Old Car, Newer Car

It's true, I got into a car accident, and it was technically my fault since I rear-ended someone. Jack was in the car too, but didn't even react because it really was that minor. It was one of those weird situations where traffic stopped in an instant and the lady in front of me partially switched lanes to not hit the car in front of her, so I didn't see that traffic was stopped until I was right on top of the whole mess. Pretty low impact and minor damage overall, but we soon learned that it doesn't take much to "total" a 1996 Avalon. Here's the poor car the last time I saw her, busted headlight and grill lost somewhere on El Camino, but running great otherwise. The insurance company toed her off and gave us check for way more than we thought she was worth for some reason.

After "sharing" a car for a week (meaning either Jack and I dropped Dan off at work at 6am or I was carless all day) we decided it was time to go big...in size. After re-reading one thrashed copy of the latest Consumer Reports magazine 18 million times, we decided that a mini-van was the next car for us. The search process was annoying, but ultimately we found what we were dreaming of, the 2006 low mileage Toyota Sienna in a color that wasn't gold (sorry old car, but I can't do anymore gold for a while).

 Driving the van for a few weeks has got me hooked on the space and convenience and hopefully I won't have to go back to a Sedan anytime soon.

 Jack and I enjoying the sweet new ride.

Sharks Home Game

Danny and I got a much needed night out just the two of us. We went to the Sharks game (this was before the playoffs) and it was weird to be without our son for an evening. Unfortunately I was coming down with a cold and was pooped out by the middle of the 1st period, but it was still nice to be out on a Monday night eating nachos and watching the Sharks woop the Kings 6-1. Hoping that the Sharks can clinch tonight!

 
I'm realizing how behind I am on blogging since that was 2 colds ago for our family. We're just coming back to the surface from our most recent cold/flu and it was a biggie. I was delirious for several days with a fever and just laid on the floor and let Jackson crawl around me and hope that he didn't do anything that would require me to get up. Dan came home "early" (earlier than 7pm!) several nights and really took over the house for a few days. He's an awesome homemaker when it comes down to it. I'm lucky!

Videos around the house

These are some silly little videos where we were trying to film some of Jackson's first steps on his own. Though we didn't really succeed, we captured some of his other behaviors, mostly related to him crawling around and being wild. One of the videos has a sad ending :(

 

 

Children's Discovery Museum

 Dan and I spend Saturday with Jack at this cute little children's museum in San Jose. It actually had plenty of activities for crawlers, on up to probably 10-year-old's, so I'm sure we'll be going back over the years. Here are some highlights from the day.

 There was a big crawlers-only play area for Jack with stairs and ramps to work on.

 Dan and Jack checking each other out. There is glass in front of Jack, so he's not about to fall.

 Dan's taking calls and Jack's wondering what's up.

 Fun rippled ramp that was easier to crawl down head first than normal stairs, though he did wipe out a few times when he went too fast.

 Eager little dude.

 Pushing the buttons makes the birdies talk!

 Lots of levers, handles and buttons to work on.

 A mirror box. Jack smacked his head on the mirror trying to crawl through the box.

 Stuck in the box

 Giving himself a smooch.

 Taking a break for story time in the "forest"

 Dan kept playing with this ramp.

 And Jack really wanted to help.

 Climbing on the dragon.

 Up the back

 The "Water Works" area. The 4 and under version was much more tame than the big kids area where balls were flying.

 Grateful for the strong chlorine we could smell.

 "Don't eat that" - that's all I say now-a-days.

 Loves to get wet.

 A break for a snack.

 Watching him drink from a straw just melts me because he seems so grown up.

 Chillin' in the garden

 Gears! If gear 1 has 12 teeth and a diameter of 6 inches, and gear 2 has 24 teeth and a diameter of 12 inches, what is the gear ratio???

 He's calculating...

 "That's easy Mom, it's 1:2. Give me something harder, or I'll eat the gears some more." My little engineer.

No No No

Just a little fun head shaking. I apologize for the awful music playing (my least favorite American Idol was performing and Jack was saying "no").

Planes, trains, and automobiles, plus a pony!

I know, stupid title, but I couldn't help myself. Dan and his dad drove down to LA this weekend to help his brother move and ended up flying back up on Sunday. Jackson and I decided that we would be no help with the move, so we spent some time in Santa Rosa checking out the local scene at Howarth Park. A train, pony rides, a carousel and so much fun.

Ponies with Grandma and Papa Bear

 Getting his shoes adjusted for the train ride

 Inquisitive on the train

 Mom and me

 Wave to the train.

 On the pony. He was very shaggy and his name was Rusty.

 The pony went fast and I had a hard time keeping up!

 Petting Rusty

 With Auntie

 Kiss from Uncle Dubb

 Carousel with Auntie.

 And the third type of "horse" of the day.

 Go buckaroo!

 Loves to go high on the swings

 Walking practice. I call him Frankenstein because he doesn't bend his knees.

  Trying to get him to take steps. So far we've witnessed 3 independent steps.

 Being upside down makes anything better. He also got his first taste of frozen yogurt that afternoon and seemed to like it.

 Reading time at Grandma's house

 Auntie introducing technology. She lets him play Angry Birds and Cut the Rope. Dan and I don't have smartphones, so he normally isn't around such interesting gadgets.