One of the beauties of living in Southern California is that it's perfectly plausible to splash in the beach and visit a pumpkin patch on the same weekend (and to have said weekend be in mid-October, no less).

On Saturday, we visited Donna, Scott, Madi and adorable baby Joshua! Unfortunately, I forgot the camera at home, so there are no pictures to document the great time we had.  They took us to Lake Mission Viejo and set up a wonderful spread of snacks for us to enjoy. Jack loved the "beach" and kept running into the lake. He didn't even mind falling facedown in the water (Johnny picked him right back up, of course!). It was a really hot day, but we didn't anticipate that Jack would go into the water. However, now that Jack is potty trained and in underwear, we simply stripped him down to his skivvies, and in he went! (I had some spare pairs with me, of course, for him to change into for going home.) Jack also delighted in his first episode of public urination ... a distinct advantage of being a boy. He's still talking about "pee-pee tree," and whenever we go anywhere (say, the Target parking lot), he requests "pee-pee tree." Sigh. Anyway, we had a wonderful time and can't wait to hang out again!

Sunday, we went with my Meetup moms group to Tanaka Farms in Irvine. I used "with" loosely -- everyone was supposed to meet at 11 a.m., but of course, schedules are hard to coordinate when you're dealing with toddlers and babies, so everyone ended up going at times that were convenient for them. We went in the early morning. Anyway, this is a real farm that's open to the public. In the fall, there's a huge pumpkin patch -- a real one, where you can cut pumpkins off the vine. There was also a petting zoo and tractor ride. We talked up the pumpkin patch trip all week, and by Saturday morning, Jack was very excited to go to the "fahm" and see "ginkins" (for some reason, Jack can't say "pumpkins" or even "pumkins." He says "ginkins"). Jack loved it! Derek slept in the BabyHawk the whole time, but I'm sure he'll love it next year.

Jack and the ginkins

The whole family!

Have I mentioned that I love the BabyHawk? Unfortunately I'm not modeling it very well in this picture -- it was tied a bit too loosely here.

Some of you might recall that we had a disastrous petting zoo visit last year, which ended up with Jack in tears and June with a torn shirt. This year, Jack fared much better (this could also be due to the fact that Tanaka Farms fed its petting zoo animals instead of starving them). He loved reaching into the cup of food that Johnny bought and feeding the animals. Whenever he did, he would open his mouth and say "aaah," just like we used to do when feeding him baby food. Cute.

"Ahhh, baby sheep!"

Next, we went on the tractor ride (or, as Jack would say, "wide tra-cker"). Since Jack loves tractors (and anything with wheels, really), this was his dream come true.

Hooray for tractors!

"Yook! Ginkins!"

After we picked up our pumpkins (a big one for Johnny to hold, and a little one for Jack; my pumpkin was Derek), Jack ran through the hay maze.

Whew! It was fun, but extremely exhausting!

Now, I have a couple of videos to share with you. The first is Jack excitedly imitating June and Charles' "crazy wave" arm motions.

The second is Jack "reading" Goodnight Moon. It's so cute. He'll go, "Night night, cow jumping moon" and "Night night mush."

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OK, I think that's all I have for tonight! Hope everyone is having a great week.

Poor Derek ... as the second child (and a same-gender one who came closely on the heels of the first child, at that), he doesn't get nearly as much time in the spotlight (bloglight?) as Jack did. And, having been pregnant and tending to a newborn for some portion of four consecutive years, exhaustion tends to trump guilt, so that the days slip by with nary a mention of Derek on my blog. But, it finally got to me today, as Derek smiled and giggled at me. I have this adorable, sweet-smelling three-month-old baby -- something that I will most likely never have again -- and I need to show him off! (Not to mention, I have been utterly remiss in updating my blog.) So, here are some recent pictures.

Smiling up a storm at my mom

He was giggling and sticking out his tongue

Three months old and getting  big!

Cute brothers. Jack didn't want Derek sitting too close to him, though, and he was very intent on watching Curious George

All snuggly after a bath

As you can tell from the pictures, Derek is a pretty mellow baby. He has his moments, of course, but he's very patient when I need to set him down in the bouncy seat for a little while. Derek also sleeps nearly 12 hours a night, usually from 6:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. or so. (Yes, I know I'm lucky! And no, I'm not sure what the secret is ... it just happened with both Jack and Derek. I'm sure I have something coming to me to balance the scales, though.) He LOVES to watch Jack run around. It's funny, even at this young of an age, I feel like I can see Derek's personality, and how it differs from Jack's. At three months, Jack was very loud when he giggled (or cried). On the other hand, Derek laughs softly, and he gives us a few minutes of polite, soft crying before setting into loud wails. Anyway, he's really becoming a delightful little guy, and I can tell he and Jack will be great friends. Whenever Derek bats successfully at one of the toys on his bouncy seat, Jack will stop whatever he's doing, clap, and say, "Good job, Dee-Dee!" (Mandarin for "little brother.")

Speaking of Jack (you knew I wouldn't be able to get through a whole entry without mentioning my little devil!), I've decided to enroll him in preschool as of November 3. I had already signed up for a spot next fall, when Jack will be three. I was pretty firm about not starting until then -- I just feel like kids only have this short amount of time where they're just at home, without being shuttled off to school. But, it's clear that Jack is ready. Since Derek's arrival, I've had less time to devote one-on-one to him, and he's spent a lot of hours glued to the TV. I don't have much TV-related guilt, but, well, there has to be a more productive activity for Jack. And I don't mean "productive" as in "educational"; just pure fun. I used to take Jack to the playground a lot, but the playground near us has more treacherous equipment, and we need to supervise Jack pretty closely when he's on it, which is hard to do when you also need to tend to a newborn. I could put Derek in a sling, but that leaves me unable to really help Jack when he's on the playground equipment. I'm in a mom's group, and we have weekly playdates, and Jack and I also go to My Gym (a toddler gym class) each Wednesday, but it's not enough. Jack and I read a lot, and we color, but that's the extent of my craftiness. As much as I want to be, I'm not one of those creative moms. A loving mom? Yes. A fun mom? An organized mom? I'd like to think so. But a creative, crafty one? Not so much. Jack is, well, bored. The most exciting event on a daily basis is going to the grocery store. He loves being around other kids, and I know the stimulation will be good for him. It's the same preschool that June went to, actually. Jack will be going just two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to noon. It will be a good transition to the three-day-a-week schedule that he's signed up for for next year, too. I'm a wee bit sad that my little boy is heading to preschool, but it is definitely a good thing. I'll have some alone time with Derek two days a week, maybe get a little more work done, and Jack will have something other than playing with his same old toys at home! Now we'll have playdates on Monday, preschool Tuesday and Thursday, and My Gym on Wednesday afternoon. All things that Derek can tag along to (except for preschool, of course), which is nice. Of course, I'll update after his first day, which is coming up in a few weeks.

OK, I'll stop my novel. Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone has great weekends!

Happy birthday to me! I turned 29 last Wednesday, and this weekend was filled with mini celebrations. This year, I didn't want a party because a) it's not a milestone birthday, and b) things have been so busy lately that I didn't feel up to one big shindig. I wanted to have more manageable gatherings, if you will.

On my actual birthday, I went out to breakfast with Johnny and Jack, while Derek napped at home, with my mom holding down the fort. Afterward, I went and got my awesome new phone, a purchase generously funded by Johnny's parents (thank you!). I got the Samsung Reclaim, which is made with recycled plastic, and just as importantly, is stylish and features a slide-out keyboard. Now I can check personal and work emails, access Facebook, look up things on Google, and text so much more easily! I'm hard-pressed to think of what my phone can't do. This purchase came just in time, because right after I left the Sprint store, I headed to the dentist's office for oral surgery. I've had a lower bottom tooth that's been jutting out forever. Despite three rounds of orthodontia, it just keeps slanting forward, so much so that the root was almost completely exposed. Yikes! My birthday happened to be the only day that the two dentists who would need to work on me (one to extract the tooth and put in a bone graft, and the other one to bond a temporary tooth in its place until I can get an implant) could coordinate their schedules. Since I didn't exactly want to go around with a hole in my bottom row of teeth, I said, "I'll take it!" Johnny was kind enough to take the day off to help with the kiddos, and so we could spend extra time together on my birthday. Anyway, the procedure went pretty well, and I discovered that I love laughing gas.  It did suck that I couldn't eat for the rest of the day, but hey, that helped me lose a pound!

Friday night, the festivities continued as I went out on the town with my friend Milena (Marcus' mom). We've missed hanging out with each other since I moved. We used to get together several times a week, since we lived so close to each other. Hanging out without the boys is even more rare, so when she suggested that she take me out on the town for my birthday, I agreed right away. I took the chance to get all dolled up. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home that night, so this is the only picture I have of my outfit:

Look! I'm not in sweatpants, Bermuda shorts or jeans!

Haven't finished with the "postpartum weight loss campaign" (that's what Johnny calls it) yet, but I think I did all right! Anyway, Milena took me to Katana in West Hollywood for dinner, and then to the Sky bar/lounge across the street. It was one of the few nights I've been out barhopping in LA (I got pregnant with Jack shortly after moving here), and I had a great time! It made me a bit nostalgic for our time in New York, when of course going out was de rigeur on weekends. At first, Milena and I felt a bit out of place in a sea of glamorous people (it's a bit disorienting to go from "Where are the high chairs? The sippy cups? Does someone need their diaper changed?" to "Yes, I party all the time"), but soon we got into the swing of things. A couple of cute Australian guys who were undoubtedly hoping to get lucky while on vacation approached us at Sky. They were nice, and we talked to them for about 45 minutes, enjoying their accents, but eventually it had to come out that both of us had kids, and that I'm married. The guy I was talking to was saying how his only serious relationship had been in college, and then he asked me, "So, what's your romantic predicament? Or are you single?" And I was like, "Well, speaking of college sweethearts ... I'm married to mine." Pause. The guy recovers and says, "That's great! Where is he tonight?" And I reply, "Oh, he's at home, with our boys. We have a two-year-old and an almost-three-month-old baby." Awkward pause (in which I just wanted to laugh). The guy goes, "You just had a baby?" I nod. In my head, I'm thinking, I wonder if I can count to three before he extricates himself from this situation. The answer is no. I had literally gotten to "one, two, thr ... " in my head before he says, "So sorry, but I have to use the restroom." Ha! I have never seen someone run so fast! Something similar happened with Milena and her dude. Poor guys. They were probably like, "Why did we waste our time with moms?" Later on in the evening, we ran into two guys who tried to pick us up by pretending they were ambassadors from some made-up country, and we had fun joking around with them. I think they were disappointed that we didn't believe them, though. We finally left the bar when it closed at 2 a.m. Definitely not something I'm going to do often, but it was fun to have a girls night out! We'll be doing the same thing for Milena's birthday in early November, and I think June's going to come with us too. Should be fun!

Saturday, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bill brought some delicious takeout and a mocha cheesecake for lunch. June and Charles joined us, too.

It was great to spend time with June and Charles. I've barely seen June since the poor girl has been so busy kicking ass at optometry school. Let me tell you, if you live in SoCal and you need your eyes examined, June will be the girl to look for starting in the summer of 2011 (when she graduates). She knows her stuff! And she's (here comes the pun) easy on the eyes! Hahaha.

The rest of the weekend was spent just chilling with the fam. We had the chance to take some cute photos of the kids.

Jack, being a goofball

Don't you love Jack's trendy hoodie? I got it at Target. It has skull and crossbones and little ghosts on it, and there are some speech bubbles that say "boo" on it. I love Target. Can I live there?

Here's my cutiepie, Derek, with his new teething toy, Sophie the Giraffe. She's all the rage these days, what with being made in France out of some fancy-schmancy natural rubber with a calming scent. You might think three months is a bit young for a teething toy, but believe it or not, one of his top right teeth is coming in. You can feel it along the gum. I was like, "WHAT?!" when I felt it last week, since the "average" age for a first tooth is six months. Jack didn't get his first tooth until seven months. After I got over my disbelief, I used it as an excuse to go shopping and get the cute trendy teething toy. Is there a problem that shopping can't solve? (Just kidding. Kind of.)

And here's Derek again, rocking out in the awesome onesie that Shelly and Shaun bought him.

Hmm, I had uploaded some pictures of Derek doing awesome at tummy time, but it appears Xanga didn't take them. Grr! Well, they're on my Facebook, for those of you who have friended me on there. Tomorrow I'll also add a cute video of Jack. Good night!

This weekend, we crossed what I like to think of as the Last Frontier with Jack: Potty training. Now, I know most of you are probably sick of the blow-by-blow I've posted on Facebook, but hey, it's my blog. Plus, I've received a couple of requests to talk about this in more detail (and as you know, parents of young children never tire of talking about pee and poop!).

Some of you may recall that we first started potty-training back in January, when Jack was 18 months old. We went to the potty every 10 or 15 minutes. Jack took pretty well to it, but started refusing the potty outright in February. He acted like he was afraid of it, so we didn't push it. And then we had Derek, and I could only bring myself to make halfhearted attempts toward potty training. Throughout these fits and starts, I'd heard about "three-day potty training" from mommy friends, like Liz and Shelly. Finally, I decided to buy the 3-Day Potty Training e-book. I paid something like $24 to download the book (for that price, you can also email the author with questions, which she answers within 24 hours). The author is a mom who's potty trained five boys and a number of foster children. I was intrigued and read through the book.

Basically, it's a cold-turkey approach whereby you throw away all the diapers (and Pull-Ups) and move straight into underwear. You spend three days tethered to your child, rushing him into the bathroom when he has an accident or "tells" you (through words and/or physical signs) that he needs to go. Unlike a lot of other methods, the only "readiness requirement" is that the child is at least 22 months of age. You're supposed to also keep the child just in underwear for naps and bedtime, completing daytime and sleep training at the same time.

Well, after I read the e-book, I was like, "OK, let's do this." I figured while we're lucky enough have my mom in the house with us, we might as well tackle it over a weekend. Otherwise, once she moves out, it would be even more difficult. During the three days, I wouldn't be able to run errands (you're to be at home all the time) or take my eye off Jack long enough to cook or do housework. Plus, even with Johnny's help, we do also have an infant to take care of. My thought was that I'd rather have three intense days of training, followed by maintenance, rather than weeks or months of sporadic training. So Johnny and I picked this weekend, bought 21 pairs of Sesame Street and Thomas undies, both read the book (it's only 20-some pages), and began this past Friday. (I should add that I "cheated" by using Pull-Ups during naptime and bedtime, though. I'm not about to mess with our sleep routine.)

Our potty trainee

Friday, we went through 15 pairs of underwear. By the end of the day, though, Jack was beginning to let us know when he needed to go by grabbing his crotch or saying "uh-oh." I was encouraged. Day two was depressing, though. We "only" went through seven pairs, but Jack didn't want to fully pee when he was on the potty, and would generally act like it was painful to pee. We even briefly suspected a urinary tract infection, but then realized that when he wet his Pull-Up while sleeping, he didn't wake up from it, so peeing wasn't painful. Also, on day two, the novelty had passed, so Johnny and I were just exhausted and frustrated. The book did say this was common, and that children may push the limits to see if they can get back into a diaper. It also said that many children don't get it until day 3. Well, yesterday was much better! We only had two accidents, both completely preventable, and Jack was letting us know about his need to go to the potty with actions (running toward the bathroom, crossing his legs, grabbing his crotch, etc.). He was also very motivated by his rewards -- small food items or stickers for pee, and Matchbox cars (or, in one great case, an Emily train) for poop. Last night, he even woke up at 3 a.m. to go pee so he could keep his "night-night underwear" (aka Pull-Up) dry. Today, we've only had one accident, and he woke up from his nap dry, then promptly peed in the potty. Success!

A funny potty training story: Whenever Jack isn't able to pee right away while on the potty, he looks down and says with great concern, "Oh, no! Bwoken penis!" It's hilarious. Anyway, while we're far from 100% reliability, of course, but now Jack knows where to go potty and is on his way to telling us every time. And we can stay in undies!

Another exciting event from the weekend ... Derek laughed for the first time! It was the cutest, softest little giggle as I sang a song to him. Here's a picture of my beautiful, smiley boy:

Thanks for reading!

Hi, everyone! Just wanted to quickly share three things:

As I was sitting on the couch just now, Jack walked over with a stuffed bear, lifted my up T-shirt, and demanded that I feed his bear. I held the bear against my chest, but Jack wasn't satisfied with this facsimile of breastfeeding. He poked at my bra and said the equivalent of "Open boobs! Open boobs!" in Mandarin. I started laughing, but when I didn't go on to "open boobs," Jack decided he should be more polite. He said, "Open boobs PWEASE." Oh, who can resist that? So then I did open boobs and feed the starving bear. However, apparently I didn't do a good enough job, because afterward, Jack burped the bear, lifted up his own shirt, and proceeded to breastfeed the bear himself. He did a great imitation of a cross-cradle hold, too. Unfortunately, afterward Jack did what he usually does to his bear after nursing it: He banged the bear's head repeatedly on the floor while saying, "Night-night bear!" It's what Johnny calls "breastfeeding the male way." I must get a vide of this sometime!

Second, I never posted about Derek's two-month appointment last Tuesday! Bad mommy. My baby is now 24 inches long (90th percentile) and 11 pounds, 6 ounces (60th percentile), so he's growing well. Still tall and slim. He also took his three shots well. He didn't cry for the first or second, just a few small wails for the third. He slept a lot the rest of the day but was otherwise fine. What a brave boy.

Finally, I'm so happy that the fall TV season has started. Johnny and I are watching:

90210
Glee
So You Think You Can Dance
Fringe
The Office
30 Rock
Grey's Anatomy
Family Guy
American Dad
Smallville (only because we've seen every episode and need to finish the series. We keep hoping it'll end, but it never does!)

So this is great and all, but Fringe, The Office and Grey's are on all at the same time on Thursday, and I think our DVR only records two shows at once! I didn't even mention that the SYTYCD results show is on Thursdays. We have to prioritize. First we decided we don't need to watch SYTYCD results -- we'll just find out from someone who's watched it. Second, we decided we can catch Grey's episodes online. Whew. What a problem, right?

OK, off to feed now ... Derek, not the bear!

This weekend was all about the wheels.

It started Friday afternoon, when Johnny came home with a stuffed car (Sally from Cars) that his boss wanted to give Jack. Jack was delighted with the "bwoo cah" and made it zoom around on the floor. He also loved that it was capable of "bouncing" and kept tossing it against the wall and saying "boing boing boing" when it hit the ground. And, he also honored my request to have the car dance. You can see it all in this video:

Then, yesterday, we took the boys to Travel Town. We first heard about it at the playground in our old neighborhood. It's in Griffith Park, right next door to the LA Zoo, and it's a free (!) train "museum." That sounds boring, but it's not. They have actual trains built in the 19th and early 20th centuries on display, and you can climb onto most of them, which is great for toddlers who want to walk on the tracks and touch actual trains. There's also a play room where kids can climb on toy trains and play at the train table (but, a word to the wise: You need to bring your own trains to play with at the train table). The only thing that costs money (besides food and souvenirs, of course) is the miniature train ride, but even that was reasonable at $2.50 apiece (infants ride for free). Jack loved every aspect of Travel Town. To say that he's obsessed with trains would be a major understatement. We met up with Milena and Marcus there, and Jack spent the whole time pontificating about trains to Marcus, pointing out the funnel, the tender, the wheels and the color of the trains. We got him a bulldozer train from the Thomas line named "Jack," and he played with it at the train table (and cried when we had to leave). He also adored the miniature train ride. You could tell he was really excited to ride a real train.

Jack and Johnny at Travel Town

Milena, Marcus, Jack and I (and Derek in the Bjorn) inside one of the trains

Jack and Marcus, who are actually wearing the same shorts. And, Marcus is Derek's birthday buddy -- same day, only two years apart!

See how Jack is pointing to the train? He was babbling to Marcus about it the whole time.

More lectures from Jack about trains

And still more pontificating. Poor Marcus.

Milena holds Derek while we wait for the miniature train.

All aboard!

Jack was elated to ride the train.

Family pic, but too bad Jack was crying and Derek was looking for a boob.

For those of you who are wondering, Jack gets all his train knowledge from the Thomas and Friends show, not from us! I'd say he's more of a train expert than Johnny or I will ever be.

We did do some non-wheels-related things this weekend. For instance, we all went to the library to sign up for library cards. Jack loves books, and although he has many books already, the library has way more (and for free, who can beat that?). Johnny and I also devour books at a frightening pace, and we have neither the budget nor the shelf space to keep buying them. Now that we go out less often, books are a great way to pass the time in the evening or when the kids are napping. So we all got cards. I checked out two books for myself and three Curious George ones for Jack.

Our little reader

Finally, I just want to share this really sweet picture that Johnny took of me and Derek yesterday morning, right after a feeding. (By the way, I love that Brest Friend pillow and would highly recommend it! I know the Boppy is popular, but I love the Brest Friend's flat surface.)

Here I am with my sweet boy

Thanks for reading!

This weekend, we took our first family vacation as a family of four. It wasn't anything elaborate ("getaway" would probably be a more appropriate term given how brief the trip was) -- just an overnight stay in San Diego, followed by a morning at the San Diego Zoo -- but we had a great time. After lunch on Saturday (which was also Derek's second month birthday!), we loaded the RAV4 and drove down to San Diego. About three-quarters of the way there, we stopped to visit our friend Millie (a well-timed stop, because I needed to nurse Derek, and it gave Jack a chance to play a bit after being cooped up in the car in bad traffic).

Millie and her daughter Jenna; me and Derek

After leaving Millie's house, we drove about another half hour and checked into our room at the Embassy Suites in the early evening. I've stayed at an Embassy Suites before, but it was pre-kids, and this time, I noticed that it's the perfect place to stay if you're traveling with young children. Each room is a suite, with a living room (with pullout bed) and a bedroom. Aside from the pullout bed, the living room had a TV, a dining table, a mini-fridge, a microwave and a sink. The bedroom had the bathroom, another sink outside the bathroom, a big bed, a balcony and another TV. I was impressed! The mini-fridge really comes in handy when traveling with kids, and all the sinks are nice for washing sippy cups without having to go into the bathroom. Of course, our favorite part was that Jack could sleep on the pullout bed in the living room, so Johnny and I could still watch TV and eat ice cream (Johnny bought a pint of Chunky Monkey from the corner store) in the bedroom part of the suite after the kids went to bed. Not much of a vacation if you have to go to bed at 8 p.m.! Everything went really well with the kids' sleep. Jack was excited to sleep on the pullout bed (he flopped on it right away when we made it up, exclaiming, "Night night! Chair gone! Night night!"), and Derek slept well in the crib we borrowed from the hotel, from 7 p.m. to almost 4 a.m. When he did wake up to eat, Jack slept through me feeding and changing Derek.

Jack and Johnny enjoying the suite

The view from our room

Sunday morning, after the complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the San Diego Zoo. We were there for about three hours. Jack loved seeing all the animals, and Derek pretty much slept through the entire outing -- I fed him once and changed his diaper, but otherwise we didn't hear a peep out of him! I was relieved ... it could have been a disastrous outing. The double jogging stroller came in really handy. We have the attachment that allowed us to snap the infant car seat on one side. I was afraid that bringing the huge stroller to the zoo would be obnoxious, but we saw no fewer than 20 identical jogging strollers, so whew. We didn't have another choice, anyway ... I hesitate to get a more compact double stroller, because I have a feeling that soon, Jack won't want to sit in a stroller at all, and I don't want to spend extra money when we have such a nice double jogger.

Anyway, back to the zoo! Sorry for the stroller-related tangent.

This was at the koala exhibit. In this picture, Jack is saying, "Koala!" at the top of his lungs.

Jack and I at the entrance of the Elephant Odyssey

Jack loves elephants, and he really loved seeing them up close. He laughed when they tossed dirt onto their backs with their trunks, and delighted in shouting, "Eh-phant!" and pointing out their eyes, ears, "noses" and toes to us.

Of course, he also loved this elephant.

"This is what we came to see, right?"

However, Jack did not want Johnny to lift him up close to this elephant statue's mouth. It was really funny ... he was so scared!

"No! No phant! No phant!"

After the elephants, we saw lions and pandas. The lions were sleeping.

Here Jack is saying, "Yi-on seepy." I'll translate: "The lion is sleeping."

After the zoo, we loaded the sleeping kids into the car and began the drive back to LA. We stopped by my colleague Susie's house on the way, where I nursed Derek, and Jack played with Susie's two kids. The traffic was light on the way home, and once we arrived, we got to hang out a bit with June and Charles, who were at our house after having lunch with my mom. Derek loved seeing his Aunt June. He couldn't stop smiling! He's been smiling for a couple of weeks now, but this was the first time we captured it on camera (well, June actually took the picture).

Our first picture of his smile!

Today, we mostly hung out around the house, just relaxing.

I love these pictures of Jack and Derek.

And here, Jack takes up the competitive sport of Daddy surfing.

The next picture makes me very nostalgic ... I remember taking almost the exact same picture with Jack! He was even wearing the same onesie!

Derek and Mommy

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!

We had a blast this past weekend!

Friday afternoon, we took Jack (and Derek) to Kid Concepts, this indoor play place just a mile or so down the road from us. It was a really hot day, so I think all the parents in our town had the same idea -- the place was packed! Jack played happily with the Thomas train table, the ball pit, the play kitchen, the swings, the slides ... he was all over the place. Derek ate and slept peacefully. Johnny and I sat and enjoyed the air conditioning. A win-win for everyone.  It was amazing to me to watch Jack running around like, well, like a regular human being, and to remember that only two years ago, he slept through outings in the same infant car seat that Derek uses now. Crazy!

Saturday, Donna, Scott, Madi and Joshua came to see us. We haven't gotten together in way too long. This was their first time at our house, and we all had a great time. Joshua is only five days older than Derek and is completely adorable (just like his parents ). We ate, chatted and just hung out.

Me and Donna

Joshua and Derek -- best friends already!

Derek looks like he's jealous of Joshua's monkey toy

Just chillin'

By the way, Derek's awesome "dress-up" shirt is courtesy of Amy and Han!

Sunday afternoon, we drove south to celebrate Victoria's birthday. Chris grilled up some yummy burgers, Jack and his cousin Maddy played together (well, more accurately, played next to each other), and Derek split the time between eating and sleeping. He did look around for a little while and seemed to really like being held by his Uncle Chris!

Looks like Maddy and Jack are talking to each other here. Jack is lucky to have a cousin who's only four months younger than he is ... they'll be great buddies when they get older!

Not a great picture, but I love how both kids are laughing

The cousins work out a strategy for playing with the balls

Johnny and Maddy

I swear I uploaded some adorable pictures of Chris holding Derek, but Xanga seems to have lost them! Grr.

We have a busy week ahead, too. Today is actually my first day "back" at work (which just means I'm sitting in the "office corner" of our den at home), so I'm a bit nervous. So far I don't have a project yet, but I'm sure that will change! Tomorrow afternoon, Jack starts the fall session at My Gym, so that will be a fun activity for the two of us to do together each week. And Thursday, I'm going to the first playgroup of a Meetup.com moms group that I joined. The other moms all have two-year-olds and new babies. Should be fun! Then, this Saturday, Johnny and I are taking Jack and Derek to spend the night in San Diego. We'll be staying in a suite with a bedroom and living room, and we're borrowing a crib from the hotel. Jack can sleep on the pull-out bed in the living room, and we'll set up Derek's crib in there, too. Bright and early on Sunday morning, we'll hit the San Diego Zoo right when it opens, and drive back up during Jack's mid-day nap. I know Jack will love the zoo, especially the Elephant Odyssey. It's not much, but it will be a manageable first family vacation with both children!

Oh, and this is neither here nor there, but I just have to share that last night, Derek slept for 11 hours straight! He went down at 7 p.m., and didn't wake up until 6 a.m. I was totally freaked out when I woke up (on my own, not by his cries) and looked over at the clock. I was convinced something had happened to him. Jack didn't sleep for that long until about 12 weeks old, and I already thought that was excellent (Derek turned 8 weeks old this past Sunday). Crazy! I'm sure there won't be a repeat performance for a while. He's been sleeping for eight hours pretty consistently, waking up to eat, and going to sleep again. I have a feeling he'll do that for a while longer before going back to 11 to 12 hours at a stretch. But still, I enjoyed my night of sleep! (The rock-hard boobs were not fun to wake up to, though!)

Anyway, now that I've babbled all about myself (well, it IS my blog!), what's everyone doing for Labor Day weekend?

To make up for my verbose entry from last week, I promise this one will be mostly pictures (and one video).

A while back, Shelly told me about Preschool Prepco videos: Meet the Letters, Meet the Shapes, Meet the Colors and Meet the Numbers. The videos have received rave reviews from everyone, it seems -- Entertainment Weekly, Parents magazine, and various and sundry pediatricians and child development experts. Although I don't believe in preparing for preschool (gotta leave the teachers something to do, right? ), I did need a break from Curious George, Thomas the Tank Engine, Kai-Lan or Mickey Mouse. So,  I ordered the DVD four-pack from Amazon a few weeks ago. The videos are awesome! They feature the letters, shapes, numbers and colors (depending on the DVD) as cute little characters in context-appropriate scenes, repeating their names over and over. Johnny likened it to Pokemon, but educational. So imagine the number 8 as a figure skater, skating a figure 8, while saying "eight" ad nauseum. What I also like is that for letters and colors, they show different variations on a theme. So they show "A" and also "a," as well as a sans serif lowercase "a." For colors, they'll show navy blue, sky blue, pastel blue.

After only a few days of watching these videos, Jack knows almost all of the letters, numbers, colors and shapes. Guys, we've been telling him about these concepts for months, playing with his letter magnets and pointing out colors and shapes in everyday life. These videos trumped all our efforts! Or maybe they were just the final push he needed. Anyway, it's so cool to see that a whole new world has opened up to Jack. He sees letters and shapes everywhere now. The other day, we were driving around, and I realized that Jack was spelling out "staples" because we were passing by a Staples store. How neat! To demonstrate this newfound skill, I took this video today. It's funny because Jack thinks I'm saying "smell" when I ask him to "spell," so he'll sniff before spelling each word.

OK, now here are those pictures I promised.

We keep trying to capture Derek's adorable smile and missing the moment!

These are his "thinking" pics (and the one on the right shows how long he is!)

Derek's making fun of me already (pic on left)

Jack doesn't want to miss out on the action

It's not fair -- I deal with the newborn in my arms and the toddler tugging at my skirt day and day out, while Johnny gets to share milkshakes with Jack!

That's all! Thanks for looking.

Some of you may have seen this on Facebook already, but I wanted to post this photo that June took last week.

Mommy's little helper

Yes, that's Jack, "feeding" Derek a bottle of pumped milk. I had gone to change Derek's diaper mid-feeding, and when I returned, I asked Jack to fetch me the half-drunk bottle from the dining table. He said, "OK!", grabbed it and proceeded to jam the nipple into Derek's mouth. He was very proud of himself! Jack's also been eager to assist in other ways. He's actually really good at throwing away Derek's dirty diapers. He'll say, "Ewwww" when I hand it to him (wrapped tightly closed, of course), but then run to throw it away. Every successful diaper discard ends with Jack giving himself a round of applause.

Jack Updates

In other Jack-related news, he's been extremely verbal lately. Still mostly two- to three-word simple sentences, but he's picking up words fast. Over the weekend, he brought one of his "baby's first words" books to Johnny, and proceeded to correctly name every object on one of the book's spreads. There was one word he didn't know ("trumpet"), and he pointed to the picture and asked Johnny, "What's that?" (It sounded more like "wassat?") Johnny said "trumpet," and Jack repeated it right away. Then he came and said, "Mommy, TRUMPET!" and proudly pointed to the picture of the trumpet in the book.

Aside from repeating new words, one of Jack's favorite pastimes is watching Thomas the Tank Engine. He knows all of the engine's names. Each episode features a segment where they put an engine's outline on the screen, and then fill it in with color, and identify the name of the engine. Well, as soon as the outline shows up, before the color's filled in, Jack is able to name it (even if he's never seen the episode before). It's so funny! Unfortunately, Jack's favorite engine is Percy, and he mispronounces it as "Pussy." I'd say we hear the phrase "pussy train" about 20 times a day in our house. It also makes for interesting trips to Target. If we ever go down the toothpaste aisle, and Jack sees the toddler toothpaste package, he'll start naming all the engines featured on the box very loudly. Of course, Percy is always prominently featured. Imagine pushing your toddler in a cart at Target while he says, "PUSSY! PUSSY!" I also have to mention that Percy's engine number is 6. Yeah, Jack's shouted "Pussy sex" at Target a number of times. Thanks, Thomas the Tank Engine!

It goes without saying that for all these fun developments, there are also some plenty of tear-your-hair-out moments. As much as Jack loves Derek, he's also (predictably) wanted lots more attention since his little brother came home. These days, tantrums are very frequent. It helps if we give Jack lots of advance warning about upcoming events (like, "We're going to have lunch now, and then it's night-night time"). There's also lots of whining, particularly after Jack wakes up in the morning and post-nap. If we ignore him, he can go on for close to an hour, no joke. Reading Jack a book calms him down, so we've been doing that. If he doesn't calm down, we'll usually do some version of a time out. It's hard because I can tell he wants to calm down, but he doesn't know how to regulate himself. Potty-training is also going nowhere. After a great start early this year, Jack refused to go on the potty for several months. Now, he either says "No" when he's near the potty, or, if he sits on it, he just wants to read. He'll sit there for a long time, but nothing comes of it. I know what I need is a) patience and b) to consistently take Jack to the potty very regularly throughout the day. With a newborn and an at-home part-time job, though, those things are exactly what I'm short on. For now we're taking a relaxed approach. When we have time, we go to the potty, and we talk about the potty often, but that's about it. I am just praying that Jack isn't the only kid who's not potty-trained by the time he goes to preschool!

Derek Updates

There's not as much to update on with Derek. He's doing well -- eating, pooping, sleeping, growing ... you know, newborn stuff!  He's starting to smile, which is really adorable. I need to get a picture of his smile. Actually, I need to take more pictures of him, period. It is amazing to me how much more time I had when Jack was a newborn. Of course, at the time, I felt like I had no time at all, but now I'm like, "So this is what 'no time' feels like!" From now on, I'll try to take at least a picture a day! Otherwise Derek's going to grow up and say, "Why are there 10 albums of Jack's first year, and only half an album of mine?"

Anyway, this past Sunday, Derek turned six weeks old. I can't wait for his two-month appointment to find out how much he's grown. He isn't a fussy baby at all, but he has this habit of wanting to eat every two hours during the day. It doesn't matter whether I nurse him or give him expressed milk -- no matter how much he eats, two hours later, he wants to eat again! I know I shouldn't compare the two kids, but looking back at the detailed eating/peeing/pooping charts I kept for Jack, I can see that at the same age, Jack was only eating five times a day, about once every four hours. (And no, I have no such charts for Derek ... no time!) Luckily, Derek doesn't do this at night. In fact, for the last week or two, he's been sleeping from 8 p.m. to about 2 a.m. (3 a.m. last night!) I'm hesitant to talk about it too much because I don't want to jinx myself. I'll just count myself lucky and take the once-every-two-hour daytime feedings in stride.

Other Stuff

My postpartum month has been up for a while, so I'm now "allowed" to go out and about! This past weekend, Johnny and I took both kids to the Farmers Market for lunch, and to the mall for some shopping. Derek slept through both outings, and Jack really enjoyed being out with everyone. I loved getting some fresh air, too! Saturday night, Johnny and I even went for dinner alone while my mom was home with the sleeping kiddos. We got some Korean noodles (yummy!) and then some milkshakes at Ruby's.

OK, now I'll finally answer the questions that you guys have asked me in the comments of my last few entries. Sorry it took so long!

What's it like to be a mom of two? Well, let me say this: After experiencing being a mom of two for these past six weeks, I can say I will definitely not be a mom of three. I love children, and I've always wanted to be a mom (and, Johnny and I have always been -- and still are -- certain that we didn't want to have an only child), but man, having two kids feels like having four! I'm sure part of it is the age difference -- at two, Jack is still in many ways a baby, but Derek is definitely a baby who needs hands-on attention. Even with my mom here, and even with Johnny here on evenings and weekends, I feel like I'm not giving as much attention as I want to either child. There are things I want to do with Jack that I can't do as easily with a newborn around, and I can't enjoy Derek's young infancy as much as I would otherwise with Jack running around, throwing tantrums.  Not to mention, a large chunk of "me time" for everyone in our household has gone out the window for now. So, the honest answer is that while I'm certain that fun times are ahead, being a mom of two has so far been exhausting and is stretching the limits of my patience (and, I often feel, my competence). While we're being frank here, I'll also say that I'm really not a huge fan of the newborn phase. I felt the same way with Jack, and I feel the same way now. I'd actually much rather take a rambunctious toddler than a newborn! At least the toddler is eating and sleeping predictably.

All that being said, I do realize that this is the last time I'll hold a new baby in my arms, so I'm enjoying my cuddle time with Derek when I can (while Jack is napping, and during Derek's early morning feeding). As always, I'm grateful to have two beautiful, healthy boys.

How's breastfeeding going? It's going well -- there's no pain, Derek has a good latch, I have a good supply. But, for whatever reason, I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. A lot of times I feel anxious or impatient when a nursing session goes on for a while, because I can't get up and tend to Jack or manage a tantrum while I'm nursing. Of course, my mom steps in, but then my thoughts inevitably wander to what would happen if I suddenly needed to do a work-related thing (I start part-timing from home again on September 1). A large part of me is also hung up on not knowing exactly how much Derek has eaten -- I think this comes from having bottlefed Jack. It seems as thought Derek has a tall, slim body type (at least so far) and doesn't look as plump as other babies his age. This then makes me think, "Is he getting enough to eat?" And, I know the answer is yes ... believe me, I have read so much on breastfeeding that I could probably be a lactation consultant's assistant or something.  I'm proud that I'm providing for Derek, and I enjoy the bonding time. I often think, gosh, if only I had been able to do this with Jack, when there wasn't any other child to distract me! So, anyway, it's going fine, but I'm really still not certain how long I'll keep doing it. My short-term goal is three months. We'll see!

C-section vs vaginal birth. Julie asked me about this one, and my response again is that both methods of birth are hard on the mom! Having done both, with the c-section having taken only half an hour, and vaginal birth taking 43 hours (!), I definitely feel like there is no easy way. Sure, the c-section is "painless" during the procedure, and takes a fraction of the time, but recovery (even a good recovery like I had with Jack) is killer. The vaginal birth had some emotional advantages for me -- I felt very in control, and I loved knowing that I pushed Derek out. The pain of the long labor was more than compensated for by the short recovery time. But, the feeling of being overwhelmed as a new parent is the same no matter which way you give birth! It just takes a while to recovery emotionally and physically from the 10 months of pregnancy and the delivery.

OK, that's all for now! Thanks for reading!