Hills of Hayward

Our front lawn has been steadily been dug up by what seem to be gophers. Initially, it was only a single hole in the ground, and over a year and a half, the entire front lawn has become home to 20-30 gopher holes. Admittedly, I have let this problem fester for far too long.

After purchasing a set of gophinator traps, I set out to find a gopher highway to place my traps on.  The first day, my traps remained empty, but on the second, I caught my prey.  When I figured out that I actually caught something, I was so ecstatic I jumped up and shouted for Christine.  She later told me that she thought something horrible happened to me.

So far, no new holes have been created in the last week.  Could just a single gopher wreck my yard?  The evidence increasingly seems like that this is the case.  What amazingly productive (and ugly) animals.

Arden is now 3 months old. She was such an “angel baby” – just eating and sleeping. She was so well behaved that I didn’t even know what to write during the first two months other than “Gosh! She’s such a cutie! She knew Mommy was busy so she would just stay on her best behavior.” She started smiling and talking when she was two months old. She kept smiling at you even when the bottle was in her mouth.

When she was two months old, she weighted 14 lbs and 3 oz at 93% percentile and was 23 1/2 inches tall at 75% percentile. Yup, a big baby. Anders’ growth percentile dropped when he turned 6 months old so we’ll see how Arden’s doing at then. We were all joking that Arden will protect her brother at school in the future.

However, Arden started showing her temper these days. She cried so hard and it even scared our nanny. She requires attention and does not want to stay in her crib anymore. She loves to be in the car seat and stay on the dinning table. Why on the dinning table? Because Anders always want to pull her legs.

More pictures will be posted soon.

As you can probably tell by the increased number of photos, summer is here.  Christine and I are also enjoying using the used Canon G9 we bought ourselves.  It is no SLR, but it sure is fun and convenient to use.

Today, we started off with brunch in Oakland by Lake Merritt.  We had a good meal of eggs benedict and eggs escapade at Lynn and Lu’s Escapade.  Ander’s refused all of our food, but enjoyed his banana.  His loss.  We noticed a lively and energetic farmer’s market down the street.

After some quick shopping in Oakland Chinatown, we wound up at the Sand Sculpture Contest in Alameda.  At almost every sand sculpture we stopped at, Anders was excitedly pointing, and wanted to add his own sand to the completed works.  On the drive home, the little guy passed out in back of the car.

Anders made a park buddy.  Her name is Maury, and we went to her little birthday get-together at the park with two dozen cupcakes.  I know.  Such a parent thing to do.  I am beginning to think we will become very adept at making cupcakes for all the children’s events.