Phases

The kids go in and out of phase all the time and are fairly simple and easy to adjust to...like bringing a toy to bed with them or wanting to read the same book over and over for three straight days. But Timo is going through a phase that has become somewhat disruptive and downright...funny. It's the "I want to be naked all the time!" phase.

It started out with not wanting pants on...so if you'll notice, in a lot of our pictures and activities, he has no pants on.
Then it was only wanting to sleep in a diaper for naps...so I let a few naps slide...
Now, if giving the slightest window of opportunity with no clothes on, he will dash away from you and nearly need to be wrangled down to be dressed again! This was one night after bath he bolted away from me before I could grab his jammies. I found his scooting all over the house on his bike...
Luckily we've been having warm weather in SF...they were playing outside, in clothes, but Timo got sand all down his shirt and pants (thanks to his sister). I took off his clothes to brush him down and off he went! Once Cameron saw her brother streaking...she would settle for nothing less herself!
So far he's only wanted to be naked at home...let's hope he gets out of this phase soon before it spreads to wanting to be running around au naturel on the playground!

This is totally going in their senior year Yearbook!

AZ's wedding and Baby Josiah

About 4 weeks ago our best friends, Daryl and Mindy, came to visit with their 5mo old little baby, Josiah. The reason for their visit was our dear friend's wedding, Annelies. Mindy, Annelies and I used to be in an accountability group that met every Sunday morning before church. It was such a wonderful time of getting together, sharing and praying for each other....way back when we were all single!
It was Annelise's turn to walk down the isles, and just as she had been there for us on our special days, we were there for her. It was a pleasure to see her and Nathan share their vows and make the marriage commitment. I was honored to make her wedding cake and Mindy was an amazing wedding coordinator. They had such a beautiful wedding in a sweet little church in SF...and I love that she wanted all the kids there! Check out my cake and some of the trouble makers....(Olivia, Timothy and Cameron)

The other big even that weekend was having baby Josiah in our house. The twins absolutely LOVED him! They had to be everywhere he was and tried to help out where they could...from sharing their toys to rocking him to sleep...(we even pulled the kids exasaucer out of storage)

rocking Josiah from Sara ko on Vimeo.

We also celebrated Daryl's birthday...a little celebration for him..
We even babysat Josiah one evening to give Daryl and Mindy a date night and Young got a good refresher course of not holding a just fed baby up in the air...Josiah spit up all over him! Timo wasn't sure what to make of the that...he got a little scared...
It was so fun to see our friends and meet Josiah. It was also great to give a ton of the kids baby toys and clothes away! I told Mindy to bring an extra suitcase to fill up and that's exactly what they did! How sweet to know Josiah will be wearing the same clothes that Timothy wore. Yeah!

Just Being Timothy

Typically I work on the computer and make all my phone calls while the kids are napping and usually have it all done and put away by the time they get up. Well, the other day I wasn't quite done when Timo came out of his room from napping. He took one look at my activities, headed back to his room and came out with his computer and phone...set up shop next to me and started "working like Mommy." Then we went back and got his rolling suitcase to be "just like Daddy does". I think my little boy is going to strongly influenced by the world around him...

Farewell To Olivia!

Our dear friends, Stacey and Elijah Tafoe just moved from San Fran to her home town in Tennessee. They have a daughter, Olivia, who is just 5 weeks older than the twins so they are all best buddies. For the past 2 1/2 years there have been four toddlers, Caleb, Olivia, Cameron and Timo, all the same age that play together at church, meet for play dates and celebrate birthdays together...so we took a day last week to have a final play date with them all, one last time. We chose Coyote Point in San Mateo!
Cameron, Timo and Olivia started out with the air tubes and then fog machine...trying to figure out how it worked...
All four of them pulled every bottle of colored water out of the color spectrum wall and put every bottle back...great job cleaning up guys!
Timo working on getting all his gears to move together...he's such a mechanics boy!

Lunchtime! The moms have learned by now, if you bring something fun to eat for your child, you need to bring extra for all the other kids too or it just gets ugly. So we had plenty of string cheese, yogurt tubes and fruit leather to go round! (and a special Thank You to Ana, Caleb's mom, for bringing lunch for the ladies...I always forget to pack lunch for me!)

After lunch we went to see all the animals...waiting for the coyote to make an appearence but he seemed to be busy napping.

Timo and Cameron have learned about echoes from watching Dora, which they were more than happy to explain and demonstrate in the little cave. I tried to take a video but it was so crazy with all the kids yelling and running in and out of the cave. I was lucky to get one pic of them all somewhat standing still.

Here they all are in the bird viewing area. It took a lot to get this one picture! (the little boy is Evan, Caleb's little brother)
Looking over one bridge at the waterfall and on another, watching the Keeper feed the turtles. I just have to give extra props to Olivia's mom, Stacey...she was there with her 3 week old new born son, Isaiah. See her in the second pic with Isaiah in the sling...I forget how small babies are!

They all were memorized by the feeding of the baby mountain lions...these two were found hurt in the wild and brought to the center to be cared for and they are now dependent on man for food...they were being fed dead rats and other small rodents--ick! I don't think the kids knew what was being thrown to the lions but us mom's did and we had to stand back!
Cameron was totally into the otters and fish...she was actually trying to talk to them through the glass and I think she thought they understood her!
I wanted to get one last photo of everyone saying goodbye but the light sprinkles we were having turned into a down pour in a matter of minuets...so we all took off running to our cars. But here is an outtake of the kiddies!
Bye Bye Olivia...we love you and we'll miss growing up with you!! But we know your Mommy and Daddy are walking in God's plan for your life and we pray for you, your Mommy and Daddy and your baby brother every night! We can't wait to see you this summer in Dollywood!

Lovely Birthday

This past Tuesday (November 2) was my birthday and what a lovely birthday it was. There were several events that were supposed to happen, like a surprise birthday lunch with in Napa...but sickness, passing of a good friend and soccer games kept my friends from attending. Young then tried to move it to Tuesday night but it was election night and most were going to vote after work and would have made it too late. Young and I also had made dinner plans a while back at a nice restaurant but a little thing called the World Series changed those plans..

So we had a quiet little celebration at home with take-out and cupcakes...and it couldn't have been better. The kids know all about the birthday rituals now and were super excited since it was "Mommy's Birthday" I was overwhelmed with emotion as they sang "Happy Birthday" to me...they knew all the words!

Untitled from Sara ko on Vimeo.

And of course, eating the cupcakes is the best part!

Just Being Cameron

Tried to dress her up for church last Sunday but she insisted on wearing her sneakers...a little girl after my own heart!

Thanks Granny and Grandpa!

Granny and Grandpa sent the kids some special gifts for doing so well at potty training...(mailed before Timo had his backsliding episode). But nontheless, they got new big girl and big boy underware and two piece jammies...it takes forever to get them out of one piece footie jammies to go pee pee!

Thank you Granny and Granpa!! We love them!!

Trick or Treat 2010!

As most of you know, I'm not a big fan of Halloween...but for the first time, in a very long time, I can say "what an amazing Halloween we had!" I'm not really sure why it was so great...we just went trick or treating with the kids but it was their FIRST trick or treating...so that makes is kinda special.

We were a Giant's baseball player (decided that long before the Giant's made it to the World Series so it made it that much more fun!) and a Unicorn. The kids haven't been napping very well these days but on Halloween I told them no trick or treating unless they took a nap...they were sound a sleep in 10mins! Once they work up we dressed them and headed out.
We went to a neighborhood close to our house to meet some of our friends...Lucia, Caleb, Evan, and Olivia...or rather a rhino, construction worker, a bumble bee and Minnie Mouse.
I absolutely LOVED seeing all the kids bound up the step, knock on the door and yell "trick or treat!" At the first house they were a little shy and needed Mommy and Daddy close...but by the 3rd house, Timo was leading the pack. How quickly they all caught on. And Lucia and Cameron insisted on holding hands the whole time...so cute!

Untitled from Sara ko on Vimeo.

Halloween also fell on the 4th game of the World Series so the City was alive with team spirit! The game happen to be on while we were out, so as the neighbors were putting candy in the kids buckets...we were asking them the score...
We only made a block and a half before we were tired out! Who knew trick or treating was so tiring?? Luckily there was taco truck parked in the hood for a little snack while the kids collected more candy...
Then we were off for another special treat...Caleb's birthday party! It was one of the most mellow kids party I've been to, even with all the candy that was being eaten...I think the trick or treating tired everyone out!
All in all it was a great night. I can't believe how much candy we...I mean, the kids got! Some houses were handing out full sized candy bars!! Too bad Timo isn't much of a candy eater...looks like Mommy will have to help him out...