Dave's new John Deere & two guest riders.

Dave & Chris' gorgeous new home.

Snack time or play time?

Northwest Trip - Spring 2005

Nate & Julie's first plane ride up to Portland was a combination family visit, trial flight, week vacation, and reacquaint with Seattle area. After a quick flight from San Jose, we rented a car in Portland airport and drove to Prairie Brush to visit Katherine & family. Nate still talks about the "Old MacDonald tractor" and seemed unconcerned about the large jumping spider in the sand. We drove to Christian and Kelly's house to meet their new twins and found we really liked the Mirrormont area underneath Tiger Mountain. We then drove the two already over-stimulated babies to Grandpa & Grandma's house in Snohomish just in time to see a REAL tractor in action mowing the front yard. The food and company was wonderful (thanks for everything mom & dad!) We then headed back down to Portland; Nate & Julie slept the entire trip the Oregon border. Even a hotel that couldn't get us a crib or an airline that mangled our seat reservations couldn't stop us from enjoying a much-needed trip to the northwest.

Oh no! One last night in the basinette before Julie started sleeping in Nate's room. So far so good...

Art shot.

On Saturday we went to the Tilden Park Steam Trains again (our second trip), so Nate could get his fill of riding trains. It must have been the start of summer celebration: there was a band, two trains running simulanteously, and the lower-tracks hobby engines running full...uh...steam.

Picking strawberries.

Yummy.

After Butano State Park we went strawberry picking at Phipps Country Farm. Nate kept calling out "Old MacDonald?" and saying "I knock-knock" when passing the buildings. In the fields Nate carried the bucket and at first kept placing the fruit in the basket. Towards the end, he started stuffing them in his mouth as fast as he could, and ended up walking back drunk with gooey redness.

On Memorial Day weekend we drove to Butano State Park just outside of Pescadero for a wooded picnic lunch. Here are Mom and Julia before a bluejay aggressively moved in to finish our crackers on the picnic table.

Nate relaxes with Chloe during our recent visit to San Francisco for a barbeque with Regina and Alex.

Nate Quotes

"I'm Stuck!" - whenever lying on the floor not wanting to move, or in the car strapped by seatbelts.

"Webs!" or "No Webs!" - his assessment of any interior's cobweb status.

"DVDVD" - meaning DVD.

"One....six, seven...six, seven...six, seven" - when counting anything.

"No, I'm fine" - when telling him we're going to be doing something he doesn't want to do, like clip toenails or drive for eight straight hours.

"I hold you!" - meaning of course "hold me."

We drove down to Kurt & Patty's Palm Springs house on Thursday, just in time for record heat (110 degrees) but at a time of year when the town was empty. Nate and Julie beat the dry heat by swimming the pool with the us; it was his second and more successful attempt, and her first. Our drive home was riddled with car problems, tormented tired riders, lots of traffic, and a mercifully relaxing stop at Casa de Fruita. But the vacation was overall enjoyable thanks to Kurt & Patty's hospitality and a weekend of food, drink, pool and nothing much else.

Blue bellied lizard.

On Sunday we went hiking along Skyline Ridge to a place called Horseshoe Lake. Probably no longer than 1 mile, the walk was littered with lazy lizards.

Julia's first swing on Mother's Day weekend. As always, she seemed non-plussed by the whole idea.

Practicing how to roll over, as demonstrated by Nate.

Off Bolinas coast, looking towards stormy San Francisco.

The family.

I took Friday off from work, and we drove to Bolinas where we rented this fantastic house perched on cliff above the water. Here's one part of the backyard. We stayed with Kurt, Patty & Cub. Despite threatening rain forecasts, the weekend was nearly balmy and the days were spent lounging in the sun or cooking great meals in the kitchen. Patty and I took it upon ourselves to sample some favorite bottles of wine.

Typical Day

Today was one of Nate, Julie, and Mom's more 'typical' days. We got out of the house after a mid-morning snack for Nate and Julie's breakfast and a round of fresh diapers with full intention of meeting up with Nate and Julie's new friends, Jake and Maddy, at the park. But, since Nate was up extra early, and Julie had tired herself out watching Nate and munching on her various baby toys, the kids ended up napping early in the car. So, while they were napping mom used the navigation system on the MDX to find more local parks - a cool feature she swore she would never use. We ended up at a park conveniently located near Target in Foster City (where mom was able to sneak in a bit of shopping while the kids were still in post nap haze). The park was great! Nate loved the playground structure, shaped like a big ship with lots of steering wheels and great slides. Also loved that someone left thier cool big Tonka dumptruck that he got to push around and fill with sand. Nate made a sand birthday cake for Julie who celebrated her 5 month birthday today but he was the one to"blow out" the candle stick, literally, in practice for his upcoming birthday in June.

Other highlights of the day:
- Nate demonstrating rolling over for Julie and Julie practicing this trick with mommy
- Julie and Nate duet on the electric piano dad hauled out of the garage and set up on the floor. Julie actually sat up for more than 5 seconds and plunked out a few notes with her finger!!
- Mom and Nate shared a chocolate sprinkle donut cupcake (a donut cut into quarters, each quarter being a cupcake...mom made sure Nate only had one...yum). Nate is very enamored with chocolate cupcakes after having one at his cousin Joey's second birthday party and his friend Jake's party, second bday as well, in the same week. I guess we know what Nate will want for his own party.
- Mom just marvelled at the privelege of being with these two incredible people, and of course thier daddy. This is a daily acknowledgement but it is always a highlight of her day.

Previous highlights of the past week that should be blogged:
- Nate discovered he can make Julie laugh last week so every day since he spends some time trying to make her laugh - blowing rasberries or clapping his hands or dancing. He loves it and so does she. I hope this is now a regular part of our 'typical day'.
- Mom showed Nate a caterpillar at the park the other day, crawling across an old oak tree. Nate decided he wanted to touch it with a bold statement of "Touch!", whereupon he squished the caterpillar with his finger. Eek. After mom explained the caterpiller may have been hurt during that experiment, Nate said, "Kiss!". We moved along.
- Nate now can throw the tennis ball away from Sydney, as opposed to at her, when playing fetch the ball with Sydney. Although he is still prone to throw it then run to fetch it himself - Sydney,thankfully, is still quicker and patiently gracious with her little game pal.
- Julie has discovered she has quite the babbling voice so will happily and intently babble for up to an hour, with or without an audience

Sydney in the backyard.

Julie picked her first flower today.

Only 15 more years. SCARY.

Julie and Mom hiking along the Bayshore Park. Recent Julie developments: laughing if prompted with dropping puppet or funny sounds; she'll track most movements with her eyes; she smiles incessantly, especially at her mother; and most importantly, she's now waking up just once at night for feedings. As notated by her sleep-deprived but nevertheless happy parents.

Bayfront Park walk on Sunday. Nate is closing his front pocket which was loaded up with Goldfish by his cousin Grace.

Thanks to his mom's daily outtings, Nate's now a connoisseur of the things playset-related. He loves the slides, but his dad finds the static electricity shocks somewhat annoying.

Nate loves going down slides by himself. Here he is at Bowden Park in Palo Alto.

Hop Kiln. We spent the day in Sonoma county and took our favorite drive down Westside Rd. Gina packed a picnic lunch, and after buying a bottle of Chardonney, we set up camp under the blossoming cherry trees. Nate joined the action by drinking from our plastic cups and encouraging us (read: demanding us) to tap glasses & say "cheers!"

Sniffing the flowers.

The day before Easter we drove up to Graton in Sonoma County and walked past their fire station. Nate was given permission to sit inside one of the fire trucks, and then was given a hat and badge.

Nate's vocabulary has exploded, and he's ready to learn new words every day. This morning while looking out the window, he grabbed my empty juice glass with one hand, set it down, then looked at me slyly and said "Mmmm. Duh-licious!"

Nate had his first Easter egg hunts around the house, and then later at the Martins. Here he is putting them gently in his wagon after knocking them together (crunch!)

More pictures of Julia. She's a ham for the camera, just like her older brother.

The runt.

Julia in February

Julia bundled and ready for the winter rains. She now can grab objects with her little hands and loves watching people. Good thing she has such big blue eyes.

Close up

I love this picture of Nate....

Katherine's 2nd B-Day

Sad day for Nate and Julia: our last day visiting cousin Katherine in Livermore before her family moves up to Vancouver, WA. It was almost Katherine's 2nd birthday, so we had lunch, ate strawberry cake, and opened presents.

Milestones

More Nate milestones! He said his first sentence this weekend. While I went through Expo to look at faucets and dining room lights (and Gina was feeding Julia in the parking lot), Nate yelled out: "Mommy, where are you?!" followed soon by "Elmo, where are you?!" And then on Sunday as we dashed around the Oakland Zoo before the rain clouds opened up, Nate said in a little voice: "Trains. I hear them." So worth the sleep deprivation....

Block building

Valentine's Day

The two goofballs dressed for Valentine's Day. Nate has now decided he needs to sit on chairs by himself. Here he is in the living room; I'll need to break the news to both of them that they're on my favorite seat.

Grandparents' visit

Grandma & Grandpa Dawson visited Julia for the first time this past weekend. Our "vigorous" baby, who seems to struggle in my arms on almost every occassion melted into Grandma. Nate went bonkers showing off toys and leading Grandpa ("papa!") around to his room and outdoors. It was a wonderful but too brief visit. Nate now gets excited for wet weather and will say "Uhoh, sun. No rain." So now we have two excuses to visit Seattle this spring.

Steam Trains

The Steam Trains in Tilden Park. The locomotive is an actual boiler engine that takes you on a 12 minute ride through redwoods. The boy ahead of us wailed in fear, but Nate had a slight grin then entire time.

San Simeon State Park

Paso Robles

We took off Friday with bags packed and no hotel reservation or particular destination. The picture above is taken in the railway cars behind the Sylvester winery in Paso Robles. After tasting wines along Hwy 46, we headed to Cambria, played on the beach and found a great two room hotel suite on the water.

Nate liked the old dining car in the Sylvester Winery train.

The now famous dimple and smile.

Another shot of the happy camper.

A list

Nate's favorite things these days:

• Trains, train tracks, train sounds. Big trains & model trains alike
• Saying "hi!" and "bye!" to anyone who will listen
• Playing in the sand, especially at the beach
• Reading books (any)
  
• Swings
• Vacuum cleaning & dusting
  
• Patting Julia & kissing her feet
• Helping with gardening
• Finding the moon
• Dancing in circles
• Baths
• The word "ping-pong!"
  
• Sydney, especially the tail

At Central Park, San Mateo.

Surgery

Julia's little urachus was removed at the Packard Stanford Children's Hospital. On Friday she had her bladder filled with a fluid and a b-b taped to her belly button while they x-rayed her bladder (looking for leaks or malformed bladder--none found). On Monday Dr. Kennedy performed the surgery through her belly button and Gina spent the night with her at the hospital.