Christmas

Since I moved to San Francisco in 2005, I have always tried to make it back to Chicago for Christmas.  I have missed three--one my first year here (working), on in 2010 when my parents came out, and this year, since I was too pregnant to travel.

We actually had a nice holiday on the west coast, although it certainly would have been nice to go back to the midwest.  But, santa did come to the new house, and Ethan enjoyed opening presents on Christmas morning.

The Greenbergs came over for Christmas dinner, which was nice.  Don't have any pics from dinner, but we did take a few family pics....

Once thing we realized--we need furniture!  We still do not have a dining table, and our living room is empty.....So we had dinner on card tables...it worked, but I think it is time to start furniture shopping!

37 weeks pregnant today.....

To the little girl currently residing in my stomach:

I can't wait to meet you!  I wonder so much: What will you be like?  How will you look?  What will you like to do?  Will you get along with your big brother?  What is your name going to be? (yes, your dad and I still haven't settled on a name....)

Last week, I had a follow-up ultrasound, and the nurse doing it showed me that you have hair!  So, I guess you won't be bald when you are born....maybe you will look like Ethan--he had brown hair on the sides of his head when he was born, before it all fell out when he was two months old...I guess we'll find out soon enough.  My only other data point is how you have been behaving in my stomach--you are much calmer than your brother was, with many less kicks and pokes....and in general you have been very shy during ultrasound appointments--hiding your face curled up into a tight ball.  So will you be calm and shy, or once you are born will you be the opposite?  I guess we will find out soon enough.

While I have no idea what the answers to any of these will be, I am so excited for your birthday, and having you join our family.  Your room is all ready, and we have lots of newborn clothes waiting for you (shopping for a girl has been so much fun.)  I am really looking forward to being the mother of a daughter and hope I can be half as great of a mom to you as my mom was to me.

For now, in case you are listening, please stay comfy and cozy through the holidays--I am scheduled to work through January 4 and have 9 people coming for Christmas dinner in two days!  After that, come anytime!  Love, Your Mom

Last night of Hanukkah

Yesterday, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Greenberg's to celebrate the last night of Hanukkah   They had 25 family members over for a big party!  We had great food, my personal favorite:  homemade potato latkes.   In the setting of the heartbreaking events that just happened in Connecticut, I am so grateful for such family celebrations, and reminded to take nothing for granted.....

 We tried for a good family picture, but Ethan only wanted to make "silly" faces.

Here's a better pic of Ruth, Eileen and I

The highlight for Ethan was opening presents.  This year, he has started to "get" the Hanukkah traditions, learning about lighting a candle each night and opening a small gift.  The last night of the holiday is for the "big" gift--and boy did it not disappoint....he got a very elaborate train table from grandma and grandpa.

 Jason spent all of this morning putting it together...and Ethan loves it!  What fun!

Preschool Fun

Recently, Ethan's teachers shared a bunch of pictures that they took in the classroom.  They were fun to look at--we always wonder what he does there for 10 hours each day! The teachers certainly keep them busy, and the photos explain how he comes home in layers of mysterious dirt each night!

 Riding Bikes

 Playing with blocks

 Creating a band

 Playdough?

 Circle time

 Trains (this is Ethan's favorite activity, and usually what we find him doing when we pick him up!)

 Making a color wheel

 "Measuring" with blocks

 Trying out a stethoscope

 Reading time

 Practicing letters

Puzzles

Happy 35th Birthday!

Last night we got to celebrate Jason's 35th birthday   Boy are we getting old!  Jason enjoyed his favorite for dinner, Dungeness crab.  Ethan actually really liked it too.  I stuck to chicken.

For dessert, of course, an ice cream cake.  This year I found a peppermint one with red velvet cake.  We all agreed, quite tasty.  Happy Birthday Jason!!!

Thanksgiving in Chicago

We usually head to Chicago for Christmas, but his year it is too close to my due date, so we went for Thanksgiving instead.  Due to our work schedules and the exorbitant cost of flights, we flew in on Thanksgiving, and had to leave early Sunday morning.  So a short trip, but we were glad we could make it.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with mom and dad, and Jeff and Janice.


Friday, we went out to Park Ridge's "Winterwonderfest"--a community open house where shops and businesses stay open late and have treats.  Highlights included visiting the firehouse, where Ethan got to sit in a fire engine, as well as the Living Sea Aquarium, where he got to meet Santa.

Saturday, family form Milwaukee came down for lunch.  We enjoyed seeing great-grandma, aunt Judith, uncle Jim, aunt Cathy and cousin Stephanie.

And of course, Ethan enjoyed a lot of "grandpa time".

Unfortunately, my mom was not doing well when we were there.  She has lost a lot of her mobility and is really struggling with walking.  I am glad we got to visit.

Front Yard Renovation

Well, I has been almost exactly a year since we went into contract for our house.  We have been busily working on fixing things up--we did buy a project!

Most recently we have been working on the front yard.  Now, people wonder why the front yard, if we still don't have furniture for  the dining/living room...but we actually had to do the front yard because we had a drainage problem and water was pooling under our house.  Of course to fix the drainage meant we had to tear up the driveway (which, honestly was in terrible shape anyhow), and then, if we were going to do that, why not re-landscape  fix the retaining wall, and remove some (really) over grown trees and bushes, right?  And yes, we had to tear up all the new grass that we had worked to hard to plant when we first moved in.


3 months later we are finally almost done!  The project was not without drama for sure, as they bulldozed through the water line twice, and also cut the cable line.  Also, before we got the driveway sealed, Jason's car leaked oil and left a stain, so we have to get that part of the driveway replaced.  Lovely.  But overall, we are happy with the end result.  We also got a new garage door and front door.  And now for the pics:

Before:

During:

After:

And it has been raining a lot recently with no sign of pooling water, so *hopefully* we solved the problem!

Next project: decorating the nursery!

Last weekend

We were busy!  We were lucky to have our friends Sue and Ben, and their kids Cruz and Whitney come up from the south bay and stay the night.  They already blogged about the visit, I wont repeat it all here, but check it out at http://cruzcortez.blogspot.com/  Suffice to say, Ethan and Cruz had a grand old time hanging out together, and us adults enjoyed catching up!

Sunday night we headed to Uncle Jeremy's house to celebrate Great-Grandma Cooper's 87th birthday!  Here's a picture of her a few days before the big celebration that Jason snapped--I guess that once you are 87, a hat like this is fitting:

Ethan's favorite part of the party was (surprise) the cake.  Jason's mom made a scrumptious chocolate mousse cake (great-grandma's favorite).  He helped blow out the candles.

Anyhow, we enjoyed celebrating with the family.   Great-grandpa will be 88 in February, so they make quite a couple!

Halloween fun!

We had a fun Halloween this year, I cant believe it is already November--in 2.5 months we should have another little one around here...wow!

Anyhow, Ethan this year requested to be superman.  His Aunt Marcy got him the costume, and i have to say, it looked pretty cute--fake muscles and all!

At school , they had the usual halloween parade.  This year was a sports theme, and Ethan's class was 49ers.  They each painted their own jerseys.  Ethan was, apparently, Jerry Rice. The sports theme was fitting as it was also the big parade/celebration downtown for the SF Giants who won the world series last Sunday!

For trick or treating, Jason dressed up as superman's dad (I seriously had no idea that superman had a dad!)

Unfortunately, we had BAD weather, and Ethan got quite wet.  His friend from school, Shelby, came up to join us for trick or treating, which was so much fun for them.   Guess what Shelby was.....yep, superman.  Seems to be a theme this year, as we saw several others while we were out!

Hawaii

We just got back from our summer vacation!  Just a few months late....Jason couldnt get time off this summer, so we travelled in fall instead.  I was eager to travel before #2 arrives, since I remember how challenging it is to travel with an infant.  Plus, Ethan is getting to the age where he is fun to travel with (and we dont need to bring bibs/diapers/sippy cups etc..)!  We decided to head to Hawaii....we are do lucky it is so close, about the same flight time as to Chicago.

We picked the big island, since neither of us had been there before.   We spent about half of our trip on the dry, beachy side of the island, and the other half near volcano national park, where it is cooler and more rainforesty.

Highlights of the trip included ocean kayaking, taking a 3.5 mile hike into an old volcano crater (which Ethan did all by himself!), and watching the volcano at nighttime.

 

 You can see Maui in the background of this picture

 Mauna Lani Beach

 The first hotel that we stayed in had several waterslides, one was this kiddie one, which Ethan LOVED!

Kilauea Iki trail--3.5 mi trail into old volcanic crater--Ethan did great!  And napped well that day..... 

 Kilauea volcano by day--steam and sulfur dioxide is seen coming out

Kilauea volcano at night--the Lava level is within 100 ft of the crater rim--the highest in a long time, and really glows at night.

We got some great R and R!

How to answer?

As Ethan is growing up, he is asking more poignant, challenging, and sometimes funny questions.  I don't know where he comes us with these things...but they sure show that he is thinking!  A few examples:

1. After I am a child, and then a teenager, and then an adult, and then an old person, then do I go back to being a baby again?

2. If the baby in your tummy has to go pee where does it go?

3. What happens if your head falls off?

4. (While eating chicken for dinner) "Daddy is this chicken the same as the chicken that is the animal?"  (Jason says, yes, it is) "Daddy, dont the chickens get scared that we eat them?"

He certainly keeps up on our toes!

Girls Getaway Weekend

Last weekend I headed back to my alma mater, University of Illinois for a reunion weekend with 10 of my gal pals from college!  Though it was a quick trip, we had a blast....so fun to catch up with everyone.

We try to get together every fall for a football game, but living on the west coast, I have not been able to make it for the past few years....too bad our football team didn't win the game.

One of my friends is also pregnant, so we had a little baby shower too.  Check out this cute cake:

Also, I flew into Chicago on friday, so I got to spend the night with mom and dad, and extra bonus!

Jason and Ethan had a nice boys weekend, visiting great-grandma and great-grandpa in San Francisco.  check out great grandma in her 80s and on the teeter totter!