The best laid plans of Mice & Men often go astray...

This four-day weekend was supposed to be our quiet, slow recovery from the heinous week before- I had been suffering from a relapse all week, while Rich was scrambling between work, clinicals and home repairs that needed to be done before our new tenants moved in.

And of course, our weekend didn't exactly turn out the way we'd hoped. :-( But I suppose, it was even better. Because as stressful as it can be juggling our schedule to accommodate work, errands, friends and family...we always remind ourselves- it just means you're loved, lucky and blessed.

Thanksgiving day was the usual flurry of cooking, baking, kitchen cleaning and then the traditional gluttony-induced coma with our large family. The day after Thanksgiving I hit a few Black Friday sales in the mid-morning, but spent much of the day hacking and recovering from a sleepless night before. Saturday had me spending another long day in the kitchen working on Riki's birthday cake, then a visit to Granny's to perform CNA duties, followed by a session of pottery painting with friends that night.

Today (Sunday) I woke up with a grin since I was able to attempt my first run this month (7 miles). Because whether my body likes it or not, I am officially calling this bout of sickness over. I got sick on Nov. 1st, the day after Halloween...and only today did I finally feel well enough to run. I was basically sick for A MONTH. That sucks arse. Thankfully, we ended the day and month on a much more uplifting note. Because not only did we decorate the house for Christmas this evening, but more importantly, we also celebrated Riki-chan's 6th birthday!

After the water play was over...my dad had the kids all put their heads down so no one could peek and see the cake before Riki!

Here's my brother Jon carrying out the cake to his son, Riki!

Riki blowing out the candles!

He liked it! Last year he politely outlined my failures of his cake right after blowing out the candles, but this year he said I did good!

Do you like how we dressed Ryan up all fancy for the party (tank top and diaper)? I've always said we're a classy bunch!

My brother Jon and his pretty family- Mika, Kenichi & Riki!

After the party festivities, the two boys came down to help us decorate. It's become an annual tradition (again, take note of our son's festive holiday attire...).

We ended the night with the three boys all begging to watch a Clifford the Big Red Dog DVD!

Can't wait for the rest of the week to come...even more fun ahead- Ry's first music class in a month, two school days, a beach trip, a park trip, Rich's work's Christmas party, etc. Bring it!

The holidays are upon us!

Riki's 6th birthday cake (a firefighter helmet)

Last year I was so excited for Ryan to experience the holidays that everything seemed to move along pretty slowly. This year, on the other hand- he's older and more active, and we planned a two week trip in the midst of everything. So needless to say- I can't believe Halloween and Thanksgiving are already over.

Our Thanksgiving was nice. Though my mother always does the heavy lifting (she bakes the bird, the homemade stuffing and provides the Pilgrim food), I spent about four hours in the kitchen whipping up a few contributions myself- steamed pumpkin in teriyaki sauce, onion roasted potatoes, pumpkin mochi (you know...the kind they ate on the Mayflower), and macadamia nut apple banana bread for each family to take home (again, another Pilgrim staple).

Unfortunately, we missed this year's Wobble & Gobble 10k because I suffered a bit of a relapse days after returning home from our trip. Thankfully, I think I'm finally over this nearly month-long cough and cold and ready to rumble. I'm a little concerned that I haven't been able to run for three weeks, but I still have about 4 months to improve my usual plodding 10-min. miles down to a blistering 5-min. mile. ;-)

And as further motivation, I just bought myself a few early Christmas presents the other day and scooped up the new 2011 Camelbak Octane XCT (it holds an impressive 100 ounces with tons of storage for bloks or gels), as well as two pairs of new running shoes. I got a pair of Asics Gel Kinetics (MSRB $160) for $90, and a pair of New Balance 1054s (MSRP $130) for $45. I am sure both will have me scorching the streets of Hilo and thumbing my nose at all the Kenyans behind me.

If all goes well this weekend, tomorrow will not only be my first long run in awhile, but we'll erect our Christmas tree AND help celebrate my nephew Riki's 6th birthday party. Which is why I've been in the kitchen much of today attempting to create a firefighter helmet cake (that if the past is any indication- will be heavily critiqued by Riki's ever watchful and observant eye as we present it to him).

In between cake baking and dishes and fondant dying and shaping, I've also been working on our annual Christmas cards. I don't know why, but I really enjoy this ritual each year...even if it is rather assembly-lineish- fold, stuff, sign, stamp, seal! :-) There's such a sense of satisfaction once I've dumped all the completed cards into the mailbox, and then such excitement receiving everyone else's cards and reading up on what they've been doing all year (hint hint).

So ho ho ho and all that good stuff, the holidays are upon us!

Riz in the month of November

Ryan likes to "read." And by "read" I mean that he likes to pull each and every book out from his bookshelf, flip through it and then toss it into a big pile once he's done. This is a weekly occurence! And yeah, I get to clean it up. :-)

Well at least we know who he learned it from...

Somebody wasted a whole lot of poi this morning...but I won't mention any names. Thank goodness the photo op was worth the waste!

Notes on a Quiet Night

At this moment, five or six years ago, I can probably tell you exactly what I was doing. I was likely sitting at home, either quietly reading a book, watching my favorite shows on our DVR with Rich, or tapping away on the laptop. I most assuredly was NOT exhaustedly picking up Hot Wheels, books & trains strewn across the living room, donning a shiny Mardi Gras beaded necklace while bopping around to The Freeze Song on repeat, or scraping mashed banana off the kitchen floor. Which of course, is exactly what I was doing tonight.

Do I miss those quiet, leisurely, pre-Ryan nights? Of course. I loooooved my down time each night! I even recall being quite smug about how lucky I was to not have to be doing all the lame stuff that most other people I knew were having to do that night- like picking up Hot Wheels, books & trains strewn across the living, donning shiny Mardi Gras beaded necklace while bopping around to the Freeze Song on repeat, and scraping mashed banana off their kitchen floor. Suck-ahs!!!

But if I'm being completely honest here- despite having the time, money and ability to do absolutely ANTHING I wanted each and every evening of my life- I was generally pretty bored. I frequently ran out of good books to read and good tv shows to watch. And I just as frequently ran out of things to blog about or friends to email (since most could never email me back much since they were busy picking up Hot Wheels, books & trains...you get the idea). And so I would often have to invent time consuming projects that only non-breeding couples can come up with- organizing my clothes closet by color (light colors to dark of course), creating a binder filing system for all our bills and investments, or starting our Christmas letter two months early. Pathetic? Um...maybe. Fulfilling? Definitely not.

So do I glamorize the days of pre-Ryan? I think I do sometimes. But do I miss them? Honestly? Not so much. And not nearly as much as I thought I would. Of course I miss our weekly dinner dates...when I actually got to enjoy my food (and ah... a little too much of it...cough! cough!). But what I have now is so much more...well, fun. Now I get high telling my son I'm going to take him to the pool and listening to him squeal with delight, or watching his cute little face break out into a huge smile when I tell him he can have some candy. And I also NEVER sit around bored anymore, searching for something to do.

Instead, I treasure those rare, quiet moments like tonight (Rich & Ryan went on their first overnight father-son trip together) and feel such overwhelming gratitude for all of the joy and love that our little boy has brought to our lives.

Jumping back in!

Has nearly a week gone by already? We got back from our trip on Sunday and pretty much jumped back in to 'real life' the second we returned- no rest for the travel weary! :-) Three loads of laundry, two trips to grocery stores, Costco, the health food store, the Farmer's Market, the bank, post office, library, two trips to school, a playdate each for Ry and I, three trips to great grandma's for CNA duty, bill paying, garage sale packing, two trips to Macy's (hey, it was their special 1-day sale...), Target to wrap up some charity holiday gifts, and a special birthday party and all the cooking that goes with it!

And so yes, I'm going to go there- I need a vacation. :-)

My dad turned um...ah...49 on Monday (cough! cough!), so we all chipped in to get him this 1,000 pound, industrial -sized grill (complete with oven!) for the big day. The wonderful, gracious family that was renting our casa had bought it for $3500, but barely used it and sold it to us for a fraction of that. My dad loooooves it.

We also bought their king-sized leather bed frame (exciting for my 6-ft. tall husband and his toddler, co-sleeping baby mama) that the three boys loved!

They were entertained all night from it...because of course, none of them have beds at home. ;-)

My Japanese father (what was he again? 47?!) doesn't do traditional cake and ice cream, so my sister-in-law baked him custard pies! He didn't even have to blow out the candles since he had three very eager volunteers to do it for him (resulting in no less than 453,232,951 particles of saliva being sprayed all over it). Lucky us. Delicious!

Poor, sweet, patient Ryan was soooo over shopping at Macy's so I let him take a rest on the floor while we were waiting in the Russian bread lines to check out. FYI- I've recently discovered that Kona's Macy's 1-day sales (which are of course, two days) are the BEST ever. Now, everytime they have one, I go nuts and buy like three newspapers so I can three coupons over the two days to get tons of stuff. On their last sale I got things like a Puma bikini bottom for about $15, a Guess bikini bottom for $10, a Quicksilver rash guard for Ry for $8, etc. And on this sale, I got king-sized down filled pillows for $15 each, a Tori Richards work shirt that was orig. $95 for $15, a turkey roaster for $8, and some new sheets that were originally $115 for $25. Score, score, score. Let my Chinese heart sing with praise.

Guess who went on a field trip to Safeway this week? [It's Ryan....can't you tell from the picture?!] :-) They were each given little bags filled with fruit, a balloon and other snacks from each department in the store...much more fun than I'd ever thought you could have at a grocery store!

Last day in SF!

On our last day in the city, we took Ryan to the Randall Museum in the morning. It was only 3/4 mile or so from Joey's house, which would have been wonderfully convenient, except that we basically needed crampons and pickaxes to climb up the hill to get there (suddenly the Andes just don't look very challenging...). The Museum is perched up on a steep, quiet hillside in the Castro disctrict overlooking the city, and had a large model train railway, a small petting zoo, and a few other fun things we knew Ryan would love.

The family riding the caboose

Though you probably can't see him, Ryan is hiding in the box of puppets!

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After the Randall Museum, we hit a few thrift stores before meeting Tom, Dawn, Robbie & Finny in the Mission District for some delicious Mexican fare. And then once Ry woke up from his nap, it was back to Duboce Park Cafe for a snack, a stop at the park, and then dinner near Golden Gate Park with Joey, Sherry & Charlie (who with Rich's approval, I have identified as my first potential brother husband since we could happily clean all day together)!

The night ended like most others...with Uncle Joey reading Ryan his nightie stories!

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I've decided that since we'll be going back for our third trip in nine months, that we're no longer visitors. We're...part-time residents. Sounds fancy, right? ;-) I already have a list of things to do once we go back. Though we can't believe it's been nearly 3 years since our last trip abroad, we've since come to accept that we probably have another year until we think Ryan will be up for a 10-12 hour flight anywhere...and since vibrant, cultural San Fran is so close to Hawaii (and yes, 5-6 hours of flying is considered close for us!), has so much to do and my funny, occasionally-sober brother is over there- well, it's no brainer that we keep going back! Until then, Rich, Ry and I want to send out special thanks to Grandma Janice, Aunty Pat, Uncle Clyde, Joey, Randi, Murphy (woof!), Duane, Angela, Alayna, Ian, Tom, Dawn, Robbie, Finny, Grammy Kay, Shawn, Sandy, Macey, Riley, Sherry & Charlie and anyone else I might have missed who helped make this trip supercalifragilisticexpialadociously special by spending time with us!

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!

Since mama only had like, four days of vacation, we've been crankin' out the fun over the past few days!

Once Ryan finished his assigned morning literature (every family has its issues to deal with and we just want him to be well prepared) over a morning cup of coffee, we took a...

...morning train ride down to Embarcadero for a nice walk down to Pier 39, where we met our friends the Huntington's (who drove all the way up from San Diego) so our three boys could have some fun at the Aquarium of the Bay together!

Someone was a little nervous in the super long tunnel (I think he thought the big fish could get us), because he was super clingy and unhappy the whole time we were down there. You can see it on his face. He kept asking to 'go see train' the whole time we were down there. :-(

But once we were through the tunnel, he recovered enough to explore and discover!

His favorite part of the aquarium was definitely the 'touching' part, especially this pool because he loved the sticky sea anemone and the freezing cold waterfall that would flow into the pool every thirty seconds or so.

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After a few hours at the aquarium, we all headed to Bubba Gump's for lunch, followed by the carousel at Pier 39, and then watched the sea lions before hopping the trolley and train back home.

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From there, we drove Joey's car back to Bed, Bath & Beyond (one of my favorite stores!) so I could go on a mini shopping spree! We got some new sheets for our new (used) California King bed back home, a memory foam carpet (my friend got me hooked!) and assorted other kitchen gadgets (a veggie burger press, salt and pepper shakers, a giant spatula, a cookie dough scooper, etc.)!

Dinner was my new favorite treat- Ethiopean food! Rich and I shared the veggie sampler platter, but dessert was even better- two cartons of vegan, organic Three Twins ice cream (lemon cookie bar and chocolate with peanut butter)! Tomorrow is our last day, so we're gonna work it again! :-)

Rizzle in the City!!!

Honey, I shrunk Ryan!

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(taken during the First Annual Father-Son Roadtrip out to Santa Rosa to see Rich's stepbrother Shawn & his family and Grammy Kay)

After nearly 8 straight days of being confined to bed (Rich felt so bad that I spent 2/3 of our vacation sick in bed and missed the race that last night he booked us return tickets here in three months so I can run a different half marathon...what a guy!)- I finally left the house yesterday!!! We hit up a few of my favorite stores (Trader Joe's, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Sports Basement), two different parks so Rizzle could play (Duboce & Golden Gate) and then had an okonomiyaki, yakisoba, karaage and ramen dinner with Joey. We did each trip in little spurts here and there so I wouldn't get too tired or nauseous (since the day before I had been throwing up from the medication the doctor gave me). So for those of you keeping track, yeeees...this makes the second trip in a row that I got sick on! Aren't I the fun, hardy travel companion? ;-)

Ryan at Twin Peaks lookout

The signature Ryan smile at Duboce Park

Today I felt a little better and we attemped a short road trip (about 45 minutes away) to the John Muir National Forest so we could go and see the giant redwoods. It's so funny, right when we started driving over the Golden Gate Bridge we suddenly heard this from the backseat-"Oh wow! A bridge! We're on a bridge! Yaaaaaay!" So at least we know Ryan was paying attention! ;-)

Though I wouldn't say the trees at John Muir were as quite as spectacular/big as the ones in Sequioa National Park, I will say that the walking path was one of the best we've ever seen in a national park.

Another classic Ryan grin in the park!

See what I mean? This tree is totally tiny and disappointing. :-)

The trail had about 4 beautiful bridges, all of which were built with wood from trees that had fallen within the park.

Real men ride bears...

A few Kodak moments so far...

This has definitely not been a trip that's gone according to plan. It's Day 7 and so far, I'm still mostly bedridden. I coughed so much last night that Rich threatened to take me to the hospital if I didn't stop, and this morning...he's following through on it! Guess who's going to Kaiser in an hour? :-)

Still, as bummed as I've been about not being able to really do much on this trip, I am trying to focus on the fact that Ryan is getting some quality time with his uncle Joey and daddy, and that he's having a wonderful trip so far.

Flashing a million dollar smile at the Waikiki Aquarium with Grandma & Aunty Pat

Rich and Grandma tried to get him to cry to show his disappointment at not being able to go to Jungle Fun, but he was far too amused watching Grandma 'fake cry' to do it himself!

Petting a goat the Honolulu Zoo

Guess who broke into Aunty Randi's shoe collection and discovered what a high heeled shoe is?

I dragged myself out of bed to go to Six Flags because I knew I could NOT miss my son's first encounter with Thomas the Train!

I decided to match his signature smile for the camera too!

We think Ryan went on 15 rides that day...but the only two that elicted radiant smiles were the two that he went on alone! As Joey said, "It's like we were holding him back all day by riding with him!" The airplane was ride #1 solo (always nervewracking watching your 2-year old ride something ten feet off the ground all by himself)!

And the elephant was ride #2 solo! Look at that euphoria! Next time we'll just drop him off at the park entrace... :-)

Riding in his beloved train with Uncle Joey to snooty Westfield Mall to avoid the rain. [Sidenote: Joey & Rich (using my bib number) ran the half marathon together that morning in freezing wind and rain and both had excellent times! Once again, with ZERO training, Rich pulled off an excellent finish! How does he DO that?!]

Hey! Guess who found the heels again?

Spreading Aloha (& germs) around SF

Not much fun stuff to report but wanted to post an update- I basically never left the room the three days we were in Waikiki. And after two days up here in San Fran...am still sicker than a dog. I've been hacking nonstop, mostly bedridden, and needless to say- I missed the race today. :-(

On the upside, a little someone you and I know has been having a good trip- he went to the Honolulu Zoo & Waikiki Aquarium on Oahu with Grandma, and got to ride Thomas the Train at Six Flags yesterday! ;-) More on the little guy later once I load up some pics!

Back in Waikiki

So many things on this trip are similar to our last trip here back in August that Ryan looks like a seasoned traveller as he navigates his way through the airport "Now we get ticket! Now we go to beep beep! [security] Now we see airplane! I want juice!" Unfortunately, a few things haven't exactly gone as we'd hoped- namely, that I am sick. The day before our flight I had the chills, body aches, a 101 degree fever, a raging headache, minor conjunctivitis, respiratory congestion, and a sore throat. Really, it was like every random illness known to man all thrown together- it was as if I dragged my tongue across every piece of play equipment at a park AND then on each floor of the hospital or something. Seriously, I don't think I've ever had so many symptoms all at once before. I thought about delaying my outbound flight here but ended up coming out with everyone else. And pretty much since then, I've been holed up in the hotel room sipping warm water and sucking down Halls cough drops, which is made slightly more tolerable because it's been raining all day. :-(

Thankfully, we have a great hotel room (mama forked over the extra cash and upgraded the room to one with a kitchenette and small dining area) with an ocean view, and my mom is with us (it was our birthday present to her to join us on the Waikiki segment of our trip). So she and my Aunt were able to take little Rizzle to the Waikiki Aquarium this morning, where he apparently bounded around like he owned the place, even remembering exactly where the animal crackers in the gift shop were that he got last time. :-) Rich gets out from his work conference later soon, and then I think they'll all hit the mall later since it's covered.

I hope the weather and my illness both improve soon, but either way, nothing is going to dampen this vacation. I'm determined to catch up on sleep and some reading today, so I don't feel robbed...yet!

Halloween #3!

On Ryan's 1st Halloween, he was a delicious, plump, little grape.

On Ryan's 2nd Halloween, he was a scary skeleton.

And on Ryan's 3rd Halloween, he was...Thomas the Train! Toot! Toot!!!

The festivities kicked off on Saturday with a visit to Candyland with his cousins (a miniature doctor and a miniature fireman). I think Ryan was a little overwhelmed by the hoardes of people, so we left after 70 min. or so.

On Sunday night, we met up with the Suzawa family (who open their home to us every Halloween for pre-trick or treating festivities), Kenichi, Riki, Uncle Jon, Aunty Mika, Grandma F and even Uncle JJ & Aunty Lynne, who drove for 4+ hours to spend 2 hours trick or treating with their three of their four favorite nephews (the fourth is still in utero...but is not in MY womb)!

Because of the different age/excitement levels of the group, we quickly split up and regrouped at various points throughout the night. So the last 30-45 min. of the night ended up being just the three of us and Kenichi, who was THRILLED to be 'in charge' of Ryan.

I think Ryan loved the lower key, one-on-one attention with his older protector.

'Cause the little Doctor and his trusty steam engine just didn't want stop. We trick or treated for nearly two hours and even at the last house, they were giggling, cheering loudly when they got candy and excitedly running back to us with huge smiles on their faces.

Even after his bedtime, our little Gene Simmons wanna-be was wild and lovin' the night! So I have high hopes that Ryan will not only continue to forget about his candy stash, but for next year's Halloween festivities as well! It's only 364 days away after all. :-)