Hiatt - Party of 4

I am WAY behind on this blog. I dont tend to neglect it forever but the 2 children's birthdays, week long epic family vacation, Hannah starting kindergarten and soccer, Chris switching jobs, getting ready to put the house on the market... it is all waiting for me to catch up on. But I had to document this evening.

We had been eyeing this rental in our area and I was thinking about calling on it. I recognized the street name and I emailed a friend who lived on the cul-da-sac and I knew she loved it. She pained pictures of hopscotch and rainbows. Kids of all ages playing happily in the street while the dads shot baskets and the moms sat on their lawns sipping lemonade. Fresh canned goods and hand knit scarves. (I am serious!!... Jenn... back me up)

So I call the lady listed on the ad through the rental agency. She asked me over the phone who exactly would be living in the house. I told her my family - me and my husband and 2 kids. She asked how old the kids are and their genders. Said that she must meet every person that is going to live in the house so we had to bring them to tour the house. Seemed odd but it was a great price and the kitchen boasted tons of storage!

So we set up the time to meet at 6:30. We eat dinner early and I wash the kids up and we head over. I had been telling the kids they  needed to behave and be mellow and not run around, etc. We get there and other than the driveway there wasn't a ton of parking. Chris parks in this little space directly in front of the house. Directly in front of a fire hydrant. He thought it was ok since the curb was not red. I was just trying to rush Hannah while she packed up her toys and put on her flip flops without getting inpatient as Zach is charging towards the door.

The lady greets us at the door and shows us around. The house is empty and of course a big empty house is just asking for kids to run wild. They shouldn't. But they see the open space and just go a little nuts. So they check everything out. The lady showing us the place is really intense. And not at all easy to talk to. So we look around and we end up in the kitchen. I am chasing the kids. Hannah has to go to the bathroom. We look in both of them and there is no toilet paper. She says she just has to go pee so I told her to just air dry and come out. A few minutes later I go to check on her. Of course she had pooped. And was putting her clothes back on. We go to flush. Of course they didn't have the water on so it didn't flush. So I go out and tell the lady who said it was fine.

While I was gone she was asking Chris what we did. The names of the company we worked for? What school the kids went to? Where did the kids go when we were at work? Etc Etc Etc

So as I join in the conversation Hannah wanders through the living room to the front room and she was sitting on the front window behind the sheer curtains. All of a sudden... BAM! The tension rod holding another curtain comes crashing down in the window. At the same time, Zach is hiding in the coat closet and wont come out.

So in order to get out the door I asked what the process was if we wanted to apply. She gave me a 4 page application, one of the pages you had to put your bank account information and get it signed off by the bank. She said to call her when it was ready she would come to our house to pick it up.

Yes. I am serious.

So then we go to leave and she is walking us out the door and Chris says "so... exactly what is the rule with the fire hydrant? Can we park there since it is not red?" and she says ""NO. Actually, it is a ticket able offense!". He apologizes. We leave.

And no... we will not be completing that application!

Zachary's birthday is coming up and he wanted to invite the kids in his class, and a few close friends, to a party at the gymnastics place. He has a friend named Gracie that is in the 2nd grade class that he integrates into and she also happens to have a brother with Down syndrome so she, of course, adores Zach.

The other day his mom sent me this message on Facebook. I have read it so many times and it just makes my heart happy.  

I have to share. So Zach integrates into Gracie's classroom at least on Thursday's when I'm there to help out during Library and music. Since the modernization will start this summer, they are moving out the music room and have been meeting in Gracie's classroom. So the kids walked from the library to their room and Zach doesn't have a desk so Mrs. U looked around the room and noticed Gracie squealing with delight, almost bouncing out of her chair, with her arms stretched out towards Zach. She directed Zach towards a desk next to Grace and they hugged and were so happy to see each other. Then today when they were lining up, Zach was between the two lines and Mrs. U asked Zach to line up right behind Grace again. She's probably aware that they know each other, I mean Grace doesn't hide her emotions. So Grace started clapping her hands in excitement and they hugged again. It was so super cute b/c as Grace rounded the corner our the door, and as she continued to walk, she bent over almost backwards and looked at Zach all googly-eyed. It was the cutest thing I've seen.

A day or two later I got the RSVP from his mom that Gracie would be at his party. I had a feeling he would be excited so I taped his reaction.

Mom: "Hey Zach... guess who is coming to your party?"

Z: "Umm... Umm... Luke." (his cousin who he has been talking about constantly lately)

 Mom: "No... Gracie"

Excitement... pretty self explanatory :)

Z: "She is invited??"

Mom: "Yeah"

Z: "She got my invitation?... in her mailbox?"

"Great!"

 

Just another Sunday around here. After the kids went to bed I was picking up around the house. I wrote a note on something I was sending back to Zach's teacher and I went to put it in his backpack and just couldn't avoid it anymore. It had been months. When I can't walk outside and shake out the backpacks in the fresh air I kind of avoid the bottom. As long as there isn't a catastrophe forcing me down there I just assume nothing needs attention.

Tonight Chris found himself lucky enough to be sitting close to the front door where the backpacks are hung. I decided to pass this household chore off on him. Possibly for the first time.

"Hey Chris... would you please clean out Zach's backpack while you are watching TV? All that needs to go back in is this. this. and this. Hannah's could use it too."

"Sure" not really knowing what he was in for

Zach's had tons of class work he had done. 3 or 4 art projects and a rock that had been painted and jewels glued on it. We think Hannah made it for him awhile back. A few random pairs of underwear and a sock. And a little tractor toy. A pair of Buzz Lightyear gloves. There was also a lot of glitter. That ended up on the carpet. A few things I am sure I am forgetting. Chris just shook his head by all the randomness.



My mom got these things for the kids to hold certain creations or school work of theirs that are extra special so we file them away in here.


Next he moved on to Hannah's backpack. He started saying what things were as he pulled them out.

Socks. Socks. Underwear. Leopard pants. Bandana. Papers. Egg carton caterpillar. Bean thing. Dinosaur. Broken headband. Another dinosaur.



The girl hates socks and generally always takes them off and sometimes if I am lucky they end up back in her backpack.

What fun things did you find in your kids backpacks lately??

Zach was in showering the other night and Chris went in to check on him. Zach told him "I used your soap daddy! I smell like you! I getting big!"

We had a fantastic Easter weekend.

We spent a great evening with friends the night before we left out of town for Easter. Mandy hosted. The main reason for gathering was to dye Easter eggs with the kids. We made homemade pizza. Mandy and I shared a bottle of red. Sarah and her beautiful pregnant self brought the cheese and plastic eggs filled with goodies for an Easter egg hunt. Luckily Holden's mood improved and Tara and Arabella were able to join us too. Poor Chris ended up being the only guy but as we all know... he is a good sport. :) Zach chose to go out of town a day early with Nana and miss the gathering so we missed him!

The kids waited patiently before wandering the yard looking for the eggs. They were each given a red solo cup to collect their finds. Joseph started singing some red solo cup song??






The hunt is on


We then lined up more red cups to do the egg dye. We all agreed that doing this process as a group was definitely less stressful and fun for us all!




Mandy recently got the OK to have her chickens and this was their first day in their new house. They were a little sketchy over the kids chasing them trying to pick them up and then all these eggs. They kept trying to jump up and peck at them.


At the end of the night the kids were happy that the chickens were tired and they were actually able to carry them to the coop.

(Jackson - he said he is going to marry Hannah and brought her a flower to school :) )

I think technically Arabella picked up the chicken(s) and handed them to Hannah but she was SO excited to hold them




The tree got a workout this evening. Only 1 incident that was fixed with kisses and a band-aid.


The next day we headed out to my hometown and had an early Easter dinner at my grandmothers house. GG is 88 this year! It was nice and relaxing and I failed to take many pictures so here's all I got.





The next morning we had an egg hunt and brunch with Chris' mom and step dad.

We had an uneventful drive home and we spent Sunday afternoon home preparing for the week ahead.

I definitely feel blessed this year!! Hope you all had a memorable weekend as well!

Last night as I was tucking Zach in bed he tells me:

"When Daddy gets home from soccer he will come in and kiss me and then I will go 'whoa' while I am sleeping. Capiche?"

Me: "OK Zach, good night" ... Pause ... "Did you just say capiche?"

Zach: giggling "yeah"

About a week ago after dinner Hannah started singing "Cause every little thing... is gonna be alright". I was so proud to hear her singing such amazing song and knowing the words and the melody as if she'd known it for years. This has always been a favorite of mine and it is Bob Marley after all.

After singing it a couple times with her and still kind of beaming that me and Chris' great taste in music had worn off on her and she wouldn't fall victim to the Justin Bieber Fan club ... Chris says "they play it on Nickelodeon commercials".

My bubble totally burst. I hadn't exposed her to inspirational music of the generations but some damn Cartoon Network had. I felt like the biggest asshole of a parent.

Another seemingly unrelated story:

So a few weeks ago my mom went to Arizona with a friend and while shopping she found a squirrel proof bird feeder.

Sidenote: I have not been able to successfully plant anything on our back deck or back of our property because these huge bastard squirrels dig up everything. So my mom was very excited to try this somewhere in our yard.

So I finally get the feeder up about a week ago and I put it outside my kitchen window. I didn't want it somewhere that they could crap all over the deck and because I didn't know what kind or size of birds would use this feeder I didn't want it somewhere that if it was empty and the birds get mad they would dive bomb the kids where they played so I put it off to the side not over the deck. It is about 7 feet out from my kitchen window. We were home this whole weekend and in between the rain and hail storms these cute little birds would come and eat the food. We don't often see this small of birds in our area but I think since the bigger birds and too big to fit in the cage these ones have free reign.


So all weekend we got to look at all these cute little birds take turns eating the seeds. The kids loved looking out the windows at them and they were just such a bright part of our weekend. It made me sing "3 little birds" often with the kids.

It made me think of my teenage years and listening to the Legend album in my first car. It reminded me that Mandy posted this video to my Facebook wall the morning Chris was going in for heart surgery and that I posted it to her wall when she was going through the early stages of divorce. It made me think of palm trees. To me it is just one of the most soothing songs.

It also made me realize I really need to stop singing Katy Perry with my kids and put on the classics!

Last night over dinner Hannah was telling us about her day.

She informed us that H (a boy at her school) "is the best boy ever because he likes girl stuff. Like clothes and lip gloss and necklaces".

A bit later Hannah says "H and C (girl at her school) are married because they kissed"

I asked "Do you think you guys are a little young to be kissing?"

"Well C is 5 so she is older. But H is only 4"

I am SO not ready for this.

A couple months back I was thinking ahead and mentioned to my mom I would like to go wine tasting for my birthday this year. It came up in conversation with my aunt who said "Oh, I won this free lunch and antique limo ride thing through Cass Winery, we could go that day".

It became a fun relaxing girls day out. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a balmy mid-70s day. Cold enough for a sweater in the early afternoon but warm and refreshing as the afternoon wore on.



Seriously... look at this car. It was a 1947 Chrysler Windsor Limousine. My mom told me about a car that her and my dad had when my brother was a baby that this car reminded her so much of. My dad wanted to sell it to get a motorcycle.





I would love to rent out this space for an event



We had an amazing lunch at Cass and we got in the limo for a 5 hour trip to some of the local wineries. We got in the car and Erykah Badu's "Live" album was playing. (It was funny because my niece and I just loaded this album to our respective ITunes when she was in town visiting us 3 weeks ago. But I hadn't listened to it yet on my ITunes so to get in the car with this 60-something chauffeur playing this album. Priceless!)

My mama and I



My aunt and the chauffeur up front chatting about how he was picking up Drew Barrymore the next day for the film festival at Hearst Castle. We thought that was pretty cool.



We drive out several miles through the gorgeous hills around the wineries listening to music and chatting. As we start pulling into the next winery the car makes a funny noise and starts smoking. Luckily it made it around the parking lot and was able to safely park. We went in to wine taste and they had to call back to the winery for another car to pick us up and take us to get our car. Luckily the wine was good and the view was gorgeous so it did not put a damper on our day.







Left to our own transportation, we continued on to several wineries. I didn't get pictures at every stop (I think there were a total of 5), but here are a few from our day.









When we were done it was about a 20 minute drive home.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE where I live??

The other night while we were eating dinner... this was heard at our dinner table.

Hannah: "What is this meat we are eating?"

Me: "It is turkey kielbasa"

Hannah: "Turkey what??"

Me: "Kielbasa"

Hannah: "That's a fancy word"

8 years ago I married a man I was, and continue to be, madly in love with. Today, as I reflect on our lives together, it is hard to believe it has only been 8 years.

We have experienced more life changing events than most people I know. While some relationships would have been broken when faced with these challenges our relationship strengthened.

For those who don't know us well... here is a little trip down memory lane.

Chris and I met working for Yahoo! at the corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale. We both worked in the Customer Care division - me on the "Frontline Phone" team and him reviewing personal ads. When I started with Yahoo!, I also reviewed personal ads so when I moved to the phone team I was the only one with personals experience. Chris and I both ended up attending a weekly bug meeting. We ended up being "friends" on messenger to discuss, you know, bugs. That turned into innocent flirting. He peaked my interest so one night I invited him to come to a club with me and a group of friends. A few nights later he asked me to come over for dinner.

I drove out to his house that night not completely knowing how I felt about him. He made me grilled chicken, steamed broccoli and pasta. He served a white wine that he said he knew nothing about but got from his moms wine collection earlier that day.

When I was leaving he kissed me for the first time. He later told me that he knew at that moment he would marry me.



The next few months flew by and before we knew it we were spending every free moment together. We quickly moved in together and started discussing wedding plans. We toured several facilities but we were not in a huge rush. We were planning Summer 2004 we would be married.



In September we went to Vegas for Chris' birthday. Neither of us had ever been. Little did we know we would be coming home with a little something extra.

In late October, after peeing on 5 sticks, we found out I was pregnant.

We pushed our wedding date up a little bit and were married February 28, 2004.

June 15, 2004 Zachary was born. We had no idea he had Down syndrome and leaned on each other for support. I will never forget standing in the hallway of the NICU feeling Chris' arms around me as we cried. It was the most raw emotion we'd experienced together.

September 19, 2004 we received a call that my dad had committed suicide.

Spring 2005 Chris was called to a meeting about Yahoo!. We thought they were announcing layoffs and with him being the only bread winner we were pretty stressed. Come to find out the division he worked in was being relocated. Lots to think about and decide.

July 1, 2005 Chris reported to work in Hillsboro, OR.

After a weekend of partying with my girlfriends for the 4th of July I met the movers while they packed up our house into a moving truck. I then made the 672 mile drive to our new house in Beaverton, OR.

Never had I been so far away from everything and everyone I knew. We decided to put Zach in to daycare and I went back to work. Across the office from Chris, working at Yahoo! again.

This is us with Jerry Yang and Chris' old supervisor at the Grand Opening of the Hillsboro Yahoo! office:


Fall 2005 Zach was diagnosed with pneumonia and took his first ride in an ambulance when he had to be transferred to the children's hospital. Luckily his hospital stay was short.

January 2006 Zach spent 5 days at the children's hospital in total isolation with RSV.

June 2006 we packed up and moved back to California. We also bought our first home together.

September, 12 2007 Hannah was born.

July 12, 2010 Chris had a stroke.

I think we have had our share of up's and down's and I wouldn't trade our life for anything. I just really hope the next 8 years aren't quite so eventful!

Pretty much every day my lunch consists of a Lean Cuisine and a salad. I generally prep all my salads on Sunday so each morning I just grab one of each and head out.

As you might remember, me and some friends of mine are doing a monthly Supper Club. January we did Chinese New Year from Cooking Light.

Since I ended up buying so many ingredients that I didn't typically have in my kitchen, I wanted to put them to use. So one Sunday afternoon I did up a double batch of the Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe and a batch of brown jasmine rice from Trader Joe's. I packaged them all into individual serving containers (and measured mine out exactly since I am counting calories) and ended up with a weeks worth of lunches for me, 2 lunches for Chris and lunch for the kids for one day (I could have gotten probably a few more meals for me and/or the kids but I did bigger servings for Chris).

So not only do I have a yummy lunch ready to grab on my way out the door, it is cost effective and about 25% of the sodium content of frozen meals!

Yesterday I get a call from Zach's teacher.

Me: Is everything ok?!?

Teacher: Yes. But..... Zach took his cast off.

Me: HE WHAT? He took his cast off?

Teacher: Yeah, I don't know how he did it but we were at circle time and he just slipped it right off. We were going to try to put it back on but it wouldn't go on easily and didn't want to injure his wrist more.



Seriously kid? Who takes a cast off??! This child never ceases to amaze me. I call the doctor and back we go to get another cast put on. This time they put it up above his elbow so that he can't get it off.



Any bets on if he will get this one off? Because seriously, I wouldn't put it past him.

Monday I got a call at work. Zach's teacher tells me that he fell off the monkey bars at school. He cried a bit and they took him to the nurses office and iced it and he seemed ok. He was moving it fine and he did the hand motion to apply hand sanitizer so it didn't appear broken. They sent him home on the bus but to keep an eye on it. I asked him about it Monday night and he told us he fell and was sorta babying it but seemed ok.

Tuesday I get a text from our daycare provider. Zach fell on the same wrist and he cried a little. They were icing it and he was moving it fine and he was happily watching a cartoon. I called our pediatricians nurse and she said to watch it for a few days and if it didn't improve, to call them and we would have it checked out.

We noticed him not moving it at all Tuesday night (he could move it, but chose not to). He wouldn't pull his pants up or use it to do anything. First thing Wednesday we make appointments and get him in for an x-ray. Chris had taken him to the doctor so they were spending the afternoon together and our doctor called and said it was in fact fractured.

Today we took the day off and took him for his cast. We were pretty concerned about how he would act. He gets very anxious around doctors, nurses, medical facilities, anything that remotely looks like it might be out to get him.

After a bit of stalling on Zach's part we finally distracted him enough to get the cast on. He was excited to pick his favorite color!

When we were walking out of the office Zach said to me with a giggle in his voice "I was a little nervous in there". Melt. My. Heart.



Through this whole ordeal this week he has been so tough. He really didn't complain about it much and went to school almost all week.

We were so proud of him for being so brave that we did what any parent would. Took him to the toy store!



I went in to check on him tonight and he just looks even more grown up than he did last night.



But when I see him laying there all grown up... I still see this

A few weeks ago we were in Costco and I had Hannah in the cart. The lady was behind us in line and she was striking up a conversation about how her brother has an extra chromosome too and how handsome she thought Zach was.

Then she looked at me and Hannah and said "WOW! Someone really looks like their mommy!". The look on Hannah's face was priceless. She was beaming. She was proud.

It made me feel all warm and fuzzy but as the day went on it made me think about how much I want to be a mom for her to be truly proud of. I need to be the mom to shed this weight and be a healthier version of myself. For me AND for her.

I am proud to say that in the first 4 weeks, I am down 15 lbs and I am still going strong.

I want to feel like the mom that I see in my daughters eyes when she looks at me.

Ever since we took Hannah to see The Nutcracker she has been very interested in ballet and asked to take dance classes. Conveniently, a new dance studio opened close to our house this month! She had her first class on Saturday and while she was the only student this week, she loved it. She learned some steps and started learning the routine for their recital in May!

After the first of the year a dear friend of mine sent out an email to 5 of us. Asking if we wanted to be part of a supper club. I didn't research what it was, I just said "Of course!" because... who would pass up time where we can hang around, chat, eat and the kids are entertained with friends?!

We all got together this past Saturday and had a blast! The food was delicious. The kids were well behaved. And the conversation was perfect.

Mandy started a blog for our Supper Club and reading through it made me so excited for our future gatherings. Check it out here and keep watching for the recipes!!

The other day Hannah and I disagreed on something and she got upset and stormed into her room, threw herself on her bed, and sobbed. (seriously... she's only 4?!?!)

I went in and we talked about it and I left her room. She continued to lay there. Chris went in and lay down next to her.

Hannah turned to Chris and said "Daddy. You are the only one who understands me".

Seriously?

We joined some of my family at Gilroy Gardens to experience the Holiday Lights that they put up during the season. Walking in we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the light displayed. Hannah had fallen asleep in the car so was quietly in the stroller under a blanket. As we were walking in Hannah says to me

"Mama... My eyes are watering because it is so beautiful, I have tears."

If you haven't read the rest of the year. Get caught up here
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

November-
We spent Thanksgiving at my grandmothers. It was great to spend a few days with her and we all loved our time there. We had an awesome dinner and then played ChickenFoot!


The kids with GG




The next day we went to Happy Hollow. Chris and I had both been there many times as kids but hadn't been in at least 2 decades. They have done tons of renovations and added little rides for the kids. It was such a good time.










The puppet show


Hannah was excited to go on this ride. Watch the sequence of events




As the ride started going up Zach got really excited and started laughing... and then...




Right about this point she is screaming "THIS IS NOT FUN!!!!"




After that ordeal, of course we told her she did not have to go on anything. Of course she wanted to try. Every ride after that she had to scope out for a minute and see how it worked




Doing the maze with Daddy


This is the crooked house. When Chris and I were kids you used to be able to play inside of it. You could go upstairs and from there, there was a slide that went out the front door. You can no longer go into the house but the structure is still there and brought back memories!




While Hannah wasn't into the rides... she loved to pet and feed the animals








The goat tried to eat Hannah's shirt. She thought that was pretty funny and she talked about it for days


Zach was loving the rope walk on the playground


December-
Another busy month. I will try and condense as much as possible.
My mom and I took Hannah to her first ballet, The Nutcracker. She was in awe. We had front row seats and it was such a memorable day. First, we went to lunch at the Madonna Inn




Our friends Tara and Arabella were just a couple seats over. The girls looked so grown up


After the ballet the ballerinas went into the lobby for pictures. Hannah was star struck and timidly went up to them and asked to take a picture

This is Hannah with 'Clara'








Christmas Eve. Making cookies for Santa


He liked watching the mixer


Christmas Eve they got to have 1 gift. PJs of course!




Putting carrots out for the reindeer


Not really sure what they are doing here. Singing a Christmas Carol maybe?




The one thing Hannah asked Santa for this year - Baby Ariel


Ready to go to Nana's house for Christmas afternoon and dinner


They love their Uncle Brian




We are so blessed to live in such a gorgeous area. The weather on Christmas was beautiful and we took a walk on the beach before dinner












I took a lot of great pictures this year but I think this is my favorite


The day after Christmas we drove up to Chris' parents house for a couple days. They just moved back to California from Texas so this was the first time we were able to see them around the holidays. Sadly I had a terrible cold so I didn't get too many pictures. We will have to make another visit soon!

Hannah making breakfast with Grandpa


The boys took a trip into town one day (about 45 minutes away). Grandma and Hannah had fun making a gingerbread house


This year in review became much longer than I expected but going back through all these pictures made me smile. Our year was so full of love and memories. After the nightmare that was 2010, it was much needed. I am so excited to see what 2012 is going to hold!