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!

Disneyland

Last week, we went to LA to watch the AVP Manhattan Open Volleyball tournament with some of our good friends. This is a very special tournament for us - its not only beautiful but it is also where John proposed to me - 5 years ago. So we just love Manhattan Beach!

Ethan's actual b-day
On August 11th, Ethan turned 3 years old officially. We spent the day at Manhattan Beach in LA with our good friends Jen and Rommel (and their three kids, Nia, Teo and Emilee). That evening our friends hooked us up with a great BBQ and we had cake and ice cream to celebrate Ethan's birthday. We opened gifts and then Nia and Erisijah performed a dance for us. It was a dance they had choreographed themselves - it was fun and we all got a kick out of watching them perform! Even little Emilee did a little dance! Ethan started to dance a little bit too but ended up getting shy so he stopped. But he had a great birthday!

From left to right - Teo, Emilee (making a funny face), Ethan (the birthday boy), Nia, Zoe and Yaya...

See, even Zoe loved the beach...

Mommy - check us out - we love the sand!

Yaya and Nia - they just met but looks like they've known eachother for years.

Disneyland and California Adventure

On Sunday afternoon, after the volleyball tournament, we headed to our hotel across the street from Disneyland. We were meeting John's family, almost entire family, at the hotel. There were 15 of us in total!! We went to Downtown Disneyland that evening and hung out near the hotel, had dinner and went swimming. The next day, we headed to Disneyland - the happiest place on earth (truly, it is)! We had such a great time! We went on lots of rides and just had FUN FUN FUN. We saw "Fantasmic" and the "Parade of Dreams" and some of the "Dreams Come True Fireworks" and really enjoyed ourselves. We spent the entire day there - we got there when they opened and stayed til 11:30PM (except for the two hour nap - which we ALL needed, not just the kids). I think we all had more fun than we expected.

The next day, we went to California Adventure for half a day. We went on some kiddie rides and then did a little bit of shopping. Ethan and Zoe were starting to get tired and cranky, so John and I went back with the kids to our room. The others stayed to ride some of the bigger rides. After the much needed nap, we all met up and spent the rest of the day at Disneyland.

Some of our favorite rides were:

-Its a Small World - a classic Disneyland ride!
-Indiana Jones Adventure- such a cool ride. Only Erisijah and all the big kids (like me and John) went on this ride. Disney did a great job with this one! This one was probably my favorite.
-Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - fun and scary! I'd never been on this one before - was fun!!!

Here we are - all of us! This might be one of the only pictures we got of all of us!

Carla and Isa(belle)

Grandma, Yaya and some of the boys

Ethan, Yaya and I - on the Nemo ride!

A bunch of rowdy Castillos...

Babbess...wishing she was on the float with Ariel (the little mermaid)...

Ethan and Yaya visiting Mini at her house in Toontown.

Zoe and her Ninong Jeremy (Zoe is trying on her ears to make sure they fit well).

John, Ethan, Zoe and myself...

Sleeping in his own room
Now that Ethan is three years old, it was time for us to move him out of our bedroom and into his own bedroom. Actually, he and Zoe are sharing a room for now. We thought long and hard about it whether or not they should share a room. We weren't sure if they'd wake each other up or if it was okay since they are different sexes. But there were lots of benefits of them sharing. So, we decided that we'd try it! The first night, they both woke up a couple times each. Ethan wanted to come back into our bed and at about 5AM, I finally gave in. I didn't want him to wake up his sister and I was tired of getting out of bed to tell him to sleep a little longer. But, 5AM is not too bad. Plus I missed him. The second night went better - they woke eachother up twice total. Ethan didn't show up in our room until 7AM so that was pretty good! We'll see how the rest of the week goes...

Ethan's 3rd birthday party

We celebrated Ethan's third birthday last weekend. Ethan invited about twenty kids - 16 kids his age and a few cousins. Most of the kids were three year olds who go to school with him. We did a Batman themed party at My Gym (a place - kinda like a gym, where kids can climb, jump, run, tumble and play). They had a puppet show, played games, chased bubbles, and acted silly. Obviously the kids had a great time! We had some snacks, refreshments and Batman cupcakes for the parents. Here are some of the pictures from the party:

Company party

Last weekend we went to my company party. It was a great time - they had it at the San Mateo Event Center and as always, they did it UP! They had all you can eat food (burgers, chicken, hot dogs, etc etc etc), drinks (alcohol and non-alcoholic), ice cream, popcorn, churros, cotton candy. They also had tons of carnival games, rides for kids and adults, and lots of arts and crafts and other things to keep everyone entertained. It was a beautiful day, although a little on the hot side. The rides were long so standing under the sun felt even warmer! But we all still had a great time!

Jaekob is driving this Yahoo race car...okay, well maybe not exactly!

They all went on this ride - the bath tub races! Ethan helped John steer too! And I think Jaekob was the one who won the race!

Yaya has a butterfly on her face. It looked very pretty in person because it had lots of glitter!

Ethan is OCD about spider-man so his face is painted with a big spider and two spider webs. He loved it and DID not want to wash it off at the end of the day!Ethan is on a paddle boat all by himself. Erisijah and Jaekob had their own paddle boats too!

The next couple weeks will be busy. We have Ethan's 3rd birthday coming up, our 4 year wedding anniversary, and a big Disneyland trip with the Castillo family. So hopefully I'll get some great pictures to share on the blog.