VG Day!


After a long and drawn out struggle, the forces of man have achieved a small victory over the gophers. For a past two months, I have been terrorized by a gopher continually digging up our front flower box. About one or twice a week, I'd come outside and find about a cubic foot of dirt excavated from the flower box. Whenever this happened, I'd strategically dig around the box and attempt to find the little bugger's main tunnel so I could set a trap or place poison, but I didn't have any luck. The soil was too soft, and the tunnel would always collapse before I could find it. I'd give up and cart off the cubic foot of dirt. I figure about a cubic yard of dirt has come out of the flower box. No idea where all the dirt came from since the box only holds about two cubic feet of dirt, and the total volume of dirt in the box has remained constant.

This last weekend, however, we had a bunch of rain. I hoped the rain had flooded gopher out or something. So, I re-leveled the surface of the box. Come Monday, the little punk gopher did it again. This time about two cubic feet of dirt. So, I carted the excess dirt off and packed the remaining dirt down. Checked Tuesday morning, but no movement. Tuesday night when I got home, he had made a small mound of dirt with a pretty good size hole. I tried to follow the hole, again no luck. But I had an idea, I'd make him come to me. I'd dig a bigger hole...one deeper than his hole. One where he would have to reveal the location of his tunnel. So, I did that. Dug about a 8 inches down to the hard clay bottom.

This morning, JACKPOT! I walked outside with Will to put him in the car, and I saw dirt moving! I must have let out a crazy noise because Will was a little startled. There was his tunnel! He was still trying to fill the hole I had made so he could plug his hole. Immediately, I sprung into action. I grabbed my gopher bombs (sodium nitrate, sulfer, charcoal), lit a fuse, stuck one in the tunnel, waited for the smoke to start, and plugged the tunnel hole. Chemical warfare at its finest.

End result: Gopher - 99; Dan - 1. However, I think he's finally dead. So, I'm declaring myself the winner by knock out.

Hopefully, his family won't seek vengeance. I may have to nuke from orbit if that happens.

Will's 50 Words

One of the developmental stages that a toddler achieves is the ability to learn and use 50 words. Will, in his super talkative, oddly social existence, has learned to say the following words:

hey, hi, hello, bye bye,
dad, mom, baby, dude, Asha (Derek and Lynn's baby), Sidney (Scot and Tammy's dog)
ball, box, block, truck, book, bubble, balloon, slide, swing
go, shoes, up, down, door, this way, outside, step
car, key, airplane,
llama, bird, dog, puppy, bee,
no, mine, me, you, oh-oh, oh no, thank you, please, more,
bump, ding, beep, pop, crash
bath, shower, towel, blanket
nose, eye, ear, teeth,
chair, food, hot, eggs, cheese, banana, cracker, water, milk, fork, cup, straw, bib
drawer, rock, dirt, hat, pen, phone

Of course, he has also learned a few animal sounds in addition to his words. If you ask him:

What does the bird say?
He says "Caw!" and will flap his arms. (We have a lot of crows around our house.)

What does the bee say?
He says, "Bzzzz!" (Got to teach him about our college mascots!)

What does the cow say?
Sometimes he says "Moo"

What does the dinosaur say?
He always says, "Raaarrr!"

He's not quite into sentences yet. At least sentences that we can understand. The most complex he gets is "Ball, Mine" or "No, Mine" or "More, Please." I'm sure all of that will come in time.

Fortunately for us, his favorite word right now is "Thank You." He went through a brief "Mine!" phase a few months ago, but it didn't last. We are awaiting the impending "Why?" phase, but are pretty sure that comes much later.

Unfortunately Will hasn't learned his name yet. We say it all the time. Complete strangers on the street figure it out pretty quickly. However, if we point to a picture, he will correctly recognize "Mom" and "Dad" but for him, he seems to think his name is "You."

Actually, he always correctly identifies "Dad" but because of his training to call for "Dad" when he needs something (now who taught him that?) both parents are pretty much "Da" but with different emphasis.

With all of his talking, Will can soon join Toastmasters. Ok, maybe in another 16.5 years.

100 Days to Go!

Hello Everyone. As many of you already know, Will is such a great kid that we decided to embark on the journey of parenthood again. Already. In about 100 days, I will give birth to our second son.

Obligatory ultrasound picture that is hard to discern
fortunately it is labeled, "FACE"

Of course, this answers many questions for some of you. Like, why is Angela never available during Will's nap time? (I am napping too because pregnancy makes me tired.) Why were there so few blog posts from April to June? (First trimester makes me really tired, so I was napping.) Why does Angela look so fat in the camping pictures. (5 months pregnant will do that. And maybe lack of exercise because of all of the napping.)

So what do we call this second baby while he is living inside? As you may remember, we called Will "Riker" because he was the "Number 1" kid. Well, we haven't really come up with a consistent name for the little guy. Sometimes I call him "LasTbaby." Our lack of creativity when it comes to a name serves as a reminder that second-time parents are more lame than first-time parents.

Why become second-time parents if the first labor and delivery was so hard (4 days long)? Well, it turns out that I would rather go through all of the craziness of labor and delivery again rather than have an only child. Yes, it would be great for Dan and Will and I to remain a happy little family by ourselves, but really, I'm looking forward to the days where the two kids can play together on their own! If one gets hurt, the other can go for help. Even if they are fighting over something, that means that I might be able to spend some time checking my email in the other room while they work on their conflict resolution skills.

Of course, everyone says that second-baby labor and delivery goes much more smoothly and quickly than the first-baby labor. Technically my actual labor with Will was only 8.5 hours long with 1 hour of pushing. We are expecting something shorter. Now that we live in Southern California, we have decided not to fight the traffic and rush off to a hospital while in labor, hopefully arriving before the baby arrives, then turn around 24/48 hours later and put the poor new little guy in a car seat to return home. Instead we are planning on just relaxing at home and hope to give birth there. My midwife lives 3 miles from our house, so there is a very low chance that Dan will have to deliver the baby.

Are we ready for two kids? Sort of. While we are not going to be your typical parents and "decorate" the nursery, we are planning on doing the minimum by finishing the painting of the other 3 walls of the kids' room before the second one arrives (Robin already painted Mt. Fuji mural on one wall). While he won't be sleeping in there initially so that he doesn't keep Will awake, perhaps Will might like the nice, calming, green walls. Oh, and while Dad and Lee visited in July, they were able to find a bunk bed for the guys. Will currently takes his naps on the bottom bunk and he will be transitioning to night-time sleeping there too. He has even learned not to stand up when he wakes up, thus avoiding hitting his head on the top bunk. With the bunk bed solution, we can avoid the super expensive baby crib purchase and put the new little guy in the pack n play for sleeping. It has worked out great for Will as he can't climb out (mesh sides) and it is portable in case we need to travel.

Do we have enough stuff for two kids? Probably. As Will makes friends and we visit them, I realize that he has far fewer toys than most children. But really, he is welcome to play with all of our spoons and pots and cans and other safe stuff that he can find in our kitchen. Of course, Baby Number 2 gets to wear all of the clothes that Will got to wear. Although we will probably need a 2-kid stroller to accommodate the little guys, hopefully we can find a Sit and Stand second-hand. As time goes on, we learn more about what babies actually need as we spend time with Will, so we did register at two baby places. I really like One Step Ahead. We also did the default registry with Babies' R Us.

Is there a down-side to having this baby at this particular time? We are glad that the two guys will be 21 months apart, hopefully this means they will be friends. However, as I am completing my final week of work, this means that if I have job interviews, I have to interview while pregnant. "Hello, hire me, now can I take maternity leave?" Of course, this may mean that I don't get hired before the end of the year. If this is the case, I will spend my hours contemplating life, labor, nutrition, and the tastiness of healthy snacks such as pudding.

Oddly, Fat Free Pudding Tastes Better

What will we name the second baby? You will have to wait to find out until the baby is born. Perhaps something Klingon to go with our Star Trek theme. The little guy is due January 1st, so place your bets on the arrival date now! Of course, Dan was due on January 1st and was born on Christmas Eve.

Obligatory picture of baby Dan in stocking

Happy International Talk like a Pirate Day!

In celebration of Talk Like a Pirate Day, Will decided to climb aboard this pirate ship on the playground at the YMCA.

Arrrr!

We also visited a parakeet. Will and the parakeet said "birrrrd" to each other while flapping their wings/arms.

We are working on our pirate words including "Arrr!" and "Avast!" and "Ahoy!" Odd how so many pirate-y words come with explanation points.

We thought we would also avoid such non pirate-y things such as throwing mashed potatoes up against the wall and kissing chipmunks.

Perhaps we will celebrate Ninja Day on December 5th. You know, to provide balance in Will's life.

Will's Second Hair Cut

As you may notice, Dan and I have passed the what-do-we-do-now-with-this-baby phase of parenting and have entered the slightly-calmer-life phase. You can tell because we were lazy and didn't post pictures of Will's first hair cut. However, now, for your viewing pleasure, here are the pictures of Will's second hair cut:

Why are we wearing capes?

Dad? Um, Dad?! What is this guy doing?

What is this weird snipping sound near my ears?

Cute Little Boy!

Will managed to survive this hair cut much better than the last one. Why? It was performed by long-time Kroboth family barber, John. He didn't go after poor Will with a scary electric razor or a loud hair dryer to blow away extra hair. Only scissors. While Will doesn't look super happy, believe me, he is good.

And, just in case you wanted the pictures from Will's First Haircut! when he was 13 months old, here are the ones I took with my camera phone.

Excited Customer in Waiting Area

I'm ready!

Leopard Print Cape? Really?

Not a Happy Sleepy Camper

Back in August, we took Will on his first camping trip. The outing convinced us that we were past due in the department of taking Will outside of his comfort zone. You see, we hadn't traveled since Easter, so Will had gone to bed at home, in his familiar room, in his somewhat comfy bed, for months. We tried to stick him in a tent and there was no sleeping on his part. Of course, he eventually went to sleep, then spent the night skootching around, bumping into Dan. Of course this meant that Dan didn't get much sleep either. We were all glad to be back in our clean, comfy house by the end of the weekend.

Now, this is not to say that we didn't have fun. We had a great time. We went camping with another couple, Lynn and Derek, who have a daughter almost exactly Will's age named Asha. They also posted pictures on their blog from the camping trip.

Here are some of our pictures:

Will's First Camping Activity
Falling Off Bench of Picnic Table, Face In Dirt

Will Looking Suspiciously at our Tent

Dan and Will Eating S'Mores

(while Asha hopes she will get one too)

Dan Preventing Asha from getting the S'More

Will and Asha's Favorite Activity of the Trip
Chasing Each Other Around the Mini-Van, Giggling

Will and Asha at Playground

Angela and Will on Teeter Totter

Angela and Will on Swing

Dan Attempting to Catch Will at Bottom of Slide

Unfortunately the suffering of camping did not stop for Will once we got home. Yes, he got to sleep at home, in his familiar room, in his somewhat comfy bed. However, something that we put on him during the camping trip caused an allergic reaction. It could have been sun screen, bug spray, anti-fungal diaper ointment, after sun lotion, oatmeal infused lotion... we really don't know. Eventually Will became less polka dotted.

We are planning on going camping next summer. So, if you are a parent with a child near Will's age, you should join us! The kids have a lot of fun together.

Husband and Wife Roles

Dan and I don't go out of our way to play your typical husband and wife roles, but we don't go out of our way to not play them either. For example, Dan typically takes out the trash. He also mows the lawn. I do a lot of the grocery shopping. Dan changes Will when we are out in public. Dan waters the plants outside. I do a lot of vacuuming. I stay home with Will 3 days of the work week. This just works for us.

But tonight we did experience a bit of a role reversal. Dan (and Will) ended up at Costco in California, calling me for advice about which laundry detergent to buy. I was glad he called because I was stuck in Virginia trying to figure out why the toilet in the half bathroom was not filling properly. Ultimately neither of us was very helpful over the phone, we had to figure out our problems on our own. Here is how my experience went...

When I got to our condo in Virginia, Tuesday, the first thing I noticed was that the toilet was running. As no one has been in our condo since May, who knows how long this has been going on. So, I set down my luggage and opened the tank. Sure enough, the flapper was warped. Later I went to Home Depot and got a new flapper which I installed today while the Air Conditioning Guy was servicing our poor air conditioner. (There's a lot going on for the condo this week. Hence, the reason I am here.) Later, I noticed that while the flapper stayed in place, the toilet would run for a long time. Instead of spraying to fill, it was kind of dribbling. At first when I asked Dan about this, he said, "it sounds like you have a pressure problem." Ok, that might be it, maybe I didn't turn the water back on fully after I installed the flapper.

So, I turned the water on all the way. Still no spraying to fill. I start poking around. I love taking things apart and putting them back together so that they work. I used to do it with my toys when I was a kid. I wiggled and prodded. And, of course, I found the sliding thing that holds the float assembly tightly to the toilet. Now remember, the water pressure was still all the way on. Let's just say that pressure was there. The damp bathroom ceiling proves that. And fortunately I knew where the shut off valve was. However, it takes a couple of turns to get it shut off. My damp head, shirt, pants, and face prove that.

After being sprayed with toilet water, I got smart and began testing with the water turned completely off. Ultimately I got the float assembly taken apart, then put back together, then finally adjusted so that it actually works.

As I sit here and hear the water shut off for the full toilet tank, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Now I must go on to next condo project. Perhaps I should call Dan to see if he remembers how to re-set the filter indicator on our now functioning air conditioner.

Dan: "If I was standing there, I could tell you which buttons to push."
Me: "I'm standing here, I'll figure it out eventually."

Fortunately this is a much drier task than the toilet one. :)

Unemployed... Again

It seems that I have difficulty keeping my job. That happens when you move around with your husband for 6 months at a time, both across the country and the world. The job that I spent 5 years in was abruptly interrupted when Dan and I moved to California (the first time) back in 2004. Fortunately, I was re-hired 5 months later. However, that only lasted until we moved to Japan, total employment lasting about 8 months. This began my episode of unemployment that lasted for almost a year. Of course, during this time I was pregnant, giving birth, then not sleeping, and had a brief contract when Will was 3 months old. At the end of this year long "break" I was happy to return to work. Now, about 10 months later, I find myself once again facing the lack of excitement that comes with being unemployed. But I didn't even move this time! It is baffling.

So basically, if anyone is looking for someone to create large-set automated data analysis programs using Audit Command Language, I am available. The queries that I have written in the past have saved over $60 million. (I earn my keep!) I make the queries automated and user-friendly which means that I usually program myself out of a job until a more complex task comes along (which it always does). I am great at documenting (which is probably why I never became a "real" programmer in C++ or Perl). I can write training documents, present solutions to upper management, and create and implement project plans in MSProject. I have led project teams both locally and remotely. I have a Statistics background in my degree (Economics and Political Science double major). I am familiar with Sarbanes Oxley. I was even an auditor in a past job. I am super-efficient. I have experience in Workers' Compensation, Purchase Card, Contracts, Facilities, Payroll, Financial Systems, Information Systems logs, and Credit Card Fraud. Basically I am very employable. Now I just need to find the appropriate company/agency who can meet my simple demands.

My simple demands:

• Part-time Contract work (20 hours or so per week)
• Work from Home, but willing to travel
• Prefer higher hourly rate over benefits

Who wouldn't want this cheesy mug on a company id badge?

Will's Most Expensive Toy Ever

Yup, Dan and I have gone overboard, providing cutting-edge technology to our baby. We just bought him the most expensive toy we could. Is it a Smart Cycle Physical Arcade Learning System? Is it a Power Wheels Ford Mustang? No. Is it an I-Que Personal Robot? Based on our current robot obsession, you would think so, but no.

We bought Will a personal DVD player. Yup. Actual non-toy technology for him to use as a toy. Before you say that we are crazy parents who let their kid watch too much TV, um, yes, we already know that. We are those parents who told themselves that they would read their kid books instead of setting them down in front of the glowing electronic baby-sitter. But, like most real-life parents, we succumbed to the temptation of the quiet, zoned-out baby. We are able to do stuff like cook dinner, vacuum up Cheerios, and check our email. All with the use of the simple TV device.

Why a personal DVD player? Up until Will learned to crawl, he was great on planes. He could sleep, nurse, or eat snacks for hours. Then, once he realized that he didn’t have to stay in the plane seat, he was impossible to keep still. Fortunately we haven’t needed to go anywhere since April. But now we are taking a couple of different trips, starting tomorrow. Plus, I will be flying alone with him this week and Dan will be flying alone with him next week. We consider the portable DVD player to be the extra parent that isn’t going to be along. I told you we were the crazy parents.

Will it work? We have tried it out at home and Will seems very excited about it. He has learned how to use the headphones and only stops to say “oh-oh” when they fall out of his ears and he wants us to put them back in. So, if all goes well, my 4-5 hour flight tomorrow should go very smoothly.

Will Learning About Head Phones
While Watching "Handy Manny"

Where Are You?

We have heard that there are people reading our blog from many locations. If you would like know more, check out the following map. Of course, we have been lame lately about actually posting stuff, but we hope that you are still checking up on us sometimes.



Create your own visitor map!

Just wanted to try the map out. Lynn and Derek put one on their blog, so we thought we would try it out.

Roomba Success and Disappointment

We acquired a Roomba. It is awesome. It wanders across the floor, sucking up dirt and food. It searches under the couch for missing toys. It even beeps happily when it is done cleaning.

We have been unable to select a name for our Roomba. Is the Roomba male? Female (as Elaine claims)? We were hoping that Will would name the Roomba. So far, he has only come up with Bo-Bo. Perhaps that will work.

What is our disappointment with the Roomba? We were hoping for funny videos of the Roomba chasing Will or Will chasing the Roomba. Most of the time Will simply watches it warily. Sometimes he lets it run into his feet and turn around. But no funny videos.

Will is as helpful as always when it comes to the Roomba. If we happen to lose it under a chair, we can ask, "Where is Roomba?" and he will drop down to the floor on his tummy and look for the Roomba.

Now if only we could find a cleaning robot to take care of this...

About kroboth.us

Someone asked in the comments if kroboth.us was gone. Nope. It's still around. After about 3 years of being hosted on a service provider who was gradually becoming more and more unresponsive, we switched new a new service provider (1and1), but we've yet to create a webpage there. (see previous post about general level of activity.)

At any rate, our e-mails still work:

dan-at-kroboth-dot-us
angela-at-kroboth-dot-us
and
will-at-kroboth-dot-us

My baby has a middle name...

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a long time. We switched from every day Will school to only two days a week. This means that while he is at "The Launching Pad" I have to diligently work. Less free time for posting to the blog. So, while I can't catch up on everything that has happened in the past 4 months, I can at least start with this one.

When we named Will, we came up with a new first name and a middle name. And we decided to stick with Kroboth for the last name.

For the first name, we went with William. There are many theories as to how we came up with that name. Was Will named after: William Riker? William Shatner? Wil Wheaton? William the Conqueror? Dan's Grandma's brother? William Clinton? William Tell? William Shakespeare? It is a mystery. In any case, the name William means "protector."

To get a middle name, we queried our Japanese friends to find a name that we liked that also meant protector, hence "Kengo." Depending on the kanji that you select, the name can have different meanings. Being new, sleep-deprived parents who were in the middle of an international, and then cross-country, move, we didn't initially select the kanji for Kengo. But, back on Will's 1st birthday in April, we finally selected the kanji. There is one character for each syllable. Here it is, "KEN-GO"

The first syllable, "KEN" means wisdom. The second syllable, "GO" means protection or guarding. Perhaps we have some Japanese friends who have actual knowledge about the kanji could describe more specifically what the two kanji mean together.

So now, if Will ever goes to Japan, he already has a pronounceable name and something to put on his business cards. Just looking out for Will's future.

It's a Small Park After All

Do you ever go somewhere and meet someone you have something in common with? Ok, most likely you do. That's how you get friends, right? Well, a funny thing happened to us Sunday morning. Of course we were awake early because Will doesn't understand how to sleep in on weekends. And church was quite a long time away. So we decided to take a walk to Starbucks. On the way there is a small park with a little playground (or "plague round" according to the google translated Japanese Babies R Us website). Will got all excited when he saw the playground, so we decided to stop.

A little while later, a father and his son stopped by to also play. Here is what we found out we had in common with them:
Live in Same Area (hence the same park)
Kids Same Age
Kids Attend Same Daycare
He and his wife both work at Dan's company
He is the office mate of a friend of ours from church
He and his wife both graduated from the University of Rochester (like me)
They also don't have any family in the area here in CA (important for babysitting)

I am sure we probably have other stuff in common with them but this was enough to convince me to give him our card. Hopefully we can exchange kids for babysitting duties. That way Dan and I can try to keep up on our dating schedule of about every 2 months or so. Perhaps even increase our frequency of leisurely meals. Maybe we could even go see a movie. In a theater. Or a play. In a different theater.

What else happened to us between James' wedding back at the beginning of April and now. I'll have to do a catch up post later. I promise pictures.

Best Wedding Ever!

Dan, Will, and I spent last weekend celebrating the weddings of our friends James and Davy (pronounced Dah-vee). You may have noticed that I typed "wedding-s" above. No, that's not a typo. James and Davy got married 2 times. They also had 2 receptions. Why make the busiest day of your life happen twice? You see, Davy was born in Cambodia and James was born in not-Cambodia (also known as Michigan). So on Saturday they had a 4-hour long Cambodian ceremony and Sunday they had a 30-minute Christian ceremony. Of course these events and all events of the weekend were tracked in the master schedule, a 24 page document. The master schedule had various off-shoots. Depending on what your role was in the wedding, your schedule might have only been 8 pages long.

The Cambodian ceremony involved a small parade which would have been bigger if it had not been raining outside. The groom has to bring presents to the bride's parents' house to show his worthiness. There were various Cambodian snacks and a lot of fruit. Will liked this part of the ceremony because after it was over, we got to share in some of the snacks and fruit. Will ate 4 tiny bananas and some tasty grapes. Basically Will enjoyed a lot of the wedding events as they were very colorful, involved food, and there was lots of music. Plus, everyone thought Will was a well-behaved baby. He was pretty good because he was happily eating most of the time. The other factor was that when he was cranky, there was a lot of stuff and music going on so no one could hear him being cranky.

Will Dancing to Cambodian Music

The Cambodian ceremony required multiple costume changes. You know, kind of like a Super Bowl half-time performance. For James, this meant that he got to wear three different sarongs. And they were color-coordinated with Davy's outfits. And they were sparkly. It was great.

The Green Sarongs

The Gold and Red Sarongs

James in Sparkly Sarong

If you ever get a chance to talk to James about his fancy clothes, just ask him about the "wardrobe malfunction" that happened with the green sarong. By the end of the ceremony, I'm sure James would agree with Mike's observation that he was longing for the restrictiveness of a tuxedo. And, yes, he showed up at the reception in a tux, but Davy wore a beautiful blue outfit.

Davy Mingling at Reception
(mingling was in the master schedule)

Obviously Will was also in blue and looked kind of cute with his tie that coordinated with Dan's outfit. They were just getting into the color-coordinated spirit of the event.

Dan and Will in Coordinated Ties

As I mentioned, food was a big part of the wedding celebration. For those of you who know my eating habits, you might wonder what in the world I would find to eat at a Cambodian dinner. It turns out that picky people can change. No, I didn't change in my excitement to celebrate a Cambodian wedding. Rather, after spending 5 months in Japan, my tastes changed. Prior to going to Japan, there were basically 2 lists: Foods that I do eat and Foods that I don't eat. Foods that I do eat include: all white meat chicken breast, turkey, potatoes, brocolli, pasta, fajitas, bread. Foods that I don't eat include: anything not fully cooked, most things with a non-tomato based sauce, viengar, salad with a dressing other than ranch, and especially mushrooms.

While in Japan, I had to throw out the lists and eat anything that I could stomach. Fortunately I had Kishi-san ordering every chicken dish on the menu for me whenever we would go out to eat on official work dinners. Also fortunate was the fact that I was pregnant and "couldn't eat fish" and other things that were "not good for the baby" (like mushrooms). So I could get away with not eating some unappetizing things.

I didn't realize it while I was in Japan, but when I got back I noticed that I was open to eating more foods. For example, Dan and I went out on a date for White Day this year. (Thanks Gina for babysitting! It was our first date since Will was born.) I actually ate the salad that had some sort of vinegar dressing on it.

So what interesting things did I eat at the Cambodian reception? I ate steak. It wasn't well done. This is a big step for me. There was also this "salad" that I ate. It had pig's ear and jellyfish in it. This is a giant leap for Midwesterners everywhere.

In addition to food, there was also entertainment and dancing at the reception. One of Davy's nephews is part of a hip-hop dance group. So there was hip-hop dancing for a while. Will didn't do any hip-hop moves, but he did get a head start on the dancing when he had the dance floor all to himself.

Will Getting Down

The first song of the evening was the Father of the Bride singing karakoe to the Billy Ocean song, Carribean Queen. He was pretty good. Normally I would expect the Father of the Bride to dance with the Bride, but that happens all the time. This was much better. If we have a daughter, Dan is totally singing at her wedding. Maybe something by the Fresh Prince.

Now there were some similarities between the Cambodian traditions and your typical American tradition. We got to throw some sort of rice-like substance at James and Davy. I think it was the fuit seeds of a palm tree. But we didn't just throw it at them for a few seconds while they made a quick departure. Oh no, we got to throw it at them for over a half hour. This made great content for James' brother's brilliant toast that he gave the next day. It was the best toast I've heard by a best man at a wedding, ever.

Everyone likes to throw stuff at the bride and groom

We had a great time at the Cambodian ceremony and reception. We got to see a lot of people who I hadn't seen in a long time. We got to meet new people and learn about a different culture. But after all of that, we were only done with one wedding.

Sunday brought the Christian ceremony and reception. However, it didn't start until afternoon. We managed to fit in a non-wedding event. We drove to Brenham, TX to hang out with a former co-worker of Dan's, Frances. One of the big things in Texas is the blue bonnet flowers. So, of course, we took pictures of Will in the field of blue bonnets.

Blue Bonnet Field

Now driving out to Brenham wasn't the only non-wedding event we participated in. On Saturday, there had been a break in between the Cambodian ceremony and reception. We rested, then went with Dan's cousin, Kimberly, and her son, Noah, to the Houston Children's museum.

Going to the Children's Museum made me realize that I need to find some sort of similar place to take Will all the time in Los Angeles. As far as I can tell though, the LA Children's museum is under construction and will be located near Burbank.

Noah and Will at Children's Museum

Anyway, back to Wedding II... It was a pretty cool ceremony. James' dad officiated which was nice. It was short and sweet. One of the scripture readings was particularly interesting. The girl reading it, one of Davy's nieces, I think, had asked James to email her the verse so she could practice. So she took the printout of James' email up to the gazebo stage. She read the verse, then kept going to his sig quote by Lou Piniella, "Statistics are like bikinis; they show a lot, but not everything." (quote source not confirmed, might be from Toby Harrah.) It was the funniest thing I had ever heard at a wedding. And everyone knew that it came from James' sig.

The reception was neat for me because it turns out that James' cousin Dusty was in my group of friends in high school, so we got to catch up.

Dusty, Angela, Will, Dan at Reception

The wedding cake was great. We weren't planning on giving Will cake, but ever since his birthday party where we introduced him to it, he recognizes it and asks for it quite persistently. I am actually shocked that he hasn't learned the word for cake just so he can let us know that he really, really, really wants it. Now! It is a great deal for me because in an effort to be a better mom and cut down on Will's overall cake sugar consumption, he gets to eat the cake part, but I sacrifice my waistline to eat the frosting. I like the frosting better anyway. Actually wedding cake frosting is the reason I go to weddings in the first place.

Will Loves Cake

It was a crazy busy weekend, but we managed to survive. We had tons of fun. We have two upcoming weddings to go to, one in June and one in January. Will they be as exciting and culturally interesting as this one? We shall see.

Will is Going to College

Our little genius baby is going to college. Ok, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, for at least 3 years. In 2024, it will cost more than $160,000 for a public state college.

Now that Will is almost one year old, we have finally set up a savings account for him. As he doesn't fully appreciate the excitement of birthday presents yet, feel free to help him out in the college department. So far we have opened the account with money from his great-grandparents. If any other grandparent-type people or various other people are interested in finding out what this account number is and how to contribute, just drop us a line.

And just so this post isn't boring, here is a cute picture of Will, ready to go to school.

Riding the bus

The Couch Exists!

Back in December, Dan and I bought a couch. Back in January, a couch that was the color, "Baltic Tobacco" was delivered to us. Despite it having an archaic color name, it wasn't a bad couch. It was about the color of smoker's teeth, a nice stained brown color. But it wasn't what we paid for and it really went poorly with our carpet. So we asked that our "Baltic Olive" colored couch be delivered to us instead.

The customer service department at Linder Furniture told us that they would call the manufacturer and have them re-upholster the couch so that it would be done quickly for us, by February 7th. Not in time for the Super Bowl, but it would be done soon. But after speaking with them February 7th, the estimated delivery was February 25th. When I called the week of the 25th, no one could tell me what happened or if my couch existed. The order was basically lost. Finally, on March 8th, I was told that they would call me in a few days with a delivery time for my couch after putting a "rush" on it. The next week I called to find out about my couch. Now the day it would arrive to their store would be March 22nd. And they would get the delivery set up right away so I could have the couch on March 23 or 24. On March 22nd, the couch was still not finished, and not available for delivery. But finally, after waiting for nearly 4 months, without a couch, it arrived today!

Actual Couch... in our Living Room!

No longer will our guests have to sit on the floor! This couch can probably fit 6 people. Well, of course we have to remove the four superfluous throw pillows, but I'm sure Will can come up with a use for them.

No longer will Dan and I have to sit in our two separate chairs to watch TV. Now we can actually sit next to each other, on the couch. And Will can join us. He really likes couches. Shopping for the couch was a lot of fun for him. We just hope he doesn't get lost in the giant cushions.

Our couch is awesome. It is deep and tall. So even though Dan and I are tall, we can sit on it without our knees hanging over the seat. Plus, we can lean back and our heads still touch the back pillows.

Will was 8 months old when we bought the couch and we actually received it before his first birthday. It took nearly a third of his life to get a couch delivered! I hope there isn't anyone else out there who can make such a claim.

Will's First Birthday (observed)


On Saturday, we celebrated Will's birthday. Of course his birthday isn't until April 6, but his due date was March 24 and we will be out of town on his actual birthday, so we celebrated on March 24. Throwing a 1st birthday party is different than throwing a normal party. Here are some things we learned during the experience.

"Goodie Bags" are very important. As Will is only 1 and doesn't know what a goodie bag is, I figured that we didn't need any. I looked at them in the store. They seemed pretty lame. However, lame to me is not the same as lame to a kid. And even though Will is only 1, we had kids at the party who were older. I was properly schooled by a 6-year old who asked me if there were goodie bags and then, when faced with the realization that there were none, asked me why I was not smart enough to get them. I explained that this was my first kid birthday party. His extensive knowledge was the result of 11 different birthday parties. All of which had goodie bags.

Entertainment is very important. As we have a small grill, the main entertainment was watching Dan grill one burger at a time. Ok, maybe there were 5 or so burgers on the grill. They seemed to get done one at a time. Everyone was hanging out in the back yard, watching Dan grill. But he wouldn't create fire and flip the burgers up in the air. It was very sad. Then, after Hillary successfully managed to consume the first burger, people got to eat. Perhaps a bigger grill isn't such a bad idea.

Grilling Dan

The better entertainment came after dinner when it came time for cake. It turns out that even though a 1-year-old doesn't know what a goodie bag is, he can grok cake. We threw caution to the wind and broke Will's no wheat-milk-eggwhites-sugar diet. Will was confused when we first put him in his high chair with everyone sitting around watching, but he got into the cake zone after we put a slice in front of him. I can safely say that most of the crowd found this to be more entertaining than watching Dan grill.

In the Cake Zone

Will was also entertained by all of the people hanging out at his house. He was walking everywhere, mostly near the guests outside in the back. People were arriving and Will was out back, we thought. It seems I failed to replace the baby gate on the front door in between guests arriving. I realized this when Mindy walked in with Will. He had decided to wander out front! Lesson here: We will always leave the front door closed or baby-gated.

Will has had a pretty good year. His first year number of states visited will be 13: AZ, CA, CO (airport only), DC, IL (airport many times), MD, MI, NC, NV (airport only, but got to gamble), NY, OR, TX, VA. He has only been to 2 countries: Japan and US. He got to go on 31 plane flights, counting connections. He can't talk yet, but he tries to say, or he responds to: apple, ball, banana, bath, block, brrr (when cold), bird, caw (sound of bird), box, bye-bye (with waving), dad, dog, drawer, door, duckie, lama, mom, more (pointing), no (with shaking head), outside, splash, up. He learned to sit on his own at 4 months, crawl at 7 months, and walk at 10 1/2 months. His favorite TV show is "Handy Manny" about a repairman with talking, singing tools. He likes sports, watching the Tour de France, the World Cup, and lots of American Football on TV. He likes songs about satellites. Beep-Beep-There-Goes-A-Satellite!

What are Will's goals for before he turns 2? I hope that he starts talking so he can tell us why he is cranky (probably because we are hanging out at home and he is bored). We hope to take him to see some new places, maybe visit part of the Tour de France. Perhaps expose him to Mayan culture. He is already starting in the toddler class at his pre-pre-school. And what of his 2nd birthday? Definitely Goodie Bags!

Take Me Out to the Warm Sunny Ballgames!

Arizona is a warm, sunny, location. Dan, Will, and I just spent a long weekend hanging out with Kevin and Sara at Baseball Spring Training. Since it was sunny, we wore a lot of sunscreen and protected Will from the sun with a hat and a little tent.

Will in Tent

Since it was very warm, we all made sure to drink enough water.

Sippy cup? Who needs a sippy cup?

Will's cute hat helped him meet girls when I wasn't paying attention.

How you doing?

During one of the games, Will decided to try to sell beer, pushing the bucket around.

Future Beer Vendor

We even took a break from baseball and went to play mini-golf.

Could I get a shorter club, please?

And what is a visit to Phoenix without going over to Taliesin West and taking a picture with a cactus?

So this is the dessert?

We had a great trip, Will even survived the 6-hour drive from California to Arizona. We think that his nifty new car seat helped. Where to next? Somewhere just as hot - Houston, TX in a couple of weeks. But this time, we are flying. It will be Will's 29th flight. Maybe we will see you there!