Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Yesterday was Matthew's 6-month mark.  For us, that means starting solids.  Yay!!!

Anna started with carrots and I intended to have Matthew start with that, too, but it didn't turn out that way.  I couldn't find the time to cook the carrots, so we settled for a ready-to-go banana.

Matthew wasn't too thrilled about sitting in the highchair at first.  He kept sliding forward and his head would sink down so low I couldn't get the food in his mouth.  After some adjustments, we got going.

He loved the bananas!  Really, what's not to love about bananas?  He would get so excited about the spoon and food coming toward him, that he would grab the spoon and shove it into his own mouth.  He does push some of the food out of his mouth and he gagged twice, but nothing was really bad.  Nothing that would have us put off solids for longer.

I'm really excited about this step.  It means Steve and I may actually get to go somewhere without the kids!  I'm also hoping it helps fill his tummy so he sleeps longer at night.

Great America

So Steve has been working for the last little bit with a team at work on a product called Chromecast.  It released last Wednesday and as a thank-you for the work everyone did, Google sent us to Great America.  They gave us admission tickets and a parking voucher.  Yay!  We had a family outing all set for us.

We spent the morning at home.  Steve had a little work to get done and we wanted to let Matthew get in a good morning nap.  So, we headed out around 12 and got there around 1.

Anna was in heaven.  We headed first to the double-decker carousel.  She was a little nervous about going up on the top floor so we stayed on the bottom.  She wanted to ride the giraffe, so we rode the giraffe.  She's gotten so independent and didn't want any help.

Later we went up the Star Tower and got a good look at the entire park.  We then took the Delta Flyer across the park to the other end.  We ended the time before lunch with Anna's very first roller coaster ride.  Granted, it was the kiddie roller coaster, but she did it and she LOVED it.  In fact, she went on it twice.

In addition to the tickets, Google provided lunch.  We had hot dogs, BBQ ribs, chips, green salad, potato salad, and roll.  We also had popsicles and soda.  Anna was more interested in the little mushroom house nearby.  I've been telling her some stories about a gnome that lives in a mushroom and she was beside herself to see a gnome home.

After lunch, we headed back to the park.  We stayed mostly in Kidzville and Snoopy Land.  They had rides more appropriate for Anna.  We rode a couple with her, the Great Pumpkin Ride and Sally's Love Bugs, then Anna went solo.  There were a bunch of rides that only let kids on.  After a little confusion about what she was supposed to do, Anna went for it.  She even buckled herself in.

We finally left around 6pm.  Steve and I were exhausted, Matthew was cranky, and Anna was ready to go for round 2.  She had so much fun.

Week in Review: July 22-28

Since this is kind of a history of our family, I've decided to do a weekly review of events.  Usually, I only post big things, but I want some of the more regular things to come through.  So, here it goes...

1.  Homefront:  We've narrowed down the area where we'd like to focus looking for a home.  Morgan Hill.  It's about a 45 minute drive south of San Jose.  We like it because there's a little more room and it's a little quieter.  The next part will be to pick a house, but that will have to wait until the house on Shadybrook sells.

2.  Pioneer Day:  This last Wednesday was Pioneer Day.  Our ward didn't have anything planned, so I decided to organize some activities to celebrate.  During the day, we made homemade butter in jars and did some weaving with yarn and popsicle sticks.  Anna and her friend, Evan, only lasted a couple of minutes.  It was up to Desiree and me to finish up.  For dinner we had homemade cornbread with our butter and a drink from a pioneer cookbook.  The cornbread was yummy, but the only one that liked the drink was Anna because it was so sweet.

3.  Missionaries:  We had the missionaries over for dinner on Thursday and had tacos, Mexican rice, and Black beans.  It's the third time we've had them over.  We're trying to decide if having them over is worth the guilt we feel about missionary work when they leave.

4.  Matthew:  Matthew's big achievement the last couple of weeks is that he's sitting up on his own!  He does very well until he tips too far one way and then down he goes.  He's also doing great at rolling from his tummy to his back.  On the down-side, his nighttime sleeping has gone south again.  He keeps waking up about 4 hours after bedtime.  He used to go 8 hours.  When I don't feed him, he is VERY angry.

5.  Anna:  Anna had so much fun at Mom's Morning Out in the park on Tuesday.  She loved running around with all the kids.  Grandma asked her to say the prayer on the food and she did so well!  She spoke clearly and loudly.  Later that week, I noticed that she is getting shy around strangers.  Anna also loves Nursery.  She has told us several times that she doesn't like having to wait through Sacrament meeting before going.  When I picked her up from Nursery today, she started wailing about how she didn't want to go home.  Oy!

6.  Steve:  Steve is loving work.  He's been spending about 20% of his time working on a new product called Chromecast.  It plugs into your TV and allows you to 'cast' whatever's on your Chrome browser to the TV screen.  You can also throw videos from Netflix and YouTube.  It was released this past Wednesday to the public.  To celebrate the release, Google sent the GoogleTV group to Great America on Friday.  They provided free tickets and parking vouchers.  They also served us lunch.  We had a blast.

7.  Melissa:  I've been reading a lot, lately.  I've joined a book club with Steve's friend, Charles, and his family.  Right now we're reading Rebound Rules by Rick Pitino.  He's a college basketball coach.  It's a motivational, success book.  There are some good ideas, nothing too inovative,  but he talks SO much about basketball and other sports as if I know what he's talking about.  I guess if you were into sports it would be more interesting.  I've also been reading through the kindergarten and first grade curriculum for homeschooling Waldorf-method.  It's been very interesting.  Anna won't start kindergarten for another year and first grade for another 3 years, but it has a lot of things that I could be learning beforehand and ideas of things to do during the 'preschool' years.

Well, there you go.  I hope it wasn't too boring for you to read through.  Until next week!

4th of July

Our first 4th of July in California was pretty good.  Our original intention was to go to a parade with Charles & Desiree at 9am.  However, when we woke up at 6am, tired, we rethought our plans and went back to sleep for a while.

Instead, we had a nice, leisurely breakfast and then headed to the neighborhood park.  It was still early, so the heat hadn't built up yet.  Anna and I found a patch of dandelions with long stems.  We gathered up a few bunches.  I made a flower wreath for Anna's head.  I think that's the first time in years I've made one of those.  Even Matthew modeled it for a bit.

After the park, we had a nice lunch and everyone went down for a nap.  Yay!  I love it when everyone gets to rest all at the same time.

That afternoon, we headed to Charles and Desiree's house for a barbeque.  We thought it would only be us, them, and Desiree's high-school friend.  As it turned out, the friend had a husband and son with her.  We also had a friend that's living with them and her friend with two daughters plus two other friends of Desiree's.  It was quite the group!

There was a lot of talking amongst the adults and a lot of playing amongst the kids.  What I thought was the most impressive about the barbeque was that it was 99% fresh, whole foods!  We had chicken kebobs, natural hot dogs, real chicken brats, fruit salad, homemade bread, fresh pico and guacamole with whole corn chips as well as several other things I can't remember.  We were stuffed with all the good food.

When we got home, Anna took a bath and the kids went to bed.  Fireworks are illegal because of the fire danger, plus the kids were tired.  Steve and I ended the day by watching Day 2 of our Lord of the Rings marathon.

She's Got Wheels

Steve, the kids, and I went to a kids' consignment shop last week to pick up some summer clothes for Anna and Matthew.  While we were there, I saw it.  A balance bike!  I'd been thinking of getting one for Anna for several months, but they can be kind of expensive, $70-$100, and I couldn't quite justify the expense.

For those of you that don't know, a balance bike is a small 2-wheel bicycle with no pedals.  It moves by the child pushing it with their feet, which can reach the ground.  The idea is that the child will learn to balance on two wheels without the need for training wheels and can transition to a regular bicycle more easily.

Anyway, I saw a Prince Lionheart balance bike in the store.  It had a price tag of just $49!  So, we bought it.  After a little adjustment in the seat, Anna got to take her first ride.

It's going to take some getting use to.  I had a hard time convincing her that she needed to sit on the seat, not just stand straddling the bike.  Also, she's still pretty wobbly and slow.  We'll have to make time for more practice.  Even so, Anna is so excited to have her own bike.  She likes to wear Grandma's bike helmet when she rides.  So cute.