Baby Boom

July 5, 2006

I'm not sure if it's the water, the climate crisis, or maybe we're all just getting old, but damn, there are a lot of people having babies these days.

My sister had twins, my friend CK had a baby girl, and now our good friends, Adam and Arissa, have announced that they are expecting a little Suzuki-Mehta-Duschenes-Ketcheson. They are due January 15, 2007.

As much as we love Adam (tall and goofy), I hope the little one looks like Arissa (petite and "smokin' hot" as Adam tells everyone).

Independence Day

July 5, 2006

With both Monday and Tuesday off from work due to July 4th/Independence Day celebrations, I hung out in San Jose with my mom, uncles/aunts, and sister's family. I was able to see cute little babies, hang out with Olivia, help out at the house to prepare for the babies to come home in the next week or so, and sleep on an incredibly uncomfortable couch. Ahh, joyous family time.

My uncle painting with Olivia

On Tuesday morning, it was time for my mom to head back to Canada. She's coming back at the beginning of August for two weeks to spend more time with the new babies, but alas, the babies are not home yet and she's got lots to do at home!

I dropped off my mom at SFO and then headed back to the city to try and organize my life (yikes!). Around 6 pm, I trekked down the hill to Abe's casa to meet up with Kenny. Kenny and I were Fisherman's Wharf-bound...crazy, I know. But we were meeting up with two Spanish girls that he had met traveling in Barcelona, that were in town to check out SF for a few days. Shaun Webb was also heading to that general area and was nice enough to give us a ride (thanks to Frodo's...I mean, Robert's wheels).

We met up with the Spanish guests, Patricia and Noria, at Barnes and Noble on Bay St., whereupon I got a lovely vente soy chai latte for the road. From there, we wandered amidst the people/tourists/street performers/bums that were present en masse. We popped into the Amusing America exhibit (admission is free!) at Musee Mecanique at Pier 45, which includes the Playland collection of 175 antique coin-operated machines that were re-located from Cliff House. We spent a good amount of time and approximately $3 playing with a random assortment of games.

For some reason, Kenny kept spending money on the "love" machines, trying to predict his "love style"...

We discovered that they have bowling games at the Musee Mecanique!!!:






Skee-ball!!!




More bowling games!!!

I took a crack at the Arm Wrestling game, famously featured in "The Princess Diaries" with Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews.

Yeah, apparently, it doesn't matter which level you pick, I tried "Lightweight" and then "Bantam" (lowest level), and it still pretty much tried to rip my arm off.

After leaving the Musee Mecanique, we wandered around, watched a long-winded street performer juggle a hatchet, knife and fire torch, and then went over to In-And-Out burger for the girls to get a quite bite. Surprisingly, the massive line moved quite quickly, and as Kenny pointed out "It should move pretty quick, they only have 3 things on the menu!"

From Fisherman's Wharf, we walked up Columbus and then up Lombard Street toward Coit Tower, where we intended to watch the July 4th fireworks display. We ended up at the base of the Coit Tower steps, as the parking circle at the top was thick with folks already and there was not much viewing to be had up there. But we had a pretty decent spot, as you could also see the fireworks show that was happening in Berkeley as well.

Fireworks as seen from the base of Coit Tower at Lombard Street:

(Note to self: Little digicams with 3X optical zoom don't really take good firework photos at night).

After the fireworks show, we met up with Shaun Webb and a bunch of other folks, who were hanging out at Ashley Simon's sweet pad in North Beach, just down the south slope of Coit Tower. Ashley lives on a teeny little street called Darrell, that is accessible only by stairs...ick!

You can't really see it here, but Ashley's view is killer!

Alas, it was a school night, so by 11 pm, we were sleepy and needed to head home. North Beach was post-fireworks chaotic, so we walked through Chinatown to Union Square to catch a cab home. Thankfully, it was a lovely night last night and the stroll was not unwelcome.

Hope you all had a great Independence Day!

Oh, Say Can You See!?!

July 3, 2006

FRIDAY

It's been a hairy week, with insane work responsibilities, family in town, and baby twins being born...thank goodness for an extra-long weekend!

Will's brother, John, and his wife, Emily, were in town from New Zealand as of Thursday night, and it was great to catch up with them after so long. (Last time I had seen them was over three years ago at their wedding!). Will and I hung out with John and Emily on Thursday night for dinner at Sunflower for vietnamese food.

On Friday afternoon, I got out of work by 3 pm to head down to San Jose to see Angie and the twins at the Good Sam hospital. Angie was recovering nicely from her C-section and would be in the hospital until Sunday. The twins were slated to stay in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for another week or so, depending on their development, as they were still playing catch-up after coming out early. My mom was also in town as of Thursday night, and had perfect timing to see the new babies.

Angie was able to take my mom and I into the NICU to see the babies. Both Charlotte and Simon were hanging out in incubators, known as "condos", as they were on constant monitoring for their vital signs. Charlotte was slightly ahead of the development curve than Simon, as Simon was still not able to feed from a bottle and had an IV.

Simon in his condo

While we were there, we were all able to hold Charlotte:









After hanging out with the babies, I ran some errands with mom, dropped her back at my sister's house, played with Olivia, and then headed back to the city.

SATURDAY

On Saturday morning, Will, John, Emily and I got up and on the road by 10:30 am so that we could head out to Marin for one of my favorite all-time hikes. This specific hike starts at Stinson Beach, heads up through Muir Woods towards Mt. Tam State Park on the Matt Davis Trail, and then takes the Steep Ravine Trail and briefly on the Dipsea Trail to finish up a 7.3 mile loop back at Stinson Beach.







It took us just over 2.5 hours to finish the loop, which was a great hike and the weather was perfect. After the hike, we headed over to the Stinson Beach Grill for a post-hike rejuvenating meal on the patio. I had a pretty fantastic crab salad sandwich that just hit the spot.

We drove back to the city for a bit more rest and caught up with Tivo, which recorded the first day of the Tour de France for John and Emily, while Will and I watched the overtime and shoot-out goals in the England vs. Portugal World Cup Soccer quarter-final game.

By late afternoon, we were raring to get out of the house again. We headed over to Daly City to Serra Bowl for an early evening bowling session.

SUNDAY

On Sunday morning, I had a nice sleep-in, but only after I dropped off Will at the airport at 7 am. Will was catching a flight to Vancouver for a wedding in Langley. He's spending the week in Vancouver before he flies to Calgary, where I'll meet him, for Ath and Kristi's wedding (yikes! Wedding season!).

John, Emily and I headed out to the Outer Richmond for dim sum at Yet Wah on Clement St. We managed to get a table within 5 minutes and enjoyed some hai gow, siu mai, and all the other all-time favorite dim sum dishes for John and Emily to get their dim-sum-fix.

I dropped off John and Emily at SFO so that they could head out to Denver for visits with Emily's family. From SFO, I kept going on Hwy 101 toward twin babies in San Jose!

Angie came home from the hospital around 2 pm on Sunday. I went to their house and caught up with my mom. By 8 pm, I went with Angie over to the NICU to see the babies.

The babies had high bilirubin levels, so they were under special lights to help break down the excess bilirubin. So the two adorable babies get to "sun" themselves under these light and they have little protective goggles to protect their eyes.

Baby Simon:

Baby Charlotte:

Relaxed Charlotte sunning herself under the bilirubin lights

Charlotte flipped over to her front to "sun" her back.

The babies are slowly getting stronger and healthier. They have to be in the NICU until they go 5 consecutive days without a "spell". The babies were two weeks early, so they could be in the NICU until they're closer to full term.

I can't wait until we can hold them ad nauseum!