Happy Birthday, Ross!

We celebrated Ross' 2nd birthday a couple of days early this year, since I will be flying to Ontario on his actual birthday. I am going to a friend's wedding and then meeting up with one of my best high school friends in Montreal for a few days. 

Ross woke up to birthday decorations and he and M started playing with the balloons right away. M had woken up nearly an hour before him, and was also super excited to see the decorations. She quickly decided to put all of his favourite toys on the kitchen table for him.  

To celebrate, the three of us went to the Oakland Zoo, and despite seeing elephants, giraffes, lions, camels, and even an alligator, the highlights were still the goats (which you could pet), and the little race car ride. Ross was adamant that he wanted to go on the race car ride, even though M was adamant she did not want to go with him, and parents were not allowed. But he quite happily went on the ride by himself and took the steering very seriously.

This afternoon the kids helped me make a chocolate cake, and Ross looked at all the colours of food dye and picked yellow for his icing.

A note on the birthday hats - Ross had been talking about hats ever since he realized his birthday was coming up, because in one of our Thomas the Train storybooks, it is Thomas' birthday and they are all wearing party hats.  I made sure to get some for his party, but Ross wore his hat for all of 5 seconds before declaring "ouchy" and then refused to put it back on. 

It was a fun birthday - fun to see him enjoy it, fun to see Madeleine shower him with love and excitement, and fun to see how much he has changed in this past year.  The kids are also excited for this coming week, as Grammie and Grandpa are coming back to visit and help out while I'm away.

Kenneth Henry Cordes

My grandpa passed away on Sunday morning, January 11th, three days before his 93rd birthday.  I will always treasure the time I had with him - not only as a kid spending time on their sailboat and at their condo, but also as an adult when he was always interested in what we were doing. I remember him teaching me about weather, flying, algebra, typing, the Bible... I remember going for regular swims with him down at the Clubhouse (the condo's pool), and then playing pool with him - a game he taught me how to play. Then in the evenings, playing Rumikub with him and Grandma. I remember him teaching me about finances, the stock market, and how to save for retirement. I remember his stories about three little ducks named Quacky, Wacky, and Sacky, which I now tell to my kids. 

When I brought Steve home to meet the family, I quickly realized that he and my grandpa had a lot in common. Not only are they both quiet, gentle, humble, and very intelligent people, but they also shared a lot of common interests. Grandpa took a keen interest in Steve's telescope making, and they both appreciated the engineering and mechanical side of life. Steve had a keen interest in his service in WW2, and Grandpa never tired of telling his war and flying stories.

He lost his sight to macular degeneration over the last ten years, and gradually had to give up his favourite pastimes of reading and playing free cell on the computer. He also lost a lot of his hearing due to all his years as a pilot, and used a set of headphones with a microphone device to hear people better.

After my grandma died in April, we spent a lot of time with Grandpa and recorded a lot of his war and flying stories. I'm so thankful we did that when he was still so healthy and his memory still so sharp. In the last couple of months he started to decline quickly, mostly in his memory and clarity of thought, but eventually in his body too. I went to see him two days before he passed away, spending only a night and part of the next day there before flying back. He was unresponsive, but I am so thankful to be living close enough that I could help care for him in that short time, hold his hand, shout into his good ear, "I love you", and say goodbye.  He gave so much time, love, and attention to me over my life, and it is still so strange to think of my life without him.  But, my grandparents both set a wonderful example for me to follow, and I know I will think of them often.

Christmas in California

We were so happy to have family with us for our first Christmas in California. Grammie Jean knit stockings for everyone, to match the ones that my Great Grandma had knit for our family many, many years ago.

Our living room on Christmas Eve... a bit different from our Kiwi Christmases!

On Christmas morning, the kids were so happy with their new paints from their stockings that they did not realize all the presents under the tree were for them.

Here is Uncle Matt reading to Ross on Christmas Day. Matt and Kristin flew out from London, Ontario, and stayed with Matt's brother, who lives about 30 minutes from here.

Ross and Grandpa reading in the sun... Ross would be happy if someone would just sit and read with him all day long.

Matt and Kristin brought some Christmas crackers which came with little whistles that played eight different notes and instructions on how to play carols. Pretty wild for a Hoffmann Christmas!

Ross helping screw together a wooden truck trailer made by Grandpa Mark.

Madeleine loves the horses and wooden fence from Grandpa and Grammie.

She also loves her new doll from Grandma Georgia and Grandpa Don. The doll, whom M has named "Jelly", spends most of her time in a blue carrier case that once belonged to Steve's sister Julie.

Kristin stayed with us for a few days and we all went to Angel Island one day. It is a state park accessible by ferry, and has a little cafe and beautiful views of the mainland.

Looking towards Tiburon, where we caught the ferry to the island.

On the ferry ride back to Tiburon... both kids a bit tired after lots of walking.

On Kristin's last morning with us, we made gingerbread cookies.

 

Ross is nearly two years old, and really does exercise his right to change moods on a dime. The pictures below show a typical transformation from happy-busy boy to end-of-the-world and life-is-so-unfair boy. I think this particular outburst came after we took away the bowl of icing he was starting to devour.

The Big Island

Last week, Steve and I went to Hawaii for 6 days. He was going for work and I decided to tag along and make it our first trip alone since having kids. We are so thankful to have my parents relatively close by to come and babysit. We flew into Kona, rented a totally child unfriendly car, and drove to the Observers Headquarters at the base of Mauna Kea.

Mauna Kea, at 14,000 ft, is the site of several large research telescopes, including the two Keck telescopes. Steve's current project is to design, build, test, and install a spectrograph for one of these two 10-meter telescopes. He and three other team members went over to check out the room where the instrument will go, and installed some temperature, pressure, vibration, and humidity sensors. I left Steve at the dormitories (at 9,000 ft) where he stayed the night to acclimatize, and I drove on to Hilo.

Here's Steve at the summit of Mauna Kea, above the clouds.  In the background, the Japanese Subaru telescope is to the left, and the twin Keck telescopes are on the right.

This diagram was in the visitor center and shows the sizes of the telescopes within the domes.  Between the telescopes are offices and labs - which give a good sense of how big the telescopes are compared to a person.

Steve in front of the Keck II telescope - the telescope is so big that one picture can't capture it all at once.  In this view the primary mirror of the telescope (which is 10 meters across) is in the background.  

After he joined me in Hilo (which is on the rainy east side of the island), we explored the city a bit and then spent half a day slowly driving to Kona on the west side of the island. We stayed in Kona three more nights. The first day we went to a beach hoping to snorkel but it was really wavy and rough so instead we sat and read on the beach until after sunset. 

The second day we drove to a trailhead for a 2 mile hike down 1500 ft to the shoreline where Captain Cook met his death. There was also supposedly really good snorkeling. 

Although there were no sandy beaches, the snorkeling was amazing and we still hung out reading on the black lava rocks until dusk, when we hiked back up. 

While snorkeling, we saw at least a dozen different varieties of colorful fish amongst the corals. We also swam a bit further around the bay and watched in awe as the shoreline dropped away and an abyss of deep blue ocean lay in front of us. It was eery and beautiful - empty of fish and so deep you had to remind yourself that you were floating and would not fall off the edge into that deepness. 

It was a wonderful trip - both for what Steve needed to get done for work, and also for us to be able to travel and explore on our own again. The kids had a great time with Grammie and Grandpa. We skyped or talked on the phone every day and heard lots of stories. Steve will likely be going back a few more times over the next 3 years, so we may try to do this again, or perhaps even bring the rest of the crew along with us next time.

I'm thankful for... gymnastics.

This coming week is American Thanksgiving, which is a huge holiday here. Many people take the whole week off to travel, and everyone expects you to have plans of some kind. We, of course, don't have any plans other than a dinner with our wonderful neighbours. However, the holiday hype has prompted me to talk more about what Thanksgiving is with the kids, and Madeleine especially is (I think, anyway) starting to understand what it means to be thankful. At dinner we each say something we are thankful for... the past three nights she has said "gymnastics".  She has been going to a gymnastics class every week, and she does really enjoy it, although she is still too shy to participate in any of the warm up activities. 

Steve is undoubtedly thankful for the 1939 lathe he found on Craigslist, after months of looking. He tells me that he has wanted one ever since he was a teenager and learned how to use one in high school shop class.  He has had a lot of fun taking it apart, figuring out what it needs, and finding a few parts. It isn't quite in working condition just yet, but I'm sure it would be if he had more time to work on it.

The kids had fun with this bookshelf unit that is standing on end, before we put it next to Ross' bed.

Madeleine loves playing with baking soda and dyed vinegar.  I had a few syringes stashed away, and they made the perfect tool for distributing the colours.

On this day, by the time Ross woke from his nap and got a turn, the tray was slightly less tidy.

On Veteran's Day, we all took a 30 minute ferry ride into San Francisco and spent the day on the waterfront.

About a month ago, we took the side-railing off of Ross' crib because he had started climbing out of the crib. He and Madeleine have always shared a room, but it's only been the last few months that they go to bed at the same time. Now, they both look at books before falling asleep, but Madeleine always falls asleep first. More than once, we have gone in to find Ross snuggled in next to her, and I'm sure he climbs up there after she's asleep since she is not keen on sharing her bed when she's awake. It's pretty cute, but we always move him back to his own bed.

Another big change is that Ross has been diaper-free for nearly a month now! He seemed really interested in the toilet since he wants to do whatever Madeleine is doing, so we decided to take the plunge and go cold turkey on diapers, for both day and night. He's done really well, with a few rough patches because of his desire to be totally independent and his dislike of being told what to do, but now he is usually quite happy to take a book and go sit on the potty when he needs to go. It's so nice to be done with diapers and really cute to see how proud he is of being able to use the toilet.

Lake Tahoe

This past weekend we went to Lake Tahoe for the first time. It is a 3.5 hour drive away, and a very popular weekend destination for people in San Francisco and the East Bay. Fall is considered off-season since it's too cold for the beach and lake activities, and there is no snow for skiing on the many hills. It was lovely to see some fall colours, smell the crisp air, and get an idea of what it is like before the snow and crowds arrive. We rented a little cabin-esque condo that was the perfect size for us, and looked out at a redwood forest.

We went for a walk behind the condo on Saturday afternoon and the kids had a great time with all the pine cones, sticks, leaves, and rocks.

I tried to get a decent timer shot, but they all turned out a bit blurry.

Daddy was woken from a snooze on the couch by this squishy little cheek smothering him with love!

On Sunday, we drove from the north end, where we were staying in a little village called Truckee, down the eastern edge of the lake (which is actually across the state line, in Nevada). At the southern end of the lake, we found a beach where we had lunch and the kids played in the frigid water for a while before we began the long drive back.

It would be fun to go back at least once in the winter - this is probably the closest we will live to snow for the next few years! Steve and I would love to use our x-country skis again, and it would be fun to introduce the kids to playing in the snow.

Big Sister, Little Brother

A few weeks ago we went for a little hike in Tennessee Valley, which brings you out onto a beautiful beach with big cliffs and interesting rock formations all around. It was really cute to watch M and R on this stretch of the hike (when they were both actually walking forward)...

M definitely loves to be a leader, and for now, Ross is happy to follow.

She also loves to mother him at times, and I often hear her telling him things I have told her.

He can only tolerate so much mothering from his big sis though, and then he starts to push her away...

Ross loved running with the waves, poking jellyfish with sticks, and digging in the sand.

Ross is still very attached to me; he doesn't like to see me leave, and often only wants me when he's just woken up.

 Madeleine, on the other hand, is becoming quite independent.

 She loves her new lego set.

But most of all, she loves her Daddy, and the time she gets to spend with him in the garage. She sits on the workbench and they do little projects together. This past weekend, they were learning about batteries and he showed her how to use a multimeter. Steve also set up a string of coloured lamps that she could turn on one-by-one by touching a wire to them. She loved it, and immediately made up a story about which one was the mommy light, the daddy light, the big sister light, and the baby brother light.