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...