Category Archives: family

development, family, trips

Your 1st 50th

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Hey Little Baby, it’s me again, Papa. I thought you’d like to know what’s been going on out here since I last wrote. Your sisters were sick last week so that was exciting as usual. Fevers, copious amounts of snot, more tissue than you can believe- you’ll see. Not fun but not all that bad. Just another one of the things you get used to on the outside. I had another work trip to Berkeley also, and I couldn’t believe that it was probably my last trip to the bay until after you’re born! You’ll be within your dates to pop out in three weeks now, but there’s no rush. You just stay in there and bake as long as you need. Make sure you’re really ready for this Team Hokama craziness.

Last week was filled with the usual antics around the house. Mama helped Keana and Maia build a castle out of cardboard which is still around, being used for all kinds of make-believe goodness. And Thursday morning before Keana went to school, she and Maia got into Mama’s makeup and painted on their faces and arms. I think they were pretending they were kitties. I definitely got a glimpse of the future that morning.

Keana and I continued the piano lessons, and started to learn Three Blind Mice which then turned into a chasing game around the house where we each took turns chopping off each other’s tails. Maybe you heard your sisters squealing with delight while they held onto their butts as I was chasing them down the hall? Good times ahead for you Little One! We also finished up planting the zucchini, carrots, bush beans, chard, tomatoes, mint, basil, rosemary, and parsley so you’ll have a nice little garden here when you arrive.

On Friday we had another prenatal appointment with Dr. Kopascz. Everything looked good, you’re “measuring perfectly”, and just after the doctor checked your heartbeat with the doppler, you moved so fast that it surprised even her. It was really funny to see a doctor be so astonished, especially when you imagine that she’s probably seen thousands of babies. It was a very defined movement, so maybe it was your knee or elbow? Anyway, you continue to amaze us with all your action.

Keana’s really been working hard writing the letters in her name and figuring out how to spell words. You can bet she’ll be a great teacher for you. A lot of parents stress out or brag about how much their kids read or write, even before kindergarten, but you’ll be happy to know we have complete confidence in your abilities already, and all will be learned in good time. We think we’ll be sending Keana to Dailey Elementary Charter School, which is a new charter that uses the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program. Basically its a focus is on global standards, so the kids learn another language starting in kindergarten (Spanish), and continue on through 5th grade. They also hire specialty teachers in physical education, art, and music, so it seems there’s a good emphasis on the whole student, not just reading, writing, and math. The idea is to teach kids to be a part of a global community and help each kid grow so they can compete on an international stage. At least that’s what I gather from my research. They do have longer days though, 90 minutes longer for kindergarten and 180 for the other grades I think. Hopefully that’s just so there’s plenty of time for the extra language and arts without neglecting the basics. We’ll see though. It is a new school, so Keana will have to test it out for you. Aren’t you lucky to have two older sisters to test the waters before you have to jump in?

On Saturday we headed to Sacramento for your Great Uncle Vic’s 50th birthday celebration. Keana and Maia had a blast playing with cousins McKenna, Cassidy, and Riley, and I’m sure you’ll love them too. They’ll be pretty old by the time you’re able to run around with them, but they’re so sweet I’m sure they’ll slow down for you (at least they do for Keana and Maia). Your sisters really enjoyed swimming and jumping on the giant trampoline too. I also realized that we probably won’t see most of that family until after you’re born as well. They’re all quite excited to meet you and see what kind of scruffer you’ll turn out to be.

Man, it was crazy though. The party was great, but Maia was really getting tired, so we headed to our hotel. And we all crashed after getting settled, but Maia woke up at 2 a.m. Maybe you heard her? Anyway, she would not settle down and as you know, Mama needed rest to keep up with you, so we told Maia if she didn’t quiet down and go to sleep, we’d have to drive her around in the car until she was ready to sleep. She called our bluff and said, “I want to go in the car.” So she and I got dressed and I took her out. It was windy and cold and I figured she’d be asleep in 20 or 30 minutes. Oh no. She was ready to go. She was pretending bad guys were chasing us and I’d look back and she’d have this mischievous smile and she’d say, “Papa, I’m scared!” I drove and drove and it was quite clear she wasn’t settling down. Eventually we got hungry so I found a Safeway and I’m pretty sure everyone thought I was either kidnapping her or that we were crazy. It was almost 4 a.m. at this point and you’ll see that that is not the time for kids to be out and about. We got some flowers for Mama for Mother’s Day, then some bread, cheese, salami, and water and had a little picnic in the car with the motor running to keep the heat on. You should have seen your sister. She was having a blast, and I must admit, so was I. When I was younger I used to do stuff like that all time, so it was great to be on a night adventure with your sister. Every once in a while Maia would say, “More cheese Papa!” followed by a high-pitched, “Thank youuuu!” It was really a lot of fun. But as 5 a.m. approached I realized how horrible the day was going to be without some sleep. We finished up and I put Maia back in her seat and asked if she was ready to sleep now. She said, “Let’s keep driving!” I realized my mistake was fueling her up, so we drove a little longer, then headed back to the hotel. It was a little after five before she crawled into bed with Keana and I. Hilarious. Three people in a double bed. Around 7 a.m. I think I crawled into bed with you and Mama and I thought for a brief moment, “What the hell are we going to do with THREE kids! Where are we all going to sleep?” Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out. Or we won’t ever leave our house. Just kidding. Maybe.

We woke up kind of late (surprise surprise) and headed over to Great Aunt Krisite’s Mom’s house for Mother’s Day brunch. It was an elaborate spread and great to see all the Petersons one last time before heading home. You all slept for a while in the car heading back to Fresno, but then Little Miss Maia woke up and was pissed. She always has a hard time the last part of any trip, so hopefully she’ll be over that by the time you start rolling side-by-side with that crazy girl. Keana’s pretty easy going in the car though, so at least you’ll have her to balance things out. This is, of course, assuming you’re not going to be as crazy as Maia, but I know you’ll have your own flavor of crazy however it turns out. Otherwise you wouldn’t have made the team.

Anyway, we got our appointment with Jacque tomorrow, so rest up and we’ll just keep getting things ready out here for your arrival! I think this weekend I’ll be cleaning out the garage and getting all the baby gear out. Oh, and maybe we’ll see if Tia’s birth tub will work for us.

Love,
Papa

birthdays, development, family, holidays

As promised…and a little extra

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WARNING: This blog post may be boring and disgusting but you might actually like it if you stick with it. For those that don’t have the patience, here’s an outline to assist in skimming:

  1. Following up on Keana’s 5th birthday/visitors (Iana and Olivia)
  2. Easter weekend Part I (The Rogers Gathering)
  3. Projectile vomit (Best Friday Night Ever)
  4. Easter weekend Part II (Rough Start with a Strong Finish)

1. In my last post I said I’d let you know how Keana’s birthday party went, so here it is. Let’s just say it turned out better than we imagined. For one, we thought that only one friend was coming, but it turned out that the other two girls Keana invited showed up at the last minute; we were probably more excited than Keana was in some ways. As a parent you can start to see all those social perils unfolding, even at this young age, of who gets invited, who doesn’t, who shows up, who doesn’t, and what that might mean as far as whether or not they like you, etc. And in this case, there were competing birthday parties that day, so we weren’t sure the best way to explain that one. Keana seemed fine with just having one friend there, but I think deep down inside she was disappointed and Sarah and I felt especially bad because maybe if we had sent out the invite sooner the outcome might have been different. Luckily, in the end, all turned out well. The girls, even Maia and the other 2-year-old, all played really well together and enjoyed our little treasure hunt and piñata. Sarah had to give it a good bashing first though, cause there was no way these five-year-olds were going to even make a dent in that thing. I sat video-taping and laughing wondering how many parties in the world had the same unbreakable piñata. And of course, The Cake. The Cake was amazing. Grandma Jennie picked it up from La Boulangerie and upon request, it was chocolate, and not too sweet, but still rich, moist, and overall scrumdiddidlyumptious (as we say in our house). Our guests stayed from 11-after3 and we were exhausted, but Keana was happier than ever.

The next day, Keana’s actual birthday, was pretty mellow. Keana went to school, though she did try and talk me out of it. They do a special celebration though, and I knew she would be upset if she missed it (all the special attention in front of her peers), so I persuaded her to go. I took the day off work though, and after school we enjoyed some time as a family, followed by Keana’s favorite dinner, roast chicken, and some of that awesome left-over cake. It was a little hard for me to relax because I knew the next day I would fly to DC for NWP’s annual Spring Meeting (where our teachers lobby for funding from their representatives). This trip was also a longer one- I got back March 28 in the afternoon- and when I returned, Iana and her baby Olivia were visiting. Keana had the week off school for spring break, so she and Maia got lots of good time with their little cousin. Olivia is really starting to grab things, roll around, and smile, so I think it was especially fun for the girls. And I’m not going to lie, it was pretty fun for Sarah and I too. Olivia adores Sarah and has the biggest smile whenever she sees her (and a cheerful squeal or growl isn’t uncommon either).

2. On Friday we had a Rogers’ get-together up at Sarah’s Grandma Bev’s house that overlooks Millerton Lake. In attendance were Great Grandma Bev (of course), Great Uncle David (who the girls don’t get much chance to see, but something we’re going to work on), Grandpa Robert and Nana Cin, Tia, and Olivia. It was a lot of fun, but the car ride home was NOT. About two minutes into the 40 min. ride, Maia began screaming and crying and nothing would comfort her. In order to not let the screaming disturb my driving and/or drive me totally insane, I often try to focus on a piece of music or some other train of thought. This particular night, I was thinking how it was Friday night, and once upon time that meant something. It meant around 5 or 6 you would start scheming the entertainment for the night. Who’s around? What’s the dinner plan? Would it be live music after? A movie? A bar then some dancing? Maybe even a night trip to the outdoors somewhere? Now it’s a mad-dash home before the kids melt down, and on Friday, it was already too late. Kid was melting down. Poor Maia was just plain pissed off. After what seemed like hours, we finally arrived home and both kids were hungry, of course. We fed them some left-over hamburger that we brought home and some yogurt, and put them to bed.

3. Then, not long after we got Maia and Keana to bed, Keana called out. I went into her room and she looked worried. Something’s wrong with her throat she said. I began to worry she was having an allergic reaction to something and attempted to assess whether or not her throat was sore or if it felt like it was closing up. I called for Sarah, then had her stand up to see if it was just the position she was in. In the span of three seconds, I saw The Look in her eyes…I grabbed her to move her to the toilet…and…projectile vomit spewed forth on my shoulder, arm, leg, and cascaded onto the cat, who unfortunately happened to be rubbing up against my leg at exactly the wrong moment. The nastiness continued to flow onto the rug, her toys, then eventually all over her little toilet we keep in her room for night-time convenience. Like waves of disgusting it seemed to just keep coming and coming. Oh man oh man. Luckily, after that one blowout of the decade, Keana calmed down and appeared to be completely fine. Sarah and I got to work like a machine, trading off cleaning up the worst mess in recent memory and sitting with Keana to be sure it wasn’t going to happen again. Long night doesn’t begin to define it.

4. Saturday Morning Keana was fine though, and we prepared to head up to “the round house”, a small round house up in the hills near Friant/O’Neals. It’s actually where we got married, so it holds a special place in our hearts. Anyway, Jacque (our current midwife) and Frank Moschella own it, and host an Easter celebration every year there. I guess it’s usually a two-day affair, but this year we just did Saturday. It was great to see all the old family friends and I think Sarah especially enjoyed catching up with everyone and showing off her pregnant belly. Tia (Iana) and Olivia left first to head back to Long Beach and it was almost a teary good-bye. I have to admit, I got a little misty looking at the little chunk-a-munk Olivia, thinking of how much she’ll have changed and grown before we see her again, and how seemingly small and vulnerable she and Iana looked heading out the door to the open road. Anyway, we tried to enjoy ourselves and be conscious of the time, having just endured the same car ride with Maia screaming the night before, and wanting to avoid another terribly long one. Ten minutes down the road, it began. Again, Maia screamed bloody hell practically the whole way home. I put on Kind of Blue and she screamed through So What and Green on Blue (it was on shuffle) before finally falling quiet to Flamenco Sketches. Sarah had to hold her hand too, a deadly combination with the subtle stylings of Miles.

And today. Well, today was not a picture-perfect Easter. Maia was awake from 1 a.m.–3 a.m., followed by Keana waking up between 4 and 5. Needless to say, I awoke pretty grumpy with zero coffee to be found. Maia and I hung out though till 10, which was fine/fun, when Keana and Sarah got up, but Maia and Keana instantly began fighting over Easter bags they got yesterday. Papa growled, apologized, then had to head out for coffee before things deteriorated any further. We finally had our “special breakfast” of Belgium waffles and sausage around noon and the girls went out to look for the baskets that Grandma Jennie had carefully assembled for them, and that I had hid in the backyard. Sarah and I did not rally for Easter this year, so we were especially thankful for Grandma’s collaborative efforts with The Bunny. Sarah and Maia went down for a nap around 1:45 p.m., and after prepping the chicken with rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper, Keana and I followed and had an amazing nap. This amazing nap was followed by an even more amazing dinner. Although the day started rough, with a little help, I think it was still a special one for everyone and we’ve certainly ended on a positive note.

development, family, holidays

Happy “Balentimes”!

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As Keana says, “Happy Balentimes”! Don’t you remember how crazy that word was when you were little? What little kid can actually pronounce “Valentine”? Anyway, we’ve made several decorated hearts today, and also attended Fresno’s Mardi Gras parade in the area called the Tower District. I can’t say it was the best parade ever, but there were some fun costumes and some great live music on flatbed tow trucks. The girls seemed to enjoy it, but it was a lot of waiting. Something different to do though. Thanks for the tip Grandma Jennie!

In other news, number 3 is kickin’ up a storm! What’s that you say? THREE?!! You haven’t heard? Well, consider yourself informed. What’s that you say? THREE?!! Yes. We are crazy. Sarah’s about 21 weeks now and everything is looking perfect. This was really the first week I was able to feel the scruffer kicking too, and it was good to remember that “in utero” magic. I guess the little baby had hiccups most of yesterday too, which is pretty fun and much less alarming with each pregnancy. For those of you who know, those first hiccups are weird, right? Even on our third it’s something to pause about and enter a space of wonder.

The girls have been amazing lately. I think I mentioned last time that they’ve been playing really well together and that certainly continues. They’ve been taking the cushions off the couch and making forts and magic forests. Hearing their laughter and squeals streaming into the kitchen or back rooms always brings a smile to our faces. And even when those squeals of pain or rage come charging in, we sit for a second and try and let them resolve things themselves. They do surprisingly well and I think we have to intervene less and less.

In other news. Uncle Peter has been crashing in our garage, applying for jobs and looking into life in Fresno. He’s been on constant dish/kitchen duty and I know we’re going to miss that. If we could we might just employ him as our house boy. The girls certainly have loved having him around and it’s good to see them strengthen their relationship with him. I’m pretty sure our frantic, non-stop lifestyle is challenging for him, but he also seems to enjoy being one of the kids.

Anyway, I best be on to some photo/video editing now. Stay tuned for some footage from our trip to the snow up at Grandpa Robert’s house in North Fork, and stuff from Iana and Olivia’s visit last weekend!

family, holidays

2010

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Here’s a snippet I wrote Christmas day before “play bath” was over and, in fact, maybe I just need to start publishing incomplete pieces since I seam to be rarely having enough time to write down complete thoughts…

12/25/09
Sitting on the counter in the bathroom. Zooba’s in the bath playing w/ her super cool Little Mermaid water slide thingy. Flounder even squirts water; pretty awesome. Got my Dundee “festive ale” nearby, one of nine holiday brews in my stocking. Mamas and Maia are napping in the room next door. Poor little Scrimesties couldn’t sleep until she took care of her special Christmas poo. But after that “gift” was opened, she crashed like a champ. Uncle Peter’s visiting us for the holidays and he’s keeping Miko company in the living room, checking his email, even though he should probably sleeping. It’s good to have big brother in town, we’ve missed him here at Team Hokama Headquarters.

The festivities basically started last night at Sarah’s Uncle Jim’s house for their annual tamale feed. Scrumdidilyumptious. I matched my record of seven and I wasn’t even too full. Good or bad? Who knows? But the girls were perfect little pre-Christmas Angels and we all had a lot of fun. I think Keana and Maia were asleep by 10:30 with visions of Santa, smooth-sleighing through Fresno’s Old Fig area, ready to drop Team Hokama loot down the brick stack. Peter, Sarah, and I proceeded to wrap presents, a task which had been grossly underestimated. Luckily Peter’s elf-like wrapping prowess was at hand to help guide us through this arduous task. At the last minute I remembered Santa’s treat, and forced down a strangely garlic flavored ginger cookie, leaving just a bite for further dental analysis for proof of Santa, followed by a little milk, followed by a thank you note and a self-portrait; had to be sure the little scrubbers knew who ate their offering. Then we nodded off, finally, around 2 a.m., with visions of the impossibility of sleeping in past 8 a.m., dancing sadistically in our heads.

Keana woke first at a respectable 7 a.m., mostly because she had to pee I think. Maia followed about 30 minutes later, mostly because she was hungry I think. The urge to wake Uncle Peter, and check for evidence of Santa, overwhelmed all parental procrastination and reason around 8…

So I could give more of a blow-by-blow, but honestly I don’t have the patience. If you were involved in our holiday celebrations, don’t take it personally, we loved seeing you:-) Here’s the rundown:

  • 12/19-20, Peterson Christmas: Headed to Great Grandma and Grandpa’s in Los Altos to see my mom’s side of the family. It was really good to spend the night and have a little extra time there. The girls had a blast (as usual) with their cousins McKenna, Cassidy, and Riley. Also met up with Kacie, Larry, and Ksenya for our 6th annual Sagittarius Brunch!
  • 12/24, Tamale Feed: Went to Sarah’s Uncle Jim’s house for their annual Tamale Party. SO good. Stayed up till almost 2 a.m. wrapping presents with Uncle Peter.
  • 12/25, Grandma Jennie’s: Tia Iana, Ryan, and Cousin Olivia came up from Long Beach and we all gathered at Grandma Jennie’s. Great Grandma Bev made a special guest appearance which we all loved (of course).
  • 12/26-27, North Fork: Headed to Grandpa Robert and Nana Cin’s house/cabin-thingy up in North Fork. Really good to get away to the country/hills, and it was fun to have Uncle Peter along for the first time.
  • 12/28-31, I got hit with gut demons (gnarly) but Sarah, Keana, and Maia enjoyed a little R’n’R and extra time with Tia, Olivia, and Uncle Michael. Uncle Peter went back to the bay and Uncle Ryan headed back to Long Beach.
  • 1/1-3, Grandpa Jon: My dad came and stayed with us for a couple nights on his way back from visiting his parents in Honolulu. It was great to see him and Maia kept calling him Grandpa Robert (oops).
  • 1/4, Back to Work: Enough said.

As usual, the two weeks blew by like nothin’, and we’re already two weeks into 2010! In fact, I had to work in Berkeley 1/6-8, so The Ladies came with me and enjoyed some time with good friends Caroiine, Jay, and Sage, and we got to meet up with all our homebirth homies from when Keana was born. (As well as the usual friends from work.) REALLY good to reconnect with bay area.

birthdays, family, holidays, trips

El Doctor

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Today we went to the doctor. The thing I hate about the doctor, is that unless your arm is mysteriously falling off or copious amounts of blood are leaving your body, they usually just tell you what you already know. Or better yet, what the “Google machine” has already told you. Even so, it’s strangely reassuring to hear it again from a trained professional. The appointment was for Keana and basically she’s just got a cold that’s on the better end of bad. Maia has it too, but both girls were in such good spirits today, charming the pediatrician as they do everyone else, that she wasn’t worried about them at all. Sarah and the girls also got the H1N1 vaccine just to be safe, which I would typically be against, probably for no really good reason, but it seemed like the right thing to do today. I’m sort of wondering why I didn’t get it now…hmmmm…oh well.

Anyway, other than being sick we’ve been super busy. I was on a work trip in Philadelphia the week before Thanksgiving, promptly getting this gnarly cold upon returning home. We celebrated Maia’s second birthday just the four us, enjoying some meat on the bone and really good chocolate mousse cake thing. Maia is starting to catch on to the concept of presents, and still loves singing “Happy Birthday”. I wonder how she’s going to adjust to sharing birthday space with Thanksgiving? Growing up I either found it really fun or kind of sad, being quasi-forgotten with all the holiday hubbub.

Everyone else was healthy for our trip down to Long Beach to visit Tia, Olivia, and Ryan, our hosts for Thanksgiving. I really wanted to meet up with my cousins and Auntie on our Japanese side while I was down there, but it was such a quick trip that it just didn’t work out. But we had a good Thanksgiving with Tia’s family, Grandma Jennie, Great Grandma Bev, Aunt Jacquie, and Ryan’s mom Luann. Weather was a little crazy on the way home with some snow on the Grapevine, but we still made it home safe and sound.

It’s great celebrating with family and getting out of town, but it’s really hard that it takes so much energy and might also take a week to get back on track. But even though we’re all a little sick still, I do feel like we’re finally getting back on track, hopefully with enough time to get totally solid before the Christmas whirlwind begins. One thing that is fun about being in Fresno is that with temperatures in the 30s/40s in the morning and evenings, it really does feel like winter here. I’m excited to light up the fire place, decorate the tree (which we still have to get), and sing some carols around the piano. I just have to start practicing my piano chops, or maybe just give a little extra spike to the eggnog.

family, trips

Baby

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Keana and Maia’s first, first cousin was born last Thursday, September 17 at 9:38 a.m. and we were in town for the big show. Her name is Olivia and she was 6 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 inches long. The girls were SO excited when they heard the good news. Sarah was already at the hospital and we were on our way, driving on the I-5 north towards Glendale Adventist Medical Center. Keana and Maia were in the backseat, holding hands as they did throughout our trip to Long Beach, and I got The Call. Just minutes before, Keana, Maia, and I had taken bets on whether we thought it would be a girl or a boy. We all decided it would be a girl, and I got to be the good messenger that told them, “It’s a girl, Girls!” Maia squealed and Keana yelled, “Yaaaay!” and they proceeded to jump and wiggle in their car seats the rest of the way to the hospital in anxious anticipation of meeting the new baby.

Earlier that week I had traveled to Berkeley for some meetings, but had rented a car just in case this very thing happened. Tuesday morning, at 7:24 a.m. Iana called me and said, “My water broke around 12:30 last night and I think I want you guys to come down.” I immediately got on the phone with Sarah and worked out the plan; I’d drive from Tiburon (where the meeting was at), and She, Keana, Maia, and Jennie would drive from Fresno so they’d get there faster. I arrived at Iana and Ryan’s house around 4 p.m. and I could already see Iana had been doing some work. The contractions were still relatively mellow, but she had that pre-baby look. For the next couple of days, Keana, Maia and I hung out around Long Beach and in the hotel, waiting for the good news. Sarah stayed with Iana and Ryan most of the time to support them, and visited us every now again to check in and remind the girls she was still close. It definitely wasn’t easy being in a different town taking care of Keana and Maia myself. Keana’s pretty easy, but Maia is still really attached to her mama. The good thing was that it gave Maia and I a chance to bond, so I think it really brought the two of us closer. We definitely had fun at the beach and had a couple late-night “Papa Movie Nights”, staying up later than usual before the three of us retired to the king-size.

The tough part for me was not knowing exactly what was going on. Sarah gave me good updates, but it was such a roller coaster. Iana and Ryan really wanted to have a home birth, but since Iana’s water broke, there was a bit of deadline to get that baby out, and the contractions- and ultimately the baby’s position- weren’t necessarily aligned with the original plan. As with every birth, there were a lot of things you just can’t predict so you have to roll with it, which is never easy, especially over several days.

In the end I was really thankful that we were all able to be down there for the exciting moment and we’re looking forward to getting to know little Olivia much better. It’s fun to see Iana and Ryan become parents and embark on their new, greatest adventure, and it reminds me of all the tough, but magical moments Sarah and I have been through up until now.

development, family, trips

Bum rushed

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The other morning, while Maia and Sarah slept, I was sitting at the table checking my email and eating my bagel. I heard Keana’s footsteps all over the house, stopping in this room, then that one, no doubt collecting toys to play with. To accompany her footsteps was a constant stream of talking, role-playing really, between the characters she had collected. I didn’t see her at all though until something caught my eye. Out from behind the couch straight in front of me, in the only patch of sunlight that filled the normally shaded room, two little hands, each holding a character, danced around to the narrator’s voice. I couldn’t see her face or feet, just two sunlit hands playing. And just now, I walked out into the living room to stretch my legs and Sarah’s dozing off on the couch as Keana’s crooning “Once Upon a Dream” from Sleeping Beauty. She’s getting quite good at that song, hitting almost all the pitches and remembering all the words to the chorus. Hilarious.

Maia is growing into her independence. That girl definitely has some sass in her step, literally. Today she was standing on the shoe rack which is about 18″ off the ground. I warned her of the edge, and she purposely walked right up to it, put half of one foot over it and looked up at me with a huge smile on her face. I think that pretty much says it all. She can string together two and three word sentences now and continues to dazzle us with her sense of humor. She’s basically potty-trained too, so her independence grows and grows. I’m also amazed how much she and Keana can play together. Keana does get bossy, but she’s also really good at asking Maia questions about what she thinks about something or what she wants to do.

I feel like we’ve been “bum rushed” by the end of July and August so far. We spent the end of July decorating our house and really moving in. The ass-kicker for us there was hosting Iana and Ryan’s baby shower at our house on August 1. We always need an ass-kicker to really get us to finish less-essential domestic tasks. The shower was great and we really enjoyed being able to have so many family and friends over. The next day was spent quasi-cleaning up and getting ready for the annual family camping trip with Sarah’s family. It wasn’t easy, but we got it done. I think we were more inspired this year because from Fresno it’s only a two-hour drive to the campsite instead of the six-hour-usually-hellish drive from Richmond. Indeed, we got up there without much event, and setting up camp was pretty easy since Iana and Ryan were up there first and were available to help out with the girls.

I’m not going to lie though, this year’s campout was not the greatest. There were lots of family issues flying about, both Maia and Keana were sick, there were several cloudy/cold days, there was more of an agenda due to Nathan (Sarah’s cousin) and Jennie getting married up there, etc. But let me tell you what was great. Being outdoors for a week is always good for our souls. Being by and in the river was great. Keana had a blast with older friend Phoenix (9). And of course both Keana and Maia had a ton o’ fun with Uncle Michael, Iana, Ryan, Grandma Jennie and all our fellow campers. Iana and Sarah sang at Nathan’s wedding, and the wedding and their singing were quite beautiful. There was a live band in the meadow too, and our whole family enjoyed a little dance party after the potluck reception. So even amidst the stressful family shit, there really was a lot of great moments. About halfway through that trip though Maia started crying, “Home!” on and off, and I think she was spot on because it was really nice to go home.

We slipped back into our routine on August 10th, at which point Sarah got sick and now I’m sick. Keana started her first full year of preschool yesterday, August 17, and I think it’s going to be a great year. It’s hard to believe summer is coming to a close and I can only hope that we can squeeze in some redemption camping before the weather starts to change. Speaking of which, this Fresno heat is no joke and I’m really looking forward to the decline in temps as fall approaches.

family, trips

11 weeks

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What better time for a blog update than a hot, lazy afternoon off? We spent the morning acquiring sand (350lbs of it) and building the new sandbox Sarah bought a couple days ago. The girls had been really into digging in the dirt, and we have some relatively wasted space under the redwood, so we thought why not? As with everything, it took longer to build and fill than we thought it would, but it’s great and I can already tell it’s going to be a nice addition to our backyard.

Tomorrow we’ll be spending our first 4th of July in Fresno and will have been here 11 weeks. I can’t really believe it’s been that long, but at the same time that’s not very long at all. I must say I haven’t had any regrets about our move. I am still adjusting to the weather of course- a week of 100 degrees or more isn’t even easy for the natives- and the people are different here, not necessarily in a bad way, but different. Everyone actually seems more friendly and down-to-earth though, making eye contact and saying “hi” in public. Imagine that. The absence of gun fire and sirens is pretty damn nice too.

I think part of what’s made the time fly is how busy we’ve been. Some of the big events I haven’t detailed yet are as follows:

June 6-7:
We headed to Uncle Vic and Aunt Kristie’s in Orangevale for what I’m calling Peterson Clambake 2009.5. Everyone’s so busy on the Peterson side of my family that we usually only see each other once a year, around Christmas, which I think everyone would agree just isn’t enough. So Mom and Sam flew out from Texas and drove up with Peter, Grandma and Grandpa headed up from Los Altos, Aunt Janet bumped over from Folsom, and of course we drove from Fresno. The drive wasn’t bad and when we arrived we were happily greeted by cousins McKenna, Cassidy, and Riley. Keana and Maia were SO excited as they absolutely adore those girls. Uncle Vic and Aunt Kristie have a great house that’s kind of like an amusement park to us. Swimming pool, huge trampoline, chickens, massive garden, play set with swings and a slide, horse shoe pits, and a fire pit. How could we not have fun, right? So we stayed the night on Saturday and Keana had her first sleep-over of sorts, sleeping with her cousins in a studio with assistance throughout the night from now sophomore in high school cousin McKenna. On Sunday we went to this great, private park near their house, came back for lunch and had to the hit the road. But the fun wasn’t over then…

June 7-9:
Mom, Sam, and Peter caravanned with us back to Fresno so they could see our new place and hang out a little before heading back to Texas. Everyone was pretty fried, so we basically relaxed, hung out, bbq’d, and on their last day, Tuesday, we went to the Fresno zoo. It was my first time there and I was pretty impressed. There were these crazy birds that sort of looked like big cranes that were guarding some eggs, and when Peter stepped up on the curb to see them better, they freaked out. One tossed it’s head back and made the loudest sound you’ve ever heard and just about scared us to death. Poor little Maia was especially surprised and for the the entire visit kept saying, “Bird, bird.” in a low, concerned voice, eyes wide, sort of in shock. She still talks about it sometimes. Pretty entertaining. After the zoo we headed to the Tower District for lunch and then had our tear-filled goodbyes as Mom, Sam, and Peter headed back to the Bay Area.

June 21:
Father’s Day. Ahhhh, a glorious day indeed. Maybe not as glorious as Mother’s Day in this world, but a day I do look forward to. On this day we headed to the mountains, Shaver Lake to be exact. We got sandwiches on the way out of town and had a nice picnic by the lake, putting out feet in and hanging out on the granite.

June 26-28:
Iana came up to visit for the weekend and it was fun to see her and the every-growing baby inside her. Ryan’s studying for the bar exam at the end of July, so he had to stay in Long Beach. On that Saturday we headed up to Robert and Cindy’s new place just outside North Fork which was pretty cool. It’s a big house with an amazing view of the mountains and Willow Creek nearby. Robert cooked up some trout he had caught and tri-tip and we put it in tacos for a late lunch. Then headed down to the creek to cool off. There were some small snakes and turtles in the water, so that was pretty cool. Pretty much a little person’s paradise.

So that brings us back to now. It’s 98 degrees outside, creeping up to 104, and I have the day off. Keana’s watching Peter Pan, Maia’s sleeping, and now I hear Sarah digging up a snack. We have air conditioning. We have a sandbox. We have PBR in the fridge and stuff for homemade mac ‘n’ cheese for dinner tonight. Life is good. Life is busy. But life is good.

Happy 4th Everyone.

family

Heating up

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Well, we’ve been in Fresno about a month now. It’s really hard to believe because on one hand it seems like the time has gone by so fast it couldn’t be that long already, but on the other hand, it seems we’ve been here for months. We’ve really hardly had a chance to breath as I jumped right back into work, Keana started preschool, and either I’ve been out of town or we’ve had visitors just about every other weekend. So without any time to establish a pattern with those crucial free moments on the weekends, the weeks just fly by.

Last weekend (5/13-18) Iana, Ryan, and their new dog Janie (sp?) came up for a visit. We were super-excited to see them, and Iana’s belly is ripening nicely with the new baby. She’s only 5.5 months, so there’s a ways to go. Janie was a new addition though and seemed pretty sweet right off the bat. Unfortunately the second day here though, the neighbor’s dog bit Janie’s paw and she had to have surgery and be under constant care the rest of the visit, so that really put a damper on things. But that’s the way with new “babies”—just can’t have everything fall into place as neatly as you’d like sometimes. At least Jani was okay in the end, and both girls, Maia especially, definitely had dog fever when they left. I don’t know, might be a dog happening some day here for Team Hokama. Maybe when we move out to more space.

Practically every day Keana asks to visit Grandma Jennie and really hates the fact that Grandma has to actually work. She definitely got her wish this weekend though, because I got food poisoning. That’s right, the Master of Disaster. We went to Sarah’s best friend Mary’s 30th birthday party on Friday night, which was fun, but kept us out late, and at 3:30 a.m. blissful sleep was interrupted by gut wrenching badness. Don’t think it came from Mary’s party, but I was almost in a daze of discomfort and fluid loss on Saturday, so all our great holiday weekend plans were foiled. Luckily Grandma was there to save the day and Sarah took Maia and Keana over to her house to play and hang out Saturday through Sunday morning while Papa excised his demons. Nasty. Luckily I’m on the upswing now and it appears Sarah and Maia only have a slight touch of whatever I got.

So those are more of the details of what we’ve been up to in the last couple weeks. We have a trip planned to the Sacramento area to visit with the Peterson Clan, hosted by Uncle Vic, Aunt Kristie, and The Cousins, so we’re definitely looking forward to that. Grandma Linda and Grandpa Sam are flying out from Texas as well, and if we’re really lucky, Uncle Peter will come too, to complete the whole clamb bake. One good thing is we’re used to “their” kind of weather now, as our weather here in Fresno has reached into the hundreds already; record temperatures for May I guess. It’s amazing how fast you acclimate. I still don’t like the heat, but 70 almost feels chilly to me now and if it stays 90 or under, our house remains a cool 75 with no AC required. Even running the AC when we want, not stressing about it too much, our PG&E bill was only about $100, so this whole thing may be doable after all!

Sarah has been amazing with the unpacking on top of taking care of the girls and the house, and has joined a nice gym not far away. There’s so many classes to choose from that she hasn’t found her “thing” yet, but will probably end up rolling with yoga, aerobics of some sort, and her own whatever. I’ve taken to running through the hood three days a week and lifting weights, and trying to find a consistent time before/after it gets too hot. I figure if I run fast enough my shoes won’t melt to the asphalt.

Hopefully these nights will continue to stay relatively cool because they provide the perfect backdrop to Giants Radio, and some much needed relief from the hot days. The upcoming months will be heating up though, and hold some camping for us, a baby shower for Iana, hopefully a trip back to the bay, visits from friends, more settling in, some tasteful decorating, some tasty bbq, and we’ll top it all off by not being the only one’s with rug-rats, as Iana and Ryan’s baby is due at the end of September! (I guess that last one isn’t really something we’re doing, but I think “the rules” specify that an event that big can be roped in by anyone hovering around.)

birthdays, family, trips

Going through it

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We have really been going through it. In the beginning of March, we lost our little friend Loden who was only 14 months old. His parents were in our homebirth group, and their oldest son Sage is Keana’s best friend. It has been extremely sad and we’ve been doing our best to support them while dealing with our own grief. They also live on our street so while they have a ton of support, I hope having us “right there” has been some extra comfort in their during this tough time. The memorial celebration was Saturday, April 4, at Sage’s preschool where Loden loved to play as well. There were lots of tears, but having all the kids dance—with Keana right up front in the lead with Sage- was a great celebration for the short life Loden led.

In the midst of this, life goes on. Keana’s fourth birthday was sort of a last-minute small affair. Iana was in town for work, so Jennie drove out from Fresno and we had a small celebration. She was very excited about getting Mulan and Pocahontas dolls, and enjoyed a little treasure hunt, complete with map, for her tinker toys, sand toys, and magn-a-sketch tablet. Given the circumstances I think things came together really well.

And, of course, we’re packing and preparing to move to Fresno. Sarah has been amazing and we’ve started to convert the garage into a staging area for the big event. I’d say we have about 30 boxes/crates packed so far, 29 of them done by Sarah. Oh, and on top of this, my best friend Neel is getting married May 3 in Massachusetts, and his bachelor party is this weekend. I think a bulleted list will best describe the crazy timeline:

  • April 8: Grandma Jennie comes from Fresno, on the train, to help Sarah pack
  • April 9-12: I’m in the Valley of Fire and Vegas for Neel’s bachelor (camping) party
  • April 10-13: Sarah, Keana, Maia, and Grandma Jennie drive to Fresno for Easter celebrations. (Sarah and the girls will drive back with Iana on that Monday).
  • April 15: My last day in the Berkeley office
  • April 16-17: We pack it all up (at least what’s left)
  • April 18: Load up the truck and drive to The Fres and probably unload
  • May 1-4: I head to the MA for Neel’s three-day wedding extravaganza. Yes, we were totally bummed that we couldn’t afford for all of us to, but Neel will be doing a West Coast wedding thing that all of Team Hokama will attend in full cuteness.

I’m not sure how much is sinking in for Keana and Maia at this point, but Keana did say today, “I don’t want to move to Fresno! I want to stay in my house forever!” So I think though everything has been really positive until this point, it’s just a reminder that this will be a big move, running the full gamut of emotions.

As we pull ourselves out of sadness and mourning the loss of Loden, we are looking forward to the exciting times ahead. Yes, it will be tough and I think it’s about to really sink in, but we still feel this move is the perfect choice for our family right now, and look forward to the new adventures and possibilities this move will bring us. Life is pretty wild right now, but I’ll do my best to bring the highlights.