Botanical Garden Part II

Brandi joined us last Sunday for a second trip to the Botanical Garden. These photos are too good so I had to make a second post.

Botanical Garden

Rex and I spent some time last weekend at Golden Gate Park. The weather has been great, so I thought we needed to stay outside while Brandi slept off her night shift. Also, I'm trying to discover more of the free activities (other than the kiddie parks) around the city. The SF Botanical Garden was a great find. Rex liked exploring through the trails (for a little while at least) and when he got tired he was happy to ride around in the backpack. Of course he wasn't interested in the plantlife so much as all the drain covers, hose connectors, and electrical boxes we happened to find. Those are fascinating!

Ingrid in SF!

My sister Ingrid came to visit us last week. She was on a two week hiatus from her internship at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital in New York City. She's enjoying her time there, but is excited to move to San Francisco this summer to begin her residency at UCSF. Brandi and I can't wait for her to be here. Free babysitting!!
Ingrid was here Sunday through Thursday, so it wasn't the best timing for my work schedule. Plus I'm a total downer these days as I gave up alcohol for lent as a form of spiritual massichism. So no late night tango clubs or Tuesday trips to wine country. Sorry. We'll have to save that until summer.
In a good luck/bad luck scenario, Rex came down with the flu just before Ingrid came. He had a 104 temp and yakked all over his crib her first night. So bad luck for Ingrid that she didn't get to see Rex as his happy charming self. Good luck for us that we had a doctor in the house. More than anything, it was nice to have another voice of reassurance. "104 isn't good". "Get him to drink something". "Don't serve him tylenol in a highball glass." "That puke smells bad." She doesn't have an MD PhD for nothing, let me tell you!
We were able to get some time to scope out a few possible neighborhoods for her to move into. Cole Valley near UCSF is the early favorite, but don't rule out the possibility of Russian Hill-Nob Hill-North Beach. Much closer to family and her second job (babysitting), and still just a short Vespa ride to any of the city hospitals and/or tango clubs. What a lifestyle!
By the end of the trip Rex was feeling better so we got a few good photos. We're trying to get him to say "Inga" but he's still stuck on Babbo for the moment.

Escape to Worcester

I'll let Brandi post more on this later. Just wanted to get the pictures up.

Tahoe

We just came back from a mid-week, three day trip to Lake Tahoe with our friends Mark and Paula Kokanovich and Tim and Angela West. Oh and the 5 extra kids they brought with them -Sam, Audrey, Lincoln, James, and Tebeaux. Tim arranged for us to stay at the "UCSF Cabin" outside Truckee on the North Side of the lake. We were amazed at how much snow there is up there. I have never seen a snow base so high. The streets around our cabin were carved out through at least 5 feet of snow. It had been warm in the days before our arrival, then it turned cold on Wednesday. So the snow was for the most part really hard and icy. Mark, Tim, Tebeaux, and I went snowboarding Wednesday afternoon at Alpine Meadows. We had a good time but the conditions with the snow weren't great because of the ice. However the snow was loose enough to make a sled ramp on Tuesday. Tim carved out a track in the back of the house which we shuttled down with the kids on plastic sleds. They had a great time when the weather was warm. But by Thursday it was much colder and the kids were whining to go back inside.
It was great to hang out with other families with small children. We could watch them more easily in a herd, and when they went to sleep we could all congratulate each other and share our war stories around the fireplace. We thought about playing board games and watching movies, but were mostly so tired from the days that we all jumped at the chance to go to bed early. Rockin times!
The kids played well together. And Kendall enjoyed watching all the activity around the living room.
One travesty to report: Rex discovered how to climb out of his pack and play. He's now in love with the idea that he can get out of bed whenever he wants, which is a serious, serious problem. On Thursday morning, he climbed out of bed, marched across the bedroom, opened the door, romped down the stairs and turned on the tv -with the remote! Where do they learn this stuff?!! And when can he add fixing his bottle and changing his own diaper into the act?!
I think Blogger has a limit on the number of pictures it can run off a slideshow. For the full set, click on the slides to the left and go to my Flickr page.

Texas Trip

We've been so neglectful of our blogging! So if you're actually tuning in now and then to see what's new we apologize. Life has been crazy busy since we got back from our 10-day trip to Texas last month. We had a great time visiting everyone, although our vagabond lifestyle took a toll. We set up camp at five different houses over those 10 nights. Ouch! That's a lot of packing and unpacking. A lot of new environments for Rex to explore/destroy. And also a whole lot of driving around North Texas. But we were champions and in the end it was well worth the trek. Rex loved the open spaces at his grandparents' homes. He took a strong liking to riding in the driver seat of a tractor, so maybe in a few years he'll go back and mow the lawns or clear some trees. There were a lot of buttons on those things that needed to be pushed!
We had a belated family Christmas at Brandi's moms place. Rex enjoyed being pulled around the back yard in a cardboard box by his cousin Cody. Another highlight was our bonfire cookout on Lake Lisapap at her Dad's house/estate/wildlife preserve. I shocked some of the locals in Pottsboro when I went out for a run one day. "Do you do this often?" asked a couple guys paving the road with puzzled faces. At least I wasn't wearing my hi-tech running outfit with reflective blue piping. That probably would have gotten my ass kicked. The last couple nights were spent at Brandi's friend Sara's place. Brandi's girlfriends Tania and Kim came to spend the night with their kids so it was a great reunion for her and "the brat pack". Rex was great on the plane, so hopefully we won't have too much anxiety about future trips. But he did seem to love climbing back into his own crib when we got home. The first night back he slept straight until 8am. So I guess the idea of being most comfortable in your own bed applies to babies too.
Hopefully we can get back into updating our blog on a regular basis. Check the slideshow to the left for Texas photos.

Christmas 2007

Brandi and I have lived in San Francisco since 2000, but this year was our first Christmas in the City. Rex woke up to find a few presents under the tree, including a new red Radio Flyer car from his Grandmother. He also received many great gifts from freinds and relatives, but his favorite toy was his mom's new cell phone. Here he is programming it for her.
Our friends Tim and Angela came to visit in the afternoon with their twins Sam and Audrey. Like Brandi, Tim was stuck in the hospital over the holidays. Brandi is officially a part-time nurs] but she's worked 7 of the past 9 nights. We're getting a break Thursday when we go to Texas for a 10-day vacation. We hope to see some of you then!