Catching up with posting

Farfar and Farmo arrived on Nov 7th. It was wonderful to see how Luca got comfortable with them immediately. Maya, of course, was really excited with all the gifts from Sweden, which included a beautiful princess bath towel and many books. Farmor was going to buy clothes for her, but I told her that Maya is very picky with her clothes and it's better to let her pick her own clothes.

Mattias and I went to Anders's 40th bday party on 10th (sorry that we made farfar and farmor work right away). It was a great party. We were picked up by a limo and had dinner at Alexander's Steakhouse in the city. Afterwards the whole group went to Harry Denton's Starlight Room. We didn't get home until 3am. It'd been a long time since we had stayed out so late. Wish the kids would let us sleep in in the morning. Sigh.

Luca started walking about a month ago. He walks pretty well now. We took him to the neighborhood park yesterday and he loved sliding. He climbed up the stairs and turned around (we didn't teach him that and it was his first time) and had tons of fun. We had tons of fun watching him as well. We thought Maya was a daredevil when she was Luca's age. Now, look at Luca.

Luca has his first year checkup today. Everything is good - about average in weight and 20 percentile in height (thanks to daddy and mommy's genes). It's nice for Mattias to see Dr. Rosen after probably two years. Luca has to get six shots. Ouch!

We moved, finally!

We moved on Monday, Nov 19. I thought we didn't have much stuff but it took three movers, who had a big truck, more than ten hours to get the job done. Needless to say that we're way over budget for the moving cost.

The house is still being renovated. But it's looking nice. The kitchen was done two days ago, and the wood flooring was done yesterday. The two chandeliers, one Nelson Bubble Lamp, the other Hundi Lantern, in the dining room and entryway were also installed. They look terrific.

We still haven't figured out where to place the red Chinese cabinet, which is huge. We'd like to make the front room a library. Our current book shelves don't go well with the dark wood floor, so we have to get rid of them and get dark or white book shelves.

The railing between the kitchen and the family room was done yesterday. Wood frame with wrought iron bars. It looks beautiful and matches the railing along the stairs. We have to find a cool wood mantlepiece for the fireplace. It can be costly.

Called the tree service and set up an appt for tomorrow morning. A guy who does pool fences came over to give an estimate this afternoon. He seems good and his price is reasonable.

There's so much to do......



  

Maya 4th birthday

Didn't get a chance to post them until now.

The night before her birthday, she and Pappa made many beautiful pink and blue cupcakes.

Birthday party at school. Pappa and Maya did a nice job with the cupcakes.

Pappa and Maya spent the birthday night building legos. It's amazing how good Maya is with legos.

Maya and Luca

Best friends? Not really. Not yet. But things are improving...

 

 

Mixed photos

Busy, busy, busy...but here are some photos of the kids

For Maya's 4th birthday, she wanted a Cinderella Dress. She got it, of course. But in this photo, she's showing off her tiger tatoo

Maya's best friend is Ethan B. She plays with him at school every day, and she told me that they're married. I asked her why she married him. She said, "He likes me and I like him." Fair enough. I wonder where they're heading in this photo. Escaping from home?

Luca has his best friend too. Her name is Abi. She's three weeks older than him.

Noticing anything different in this photo? Yep, no more training wheels. Of course, it means that daddy needs to be ready to give a hand.

We bought a house!

This news deserves more writing, but for now let's just say that we bought a house in Cambrian Park, between Campell and Los Gatos. We signed off the loan contingency on Monday. We've been busy with all the paperwork and millions of other things (you know what it is like). We'll do some remodeling before moving in, hopefully in mid/late October.  Maya's farfar and farmor will visit us around that time.

Maya turns four tomorrow

Maya will be four years old tomorrow. She's so excited about this because she's going to be a "really really big girl" when she's four. Tonight she makes cupcakes with pappa. There are two flavors, chocolate and vanilla. As for colors, some are pink and others are light blue. With a bit decorations on them, they look so pinkalicious and aqualicious!!!! Tomorrow mama will bring them to school, where there'll be a birthday celebration for her.

She opens her first birthday gift from mama and pappa today. A Hello Kitty notebook, where she can draw or write. There'll be more surprises tomorrow. :)

By the way, the birthday card from farfar and farmor arrive today. It's a big card with a big cake in it.