RJ Goes to the Garlic Festival...

Do you know where your garlic comes from? Probably China actually, but you may be lucky enough to get some of the good domestic Gilroy,CA garlic.

The garlic festival attracts a 100,000+ crowd to the southern-most stop on Caltrain. It is a 90 minute drive from our place, and I kid you not, from more than 4 miles away up the highway, ac on, windows closed you could smell the garlic.The area's top chefs show up for the cooking competition that even airs on Food Network. We sampled garlic bread, garlic calamari, garlic pesto pasta, garlic pepper steak sandwich, garlic sausage sandwich, garlic marinated mushrooms, garlic chicken stir fry, garlic shrimp scampi, and of course topped it off with garlic ice cream. It sounds scary, but even RJ enjoyed it:

Vampires beware.

RJ Goes to Santa Cruz

We headed down to Santa Cruz to see the beach and the boardwalk and all the rumored "crazy people" that live there. On Friday (July 18) we arrived and got the lay of the land and found a good taqueria for dinner (Thank You Yelp!). RJ was enthralled with the parrot painted on the window there.

On Saturday we hit the main tourist spots.

We started at the Mystery Spot, where the laws of physics check themselves at the entrance gate. I would show you pictures of RJ standing at a slant but, no lie, our camera refused to work while we were at the Mystery Spot. Zoinks.

Moments upon leaving, the camera magically started working again, so that you can enjoy some pictures of the foggy morning at Natural Bridges State Park.

Then we met up with some of the local color in the form of the Kempos (also known as Laura Rosensteel and her hubby Jesse). See what we mean about Santa Cruz attracting "Crazy People"

[Okay the scary part is that I realized that this picture (from Sophomore year Spring Break in Cancun) will be a decade old come Spring Break season...man we're all old now. ]

Laura was still in shock and disbelief that we have a kid. While walking downtown we also were approached by a shabbily dressed gentleman selling a book and childcare. We'll keep that in mind for next time.

We had a very very very yummy lunch at Chocolate, which was just as scrumptious as a restaurant named Chocolate should be! Three cheers for the Chocolate Orgy platter.

Then we hit the boardwalk and let RJ get his feet in the Pacific for the first time, and headed home.

Adios DamnedPump!

I have been breastfeeding RJ for over a year. Given how demanding work has been, I am damn proud of myself for surpassing my goal of breastfeeding for a year. I had at one time a grand idea of letting RJ dictate the weaning schedule, but given how rough this past school year was with pumping and nursing between classes and meetings, which were never at the same time every day, I wanted to ensure that I wouldn't be nursing RJ during the day when the Fall Semester starts. So, I gave the weaning process a little nudge.

Before weaning, here was our nursing schedule:

Pump for freezer/bottles 5am
Wake 6:30
Snack 9:00
Naptime 1:00
Snack 4:00
Bedtime 7/7:30

When school was in session, I was pumping in place of the 9:00 (and also at the 5am pump), but nursing on the weekends. Since June, I have been nursing for the 9:00, but I kept pumping knowing that I would need the supply of pumped milk in order to mix with whole milk when I started weaning.

The goal is to drop the 9:00, 1:00, and 4:00 feedings, but keep the wake-time and bedtime feedings for as long as RJ wants. To do this, I'm using a "don't offer, don't refuse" approach, dropping one feeding at a time. In early July, I started mixing pumped breast milk with whole milk in a sippy cup. For two days, RJ drank 5oz. breast milk mixed with 1 oz. whole milk, which we reduced by an ounce of breast milk every two days until he was drinking 6 oz of whole milk out of a sippy. The first feeding I dropped was his naptime nursing, because of it's close proximity to lunch anyway. Also, dropping this feeding gave me a big chunk of time when I could drive down to campus on my babysitter days. RJ responded wonderfully and didn't ask to nurse at that time at all. There was one time that he wanted to nurse an extra time in the afternoon, but it was the exception rather than the rule. As you can see from this picture, he is a fan of his sippy cups and even plucked this one out of the fridge when I had opened it to get something else!

We are amassing quite the arsenal of sippy cups free of BPA and Phlalates and PVC. We have 2 Klean Kanteens, 1 Born Free Soft-Spout Trainer, 1 Foogo Sippy, 1 Think Baby Trainer, 1 Boon Fluid, and 1 Nuby Easy Grip Sippy. RJ is not as fond of the Nuby as he is of the rest. Seems like he knows which one is the cheap one already. In terms of leak-proof ness - The Foogo and Klean Kanteen are the best and the Born Free is the leakiest. Now if only we could get RJ's chin to stop leaking, we'd be in good shape! Next on the acquisition list is the "Safe Sippy"

Since the first reduction went so well, we only waited a few days to start the process with his 9:00 am nursing, which allowed us to get moving quicker when we wanted to go into the city or whatever. This worked out quite well when Sully was here and we were going into town a lot.

We're down to three times a day now - when he wakes up, when he wakes up from his afternoon nap, and at bedtime. I'm going to hold steady for a little while and drop his post-afternoon nap feeding just before our 5th anniversary next month, so that we can spend the whole day just as a couple.

RJ seems to have responded to this quite well. Every once and a while, he'll come up and lift up my shirt (his personal, very obvious, baby sign for "I want the boobs"), and I indulge him. It hasn't happened often - maybe 3 times total in the last month, so I think he was ready for weaning anyway. After all, many of his feedings were very active, wiggly toddler feedings, so I'm not convinced he was getting a whole lot. What I have noticed is that he nurses a lot better now that we're not nursing so often.

My favorite thing about daytime weaning is bidding adieu to my not-so-good friend, DamnedPump. Now that there is only one more feeding left to drop, and I have a freezer full of breast milk due to my continued daily pumping, I decided that it was time to stop waking up at 5am to pump. I hated pumping and it was never easy for me, as I had to pump at least twice, most of the time 3 times for every one feeding I missed, with the exception of my first pump of the day. (I shudder to think what would've been had I not had a good Medela pump!) I only kept up pumping first thing in the morning because I wanted to make sure that I still could pump, so that I wouldn't have to give RJ formula. I know it wouldn't have hurt him, but breast milk is better for him and I abhor the smell of formula. But now that RJ is old enough not to "need" breast milk, I am going to let the supply of frozen milk dwindle as he drops the 4pm feeding and give him sippy cups of breast milk if I'm ever not around for bedtime (which will happen about 6 times during the fall semester when I have a night class that I have to teach- urgh!) After it's gone, he'll get a cup of whole milk if I'm not there.

So Adios DamnedPump! I'll probably see you again someday when baby #2 needs milk (No, I'm not pregnant. Don't get all excited, Mom!)

By the end of the summer, RJ will be nursing only when he first wakes up and right before he goes to sleep at night. We plan on continuing as long as he wants to. We both still enjoy it and it's still good for him so I am not going to nudge him to keep it up or to stop. If he's still nursing and I get pregnant again or you know, he's still nursing in kindergarten, then maybe I'll think about nudging him toward weaning those feedings. But for now, there are still some daily boobies in RJ's life.

The Mortgage Mess: July Update...

Testing the Waters

It has been awhile since we first found out about the foreclosure. Since our last update we've been looking at houses and doing some research. I thought about going ahead and getting a real estate license for a little while there. Our goal simply put:

rent >= mortgage interest payment + property taxes + homeowners insurance + error

It has been getting pretty close to balancing out, but not unsurprisingly, anything approaching that equation is getting multiple offers. We just looked at a house that has 12 offers already and it has only been on the market for a week. I suspect it is the same dozen people bidding on the few cheapest foreclosures while many others are ignored. We looked at another house this morning that was listing higher but had zero offers and was just as nice.

Notice to Quit

We've been put on notice so we're now officially squatters.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that ... (ii) within sixty (60) days after service on you of this Notice in the event you are a tenant or subtenant of the property, and not one of the owners of the property, you are required to quit and deliver up possession of the premises...

We believe the sale happened around July 14, so we actually got a little extra time. Our property manager is returning our security deposit and rent as of the date of the sale. The bank is offering "cash-for-keys" meaning that if we leave in 3 weeks they'll give us a check toward moving expenses.

The silly thing is that

rent > cash for keys

It would cost us more to rent a place for a month than what they are offering us to move out a month earlier. We probably won't wait until the last minute to get out since we want to be settled before the fall semester begins anyway (and I don't necessarily want to meet the local sheriff).

Missed the Mortgage Rate Minimum

Rates have been going up. A recent New York Times article points out rates have hit their five year high. At first I thought this was a missed opportunity for us, but maybe it isn't so bad. The rate increase makes the monthly payment jump $194/mo.

$300,000 @ 5.70 = $1741/mo

$300,000 @ 6.70 = $1935/mo

$270,000 @ 6.70 = $1742/mo

If we assume that the rate increases pushes other buyers out of that price range then the asking price of the house should go down too. The $1741/mo mortgage at current rate translates to a $270,000 home rather than $300,000.

Since we're the saving and pay down debt type, the lower house price is actually a better deal for us.

$270,000 @ 6.70 => $1942/mo = 23 years
$300,000 @ 5.70 => $1942/mo = 24 years

It will just be a question of whether prices will actually dip that much in our timeframe. The housing package passed this week should also help us out:

"The bill includes $15 billion in housing tax breaks, including a credit of up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers who purchase between April 9, 2008, and July 1, 2009"

The traditional home buying season will be wrapping up soon so there are a number of indicators pushing us in the direction of closing a deal soon. We have a couple informal offers out there now so we'll have to see what happens.

Besens, Bubbles, and Bop, Oh My!

Akin to the drought that California is experiencing, we have also experienced a drought of a different kind: A drought of visitors! And then on July 12, like the old adage, when it rains, it pours, we had a house guest and other friends visiting the area!

Bop

Mr. David Sullivan is a man of many names. Others might call him Dave, but we typically call him Sully or Sully-Bot, or sometimes just Bot. RJ caught on and his name for Sully is now "Bop".

When "Bop" was here, we visited Alum Rock park near San Jose, where the most recent felt earthquake (Oct 30, 2007) was epicentered. Here "Bop" taught RJ to play football.


We also spent two days exploring San Francisco. On the first day, we had Dim Sum and walked around Chinatown, walked through Fisherman's Wharf and Ghiardelli Square, where we enjoyed the free chocolate-peanut butter squares, and then walked back through North Beach where we introduced Sully to the garlic laden delicacies at The Stinking Rose. The second day in SF was not as well choreographed, but both Sully and I got a good workout walking up an inordinate amount of hills as we walked from Fisherman's Wharf where we had lunch at Boudin Sourdough, then up and around Fort Mason, through Marina, and then weaved around the edge of the Presidio and through the Richmond District until we ended up in Golden Gate Park. This was quite the walk - about 8 miles of weaving and going uphill and then downhill. Then we had an adventure taking RJ on his first muni bus. RJ met lots of interesting people, including one amputee who was friendly with him. Unfortunately, when the amputee was getting off the bus, at the time we were thinking of getting off the bus, he bumped this fat guy standing there. I had stood up with RJ just after the amputee passed us and I was standing behind the fat guy, who shoved the amputee, who shoved back and luckily RJ and I stayed in an upright position despite the shoving match right in front of us! Apparently I haven't lost my sense of balance! Then RJ and Sully got their first cable car ride back to Fisherman's Wharf to pick up the car so that we could pick up Lance at work.

This is Sully and RJ at Fort Mason:


On one of the other days, I took Sully and RJ to Berkeley, where we went up Indian Rock, had lunch at Barney's Burgers (which is similar, but not as good as, Mr. Bartley's in Harvard Square). In fact, the onion rings at Barney's were actually pretty sucky, which was a downer if you're expecting Mr. Bartley's quality onion rings. We then went to UC Berkeley to check out the tree people, and we missed one of them descending by only a couple of hours!

On Sully's last day, we took a morning drive to Half Moon Bay where it was freezing cold even while wearing jeans and hoodies (the San Francisco Bay area uniform). Despite the frigid temps (it was probably like 55 degrees), hot blooded "Bop" refused to wear a sweatshirt. RJ had some fun blowing bubbles, which is his new favorite thing to do and say.

We then met up with Lance for (free) lunch at DreamWorks before driving "Bop" to the airport. Thanks for visiting Sully-Bop! We miss you already.

Bubbles

RJ has always liked bubbles, but for some reason this week his love of bubbles prompted him to speak the word bubbles pretty much non-stop. He also made the connection between the bubbles bottle (both the green and blue bottles!) and the bubbles that can be made from the stuff inside said bottle. This is no baby-talk word either. It comes out clear as a bell! So everywhere we went, RJ kept asking for bubbles. In the car, at the beach, in the stroller, etc. Clearly the word of the week was, "bubbles".


Besens


Adam Besen is one of Lance's fraternity brothers who lives in Colorado with his wife, Erica, and his 15 month old daughter, Audrey. He brought his family into town on a semi-annual business trip to Google's main campus in Mountain View. The arrived on the same day as Sully and we all met up for dinner that night. As you can see here, RJ and Audrey were fast friends, and they have a similar penchant for KDR's "Princeton Orange" in their stroller fashion.
By the next day, they were hugging in Chinatown!

Click here for more pictures of our fun-filled week!

RJ's First Fireworks Display

For Independence Day, Lance, RJ, and I ventured up to what is described as the "largest show West of the Mississippi". We realize that it was not RJ's first Independence Day, it WAS his first fireworks display because, well, we were exhausted by his newbornliness last year.

We snagged a piece of sand on the public beach in South Lake Tahoe to hang out for a few hours before the show started (it was getting crowded fast). It's weird that we're wearing sweatshirts and jeans on a beach on July 4, but Lake Tahoe is an alpine lake with a surface elevation of over 6000 ft, so it gets cold at night! During this time, RJ found a stray beach ball and tried to walk all over the place kicking it and carrying it. He even shared the stray ball with a new friend named TJ who was a month older than him!


The real fun was trying to contain him on our blanket when it started to get dark - he was a bit active, as you will see in the video. He was VERY overtired since he was staying up WAY past his bedtime. However, the fireworks seemed to make him calmer, because once they started and he noticed them, he settled down in my lap and just watched. He was not scared one bit, probably because the fireworks weren't very loud since they we launched from a barge quite a bit offshore.




The next day we drove around Emerald Bay, looking for a parking spot at a trail head, but due to holiday weekend crowdedness, none were to be found. We did get a few nice pictures of Emerald Bay though. We gave up our search of a good trail to hike and instead found parking at a beach. RJ and I braved the chilly waters of the lake and played on the sand. RJ made friends with some boys who dug a big hole filled with water and some other children who were making "soup" with the sand.

I think we'll have to return to Lake Tahoe when it is not a holiday weekend so that we can enjoy more of the natural splendor of the region.