waiting for daddy...and then some

last sunday @ 9:40am, i informed siri that jeff's plane would be landing in 5 minutes. she climbed onto the box and insisted on watching for daddy

she stayed on or near box until approximately 10:30 when we saw daddy emerge from a taxi

last day of music together! we decided that it was time to pull siri from music together. it was a great class for her (we started when siri was 6 months old), but she's getting a bit old for the curriculum and has commented that the class if full of babies. siri reacted pretty well to the news, and instructed,

"you have to find another music class with no babies." that's the plan, dear child, that's the plan.

last week was a bit hectic, and in some ways it was a blur. the week started with siri attending the backup childcare center provided by jeff's firm, situated in fidi's concrete jungle (preschool was closed b/c teacher kim was attending her son's college graduation in new york). jeff and siri rode the subway daily to the center, and i picked her up in our car in the afternoon. i can't imagine taking public transportation with a child right in the height of commute hours. jeff managed well with his brief case, siri and her cute bee backpack. siri loved taking muni.

on thursday, siri returned to growing minds, but jeff left for a work trip to san diego. it was a bit stressful juggling drop off/pick up, work, food preparation, laundry, bath, bedtime, etc. all by myself. in someways, i enjoyed the simplicity of just me and siri -- reminded me a lot of the the second trimester where jeff abandoned me, ahem, embarked on an opportunity for his career (that benefitted the family). but, being a single parent was hard. it was exhausting. i was wiped out by the end of the day, but stayed up so i can have a bit of me time. i was humbled by this temporary foray into single parenthood and have so more much admiration for those who do it daily.

jeff returned early sunday morning, just in time to attend a toddler bday party. we were all healthy for several days, without coughs, sore throats or sinus infections. but, this thursday marked another round. siri had a low grade fever for about three days, jeff currently has a sore throat, siri's coughs keep waking her from sleep, and my sinuses are again bothering me. a few days respite was nice...i wish it lasted longer.

preschool pics

show and tell -- siri brought one of her current favorite books, the seven chinese sisters (which we've edited to just the seven sisters, and also reinvented the dragon as a lonely dragon looking for a friend, rather than a hungry beast who kidnaps seventh sister). ** we edit the majority of siri's books; good thing she doesn't know how to read yet.

teacher kim has been showing the kids how to bow after they show their treasures. this is siri's version of the "one hand front, one hand back" bow.

teacher kim bought a few more new dolls, and apparently all the kids love them, and have a difficult time taking turns playing with them. she will purchase a few more so each kid can at least have one doll at one time.

luke's trying to drive, and siri seems to be interested in using luke's back as a canvas

i think lukas is being scolded for something (harrah is on the other side of siri)

siri drives!

circle time with: teacher kim, luke, harrison, siri, isa, stella's arms, lauren's back and harrah's profile.

we still get photos daily from teacher kim, but neglect to post them here. enjoy the sampling of a preschool day in siri's life. note: pictures are in no particular order

baby sam barfed (again)

baby sam seems to barf all the time as siri is always cleaning up after her/him, and tells us after each episode. here she is, cleaning up baby sam who apparently barfed like six times within 15 minutes. we wondered whether baby sam should go to the er, but siri didn't seem to think it was necessary.

new rug!

after 1.5 years of living in our wood-floored apartment, we finally purchased a rug on saturday for our living room. siri *loves* the new rug. unfortunately, i wasn't able to capture her first reaction: rolling on the rug as soon as we unrolled it. this video captures her second reaction.

Momma's Day 2011

siri kinda looks like a little leprechaun here...

walking slowly because it's fun

finally decided that walking on uneven ground is an okay thing to do

<3

our city kid was very unsure about walking on grass. she initially refused to walk and asked us to hold her, but she quickly saw that it was okay to walk on uneven ground...it's time to introduce her to nature. seriously.

siri often calls me "momma." not mommy, not mama, but momma, hence the title of this entry.

we enjoyed a very nice mother's day, which began with me sleeping in until about 8am when i heard the scampering of little feet running toward the bedroom door. siri jumped onto the bed, said "happy mother's day!" gave me a handmade card consisting mostly of dinosaur stamps, and took off down the hallway toward jeff. he coached her to say something else, and she came back into the room and said, "you're a good mommy."

siri had woken up at 6:30ish, and jeff escorted her into the kitchen where they made breakfast together. after breakfast and a quick shower, we took a little walk around our neighborhood, grabbed some hot beverages, hopped in our car, and headed to fremont. the point of the walk was to tire out siri so she would sleep on our drive to fremont, but that didn't work as planned. siri was too busy singing, and telling us she wanted to look for cows (we usually see cows on our way to point reyes, and i guess siri really wanted to see some). so, we ended up pulling off the freeway, and went for a 500 yard "hike" as a second attempt to tire out siri. this plan worked, and she conked out pretty much immediately after the "hike" (plus, it was also her nap time by this point). we then drove to fremont; jeff and i found the taiwanese restaurant where we would enjoy a late lunch, and read in the car until siri woke up from her two hour nap.

after our late lunch and a brief visit to a chinese market, we drove to aunt jenn/uncle todd/maia's place and enjoyed an early dinner cooked by aunt jenn. we ate a lot this mother's day. it was almost like thanksgiving. almost.

30 month checkup

siri had her 30 month checkup last friday, and again was a model patient. i'm not sure whether dr. simons (pediatrician) says such nice things to all of his patients, but he told siri that she was the best patient he had seen all day (it was only 10:30, but i believed him since the two kids dr. simons saw before siri were wailing as we waited our turn, and the kid immediately after siri wailed pretty much as soon as she was led into the checkup room). dr. simons was also very impressed by siri's teeth, asking whether she is a good brusher or just has good genes. we think the latter since i'm not so certain that pinning down a screaming child twice a day to brush her teeth results in "the most beautiful teeth for a child her age he [dr. simons] has ever seen." to be fair, siri has been much better about brushing her teeth after cousin terran explained that cavities are not good things. thanks, terran!

siri also used the big kid scale for the first time at this check up. it was very exciting and sad as i watched her step up to the scale, just like a big kid :( as predicted, siri has slowed down a bit in the growing department. she is now three-feet tall (60th percentile), and weighs 32 lbs (80th percentile). okay, so she's still big for her age, but she's no longer off the charts -- what happened to my >97th percentile baby?

again, siri was rewarded with a balloon for being such a good patient. she started her hep a sequence, and didn't flinch one bit! she followed dr. simons out of the checkup room as soon as he mentioned "balloon," headed straight for the balloons, and without hesitation, chose a blue one (blue and green seem to be her current favorite colors).

brown bear, brown bear

jeff caught siri "reading" this book to her babies a couple of weeks ago, and since then, she has "read" it on numerous occasions to mommy and daddy, nana, and her babies (of course). today, she decided to read the book to jiu jiu as a birthday gift.

*fyi: siri doesn't really know how to read; she has committed the book to memory.

happy birthday jiu jiu!

today is jiu jiu's 29th birthday, and siri sang to his voicemail when we called this morning. then, she continued singing after we actually spoke with him...

china beach

*bonus: hanging out on back deck on a beautiful afternoon

rare mommy and siri photo (except i look like i have a huge gap between my front teeth)

i asked siri to smile for the camera, naturally, she frowned

daddy and siri running away from waves

hallmark may be interested in this for a father's day card

siri eating her specialty ham and brie sandwich (made by daddy)

the weather last weekend was absolutely beautiful (it actually continued into this week), so we packed a picnic lunch on sunday and made our way to china beach. aunt jenn, uncle todd and maia met up with us briefly before we needed to go for respective nap times.