2017 North American Eclipse

First Day of School

For the record: Julia with Victoria and Mary. Jonathan with Mrs. Miller and Addison.

Happy 5th Birthday Freckles

She was treated to a can of Fancy Feast (Salmon and Chicken flavor) and a 3-pack of catnip (it's legal here).  I also included a picture of her mooching the heat from my work computer's fan and Julia dressing her up as Aunt Je Meow Meow before she cooked us dinner.

Meet Your Teacher 2017

The kids both got the teachers they wanted for this school year!  

Julia has Ms. Mendenhall for fourth grade, which is the same teacher she had in second grade.  She was really hoping to have her again. At Chinook the fourth graders are all in portables behind the school, but Julia loves it.  She says it's much more quiet out there.  Between her teacher, the portable, her classmates, and her new iPad, she keeps saying how much she loves school and how fun it is.

Jonathan's teacher is Mrs. Miller for first grade. This is the same teacher Julia had for kindergarten.  Everyone loves Mrs. Miller.  Jonathan has been doing really well so far this year, considering it's the first time he's been at school all day.  He's been eating well enough at snack times and at lunch.  Considering his special status with his recently removed g-tube, Jonathan is allowed to ask and have an extra snack whenever he wants to.  I think because he's more of an extrovert, going all day hasn't been much of a problem for him.

Check out the pictures below of the kids in their new classrooms. Jonathan's classroom is on the top and Julia's classroom is on the bottom. What a bunch of characters.

The End of a Long Journey

Today was the day that we have been waiting for since April 2011.  Jonathan's g-tube was finally removed!  Jonathan has essentially had the g-tube his entire life, getting all or most of his nutritional needs via it for the first couple years of his life. Only in the last couple of years (he's seven now) has he really started to eat enough to consider taking it out.

In order to take it out he needed to eat enough on his own without ANY tube usage for three months or more and also stay to on his growth curve. He did just that.  At the beginning of the process he didn't want to have anything to do with food. But now, since he's older, he decided that he wanted to get it out before he started first grade. It's interesting how a little maturity changes our ability to reason with him and for him to decide on his own it was coming out. On top of the hassle and occasional pain, I think for him it was mostly the social pressure that made him want to get it out. He wanted to wear a shirt while swimming up to this point, and now with it out he has no problem taking off his shirt when wrestling with Kensei, his neighborhood friend.

I won't rehash the years of having to using the feeding pump, bags, and back pack or the countless syringe feedings and food logs.  That's in the past now and he's on his way to being just like everyone else.  A couple of years ago I had changed out his tube to a new one at home, so he wanted me to be the one to take it out at the doctor's office. I had the easy part - Stacey had the hard part for years. After a weigh in and chat with Dr. Waasdorp, we laid him on the table, deflated the balloon, and out I pulled it.

Later that night we took him to dinner to celebrate.  His choice. He wanted to go to P.F. Chang's, which was interesting, because we've never gone there as a family before. We've been there once or twice with Grandpa and Grandma, and they've taking the kids there, so maybe that's why it seemed like a natural choice as a special place to celebrate. The kids ate well and even got ice cream for dessert (pictured below).  I didn't notice this until now...not even when we were there...but check out the blue neon sign behind the kids!  It's a sign. No, really, I mean IT'S A SIGN that this really was a special day!

We cleaned up the g-tube and are saving it for Jonathan's "scrapbook". That probably seems a little weird to people that haven't been dealing with something like this, but for us it's always going to be a part of Jonathan's growing up.  Now that he's a big first grader he's got the rest of his life ahead of him without it.  We love you Jonathan! Way to go Buddy!

Hamster Dance

On our way back from the trip to Spokane we found out that our two hamsters had turned into five. Apparently, you shouldn't feed these guys after midnight.  We were all very surprised at this after having two female hamsters for several months. Apparently, one of them was playing a trick on us.

The funny thing was, when Jonathan got "Silver" from the pet store he insisted that he was a boy and Julia insisted that "Valentine" was a girl. They were actually right. I separated Silver and Valentine as soon as we got home.

After a week or two the babies were weaned and it was time to give them away to someone. We didn't want to keep more or else we'd end up with another litter of pups or perhaps two girls or boys that didn't get along. A family on our street ended up taking two pups and one of their friends took the third.

However, we just found out that even though I separated the adults we have 6 more pups.  The gestation cycle is only 14 days, so I think Valentine got pregnant with another round before I separated them!  A picture of the next litter is at right. The pet store will take them back, but we will try to find more homes for them.  When they are weaned and have fur they are pretty cute.

Overnight Sleep Study

Julia and Stacey spent the night up in Denver tonight so Julia could complete a sleep study. The nurses monitored her breathing and movement overnight for signs of sleep related issues. The good news is that the results came back normal. So, the best we can figure out is that her apparent tiredness is either diet or personality related (introvert, etc.). We'll keep monitoring things and see what we can find out in the coming months.

Spokane Trip

This summer we took another trip up to Spokane.  We love it up there in the summer...long days, warm weather, trees, and lakes. This year I did more of a "workcation" in Spokane. I worked most of the days I was there and then was able to spend time with the family at night and on the weekends.  We were also able to see a good amount of Aaron, Brenda, and their kids and Papa and Nana (including their new house).  Stacey mostly spent time hanging out with old friends while I worked.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip. These are from some of my favorite areas...driving the Miata near Mt. Spokane, the long evenings in Spokane, and Loon Lake.  Loon Lake (and Granite Point campground) is becoming part of our standard rotation when we visit.  I still had to help the kids out to the dock this year, but they both jumped off of the edge of it into my arms (so they could keep their head above water).

To be honest I was a little bit off the first week or so of the trip. Stacey and the kids had arrived a few days earlier.  Work was busy and it was hard to find a good spot to work while in a rental and while the kids were on vacation.  Eventually I started using John's Miata and I figured out the best way to keep the noise out at Starbucks.  Just about the time I was getting settled and able to enjoy myself was when it was time to fly back.

Some Sum-mer Pictures

A collection of some random pictures from this summer:

- Freckles cuddling with Julia and me. On my lap, with a paw on Julia's leg
- We painted Julia's room this summer.  The vinyl wall decoration with its over 200 individual leaves looks nice!
- A shot of Black Forest from my first road bike ride in over 15 years.  I finally bought a new bike!

- My great Father's Day gifts. A giant card with trophy, some sweet words and candy, and a homemade tie.
- Julia found some silk at Grandma's and decided she was Japanese for the day.
- Jonathan found an old Halloween costume.  I caught him in the act of trying to put on Julia's sandals.
- Julia at cheer camp at the community center.

San Francisco Treat

After the wedding we drove up from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. Michelle was able to take a short flight up there from LA and spend a couple of days with us. In all honesty, I was pretty beat by this point and being in an even bigger city with worse traffic, etc. was about all I could handle.  It was still a great time but I wish I could have had more energy for it.

We ended up in SFO because I used miles to book our airfare. The only way I could get completely free flights was to fly into San Jose and fly out of SFO. I have been there several times before, but it was still good to see the standard sights with the kids.

We walked around Fisherman's Wharf with the kids one day and got our free (and bought much more) Ghirardelli chocolate. The first pictures below are of Baker Beach. There is a family favorite of me on this same beach when I was about two years old, so we wanted to get a family picture and a picture with Jonathan there. We also visited the Golden Gate bridge on its 80th anniversary year and ended up walking across half of it.  The final picture was also taken for my parents from behind their old house in the Presidio to remind them of the view they had every day from their back porch when they were first married.

All in all it was a great time.