Category Archives: William

Spring and Summer 2015

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It’s Super Bowl Sunday here in the Bay Area, and rather than fight the insane traffic it’s causing, I decided to stay in and post pictures. Actually, because we’re so far behind, posting an album is on my to-do list pretty much every weekend, but circumstances often get in the way.

This set of pictures is relatively recent, dating back to the Spring and Summer of 2015. It covers Easter (William’s first as an active participant), the spring band concert at Booksin, Joe’s ninth birthday, Julia’s fifth grade promotion ceremony, and a trip to Great America with Angelisa, one of Julia’s friends from school, which Julia won for being one of the top sellers of Girl Scout cookies last February.

The promotion ceremony was brief but poignant. I don’t remember having anything of the kind when I finished elementary school, but I’m certain I would have enjoyed it. And, mercifully, it was much more temperate than the last graduation ceremony I attended, which was in Houston in May.

The trip to Great America was the first time we’d taken the kids to a proper amusement park, and despite some initial trepidation—especially from Joe—they had a great time. Julia and Angelisa were braver than I was at their age, hitting most of the roller coasters in the park that weren’t completely insane, while Joe’s enthusiasm was a bit more tempered by a healthy fear of perishing in a catastrophic failure of the park’s safety systems.

This was my first visit to the California version of Great America, as well (though I remember seeing it from our hotel or the highway during our family’s visit way back in 1982). Having been to the larger one in Illinois many times, it was strange to see a mix of familiar and unfamiliar sites. The two parks have been completely separate entities for years, but a number of rides, like the main carousel, log ride, bumper cars, and Sky Trek tower (called the Star Tower out here) are more or less identical. The vague sense of familiarity mixed with novelty made me feel at once young and old.

Gallery: Spring and Summer 2015.

Christmas 2015

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A few weeks ago, we returned home from our bi-annual Christmas trip to Nebraska. Although we took a vast number of photos, in typical fashion, we haven’t gone through them yet. For now, all we have to share is a brief video.

At some point since our last holiday trip to Norfolk, it seems that the airlines have restructured their routes so that the relatively convenient flight we used to take, which delivered us from San José to Omaha via Denver, no longer exists. Instead, we were presented with an array of unappealing options with stops in relatively out-of-the-way places like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Ultimately, we chose a route that originated in San Francisco and stopped in Dallas. Total travel time was longer than we were accustomed to, but the kids got a kick out of seeing two new airports.

Actually, saying that they got a kick out of it might be overstating their excitement a bit. Ten minutes into the hourlong drive to SFO (and just after we passed the San José airport), Joe asked whether we were almost there. That said, both of the older kids were suitably impressed by the relatively grand scale of the terminal in San Francisco.

Dallas was fun for everyone because we got to take the train between our arrival and departure terminals, which were spread out over the approximately 1,600 square miles of the airport. William was especially excited to be able to ride the “toot–toot,” and he didn’t seem fazed by the fact that it didn’t particularly resemble Thomas the Tank Engine.

Side note: on the way home, which also took us through Dallas, it was immediately clear which state we were in when, as soon as we deplaned, we were faced with a sign that read, “Shopping is bigger in Texas,” and a information desk staffed by a white–haired gentleman in a cowboy hat.

We arrived in Omaha mid–evening and, after picking up our rented minivan, headed directly to Norfolk. We made it to Julie’s mother’s house at a relatively reasonable hour once the time change was factored in, and got the kids tucked into bed without too much fuss.

The weather was dry and the ground was clear when we arrived, and the kids had plenty of time to scope out the creek and open space behind Grandma’s house, though they were a bit disappointed that there wasn’t any snow. On Christmas Eve, however, snow started to fall, much to everyone’s excitement. The blanket of white stuff did little to deter the older kids from further exploration: Joe discovered a small retention pond a few houses down, which he insisted was a lake, and Julia somehow managed to fall into the creek three times in one day.

After Christmas, Julia and Joe were extremely eager to try their hands at sledding. To kids growing up in California with parents who, unlike the vast majority of their peers, don’t know how to snowboard or ski, the whole concept is highly novel. On what turned out to be an especially blustery afternoon, we took all three kids out to Skyview Park for a few trips down the hill, as seen in the video. We lasted longer than I expected—I thought I was going to lose a finger trying to hold the camera without my gloves—and everyone had fun, including William, who seemed to enjoy the idea of throwing snow at me as much as anything else. Apparently, all the time we spent reading Snow by P.D. Eastman and Roy McKie paid off.

In fact, Joe enjoyed it so much that he begged and pleaded for us to go again the next afternoon. Julia and William demurred, but I took Joe back to the park for a second go. This time, I elected to stay in the warm van while he played in the snow, but he did just fine on his own. True, he was in tears by the time he finished and returned to the car, crying that he was cold and wanted to go home to California, but I don’t think that in any way diminishes the fact that he enjoyed himself right up to the point where he decided he was going to freeze to death.

Christmas itself was the usual blur of presents and food. As usual, the kids were excited about their gifts: Joe received a Lego TARDIS set, which he insisted on starting right away, and Julia dove right into reading The Martian, which originally interested her because she’d heard it contained a lot of swearing—which it does—and plowed right through it in the space of a few days. As a reward, we let both kids see the considerably less profane film version this past weekend.

William was, by and large, happy and excited to be there. He’s definitely starting to get the knack of the present thing, though, and is more than happy to help unwrap others’ gifts as well as his own. He was easygoing and well–behaved more or less the entire trip, including all four flights.

Going in, we knew we were in for a bit of trouble on the way home, as our flight was scheduled to arrive around 10:30 in the evening after a late afternoon departure. It was windy and snowy the morning we left, and the forecast called for significant snow in Omaha, so we left Norfolk before noon, hoping to avoid any delays that might cause us to miss our flight.

As it turns out, we needn’t have worried about the drive, as our flight to Dallas was delayed significantly. It could have been worse, though: we still made it out in time to catch our connection in Dallas, whereas some families were told that their flights had been canceled and that they would not be able to travel for days.

Things went from bad to worse in Dallas, however. The area, including the airport, was still recovering from a series of severe storms that had swept through over the preceding days, and our flight was delayed several times, largely (and frustratingly) without explanation. We finally arrived back in San Francisco after midnight local time, which made it past 2:00 for the kids. Julia and William napped on the plane, but Joe somehow managed to stay awake the entire time, finally passing out on the ten-minute shuttle bus ride to long term parking with Julie to pick up our car.

In the meantime, Julia and I waited with William at the curb outside the baggage claim, watching people flout the no-stopping rules and listening to an irate man who seemed to have lost a bag, forgotten to arrange for ground transportation, or otherwise failed to anticipate one of the many ways a trip can go wrong, repeatedly scream the f-word at the top of his lungs. Having just read The Martian, at least she was prepared.

Video: Christmas 2015.

Early 2015

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We’re well into the second half of the year, so it seemed as good a time as any (other than few months ago, which I concede probably would have been better) to put up some pictures from the first few months of 2015. This set contains a trim and tidy 187 photos, down from more than 600 originals, so it’s probably a good thing that I exercised a modicum of editorial control rather than dumping the whole pile online; this way, you get slightly fewer underexposed shots of my shoes.

The first part of the album contains a number of pictures of Julia hard at work on her fifth grade science fair project, in which she measured the effect of weight on the distance traveled by a Pinewood Derby car. As I mentioned in an earlier post, she earned perfect marks for this project thanks to her hard work, some of which is very evident in the pictures. I’m not sure whether they’ll be doing science fair projects in middle school, but we’re not off the hook, regardless: as a fourth grader, it’s Joe’s turn now. Does anybody have some good project ideas?

Girl Scout activities also feature quite prominently in this collection, as Julia and Julie were both very involved in scouting this spring. The troop went geocaching in a county park—a hobby that seems to have been trivialized a bit by virtue of the fact that nearly everyone carries a phone with a built–in GPS receiver nowadays. Julia had a lot of fun, right up to the part where she tumbled down a hill and into a creek, holding onto Julie’s phone the entire time. The girls also visited the Hiller Aviation Museum, where they simulated crashing planes during takeoff, landing, and pretty much every other phase of flight; dissected bird pellets; and took part in a cleanup day at a local park.

Julia also had her braces removed this February, a much-anticipated and eagerly awaited event. She celebrated with what she and Julie termed a “candy extravaganza” and showed off some of the biggest smiles we’ve seen from her in recent years. Unfortunately, according to her orthodontist, she’s going to need some more work in a year or two once her jaw is finished growing, but we’ll worry about that when the time comes—for now, Julia is enjoying her newfound freedom to drink pop and eat gummy bears.

In other orthodontic news, Joe had an expander put in last week, so he’s been drooling profusely and making strange slurping sounds whenever food gets stuck in it for the last few days; I’m sure he’s very popular at lunchtime at school. The expander is there to correct a minor crossbite by pushing his upper teeth farther apart. Each night, we get to use a tiny allen wrench to turn a ratchet and increase the width of the device by ⅛ mm.; it’s like a tiny medieval torture device on the roof of his mouth. If all goes well, however—and he can stay on the straight and narrow with respect to his thumb–sucking habit—this may be the only intervention he needs, meaning that he won’t have to have actual braces. That would be a great outcome, but in the meantime, we’re stuck with another set of dietary restrictions

William remains adorable. He’s still not talking nearly as much as we’d like, and we’re in the process of getting him started in speech therapy on the recommendation of Dr. Kim. Or, I should say, we’re trying to get him started: the recommendation actually came in around his eighteen-month checkup, but thanks to a spectacular collision among multiple slow–moving, easily befuddled bureaucracies, we are just now getting to the point where his initial appointment is in sight. The good news is that his evaluation indicated that his comprehension is easily at or above the norm for toddlers his age, so he understands what’s going on around him. He’s just not ready to talk about it yet.

Julia turned eleven last month, and we’ll get pictures of the limited festivities up soon. This year, she got one primary (and expensive) gift: tickets to a Taylor Swift concert at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. She and Julie went to the show together and had a great time: Julia has been listening to Swift’s album, 1989 non–stop ever since.

Gallery: Early 2015.

Christmas 2014

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Here at long last are our photos from Christmas of last year. I feel like I should have a few amusing anecdotes to share, but it’s been so long, and the intervening months have been so hectic, that I can barely remember what was happening last December.

There was a band concert—I remember that much. Joe was on better behavior in band during the spring semester, so he actually got to play with the advanced band this time. We’re definitely not out of the woods on that front yet, however: he continues to have intermittent (actually, that might be overly generous) problems managing his frustration when things don’t go just right, whether he’s having trouble with his clarinet, working on math problems, or playing baseball.

After Christmas proper, our college friend Mason swung through town with his wife Kathy and his kids Dylan and Ava. Joe and Dylan really clicked at our Rice get-together last summer in Texas, so Joe was really excited to see him again so soon. Dylan even asked his dad to buy a bag of barbecue potato chips to share with Joe on the way into town; if that’s not a real friend, I don’t know what is.

The Harts crashed at our place for the night, and we headed down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium the next day. The aquarium has added a number of computerized, interactive activities, so the kids were enthralled. They even seemed to enjoy the fish, as well.

Gallery: Christmas 2014.

William at 18 Months

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Just a brief update on William. He had his 18–month checkup a couple weeks ago, and he’s still growing beautifully: he’s 34 inches tall, which puts him at roughly the 91st percentile, and he weighs in at 25 pounds, 5.5 ounces, which is at the 65th percentile.

He’s developed a funny and playful personality, and he really enjoys goofing around with Joe. He does have a bit of a temper at times, especially when we take away a toy he really wants (for example, an aluminum baseball bat), but overall he is a joy.

The one hangup we’re facing is that he’s still not saying much at all, and he’s old enough at this point that our pediatrician is starting to get a little concerned. He is signing a bit (“more” is one of his favorite signs) and he seems to be understanding what we’re saying when we talk about objects or give him simple tasks, but he’s just not verbalizing much. Dr. Kim referred us to an Early Start program to try to help move things along, so hopefully that will help.

Julie points out that she and her brothers were all late talkers, and Joe certainly took his time getting started speaking in complete sentences, but it would be nice to see some progress on this front nonetheless.

Fall 2014

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Only a few months behind schedule, here are a bunch of photos taken during fall 2014—that’s right, just last year. Most of the pictures are from soccer, with a few other snapshots thrown in for good measure.

Julia had the same coach, Jim Dueltgen—father of Phoebe and Zoe—as last year, and she had a great time playing with a bunch of other girls from Booksin. This was the first year the girls were playing in a U12 (under 12) league, so they were largely smaller and less experienced than the other teams they played against; in fact, Julia was still eligible to play in U10, but she opted to play up a level to stay with her friends. The team hung together through some ugly losses early in the season and put together a nice string of games at the end (albeit after the customary league–wide rebalancing halfway through to make things more competitive) to wrap things up. In the end, they were in a position to earn a trophy on the last day of the season–ending tournament, but things just didn’t go their way. Julia was disappointed, but she is already looking forward to next year—after some of the soccer–related drama we’ve had in the past, it was nice to hear her express that sentiment.

Joe also moved up a level, to U10, so he was often the smallest kid on the pitch. His team was very strong all year—if I recall correctly, they only lost one game during the regular season—so expectations were high going into the tournament. Unfortunately, the wheels more or less came off the wagon during the tournament weekend, and they ended up losing all three of their matches. Joe showed good improvement throughout the year, and mostly brought a positive attitude and healthy outlook, with only a couple of episodes of the pouting that has plagued him in his other endeavors over the last few months.

William loves being outside, so soccer season wasn’t any great hardship for him; we just had to make sure that he didn’t run onto the field when he saw the bigger kids chasing the ball around. He did get bonked on the head by an errant kick at one point, but by and large, he was happy sitting on the sidelines, playing with the equipment, and making friends with dogs.

In fact, the first time I personally saw him walking well was the morning of October 14, while we watched Joe’s team warming up for their game. I managed to capture the moment on video, which I’ll try to post sometime soon.

Gallery: Fall 2014.

Pins and Needles

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A quick update on the excitement of last week: we found Julia’s missing pin yesterday morning, a full six days after it was lost. It turned up when I was sweeping the floor as the kids were getting dressed (since I had failed to do so the night before), and I was elated to hear it clatter as I strove to corral an errant Cheerio. William seemed fine all along, so we weren’t too stressed out about it, but it’s one less thing to worry about when I close my eyes at night.

Bill and Julie’s Excellent Adventure

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Just a quick update (no pictures this time), as William went in for his 15-month checkup on January 6. You can see his vital statistics on his page, but the very short version is that he’s growing splendidly: he’s at the 87th percentile in height and the 70th percentile in weight. And, though this isn’t shown on the page, his head circumference is 48 ¼ cm., which puts him at the 84th percentile. He’s a big boy, and if his appetite is any indication, he’s likely to stay that way.

He did give us a bit of a scare this week, however, that will hopefully make for a good story one day. But I’m not sure we’re there yet. Julia had Girl Scouts on Thursday—her troop was meeting to plan out and rally around cookie sales, which start next month—and she was resplendent in her uniform vest, which is decked out with patches, badges, and pins. When she and Julie came home after the meeting, she ditched her vest in the kitchen before heading off to kill time with Joe while Julie got William ready for bed. A little while later, he came toddling into his bedroom working over something in his mouth: the back portion of one of Julia’s membership pins from her uniform. Julie quickly removed the small, metal piece from his mouth, but the other part—the part with the actual sharp pin—was nowhere to be found.

Naturally, Julie acted quickly: she rounded up Julia and Joe, who were extremely cooperative considering it was late in the evening and they hadn’t had dinner yet; got everyone packed back into the van; and headed off the the urgent care clinic just up the road in Willow Glen. She called me on the way (I was in the car, headed home from Palo Alto) to let me know I should meet them there. And that’s where things got really interesting.

As it turns out, thanks to the vagaries of the U.S. health care system, the folks at the urgent care clinic couldn’t treat William under our insurance without us spending hundreds or thousands of dollars out of pocket. So they advised us to take him to the emergency room to be checked out. “Go to Good Sam,” one of the nurses advised, ”it’s not the closest, but that’s where you want to go.” I was still driving at the time, so Julie texted me to let me know of the change in plans, and we all headed off to Good Samaritan Hopsital.

Or, I should say, we headed off to what we thought was Good Samaritan Hospital. Where we really ended up, without realizing it until we were there, was Valley Medical Center. I arrived first, and realized after wending my way through what seemed like miles of construction to the emergency room, that the location we had always thought housed Good Sam was, in fact, a completely different hospital. When Julie and the kids turned up a few minutes later, I told her that it looked like we were in the wrong place, but when I asked if she wanted to keep going, the answer was an emphatic no. So, after giving me the keys to the van so I could move it to an actual lot, she and the kids headed off to the ER.

It turns out that Valley Medical is an interesting facility. They bill themselves as the community’s health care safety net, and the clientele in the emergency room reflected that mission, comprising an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life. Furthermore, it was busy: there was a apparently a lot going on that Thursday night. As busy as they were, they got William checked in and into an exam room pretty quickly, while I took the older kids home for dinner and bedtime.

Truth be told, William was chipper and happy the whole time, and didn’t show any obvious signs of distress. The doctors did a quick examination and explained that if the pin had caused any problems on the way down, he’d be in pain and probably coughing up blood. Furthermore, they elaborated, the most likely problem he was likely to encounter was an obstruction in his intestines or bowels, in which case he’d be feverish and inconsolable. With that in mind, they advised against doing an x-ray or any more invasive procedures, and advised us to call our pediatrician in the morning. And also to look for the pin at home.

With that in mind, Julie called Dr. Kim’s office first thing the next morning, and they told her to bring still–chipper William into the urgent care clinic there. They (and Julie) decided to do an x-ray after all, and it revealed… nothing. No sign of the pin at all. When it was all said and done, we were left with a few things: a happy, slightly irradiated toddler; stressed–out older kids who were worried about their older brother; as–yet undetermined medical bills; even–more–tired–than–usual parents; and a pin that is still missing in action. There are worse outcomes.

A Quick Comparison

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We paid a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium this winter break, and the occasion cried out for a comparison with previous trips. Consider this a preview of a more comprehensive photo update to come.

One observation: Baby Julia was huge.

Julia at 5 Months

Julia at Five Months

Julia at 13 Months

Julia at 13 Months

William at 15 Months

William at 15 Months

William Turns One (and Halloween)

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It’s been a busy month or so since our last post. The kids wrapped up their soccer seasons; Julia started doing Girl Scouts again in earnest; William discovered the joys of emptying cabinets and drawers; Joe was accepted into advanced band and then kicked out; and, of course, Halloween came and went. We’ll get to much of that in due course, but first there is the matter of William’s first birthday to attend to.

We’ve uploaded a boatload of pictures covering his birthday celebration, which ended up happening the day after his birthday due to his tendency to fall asleep at 6:30 in the evening. He had a delicious dinner of grown–up food—he’s largely grown out of baby food at this point—topped off by chocolate cake, which he attacked voraciously. He then had a great time opening presents, and his older siblings had an equally great time helping him.

Since he started walking, William has been romping around the house enthusiastically, much to the cats’ dismay. He’s a bit more adventurous than Julia and Joe were, and he likes to climb into and onto things, as you can see in some of the pictures. In fact, as I was writing this, he climbed up onto the Ottoman in our bedroom and promptly pitched over the side, bonking his head on the floor. Hopefully this is a phase that will pass quickly.

You’ll also note that William has decided that the best thing to do with his soft toddler blocks is to stick his arms through them and wear them like bracers. I honestly have no idea where that came from.

For Halloween, we returned to a favorite haunt to pick up our pumpkins: Giordano Farms here in San José. The last couple years, we’d gone to pop–up pumpkin “patches” set up in parking lots, where Julia and Joe could jump around in bounce houses and slide on inflatable slides. This year, for William’s first real Halloween, we decided (or, rather, I insisted, over the older kids’ objections) to do something that felt a little more real, so we went back to the place we used to take Julia and Joe when they were younger; you may remember this as the pumpkin patch with the model volcano / geyser that scared the pants off of Joe back in 2009.

Lingering fears aside, everyone had fun at the pumpkin patch, especially William, who just loves being outside: when we’re in the garage, he’ll climb into the stroller on his own and demand to be taken for a walk. You can clearly read the excitement and joy on his face in the pictures from the pumpkin patch and the afternoon Julie set up the Halloween decorations outside.

As I mentioned earlier, Joe auditioned for and was accepted into advanced band this fall. We were very proud of him, as he was one of only two third graders to make the cut, and he had only started playing the clarinet this summer. He’s worked very hard practicing at home, and really seems to have a measure of talent for it. Unfortunately, however, his temper and difficulties dealing with frustration got in his way once again, this time with real consequences. Last week, as the band was working on Christmas songs in preparation for their upcoming winter concert, Joe had a epic meltdown because he was having trouble keeping up with the tempo: he stalked off to sulk away from the other kids (and cry); he threw his clarinet in frustration; and he hit his sister when she—according to her—went over to make sure he was OK.

This was too much for Mr. Reed, the band director, to take, and he let Julie know via email that he couldn’t deal with that kind of disruption while he was trying to teach the band all–new material in the few weeks remaining before the concert. He let Joe down relatively easy, telling him he could be in “intermediate band,” a construct that doesn‘t really exist, and re–audition after the holidays. We’re sure he can pass the audition, as he’s technically proficient enough to play the songs, but we’re on the fence about whether he’ll be up to it emotionally. The one advantage of trying again in the spring is that there will be a little more time before the next performance, so there might be less pressure to pick up the new songs quickly. We’ll have to see how things go.

Gallery: William Turns One (and Halloween).