Hospital Stay

And here she is the next morning in the hospital. Lola and I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before the three ring circus of check ups began.

Lola during the pediatrician's visit.

Newborn hearing test. She passed - woohoo!

We spend the rest of the day oooing and ahhing over our newest princess.

Newborns are so kissable

It was really difficult to get much rest in the hospital with the constant stream of doctors, nursing, and various other staff streaming in and out of the room. So by Sunday, we were ready to get out of there! We dressed Lola up in her little bear outfit, snapped a few pictures, and got out of Dodge.

Glad to be home!

Next up: Lola meets her big sister.

Lola Louise

Lola Louise made her grand debut in the wee hours of February 13, 2010. Arriving at the hospital less than 40 minutes earlier, Lola was born at 1:35 am. She weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches in length, 2 oz heavier and a 1/2 inch longer than her big sister Nina. Her whole body was covered in super thick vernix. She seemed rather relaxed about the whole being born thing but did manage to work up quite an appetite.

We were so happy to meet her!

Wide awake with Daddy in the nursery, patiently waiting her turn.

Fully tagged, poked & prodded

Cleaned up, bundled, a snack from mama, then sleep.

to be continued . . . .

Due date

Still here with just my one baby.....

Ice Skating Party

We attended the annual Ice Skating party held by Nina's daycare. Just like last year, she was ready for the ice!

What a pair!

Not bad for his first time in skates, practically Brian Boitano

Skating is more fun with your friends.

Zooming on the ice with Teacher Lena

Taking a break with skating partner, Jakey.

What would happen?

Nina has started a curious line of hypothetical questioning these days. Probably ten times a day she asks something along the lines of:

• "If you had one purple eye and one black eye, what would happen?"
• "If daddy spills his dinner, what would happen?"
• "If you don't stop at the stop sign, what would happen?"
• "If you sat in the office and you are not the lady that works here, what would happen?"
  

I have to start writing these down because some of them are incredibly complicated, just hilarious and challenging to answer!

Fun with Photo Booth

Wintertime

Nina keeps asking if summer is coming back. She is not a big fan of cold and wet weather we've been having.

She's gotten good use of her rain gear though.

She is not at all interested in going outside on the weekends, but at least she is fairly good at keeping herself entertained.

Knock yourself out kid.... I am not getting up.

Well, we can at least still have a summertime refreshment!

Happy Birthday!

Our little girl turned 3 years old on January 4th! We had our little family celebration the day before, spending the day at the Silliman Family Aquatic Center, an absolutely fabulous indoor activity pool run by the city of Newark. But first, the day started off with presents!

The cooking set from Aunt Andrea & Company was a big hit. She almost didn't want to open the rest of them.

But she was glad when she finally did! Our ballerina!

Presents are fine and good, but to Nina, birthdays are really all about the cake, candles and the birthday song. Nina requested a vanilla cake.

Adding the sprinkles, serious business.

"Happy birthday to you!"

Alright, now we are ready for the good stuff!

How did we do?

Success! Birthday smiles!

The day of her birthday was actually the first day back to school after the long holiday, so we had a little party for her there as well. She was very excited to share her birthday with her friends in LKP2 and even let her best buddy Mehran blow out her candles! Apparently they planned it all day long.

I'm outta here!

Yesterday was my last official day of work before maternity leave! Woohoo! Now, let's just hope that our little one isn't in too much of a hurry so I can enjoy some time off before she is born.

36 Weeks

Nina's outfit on this glorious day.

Santa Came to Town

"Santa came!" We waited until Nina was asleep on Christmas Eve to put anything under the tree, so she was quite surprised in the morning.

She opened all of her presents and pretty much all of ours as well.

The Loot.

Since we are all at home together through New Year's, it is great to have some fun new toys to play with!

Cheerleading cowgirl!

Nina said later that she got a lot of presents from Santa and from other people too. Many thanks to everyone!

Christmas Time is Here!

Couple of fun Christmas activities. First, we visited the Christmas light & decoration display on Fulton Ave in Palo Alto, and then on Christmas Eve we saw a performance of the Nutcracker.

This one had a full sized Santa's sleigh next to the fireplace and was playing a tape of a reading of The Night Before Christmas. Nina sat quietly for "story time".

:::

The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco is truly a fabulous venue, and everyone decked out in their Christmas Eve finest made it even more special.


Sitting through the performance wasn't too much of a problem for Nina (kudos to the SF ballet for keeping the whole thing including intermission under two hours!), but more of a problem was her incessant desire to ask questions the entire time ("What is happening?", What are they going to do now?"). The second half of the show she was gracefully waving her hands like the ballerinas.

She was very excited when Mirko presented her with her very own nutcracker after the performance.

Dinner after the show.

Merry Christmas!

Fashion & Food

Nina is very much in to dress up these days. I never know what she is going to be wearing when I pick her up from school ... flapper dress, kimono, you name it. It continues on at home ... "wedding dresses" and high heels (followed by ceremonies joining her and various dolls in matrimony), bathing suits (the living room becomes a beach, and heaven forbid that you should accidentally put something in the "water"), a pair of tights over the swim suit and she is a ballerina. All of this is, of course, accompanied by absolute non-stop narration of her imagined activities during which she requires your full undivided attention. She doesn't require too much interaction from her audience other than an occasional "Ok? Ok." Although for the wedding ceremonies, she does demand that one of us be the "talker" (officiant) so she can be the bride.

Here is a nice concoction from baby blankets.

Stunts with Sassafras in 0-3 month baby clothes.

Also, at the ripe age of 2 and 11/12ths, Nina is an excellent restaurant goer and has quite a complex palate.

Japanese places are always a hit. She can eat a mountain of sashimi, edamame, and miso soup.

She is also working on her chopstick skills.