

Poor Nathan has a painful, blistery mouth disease called Herpangina. He won't eat much and has been drooling tons (he usually goes through one or two bibs a day, now he goes through like one every hour). He has to stay home for the rest of the week.

This was a couple days a go when Nathan was feeling and eating well.