New fun in the burbs

Well...since day 1 of moving in, one of Jake's favorite daily activities has been to run and around outside and play in the leaves. He has literally never been able to do this before, and he thinks that it is just the most exciting activity ever. The first few days we were able to build enormous piles of leaves (as the house had been empty, and therefore, un-raked for weeks) for Jake to jump into...sadly I didn't snap a pic of that. Now he is all about sweeping and raking up the leaves and then jumping into them. Here he is halfway down the block with his broom sweeping our neighbors leaves, as we didn't have enough in our yard for him...

I'm a guitar man...

Jakey isn't putting on guitar shows quite as frequently these days, but when he does, he still gets totally into it. Our friend Katherine caught him in the act:

The Burbs

Well...so far I have to say that I'm very pleasantly surprised with how welcoming and nice all of our new neighbors are here in the burbs. We seem to be the youngest on our street, with the youngest kids, but everyone has still taken the time to stop by and introduce themselves. Christmas was the perfect time to move too, as they all seem to be bringing over homemade sweet treats and gifts with each visit. Of course, once they hear the news about the twins arrival, literally all of them have given the same surprised response we continue to receive. Multiple Moms have already brought their teenage daughters over to introduce themselves...so it sounds like we have some great babysitter options on our street...yippee!! So, while we miss our wonderful upstairs neighbors, the Kanes, we are at least relieved to find some friendly faces down here as well. It's also quite different letting Jake be as loud as he wants to, and run around at whatever hour of the day, without worrying about waking up our neighbor Tessa. Jake and I took an adventure to the local library and park yesterday, both of which are in very close walking distance, and both of which Jake was overjoyed about. We still need to find some activities, groups, museums to join though...any ideas out there Peninsula Moms??

Here is the spread that was delivered by our neighbors:

Couldn't do it without family

Boy...the last three weeks have been pure chaos with the house closing, endless doctors appointments, packing up our old place, moving out and then moving in. To say that we are tired is an understatement, but to imagine how much more tired we would be if we hadn't had family around to help with all of the above is crazy. Whether it was help watching Jake, packing up stuff, unpacking boxes, organizing the new place or simply lending moral support, we absolutely couldn't have done it without our wonderful immediate and extended family and friends. We appreciate absolutely everything you all have done for us, and we most definitely owe you if ever you need our help. Many, many thanks!

Good-bye San Francisco!

Well...we have now been gone from the city an entire week. It ended up being a somewhat hurried departure, so we didn't really get to truly enjoy our last few weekends in SF. But, the best good-bye gift that we could have ever received was from our wonderful, fantastic, amazing upstairs neighbor Katherine Emery (of Katherine Emery photography). She took pictures of us on our last weekend in SF down at our favorite little beach spot that was a few blocks from our home. She does absolutely amazing work, and we couldn't be more thankful for the incredibly thoughtful and generous gift. We love that we have this special keepsake of our little 3 person family, at one of our favorite San Francisco spots. Here are just a few of the pics she took of us:

TWINS!

Oh boy....we finally have set up our computer in our new home...many apologies for being such a bad blogger recently, but the move and Christmas have definitely kept me VERY busy! So anyways, I really haven't written much about the fact that I'm pregnant with twins...much like the house, I was scared to spread the news just in case...but so far, these babies are growing at the right rate and doing just fine. So, let me back up a little bit to explain the entire twin story: Back in the beginning of September I began feeling very nauseous. I took a pregnancy test, and it came back positive (and of course, I took the test the day that Josh had to decide between 2 job offers, 1 at a start-up in SF and one down at PayPal). I knew that I couldn't be that far along, but was very confused why I was feeling so sick, so early. So, I made a Dr. appointment. When we got there, my OB decided to do a quick ultrasound just to confirm that I as pregnant, and not just sick. Well....she confirmed that I was in fact 6 weeks pregnant and that it looks just fine. Josh then lets out a "phew...we were worried that maybe she was having twins or something because they run in my family and she is so sick". The Dr. laughs, "no, no...I see only one. Well....wait a second....I do see another sac way over here. Oh wow...and I see a flutter inside it! I'm sending you to the Perinatal Specialists right now to get a more detailed ultrasound". WHAT??????? That is when the very long silence between Josh and I began. We went to lunch, and just sat and stared at each other, totally mute. How could this happen? We both grew up in families of 2 children, and we of course, thought that it was just the best. And then the thoughts of poor Jakey...how could we possibly split the ridiculous amount of love that we have for him, with TWO other kids??? The Perinatal Specialists confirmed that there were in fact two inside, but that it was still incredibly early and not to panic or worry yet. So, we went home and tried to keep calm. The sickness progressively got worse, and my Dr. as well as many online sites confirmed that that was extremely normal for a twin pregnancy. Josh started his new job down in San Jose, and started leaving the house at 5:30 a.m. and not returning until 8:00-8:30 p.m. As a sick, tired pregnant lady, trying to keep up with a very busy two year old was really tough. The house conversations started coming up again, as keeping up with that schedule, and bringing two more kids into our family was a no-go in my book...being a single-working Mom 5 days a week is very hard just with one kid!!! So, the house hunting began...more on the story of the house later this week though. So, at about 11 weeks along we decided to share with our parents and sisters the twin news, as we wanted them to understand the urgency of our house hunt. Needless to say, everyone was VERY surprised. By 13 weeks I was totally showing (as you show earlier in your second pregnancy, and with twins, you REALLY show early!), so I had to break the news to work. Once again, I received many surprised reactions, as well as many "WOWs"...followed by stunned silence from all other Moms. We slowly started spreading the news, but like I mentioned earlier, I just wasn't ready to scream it to the world like I was the first pregnancy for some reason. At our big 19 week ultrasound the Doctors confirmed that the babies are already getting quite squished in there, as I unfortunately am very short waisted. I'll be on "watch" starting in January on a very regular basis, which is quite normal with twins. While I wouldn't be due until the first week of May if this was a single pregnancy (40 weeks), full term for twins would put us more like somewhere in the first 2 weeks of April as a due date. At this appointment they also wrote down the sexes of the twins and put them in an envelope for us. As we just bought a house, we didn't do much as far a buying gifts this year, so we decided to open the envelope on Christmas Eve as our gift to each other. So....on 12/24/11 we invited our immediate family over for our little reveal, as our first meal in our new dining room, in our new home. And, we are having twin GIRLS!!!!!! We had a feeling that at least one was a girl after watching the ultrasounds, but to now know that we are having TWO girls is really remarkable. Now Jakey will still be our very special little man of the house, and his two little sisters will look up to their big brother forever. I have yet to really grasp what is in store for me, as the new house has been quite a distraction for the last 1.5 months. But now, mothers groups, baby room, baby gear etc are top of mind!!

We are HOME owners!!!

Oh my goodness....yes, it is finally true! As of today, Thursday December 15th, Josh and I actually OWN our first home! It has been a longggg, pretty stressful process, and I haven't wanted to write about it, as I thought I might jinx it, but somehow it finally all worked out. We really started our house hunt three years ago when I was pregnant with Jake, but after several months I realized that I just wasn't ready to leave SF, so we postponed the buy. It turned out to be a great decision, as the market changed, we found our wonderful SF Marina apartment and met numerous wonderful neighbors whom we can now call life long friends. BUT, we decided that it was once again time this past fall, and our wonderful realtor Valerie Trentor (who has been with us through this entire 3 year journey) started taking us around again. We ended up finding this great home through my father's diligent searching skills actually, and fell in love with it once we saw it. The location was key, as we wanted good public schools, good parks, some place downtownish to walk from home, etc...and this place has it all! Multiple other families also fell in love with this place though, but somehow we had a connection with the sellers and the sellers agent (what the sellers liked most about us was that we were all Js, and they too are a family of Js...who knew something so little could lead to such opportunity!). Anyways, the offer, counter-offer, and escrow process were really quite something to live through....endless papers to sign, documents to scan/fax, etc. To say that we were on edge for the entire 38 days (yes, we closed 8 days late due to the amazingly slow Wells Fargo) is definitely an understatement. We had started packing right away, submitted our 30 day notice to our landlord, and then realized that we would not be closing on time. I started envisioning us homeless for Christmas with our stuff dumped in a storage locker....oh man...I was stressed. But, today is the day where it has all worked out!! So, here are a few pics. We are tenting the place right now, as it is an 80 year old home with a few little bugs crawling around. Then we paint on Sunday and Monday and move on Tuesday...just in time to put up a Christmas tree for Christmas! Phew...it is going to be a very hectic few weeks, but at least we will be in our very own home for the holidays! Many, MANY thanks to our dear family and friends who have been so supportive throughout the entire ordeal. We love you all!

This is a picture of the kitchen/family room...but with the nice staged furniture in it...I can only hope that we can make it look so nice!

Here is the crazy looking circus tent that is covering our wonderful new home as it is being fumigated!!

Girl Time!

Last weekend was time for my annual Christmas party with my old Santa Clara girls. It's always so much fun to take some time to catch up and reminisce about old times. These girls are the best, and will be life long friends for sure.

Tessa's Birthday

Our wonderful friend Tessa turned two this past week. We were lucky enough to celebrate with her multiple times. Here is when Jake got to have a candle light cake for two celebration with Tessa...Katherine was nice enough to give Jake his own candle to blow out.

Glow Sticks!

I had to share this video....I found these glow sticks in the $1 bin at Target months ago, and finally pulled them our for Jakey to play with while Josh was watching football the other weekend. He went nuts with these things! Too bad they stop working after 24 hours though. I'll have to find some more sometime soon.

Happy Birthday Lee Lee

Well...I waited all day yesterday to post a big happy birthday to Lee Lee, as I was hoping to get a cute picture of Jakey and Lee Lee last night at her celebration...but sadly I didn't. So, here I now am, posting a day late. But, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE LEE!! We are so thankful for everything you do for us and Jake!

Thanksgiving!

This year Josh's sister Lindsay decided to host Thanksgiving Dinner...and she did an AMAZING job!!! Lindsay and Jonathan went all out, with a baked turkey (SUPER moist and delish!), stuffing, mac n' cheese, string beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce...I mean the menu went on and on! We were SOO impressed with everything and so very thankful for being able to just show up with dessert as our life is in such chaos right now! WONDERFUL job Linds and Jonathan. Many endless thanks yous!!!!
Sadly I missed taking a picture of the adorable table settings as well as the enormous spread of food...and then I somehow cut Lindsay's face out of this picture....not my best photographer moment!

Jake Quote of the Day:

This morning Jakey and I are listening to some silly music, so I'm wiggling around and just having fun. All of a sudden Jake stops the music:

Jake: No Mama, don't dance like that! You have to dance to the BEAT!
Me: well...excuuuuuse me!!!!

Can you imagine! A 2 year old saying that! Too funny!

Happy Birthday Tia Erica!

We are so sorry not to be near Tia Erica to celebrate her big day today. We'll have to celebrate when she comes home for Christmas break in December. But, until then, Happy Birthday!!! We miss you!

Cotton Balls!

This morning Jake was in the bathroom with me as I was getting ready and I saw him take off with my bag of cotton balls. I thought nothing of it until I realized that things were very quiet in the living room. I walked in to find him "juggling" my cotton balls, SO proud of himself! And check out the mess that he made just this morning before school!!! Can't wait for a playroom type spot for him in our future new home someday!

Dance Time!

I arrived to pick up Jake the other day from school, to find Dance Time going on. Jake had positioned himself right next to the mirror so that he could watch himself, and he had NO interested in going home with Mama. Pretty cute!

Pumpkin Carving

It has been a tradition for too many years to count, so my wonderful friend Brie had to come over for a quick pumpkin carving session last weekend. Jake was interested in joining us this year, but only because he wanted to play with the knives....ugg. I thought for sure he would want to get his hands all messy with the seeds and guts of the pumpkin, but he had no desire. But, it was great to catch up with Brie. Here are the basic pumpkins...Tessa came over to play just as we were taking our picture.

How Papa puts Jakey to bed:

Had to catch this on video....Josh tries to put Jakey to bed these days when he gets home in time, so that they can have a few moments of quality time together. Normally we read stories before bedtime, but Papa has started singing songs first this week...always the same song- Take me out to the Ballgame (of course, right!). After singing it a few times last night, Jake totally picked it up. Here they are singing the song together in the dark...pretty cute!
It's really dark to watch, and turn up the volume!

More Halloween Pics

Our neighbor Katherine took these pics of yesterday:
Yes...Papa ended up wearing the blue monster costume on his head for our brief trick or treating adventure...

Halloween...ouch!

Well....Jake really, REALLY didn't want to dress up for Halloween this year it turns out. Josh and I both left work early to make it to his daycare for the "Imagination Parade". Each room picks something, and MAKES their costumes. Well...Jake's room made apple costumes (painted garbage bag for the body and a toilet paper roll on their heads for the stem), and moments before the parade Jake decided he absolutely did not want to wear the apple costume (his two best buddies also rebelled). So, Josh and I rushed over to find him placed at the very end of his class parade, in tears of sadness the entire walk. Somehow I DID manage to convince him to wear his skeleton PJs to school as his shirt though, so at least he was in some sort of costume.

During lunch I rushed out and and got supplies for a pumpkin costume, because as of this morning, he promised that he would wear a pumpkin costume for trick or treating. Of course, once he got home and saw the pumpkin costume, he opted out of it vehemently as well. Thank goodness he was ok with putting on the the skeleton PJ bottoms for a somewhat complete Halloween costume (although to him, we just called it his jammies, and he was ok). We walked down the block to the great Avila street which is totally closed off to cars for Halloween night. It was jammed with kids of all ages, and neighbors all mingling. Sadly, at the very first house the teenage kid handing out candy jumped out and scared Jake to death...and that was pretty much the end of trick or treating. We did get to walk down with our great friends Dan, Tessa and Katherine who had the best family costume of anyone we saw: Curious George, Man with the Yellow Hat and Lady with the Yellow Hat...so cute.

All in all, it wasn't Jake's favorite day ever. Crossing our fingers that next year he will be more interested in this super fun day!

Here he is very upset in the school parade:

This is what he finally decided to trick or treat in:

Our neighbor Dan and his daughter Tessa:

Happy Halloween!

Well...it's going to be an interesting Halloween this year. I got Jake to try on his blue monster costume for a whole 60 seconds before he decided that he hates it. He runs away and hides every time I even bring it out of the closet now. So....we'll see what in the world I can put together for tonight if we actually want to walk around the neighborhood. He is telling me that he wants to be a pumpkin...hmmm...I'll see what I can do! Here is Jake in the monster costume that he will never wear again:

Jake's Store

Inspired by the toll booth at the Discovery Museum, I came home on Saturday and made Jake a storefront out of an old diaper box. We cut up paper for money and coins. Jake LOVES his little store, begging anyone who visits to come see it. Here Tessa and Dan were over to play, and Jake was teaching Tessa to hand him the money...pretty cute!

Jake and Ben Driving

Here is a cute video I caught of Jake and Ben on a ride at Gilroy Gardens:

Gilroy Gardens!

After hearing for months and months how fantastic Gilroy Gardens is, we finally headed down there for a day of fun with the Bolgers. The park really is quite impressive. We didn't nearly see all of it, after spending several hours there. It's basically a mini Disneyland for kids from 2-8ish maybe? Lots of kiddie rides, animals, trains, etc. Jake was SOO excited to hang out with Benny Bolger again, and they had a ball running after each other all day long. I got some adorable videos which I'll be sure to put up tomorrow, but here are the few pics I got. It was a great day!

Tea Time!

One morning Jakey decided to gather all of his animals together for breakfast and tea time. He put them all in a circle around him, and made playdoh ball pancakes and toast. It was incredibly sweet to watch him call out each of their names, and tell each of them what they were being given to eat. I really love this play pretend stuff!!

Block City

I picked up Jake from school last week to find him involved in quite a project. He had taken over a corner of the room and built an entire city out of blocks. The funniest part was that he kept instructing this little girl in his class to keep playing the drums for him while he built, as he wanted the music. Just a funny encounter that I happened to catch:

Museum Time Again!

Today we decided to take a much needed break from house hunting and spend the morning as a family actually doing something fun together. So, we headed over to our much loved Discovery Museum in Sausalito. We discovered a room that Grandma Lee Lee had told us about, but that neither Josh nor I can ever seen...it was an amazing "discovery" room about San Francisco. It had an enormous train set, all set to the shape of San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge, ferry boats, hills, etc. There was a fishing boat to climb on, with fake fish to catch. There was even a toll booth which we spent a good 20 minutes playing in (Jake turned the booth into a restaurant of course, and began selling his cooking talents). It was a great morning, and perfect time before Josh had to head off to the Cal Game.

Class Picture Time!

It was time again to document another year of "school" for Jakey. I was cheap this year and didn't get the class picture, and now of course, I totally regret it, as it turned out darling. But here it is...goofy as ever!Classroom: Bay Homebase

Class Mascot: Jellyfish

Number of kids: 18

Number of teachers: 4

Jake best buddies currently: Shey, Makoa, Natalie, Maya, Emily, Marshall