Stand up and say hello!

Lately, Zoe has really started becoming a big girl. She has been able to pull herself up onto her feet while holding a chair or her crib railing. She doesn't know how to get back down yet so she usually just screams to let us know that she is done standing. She also waives hello and goodbye and even claps her hands! It is so much fun to watch them grow up into little people. And to think, in a couple months, Zoe might even be walking!

Check out Zoe as she stands and then waives. The video is a little long but just hang in there - her little "hello" waive is worth the wait. (Oh, Ethan makes a short appearance in the video - he is playing with plastic tongs from the kitchen, in case you are wondering.)

The Boardwalk

As many of you know, Ethan loves Batman. Here, Ethan is showing off his new Batman PJs. He is showing off his cape in the first picture and "flying" in the second picture.

This weekend was lots of fun! We went to the Boardwalk on Sunday with Jaekob and Erisijah. The weather was beautiful so we really enjoyed ourselves. We had lunch, played some games, went on rides and then played in the sand for a little while.

Here is Zoe in her little summer dress. You can see her tooth in this picture. She already has another tooth coming in although you can't see it in this picture. She just turned 9 months old and is pulling herself up on things and is anxious to walk. They grow so fast!

Ethan is enjoying his ice cream cone here on the beach. He made such a mess but I guess thats what little kids do!

We all went on a train ride. The boys sat in the front and the girls sat in the back. Check it out...

Our weekend

It was a very fun but well...eventful weekend... First, Jaekob and Erisijah (John's neice and nephew) and John's brother James came from Virginia. We went swimming on Saturday at our house (see pictures below). Then on Sunday, it was Father's day...so we took John out for a nice breakfast and headed to the park so Ethan and John could play soccer and play in the playground.

After the park, I got a pedicure - it was a great father's day present for ME. Later in the afternoon, we went to Brian's (John's cousin's) high school graduation party. There was a ton of great food and we all had fun. Zoe tried some buttered bread and seemed to really enjoy it. Unfortunately, it did not sit well with her - she ended up having an allergic reaction (red hives all over her body) and had to be taken to the emergency room. Okay, so Daddy didn't have the most relaxing Father's day after all...but we're just happy that Zoe is okay. We're not sure what caused the reaction because there were a lot of people handling Zoe and lots of different foods on the table - including some nuts. We're going to have be very careful...looks like Zoe has allergies like her Kuya Ethan, Mommy and Tito Jason.

Today, Zoe started her new daycare (same as Ethan's school). When I dropped her off this AM, she didn't seem to happy about being left with her new teacher. But she did seem to be interested in all the other kids crawling around. So hopefully they keep her occupied. The next few days might be hard for little Zoe but she will get used to it and eventually enjoy being there (like her brother does!).


Erisijah aka Yaya and Ethan at Brian's graduation party







Zoe sitting in a high chair - yes, she turned herself all the way around...

Jaekob and Zoe playing while the others were still in the pool

Yaya just about to get into the pool

Ethan, Jaekob and John's cousin Brian hangin out in the pool

Father's Day breakfast

Ethan just gave Daddy his present.

Picture of Daddy, Ethan (and yes, me too).

Ethan invited John to the Father's Day celebration at his school. They had breakfast together and then Ethan gave his Daddy a very cool card (with a happy face in it that was drawn by Ethan himself) and a DVD with some pictures of him and his classmates.

On your mark, get set, GO!

Last weekend, we went to visit our friends Christine and Jeff in Oakland. They have a baby girl, Mai-An, just three weeks older than Zoe. We had lunch and walked around in the Rockridge area. While we were at their house, Zoe and Mai-An had a little crawling race to see who could get to the remote control first.


As you can see, Mai-An won the race. Mai-An was such a quick crawler but wasn't too motivated by the remote. So, Mai-An may have won the race but Zoe won the remote!

Check out Mai-An's blog - actually, her blog was the blog that inspired me to start this blog.


Here is another shot of the crawling race! And yes, it was actually Batman (aka Ethan) who beat all of us! It was the first time that we let Ethan out in public with his bat gear on...we are hoping he won't insist on wearing it all the time. He is obsessed with Batman and Spiderman these days..before it was Blues Clues, and now its Batman/Spiderman. Its literally all he thinks and talks about. He dreams about it (talks in his sleep even!), reads about it and always plays with Batman/Spiderman toys. I'm sure its a phase but it is so funny how kids - even at this age - know what they like!

Another thing that happened this weekend was - Zoe got her first tooth! Yeah!!! Poor baby has been so miserable and cranky lately and now we can confirm that she was teething! But she isn't only cranky because of teething but she also has stranger anxiety! She is very particular and only wants to be held by mommy, daddy or grandpa. That too should be a phase - but hopefully it ends soon because starting mid June, Zoe is going to join her Kuya at the montessori school he attends. So we'll see how that goes...

May 2007

Now that Zoe is 8 months old, she is starting to drink from her sippy cup and eat three meals of baby food each day in addition to drinking her milk.


Here is a picture of me and Zoe. Surprisingly, I was taking the picture myself.



We celebrated Manuel's 16th birthday at Bill and Carla's house over the weekend. Here is a picture of Ethan and Isabelle smiling for the camera. "Cheese" Its cute how they both have the same silly smile.

Zoe is crawling much more now. She still doesn't get up on all fours when she crawls, instead she kinda does the snake or centipede to get everywhere. Its cute though. She managed to get underneath her jumper.



We went swimming for the first time this summer. Ethan and Zoe both loved it! Ethan swam for hours. Here is a short clip of him swimming...

Mother's Day 2007

Here is a picture of our family, including me and John, on Mother's Day. One of the greatest mother's day gifts that I got was seeing my kids together. They love each other so much and really like to be around each other. Here is a video of Ethan playing with Zoe and hugging and kissing her. And you can see on her face that she just loves being around him.





Daddy and his kids...


Three generations of Docena women...Zoe, me and my mom!