...and so the summer comes to an end.

So, still working on that dad rotation, but we'll get things more regular soon. Wanted to do the big overview thing, just to catch everyone up.

Back in the middle of summer, the big event was Siddha's baby banquet at Imperial Mandarin. We had over 30 people from around the globe attending, including Siddha's A-kong and A-ma from Taiwan, cousins and aunts and uncles from up in Northern California, and pretty much everyone we know from around here, with aunts and uncles, grandparents, Poppi's, and the like. We spent almost three hours running the staff ragged (we tip well though) with a pretty constant flow of food and orders. They gave us their entire back room, so there was even space to let the kids run around and go crazy. They handed out ballons and everything, so we couldn't really have asked for a more kid friendly space. Megan hand-baked cakes for everyone, and even an extra little one for Siddha to mangle, so we got to do the traditional "baby-destroys-cake" thing. Overall an excellent time, with many gifts and well wishes given and received.

June was further enhanced by a visit from Grammy Jo, who came down from Idaho and her little private ranch, with the horses and the dogs and stuff, to hang with the kids and the family for over a week. We got in lots of family events, gave everyone a chance to reconnect, and gave Grammy Jo a little Siddha time. All in all, everyone seemed to click together just fine, and we're already talking about coordinating 2011's visit with a trip we may be taking up north. We did get a chance to visit the world famous San Diego Zoo, where much fun was had by all. We checked out the elephants, did the reptile house, and even took the Sky-Fari up and over the whole she-bang.

Summer's drawing to a close, and with it that means the kids are going back to school. Tre's starting at Birney, like we mentioned before, and he's really excited about it. There's an orientation next week that the boys are going to, again, just to meet the teachers and go over the general schedule for the school year. He seems excited, but since he's never actually been except for the tour, I think kindergarten is still very much a vague concept for him. He keeps asking about how long he'll be in school, about the other kids, and the like. I think it'll be good that Nani's going to the school with him, and Siddha will even be there before he leaves, so we have at least a few supporting faces, and hopefully he can do the same for them, since he'll be older. Because of his background, in preparation for school, we took Tre down to the Sylvan Learning Center to have him tested in terms of his reading capability. Turns out he's doing fine, he's well within the average competency. We got to talking though, and for all of us, the ability to read well ahead of the curve in school made things a lot easier all the way around. So, in light of that, we decided to go ahead and put him in a program with Sylvan. It'll take a few months, but he'll be almost a year ahead by then, and it seems like the boost can't do anything but help him out in class, and we'd all prefer that school was easy for him. It seems much more likely to be successful.

Siddha has started going to SDSU Children's Center somewhere between 1 and 2 days a week. Now that she's started walking almost the whole time, we've got our choice of locations. As usual, there was an exhaustive couple of weeks of research and tours, but we settled on the Children's center due to the uniqueness of their program and the fact that the days and hours were so flexible. Siddha herself is doing great. She's gotten up to 50% percentile for height, and her head is still huge, but her weight is still pretty low. She's definitely healthy, and incredibly mobile, so obviously doing fine despite the statistics. She's gotten like, half a dozen more teeth in since the last post, and she's in the process of cutting both her upper and lower canines. She never does anything in half steps, our girl, no she doesn't. This, of course, has meant a lot of grouchy baby and sleepless nights, but she's so damned cute the rest of the time that its hard not to forgive her. Her vocabulary now occasionally includes "Tans!" (Thanks) and "Tan kyuu" (thank you, we think) at Torrey's urging. Courtesy starts early, apparently.

It's been a pretty full summer for everyone. The kids are starting their second batch of swimming lessons (Tre can swim back and forth across the pool completely under the water now) and they just wrapped up a couple of weeks of summer camp at the Joan Kroc Center. I think the themes were Cowboy's and Rockstar's, respectively. Tre had a blast, and there were quite a few other kids from our little posse as well, so it was a good chance to reconnect and give them plenty of time together. Additionally, we're doing the annual water park trip on September 12th (come by if you're free, we're getting a family-sized cabana), and there's the Family Matters Picnic the next weekend after that.

The Dad's got a bit of vacation time at Gen Con this year, the greatest 4 days of gaming! We head out to Indianapolis for a weekend of pure geek-age and shopping. We spent some time on the floor, visited some events, attended some seminars, and I got to see a ton of video game music performed live by the Indianapolis Symphony and a full choir, plus classicly trained opera singer and flautist. Good times all around, and the kids had a great weekend with the girls, and Tre attended a Theater Tots session as well, so everyone got to enjoy the time.

My brother Joe just left earlier today after being out for a week. It's always nice to see him, and give the family a chance to reconnect. He hung out with Dan and Megan, when to some shows, got a chance to catch up on his sleep, and played with the kids. He's apparently deciding on whether to move up to Seattle fairly soon or stay in Salem and apply for the welding program at Chemeketa, which is apparently known far and wide for it's welding program.

All in all it's been a hectic couple of months, but full of good events. Check the Facebook and the Flickr links, because we've uploaded a couple pictures in the last couple of months of various events and kids, so check them out. We should be more regular moving forward, so look for another post within the next few weeks covering the first part of the school year and fall transitions.

I'm Back!

We've been doing a rotating daddy schedule for writing up on the family blog and I'm back up in the rotation.

First off - everyone please join me in welcoming to the world Elora Violet Grilly 7 lb. 13 oz. - 19.5 in at 7:58 am on 4/26 to Chris & Devon Grilly! The Zoo is delighted to have another geek spawn in creation. Great job Devon and Chris! Hopefully they were bring her to the west coast sometime soon so we can see her in person.

Tre's year at UCP is winding down to a close but it has been a great thing for him and us.

We had decided to give him a year more before kindergarden to give him the chance to get a little more socialized and it has worked wonders. The Tre we have now is vastly different than the little boy that showed up at our door almost 2 years ago. He is responsive and engaging - he seeks out relationships and is able to narrate his experiences to us. This might seem fairly ordinary to a lot of you but these have been challenges for him and to see him leave this difficulties behind is inspiring.

His school for next year is Birney and we're all pretty jazzed about it. After looking at a lot of schools (don't even ask how many >.<) I think this will be the best fit for our kids (Tre, Nani and Siddha) though the only downside is they will be going to Middle School (barbaric in my opinion) but we'll see how it works out. The school is an International Baccalaureate Organisation's Primary Years Programme school with a track of an IM Middle School and High School. Birney in the past had a terrible performance record for academics but this program has seemed to turn the school around. They have made incredible strides and seem poised to continue their success.

Siddha has fully embraced mobility as a lifestyle. She pretty much in motion from when she wakes up in the morning until she crashes from exhaustion at night. Her vocabulary has grown from "Da Da" to include "Mum Mum" (her favorite baby snack food) "Yah" "Bye" "Hi" and "Wow" (from hearing us saying it a great deal). She now growls as she crawls around the living room which delights me to no end. She has a host of strange cries and calls that she makes all the time while going about her day.

She is loving to eat all on her own. We set her up with a small bowl of whatever we're eating (sans the spice) in small bits and she goes to town. She has made the transition from bottle/baby food effortless. She tries the food and pretty much knows when she likes the sample or not. If disagreeable she digs it out and places it aside on her high chair tray. Even the occasional choking or gagging is pretty mild experience. She reaches in again on her own and pulls out the food without much fanfare.

She is still a wee thing (3% for weight and 15% for height) but her head is a little challenging (85% for circumference) right now. The clothes that fit her end up not fitting over her head so buttons, snaps and zippers are very in for us. She has four new teeth coming in on the top of her mouth to match her two bottom chompers so I think eating will become even more interesting for her when she has an actually bite. She is prepping for walking by lurching from one object to another and taking risks standing with only one hand or sometimes no hands for a few seconds.

We are getting ready for summer vacation here. We decided to not enroll Tre in the UCP summer program to give him the chance to hang out with his non-school friends (Nate, Nia, Gabriel and Emma to name a few) over the summer. We signed him up for some summer camps with same friends for two weeks. We also are planning a weekly trip to the farmer's market here in town. We also have our yearly trip to the water park as well - a family favorite for all of us. The Dads are taking a mini-vacation to GenCon to geek out and get some non-kid time over the summer. Thanks to the Aunties for watching the kids while we go to the convention!

Keep an eye out for the invite to Siddha's baby banquet for her first birthday. We have sent out invites far and wide in hopes of gathering a huge host for the event and enjoy the food at Imperial Mandarin (thanks Lae Lae & Rowena for the suggestion). I am so glad that Leng's parents will be in town for it and get to see Siddha (along with the rest of the kids). My hope is that we can get our kids really comfortable with Leng's family so that they have an even larger family to support them and connect with. Leng's parents have been incredible about this whole blended family structure and it has been a pleasure to be able to see their relationships with our families grow and deepen.

We took a weekend trip to Disneyland with several other queer families and had a blast. We drove up and stayed at a hotel near the park to maximize our time at the parks. We also went to California Adventure one day as well and I throughly enjoyed it. I thought it was a great place for the kids - they have an area themed after A Bug's Life and the rides were perfect for Tre. Exciting but not too scary worked for him. He ran all around with the two other boys that came on the trip. They formed their own pack and pretty much never stopped running until bedtime. It was great to have some many extra adults around with the kids - people were able to sneak away for rides and attractions and adult conversation was readily available which on kid trips is a lifesaver.

The boys threw me a lovely birthday BBQ along with Megan whose birthday is the day after mine. I think it was a wonderful success. We ended up with about 30 people (kids included) and a self serve shish-kabob manned by Grill Master Bill. One of things I have always enjoyed is filling our house with people and food, it's a magical combination. :) It was exactly the kind of birthday I was looking for - friends, family, good food and kids running around crazy in the background.

I think that's covered most of April's events for us but we do have a backload of photos and videos to get up from the last few months which I will try to do over the next week or so. Feel free to harass me via phone, text or email to get them done. :) As always I close with a warm invitation for any and all to visit us here at the Zoo - we welcome the company. :)

Winter à la San Diego

February started with me (Bill) heading to Tulsa to help with my Dad's estate. I helped Sara get done a lot of things that either needed a helping shove, or needed to happen while she was at work. I helped get the plumber out to check on things and we got the furnaces inspected. I also sifted through a lot of things from my childhood. I still had a bedroom in the house I grew up in when my parents moved out of it. So we boxed everything up in the move and put it under the stairs. While I was in Tulsa was the time to clean it all out. I had a lot of memories come wafting up while doing it, and I ended up tossing out a lot of stuff.

Unfortunately for the family, I had only been in San Diego for one week after going to Cupertino. So I was out of town two of those three weeks. This threw off everyone's schedules. Larry and Torrey had to cover more kid care, and the kids felt the disruption to their schedules.

When I got back, both Tre and Siddha were REALLY REALLY interested in me. Clingy, actually. I found this disconcerting. I've always used space as a personal defense, never letting anyone too close. And here were these two, short, needy people steamrolling right up to me! I was a bit out of sorts, but I also kept in my mind a mental talisman I plan on keeping for their childhood - I know that in ten years I won't be anywhere near this cool. So I'm making sure to enjoy it while I have it. :-)

And it's really not that bad. :-)

I feel this has also been a big month for both kids. Tre's verbality has taken off. He's now telling lots of stories. He's been asking a lot more about how things work. He's moved past just asking what eats what (with an eye for what eats Treontes) to just examining all the connections in the world around him.

I feel UCP is really paying off. He's been growing and changing, but now it's showing vividly. He's still exceptionally silly and goofy, but there's a new depth to it all. And I love it. Earlier in the year, I felt he was behind his peers at school. Close enough he should be there, but behind. He now feels like he's really solid, and ahead of his peers in different areas.

Speaking of solid, Siddha's now feels a lot more solid to me. That sure came out weird. Before, she felt like a baby. Something small, something fragile. She doesn't feel that way anymore. She now feels like a small, compact, complete, solid person.

This last week has been a big change for Siddha. She's now MOBILE. All-caps mobile. For a few weeks now, she's been moving around. Sunday afternoon, though, she started booking around the room. We had folks over for gaming, and all of a sudden she was crawling under the table. She explored every corner of the room. Zoom zoom!

Monday, we heard a shriek of GLEE as she got around the corner from the living room into Tre's room. Tre's un-babyproofed-room.... The baby gates went up minutes later. :-)

New Year at the Zoo

So, it looks like it's time for another update from the Zoo.

I think it's been long enough that I probably need to recap from what, late November? So, first things first, obviously, Thanksgiving.

Torrey's sister Angel was nice enough to invite us out to share Thanksgiving with her, so we took about a week or so off and went out to Ft. Hood, Texas. Despite being on a military base her house was fairly roomy (4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms), and there was plenty of space to stuff the whole family in. We had a good time hanging out with the nephs (nephews and nieces) while Angel was at work, and she actually physically cooked a huge spread for the evening meal. All the classics, and a few others, were laid out, piping hot and delicious. (I'll link some pics later :) ) We also hit a wonderful Japanese buffet that had like, 5000 different items, including actual steak, Korean steak, and fresh sushi.

After Thanksgiving was Christmas time. Everything was super hectic for about a week at the beginning of December, since our Thanksgiving trip had eaten up alot of the time we usually used to do things like put the tree up and go Christmas shopping. So, we gathered it all up and did it all that first week we got back. Bought our tree, decorated it, and bought presents for pretty much everyone that first week. Like I said, it was a little hectic, but it was nice to just kick back for the next couple of weeks and let the frantic last-minute scrabbling happening around us :D

Christmas was wonderful. This was the first year Tre had been in the same place for more than one Christmas, and it was fun explaining to him time and time again that yes, we were doing Christmas again, and that we'd do it again next year. We had a bunch of gifts from Santa, in addition to the family, and we tracked Santa via website across the US, and made sure kids were in bed before he arrived ;) Our family has the tradition of having a big family dinner on Christmas Eve, so we have everyone come over then, and we exchange all the gifts from those people on Christmas Eve. So we kinda had two Christmas', with all the exchanges that go on the night before, and then the extras (from Santa Claus and immediate family) on Christmas morning.

Our standard intended-to-be-lowkey-but-turns-into-a-25-person-gathering ensued on New Year's Eve, with the initial invite turning out quite a number of people. We had a good time though, playing Wii Fit and Rockband and trying out new appetizers, and clanged glasses and kissed as the ball dropped on delay from New York XD

January has gone by in quite a blur. Bill was out of town for a week, so that was a steady stream of kids-kids-kids. Additionally, we got called for an emergency placement, with a nine year old and a 4 month. It was definitely short notice, and due to the way they were being passed off we had to run out and pick up a number of items. Not a big deal, just something that goes with the emergency placements. We talked it over, and agreed to keep the kids for a month. We thought that was about the extent of what we could handle. The boy was a little hyperactive but a nice kid, and the little girl was in her slug phase, so not much of a handful. Despite our agreement to take them for a month, it turned out that we only had them for about 5 days. Thankfully, they were reunited with the Mom, who was happy to have them back. It was an interesting experience, and it was nice to see that we may have had to stretch a little bit, but that we could handle four if we had too.

So, that's been the last couple of months in a nutshell. I'll try and hop back on in a couple of days and add some pics and videos in were appropriate.

- Woolly Turtle