The Joys of the Game Industry and other things

Late hours have now arrived for Jamie. I'm glad that he was able to hold off on working like a dog until now so that me and Kian could have more time to spend with him. Right now Jamie is working on the weekends and very, very late during the week. Last night he didn't get home until after midnight and was back at work at his regular time in the morning. Luckily both he and Kian were up earlier than normal so they were able to spend some time together.

I'm also having some problems getting around. I had a sizable cluster of warts treated last week. The treatment has caused the whole bottom of my big toe to be pretty much a huge blister...it's pretty painful to walk...luckily the other pains subsided after the first day or so. Unfortunately for Kian this means not going to the park and that I am limited playing with him even on our back patio. Sitting on the ground is painful on my foot for some reason.....we are making the best of what we can though....but it is tough. I will be going back for another treatment next week :P Not looking forward to that but it's necessary!

We are a little under 2 months away from our trip to Disneyland! Right now that is what my eyes are focused on - having Jamie with us for the full week and hopefully by then my warts will be all gone and I won't need anymore treatments.

Random Happenings

The Simpson's Game

Below is a link to the official website of the game that Jamie is working on. Right now he's working some crazy hours - comes with the territory of the job. Anyway, give it a look! :)



I've Been Inked

Yep, it's true! July 1st I went and got a tattoo that I have been wanting for a long time. It is a Claddagh. It's an ancient Irish symbol that I have loved pretty much forever. It means Friendship, Loyalty and Love. It's on the inside of my left leg, right above my ankle. Here is a photo:



Weird Weather

We have been having some strange weather for our part of the country. We got rain earlier this week! Yes, rain! Craziness! We don't get rain but only in the winter...it's kinda like Wisconsin getting snow in July!

We have been enjoying the cooler weather though. We been able to turn the AC off and have the windows open for most the day. Honestly, this time last year we couldn't go outside because it was TOO HOT and the AC would run without turning off once all day long.

This weekend things are supposed to be back to normal with temps in the 90s. that means early morning play times again. But that's ok with us! Comes with the territory of living in Cali :)

Busy, Busy, Busy....

Jamie is in the thick of his project right now. He's planned on coming home at his normal time on Tuesday and Thursdays. Kian has really been missing his daddy a lot and has enjoyed having him around on the weekends. We are hoping that we continue to get him on the weekends for sure though the summer - Jamie has been on call for the last few weekends and **knock on wood** has not had to go in. For now, we are trying to make the most out of family time weather it's 5-10 mins in the mornings or a full day on the weekends.

Big Boy Update

We officially have a big boy in the house!!!

We have been working on potty training for the last month or so. Kian is doing VERY well. We are down to virtually no accidents and he wears underwear all day (minus when he's napping or sleeping).

He has also been sleeping in a toddler bed for the last week or two. His crib converts to a toddler bed and he's been sleeping in there and doing VERY well.

Kian's also becoming more independent with doing things on his own and even asserting his desires more often. He certainly is becoming a little man more and more every day.

Family Photos, Kian's 3 Year Photos, Father's Day, and Ratatouille

PHEW! I just realized today that I haven't been updating my blog! Bare with me because there is quite a bit to catch up on ;)

Family Photos and Kian's 3 Year Photos
First of all, a few weeks ago we had our family photo taken for the first time! We also had Kian's 3 year photos taken. Here are some of the photos:












Here are two fun little things I did in photoshop so I could use them as a signature on a message board I frequent:







Kian did pretty well during the session. He really wanted to play the toys they had more than pose for the camera, but I think we got some really good shots. The place we went was called Kiddie Kandids and they worked with us really well. We are definitely going to go back next year.

Father's Day

We had quite a weekend the weekend before Father's Day. Jamie ended up battling an infection which landed him on stronger antibiotic and in bed so we were all looking forward to a great Father's Day weekend. Jamie wanted to go to Discovery Kingdom on Saturday and we all had a great time there!

Here is a photo of Jamie and Kian right before the Killer Whale show:


We saw the dolphin show again, the killer whale show, and Kian got to go a a few new rides (thankfully daddy went on those with Kian hehe). We also went inside a butterfly aviary which was AMAZING! Kian was sporting his "My Dad's the Man" t-shirt. We got quite a few laughs from people who saw his shirt hehe

Sunday we took it easy. Jamie opened up his gifts from Kian and myself. Kian got his Daddy a UK t-shirt and a t-shirt and hat set that said Superdad on it. I got Jamie a hat and shirt set that said Grill Sargent.

I think we all enjoyed our weekend - it was a great time spent with our family enjoying each other.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is the name of Disney/Pixar's new film that is coming out next weekend. One of Jamie's co-workers and good friends wife works for Pixar and got us all tickets to see a special screening AT Pixar yesterday! This was Kian's first time viewing a movie at the theater too!

The Pixar studios are located in an area of the Bay that is well, is pretty much the ghetto. It is on it's way up thought with some nicer businesses and such. Honestly, once you get inside the Pixar gates, you have no idea that you are even in the city. The campus has paths winding around some wonderful landscapes, a fence that has shrubs covering it so you can't see anything past it really. In side there are life sized sculptures of the popular characters from some of Pixar's movies. The first one that greets you in the lobby are the Monsters from Monsters Inc....let me tell ya they scared Kian a little bit even though he's seen the movie many times lol The big one was taller than Jamie!!

The movie theater was VERY nice. The floors were carpeted and the seats were wide and plush. They were SO comfortable!

We all had a good time. The movie was VERY good. Kian became disinterested about half way through through and was more interested in playing with the very comfortable seats in the theater. I think that's pretty typical 3 year old behavior though.

Here is a slideshow of our time at Pixar:

What a Week!

This week has been filled with some not so fun stuff. It's funny how sometimes bad things just happen all in a row.

Tuesday:
Jamie went to see our dentist to get work done for a temporary crown. He then found out he needed to see a periodontist to get some gum and bone work done. Jamie was able to get an appointment to get it done on Wednesday.

Kian and I attended a playgroup that broke off from our class that we were going to over the last year. We had a great time! The thing that went wrong was when one family brought their German Shepherd puppy with them to the park. Kian decided that he wanted to pet it - I was about 20 feet away from him and since there was another kid (an older sibling of one of Kian's classmates) and the owner was right there I figured it would be ok. Well, it wasn't. The dog bit Kian on the nose. The owner did abosoultely nothing to correct the dog and he did not check to see if Kian was ok. Kian just turned to me, grabbed his nose and started to cry hard. At the time it didn't leave a mark but after we got home and through the day there was a clear mark on his nose and lip. Really, we were very lucky that nothing worse happened! I also learned a valuable lesson to be on top of Kian...I thought the owner was responsible but they were not.

Wednesday:
Jamie went to the dentist for dental work. He came home and said he wasn't going to go into work. He had scripts for a very strong pain killer and antibiotic which I quickly went to Safeway (our local supermarket) to get filled. I needed to do some shopping anyway.

I dropped of the scripts and did my shopping. Our Safeway is undergoing some remodeling right now. As I walked around the store filling my cart I could see different things taking shape. One thing I noticed was a station that had nut grinders and the words of different nuts on a sign above the station. They are going to be making different nut butters there!!! Yes!!! In a supermarket where they carry items that have items in the store that legally must have labeling if the items were processed near nuts or other high allergens is now on its way to becoming a nut processing plant itself!!!

I spoke with some people as to when this was going up and no one could give me a time frame. I ended up calling Safeway headquarters to find out what is going on and ended up on the phone with the assistant manager of the store I shop at. Everyone I spoke to was very friendly - the first person was very shocked that something like this was in the store. The assistant manager said that allergies never crossed her mind with the station going in. I informed her that she at least needed to have a sign in front of the store saying that they are processing nuts inside or they could have a lawsuit on their hands. I also let them know that since their station is right next to the produce section it makes things much worse. I told her that if one of Kian's friends brings say Strawberries to a party we have they will be contaminated and Kian will probably have a reaction from it. The assistant manager informed me that she is going to be telling her district manager about this issue. I doubt anything can be done, but I wanted to make sure the knew of the seriousness of this situation. Kian will never be able to set foot in that store, nor will he ever be able to safely consume any food from there while that station is in the store.

So, I began a search for another nearby grocery store. This weekend we will be moving all our prescriptions over to Target. I have shopped my last at any Safeway store. I have also contacted the FDA asking them how stations like this are even possible to exist in a grocery store. I have also started to compose a letter to Safeway as well just because I feel like there is more power behind that than just a phone call. I am also on a Peanut Allergy message board and have been posting there about this issue. Some other mom's and sufferers of nut allergies have joined voices with me in talking to Safeway about doing this. Apparently they are not the only ones to have these stations.

Jamie was pretty much out of commission and rested the whole day - poor guy! We had no idea that this was this serious until after it was done.

OH! And when I was leaving Safeway, I discovered that somewhere over the last few days someone decided that they wanted my "Support your Troups" and "Irish" ribbon magnets. They are both gone :(

Thursday and Friday:
Jamie went to work doped on pain meds. Thankfully the guys he carpools with were able to drive - he can't drive while taking that stuff. When he gets home he just is beyond tired. I am glad that he has the weekend to recover.

PHEW! And now we are to the present time. This week I have lost a lot of sleep just thinking about my poor Kian being bit and then having nightmares of him having a reaction to something from Safeway.

On a more positive note, Kian is on his way to being a big boy and using the potty! He is wearing underwear and using the potty consistently throughout the day. I can't believe how much of a big boy he's becoming!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Our weekend started off on Friday. Jamie took the day off and we spent it at Discovery Kingdom (). It's an amusement park that has animals in it! Jamie usually rides on at least one roller coaster while we are there but we were all having so much fun just walking around, seeing the animals, and taking Kian through the child area and doing things with him there :)

We went to a Dolphin show - Kian was BESIDE himself during the whole show - it was so neat!




We saw penguins, a tiger show, and the walruses. There was one walrus named Jocko who was VERY entertaining! He seriously was performing for us and seemed to be enjoying himself! I am quite positive that he could see us through the glass - he would clap his fins when we would clap our hands together and seemed to be looking Kian right in the face! Apparently he was also in the movie 50 First Dates - along with some of the dolphins...it doesn't shock me because Jocko was such a good entertainer!




Saturday we rested up and got some things done around the house. Sunday Jamie went golfing with some buddies from work while Kian and I did some shopping for grilling on Monday. Monday was a day of getting some more things done around the house and the evening was spent relaxing with a movie and a yummy grilled dinner :)

All-in-all it was a great weekend! Most of all because we were able to spend some good family time together :) We are all looking forward to when we can go back to Discovery Kingdom!

Kian's Birthday Celebration Weekend!

Saturday we had our friends Steve and Lisa over to celebrate Kian's third birthday. Jamie went and picked out a balloon bouquet for Kian. The main balloon was of Blue's head and then there were three other balloons that had the number three on them. Kian LOVED them!

We had turkey burgers, corn on the cob, my mom's baked beans, and of course Kian's birthday cake that I made (and to be honest I'm pretty proud of if I may say!)

Then Kian opened gifts. We saved a few gifts from his actual birthday so that he would be able to enjoy them in spurts. Lisa and Steve bought him some coloring books (a Mickey Mouse one to help him get started thinking about our trip to Disney this fall and a Blue's Clues one that you can actually wipe clean - how cool is that!). They also got him a Magnadoodle...I'm not sure who enjoyed it more - Steve or Kian hehe ;)

We all really enjoyed having Steve and Lisa over :) Here's a fun fact - Steve and Lisa were actually the first people that saw Kian right after he was born. And even though they have lived out of state, somehow trips back to the Bay Area have coinsided with Kian's birthday so they have been with us literally for each of Kian's birthdays. How cool is that! :)

Sunday (today) we took it easy in the morning and then in the afternoon we headed to San Jose (about a 45 minute drive) to see Sesame Street Live! We all had a great time! In the Arena were two old phone booths (minus the phones lol) and Jamie found a ledge where he could set up the camera to automatically take the photo while we all shut ourselves inside. That was really funny hehe Kian LOVED the show! He kept yelling "Hi Big Bird" and waving to him - so of course we had to buy him a Big Bird stuffed animal at intermission - he held it the ENTIRE time even the whole way home! The show was really fun, the characters REALLY looked like the puppets come to life! There were some really funny dance routines and great songs that everyone joined in and sang.

All-in-all it was a great weekend and I think Kian really enjoyed the celebration of turning three!

Here is a slide show of the celebration of Kian's birthday - it starts with waking him up on his actual birthday on through until Sesame Street today :)

Here are some photos of the paw print cake I made for Kian's Blue's Clues themed party that we had yesterday. It's not the best, but I was pretty proud of it because well, I'm not cake decorator! hehe




Here is a video of Kian the morning of his birthday - we decorated when he was asleep so it felt like Christmas almost!



Here is a video of Kian enjoying his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:

On the Menu last night was a Pea Up the Nose

So, last night I was feeding Kian. I warmed up some frozen peas for him, put them on his plate, turned around to wash out the bowl I had them in and Kian said something like “Where’s the green bean?” I turned around to tell him they were peas and that they were on his plate and found Kian with his finger up his nose!

I tilted his head back and sure enough it was in there – WAY up there! I asked him to blow and he sniffed in – so I showed him how to blow and he didn’t understand. So I tried to get it suctioned out with a bulb syringe - holding one the other nostril shut and nothing worked.

I called my mom and emailed Jen (my sister used to stick stuff up her nose all the time and my friend Jen is just my go-to gal when it comes to needing veteran mom advice because her oldest is 10 and she has three boys :)) Both of them suggested calling a nurse direct line.

The nurse asked me to do certain things with Kian and honestly by this time I couldn't see the pea any more. The nurse said to get him to a doctor within 6 hours....ugh! It was almost 7 by this time so Kian and I headed to Urgent Care. Jamie met us there after he got home from work.

Once Jamie got there, he said that he did a bit of research on the net about kids getting peas stuck up their noses...I guess peas can swell so the longer you wait the more stuck the pea can become. It's a good thing we took him in.

Anyway, luckily Jamie's general physician was the doctor in the Urgent Care last night - someone we know and trust. So, the doctor looked in his nose with the devise that they use to do that and he could see the pea! So, he told us that one of us needed to hold the nostril that didn't have the pea in it closed and make a good seal around his mouth and blow. Jamie did it and after two blows the pea flew out! It was amazing LOL

So, we got home an hour after Kian's bed time but at least he's pea free lol And hopefully he won’t be putting things up his nose again – but if he does at least we know what we can do to get it out if we can!

Kian's 3 Year Check up :)

So, we went to a new Peds office and I REALLY liked it (you might recall my really horrid experience with our first ped in the area when I was getting ready for our trip to Wisconsin).

The doctor was SO friendly and you know how you can just tell those people that really, really like kids verses those that don't really know what to do when they are near them...well this doctor was definitely one that loved kids and loved his job. You could just tell.

Anyway, Kian weights in at 28lbs which I figured out is about the 15 percentile. And measures 36" which is also about the 15 percentile. His weight is up from what it has been in the past (5-10 percentile) but the doctor assured me that he is not fat. The doctor says he's just thickening out and that's a good thing :)

The exciting thing is that they guessed Kian would be the same height as his daddy (5'9")! I was very pleased to hear that since the short gene runs on my side of the family - I guess we will find out how true that all is in about 15 years lol!

The Ped answered ALL my questions. Kian even seems to be above target in some of the things that he is doing at this age (throwing a ball, jumping and things like that).

I feel very confident with this doctor in going back to this Ped.

Oh, and Kian also got a shot :( A Hep shot, but I didn't realize it an wasn't able to really prep Kian for it. I felt so bad that I took him to McDonald's for dinner lol (a special treat for him!)

My Baby Turns Three Today!

I can't believe that three years ago today I was in the midst of my 18 hour labor with Kian. I remember the first time I saw him after he was delivered, how the first thing I noticed was his LONG eyelashes (that he still has) and how much he looked like his Daddy.

This last year has been one of discovery for Kian. In the last year he has started to put sentences together, learned to say A LOT more words than I can count and looks more and more like a little kid every day than a baby.

We started getting read for Kian's big day last night. I wrapped Kian's gifts and Jamie hung up some signs my Aunt Lori had made for him - one is a big birthday cake that's a card holder - it says Happy Birthday Kian and the other is a banner that says Happy Birthday Kian on it :) Jamie also blew up a few balloons for Kian to play with.

I set out some Blue's Clues plates and napkins for him to eat on today, Jamie put together his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so we had that sitting out with his other gifts.

This morning it felt almost like Christmas! Kian saw his Birthday Cake sign and flipped out :) He was so surprised!

We then let him open his gifts and we played with him for a little while before Jamie left for work. I am SO glad we decided to do it this way because we definitely wanted Daddy to be apart of the festivities too!

Today for lunch we went to McDonald's for some chicken "wuggets" and later we will have some cupcakes that I made last night when we went to bed :)

We will be having more of a party on May 19th and then the 20th we will take him to see Sesame Street Live for his birthday - so I guess the celebration will be over the next few weeks! hehe

Happy Third Birthday to my favorite little man! What in the world would we do without you!


(I made this for a signature on my message boards to celebrate Kian's bithday - I just thought I would share :))

Photos from Wisconsin Trip

Recovering

Kian and I are still recovering from our big trip. We had a great time visiting family, but now it's back to the daily grind.

Kian and I hung around the house the last few days. I wanted to give him plenty of time to just play and be on his own schedule again. It took a day or so to break Kian of waking up at 6:30 (he usually wakes at about 8AM) and he's been napping a lot lately which has been good for him to get back in sync and get over the end of this cold.

So, now I am in catch up mode. Jamie did an AMAZING job of keeping the house in order. I just have laundry to catch up on and the normal day-to-day things to do. I also have a huge back log of work to catch up on. I've spent the last few days trucking through as much as I can every day during Kian's nap - I'm still not even remotely caught up :(

I finally went grocery shopping today so I am not longer Old Mother Hubbard's rival. It's funny to go from a fridge that has pretty much nothing to one that barely has room to groove!

Kian and I are looking forward to spending all weekend with Jamie. We really don't have any plans per say, just to be together and enjoy each other. We all missed each other so much!

Recap of Kian's First Trip to Wisconsin

Let me preface by saying that Jamie had to stay home while Kian and I traveled to Wisconsin. Jamie is getting deep into the project he's working on and was unable to leave. It also was a bit of a stretch for just me and Kian to go....if Jamie came too we would have to tack on the cost of parking and kenneling Toby (our dog). SO, Jamie had to stay home...we all really missed each other a lot. But the trip was worth it :)

Tuesday, April 24 –
Kian and I head out from San Francisco to Wisconsin. We get in late and have little time to visit before Kian needs to get to bed. It was very good to be back home, but after a long trip it was good to rest.

My mom, my sister Laura, Laura's boyfriend Brian, Grandma and Grandpa Z. and Aunt Lori were all there to greet us when we passed through the security point.


Wednesday, April 25 –
Laura took a day off of work and went shopping with us downtown Appleton so I could do to the Irish store there. I probably could have spent all my money there! I was able to find a wall plaque with Kian’s name on it in the store! I had to special order it, but it’s going to be worth it! Where else can you find Kian’s name but in an Irish store ;) I will take a picture of it once I receive it – I think it’s pretty cool!

That evening was a celebration for my cousin Melissa’s 21st birthday. A bunch of family members gathered at Frank’s Pizza Palace for some GREAT pizza and beer (well for those who were of age ;)) Kian had a great time hugging his third cousin (my cousin Steve’s daughter) Ameerah and going to see what he called the “whale” in the fish tank in the front of the restaurant. It was a great time to visit with family and Kian’s first induction into being at a big family event.

Thursday, April 26 –
Wednesday night Kian woke up screaming in the middle of the night. He had caught a cold the day we left on our trip and I was afraid he might have an ear infection – especially after I asked him if he owies and he told him his ear did after he finally calmed down. I felt SO bad for him. So, Thursday morning I called our insurance company to find an urgent care in the area that would take our insurance. Luckily there was one nearby (and it only cost us $10). My step-dad, Randy, drove us there since so much has changed in the area and I had no idea where the place was! Kian was ok, we were just told to keep him on cough meds and pain reliever to prevent the infection. He was much better after that.

My mom took a half day of vacation and was done with work at 11AM. We picked up my Aunt Lori at my Grandparent’s house and headed to the Fox Cities Children’s museum. We all had a good time. In fact, I’m not sure if Lori, mom or Kian had more fun lol! There were a lot of things to do there! Kian was able to “shop” at Kwik Trip, play doctor, ride a fire truck, work a crane, play with a ball structure that was really fun (we have photos of that, it’s hard to describe), play in a water exhibit and tour a Hispanic cultural exhibit phew! We all did have a great time!

For dinner we ate at Tom’s Drive In – and yes I did have fried cheese curds ;)

Friday, April 27 –
Randy and Mom took off of work. It was Randy’s birthday. In the morning Kian and I watched him open some gifts and we hand delivered our cards to him. Kian was able to play outside with Mom’s dog Hannah – they had a good time. Later on Kian met his Great Grandma and Grandpa Lopas (Randy’s parents).

That evening we went out for a classic Wisconsin Friday Night Fish Fry. Kian didn’t have fish (he’s not able to have fish until he’s about 5 because of his food allergy) but he did have some jello and yummy chicken nuggets. I really enjoyed my fish though! Yum!

We went back to Mom and Randy’s house while everyone else went out to a bar near the house. Laura visited with me and Kian until his bed time. Then me and my mom switched places so I could spend some time with my cousins at the bar. The seriously funny part is that BOTH me and my sister (who is 27) were carded!!! Let me tell ya, I was pretty proud to have someone ask me for my ID being that I turned 30 in October ;)

Saturday, April 28 –
Since I knew that Kian would be really overwhelmed by people, I planned a day at home for me and Kian. He loved being able to have time to play with all the fun little toys my mom got him.

After his nap, we started to get ready for the big party – my Grandma and Grandpa Zuelzk’s 50th wedding anniversary. Kian was pretty overwhelmed at times – which was to be expected since he’s never really been around that many people that wanted to see him! My sister and her boyfriend Brian sat near us and were big helps with Kian (thanks again guys!) The dinner was great so was the entertainment! My sister and Brian sang some songs that were special for my grandparents. My uncle Steve put together a picture slideshow of family from the beginning of the 50 years of marriage on down to the great-grandchildren. It was really neat to see that – he did a great job! Then we were asked to clear the dining area so they could set up the dance floor. In the bar area, where we were waiting, there was one of those machines that has all the stuffed animals in it with a crane to pluck them out. Laura spent about $7 trying to get one out and then my cousin Melissa walks over and gets one after putting a dollar in! My third cousin, Camlyn (she’s 3 ½) saw Kian’s toy and wanted it. So after Laura gave it two more tries my cousin Melissa walks over and gets another stuffed animal! So Kian and Camlyn both had one. Kian wouldn’t let go of his all night - it even followed him to the dance floor! Kian and I headed out well before everyone else. Kian was beat and honestly so was I. I put Kian to bed and was able to just relax a bit before heading to bed myself.

Sunday, April 29 –
Kian and I relaxed a bit in the morning and then got ready to head over to my Aunt Sue and Uncle Terry’s house to visit with the Kesler side of the family (some of my dad’s sisters and brothers). My Aunt Katie drove about 2 hours from Milwaukee. My Uncle Jim came with his wife Debbie and daughter Jenny from Madison area (about a 3 hour drive I think). My Uncle Paul was there as well as my Aunt Sue’s daughter Becky and son Craig. Laura and her boyfriend Brian were there as well. My Aunt Jane in Texas “joined” us via telephone after dinner was over. It was a pretty good turn out, in my opinion :)

My Aunt Sue had a wonderful BBQ planned which had some of the same foods I had a lot growing up – like Knox Blocks and Beautiful Salad. That really brought back a lot of memories for me. Not to mention, my Aunt Sue and Uncle Terry live in the house that my Dad grew up in and I guess I did a bit too. I have a lot of memories of spending time at that house.

Kian had a good time walking both my Uncle Paul and Uncle Jim around the outside of the house. I think they both probably walked about a mile with how much Kian was asking them for walks :)

It was very good to visit with them. I am very thankful for those who traveled a long ways to see us and for my Sue and Terry hosting the shindig.

I took Kian home for a much needed nap. When he woke up we headed over to my Grandma and Grandpa Zuelzke’s house to visit with family there. Kian had a GREAT time playing with Camlyn.

Monday, April 30 –
We kind of took it easy. Mom and I went to the mall so I could look at some pieces live-in person of my Fiestaware so I could figure out what I wanted to add to my collection. We also walked to another store in the mall, which passed by the service desk where they have a TON of balloons. Kian saw a Blue’s Clues balloon that my mom couldn’t resist getting him. I think he played with that all day on Monday. We had lunch at Tom’s Drive In again – per my request :) After we ate we headed to the cheese store near my mom’s house for some fresh cheese curds so I could bring them home with me.

Then we headed over to Brian’s house for cook out. Brian made some GREAT brats and we had some other yummy things like beans and Best Chocolate Cake. My Aunt Lori, Grandma and Grandpa Zuelzke, and my Mom and Randy were all there. We shared family stories and shared some wine. Then it was time for us to say our goodbyes.

Tuesday, May 1-
Kian and I got up early to start our trek back to Wisconsin. My Aunt Lori, Mom and Grandma and Grandpa Zuelzke came to say goodbye at the airport. My Grandpa bought Kian a Packers baseball hat. Kian was a big crank and he wasn’t in form to give anyone a hug goodbye so he just waved and blew kisses (after I prompted him). It was hard to leave, but I am so happy we were able to go to celebrate my Grandparent’s special day.

We're Back!

I don't have much time to post, but I wanted to make sure I updated that Kian and I got home safely.

I am slowly working on a long post along with photos. Right now I am swamped with work and trying to get some household things done. This morning I spent a good chunk of time trying to research a new doctor for Kian since he needs his 3 year check up!

Anyway, more later! Kian and I had a great time, but it's good to be home :)

The Littlest U2 Fan :)

Well, today Jamie installed my early Mother's Day gift. It's a radio/iPod dock for me to listen to music in my kitchen. Today Jamie and I were wanting to make sure the sound was right on it so I told him I wanted to turn on music I knew...which of course is U2. I turned on the song Mysterious Ways and the moment that the chorus came on Kian sang the words EXACTLY in tune and the correct words! Jamie found the camera and was able to catch Kian in action enjoying the tunes...we are trying SO hard not to laugh!

Here's the video ;)



The REALLY funny thing is that after we took the video we went to Target. Jamie was walking around in a completely different section from me. All of a sudden I could hear Kian singing at the top of his lungs: "It's alright, it's alright, it's alright. She MOVES in mysterious ways" ROFL! He's been singing off and on all day lol

I guess he's for sure the littlest U2 fan.

M – I – C – K –E – Y M – O – U – S – E

WE ARE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!!

We just booked our trip for the end of September! We are all so excited about it! It will be our very first family vacation…and well our very first vacation really that we have had since Jamie and I took our honeymoon 5 years ago!

Jamie will be very busy with work until the project is over mid September. We really wanted to take Kian to Disneyland for his 3rd birthday this May, but really it’s impossible for Jamie to get time off. So, we did the next best thing :) We booked a trip for after the project is over.

We are going to be staying at a “good neighbor” hotel which gives us an invited to the early entrance into Toontown where we get to see the Mayor opening up the town for the day. Kian will be able to meet all the characters and get autographs! He will be COMPLETELY beside himself when he meets his girlfriend Minnie for the first time hehe. We will also have VIP seating for a talk with Crush – the turtle from Finding Nemo.

We are really looking forward to spending some time as a family and really enjoying ourselves on our FIRST vacation…what better place to do it than at Disneyland :)

Some Photos from St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day in the "Mc" Durall Household :)

St. Patrick's Day was yesterday and if you know me you know that it's ranked up there with Christmas as being one of my favorite holidays! I have Irish roots on both sides as was taught at a young age that eing Irish was something to be proud of and most definitely should be celebrated on St. Patrick's Day.

In my house that means that the day after Valentine's day decor comes down and my shamrock and other green/Irish goodies make their appearance. My entire family was decked out in green yesterday. Jamie (whose name is really Jameson) wore his Jameson Irish Whiskey t-shirt, Kian wore a I ♣ You t-shirt and I wore my green TREASU(RED) shirt (fyi, the (RED) is an organization headed by Bono that helps pregnant mothers in Africa who have AIDS receive meds to help them live longer and not pass the disease to their unborn child). Even our dog Toby was wearing a green, shamrock bandanna :)

For our little shindig we invited our couple friend Steve and Lisa over for an Irish Feast. I made corned beef, cabbage, a cabbage salad one of my Irish Grandmas (Grandma Kesler) always made, smashed potatoes, and a trifle. Everyone thought everything tasted so good - I was most concerned about my trifle as it was my first go at something like that it turned out amazing (thanks to good ole Betty Crocker hehe). We also bought some Harp Beer (made by the same people that make Guiness just not dark) and of course we always have Bailey's on hand :)

We all had a great time! I was sad to see the day end but of course as any one who knows me pretty much everyday I celebrate being Irish :)

My Meat Eater, Detective Work and TJ's

Meat Eater

Kian has become more of a meat eater! In the past I would cut up the meat we were eating and hide it in his mashed potatoes or rice or whatever side dish we were having. In the past, Kian has been odd about different textures in food and meat is definitely one of them. Well, last week for dinner I make a turkey breast in the crock pot. I hide his meat in his mashed potatoes and gravy and sat down with my plate of food. He asked for a bit of my meat so I gave him one – I think that by the time we were done eating he had at about one fourth of the meat I had on my plate for myself! The next time we had that meal I gave him his own slices of turkey cut up into pieces he could manage and he ate it all! I am so happy he’s finally putting aside that texture deal in the meat category :)

Speaking of food, Kian has really been packing it away lately! He normally will leave something left on his plate – eating most but leaving some. Since this past week he’s surprised me at the amount he has consumed and left me wondering where the heck it all goes! For example, for lunch one day last week he ate a half package of Easy Mac and Cheese, three Gerber hotdogs, a cup of green beans AND an entire can of mandarin oranges! This has honestly left me wondering how I will keep food in my house once he gets into this teen years hehe

Detective Joe Speaking!

Blue’s Clues has been kind of replaced by a show called Blue’s Room. The show stars Blue has a puppet with her brother Sprinkles. Joe is also in the episodes as well as some other puppet friends, but Blue and Sprinkles are definitely in the spotlight. Anyway, to my knowledge there are no more episodes being created of Blue’s Clues (although Nick Jr. still airs them and Kian asks to watch them often).

Well, Blue’s Room is a pretty good show too in my opinion. Kian has liked them so much that he has requested only one show from Blue’s Room when he asks to watch a show. One episode is based only on shapes and is called The Shape Detectives. The premise is that one of the other character’s paintings has lost all of it’s shapes and the Shape Detectives have to help him find them. Blue, her brother Sprinkles and Joe are all detectives and the slogan for their company is “Shapes, shapes all around. Shapes are lost and then they’re found.” Well, at one point in the show Joe gets a hot tip on the phone about the missing pentagon and he answers the phone, “Shapes, shapes all around. Shapes are lost and then they’re found. Detective Joe speaking.” Kian has learned this phrase from watching (or listening to) this episode countless times. He goes to his toy box, finds his play phone and will say exactly what Joe says. He even has asked me to do it with him but I say “Detective Mommy speaking.” So, naturally that’s what Kian says now too. The CUTEST thing is how he says Speaking. I will have to try to get some video of him saying it because really there is no way for me to do justice with it by trying to type it out :)

Kian is becoming such a little man :)

Trader Joe’s coming to Livermore!

I am SO excited that Trader Joe’s is FINALLY coming to Livermore! For those of you who don’t know you can check out this link: www.traderjoes.com This store has some amazing prices on most of the thing that you would buy in your normal super market. They also sell a lot of organic and vegetarian things as well. It’s seriously my favorite place to shop, so much so that I drive on the 580 for about 10-15 mins (if there is no traffic) to get there! I buy most of our food there and shopping there every two weeks for all of us I spend about $60 each time…that’s unreal for a family of three and the FULL cart of items I walk out with.

Anyway, Trader Joe’s is going to be opening up in Livermore next week! It will still mean I have to drive a bit of a way to get there because of it’s location, but I don’t have to take the freeway (which means I can go late or early in the day and not worry about sitting in my car for a half hour there or back from the store.) Next week is my Trader Joe’s shopping week and I hope to be doing it at their new store! WOOT!

A New Ped in the Works and Some Fun News on Kian :)

New Pediatrician in the Works

Since we moved to the area, Kian has seen the doctor a total of 5 times. The first time was to really introduce us to the doctor and get a feel for what the practice was like. I liked how they were fast in getting us in to see the doctor and they definitely have kid friendly things in their office.

The problem is that all 5 times we have been to the doctor in the last 9 months we have seen a different doctor EVERY time. Kian even had to have his Epi Pen (for his nut allergy since it's so severe) represcribed to him because his expired. The doctor that prescribed it was yet ANOTHER doctor there and didn't get the prescription right! He should have two Epi Pens and not one which is in his files if anyone cared to look. I brought all of Kian's records with me from the time of his birth up to current time and yet no one has cared to enter them and I even had one of the 6 doctors that have touched his files tell me that I didn't have them!

Yesterday i left a note to talk to his Ped about an issue the receptionist felt could be solved by phone instead of appointment. The Ped didn't seem to like all the questions I was asking, sounded like I was wasting her time and was just trying to get me off the phone. She also was rude with some of her answers when really her answer didn't have to include all the disrespectful talk so flung at me. Needless to say this interaction with her and having what seems no real doctor for Kian has really made me feel like this is not the place for us.

I am going to try to ask some of the mom's in Kian's class about their Peds and kind of go from there. I am so glad that I have originals of all of Kian's records form the time of birth through right before we left Sunnyvale. Make life a lot easier :)

If I could find a clone of Dr. Bravo (Kian's first Ped who was AMAZING!) all these issues would be solved! Man, do I miss Dr. Bravo, his patience, his caring and his love for the kids he works with.

Fun Stuff!

This morning I took Kian to class. In his class we sing songs that have hand signs, dance to music with movements, listen to a story, and have free play. There is one song that we sign talking about building a house and it has hand movements. We have done it maybe 4 times in classes that Kian has been to.

Today after we got back from class, Kian was singing and I couldn't figure out what he was saying until he got to a certain part and I realized he was signing the build a house song and doing the movements all on his own. Throughout the day he has broken into this song (including the higher notes that they sing at one point!) at the house playing, at the grocery store (and you know I joined in - we sang and shopped at the same time! lol) and eating dinner. I am so surprised how much he has retained from class and I am so happy that he enjoys it so much.

Jamie and Sarah - 5 Years!!! (and sick again...)

Five Wonderful Years!!!

Jamie and I celebrated our 5th Wedding anniversary on Friday! I can’t believe how fast the time went! If feels like just yesterday we were all in Wisconsin with our family and close friends having one of the best parties I’ve ever attended :) We are looking forward to many more wonderful years together :)


Sickness….

Yep, Jamie’s now sick with what seems like could be the flu. I just finished my antibiotic and Kian seemed to be over his illness until yesterday. He’s had a stuffy nose and has been waking up crying :( I’m hoping that his flu shot holds up for him as having the flu as an asthmatic is not a good thing.

I cannot wait for spring to arrive so we have more time between illnesses :(

Gloomy Days

It's a good thing that we took advantage of the nice weather on Saturday because it has turned back to being winter like. Cold, windy and rainy. We do need the rain though so that definitely is welcomed.

Jamie is starting to work late hours again. Kian really is starting to miss seeing his daddy at night and sometimes will stay up to wait for him to come home. At least the weekend is very close and Jamie will be home for the weekend (or so I think anyway).

I am starting to brace myself for being a "single" mom for a good portion of the rest of the year. Thank God for netflix - it helps me to pass the night away quickly until Jamie comes home.

New Photo Hosting Program - Snapfish!!!

NOTE: Please be sure to check your email and use only the link in the email to get to snapfish.

So, I was having a lot of issues with winkflash (uploading and even logging in) so I decided to go with snapfish. Some good friends (Hi Jamey!) have used it for over a year now to share their photos with friends and family so I figured it's working well for them :)

I have tested it on Jamie and myself and honestly it seems to have a lot easier interface. Not to mention, I have had ZERO issues uploading photos to my account which was what was stalling me from putting up anything that was recent!

So, problem solved! And you guys get to see more of Mr. Kian!

If I have your email address you will be receiving an invitation to view our photos. All you have to do is click "View my Photos" in the email and it will take you to the snapfish website. If you don't have an account with snapfish it will ask you for your name and email address and wah-lah there are the photos for viewing :)

If you receive an email to view photos and do not wish to receive more, just let me know and I will remove you from the list.

Golfing With Daddy!

Saturday it was unseasonably warm here and we took advantage of it! Jamie found a golf club for Kian on clearance at Target and hit balls with Kian for the firs time this weekend :) Kian really seemed to enjoy it! As you can see, Toby came with us and was the official ball fetcher (unless Kian got to it first) hehe

It sure was nice to get out of the house. Kian and I were sick last week - well I was VERY sick - so sick that Jamie needed to stay home for a few days. Kian and I are on the mend now and we look forward to having a great week just doing our normal stuff :)

No Longer Private

Some of my favorite people were having issues being able to log into to view my blog so I decided to take it off of private. At least for now. hopefully Blogger will get a lot of the bugs worked out :)

For now, those of you who have signed up as "readers" you are still in the system in case I decide to go private again.

A New Toliet, Goodbye to Troublemakers and Sick Again (I know, shocking huh?)

This past weekend was very interesting.

First of all, Friday I noticed that our neighbors next door were packing up things and sure enough they are moving – they had a U-Haul today. These are the lovely neighbors that greeted us our first weekend of moving in with a drunken frenzy outside that resulted in our neighbors across the way calling the police. Anyone who has stayed with us at our new place over the weekend knows exactly what neighbors I am talking about because every weekend at least once in the wee hours of the morning you can hear them fighting. Jamie talked to our neighbors across the way and told him they have mutual feelings on these trouble makers leaving. So, those neighbors left us with a quiet Saturday night and have left us wondering who will be moving in next.

Honestly, I didn’t realize how much noise they made until after they were gone! We never hear our neighbors on the other side (I occasionally will hear some music in our kitchen area but nothing that’s too loud).

Second, Jamie is installing a new toilet in our masterbath. The tank had a crack in it that Jamie noticed late last weekend. He looked information on the crack (since there was no leak) on the internet and found out that the crack could give way and we could have some major problems. It was best to replace the toilet.

Yep, it’s his first fix to our house since we moved in. We picked out a toilet Saturday morning and Jamie installed it in the afternoon. I have to say that the man at Lowe’s we spoke to had a WEALTH of information and was very, very helpful. After 5 trips to Lowe’s for different parts and a new toilet seat our “throne” is working just great! I’m so proud of Jamie for taking on this endeavourer, doing the research and getting the job done :)

Honestly, as I see Jamie taking out the old toilet and what not, I think about two Saturday Night Live Sketches. One is for the “Love Toilet” – oh so funny :) I digress hehe

Sunday we had our own little “Super Bowl” Party. We went to Costco that morning and bought some hot wings and I made some cocktail wieners. It was nice :) We had planned to ask our neighbors across the way over, but we have all been battling some sort of cold and they have a newborn. Hopefully once spring hits we will be able to BBQ or something with them :)

This week we are battling some kind of new illness. Jamie and I have felt WIPED out! We went to bed at 10:30 last night (that is early for us) and woke up at about 7 and I felt like I slept for 4 hours :( Last night Kian also woke up in hysterics. I’m not sure if he’s cutting his two year molars, has an ear infection or what was going on. I kept asking him if he had an owie and all he would do was cry :( I finally resorted to giving him some Tylenol and some Hyland’s teething tablets and after some rocking and cuddling he settled down and went back to sleep. I felt so bad for him. I’m watching him like a hawk though because if he does have an ear infection and he’s actually showing signs of it, that means it’s pretty bad.

New Settings

Hello Everyone!

Blogger now has a new setting where I can make my blog private. You must be invited and accept the invitation in order to view my blog.

If you know of someone who wants to be able to view it, just email me at sarahdurall@gmail.com with that person's email address and I will make sure they are added.

Kian is Sick :(

Last week I had a nasty cold. I felt like I should have been in bed all day and it was hard for me to even just sit because all I wanted to do was be in bed.

Well, Kian has this nasty cold now. Although he is in GREAT spirits (he always is even when he's REALLY sick). The first sign he's really not feeling good is when he sleeps in. He's like an alarm clock - he wakes up every day at 8AM or a little after. Today he was up at at 9AM even though I thought he was awake and burst into his room at about 8:30 he was sleeping like a log! Me just walking into his room will usually wake him up. Then he asked to have two binkies and his blanket downstairs with him. I honestly cannot remember the last time he asked for those things downstairs. Those have been bedtime things for over a year. I figured he needed the comfort of them so right now he's on the couch watching Teletubbies with a binkie in his mouth, one in his hand and rubbing on his blanket. Poor guy! We might need to skip our class again tomorrow - but I will just wait and see. I would hate to expose him to more illnesses with a weakened immune system :(

If you can, please say a little prayer that he will rest today.

Popularity of Kian in Ireland

Tonight I was just doing some random searches and I came across a list of popular names in Ireland for babies in 2004. Guess what is #67?



Even the spelling is correct (Cian is the Gaelic spelling - same pronunciation). So, I guess if we ever go to Ireland Kian will have others there with that same name. :)

This Weekend and a Little Update on Kian

This weekend came early with Jamie having off on Monday for MLK's B-day. The funny thing is that this weekend we are finding we don't know what to do with ourselves! For the last month - maybe two - we have had to do chores, had visitors, or other random things so this is the first weekend where things aren't a MUST to get done. We still have a list of things we need to do but only a few of them are a must do instead of the whole list.

It's nice to have a weekend to ourselves :) Not to mention, Kian has been asking all week for Daddy. So it's nice to have some hang out time for my two main men.

"I Sad..."
In other news, Kian is using a lot more words now! He has had a word explosion over the last week or two. He's saying sentences, repeating what we say (which has been limited to "you're kidding" and "no way" thankfully!), and recently he's put together sentences that are all his own. For example, there is a game with Elmo that I allow him to play sometimes on the computer. It was right before bedtime when he asked to play it so I told him that Elmo went nigh-nigh and he could play him tomorrow. Kian responded with "I sad (boo-hoo-hoo)" LOL! At first I didn't catch what he said but after he started his fake crying (which was completely obvious was fake to him too I'm sure) I realized he said he was sad and put together that emotion with the word and the action! Talk about a big thing - not to mention he put that together on his own :) I have been teaching him some emotions (faces for happy, sad, angry) and he's seen them on shows like Blue's Clues. I guess his little mind started catch on to all that :)

The Littlest Cars (The Movie) Fan
Kian has become a Cars fanatic! We first showed him the movie when we went on a trip for Thanksgiving and now he can't get enough of it! He watches it several times a day. And since Santa brought him three of the cars from the movies, he plays with them everyday. He is so cute with them! He's also a great dancer to all the cool music that's on the movie :) He even dances to the beat (and sometimes I'll even join him)!

"I Scared you!"
This is Kian's biggest phrase at the moment. There is a new show on Disney called Johnny and the Sprites. He has seen it maybe 2-3 times now but during the day at different times he will sing the theme song to the show. The one show he has seen one of the sprites has the hiccups and Johnny tries to scare them out of the sprite by saying "raaar" while shaking his head and raising his arms in a scary position. Well, Kian does that to us now and says "I scared you!" right afterwards LOL It's super cute....the only bad thing is that he does this while he's laying in bed (we can hear him over the monitor) and one time he was having trouble getting to sleep so I went into retuck him in and of course I was "scared." Let me tell ya, it was hard not to laugh!

Kian is definitely an entertaining guy! We sure do love him!

So, today we learned cheaper doesn't always mean better

Ok, so I already knew that but unfortunately this revelation involves our dear Mr. Kian :(

So, yesterday I took Kian to get a haircut. It is the third time I have taken him to Great Clips to get it done. Yeah, I know I can't expect the best results from a place like that, but he's only a kid and I figured we would survive. Today I went to Great Clips with a coupon in hand.

Before I continue, let me rewind a bit. When I started taking Kian to get his hair cut, I took him to a salon that's only for kids. He got to rid in a little car and watch a video while he got his hair cut in less than 10 mins (maybe even 5!) They were fast and good and I was always pleased every time I left there. It was about $5 more to go to the kid place but it was worth it to me because it was better for Kian.

Since we moved this summer I wasn't able to find a kid's salon nearby so I started taking Kian to Great Clips (which is like Cost Cutters of Fantastic Sams). Kian does NOT like getting his hair cut. He's weird about anything being near his ears - he just plain doesn't like it. The last two people that cut his hair were fairly good. The second one did a great job...the first was ok but we survived...this third one it was apparent to me that she really didn't know kids and she hadn't cut hair for long.

This third stylist and I discussed how short I wanted his hair prior to cutting - she cut it WAY shorter than that. I figured I would just deal with it until I saw how she was cutting his hair on the sides and it was bad...she wasn't getting everything..nothing really matched up with the shortness on the top of his head... Then she started asking me to hold him still tell him to sit still, have him put his shoulders down among other things (which hello he's two years old - you try to tell a two year old to sit still!). Finally I just asked if the other lady (that I had seen the other two times when I was there) could cut his hair and she finished it up. The "experienced" lady did an ok job, but of course you can't put hair back on where it should have been! Poor Kian was sitting there for a HALF HOUR while they cut away. The experienced lady sang songs with us like Wheels on the Bus and such which was good entertainment for Kian and had him sit for a bit longer.

Kian had a bath that night and I could see his poor little ear was nicked (the one where he was lifting his shoulder when they would bring anything near it) and there is a chunk out of the back of his hair - luckily you don't notice it unless you are looking at the bottom of his hair closely.

After all this I looked up for kids salons when I came home. When I first started taking Kian to get his hair cut, I took him to a kids salon. But after we moved there weren't any in our area or they were quite a drive away and $20! So, we settled on Great Clips which was near our house.

After we got home I decided to do some research again on kid salons in our area. I had seen an ad in the newspaper a while back for a kids salon opening up downtown. Well, the salon is now open and only $6 more than Great Clips. So, next time Kian needs a cut (probably not for like 2 months!) we will take him there. It's so worth it for all of us.

Vistors Part 2

Jamie's mom, sister and step-dad came out for a visit last week. They arrived late on Tuesday and left Sunday afternoon. Wednesday we kind of hung out at the house. Jamie was at work and we only had my car (which would fit all but one of us). I figured it would be nice to let my in laws recover from the jet leg they had from their trip to Hawaii and let Kian get used to our new visitors.

Jamie took off of work on Thursday and Friday. He put in some hard hours on Wednesday to help him make up for the work he was missing those two days - right now he's close to deadline. We had hopes to go to the park or even go and try mini golf with Kian but it was VERY cold and windy. (it's actually still pretty cold here for California!)

We ended up walking around the mall a bit, taking Kian to Chuckee Cheese and Jamie took the other three to a winery for wine tasting while Kian was napping.

Other than that we enjoyed playing cards and bowling with the Wii which everyone really enjoyed a lot. In fact, Russell left wanting a Wii for at home! Unfortunately the system is sold out everywhere, but hopefully he will be able to get one :)

It was a low key visit but everyone was able to spend as much time with Kian as they wanted which really is the most important thing in my mind.

So now it's back to normal around our house! My oven has been used and on Sunday night I started to go through withdrawals from not cooking (I didn't cook at all because of special diets and wanting people to be able to eat what they chose as well as I get stressed out having to make a meal while trying to visit).

Here are some photos from the Hedrick's time with us (I apologize - unfortunately all that was on our camera was from Chuckee Cheese and Russell didn't come with us so he's not in any of the photos):

Christmas 2006 and New Years 2007

Sorry that this blog post is so late! Things have been very busy around here the last few weeks!

We had a wonderful Christmas with my parents visiting us from Wisconsin :) My mom and Randy arrived on the 22nd and stayed through the 29th. We had a wonderful time together! Randy got to tour EA, we visited two local Harley Davidson shops so Mom and Randy could get some attire there, and we spent the day on Pier 39 the day before they left.

The day after they arrived we went to the mall to exchange a gift we received and decided to try seeing Santa while we were there. The line was long but it was moving fairly fast so Kian had a snack while we waited in line. I’m not sure if you remember but last year Kian freaked out seeing Santa so we were prepared for the same this year. Well, you can see the results of our trip in these two videos:




We made a meal on Christmas Eve and opened up some up the gifts under the tree. We figured since Santa was coming with more on Christmas Day we would open on Christmas Eve and let Kian have a calmer Christmas Day opening. He enjoyed opening gifts which was good since most of them under the tree were for him! lol Our living room now looks like Toys R Us threw up in it lol But Kian has really enjoyed his new stuff and has been playing with all the new stuff off and on throughout the day.

He also has a bit of a new wardrobe thanks to Kian’s Grandma and Great-grandma. All I have to say is I Love Caters! That place has the cutest clothes! And he added some more books to his expanding collection. Which is a good thing since I think Cuddly Kittens and Fluffy Bunnies need to go on the shelf for a while lol! Thankfully Grandma took over some reading duties with Kian to give me a break :)

The day after Christmas Kian had some sort of 12 hour stomach thing. Not fun :( We had planned to go to the Wharf the next day and decided to postpone it due to Kian’s stomach thing and the weather forecast of rain. The beginning of the day was bad but after a short nap in the afternoon Kian started to seem like himself and was keeping food down finally.

Our big day on the Pier at Fisherman’s Wharf was a lot of fun! We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and parked there. We didn’t look around really at all in Sausalito. It was very cold and some of the shops didn’t really seem like anything we were interested in. There is a Ferry there that takes you across the bay to Fisherman’s Wharf so we did that right away. Luckily it was much better temperature wise over there! We ate at Hard Rock Café for lunch and then ventured down the pier stopping at shops as we wanted. It as a little difficult to maneuver the stroller in some of those areas so one of us would stay out on the Pier most of the time while those that wanted to shop did. They had a cute little Irish shop there and a lot of places that had touristy items at very good prices.

At about 3PM we finally made our way back to the Ferry place to check the times when we could go back to Sausalito. (btw, Jamie had been saying since we arrived that we should get a schedule and we were all so taken in by everything that the task got pushed back until this moment). The ferry attendant told us the last ferry left at 2:45…I think my heart sank to the bottom of my shoes! He did tell us that we could catch a trolley to the next station – it was a 10 min ride. After not quite understanding his directions Randy asked a guy standing on the street and he told us we could walk there. Good thing since every trolley that went by was packed like sardines! (it brought back memories of riding the tram in Vladivostok, Russia lol!)

So, we made a brisk 45 min walk down to Pier 1…yep…a lot more walking that I had planned for. Luckily the weather wasn’t too bad and Kian had was plenty warm. I know he enjoyed the walk as he always loves it when we walk…me on the other hand realized that I need to walk more! Hehe

Anyway, we finally got back to Sausalito at about 6ish and headed toward home. It was a fun day – definitely filled with excitement! But I think we will definitely be doing some more planning the next time we head out to the Wharf lol

Here are some photos of my parents’ time with us:

New Years Eve

We invited our newly married friends Steve and Lisa over for the evening. We had some yummy food that they brought for dinner and then snacked on stuff that I had made for the rest of the evening. It was pretty much like an normal evening spent with them – Lisa and I chatting in the dining room while they guys were in the living room watching a sports game of some kind. It was a good night. We watched the Ball drop in Times Square and shared some champagne to ring in the new year. It was a really great night – I think we all had a lot of fun :)

Jamie had off New Years Day but then it was back to work after a few weeks off! It was hard for me and Kian to see him go – we really enjoyed having him home with us!

Up to Speed

So now it’s back to the grind stone. Things are back to normal in the Durall household. We finally took down our holiday décor this weekend. I realized that our living room is MUCH bigger than I remembered! It was great to have Christmas stuff for a while right now it’s so good to have our house back in its normal state.

This last weekend was not very relaxing. We had a lot of things on our to do list and we got all but one accomplished. I myself have quite a bit of work to catch up on (both housework and work-work) - especially since Jamie’s mom, stepdad and sister will be arriving tomorrow night.

Christmas is in 6 days!

I cannot believe how fast Christmas came this year! It feels like just yesterday we were wearing shorts and spending our weekends at Great America!

This weekend we are finally all well and spent all day Saturday cleaning and straightening up the house. Today we are going to have our friends Steve and Lisa over for her birthday and to exchange gifts. And in less than a week my Mom and Randy will arrive :)

This Christmas is an exciting one - at least for me. I remember as a kid being so excited that Santa was coming. I couldn't wait to see what presents he left me under the tree. I looked forward to our big family celebrations where I could hang out with my cousins I hadn't seen since the last holiday and goof off with them (which also meant being teased a lot by our Uncle Pat). Making cookies, eating cookies, helping my mom make some yummy candy for Christmas. Decorating the tree and putting only MY ornaments on it.

As I got into my teens the magic went away. Yeah, all those things were exciting but they weren't as special as they were when I was five. Over the years the magic became less and less with each passing year. Sure, I looked forward to spending time with family, eating great food and getting new stuff...but it never really felt the same.

This year the magic is back! This is Kian's first year of understanding what Santa is all about. His eyes got wide when we bought the tree out. He has enjoyed the bit of candy I have made (completely nut free - even the chocolate!) I cannot wait to see him open pretty much all those gifts under the tree! :) This is going to be a fun Christmas for the entire family :)

Sarah's Wishlist

I have put a new link to my Wishlist on Amazon.com in the sidebar (to the right) so it can easily be found.

EA's Christmas Party

EA’s Christmas party was last night and we all had a blast!

Kian went to the daycare onsite while we went to the party. It sounds like he had a GREAT time. I wasn’t sure how well he would do because when I take him to our class sometimes he doesn’t want to leave my side – he’s afraid. Luckily when we dropped him off there weren’t a lot of kids. He didn’t really seem to care that we left - he was too busy exploring everything.

EA goes ALL out for their parties. This campus has about 2500 employees. And all those employees can bring one guest – so you can imagine the amount of people were there. It was insane!

This year’s theme was a Vegas. We were greeted with glasses of wine and entered into rooms that barely looked like the rooms they normally are. There were amazing shrimp and calamari cocktails, sushi, egg rolls, salads, sirloin freshly cut on slices of French baguettes – honestly I can’t even tell you all of the food they had there because well – it was crazy! Jamie didn’t indulge too much as his stomach is still in recovery mode – but I sampled one of everything especially since we didn’t have dinner. We were given two drink tickets each and you could get pretty much any sort of drink you wanted. I stuck to a good ole Corona with a lime slice ;) We gave the rest of the tickets to one of Jamie’s bosses (because we saw him headed up to the bar to buy a drink – good timing on our part!)

One entire area was converted into a casino. There were roulette, blackjack and poker tables everywhere. We found a blackjack table and played there for the entire evening along with some friends of Jamie’s. It was really good to have some familiar people to hang out with :)

And what Vegas themed party would not be complete without the Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. (okay, impersonators but you get the picture!) I personally was serenaded by Dean Martin – apparently I’m his one and only you hehe And Sammy made his rounds with some $25 American Express gift certificates. He came to our table and said that whoever wins the next hand gets the money. Luckily our dealer bust so ALL of us got a certificate! WOOT!

Throughout the night Jamie checked his phone about every 15 mins (mostly by my prompting LOL) to make sure we didn’t miss a call from the daycare. We were concerned about him since it was a totally foreign environment for him to be in and we dropped him off at his bedtime! So we had no idea how long we would be able to stay at the party – but since there were no calls we figured he was ok.

At about 11:45 we headed over to get Kian. He looked all cozy in his PJ bottoms with his blankie watching Cinderella - he was so happy to see us :) One of the workers asked us if we gave him a Red Bull before we brought him LOL Apparently Kian was in full force while he was there and just explored the entire time lol I think most of the kids there attend daycare there so they are used to it – with Kian he just wanted to check it all out.

So, we all had an awesome time and next year we won’t hesitate to use the EA daycare. The workers were amazing and Kian had an awesome time :) I think it was worth it to all of us :) And thankfully Jamie staying home all day yesterday and spending it in bed resting helped us in being able to go. I’m praying this weekend he will make a full recovery AND that I don’t get that nasty bug.

Sick Central At the Dural Household

Ever since our trip for Thanksgiving Kian has had some stomach issues and wasn’t eating much. Nothing too bad, but it had gone on for over a week. On Friday I decided that if he wasn’t better over the weekend, I was going to take him to the doctor. Well, Saturday that call came to a head Saturday morning with after Kian had his milk – he had a bad case of the stomach flu.

This last weekend we had a lot of plans of things to get done around the house which of course went out the window and piled into this coming weekend. Kian wasn’t able to keep anything down until Sunday morning – we all had a sleepless night on Saturday. Sunday all Kian wanted to do was just cuddle with me and watch “shows” so we watched whatever he wanted and he munched on saltines and sipped watered down apple juice.

The countdown began for me or Jamie to get sick. Jamie is the first casualty. He stayed home sick from work today – this is not something he does unless he’s pretty bad off. Last night when he got home he went straight to bed and has been there pretty much ever since.

I am hoping and praying that somehow I avoid this virus. The EA Christmas party is on Friday and we have already paid for Kian’s spot in the EA daycare for the evening. This is literally the only time that me and Jamie get to go out during the year and thankfully we have the EA daycare to watch him or we wouldn’t get able to do that either.

So, if you are the praying kind say a little prayer for us – that we are all healthy so we can all enjoy a wonderful evening on Friday night.

Cars - The Movie

Kian has a new love. The Disney/Pixar Cars. Before we left for our big trip for Thanksgiving, we bought him the movie and planned to let him start watching it on the trip. Well, he watched it a few times in the car and this morning he asked to watch it – for the SECOND time just now! This is the first movie he’s actually sat down and watched (well for the most part) during the slower parts of the movie he plays with his toys but the exciting parts he actually sits down and watches. I think that we will be able to take him to the theater the next time a good movie for him comes out :)

Right now I am trying to do some researching into different toys related to the movie. Kian enjoys playing with his cars more than anything else in his toy box and since the movie is well…cars I think he will love them :)

Our Thanksgiving :)

So, we are back from Mayberry – I mean Ferndale, CA ;) (Martin calls it Mayberry so it’s okay hehe) Kian did AWESOME on the trip thanks to our DVD player and several movies. We got up there around dinner time on Wednesday (took us about 7 hours to get there because of several stops and really intense rain for part of the drive in the mountains). Of course when we got there Kian just wanted to walk around and not sit in his chair to wait for our food at Curley’s. We did meet up with Jon and Ester (the people who hosted Thanksgiving dinner, own a part of Full Sail, and have a recording studio in Ferndale that Martin is the audio engineer for). I was too busy wrangling Kian and trying to eat the same time to really be able to converse with everyone but heard bits and pieces here and there. Upon walking the half block back to Martin’s place he told us that Eater opened the “parsonage” to us and we would probably be more comfortable staying there. Just catty-corner from Martin’s place is a BIG, old church that Jon and Ester own along with the parsonage behind it. Let me tell ya, when I think of a parsonage I think of simple living, small place but this was QUITE the contrary! It is a Victorian home but has been restored on the inside completely! We were MORE than comfortable there and felt very blessed by Jon and Ester for opening this house to us – pretty much complete strangers.

Thursday there was quite a crowd at “the ranch” (a 19 bedrood 19 bathroom place!!). It’s on top of a mountain that overlooks the ocean. Kian had a great time running around outside on the vast land, playing with the pool table, and trying to love on Ester’s little dog named Lilly. Turkey dinner was AMAZING! Ester and several helpers cooked everything for the 20 some crowd. It was an amazing meal :)

Friday we got up and had breakfast at Papa Joe’s. A bit of a longer walk this time (instead of a half block it was 2 hehe) and we had an AMAZING breakfast there. It was one of those places that offers just a few things on the menu but each one is awesome! I guess a lot of the ranchers go there after they are done milking their cows. Oh yeah, this area is definitely a big part of the dairyland of California. I felt like I was in Wisconsin with the amount of cows we saw. It was very odd to see cows grazing and the ocean waves rolling in the behind them!

After eating breakfast we walked down the main street in Ferndale and looked at shops (most of which had pieces of paper taped to the windows that said “Closed Thursday through Sunday Happy Thanksgiving!” Ferndale is a cute little town :)

After our short walk home we headed up to the studio to check it out. This place is AMAZING…I think our tour lasted about 2 hours to cover the whole place with stories and everything. That place is amazing! The artists and record pretty much anywhere in the house (including the bathroom!) for different sounds. And it’s not only a studio but it feels like a house that has a lot to do so the artists and those working with them will feel comfortable. There is even a chef that works up there to cook for those who are working! I know I am not even giving this place justice in what I am saying – it’s so amazing I’m not even sure where to start or how to talk about it lol!

We left late Friday afternoon. We were all pretty tired and I’m sure Kian was sick of hearing no touch all the time. Kian did great in the car again – that is until we would stop and let him stretch his legs. He didn’t want to get back in the car…poor guy! We got home in just under 5 hours! Thanks to not a lot of traffic, no rain, and not a lot of stops (Kian’s dinner consisted of dried fruit, toddler crackers, and Kix washed down with some whole milk so we wouldn’t have to stop for over a half hour for him to eat).

I think we were all happy to be home and sleeping in our own beds (Toby included). Kian was up an hour earlier than normal – he was doing that when we were in Ferndale – and he went to bed about an hour and half later than usual so today is our recovery day. But we all had a great time and were very happy to spend the holiday with family :)

Friends and Thanksgiving :)

We had a wonderful visit with my friend Jen and her three little boys. Kian did amazingly well sharing his toys. Since we don’t have many little ones visiting our house, I wondered if he might have issues with sharing. At times he did but in general he was into the sharing deal :)

Thursday her and her husband traveled back to Phoenix. It was about a 12 hour drive – although I wish it were only 12 minutes! Everyone seemed to have a really good time. I know I enjoyed the company a lot!

Being an introvert, I was kind of tired when they left (getting energy from spending time alone). Physically tired but emotionally rejuvenated. We really need to try to meet up again in 2007 for sure!

We Have a Place to Go for Thanksgiving!

I thought this Thanksgiving would be the first that we spent alone. I was geared up for it and mentally had planned a menu of Thanksgiving foods but on a smaller scale (thanks to some brainstorming I did with my mom!)

Well, last week Jamie’s cousin Martin called and invited us to have Thanksgiving with him and some friends! It will be about a 6 hour trip north – not including stops. This will be the first time we made a trip like this with Kian so we are geared up for many stops and have a TripTik printed off from the AAA website to help us in planning those stops. We have also geared up with some new DVDs for Kian to enjoy on the trip along with a new book so hopefully those things will keep him occupied for the most part. We will also have Toby in tow as well! So it will be a family affair with furbies and all lol We are really looking forward to it leaving tomorrow morning!

Kian update and Special Visitors!

Kian is doing much, much better. I think he had some sort of 24 hour virus or something last weekend. He’s definitely back to himself!

Wednesday was our last day of our class (Terrific Two’s) until January. Since Saturday is Veteran’s Day, the teacher brought in flags and played a marching song for us to march around the room and have the kids wave their flags. She allowed the kids to bring home the flags if they wanted – Kian has had the greatest time dancing around and playing with his flag! Isn’t it funny how they love to play with the simplest things even though they have a toy box full of toys.

On a different note, we are gearing up for some special visitors this weekend! When I was pregnant I started posting on a message board for mom’s who were due in May 2004. That group has stayed together and I have made some good friends. Well, one of the mom’s is coming to our area! Her husband has some business in the Bay Area and he is going to drop off his family (her and their three boys) so we can spend the next 5 days together! I am so very excited to finally meet my friend, Jen, in person and for Kian to have a playmate :) We have plans to go to the zoo and take them to EA for a tour. Jen has two older boys and one is very into video games so I figured this would be a very neat thing for her guys to do :)

Speaking of visitors, I have been trying to straighten and clean our house since it’s been neglected a bit due to a sick kid and lack of motivation. I am so looking forward to having some good conversation over a few cups of coffee every day next week :)

Update on Kian

We just got back from seeing Kian’s Ped. He is fine. Has a bit of fluid in one of his ears but we are to continue his antibiotic until it’s gone. He had the beginnings of an ear infection about a month ago and I am pretty sure it was in the same ear.

We were told by Urgent Care more than once that Kian needed to see his doctor on Monday or Tuesday. So that’s why I made the appointment. But I was asked at least three times if he was still sick – it seemed to me like the lady was wondering why the heck we were there if he wasn’t still sick. I figure I’m paying to come in here to make sure he’s rechecked out because I didn’t really trust that yahoo in the UC that looked at him (he said that Kian’s vomit was spit up…2 ½ year olds don’t spit up anymore and when he looked in Kian’s ear he looked at it like 2 feet from his head like the guy needed bifocals or something…so I just wanted to make sure he was ok).

So, as I am sitting in the waiting room I finally get a chance to look over the paperwork that Urgent Care gave us. It says that we didn’t have to see Kian’s Ped unless his symptoms continued! Huh? No wonder why they lady berated me about coming in :(

The doctor we saw was not Kian’s normal one…just the one that sees sick kids for the day. She was nice and answered all my questions.

Before we ended the visit I asked her if she could sign a form for our electric company for having Kian’s HEPA purifier running in his room 24 hours a day 7 days a week (the form gives us a discount on our electricity since it’s a medical need for him to have it). Of course I didn’t look at the form before I gave it to her so I fumbled over the paper work. She asked me a million questions and seemed like she wasn’t going to sign it at all! It’s just a form for his HEPA thing…it’s not like I’m making it up! I think she talked to me for about 5 minutes asking me why we didn’t get rid of our pets, telling me he needs a physical, telling me we need his medical records (which they have), asking if he’s been hospitalized for his asthma….this went on for at least 5 minutes! After giving her answers for everything, pointing out that she has all his past medical records, explaining that he has been in the ER for an asthma attack…she signed the darn thing! Before she left the room I wanted to make sure I was clear that I needed to set up an appointment for a physical (since she asked 4 times I was sure she wanted him to have one but I wanted to ask HER this time). She asked if he had his two year visit yet. I said yes he did, in May….she said “well, your insurance won’t pay for it until next year so you can do it then” HUH?

So now I feel like the village idiot at our Ped’s office. Although we were doing what we were told to do. If any lesson is learned here, it’s to read paperwork! GRR! This weekend was not a fun one and it was rather busy…but still I should have made time to look all this junk over. It might have saved me the humiliation.

My Sick Kian :(

Yesterday was our first trip to the ER for the year. Kian spiked a high fever suddenly when we were on our way to go shopping yesterday. He was really clingy and moaned and whined a lot…which is so not like him. He wouldn’t drink or eat anything either which was concerning to me since I was afraid he might be getting dehydrated.

I finally was able to get him to lay down in his crib and he took a nap. We weren’t able to get the fever down with Tylenol and after his nap he felt very hot still. I had heard that alternating Tylenol with Motrin can help reduce a high fever. So I gave him some Motrin and Jamie and I headed to the Urgent Care center…it’s closer than the ER.

On the way over to Urgent Care he drank an entire sippy cup of diluted juice. Once we got there he started acting a bit more normal and of course by the time he was assessed his fever was gone. On the way back to see the doctor I discover that Kian had vomited on his blanket while he was sleeping…it was dry but I know it wasn’t there before. I notified the doctor of it and he wrote it off as spit up…last time I checked a 2 ½ year old doesn’t spit up anymore! But he did discover that Kian had fluid in his ears and had the beginnings of an ear infection. So, we went home with a script for antibiotics. At least we are tackling the ear infection and since we need to see our Ped on Monday I feel much better....especially because I really trust our Ped.

When we came home he ate a late lunch – early dinner and drank a little bit more. About an hour or two later he didn’t seem to be himself again. His fever was returning. Right before bed I could give him more Motrin so I did that. We also gave him a cool bath…which he did not like but we felt it was best with his fever to do that. He went to sleep quickly and we checked on him every half hour to an hour to make sure his fever wasn’t rising. I even got up at 2AM, when he would need more meds, and made sure he was feeling ok. His head felt fine.

This morning Kian woke up crying. He didn’t feel warm but it was apparent he didn’t feel well either. He didn’t want me to let go of him at all. He didn’t want to go downstairs or do anything that he normally does. After rocking with him a bit I was able to tell him that we would go downstairs and I carried him down. He saw his milk and ran over to drink it. I thought he was ok. Jamie went out to get the paper and I got Kian’s antibiotic ready. When I started to give him his meds, he screamed…this is not even close to normal for him as he’s a great medicine taker and these meds taste more like candy than anything. I asked Jamie to help me when he got back inside and Kian started to vomit (sorry for the TMI!). Luckily it ended up on clothes and was easy to clean up.

Jamie and I got a quick bath ready for Kian and we both changed. After getting Kian calmed down we gave him some saltines. At first he didn’t want them but when I showed him they were squares he was very interested hehe I knew that they would help to calm is tummy down. He ate a few crackers and had some more diluted juice. Since then he has been very much like himself. He only wants to eat those square crackers though. But I figure that when I am sick only certain things sound good to me. So, he’s had about half a package of saltines this morning (which about ¼ has been shared with Toby).

I’m just hoping that it’s only up hill from here! I will try to update again when I have some news. Hopefully it’s only good news from here on out!