Hi, everyone! Sorry I’ve been neglecting Xanga a bit. Now that spring is here, it feels like every weekend is filled with fun activities. Between the boys, home stuff, part-time work and weekend plans, it’s hard to find time to blog, but my goal is to do at least an entry a week. It’s fun to have old entries to look back on.

Friday night, after the boys were in bed, I went for a girls’ night out with Milena. We were supposed to go to a few places, but ended up not wanting to spend the cab fare (we met up at her place, then called a cab so that no one had to be the designated driver. Neither of us are big drinkers, but better safe than sorry), so we just stayed at the first place we went to, a club called Industry (used to be called Area). I’d love to read a book on the club business and the tactics they use to make a club look exclusive. We arrived at 10:15 p.m., thinking the club would be open, but they weren’t open until 10:30, so we waited in line for 15 minutes. When they did open, some guy (who worked at the club) came down the line and selected only a few girls to go in (Milena and I got to go in). I couldn’t tell what criteria he was using; it was probably just random. Once we were in, we grabbed a drink, and it wasn’t until an hour later that the bouncers at the door started letting more people in. We heard from people who came in at that time that the line was around the corner, and people speculated that the club must be hopping on the inside while they were waiting. In reality, nothing was happening inside; we were just waiting for more people to show up so we could get on the dance floor. So funny. Anyway, the DJ was good so we danced until closing time.

The bartender took this for us before the club got crowded

I was wearing a really cute miniskirt; unfortunately, when I arrived at Milena’s place before we went out, her 130-pound bull mastiff jumped up in excitement to greet me, and ran her paws all the way down my bare legs. It was a friendly gesture, but usually I’m wearing pants or bermudas when I run into Mona (the dog). Have you ever had an animal who outweighs you run its nails down your bare legs? It is not fun. Her nails weren’t exactly short, either, so I had these bloody scratches down my right leg (my left one wasn’t too bad). My skin is sensitive, so immediately the scratches swelled up. Milena didn’t have any rubbing alcohol, so we cleaned out the scratches with soap and lots of water, then I put two packs of frozen peas on them (that’s how many we needed to cover the length of the scratches), and then put lotion all over the area. That was the best we could do! It was a lot better after that, and now the scratches have almost disappeared, but I do have two huge bruises from where she initially landed on me. OUCH! I am dog lover, for sure, but I was a little irritated. This is exactly why we taught Atari not to jump on people. Well, and Atari’s only 30 pounds, not 130. Mona’s a good dog, though. She’s really gentle around Marcus (same age as Jack). Anyway, thank goodness clubs are dark; otherwise, I would have looked really strange.

Saturday night, after the boys went to sleep, Johnny and I met up with Karthika, Peter, Courtney and Brendan for dinner at Cafe Santorini, a rooftop Mediterranean restaurant in Pasadena. The service was crappy, but the food was excellent, and the company was great, of course.

The ladies

I love this picture of me and Johnny

Then, we just enjoyed a lazy Sunday and didn’t do much. Somehow it’s Monday already, boo! I hope everyone had great weekends, too.

People often ask me if Jack and Derek have different personalities, and the answer is a resounding yes. Obviously, Derek’s personality isn’t as formed as Jack’s is, but already you can tell that they have fundamentally different temperaments. They’re both happy children, but Jack is loud and wants to be the center of attention, while Derek is more reserved. He expresses his happiness by smiling and wriggling and all that, but it’s hard to get him to giggle, even when he’s obviously delighted by something. He’s also very polite in expressing his displeasure.

But, why explain this in words, when you guys can see for yourselves? This picture illustrates what I’m trying to say perfectly:

Notice how Jack’s got the crazy hat and big grin on his face, and is trying to ride Derek, who just looks a little concerned.

There’s also this hilarious video to illuminate the difference in personalities (make sure you have your volume on):

We’ll see how this pans out as they get older!

Derek turned nine months old this past Monday. Wow! We had his well-check yesterday, and he measured in at:

Weight: 19 lbs, 6 oz (90th percentile)
Length: 30.5 inches (almost 90th percentile)

By comparison, at this age, Jack was a pound heavier, but an inch shorter. The pediatrician (a different one than our usual doctor, who was on vacation) asked if Johnny was really big, given Derek’s size. I said no, he’s 5’10″ and about 175 pounds. She shrugged and said, “Well, whatever you’re doing, keep it up because he’s growing really well!” But you never know — babies really slow down in their growth after the first year, anyway. Jack grew like a week and was always in the 75th to 90th percentiles, but nowadays he’s just 40th percentile in weight, and 60th in height. We’ll see!

Anyway, Derek’s doing really well. He’s army crawling and dragging his stomach on the ground when he moves, so we’re waiting for “true” crawling to happen any day now. My mom jokes that we should attach a Swiffer cloth to Derek’s belly and just have him clean the floors. Ha! He’s also very smiley, and he can sometimes wave on command. I really do love the 9- to 12-month age range. Babies are so easily delighted by everything during these months, they’re sleeping well (usually), they’ll eat anything you put into their mouths (Derek’s happy to eat everything I puree for him) and they haven’t yet learned to say “no.”

Speaking of saying no, Jack is the master. It gets really frustrating sometimes to hear “No, no, no” as a reply to everything, even when he means yes. I know it’s just a phase. We’re trying hard to be consistent and to give him realistic choices between two options where appropriate, so he feels in control. I can see that Jack’s struggling with his growing independence, too, in the way he shifts between being his usual sweet self and being The Terror From Toddler Hell. He’s slowly learning that words can hurt people’s feelings, and what the appropriate responses are when he’s feeling bad. But, frustrating moments aside, Jack’s still making us laugh and doing some pretty delightful things. These days he’s very into learning, and he’s always asking what something is (“What’s after twenty-nine?” “What’s this called?”, etc.). We also recently watched his first movie with him — we put on Toy Story after Derek went to bed one night, snuggled on the couch and ate popcorn. He was a little scared by the scenes in Sid’s room, but he paid attention throughout and seemed to get the plotline. Another plus is that Jack is really good about telling us when he needs to go pee now. He’s been good on the #2 for a while, but the pee was a bit unreliable. Now, he’ll tell us almost every time, instead of us having to remind him. He’s extremely reliable on outings, so I no longer worry when we’re at the grocery store or the mall. Yay!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures. They’re mostly from Easter brunch at Chris and Victoria’s house. A bunch of you have probably seen them on Facebook already, but I know there are those of you on here who haven’t added me on Facebook (and why not? You should! ), so here goes.

I baked some mini cheesecake cupcakes that I decorated with chocolate eggs and colored sugar

Maddy had this little gun that shoots out bubbles. She and Jack had fun with it. Look at Jack’s stealth expression on that second photo!

Victoria and I in the yard; the Easter brunch table setup and the kids’ Easter baskets

Derek’s too young for a basket, so we just got him an Easter bib and called it a day

Cute cousins!

Chris hid plastic eggs filled with little crackers around the yard, and Maddy and Jack had so much fun hunting for them!

Derek was delighted just to witness the festivities

We tried unsuccessfully to get a group kids shot, but the attempts were pretty cute anyway

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

We took our first family beach outing of the year yesterday. It was a gorgeous day. Temperatures were near 80 degrees, and the sky was clear. The beach was crowded! We had such a fun time. It was also our first time to the beach as a family of four. Derek experienced sand for the first time, and Jack, as predicted, had the time of his life. That boy loves the water and has none of his usual cautiousness around it. Here are some of the pics we took.

Jack playing with June’s old sand toys. My favorite is the classic Smurfs bucket.

Derek’s first time on the beach

Enjoying a Baby Mum-Mum

Jack and some serious sand play

Derek was more stationary, of course, but he also had a good time

A yummy shovel

Baby feet!

I loved witnessing Derek’s reaction to sand. He delighted in just rubbing it between his fingers.

Look! A kite!

Johnny and I took turns taking Jack to play in the waves. He dove right in, as you can see in this video:

And some more water pics:

The boys were definitely tuckered out by our afternoon! Just wanted to share this adorable picture of Derek after his clean-up bath:

Look at his expression!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I just wanted to pop in real quick to wish everyone a happy St. Patrick’s Day. The boys and I are all wearing our festive T-shirts (thanks, Target!), so I took a few pictures. Enjoy!

Happy baby!

Jack’s saying “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” to Derek

Showing off their shirts

Mine has watercolor shamrocks on it

That’s all! Hope everyone is having a great day.

A bunch of moms on my July 2009 birth board have raved about how much their babies love Baby Mum-Mums (oblong-shaped organic melt-in-your-mouth rice crackers), so I headed to Babies R Us yesterday to buy some for Derek. He can’t feed himself much yet, but he’s been enjoying Cheerios as a finger food, and I wanted to give him some variety. (Soon we can also do peas and blueberries and other table foods, but I’d rather wait until he has a better pincer grasp and at least one more tooth.) When we got there, I saw that there was a special — two boxes for $6, which isn’t cheap, but is 50 cents a box cheaper than the normal price. There were also Toddler Mum-Mums, and when Jack saw the “big boy” photographed on the box, he clamored for some. I figured, why not, given the promotion.

So we got home, and the verdict is that both boys love Mum-Mums! I tried some, and they’re just like the rice crackers you can pick up in any Japanese or Korean market, but without flavor (or soy sauce) for the baby ones. Jack’s were strawberry-flavored and were pretty darn delicious. Anyway, Derek especially liked his, and it was so fun to watch him pick up a big biscuit and eat it all himself! He ate two of them in less than 10 minutes.

Here he is, gnawing on the last of the first biscuit. The second one is in camouflage on his tray, ha

It was neat for both boys to be snacking at the same time, and for Derek to be doing it independently. I highly recommend this product!

So, Derek has developed this adorable habit of scrunching up his face when he’s really delighted by something. Check out these pics!

So funny! OK, that’s all for now. Gotta get myself dressed so I can do preschool drop off in a bit.

On Saturday, Derek and I joined Donna, Scott and Joshua at Madi’s birthday lunch. (Johnny and Jack would have come, too, but they were at Dad’s Day at Jack’s preschool.) Madi and her friends ate at one table, and Donna, Scott and I settled into a nearby booth, with the babies — born only five days apart! — sitting next to each other in high chairs. So cute! Unfortunately, they didn’t want to look at the camera at the same time.

We’d like to ignore each other, please

Luckily, both babies were on their best behavior and sat nicely through the meal, so that we adults could stuff our faces with pizza and wings. Mmm-mmm. I did get two adorable pictures of Joshua.

Look how cute he is! I can’t decide if he looks more like Donna or Scott

Joshua giggled delightedly whenever Donna got close to him

Such a fun outing! For a lunch out with five 11-year-olds and two babies, I think it went spectacularly well.

When I returned home, I found out that Jack and Johnny had had a great day at school. Many families showed up with both parents (it’s Dad’s Day, but technically it’s Working Parents Day). I can’t wait until both boys are in preschool, and we can go as a family. Anyway, after Jack eagerly told me about his day, we had a little “fashion show” with one of Johnny’s castoff work shirts.

Jack kept saying, “It’s too big! It’s too big!” while laughing

And, here’s an adorable one of Jack and Atari having fun together.

Finally, here’s an awesome one of Derek, who’s delighted to be holding a sippy cup.

That’s all! Thanks for looking. 

Derek’s getting ready to crawl. He’s been creeping and rolling all over the place, but this weekend, he got on all fours for the first time (and even rocked back and forth for about two seconds). Johnny managed to get a couple of pictures, which I thought looked like baby yoga poses.

Derek says: “I’m going to open up a yoga studio here at home!”

Also, a picture to show off his ridiculously long eyelashes. I’m more than a little jealous of them.

While we’re at it, I’ll also share this picture of Derek chilling out in his high chair.

Bring on the grub!

And those were probably the only moments when Derek was happy this weekend. Unfortunately, cutting his first tooth has caused him a lot of pain. It’s popped through now, so things should get better, but all weekend, Derek had a low fever and was irritable. The fever went away the day the tooth came through, but man, we certainly heard a lot of whining from our poor baby! Luckily, we had plenty of fun activities to distract us.

Friday night after the boys were in bed, I met up with Wa and Yue, who was visiting from San Francisco. We’ve all been reading each other’s Xanga pages for what, four or five years now? The first time we met in person was almost exactly three years ago, when I was pregnant with Jack. Yue and I saw each other when Jack was a few months old, and last winter, Wa and I had lunch when we were both in Taiwan at the same time. Anyway, this was the first time that Wa has seen me when I haven’t been pregnant! How crazy is that? Now she has a baby of her own. Anyway, it’s always great to see the girls (and Yue’s friend Mike, who got her from the airport).

Here we are! That’s Wa in green and Yue next to Mike

Outside, we took one regular and one goofy pic

Saturday morning, our friends Rina and Adam came for a playdate with their daughters (one is two years old; the other is five months). Jack had some issues with sharing, but we adults had a great time! Saturday evening, our occasional sitter came to watch the boys (well, Derek was in bed already, so technically I guess she didn’t see him!) while Johnny and I went on a fun double date with one of his friends from work (and the friend’s fiancee). We had a yummy dinner and then went to Ugo in Culver City for a wine tasting. Fun stuff.

Yesterday, Milena came over with Marcus for a playdate in the morning, then we took it easy for a few hours. When Jack got up from his nap, we took him to get his haircut at the mall, and like we usually do, ate at Ruby’s. Promising a hot dog, milk shake and fries was practically the only way to keep Jack semi-calm during the haircut. Sigh.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Johnny and I attended our first parent-teacher conference at Jack’s preschool this morning. It was so fun! We met with his preschool teacher in her office for 15 minutes. Since he’s only there two mornings a week (plus, he’s only two and a half!), it was low key. Still, we found what she had to say to be very interesting and informative.

The three-hour preschool morning is divided into two parts. The first is spent outside, where the kids can play on play structures, do painting and experiment with play dough and/or feed the chickens. There’s also an area where kids can read or put big puzzles together if they want a more quiet activity while they’re outside. Snack is also served outside (the kids wash their hands before they eat). Then they come inside for the second part of the morning. Jack’s teacher reported that when he’s inside, Jack is almost always playing with cars, trains or anything with wheels that he can push and manipulate or he’s reading. She says he can spend half an hour, if you don’t try to engage him in something else, just looking through books and talking about what’s on the pages. He’s not as into the art tables. They’re encouraging him to do more of that, and she says he’ll get there eventually, but right now he’s into the wheeled toys and books, and at Jack’s school, they guide kids toward exploring new things, but they don’t push. I agree with that. It wasn’t surprising to me that those are Jack’s favorite indoor activities. She says that when outside, he likes to play with the big trucks that dump out sand, and he’ll also partake in painting. He also frequently looks at books when outside.

Jack’s apparently good at following instructions. His teacher said that before snack time, when she instructs the kids to clean up and then wash their hands, Jack always follows the directions and joins everyone for snack time (of course he does; there’s food involved!). She says he also fully participates in singing and games in the classroom, and cooperates when it’s time to sit in a circle on the rug. She was impressed with his direction-following, so that’s good. And, a big surprise: At school, Jack will go to the potty by himself, undress himself without assistance, sit down, do his business, get dressed and wash his hands without help! Sometimes he’ll ask for help, but his teacher said most of the time he prefers to do it himself. Now, granted, his classroom has a child-sized potty and sink that he can reach without standing on something, but at home, he won’t take off his own pants! He insists on doing everything else himself at home, but in potty-related tasks, he definitely asks for our help. I don’t mind giving it to him at all, but imagine my surprise to hear that he does all potty-related things himself at school. Must be from watching the other kids do it!

Another surprise was that Jack is on the quieter side at school. His teacher says that he talks plenty, but he doesn’t babble all the time as he does at home, and he’s also not one of those kids who shouts across the classroom (I’m happy about that). She also reports that Jack is very observant — he’ll see a bunch of kids doing something on the playground, observe first, and then decide if he wants to join in. He’s social, but he will opt for another activity if he deems one to be too “dangerous.” That didn’t surprise me — Jack’s always been very curious, but he’s physically cautious and has always been. We babyproofed our home and bolted all our bookcases to the walls when he started crawling, but we didn’t really need to — he never tried to reach for dangerous items, or if he did, one rebuke was enough to keep him from doing it again. Anyway, maybe this will translate into him not participating in as many reckless activities as he grows up — I certainly hope so! Finally, his teacher said that Jack is thoroughly enjoying school and often has a big smile on his face throughout the morning.

So, it sounds like Jack is doing very well! I’m proud of him for following directions so well and participating in classroom activities, and I’m happy that his teacher is creating an environment in which Jack can thrive. This summer, we’ll be spending a month at the cottage in Michigan (Johnny will fly back home for a couple of weeks since he has to work), where Jack can participate in swimming and tennis lessons to develop his physical skills.

Speaking of physical skills, we’ve settled into a nice morning routine here at home, on the days that Jack doesn’t go to school. Now that Derek can ride in the double jogger while I’m running, I’ve been taking the boys out for a run around 8:30 a.m. I usually do two miles, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s quite a workout when I’m pushing a 70-pound weight (stroller + two boys) in front of me, and the route is partially uphill. Whew! Granted, the double Bob is extremely easy to push, but it’s still a nice workout for my arms. I’m so grateful for that stroller — it makes it possible for me to exercise during the day now, freeing up a chunk of my evening! Anyway, we run, then when I get back, Jack has his morning snack and watches a TV show while I put Derek down for a nap. While he’s napping (and Jack’s finishing his show), I can take a quick (emphasis on quick) shower. Yay! I can join the land of the living and stop looking like a greaseball during the day!

OK. The boys are both napping, so I’d better hop off Xanga and do some work. Ciao!

There, that made you want to read this entry, didn’t it?

This past weekend was jam-packed but fun. Our friend Christina drove down from San Luis Obispo on Friday to spend a couple of days with us. She works with kids (up to age 3) who have developmental delays, so she brought some really awesome toys for the boys to play with during her visit. Plus Christina’s a natural with children anyway, so Jack and Derek took to her right away. We were all sad to see her leave on Sunday!

Among other things, Christina brought this expanding and collapsing ball. When it’s collapsed, it’s just the size of a regular ball. When it expands, it’s big enough to fit Jack into!

Derek loved Auntie Stina, too

Saturday night, Zach and Sandi came over. We decided to try out this tabletop teppanyaki grill that my Uncle Scott had given us years ago, but that we’d never found an occasion to use. Christina and I went shopping at the Korean market on Saturday morning and got marinated chicken breasts and thinly sliced beef, along with some veggies. We picked up some frozen beef, pork and veggie dumplings at the Korean noodle house we went to for lunch. So for dinner, we set out the raw meat, parboiled corn and mushrooms, and green peppers to grill. I made white rice and boiled up the dumplings as side dishes, and also set out dipping sauces in ramekins. Johnny had bought some beer, and Zach and Sandi brought over some wine.

The setup

I was a little nervous about how it would turn out — what if the meats grilled really slowly and everyone was hungry while waiting for their food to cook? — but it was really awesome! The grill had a wide range of temperature settings, and everything cooked up really well. The beef took only a few minutes, and the chicken just a bit longer than that. It had already been pounded thin, and once I put the lid over the grill, it cooked even more quickly. Everyone speared some veggies to cook alongside the meats, too. It was really fun. The only downside was that it resulted in a lot of smoke! We turned on the hood over our stove and opened all the windows, and that helped some. Next time we’ll also set up some fans around the table to blow the smoke away. So, anyway, now that we know this works, future guests to the O’Neal residence can expect to have a meal grilled tableside (thanks to Christina, Zach and Sandi for being our guinea pigs!).

After dinner and dessert, we moved into the playroom (which is the farthest from the sleeping boys’ rooms) to hang out. I’m not sure how this started, but Johnny and Zach decided to play Twister on the alphabet/numbers mat. Christina was able to look up “rolls” online. It resulted in some … funny positions. Here’s the only semi-appropriate one I can post:

Next, we moved on to playing with the expanding ball that Christina brought. Zach thought it would be fun to put it on his head and take a “jumping photo.” So he put it over his head (it kind of just surrounded his face), jumped and this is what happened:

The ball expanded!

This caught all of us — including Zach — by surprise, and I almost peed in my pants because I was laughing so hard. If you click on the picture above, you can see the hilarious expression on Zach’s face. Once we found out that the jumping motion caused the ball to expand, we all had to take turns jumping with it.

Johnny and Christina’s jumps

A more successful attempt by Zach, and my own jump (after several failed tries)

Sandi did not jump with the ball over her head, but she did do a really cool kung-fu jump.

And of course, I have to show you several outtakes from my attempts at this (I’ve mentioned before that I’m severely lacking in physical coordination, right?):

It took me a while just to figure out how to go about the business of jumping

The first try ended up in me flat on my back on the floor; the second attempt was OK, but Johnny’s photography made it look like I had no legs! (All the good photos of the jumps are courtesy of Zach and Sandi’s superior photography skills)

And finally, we put Zach and Johnny’s heads into the ball:

We should have asked them to jump together!

What a fun evening! Now you know what parents do once kids are asleep.

Sunday morning, Chris, Victoria and Maddy came over for brunch. It was great to see them and to hang out for a bit. In all our bustling around, I forgot to take pictures that morning. Boo. But, I do have some random pics of the boys to share. Here goes.

Every afternoon, Derek and I go get Jack when he wakes up from his nap, and both boys love to cuddle together on Jack’s bed before we go about our business

Derek’s hair is growing in fast! His head is already covered with short black fuzz. And he’s full of smiles these days. Look!

We’re taking it easy this week to rest up for another busy weekend. Late Friday night, I’ll be meeting up with fellow Xangans Wa and Yue for drinks. Saturday morning, we have a playdate with a family who used to live in our old neighborhood, and Saturday night we’re going on a double date with one of Johnny’s work friends and his fiancee. Sunday morning, Milena and Marcus are coming over for a playdate, and then we’ll be heading to Home Depot to buy some new sprinkler valves (glam, I know). This week I’ll just be catching up on work (and trying to hold down the fort and keep the boys fed, of course). Hope everyone’s having a good week!