The 2 Katies and a dolphin

The blue dolphin was the toy of choice at tonight's BFAM BBQ. Here the two Katies squeeze in for a posed shot: "cheese!"

All you can eat popsicles

The kids enjoyed the bouncy house, but the highlight of the day was the popsicle buffet. I think the kids had four popsicles before the company picnic was all over. Yes, that's each. :-)

Company picnic

We drove out to San Jose for Opsware's first ever company picnic. You can see the Spider Man bouncy house towards the back there.

Touchdown!

Here's Cameron celebrating his favorite activity: sleeping!

Reading blogs just like email

It's exciting to see more and more folks blogging (see some links to the right, for instance). But how to keep up with all the bloggers? I find the easiest way is to view the blogs with an RSS reader. My favorite is actually Mozilla Thunderbird, since I use it as my email client anyway.

Basically, Thunderbird allows you to "subscribe" to other people's blogs. As they post new entries, those entries show up just like email in your inbox like so:



This way, you don't have to visit a blog in breathless anticipation, only to discover, "aw shucks, no new post today."

Quick setup instructions if you're using Thunderbird. This works similarly for other RSS readers:

1. Under Tools, select Account Settings... and click the Add Account... button.
2. Choose "RSS News & Blogs", give your set of blogs a name (like "Personal Blogs" or "My Friends" or something like that), and hit "Finish".
3. Back in the main window, right click on the name you just entered and click "Manage Subscriptions".
4. Click the Add button and enter the blog's RSS address. For blogs on Blogspot, this will be the blog's URL followed by atom.xml. So this blog's RSS address is http://withfries.blogspot.com/atom.xml.
5. Repeat for the other blogs, and you're all done! Now to download all the new posts, just right click on your blog folder and choose "Get Messages for Account." Thunderbird will then dutifully check everyone's blog and download all new posts as new messages.

Cheers!

Colin's graduation

Wow -- a busy week. Colin and Kristin graduated from the Little Lambs Preschool earlier this week. Colin starts at our local kindegarten sometime next week. I can hardly believe I've got a school-age boy. Parents say that if you thought it seemed fast getting to this point, just wait until you hit school. The new rhythm of school Monday through Friday and after-school activities to boot will make the journey to this point seem just like the measured uphill climb of a roller coaster. In other words, "hang on!"

On the whole, he seems ready to go. We've been reading him lots of books about the new school experience, and he talks about meeting new friends and learning new things. We'll see how he takes his first day. He is a little reserved around new folks, and at all the play dates with his classmates-to-be (he's been on 3), he seems among the smallest of the kids. Oh well, looks like he's going to have to get used to not being the fastest runner around. :-)

Hi, daddy!

Cameron seems to enjoy looking at people. Here he is giving daddy the big stare down. He's also seemed to grin a few times, though it's probably just a reflex of some sort. Overall, he's growing well -- he's sprouted a double chin and his limbs are filling out. On the sleep front, he demands snacks twice a night, mostly on a predictable schedule (12 am and 3 am).

He's a little more alert during the days now, so he's outgrown his "sleep all the time" phase. But rhythmic motion will usually push him over the edge into sleep.

Parents often ask me how the transition from 2 to 3 is. Lots of folks seem to think the transition from 2 to 3 kids is the hardest of all because you have switch from playing man-to-man to playing zone defense. While this is definitely true, on the whole, I still found the transition from 0 to 1 the biggest adjustment.

Ask me again in a few months when Cameron can move around on his own, and I'll probably be singing a different tune. But for now, we're very thankful for our new little guy. :-)

The badger craze

A coworked named Ted turned me on to the Badger Badger Badger website, one of those hilarious sites that makes you go, "Wow -- who has the time to do this in their spare time? But thanks for doing it all the same!"

Katie loves the badgers. She's insisted on doing the badger dance all day. Go check out the site, then click on the audio posting to hear her (well, hear us) sing the badger song.

Badgerbadgerbadger....mushroom...it's a snake, a snake....badgerbadgerbadger.

Warning: hypnotic and mildly addictive in the same way that the macarena was.

Badger badger badger

Go visit the Badger Badger Badger site first, in case you haven't already.

Clean up time

I'm not sure where Katie got this, but here's the ditty she sings at the end of the day when it's time to put away her toys.

A new way to exercise (not recommended for viewers at home)

Cameron and I invented a new way to exercise tonight: we hit the treadmill together with him strapped into the Baby Bjorn. I was long overdue for a mild aerobic workout, and I was feeling particularly blobbish after having lunch with a coworker who was training for a half marathon.

(In the “when it rains, it pours” department, just a few hours later, I was listening to stories about how a different set of coworkers participated in a triathlon together. Some of them are quite competitive: Matt Laird was on the top finishers in a recent triathlon called Escape From the Rock which includes an open water swim from Alcatraz Island.)

Treadmilling with the Baby Bjorn seem tame by comparison, though it’s definitely not the safest way to exercise—a spill would have been quite disastrous. But I took it slow, and it was fun watching the little guy’s facial expressions. I’m projecting, of course, but it seemed to me his expression said, “you have got to be kidding me.”

Predictably, Cameron fell asleep at about minute seven. No baby can resist the rhythmic bouncing, whether it’s on a washing machine, in a car or stroller—or, in this case, literally coming along for the ride on the treadmill.

Happy birthday, Lauryn and Sydney!

The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and everyone had a grand time at Lauryn and Sydney's birthday bash. I'm not sure how, but Colin, Jeremy, and Ashlyn managed to snag the pole position when it came time to have the yummy strawberry cake -- and this was after a hearty lunch followed by a shaved ice treat! :-)

Katie shows off her purple bag

Katie decorated a purple bag and shows off the result. She loves faces of all sorts. In the shower, she'll often ask for you to draw her a smiley face or a Care Bear (not complete, of course, until you drawin the stomach emblem.)

Yup, Cameron slept through another party...

Gee -- did I sleep through another birthday party? Yes, di di, you sure did. :-)

Katie's favorite color...

...is purple. At least it was last month. Earlier this week, I think both Colin and Katie decided to pick new favorite colors.

Mr. Potato Head

One of the many fun things to do at the birthday bash. Others included a Dora the Explorer bouncy house, an episode of Disney's Tarzan on TV, lots of toys, and a sandbox! Needless to say, Katie slept well when we got home.

Yes, we agree -- we all want a new baby too

Oh yes, we do.

Can we have a new baby?

Lots of the girls remain fascinated with the New Baby. But I think Karinna is the biggest fan. Apologies to all the parents who are getting bombarded with requests for new babies of their very own. :-)

Did I miss the party? Huh? Did I?

Alas, yes you did. But then again, you have to conserve your energy to be perky at in the middle of the night, don't you? :-)

Hugs for the birthday guests

Here is the birthday boy giving his special guests a farewell hug. Marissa and Colin were born hours apart just doors away from each other at the hospital. I hope this is not the beginning of a long life of girls towering over him.

Hugs -- or is this a tackle?

Colin and Ryan clowning around...

This is a test post

This is a test post from Microsoft Word using the new Blogger for Word toolbar.  I don’t know if this will make things much easier, but I suppose it will mean fewer spelling goofs.  Note: smiley faces in Word don’t seem to work.

Kid explosion

Thanks to all of you who came to help celebrate Colin's 5th birthday. As I mentioned during the party, I'm not sure whether I'm more surprised that Colin is 5 or that we have 3 kids already! Where has the time gone? It felt like just yesterday that we were waking up at 3 am and changing diapers in the dark. Oh, wait a minute -- that's what we were doing last night. :-)

Naomi and Isaac were patiently waiting to go home after a long hard day of eating, partying, and bouncing in the Biggy Purple Diny (as Naomi referred to the bouncy house).

Hmmm...which piece do I want?

Colin and Kaitlyn carefully examine the birthday cake to figure out which piece they would want. We had quite a diversity: some wanted maximum frosting, others wanted color. Johanna decided she wanted the wheel.

In case it's hard to tell, that's supposed to be a race car even though it looks a little more like a potato or shoe. Maybe the regular cake decorator got sick? :-)

Time to go home

Ryan and Marissa carefully make their way down the stairs. We had a few kids go up and down the stairs barefoot or in their socks. But it was ok because I had just power-washed them. It's amazing how dirty the stairs and driveway were. I'll have to see if I can dig up a "before" picture.

(Thanks, John and Amy, for lending us the power washer -- amusingly, Colin called it the "power ranger").

The purple bouncy house

The kids had a fabulous time romping, bumping, jumping, singing, story-telling, and just sitting in the big purple bouncy house. Colin hand-picked this model and was particularly proud that he picked a version that Katie would like as well. Both kids are big fans of dinosaurs (though have not quite reached the encyclopedic stage of their fascination -- I'm sure that's coming), and Katie's favorite color is purple.

We don't permit the kids to watch Barney, so we just called this the "Purple Dino Bouncy House." When we finally pulled the plug on the air blower, Katie burst into tears. I had to explain that the purple dino was tired and wanted to take a nap, which is exactly what the deflation process looked like. This seemed to satisfy her. Thankfully, she did exactly the same afterwards.

Divine secrets of the FBC sisterhood

Here's a gaggle (quartet?) of girls sitting at the entrance to the bouncy house of a long afternoon of bouncing, jumping, story-telling, and singing. Everyone played very nicely together, and the older girls were especially careful to make sure the littler kids weren't trampled underfoot. Ah, thoughtfulness: one of the benefits FBC's bumper crop of girls. Not to say that our boys are bad; it's just nice for them to be in a nurturing environment at this age. :-)

Bouncy house fun

The last couple of times Katie has played in bouncy houses at other people's parties, I've gone with her. This was her first solo effort, and she was quite proud of being able to jump around herself. (Not that she didn't enjoy going tandem with daddy too...)

Happy birthday, Colin!

Here are the 5 of us at Colin's birthday bash. Colin had a wonderful time celebrating with his friends, so thanks to everyone who came out.

If we look a little drained, it's not really the party's fault. More Cameron's um, pre-party jitters the night before. Normally, he's been an ok sleeper (for a baby, that is) -- up about every 3 hours but not generally fussy in between feedings. Except for yesterday, when he wanted to be cuddled about about 3 and 5 am.

Overall, though, we're pleased at our transition from a family of 4 to a family of 5. The kids love having di di (little brother in Mandarin) around, and always want to shower affection on him . These days, their favorite ways of expressing their affection is kissing him on the head -- which is better than something they used to do more often, which was to deposit a big stuffed animal or construction vehicle on his chest.)