Sunday Funday at UCLA--Bruin babies

We are spending Thanksgiving week. in Orange County.  The cousins have had a grand time together-- Iver doesn't want to ever leave Kingston's side, asking constantly about having sleepovers or inviting himself over to his house to play.

Today, we spent part of the day at the UCLA campus, the alma mater of Kelvin, Kenn, and Lisa.

Iver was excited to seek out the places seen in his "UCLA 101" board book, including Janss steps,  Powell Library, Royce Hall, and more (unfortunately, the Bruin statue was boarded up ["hibernating"] as yesterday was the UCLA-USC football game [UCLA the victor!], and a graffitti artist had already taken to it and sprayed the bear symbol). We had perfect weather for running around and for photos.

"Where to next, Kingston?"

Family shots by Powell Library

Vu Fam1

Vu2

In front of Royce Hall

Smiling Klian!

Grandparents and Niall

The Inverted Fountain

Auntie Theresa

More family photos

Students!

Walking the paths

Antics in the quad

We saw these electric scooter thingies on which you can ride around campus, using an app and your phone to rent! Technology has come a long way since my college days, when I didn't even have a cell phone, having to check voicemail from other places via the Audix system!. This made me feel old!

Kenn and Kelvin both took a whirl.

These boys were tuckered out by the end of the trip!

 

I'm not sure if these boys will become future Bruins, but they sure enjoyed their campus visit!

Niall's 9-month update

 At 9 months, Niall:

- weighs around 17.5-18 lbs (I think-- verdict coming in a couple of weeks at his well visit), a bit heavier than I think Iver was at this age, and is in 6-9- and 9-month clothing

- Has two dimples and one lower tooth, which erupted in early November at eight-and-a-half months (and one more lower bud that looks close to poking through)

- is still exclusively breastmilk-fed, drinking 5- or 6-oz bottles of pumped milk at daycare and nursing at home (and once or twice in the middle of the night) and is a good solids-eater about 3x per day (except he doesn't seem to love berries). He's working on the pincer grasp but prefers to be spoon-fed.

- is enjoying the infant room at daycare, although we have had a really rough stretch of fevers/URIs in the past month (and a terrible diaper rash last month when we were in MN) as well as travel, leading to several missed days and  him being cranky a lot of the time

- is a fast crawler. He can easily pull-up and is about cruising, and we had to lower his crib mattress to the lowest setting. We have to watch the cabinets and protect Pepper's water bowl, which he loves to dump out

- loves walks in the stroller or in the front-facing carrier, and baths (especially with big brother)

- smiles, laughs, giggles, and squeals a lot. He will say "ba ba ba" and "mum mum." He loves to grab anything in our hands and play "drop it" games. He has just figured out clapping!

- still sleeps in a crib in our room. He goes to bed very easily between 7:00 and 8 p.m., depending on the timing of his last nap. We put him down drowsy, and he usually fusses for a bit before rolling over onto his belly, his preferred sleep position. He wakes 1-2 x (usually nursing only once in 11 hours) and is usually up for the day between 5:30 and 6:30. Our sleep routine has been really thrown for a loop as a result of the fevers, travel, teething, and time change (anyone who has children would have never recommended daylight savings time). We're thinking of trying out the pack-'n'-play in a separate space soon, so we can get more rest but have also had (grandparent) visitors. He is down to two naps most days, around 9:30 a.m. and another around 2 p.m. depending on the length of the first one.

 - is in cloth diapers during the day (with flushable liners) and size 3 overnight Huggies at night. He'll usually have a big BM on the potty in the morning, saving us an outfit change, and at least two-three more times in a diaper during the day

- When not cranky with a painful diaper rash, teething, or sick, he's a very happy, sweet little guy!

Here is what Iver was doing at 9 months.

Smiley Niall-y

 

Loves his ông nội

Potty time on a chilly fall morning

Happy at mealtime!

 

Brothers/best friends

Not so sure about this hug

 

Dishes helper!

Our happy guy!

Three-fourths of a year down! 

Paradise No More

I'm sure that everyone who follows the news knows about more devastating wildfires in California.
The Butte County Camp Fire, located about 4 hours southeast of us and currently only 35% contained, resulted in the whole lovely town of Paradise (which we last visited in 2012) being burned to the ground last week. We have friends in the Chico area, which is just about 1 hour north of Sacramento, our home before Humboldt County was, and it's so devastating to hear about them and their neighbors having to evacuate, potentially lose their homes, pets, and (for some) their lives. While we don't know anyone personally who has died, the death toll is 48 and counting (with hundreds missing), making this the deadliest fire in California's state history. There are other fires burning in southern California as well, including in affluent Malibu.

If you feel as sick and helpless as I do seeing the footage and photos and learning about this out-of-control natural devastation, here's what you can do:
-  pray a lot
-  have empathy for the victims
-  don't be like or listen to the misinformed/uneducated vindictive President, who claimed that California wildfires are due to mismanagement of forests by our state (most of California's forests are under federal jurisdiction)
- believe and do everything you can do to battle climate change, as warmer climates leading to drier summers have a lot to do with our state's fires
- do anything you can to help the victims, with some ideas here for donations.

Out of the ashes, we rise.

Pants up with Style

Thanks to auntie Kat for sending Iver these cute suspenders!   He is quite opinionated about his outfits these days, and due to a low weight percentile, he truly has some trouble keeping some pants up.  He loves all three pairs (blue, red, and pink!) of them!

This is his "Lucky the Lumberjack" look

Trying them on baby brother

Pup.Cup. Pup and Cups.

For other parents familiar with "Hop on Pop," here is Pup and Cups.

 

Niall is obsessed with Pepper (and crawls in a beeline to her water bowl).

For all the badness our there (ANOTHER school shooting and wildfire in Northern CA),  dogs and babies should make you smile.

 

 

 

Rainbow Wave, and a little bit of sun...

 

I saw a young patient for a depression follow-up this week. "How's it going?" I asked him.
"Things are better. Maybe 25% better. I used to feel it was gloomy all the time. Now I can see a little bit of sun."

This sums up how I currently feel after the 2018 Midterms.  It's been a dark two years. I ugly-cried on election night (and for days afterwards) in 2016.  One thing that 45 has given me is a level of political engagement that I never expected/planned to have, as never again in my lifetime do I want to experience that level of hopelessness and despair. I read. I listen.  I talk politics with people instead of sweeping things under the rug and assuming the best. I donate money. I (continue to) vote. I pray a lot.  From most of the news and political battles over the last two years, I've been scared to hope that things will head in a better direction in our country sometime in the near future, when it just seems that there are so many evil people with destructive agendas and immoral frameworks that continue to accumulate power. I want to be able to help Make America Not Horrifying Again.

"Taking back the House" (a Blue Wave) has, since the devastating night in 2016, been a dream for progressives all across our country, while we realize that other (i.e. Senate, Governorship) battles in former Confederate and rural midwestern states are (if not a lost cause) not likely to be as winnable in the near future, although the campaign for Beto for Texas was pretty darn inspiring, Stacey Abrams should be Georgia's next (and the country's first female African-American) governor, and Florida continues to piss me off. Before and on Tuesday, I was very nervously and cautiously hopeful, as I feel that I never again want to get my hopes up ever again because of the potential for crushing disappointment.  The party which continues to tolerate (embrace) rapists, racists, domestic shooters/right-wing terrorists, and cheaters (think gerrymandering, voter suppression/disenfranchisement, and a stolen Supreme Court seat) held some ground. And when the majority of the country prefers different leadership because of our messed-up Electoral College system, which gives disproportionate voting power to people in less populated, homogenous (white) interior states, it's hard to feel like one's vote really matters (although we are all living in the aftermath of what happens when people don't show up to vote, like in 2016). But this year, the voting majority produced/elected:

- a record >100 women elected to the House of Representatives, more than in any election in American history and most of them Democrats (even though they still only make up about a quarter of the House), including:
- The first Muslim-American women in Congress (Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota)
- The first two Native American congresswomen (Sharice Davids, from Kansas, also a lesbian, and Deb Haaland from NM)
- Latinas and African-Americans (Veronica Escobar of El Paso and Sylvia Garcia in Texas, young phenom Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in NY, Jahana Hayes in CT, and Ayanna Pressley in MA) 
- Eight female governors (including Democrats Laura Kelly of Kansas, Janet Mills in Maine, and Grethcn Whitmer in Michigan), with aforementioned Stacey Abrams as an asterisk.
- Two new female senators in flipped seats (Kyrsten Sinema becoming Arizona's first female senator, and Jacky Rosen defeating Dean Heller in NV)
 - The first openly gay male governor  (Jared Polis of Colorado. I find it to be sweet Karma that a state in which a bigoted baker refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple now has a gay governor).
-  flipping 30 seats in the House and in many other (even red) state legislatures
-  restoring voting rights to ex-felons in Florida after completing their time
- making voter registration automatic (NV) or easier (MI)

2020 is a long way off. There is a lot of work to do. However, seeing people of color and women elected at historic numbers this year (as well as some positive ballot measures) feels like a small step forward.  Maybe we didn't have a blue wave but rather a pink or rainbow wave and maybe, someday, our government will actually be representative of our country's diversity and values in majoritarian rule. On Tuesday, I saw a small ray of run shining through a gloomy cloud.  I hope to see more.