Portland visit with Olivia and Mark

We went out to Kruger's farm one night and had a blast! They had swing music, food, fresh farm veggies and fruit for sale, hayride. Jasper got attacked by a rooster, he said he was trying to feed it grass. I LOVE this picture of Jasper and Mark!

Jasper is at this great age right now, he has so much innocence and joy abounding from him. He's dancing a lot and just DANCING, there's no self consciousness, just purity.

Jayna putting TWO signs together in Portland: "MORE LIGHTS" and climbing up stairs

We went out on the 4th for fireworks in downtown Portland, Jayna LOVED the fireworks and she put two sign together for the first time. After the fireworks were done, I told her the fireworks, "lights" were "all done" and she immediately started doing "MORE" "LIGHTS" and then kept on doing it, "MORE" "LIGHTS"!! it was SOOOO exciting. The next day she did "MORE" and then she said "BOO(k)". YAY!!! her communication skills have been so cool. She also started signing "Jasper" and said, "more Jasper"

Today, at home she crawled up the stairs all by herself for the first time! We also had her 10 month appointment and surprise, surprise! Jayna's weight is now in the 5th percentile. This is exactly the same time as when Jasper's weight dipped down below the 3rd percentile. Dr. Marcia said she's not going to run Jayna through all of the tests that we did with Jasper, and in a small way it's kind of comforting knowing that we just produce small children instead of just Jasper being small. So we'll see what happens and how all this size stuff works out. I feel bad thinking this but I feel like it's not as much of an issue for Jayna because she's a girl, but that being small as a boy matters more.

Visit to Portland, the 4th, Chad's Birthday

Last week we celebrated Chad's birthday on the 4th up in Portland! Jan drove with us and Amy took the train down from Seattle and we all stayed at Mark and Olivia's new place in Portland.

A few days before we were supposed to go Jayna came down with a fever, she had had a runny nose for several days before that and we thought she was just teething. I wanted to be sure she didn't have an ear infection or something else so we took her into the doctor on Monday. Chad thought she had the fever for more days than I thought so the doctor said they should probably do a urine and blood test, I had stayed home to teach so didn't have to witness Jayna getting a catheter and her blood drawn (they tried one arm and it didn't work so they had to stick both arms :-( Jasper went along and after Jayna was getting her blood drawn he told Chad, "Jayna was getting the owie but why did it hurt me? it's like magic" What a SWEETHEART!!!!!

They didn't find anything so even though Jasper came down with the fever too, we decided to go ahead and do the drive to Portland. The 12 hour drive was a lot easier than I had anticipated it being, Jasper was a rock star and didn't complain at all. Jayna on the way there was still worn out from the fever and we had given her tylenol so she slept quite a bit. On the way home she only had about a 15 minute crying stint, but that was it!

Liz and Jadu's wedding: Family picture

Here we are at Liz and Jadu's wedding, Saturday May 31st, 2008 at Westerbeke Ranch in Sonoma, California

Liz and Jadu's wedding: May 31st, 2008

and with all my crazy, mad blogging I got it all out of order! The end of May was Liz and Jadu's wedding in Sonoma---oh it was SOOOO beautiful. They got married at Westerbeke Ranch in Sonoma, the entire event was warm, meaningful and joyous! Tamiko flew in from Michigan and Olivia and Mark came from Portland, it's not every year that I get to see Tamiko and Olivia in two different states within a one week period!

Catherine's 35th Birthday

AND I got to celebrate my 35th birthday in Michigan for the first time in years. It was great being with my whole family, Lichee and Emma came from Ann Arbor and Helen and Randy and Max came the next day and of course, my Mom and Dad. I also got to celebrate with the Rothhorn's twice! They made me a cake the night before and we celebrated at their house and then they came over to my Mom and Dad's the next day! and of course, it was wonderful being with Olivia and Jasper and Jayna.. I really missed Chad and was bummed he couldn't come, he had a gig though and couldn't make the trip back this time.

Olivia, Jayna and Tamiko in Michigan

and we got to spend time at MC and Tamiko's wonderful co-housing community in Lansing. They're really creating a beautiful oasis in the middle of downtown Lansing.

Jasper and Mori in Michigan

getting MUDDY!!

Jasper and Kata having fun in Michigan

More Okemoids: Meredith pregnant!

And I also got to see Meredith 8 months pregnant with Lil' Sharp! YAY!!!

Okemos friends

Being back in Michigan gave me a chance to meet up with a lot of old friends from high school. We were lucky to have a one day over lap with the Mitchell's, who live in Kentucky now! Here in this picture:
Chris, Lucy, Laynie, Sam, Jamie and his nephews, me, Jasper, Olivia holding Jayna, Christine holding her niece.

Trip back to Michigan: June 4th-June 9th

A couple of weeks ago Olivia flew back with Jasper, Jayna and me to Michigan! It was so great to spend so much time with Olivia, I hope she had fun too...I think it might have wore her out hanging out with Jasper so much! He's SOOOOOO into the "WHY?" phase....I never thought a person could ask WHY about so many things. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it, but it can get tiring by the end of the day.

The special occasion for going back to Michigan was Marilyn Kesler's retirement. Ms. Kesler was our orchestra conductor for both middle school and high school. When I thought about it I realized how much time I spent with Ms. Kesler, every school day, 5 days a week, for one hour for 7 years! To this day I still think back to how inspiring she was and how she managed to get such an amazing sound of a bunch of middle school or high school musicians. It was fun to see some people from my past as well and Helen and Randy even drove back to Michigan to play. Oh yeah, so they had this big retirement concert planned with an alumni orchestra of over 100 people and we all played these pieces under her direction.

Jayna is a new girl! 10 months old

The last two weeks have been a turning point for Jayna. She is really crawling, belly up off of the floor and FAST! She's into everything and wants to play and hold everything-well, she was like that before but now she can get to them. I had been struggling with her to get her to nap in the morning at her usual time, around 10:30am the last week and then finally realized yesterday that she doesn't want to nap in the morning anymore. It's made me kind of sad to see her go from two naps a day to just one. It's just another sign that she's growing up--and so fast. I think Jasper was at least one before he gave up his second nap.

Celebrating Dad's 70th Birthday

We were happy to be able to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday while they were visiting us. In Taiwan you're born 1 year old so in Taiwan my Dad is 70, in the US my Dad would only be 69.

Jayna is REALLY crawling

YAY!! This week Jayna really started to crawl forward. She has been moving backwards on her belly for quite some time but she is getting around now!

It's been busy here the last couple of weeks....my Mom and Dad came out to visit. My Dad did wonders with our yard and my Mom left our house the cleanest it's ever been. Jayna LOVED them and after we dropped them off at the airport and returned home, Jasper said, "I'm lonely, I miss Ama and Agong"

Our handsome boy!

Even with chocolate on his face!

Jayna's two bottom teeth!

Jayna and Jasper: May 2008

Liz and Jayna: Liz's bachelorette weekend

Tracy and Jayna

We had a real busy first weekend of May!
The kids and I went up to Guerneville for one night for Liz's bachelorette weekend, on our way home we stopped and saw Tracy. Chad was out of town playing with Grisman in San Diego and I had told Liz that I would totally understand if she didn't want kids at her bachelorette weekend, but she said it was ok. We spent Friday night there, took our time coming home on Saturday and then Jasper had his 3rd birthday party on Sunday. Chad flew down to San Diego Friday, played a festival Saturday afternoon and flew back Sat night so he could be back for Jasper's bday party.

Jasper was super excited to up to Guerneville because I told him there would be a hot tub at the house we were renting. The first thing he did when we got there was say, "where's the hot tub?"
The bummer was that we were the first people of the season to rent this particular house and the hot tub was nasty dirty. We called but they didn't send someone out until the next morning, and we were only spending one night. Jasper and I got in the tub anyway, late morning but it was still pretty cold. The happy thing was that Jasper got to go in Tracy's hot tub instead!

The kids did great and I have to say that the last couple of months has been a real turning point for me.

Going out with both kids, even over night somewhere by myself doesn't feel like a big deal anymore. I think those first few months when Jayna was born and Jasper was potty trained were really stressful for me if we went out of the house. It seemed hard to try and hold Jayna (in the carrier) and get Jasper on a public restroom toilet, trying not to get him dirty, and trying not to get pee everywhere. I'm not sure what happened, but it now seems like no big deal, maybe I just got used to it!

I love this pictures of Tracy and Jayna, they look so happy! AND Jayna had nabbed Tracy's earring and stuck it in her mouth (yikes!!) and neither one of us saw it--you can see it in this picture.

Jasper is THREE!

THREE!! I can't believe it, 1 and 2 seemed easy but having Jasper turn 3 has been emotional for me. We no longer have a baby, and he's growing up fast. I know, I know...it's only 3....but it feels so huge. He reasons with us, has thoughtful conversations, wants to learn things--is in the "WHY? phase---everything is Why? Why? Why? He makes jokes! LOVES to rhyme words. For his birthday he asked for a new instrument, he now has a saxophone! and the one thing her REALLY wanted for his birthday was a periscope :-)

Jasper had a great birthday party with all of his friends, we hired a face painter/balloon guy named Oliver Twist. Jasper was Batman! I think Jasper was so happy all day, his face was all lit up when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him, he had his friends help him open his presents, we had cupcakes.

Here he is with some of his friends from the party: from L-R, Giuseppe, Ella, Sophia, Jasper, Zane and Miles.
Missing from the photo: Roan, Quinn, Noah, Dexter, Matteo

All of the pictures can be viewed here:
Jasper's 3rd Bday

Jayna is 9 months: More signing, things she loves

This week Jayna picked up some new signs. The most exciting one is that she's signing "Papa"! and she's using it a lot - she pats her head for the sign and it's SO cute. We also think she's really close to talking, we have heard her say "cat" several times and "dog" and today we were outside and woman walking by with her dog heard her say "dog" too.
It turns out that that first tooth coming in was her first TWO teeth coming in, her two bottom teeth. They are SO cute...I got a good picture of them but I haven't uploaded them yet to the computer.

Jayna also LOVES roses and being outside, she gets so excited and kicks her legs and feet and says "ha-ka! ha-ka!"

Here she is with her friend Dexter at Fairyland in Oakland.

Jayna at 8 months: First tooth, scooching backwards, more signs

This last month has been momentous for Jayna--she's a new girl! We really no longer have a newborn on our hands and it kind of makes me a little sad. Jayna's first tooth is coming in, it's the bottom right one. Jayna is sitting very solidly and can go from sitting to her belly and then scooching, usually backwards. Jayna is eating all kinds of things but she LOVES to feed herself little finger foods. Jayna was constipated for the first time! :-( it was truly one of the saddest things I have ever seen. I could tell she needed to poop so I sat her on the toilet, she just cried and cried, then she'd rest on my shoulder , try and push, then cry a little more and then she would almost fall asleep. Then wake up and try and push some more. I felt like I was coaching her through labor because that's exactly the way I felt when I was in labor with Jasper---on the exact same toilet!

Chad went through the same thing with Jayna a few hours later and he had the same thoughts I did, about how it seemed like labor. We didn't talk about it until late that night but we both got a little sentimental thinking about how Jayna someday may go through labor and have her own children.

and finally, Jayna is consistently doing four signs now--she has been doing "milk" for over a month now, as well as "Mama" and now she does "more" and "eat". She won't do them on command but when she wants any of them she's VERY articulate about them and it's So exciting to see her communicate!

We've been doing night weening with Jayna, it's been great I've had much better sleep and Jayna has been sleeping longer stretches 4-5 hours. Chad left today to go play in Austin though so the next two nights we'll see how Jayna does....we had Chad holding her and soothing her back to sleep when she woke up, instead of me nursing her back to sleep. but it's just so much easier for me to nurse her back to sleep than to have to get up and walk her back to sleep.

Just some random thoughts...the final season of Battlestar Galactica has started!!!!
For the first episode we had gone over to Chris' place to pick up a huge, 42 inch HP television (it's a long story, but he's loaning it to us indefinetely) We didn't realize how much happier we would be with it until we got it. When we got it home Jasper said, "yeah...it's just medium huge"
We were watching our movies on a tiny 24 inch computer monitor....this is gigantic compared to that. Anyway, we decided to just stay at Chris' and watch Battlestar, it was SOOOOO good. SO good. Last week's we watched yesterday from scifi.com. It amazes me just how good this show really is, as soon as I hear the opening music I get unbelievably excited. Almost the same excited as we have been watching Lord of The Rings and Star Wars on the 42inch screen.

We've also just started watching the Sopranos....yes I know it was on for years and years and now it's over but we just never watched it. I'm kind of glad we're doing it now, I know all of the episodes are out there and we don't have to wait for anything the discs are readily available through netflix and we're really enjoying it.

ok, that's all the tv talk i can muster. I can't believe I just had enough time to write all that and that both kids stayed sleeping that whole time. WOW!

Funny Jasper

This morning I woke up kind of cranky, Jasper asked me if he could use the iPhone and I said, "no" in a cranky kind of way. I wasn't looking at him because I was checking my email, but when I looked up Jasper was just sitting in front of me smiling and doing the sign for cranky, not saying anything. It just cracked me up and I couldn't be cranky anymore!

Sunset Party

We got a free Sunday afternoon that luckily coincided with the first Sunset Party of the year! What a blast hanging out with Adina, Adam and Juliana, Marty and Khan, Ama, Brian and Leslie, George and Joy, Josh and Kirsten.

Jasper Really Jammin!

We had a kids jam last weekend for my students, prior to most of the kids arriving Jasper said he wanted to jam, so he got his guitar out (which he holds like a dobro) and jammed with Chad and Dana (on bass)
Jasper was REALLY feeling the music and REALLY jamming, it was soooooo awesome to see and hear.

Visit to Spokane

We had a really nice visit up to Spokane a couple of weeks ago. The day we got there it was snowing and Jasper was so excited to build a snowman. Since Aunt Linda, Grandma Rose and Grandpa Virgil had already made plans to go eat at Red Lobster for lunch we told Jasper we could build a snowman when we got back. However, when we got back almost all of the snow had melted! So Jasper got to build a small snowman....I don't have the pictures up yet of the snowman. This is a nice picture I took of Jayna with her Great Grandma Simpson. Jasper and Jayna are lucky to have two sets of Great Grandparents on Chad's side and one Great Grandma on my side!

Jasper asking "Who's Luke Skywalker's Dad?"

Yesterday, Jasper asked us, 'Who's Luke Skywalker's Dad?" So we played him the scene in Return of the Jedi where Luke asks Yoda "Is Darth Vader really my father?" When Jasper heard this, his eyes widened and he smiled at us. Then he said, "Who's his Grandpa?"

Jasper talking about Jayna

Today Jasper said, "Jayna's getting so big, I don't want her to grow up. I want her to stay a baby.....so I can play with her toes."

Baby Jayna

Jasper's Dream

This morning Jasper said he dreamt the following:
"I go in the water and I melted and I become a new Jasper"

Jasper holding Jayna's hand

Here's a picture of Jasper holding Jayna's hand in the car, it melts my heart every time I see this. This was especially sweet because we were on our way home from Jayna's 6 month doctor appointment where she had 4 shots and was very sad.

Jayna is eating cereal!

We fed Jayna her first food besides Mama's milk yesterday! She was very cute and made all kinds of funny faces which we caught on video and will hopefully be posting to our new youtube account. :-) Today, Jayna's second day of eating "solids" she actually opened her mouth and looked like she may have been enjoying it.

More goodbyes...sad farewell to Olivia and Mark.

I have never felt so deeply effected by anyone moving as I have with our friends Olivia and Mark moving away from the Bay Area. I've been thinking a lot about this and I believe some of the reasons are, my older age, having children, the loss of two of our closest friends who we saw very frequently. Also, since our friend Amy just moved to Seattle in December it's a real blow to us to lose two more friends in February. I was also thinking that Olivia and Mark seem to be at the end (hopefully!) of a slow mass exodus of all of my friends from Michigan. MC and Tamiko, Suresh and Sarah, Jan was gone for awhile but thankfully he is one of the last remaining.

We will miss Mark and Olivia in a way that I am having a hard time expressing in words but when I think about it, I tear up and have to stop myself from crying.

I am however, very thankful that we had so much time together here and find it lucky that we ended up in San Francisco together for as long as we did. It's been so wonderful that many of my friends from childhood were here and we all got to get to know each other better AND we all got to know each others spouses in a way that I think most people don't get a chance to. I know that both Chad and I consider many of my high school friends very close friends. My closest friends were here to witness the beginning of my relationship with my husband, they were here for my wedding, they were here for the birth of my two children. Olivia and Mark were are closest family here and we are going to miss them so much, I know we'll be visiting them in Portland and they'll hopefully be coming here for a visit and we're already looking forward to seeing them again.

Olivia and Jayna February 2008

Jasper 2.8 and Jayna 6 months

Jasper...almost 3!

Jasper...almost 3!

I can't believe jasper is going to be 3 in 2 months. Chad and I watched some videos of him when he was just a little over 1 years old and I couldn't believe how much he's changed.

We were supposed to go up to Spokane this weekend to visit Chad's family but Jasper has his first ear infection. We decided not to go because he had a really high fever (103) the day we were supposed to fly out. We had gone into the doctor's office the day before and they gave us antibiotics but they just hadn't kicked in yet. It was so sad to see him all weak....he just wanted to cuddle and watch movies.

Funny things Jasper has been saying, when he wants to see a different part of a movie, he'll say "turn the page" In the morning he says, "Papa, is it morning-time?" He calls tomorrow and yesterday "next day"...so he'll say things like, "Next day I made cookies with Mama" meaning "Yesterday I made cookies with Mama", he was watching Mary Poppins with Chad and Chad said, "She's got a really nice voice huh?" and Jasper said, "She has beautiful lips", he phrases questions like this, "Should I eat some ice cream, or no?" I'm not sure if he got that from me or if I got that from him but i've been catching myself asking Chad questions like that. This week he's really wanted to play his fiddle, he makes up songs like the Jayna song,

Jayna 6 months

Jayna is 6 months old! She is such a darling, I think her happiest time is in the morning. We're all sleeping together in our bed, it's a king size bed but often times we sleep in it like it's only a double bed, all crammed into one corner. Jayna is usually the first one up in the morning and she just lays there, smiling and touching my face lightly--sometimes she'll hang out like that quietly for up to 30 minutes. If she happens to be next to Jasper she'll try and touch his hands and face too. I think Jayna is now signing "Mama", her fist kind of hits her chin, I've seen her do it a couple of times now with intent.

Jayna is really enjoying her excersaucer and keeps herself busy in it going from one project to the next. She also really enjoys the baby gym thing with things that hang off it. As she's been since she was born, she still appreciates a good diaper change. She LOVES her brother and just laughs and laughs when he's around.

Jayna 6 months

Jayna 6 months

Jasper and Jayna swimming!

We took Jayna swimming for the time first yesterday! We joined the downtown Berkeley YMCA a month or so after Jayna was born and Jasper has been swimming in their REALLY warm--92degrees!--shallow pool almost every week. Jasper has been taking lessons and he just LOVES it. Jayna was so cute in the pool yesterday, she's so mellow and just happy.

The weather here has been amazing...this pic is from us playing in the field across from our house last weekend. Jasper calls it "my field", he'll see other people over there and say, "what are those kids doing in my field?"

Jayna is 6 months old and signing!

Jayna is signing! Tonight she looked at me and very clearly did the sign for "milk" and then as I nursed her she kept doing the sign with her left hand. It's so amazing watching her grow, the last few weeks we've really felt like we no longer have a newborn. Jayna is grabbing at everything and has A LOT of intent--she eyes things and goes for it....REALLY goes for it with everything she's got.

Jayna rolled over today!

Sunday January 27th, 2008

Jayna rolled over today for the first time! It was from her belly to her back and it was with a big THUD! It really scared her and she cried :-(
Jayna is now 5 months old and funny things I want to remember about her are...she doesn't like being held by anyone other than me or Chad. Is that funny? not really and it can be tiring for us but she's very obviously a completely different person than Jasper. Jasper was always happy to be held by anyone but Jayna---no WAY! I think so far the only person she's been ok with for more than 5 minutes is Dave (of Lisa, Dave and Noah)

Other things...when Jayna was born she only pooped once a week...the last few weeks she's now pooping 2-3 times a day! messy ones that get all over her outfits--which suck when we go out. In fact she's pooping for her 3rd time today right now as i'm holding her and typing this blog. :-)

This picture was taken on our iPhone. We LOVE our iPhone and never knew how much we needed one until we got one. LOVE the iPhone....love it.

Jasper can sing his ABC's

Last Sunday (January 13th, 2008) we were driving home from Olivia and Mark's place in San Francisco and Jasper sang his ABC's all the way through all by himself! We were so impressed!! Of course, one of the only things that keeps Jayna from crying in the car is singing the ABC's so every drive with her we sing the song a minimum of 4 times. I think it was close to 30 times on our drive down to Santa Cruz last weekend. Now that Jasper can do it by himeself he'll say, ok I do it by myself, then Mama sings it with me, then Papa. Sometimes he'll say, I can't do it by myself please sing with ME!!!

Jasper at the Mystery Spot

Jasper, 2.5 years old

Jasper cleaning up at Dawg's house

Jasper has been saying "Ta Dah" but what's funny about it is that he doesn't say "Ta DAH!" in a sing songy voice it's more like "tah dah" in a monotone voice and no inflection at all. He'll say, look Mama look look...tah dah.

Jayna being serenaded by the DGBX

Tracy holding Jayna watching the DGBX

Jayna at Tracy and David's

Jayna 4 months old.

Tracy creating art with Jasper

Grisman and Jayna

I'm not sure when we started calling Grisman, Uncle Dawg but Jasper has been calling him that since he's been able to talk. We went up to Tracy and David's house for a DGBX rehearsal last week and had a blast! Jasper got to paint with Tracy and Jayna was serenaded by the band.

Jayna in her Santa Suit

Chad's student Gail was nice enough to give Jayna a beautiful santa outfit for her first Christmas.

Jasper with Santa in Michigan

November 2007

Christmas at home

We had our first visit from Santa Claus this year! Santa Claus made a visit because the Halloween Fairy was such a hit at our home this year. You collect all your candy for the Halloween Fairy and you're not supposed to eat any of it, but instead you leave it out for the Halloween Fairy and she brings you a present for all the candy you collected for her....she needs the candy to make fairy dust ;-)

So we visited with Santa in Michigan, wrote him an email and Jasper asked him to bring him a pop-up book and a snowman--which he did, after eating the cookies (little Japanese ones) and milk we left out for him.

We had a few friends over for dinner Christmas Eve, George and Joy, Lisa, Brian and Zane and then Chad's brother Chris came over on Christmas day. Very mellow and wonderfully chill. We had a very merry Star Wars Christmas, surprise, surprise!
My gift to Chad was a Marc Ecko hoodie that has Star Wars embroidery on it and my big gift from Chad was a ForceFX Darth Vader lightsaber. We also got great Star Wars gifts from my sister Lichee, Chad's Grandma's Rose and Simpson, Chad's sister Jen. The kids got Chad a DVD of the Star Wars Christmas Special (which George Lucas supposedly said if he could hunt down every copy of it he would destroy them :-) the DVD also had the Muppet Show with guest stars Mark Hamill, R2D2, C3PO, Chewbacca which Jasper has watched almost every day since Christmas.

Jayna in her Santa Outfit

Saying goodbye to Amy

Our good friend Amy has made a big move up to Seattle. We are going to miss her so much but we know it's a great move for her and we'll be seeing her again!