Ethan's holday program

Last night, Ethan had his annual holiday program at school. Last year he was an elf and this year he was a reindeer. He sang all the songs and knew all the words. He even did the dances that the teachers had taught them. It was adorable. He sang:

We wish you a Merry Christmas

Must be Santa

Jingle Bells

Rodulph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Here are a few pictures and a couple videos for the folks who could not make it to the performance.

Ethan's buddy Anjali was a goose.

November 2007

Hi again! Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Here are some recent pictures of the holiday weekend. None of the guys really wanted to take pictures - oh well! We had fun though - we ate a ton of food and played board games and the Nintendo Wii.























We also went to Christmas in the park with Mai-An and Christine. Christine and I grew up together - you may have seen some of her pictures posted here. And Mai-An and Zoe were born just a few apart so it has been neat to see them grow up together.



























Here are a few more pictures of Zoe and Ethan and a short video of the kids dancing. As most of you probably know, I love to dance so its fun to see the kids enjoying one of my favorite things!

All grown up

Over the past weekend, we found this really cool software that can show you how you'll look 20 years later. It was so cool. You put in a current picture and then answer some questions, like - how old you are in the picture and DOB etc. You also have to describe some of your eating habits, sleep habits, exercise regime, and also answer some questions about heredity. After going thru a 20 minute Q&A session, it spits out a picture which shows you how you'll look in 20 years. Its amazing! We did one for Ethan and one for Zoe. Both pictures were so realistic. I think the most astonishing was Zoe's picture. Most people already think she looks like John, but after these results, I'm definitely convinced - they are practically twins! Even Ethan's picture, looks a lot less like me and so much more like John. Check it out:
































Hahahaha - Gotcha!

Halloween 2007

Halloween was fun. A little spooky and a little cooky! Check out the pumpkins we carved. Ethan helped mommy clean out the pumpkins. Daddy did all of the pumpkin carving!

Ta Da!!!! You can tell we got tired of carving because we only carved two of the three pumkins!

Batman pumpkin

Spider pumpkin

Most people weren't surprised to find out that Ethan was going to be Spiderman for Halloween. He was so excited to try on his costume. He has waited weeks - we bought the costume early so he has been admiring since we bought it.

Here he is still Peter Parker...

Now he is SPIDERMAN!

Spiderman and Wonderwoman...are they the new dynamic duo?

Even Zoe enjoyed getting dressed up. Once she saw her Kuya in her costume, she was excited to be ... Wonderwoman!


Trick or Treat!

Zoe and Grandpa trying to get in on that candy!

Isabelle and Ethan hoping to get lots of candy...

Grandma Del's birthday

We celebrated Grandma Del's birthday (my mom) on Sunday, Oct 28 at PF Chang's for lunch. The food was delicious (evidenced by the picture of Zoe licking her plate clean below). Most of us were feeling sick that day but we had a lot of fun watching the kids act silly (see Ethan's picture with Kix cereal in his nose, and John's goofy picture face).

See the Kix in his nostril? What a crazy kid! I wonder who he gets that from..me or John?

Can you tell Zoe liked the food too?

first Earthquake for the kids

Although California is known for their earthquakes, luckily, we don't have them often. In fact, last night, Zoe and Ethan felt their very first Earthquake. It was measured at a magnitude 5.6 and struck at 8:04PM and was felt for about almost a minute widely throughout Northern California, rattling homes and nerves. It was centered in the South Bay about 5 miles northeast of Alum Rock in San Jose. There was moderate damage reported in the Bay Area but no injuries. John and I were at the Warrior game and the kids were at home with Grandma Del. Zoe didn't really notice. Ethan was a little scared and started to cry. But after the shaking was finished, he was back to his happy self! A few things flew off the shelves but nothing broke at our house.

On other news, Zoe was sick last week. After having a high fever for several days, I took her to the doctor. It turned out to be pneumonia! She was given antibiotics which she is still taking now. Her asthma was acting up as well. Last Thursday, she kept vomiting and was having a really hard time breathing. Her whole chest was moving and her nostrils were flaring as she tried to breathe so John took her to the ER to make sure she was ok. She was given oxygen and a shot with the antibiotics (since she kept throwing the medicine up). She is doing much better now. In fact, she is dressed up as Wonder woman today at school for Halloween. I'll post some pictures tomorrow - so check it out!

first steps

Last week Zoe took her first steps, literally. She took 2 steps. Today at school, her teacher reported that she took another two steps. And when we got home...Zoe continued to try to walk. But this time, she took 3 to 5 steps at a time. We attempted to get her steps on camera but couldn't get a "great" shot. We did get a couple "decent" shots and since I am too excited to wait for a better shot, here is a short video of Zoe taking some of her first steps:

Pumpkin patch

We went to a great pumpkin patch this past weekend with the Patel family. Sana and Ethan had fun playing with the rocks and jumping on the hay stacks. Zoe and Sai had fun chasing after the big kids. There were lots of rides too. We went on some of them including the cow train, a regular train, and the haystack ride. We had lunch there and even had snow cones! We picked out our pumpkins (a big one for Ethan, and a smaller one for Zoe). Now that we found this great big pumpkin patch, we'll never be able to go to the little pumpkin patches again.

Here we are on the train ride. Looks like Ethan is hiding behind daddy's shadow...can you see him?

Zoe and mommy waiting to get on a ride.

Ethan and Sana...cheezing it up!

The Patel family...our good friends who were actually the ones who found this place! You can see Sai and Dharti in the back and Sana and Chirag in the front.

Update on the kids

Since it was a while since I was able to post on the blog, I decided to do a quick update on the kids:

Ethan:

• Likes to wear socks (sometimes even dirty socks) on his hands and pretend they are gloves:

• Still loves Batman and Spiderman. It is pretty much the first thing he thinks of in the morning and the last thing he thinks of at night.
  
• Also loves to sing and dance. We've recently discovered that he has rhythm which made me soooo happy. (Girls love boys who can dance.) But not only does he love to dance, but he loves to create his own songs and do remixes with old songs. John does this a lot so Ethan must have learned it from him. Ethan will even beat box and add his own sounds to songs. We haven't been able to get Ethan to do it on camera but let me tell you, it is so cool!! He truly loves music which makes his daddy soooo happy!
  
• Likes spoons. Likes to carry them-usually one in each hand. I think he prefers small, plastic ones. Our god son, Teo loved knives when he was young which we thought was kinda odd. But Ethan, well, likes spoons.

Zoe:

• Like her brother, Zoe loves to dance too. In fact, I'd say she dances more then Ethan. She has quite a few different moves too. She used to just bop her head up and down. But she also waives her two pointer fingers in the air while bopping her head up and down. AND she also sways left to right and right to left while she bops her head and waives her pointer fingers in the air. Its so adorable.



• We've also noticed that she is a girly girl. She loves to brush her hair and try my barretts in her hair. And when she has a barrett in her hair - she just poses, smiles and batts her eyes! Man - I have a feeling that we're in trouble with this little girl!!!



• She isn't 100% girly girl though. She "webs" people too (ya know, like Spiderman). Ethan taught her that of course! But instead of using three fingers to web, she only webs you with her pointer finger. She makes the shooting sound (kinda sounds like "pssssstttt"..its so funny.
She had her 12 month check up. She is 18 lbs and 11 oz (15%ile) and is 25%ile in height and her head is now 33%ile. Her head grew from 5% to 33% from her last checkup. But thats the only thing that really grew a lot. Her weight and height were about the same percentile.. She is still petite but definitely growing.








• About a month ago, Zoe learned how to stand up by herself. Before that, she needed something to help pull up on. But as of last week, she officially took her first couple of steps! We were so excited!!! She has only taken two steps at a time but she is getting braver and braver. She should be walking before we know it!!
  Anyway, thats it for now! More to come...

Zoe's First Birthday

It has been so long since I've updated the blog. I've been wanting to but have been so busy with work and planning for the Zoe's party and getting ready for my family's visit the week of Zoe's party.

On Sept 22, we celebrated Zoe's first birthday. The party was scheduled to be at a local park. We chose the park because I figured it would still be warm at the end of Sept. But I was wrong! It rained the day of the party. It didn't rain the few days before and the days after the party but it rained the DAY of the party. So at 8AM - we had to change the location of the party to our home. It was a pretty hectic morning but luckily the family pulled together and we were ready for the 11:30AM party to begin. My dad and Tita Aida, Jason, James (my brothers) and Annie (James' girlfriend) really helped us get the house in order. And John's dad and brother Manuel even picked up the food for us. All of this really helped! (So if you guys are reading this - thank you so much!!!)

Although our home was a little cramped with the 68 guests that came to celebrate...the party still turned out great. I think everyone enjoyed themselves!! We had a magician do a magic/juggling show and make balloon animals for the kids. We also had a caricaturist come and draw cartoons of our guests (that was a big hit)! Some of the drawings turned out so good!!! We had a pinata for the kids and sang happy birthday to my smiling baby!

Here are some pictures from the party:

Here we are (Ethan is too busy playing to pose for a picture) just as the party was starting.

Here are some of our guests enjoying the magic show.

Happy birthday to little Zoe who is obviously enjoying her party!

Zoe had a special cake - without eggs and milk (which she is allergic to). This is the first time she ate cake so she doesn't really know what she is missing. Hopefully she will outgrow the allergy so she can enjoy the sweets her mommy and kuya love so much!

Here are some pictures of Zoe on her actual birthday, Sept 24th. Still exhausted from the party, we decided to eat at dinner at home. But we went out for ice cream and sang happy birthday to Zoe.
Ethan decided that ice cream doesn't always have to be eaten with a spoon!

See her candle? We just got done singing and she is ready to try the ice cream!