We were lucky to have Paw Paw and Gigi come to visit us this weekend.  It was a really short trip, but David LOVED the extra attention.  Even though our beaches don’t compare to those of the Gulf Coast, we still decided to take Gigi to the ocean.  David enjoyed playing in the water and sand, and we even got to see whale spouts off the shore.  We hope Paw Paw and Gigi enjoyed their visit, and we hope they come to visit again soon!

Happy Easter!  David definitely enjoyed all of the Easter festivities … and they’re not even over, yet.  We’ll be celebrating again next weekend with our friends the Donovans, since they were out of town.

Our Easter celebrations started with a public Easter egg hunt near city hall.  It was crazy!  There were so many people, and the hunting area was really small.  David wasn’t really sure what was going on, but he seemed to really enjoy it.  Unfortunately, he stole another poor kid’s Easter basket.  Soon after the hunt, David dropped a gigantic rock in his basket – crushing the poor peep and jelly beans that he got at the hunt.

After the hunt, we colored eggs with Paul, Jee, and Ginger.  The kids seemed to have a good time, and it wasn’t as messy as I was expecting.  The eggs came out … well … let’s just say they looked interesting.

Easter morning, we had a small hunt in our apartment, then David and Ginger hunted eggs in our back yard in the afternoon.  Ginger was really excited to find the eggs and put them in her basket.  David pretty much just wanted to eat what was inside the eggs (goldfish, animal crackers, and mini-oreos.)  After the hunt, the partners in crime got into the garage and took Dad’s car out for a joy ride.

Chris recently finished rebuilding a train table for our local bookstore.  He did a very professional job, and the train table is now completely solid and kid-proof.  David (and all of the other kids) are thrilled to have it back.  David makes train noises (“woo woo” and “din din din”) and even waves to the people painted on the side of the train.

Chris, David and I met up with some friends yesterday at Wunderlich Park for some hiking.  This was the farthest that David has ever gone in his backpack (5 miles), and it went smoothly, all in all.  David really liked seeing the horses and deer (and of course the motorcycles at the gas station on the way home.)

After hiking, we bummed around San Carlos … where David and Chris stopped for an apple break.

We’ve been busy!  And, we’re thankful we’ve been able to take advantage of the great weather we’ve had recently.  We just bought a new hiking backpack, and we’ve actually used it quite a bit.  As you can see below, David seems to really like it … we went hiking at Eaton and Big Canyon parks in San Carlos today, but we’ve also it a lot just walking around town.  David seemed to our hike this morning – especially the dogs we met.

A few weeks ago, we drove over to the Pacifica and let David play at the beach.  We actually had really nice (and surprisingly warm) weather.  The water was still really cold, but David really liked playing in the sand and running around.  We even stopped for some “nu nu” (David speak for “noodles”) on the way home.

In addition to going on hikes and to the beach, we’re still enjoying our local parks.  I think David’s favorite things to do are (1) to throw rocks in the water and (2) to chase the Canadian geese (which he calls ducks.)  He has also gotten really good at climbing up the slides.

Happy President’s Day!  There was one benefit of Chris’ trip last week – he finished a big project right before a three day weekend.  As such, he actually took three days off!  Yesterday, we headed down to the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose.  Everyone had told me how great it was, so we thought we’d check it out.  The first part of the museum was pretty nice, but I didn’t get what was so great about it … then, we found the water section!  David LOVED it.  I’m pretty sure he would have stayed there until the museum closed if we let him.

David and I were thrilled to welcome Chris home on Friday.  We celebrated having him back (and the 3-day weekend) by spending a lot of time outside.  On Saturday, we took David to the playground up at Coyote Point and to Talbots Toyland in San Mateo.  Then, we went for a hike as a family to Eaton Park.  David really enjoyed getting dirty (and eating the dirt, too.)

This last week, Chris was out of town (again.)  I’m happy to say that David and I survived, though we missed Chris terribly.  We tried to make the most of it while he was gone, and we ended up having a really busy week: a Valentine exchange at preschool, the little gym, park and dinner with our neighbors, Happy Hollow, and the Palo Alto Junior museum.  Thank you SO much to all of my friends and family that supported me through this week -I couldn’t have done it without you!

The weekend before Chris left, we spent as much time as possible with him.  He took David to the library and the park.  Chris and I even got a babysitter and went on a date together.  We really enjoyed the time with him, but we were sad to see him go.  I think that David thought that he could go too, if he put on Daddy’s backpack.

One of the highlights of this last week was going to Happy Hollow with the Donovans.  David LOVED it!  He especially liked the dragon train, the ropes playground, the carousel,  and the goats.  We’ll definitely have to go back!

The day after Happy Hollow, David and I met up with Teresa and Elena at the Palo Alto Junior Museum.  We had a great time!  David did really well playing with the other kids, and seemed to really enjoy running around.  He also really liked plugging the cables into the switch board (a future computer engineer perhaps?)

This week, David went to the doctor for his 18 month check-up and to the dentist for his first visit ever.  The doctor said that everything looks good and that he’s meeting all of his milestones.  He now weighs 28 pounds, 11 ounces, and he is 49.5 centimeters long.  This puts him right around the 85th percentiles for both height and weight.  This was the first check up in a long time where David didn’t have to get shots!

Then, we took David to his first dental visit this morning.  We suspected that he had an extra tooth, and his doctor recommended a good pediatric dentist in our area.  David did really well!  In fact, he probably did better than I do at my dental visits.  The dentist said that his teeth and gums look healthy, and that he does in fact have an extra tooth.  They’re just going to watch it for right now, but he’ll likely get braces in the future.  I’m just glad that they didn’t have to pull it!

Thank you very much for coming to visit, Grammy and Grandpa Don!  I know that David really loved the extra attention.  He seemed to really enjoy showing off and playing (including going to the park, reading, and playing with playdough.)

While Grammy and Grandpa Don were still in town, we watched the Superbowl with the Donovans.  David really enjoyed playing with Jacob and Alex, though he wasn’t thrilled to share his toys.  Too bad the game didn’t have a different outcome, but we having a party, anyway.

To make this weekend even busier, I ran my first half marathon this weekend, as well.  I knew I needed something to motivate me to start working out, and a long race was just the thing.  I was really sore afterwards, but I was proud that I finished (at a 9:45 min/mile pace, too!)  I’m also really glad that my folks were in town, so they could come, too.

Chris just returned from a 4 day trip to Louisiana.  Although David and I had a lot of fun, we both really missed him.  David kept asking about Daddy, so I’d tell him that he went on an airplane to see Paw Paw.  David would then sign airplane, make the airplane noise, and then say, “Paw Paw.”  Needless to say that we’re both thrilled to have Chris back.  Here are some pics below of our adventures while Chris was out of town.   

Facetime with Daddy:

Playing in the laundry basket and in his old bathtub:

Exploring the post office (which he LOVES):

Playing with Koko and sending his milk on a train ride:

Enjoying frozen yogurt:

Exploring the “banana” (yes, I know that’s a rooster, but David doesn’t) and cleaning Bianchini’s while wearing Daddy’s hat:

Using scotch tape and shopping at Target:

Chilling at The Reading Bug:

Playing at the park:

Last but not least, blanket surfing: