Another Halloween has come and gone.  The kids really took to trick-or-treating this year especially at Microsoft on Friday.  The annual tradition at our offices involve floors of offices with candy for the taking out front.  This is the easiest way of getting the most candy in the shortest span of time.  They RUN from office to office collecting candy without needed to say trick-or-treat.  In fact, when we went to Bellevue Square with daycare friends, Logan screamed "why are we not at Microsoft?!?"

 

We've posted a few pictures from Halloween night - at Bellevue Square.  Everything ran pretty smoothly until Logan puked from too much candy and Cheetos!

 

Feeling envious of all our friends' August travels & vacation, we decided to head to the WA coast for a day.  I've been hearing about Seabrook, WA for some time now.  They were advertising heavily pre-real estate bust and I think their website is one of the nicest around (www.seabrookwa.com).  The community is essentially a real-life Pottery Barn catalog...so I had to find out what was real vs. vaporware. 

 

It takes about 2.5 hours to get there and during the trip, Logan kept asking "are we there"?  (Great...it starts) Towards the coast the area reminds us of the North Carolina coast - cities like Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills - rural and a little red-necky.  But Seabrook is great.  We had a nice lunch and then spent a few hours at the beach.  Needless to say, the kids slept hard on the way home. 

 

Hannah's birthday was a last-minute success!  Robyn pulled it together with help of Dot and Jim who have been in town since Wed last week.  Lordes - our housekeeper extrodinare - catered the homemade Mexican food.  We are so grateful for our friends and that everyone's schedule had time for us on such short notice.  Thanks for coming!

 

There are two new photo albums AND two new videos...check them out!

 

 

I realize that this entry is not related to the kids but it's worth mentioning.  A week ago, I rode 100 miles to honor and celebrate friends and family who have battled cancer.  I rode for my uncle, Robyn's aunts and uncles, my manager at Microsoft, my colleague's wife and others.

 

 

Thanks for all the support and donations!

 

We just returned from San Diego where we celebrated Logan's 3rd birthday.  This time only Logan, Hannah, Grandma and Robyn got strep throat (unlike our usual bouts of rotovirus).  Nothing a few days of antibiotics won't fix!

 

After a glorious 3 day celebration, Logan asks..."when does my birthday come again"?

Hannah has been crabby for 3 days, then puked in bed last night and ran a 103 fever today.  Turns out it's pneumonia!   Amazing how kids get really needy when they're not feeling well. 

The holidays was a story of extremes.  For a few weeks before Christmas, Seattle was getting record level snow which essentially shut down the city.  Robyn and I were stuck without daycare and worked from home.  There were a few nice days so we took the kids out and spent the day sledding in our backyard, making a snowman and even walking to town. 

 

Right before the third major dump, we jumped on a flight to Hawaii - a trip we had been planning for 1.5 years.  Robyn bought a timeshare preview from the Marriott in Kauai.  Since we're in a 'no presentation' state, we were not obligated to sit in a meeting or listen to a sales pitch.  The resort was great and very kid friendly.  The weather was 75+ with a few days of rain.  Logan and Hannah went from bundling up to wearing little else but shorts and sandals!

 

We've been so busy lately and thus slow in writing an update on Christmas and New Years.  Here are two videos in the meantime (pics and stories coming soon...)

 

This one is from Maui where Hannah decides that Logan is a good horsey.  She does this to me all the time and I'm glad to see that there is another option in the family!

 

  

 

On our way down from Haleakala, Logan is bored and decides to entertain us.  The drive up the volcano took 1.5 hours (we were hoping they would fall asleep for naps).  The drive down...45 mins.  We went from sea level to 10,000 ft in a matter of hours!

 

  

In desperate need of sun, the Hsu's headed down to San Diego for Thanksgiving and then some.  We hit all the major parks, except Legoland.  Legoland never exisited when I grew up there and it is blatently commerical, not that Sea World (owned by Anhauser Busch) isn't with there beer carts at ever corner.  We went to the San Diego Zoo 2x, Sea World 2x and Wild Animal Park.  Logan and Hannah were very exicted to see the animals that they see in their Baby Einstein viedos.  Hannah can now say animals.  It was nice to be there in the off season, there were hardly any people and it was really nice to walk around w/out it being 10 people deep.

We spent Thanksgiving with the cousins, The Rongey's and Nojimas.  It was great.  Logan and Hannah were entertained by their cousins, Trevor, Lily, Alyssa and Jared.  Jeff and I didn't have to watch them that night.  They really didn't get into the Thanksgiving food, it was more like a sugar fest for them.  Pumpkin pie and Capri Sun was their dinner.  Oh well it is the holidays.

We also got to see some friends.  We met up with Sylvia, Robyn's roommate from San Francisco, and her husband Marvin with their 2 kids, Audrey and Sean.  We met up at UTC, the site of Logan's infamous dip, see April 2008 "Mommy Wet".  It had just rained the night before and there were muddy patches in the grass.  While Robyn and Sylvia were talking and Jeff was watching the kids, Logan did a complete feet in the air land on your butt in the mud fall.  Logan was completely muddy from the waist down.  While Jeff was picking Logan up by the waist and trying to rub off the mud on the not so muddy part of the grass, Robyn was rolling on the ground laughing.  Of course we had to buy new pants for Logan.  Lesson learned when we go to UTC either bring extra clothes for Logan or be prepared for a new outfit. 

The 10 days in San Diego, was great.  Jeff got to ride his bike and the kids played in the sun everyday.  All in all a great and needed trip.  Next adventure Hawaii.  Stay tuned for the adventures of the 5 1/2 hour plane ride from hell w/ Logan and Hannah.

Sorry for the hiatus.  It has been a little crazy, then again it has been a little crazy since May 15, 2006.  What they say is true having kids changes your life.  October flew past.  We had some great Fall weather and we truly appreciated it.  The Hsu's and Kember's headed to the Fall City Farm http://www.fallcityfarms.com/ for the annual pilgrimage to the pumpkins.  We took Logan and Hannah there last year.  This year we were more prepared and brought cash.  Last year Jeff and I had a combined 2 dollars to our names and couldn't buy a pumpkin.  Luckily the owner overheard us and gave it us.  Rookie move.  Not this year, as seasoned veterans, we even were prepared for the mud, see designer rain boots.  The doughnut machine is the best thing ever.  Fresh little doughnuts and fresh squeezed apple cider are well worth the trek to Fall City.  They had live music and Logan, Hannah and CJ really enjoyed it. 

 

Halloween 2008- Mercer Island- Jeff and I decided last year, no more malls for Halloween.  The Kember's came over for trick or treating in MI.  I had to bribe Logan with Harvey the train in order for him to get into his costume.  The kid hates wearing hats and jackets, but as you can see it worked.  Logan was a fireman complete with hat, jacket and boots!  Hannah was a Duke cheerleader.  Before my UCLA friends give me crap, we were in Durham in May and haven't been back to UCLA or LA in years.  Come on it is pretty cute.  CJ was David Beckham, in his Manchester U years.  The kids were a little freaked about the trick or treating thing but as soon as they sampled the goods it was all systems go and CJ really got into it, since it was his first experience with any type of sugar.  He is clearly their first kid.  Logan and Hannah are experts in the sugar sampling arena.  The Hsu's totally corrupted CJ.  Logan and Hannah's new favorite candy= Kit Kat.  There were lots of more signs being flashed.

The funniest moment is when we get to this house with the biggest pumpkins and we told Logan to go stand next to them and he replied, "No that's just freaky".  Where does this kid come up with this stuff.  All in all Halloween 2008 was a big success.

Potty training has begun.  This is the part of the toddler years that causes great concern for Robyn and me.  How do we get started?  What about accidents?  What terms do we use to refer to #1 and #2?  Should we demonstrate?!?

 

Robyn contemplated over several potties in hopes that one automatically trains the kid. 

 

 

Instead, we have 700 Thomas stickers in a book to bribe Logan.  So everytime he sits on the potty he gets to read and play with the stickers.  At first, he just sat there and played (we generally sit on the potty after dinner) but few weeks ago, Logan left a gift in his potty and we were so excited!  I've never cheered so much.  It's been hit-and-miss since then so I don't know if he really knows it's time to go or whether we're just lucky.

 

Better than nothing, I guess.

 

 

As you can see, Logan is a BIG fan of Thomas & Friends.  Everytime his grandparents visit they bring him a new one (nothing like a bribe for love and attention!).

 

To help the cause, I've added a list of trains he has below.  This way no one buys duplicates (which end up being Mei's anyway).

Just when we thought things were getting better, Logan brings home another round of the Rotovirus.   This nasty bug makes eating (and the eventually result of eating) a real chore.  Robyn and Hannah end up getting it.  So far Jim, Dot and I have been lucky...

 

Add to that, Hannah recently broke out in hives - patchy red bumps - all over her body with 100+ F fever for a few days.  Doctor says it is Roseola and we just have to wait it out.  So the poor thing has a fever with bumps all over, doesn't want to eat/drink, and when she does it all comes out!

 

uuffffffffffagahhhhh!

To celebrate Hannah's quick recovery, the two decided to have dance contest...

 

We finally brought Hannah home last night (her second night after surgery) after 32 hours at the hospital!  Her recovery has been quick and pretty amazing considering we were dealing with a fever, dehydration and w/ no pee or poop since Thursday night.  She's been quite a fighter especially when they gave her a catheter and had to re-do the IV that she pulled out. 

 

Since coming home, it seems like we've been giving her medication around the clock - Tylenol w/codeine, Motrin, ear drops and Amoxilcillyn.  She's finally taking fluids orally and working on other food choices than ice cream.  While it feels like a week, it's only been 2 days since surgery and we're really amazed at how she's looking and acting considering the amount of trauma in her mouth.

 

We didn't realize Children's Hospital Seattle was ranked #8 for General Pediatrics by US News & World Reports.  We are really lucky to have such great health care in the Pac Northwest.