Summer '13

Wow-Summer has flown by and I have been meaning to blog for soooo long and haven't gotten around to it.  School ended on a good note in June, I had some really good kids this last year and I always miss how nice it is at then end of the year to know all the students as opposed to the beginning of the year when I am trying to learn 185+ kids names and get them into a routine.  My homeroom graduated, here were their parting gifts (side by side pics of when they were freshmen and seniors).

Our 4th Anniversary was June 19th, so I planned a surprise getaway for Brendan while my parents graciously agreed to watch Harper.  Brendan had no idea where we were going, at one point he had convinced himself it was LA.  I booked the Cliffs in Shell Beach (Pismo).  We drove over and as soon as as we took the 41 South, he realized it wan't LA, but still didn't know the end location.  On the way we stopped at Bianchi Winery, where we are members, for a taste (Brendan of course, not me:( )  Then we stopped for lunch at the Side Car in SLO.  Finally we landed in Shell Beach mid afternoon and the weather was beautiful.  We walked down to the beach while our room was being made up.  That night we had dinner at the Cracked Crab, one of the crab was def our fav.  On our actual anniversary day we had breakfast and then I surprised Brendan with a couple's massage at our hotel, so relaxing!  That afternoon we headed over to walk the Bob Jone's Trail in Avila and stopped along the way for lunch.  In Avila we walked the beachfront and did some more wine tasting:)  For dinner we went to Giusseppe's and it was delicious, we ended at the Ventana Grill for mud pie (which I have to say is now on my list for top desserts.)  On the way back home we took sandwiches to go from DePalo&Sons deli (where I worked one year in college) and headed to some wineries in SLO that Brendan hadn't visited before.

As far as Harper this summer he is out of daycare, so we booked him for some activities.  He still attends MyGym, which he loves, every week.  We also enrolled him in Jan Thomas Swim School, where I attended as a little girl.  It is pretty close to where we live, hard to imagine when I went there it was considered to be in the middle of nowhere.  He cried the first day, which the school said is completely normal, though for us it was shocking since Harper is so outgoing and doesn't usually cry in new situations.  Funny though when he got home and Brendan asked him how swimming went, Harper responded "fun" and that he was ready to go back the next day!  His teacher was named Ms. Morgan and Harper loved her and was such a charmer, telling her "you're so pretty!", so of course she loved Harper as well.  He is quite the fish and can swim pretty well now, jump into the pool from outside and either swim to you across the pool or turn around and swim to the edge, then get down to the steps. 

Some of the funny things Harper has been saying lately crack me up:
-Harper says he has a kitty in his nose, I asked what color he said red. Then he said its a superman one;)
-We pull into the driveway and he says we're home, we made it!
-Harper and I are talking about the baby in my belly and he points to it and says there are bees and ladybugs inside it!
-Boots is Dora's sidekick
-At the circus when we were all clapping Harper yelled out "bravo"!
-He said "I want the robot monster toy." I said where is it? He said at the store, lets go get it!
-On the phone with daddy this morning, daddy asked what he had for breakfast and Harper said-cake! Too bad he had eggs and bacon!
-We put a shirt on he had never worn and it didn't match his batman shorts, it says I'm cute, moms beautiful, dads lucky! I say to Brendan oh your sis Erin got that shirt and Harper says, no it's for baby sister!
-He was having a conversation with his dragon Toothless and went in to the dining room and came back without him and told me Toothless was in time out, I asked why, and he said because he was hitting.

For the 4th of July we headed up to the cabin in Shaver with Brendan's sister Erin and her family.  I was nice to get out of the oppresive heat in Clovis.  Harper had a ton of fun with his cousins Conor and Lauren.  We did lots of bbqing and went into town a few times, once for some icecream. 

My mom rented a house in Cambria for 10 days, so she, Harper and I headed over and my dad and Brendan joined us a few days later.  It was so wonderful to enjoy the coastal weather and views and the beach. We had lots of walks through the hills, on the beach and downtown.  We visited SLO, Morro Bay and Avila.  It was great relaxation and an escape from the heat.  Hope to make that a yearly tradition:)

Tootless after being found and left on the trail, thank goodness for nice people:)

*I will post about Baby Girl Rhames shower later...

Harper's 2nd birthday

This year we celebrated Harper's birthday on Sunday with a breakfast, so we asked anyone who wanted to come dressed in their favorite pajamas.  Of course Harper loves his pajamas, I thought he would choose Batman, but he choose his Cars pair (though if we had Superman as a choice that would have def been the winner!).  We had quite the turn-out, mostly immediate family (which is big for us) and some close friends.  We served a great spread with help from others, so thanks to you who added additions, it was much appreciated!  As usual Harper loves a crowd and this year spent much of it playing with the other little ones in the living room or backyard.  When it came time to sing Happy Birthday he got a little nervous with all those people singing to him, but quickly realized how fun it was, especially after blowing out his candle on his cupcake.  He chowed down on his chocolate one of course!

 



Gotta have milk with chocolate cake

Happy boy!

Pretty much sums up his whole day

 

Chocolate chocolate!



 

Link to singing Harper happy birthday, he gets a little panicky then realizes it is all for him and recovers;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSXa-v61NZ4&feature=youtu.be



Harper's birthday was actually on Mon, so he was lucky enough to spend the day with his Nana while we were at work:)  He had a fun day platyng at the park and eating a special froggie cookie.  That evening we had dinner at home with my mom and dad and Harper had another cupcake of course!  We have been looking for a new car for awhile and finally found one!  My dad was nice enough to go and pick it up for us in the Bay Area and brought it back to us that night.  It is a Toyota Highlander hybrid.  It is such a nice ride, has the 3rd row we were looking for with a pass though in the second row and air vents in the ceiling for rear-facing car seats and it is AWD.  So excited to drive a car I picked out!  Harper digs mom's new ride, but was a little confused to see dad driving mom's old car (the 300 is really Brendan's, so now he has that back to drive).

 

Harper went for his 2 year checkup.  He is 30.4 lbs, 34 3/4 inches and in the 75th percentile for height and weight.  He is your average 2 year old boy she said, though his verbal skills are more advanced.  She gave us some pointers on behavior, especially when he hits (which can happen with other kids more timid or smaller than him, and oddly enough never at daycare, just with mom and dad-sigh).  He is really getting good at the checkups, which is nice and even remembers his doctors' names.  No shots this time and he doesn't have to be back until 3 years old, though we will see Dr. Evans in Aug when baby girl comes.  One of the cute things he does now is when someone sneezes, he says "Excuse me".

Spring Break and Easter in LA

The first weekend of Spring Break was quite a busy one with Kaila's baby shower and then the boys' poker/diaper party that night followed by a bday brunch for my brother and me at our parents house in Kinsgburg Sun morning.  Kaila's shower was so nice and baby Hudson is sure spoiled!  We can't wait to meet him, he will be here in less than a month!  The nursery looks so good with gray walls and white chair rail that Jeff worked hard on:)  I ended up staying in Kingsburg Sun night while Brendan headed off for work.  We had fun going down to the river and Harper ended up pretty wet as he really wanted to swim (even though the water to me was freezing!)  Monday morning Grandpa, Nana, Harper and I headed to the zoo.  What fun we had, though it was pretty busy due to Spring Break.  We tried to take the train ride around the park, but the timing was off so we enjoyed the carousel instead.  That night we enjoyed a home cooked meal on the patio since the weather was sooo nice.

Riding the carousel

giraffes

 

Nana reading Harper a goodnight book

 

Brendan had a work conference in LA the week of Spring Break, so he headed down with a co-worker on Sun.  Harper had his first dentist appointment with Dr. Powell on Tues, so we waited until Wed to head down.  We went straight to Harper's godmother Katie's house and when Brendan was done with his conference on Thur he came over and joined us.  She had really re-vamped her guest room and it looks soooo cute and has a comfy bed now:)  Thur morning Harper and I went over to Katie's work at E! and toured her office and met some co-workers, Harper was his usual self showing off as Superman.  We went and saw the turtles outside in the pond and played a bit in the park.  It was interesting to see most of the kids there were accompanied by nannies and not their parents, def different than Fresno or Clovis parks.  We enjoyed lunch and then left her to work and went home for a nap.  Thur night Alle (Katie's sis and Brendan's cousin) came over and brought yummy lasagna and we made a salad to go with it.  We enjoyed the little firepit with some s'mores afterwards and it was perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold.  Fri we headed over to a fav breakfast spot Le Coversacion and then did a little shopping.  Harper fought his nap, but finally went down.  That evening Katie had her riding lesson, so Brendan, Harper and I went to the park by The Grove and walked all around it and played in the diff kids' parks.  We then walked through the Grove to the Farmer's Market and had some appretizers and bought some fresh produce and meat.  Saturday we relaxed around Katie's house and prepped for a bbq with Katie's parents.  The hamburgers turned out delicious thanks to Brendan's bbq skills:)  We had a nice time visiting and catching up with Aunt Jayne and Uncle Mike. 

Rare treat-sleeping next to mommy in bed

Cozy on Katie's bed with Charlie and friends

 

One of his fav outfits (he also sings the ba ba ba ba bam-Superman song with this)

 

We prepped for Easter that evening by stuffing eggs, making fruit salad and getting Harper's batman Easter basket ready.  We told Harper the Easter bunny would come that night and stuff his basket and hide it for him to find in the morning.  We left out carrots for the bunny on a napkin with the basket.  In the morning Harper was so excited to come downstairs and find out where his basket was.  He walked over to the carrots and ate what was left of them;)  Then he saw his basket which was stuffed with Superman and Buzz Lightyear shirts and some Superman headphones and also a rabbit which he named Peter (after having read Peter the Rabbit).  Then we went out to the garden for Harper to find his Batman and Spiderman stuffed eggs the Easter bunny had hidden.  Then we all got dressed to head over to Katie's friend Terri and her family's home for brunch.  Harper, of course, was devastated when I wanted him to wear his Easter outfit and not his superman shirt:(  After a few tears he got over it (though everyday it is a struggle, he is pretty opinionated with his outfits and wants to basically only wear superhero stuff, I try to remind myself that soon enough I will have a little girl to dress in cute clothes!).  Terri and her family were so gracious and put on quite a spread.  The food and company was great and Harper got a traditional egg hunt with lots of other little kids!

Evidence the Easter bunny left behind

 

Batman basket

 

Peter the Rabbit (from Auntie Katie)

 

Rockin' out with his new Superman headphones

 

Easter egg hunt at Terri's

 

 

That afternoon we went to Ikea for a few things (and lost my wallet-boo) and that evening Katie, Brendan and I got our TV fix on with the season finale of The Walking Dead and then the season premiere of Game of Thrones, such great shows

Sugar high you think?

Monday we headed home and back to reality for a week of work:(

Harper had a visit from his great aunt Cathryn, my mom and Cathryn picked Harper up and took him to the zoo.  He came home with some fun gifts, including Elle the elephant, a cute stuffed animal that he took to bed with him that evening.  We enjoyed another bbq on the patio with hamburgers made by Brendan and a salad made fresh from the lettuce from our garden:)

New Harpenese:
-Lifts his hands in the air and says "I come in peace." (from his Buzzlight Year toy)
-When asked what does Dr. Powell say? He answers   "Brush your teeth" or if you ask Who says to brush your teeth?" he answers "Dr. Powell"
-When you say "I love you", he answers "I love you too" or when I say in Spanish "Te quiero" he responds "Te quiero too"
-Does NOT have to get tubes in his ears!!!:)  He has had a quite a few ear infections and so the pediatrician referred him to the ENT, but the ENT thinks since summer is almost here he believes he won't suffer them and this will give his own ears time to grow:) So happy, especially with all of the swimming he will be doing we won't have to have earplugs in and most importantly he won't have to have surgery!

March has already come and I feel like gone, even though we do have about 2 weeks left!  Since announcing to family and friends about our addition in Aug, it has been fun to let others know at work, especially my students.  Who would think that a bunch of teenagers would care, but they are always so excited about it. Most of my close co-workers I told back in Feb, but I just told my classes in the past week.  One of the funnier moments was how my principal found out.  This year we have a new principal, who is male and it wasn't quite the same to tell him as it was when our old principal, a woman, a great person, and someone I felt close to about being pregnant.  So the day I had just started to tell some people at work was also the day we had staff development and staff yoga.  I had told the yoga instructor ahead of class that I was pregnant and there was only a small group of us in class.  Well at one point Tim, our principal, came in about 15 min late and joined.  The teacher was explaining a pose and telling me directly, "This is great for the baby, it will really open you up, blah blah blah, so I had to turn to the principal and say "by the way, I'm having a baby!"  It got a good laugh from all:) 

For Valentine's Day we celebrated with our yearly picnic on the living room floor.  It was very nice and laid back and Harper enjoyed us all being on the quilt on the floor, though we had to be careful with our glasses. 

My Valentine

Picnic

I was able to take a trip by myself to LA to visit Katie and go to a event for The Walking Dead, where we were able to listen to the actors do a round table discussion and then the audience was able to ask quesitons.  Out of about the 2,000 people there I was one of about 6 to get the chance to ask a question, which was nerve-racking, but cool.  I asked about Rick's big Colt Plython revolver and it got lots of laughs, Brendan had suggested it for its originality and it worked, no one else asked about guns-lol!  The rest of the weekend was spent with leisure, Katie and I were able to go to yoga, get our nails down, go out to eat, shop, hike and have breakfast in Malibu at Duke's, overall a terrific weekend.  Thank you to Brendan for watching Harper all weekend:)
Link to TheWalking Dead Paley Fest we attended(over an hour long), it was shown in movie theaters around the country, I'm towards the end and one of the last questions: http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/462699

Paley Fest-Walking Dead

Walking to yoga on Larchmont

Katie and I at the Grove

Duke's-Malibu

I had a great weekend celebrating my birthday. On Friday I had students bring me Starbucks, cupcakes with apples on them and sing Happy Birthday, they are so sweet!:)  That evening we had a bunch of close friends and their kids over for Italian food, so much yummy stuff, I was defintiely full.  One of Brendan's gifts to me was Apples to Apples, which I am not sure how we didn;t already have it in the closet, so we played and it was pretty hilarious!  Sat morning we headed to Monterey to visit Chris, Stacie and Logan since we hadn't been to their new house since they moved.  We had dinner at this great restaurant up the coast called Phil's Fish Market and then played on the beach for a bit during sunset.  We headed back and played Monopoly while Harper watched Toy Story (thank god for the kindle).  It was really fun to relax and just hang out.  Stacie made me an amazing lemon cake-my fav!  Sun morning we went down to a French bakery and grabbed a bite then took a long walk along the pier and then to cannery row along the great path they have.  When we were done, it was time to head back so Harper could sleep on the ride home.  Next time we will go for the whole weekend, it was way to short.  On the way into town we stopped by a friend's bday party at Chucky Cheese, Harper had a good time, but was pretty cranky due to a short nap.  He was still talking about Chucky Cheese for a few days. 

Teacher cupcakes

Tasty seafood

 

Moss Landing

Mischievous look (don't mind the dirty face)

Sleeping in the bed with mom and dad-treat!

 

Last weekend was spent here in town, but was quite busy.  We had a Mickey and Minnie party for 3 year old twins (right at naptime, so Harper lasted an hour), then off to another party that evening to celebrate my sis-in-law Erin's marriage to Joe.  Harper had a blast running around and was trying to convince all that he could swim, we had to keep steering him away since if he could he would have jumped in, he even threw in his green latern toy to try and go retrieve it.  (He starts swim lessons again this week).  He was a big fan of the kid table with all the little pb&j sandwhiches cut up, he kept going over there and grabbing them and munching on them, I think he ate 10!

Little Leprechaun

Next weekend-Baby Hudson's (Kaila and Jeff's baby boy) shower and Jeff's diaper poker party, my brother and my birthday brunch at my mom's and the beginning of Spring Break!

Harper updates:
-Talking up a storm and asking and answering all kinds of questions and definitely has use of complete sentences.
-When you ask him a question like who is going to be a big brother, instead of saying I am, he says I do
-Can sing the alphabet and twinkle twinkle all by himself
-Can count in Spanish and English to 10 with help
-Can understand lots of questions in Spanish
-Weighs about 30 lbs
-Has been sick off and on with colds for what seems like FOREVER! (Maybe allergies now?)
-Calls his little sister Baby Booey
-Is very good with kids at daycare, not so gentle with my friends little ones (those younger than him), we have to work on that since he has 5 months to learn before his sister is here
-Has a hard time with loss-when someone leaves, stopping an activity
-Loves milk still and gets so excited when you give him a cup
-When he falls now he immediatley says "I'm okay", even if no one has asked
-Loves the garbage (or any truck) and saw one recently and said "That's cool!"
Baby Girl updates:
This week-19 weeks
-feeling much better, not as tired or sick (though it could help that I don't have a stomach virus or sinus infection anymore)
-big ultrasound Thur (my mom will get to come for the first time)
-movements for the past 2 weeks or so
-still not showing much (but earlier than with Harper), but def not wanting to wear my work pants anymore

Same orchard-3 years later!

Family of Four

So we gathered our family (that lives in town) over for Superbowl Sunday.  During halftime Brendan had Harper come into the living room and told everyone he was wearing a special short announcing the team Harper thought was going to win and took off his sweatshirt and this was his shirt:

So needless to say Harper will be a big brother come August 2013!  We have been telling Harper about being a big brother and he is really good with the question:
Us: "Harper-what are you going to be?"
Harper: "A big brother."
Us: "What does mommy have in her belly?"
Harper: "A baby boy."
Here is a video with him:

Needless to say we did not know the sex of the baby and Harper just came up with it being a boy;)

We had an ultrasound scheduled for the Tuesday after Superbowl.  We decided we were going to find out the sex of the baby this time, though the surprise with Harper was sooo fun!  My friend Jen convinced me to do a little surprise of our own with our parents and close friends.  So in the ultrasound we didn't have the tech tell us the sex, but had her write it on two pieces of paper for 2 envelopes.  She put the ultrasound pics of the gender in our envelope as well. We took the other envelope to a bakery and picked out a cake and had the salesperson go into the back and open the envelope and write in either pink or blue what it was and then cover it all up to take home.  So, at this point we did not know the gender either.  I picked up some pink and blue balloons and called my parents and 2 of my oldest and dearest friends over for champagne and cake.  We had the balloons tied to stools on the different sides of the counter and asked people to stand on the side they thought it would be.  Everyone except for Brendan's parents and me were on the girl side.  Then Brendan and I opened the cake and it read:

I was shocked and Andrea said I just started screaming and jumping up and down and made her do the same before she even saw the pink!  Then everyone was hugging and it was such a great way to celebrate and find out our "surprise".  I would have been happy either way since 2 brothers would be special, and so will brother and sister.  On my side of the family we  have 3 boy grandchildren and 1 girl grandchild and we have never had a baby girl grandchild (since Kaila was already older when she came into our family;) so I think it was pretty exciting for my mom and me (and my mom's sisters, they were screaming it's a girl when I called them).  There are lots of girls on Brendan's side and only 2 boys (6 girls and 2 boys) so she will have lots of girls to play with:)  Also it will be so fun since Kaila will be having her baby boy in May, so baby Hudson will be 3 months older than our baby girl.  Now we are teaching Harper that he will have a baby sister and he is very quick with that now.  He even talks to my tummy, though I don't think he really understands it all.

Here a few more pics:

Our official due date is August 14th, the same as my niece Eireann's birthday, which is funny since Harper was born on my niece Kaila's birthday:)  I am not looking foward to being very pregnant in the hot summer heat of Fresno, but luckily I have a pool and will be off work and also I will try to escape and visit Chris and family in Monterey:)