A Goat's Tail

Alex and I went to the zoo this morning and the highlight was definitely the goats. The tail of this little one was especially fascinating to Alex, twitching every time he touched it.

Wednesday, Wednesday....

Hey Alex, do you want this one?

Concentration!

Chasing bubbles around the house

I love bubbles!!

It has been awhile since I posted, but things are going well here. Alex and I both have colds, so between that and chasing around an almost 15 month old, time just slips away. Being outside is one of Alex's favorite activities. He is interested in every plant and every animal or bird which he can find. He loves to help rake the lawn and take care of the garden.

Lately, he has been quite helpful with household chores too. You can give him the task of transferring diapers from the box to their location in the diaper drawer and he will happily do that for 20 minutes. He'll put them in the drawer, then take them out and transfer them back to the box in the other room, maybe stop and put some in some other secret location....all quite a fun game!

On the food scene, of course bread and cheese are always favorites, along with strawberries and grapes lately. He loves beef stew with rice, scrambled eggs with cheese, noodles with peanut dressing and he enjoyed some butternut squash ravioli the other night as well. Basically, if we are eating it, he is interested in it.

We have been keeping busy with friends, a music class, our babysitting co-op and we still try to get to swimming periodically, although I think that we need to transition to an actual "lesson" type setting, since he gets a bit bored with the songs now. He would much rather try to pull himself up on the side of the pool or just try to swim on his own.

The Tour de Cure is this weekend, so that will be fun. We will post pictures afterward. Today, Alex's friend Luke came over to play. The photos above captured some of their time together.

I Still Love Baguettes!

Remember in September, when Alex captured the baguette, but didn't really have enough teeth to do much with it? Not so anymore!

Be very, very quiet, I am chasing a ....

How cute is this? Alex was extremely excited to see this family of geese and did not quite understand that a goose's happy voice is not normally a hiss. Every time that Alex got within about four feet of the Daddy goose, he would stop and hiss at him. They were just out on their afternoon walk on Angel Island. They were headed over to get some water and spend some time in the sun.

Angel Island

Grandma and Grandpa Chng are visiting this week, so we ventured out to Angel Island via the ferry from Tiburon, for a little day excursion. The weather was nice and sunny, so you could see the Golden Gate bridge on the ferry ride there. We took a short hike up to the Immigration Center where we sat by the bay, while Alex had some lunch. After the hike, over by the ferry docks, Alex had a great time chasing seagulls and watching the goose family go on their afternoon walk, and was quite entertaining for the whole crowd on the restaurant deck.

Niles Canyon Railway

Look, I can climb up here....monkey, indeed!

Wow, this scenery is awesome!

Fun times on the railway with Daddy.

Chillin' in the 1958 bus that took us to the station.

We had a fun adventure today, exploring Niles Canyon via railway. There is a non-profit organization (http://www.ncry.org/) which has a collection of vintage rail cars which run on a private railway between Niles and Sunol. The mission is to preserve Pacific Coast railway history for future generations, like Alex, to enjoy. He definitely did enjoy today.

The round trip is about an hour or so and there are a variety of cars to choose from, some open and some are enclosed. We sat one of the open cars and enjoyed the scenery of the East Bay hills which are so nice and green this time of year. There were lots of wildflowers in bloom and of course, we spotted some of his favorites...moo-cows!

Gamble Gardens

These Japanese wisteria trees are really pretty, Mom!

Tulips just say Spring, don't they?

Mom, bird! It's a bird...I'm making the sign for bird, do you see me?

Ming and Fiona came to visit this week, which has been alot of fun! After picking them up from the airport on Wednesday, we drove to Menlo Park and visited Gamble Gardens. It was a great place for Alex to run around, explore fountains, enjoy the flowers and find birds. The grounds were beautiful and calm. A great place to hang out and have a picnic or read a book, or chase a toddler!

Welcome, Neighbor!

We have a new neighbor! Alex and I got a little peek at him earlier this week when he arrived home. Welcome to Tadgh Giang Bertain, who was born on Saturday, April 4th at 10:32 pm (a good time of night to be born, according to Alex!). Tadgh weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces and is 20 inches long. Congrats to Hoa and Sean for joining the club! We are around to help anytime, just let us know. We look forward to getting to know Tadgh and to sharing many fun moments in the future.

Briones in the Springtime

The East Bay has a plethora of regional parks which are gorgeous and easily accessible. We are so lucky to have so many places to choose from. Today we visited Briones, one which we had not explored before. We had read that it is especially beautiful during the Spring, with all of the flowers in bloom, and that was true! We hiked up, spent some time just hanging out at the top and came back, basically making an afternoon of it.

Tonight we decided to go out and fulfill a hankering for Thai food, and we happened to find Champa Gardens which was good and not far away. Alex had his first tom kha soup and enjoyed it, along with some tofu and rice. He always manages to entertain people when we go out, whether by sticking a chopstick in his nose and playing peek-a-boo with the ladies.

California Academy of Sciences

Alex learning at the climate change exhibit.


Mom, do you see those rays in there? I want to get in!


This living roof is cool!


Alex and I visited the California Academy of Sciences yesterday on a much awaited visit. We were lucky enough to recieve a membership as a gift (thanks to Hoa and Sean!), so we headed over to San Francisco to check it out. It is a wonderful place to explore and learn all kinds of things! It recently opened in a new facility in Golden Gate Park with an aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum and a 4-story rainforest all under one roof.

We will be back many times to explore, but yesterday we took in the African penguin feeding, watched all of the fish in the Philippine coral reef exhibit, explored the living roof and hung out in the garden for lunch. Thanks you guys for the awesome gift!

Yum, Spaghetti!

Alex is having a lot of fun feeding himself these days. He is quite proud to put that food in his mouth by himself. It does get a bit messy, but as you can see, Xena posts herself on cleanup duty on a nightly basis.

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Last evening, I was busy in the kitchen and Alex was wandering around exploring. I thought he was rather quiet, so I went back to the office to see what he was up to. This is where I found him. He had moved the stepstool over so that he too, could surf the Net. Monkey see, monkey do....how true! Well, really it should be monkey see, monkey figure out how he can do, as I do not use a stepstool to reach that mouse!

Thank You Mommas!

Spring has sprung and this is one happy Momma here. I have newly painted toenails, (for the first time in a LONG time!), thanks to my fellow co-op Mommas! Yay!! I was hoping that the co-op would be a success today and it was. I left shortly after everyone arrived and drove down, hoping to get a pedicure on my free time.

Alex was crying quite adamantly when I left, so I wasn't sure that it was going to happen. Last time he cried for about 45 minutes or so and then fell asleep, so I was hoping that this time would go better. Kindly, Ali called about 10 minutes after I left, to let me know that Alex had settled down and was completely fine, which allowed me to relax and enjoy a nice pedicure, as well as some leisurely grocery shopping and a cup of coffee.

Big thanks to the Mommas for helping us through this experience and for taking such good care of Alex. I know that it was probably harder for me, than for him and I appreciate all of the patience and support. Thanks!!