Union Square Christmas

A fun day in Union Square with my mom, sister, and Jackie. The parking and crowds were horrendous, but a warm SF day, beautiful decor, and a few stories to take with us.

Christmastime in Redwood City

We did a few festive things this weekend, which felt a little weird in the tee-shirt weather we're having, but nice nonetheless. Downtown Redwood City has an annual winter festival and it was pretty chaotic with parking and homeless-looking people roaming around with large donkeys, but we enjoyed wandering around for a little while, having corndogs, and Jackson liked watching the carnival rides that he had no interest in trying to go on himself. Here he is playing in the snow pile they brought in.

 The line for pics with Santa was predictably long and we skipped it. I'm not a huge Santa person because I wasn't raised believing in Santa so it all seems so odd to me, but Dan believed when he was little and enjoyed the thrill of it. We're trying to have a little Santa for Jackson, but we'll probably not try to convince him that he's real and just admit up front that he's a pretend friend. I'm terrible at deception anyway so he'd probably figure it out before 3 anyway.

We also took a stroll down our favorite San Carlos street that does over-the-top house decorations. So fun this year now that Jack loves the lights. We plan to go back several times this season.

 Here's a few of the same event last year with 6 month old Jack tucked into Daddy's coat.

  And the same spot this year with a growing family

Even better than pictures with a live Santa!

  One of his favorite sounds to make is the "choo-choo" of a train.

We also got our tree up, but no pictures of that yet. Jack's doing an ok job of not attacking it constantly and pulling off ornaments, but I can tell that he's battling the urge constantly.

Halloween Parade

These are 2 videos of Jackson in his first "parade." It's a Halloween parade around the student housing at Stanford where we trick-or-treated. It was silly and fun.

Baby Girl Update

I have been a little overwhelmed by the volume of photos I have and how tired I feel to keep very up-to-date on blogging the last few month. But I hope to rebound and continue to log the adventures of our family.

We are now past the 32 week mark in the pregnancy, meaning that if baby had to be born now the chances are very good that she would do just fine in the outside world, with medical assistance of course. These milestones are a relief as I occasionally worry that everything will be generally ok with the pregnancy and delivery.

Baby Girl is about 4 lbs (the size of a large jicama for those of us who measure babies in terms of vegetables) and the doctor just confirmed that she's now head down and will probably stay that way until the end, meaning that most kicking now takes place in my cramped rib-cage. I'm starting to get the aches and pains that come with getting huge at the end, but so far this second time around has felt better than the first. I attibute a lot of that to being on my feet, moving throughout the day instead of sitting at a desk 8+ hours a day getting back aches like I did last time. The doc joked that I could eat whatever I wanted at the holidays this year since I'm actually trying to pack the pounds on, and kidding or not, I plan on taking that green light seriously.

We have a repeat C-section scheduled in mid-Jan, but we're going to wait and see if I go into labor naturally before that date and determine whether I'm doing a "trial of labor" or not with this one. She's measuring pretty small, so I might have a chance, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Also, we finally picked a name for her! I'm still debating a little bit with the middle name and I might start asking for opinions on that since I've been unable to reach a decision.

Pumpkin Patch

We got to the pumpkin patch as soon as we could in October since Half Moon Bay gets swamped with visitors all month looking for harvest activities. I was really looking forward to it this year since Jackson can interact with the experience so much more now. But as usual, he was cautious, slow to warm up and smile, but overall had a pleasant experience. I have to keep remembering that I don't have a kid that transitions quickly or is jumping off the walls with excitement and giggles, and yet he has a very nice time in his way at his pace.

Jackson was obsessed with these huge metal statues all over the patch. He enjoyed them more than the pumpkins

 Searching for the perfect pumpkin

 Look, I got a smile

 Roaming the corn fields. Maybe in a few years he'll be ready for the corn maze.

 Climbing the bales of hay

 Eating his favorite snack as usual - cheddar bunnies

 So into the statues

 He didn't really want to share his seat with the pumpkin, but he tolerated it just this once.

Vegas Getaway

Dan and I were privileged to get away at the end of September, just the 2 of us, for 3 whole days! We needed one last deep breath and full weekend of sleep before baby girl gets here. Jackson had a fun weekend with my parents, who concluded that one baby is a 2 man job after staying at our place for 2 nights. Above is our view of part of the strip from our room.

 Dan relaxing in our huge room. It felt bigger than our duplex, or at least less crowded.

The ultimate sports zone. Each TV is showing a different football game! And there's me in front of New York, New York.  I had never visited Vegas and I found everything to be way over the top, but fun to look at.

 

 Our hotel (MGM) had lions! This was a highlight for us and better than any zoo display and we visited our furry friends every day.

 Going to see Ka. What a mind-boggling show! We loved the whole thing.

 In front of the Bellagio at night, just after the fountain show. Nevermind the walk over there almost killed my feet. Never wear heals in Vegas, too much walking!

  Exploring casino attractions by day, which is mainly what we did when we weren't laying by the pool. We decided not to throw much money away on gambling. We played one confusing slot machine and a half hour of blackjack where we both lost $20, and that was it.

  World's longest chocolate fountain.

 Ceaser's palace.

 

 Inside "Paris" having a nice lunch at a sidewalk cafe, except that we are indoors. They do a great job of creating illusions.

 An amazing meal at Craft Steak. I liked the lobster bisque!

 Finishing off our 4 deserts before heading to our show.

 The MGM at night on the way to The Lion King at Mandalay Bay.

 A very fun show. We loved it.

 In the front row waiting for the show to start. We got to look into the pit and watch the musicians. Very cool experience. The flash from this photo blinded the lady behind me and she gave me a lot of sass over it. I didn't mean it, really!

 Our last day. A helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. These sites are great from the air!

 Heading out to the chopper. I felt like I was on The Bachelorette since they are on a helicopter every 5 minutes on that show.

 The sensation of hovering is so cool. Loved it...at first. Eventually it made me sick, but everything makes me sick now that I'm pregnant and already a motion-sickness-prone person.

 Hoover Dam and the new bridge in front of it.

 Happy Dan. By the way, our pilot looked about 25 and was very laid back. I'm hoping that she was actually older. She did a great job of giving interesting tid-bits.

 The Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. So neat, I had never seen them before.

And lastly, more cute lions!

 Sweet babies! I'm ready to head home to see my baby. We missed him so much.