Robyn’s car is dead.

It all started back in June. Robyn met a friend for dinner one evening and her car would not start when she left the restaurant. She got the car towed and our friends at Vespia looked at it the next day. Turns out that the remote car starter that we had had installed about a year before was on the blink and was not allowing the car to start. The shop recommended that it be removed or disabled, so we went with that and the car seemed to be fine.

I took the car to the airport for my trip to Raleigh on the day Robyn was admitted to the hospital last year. She had mentioned that it was doing something weird – seemd to be slipping out of gear while driving. I did feel a little strange behavior at the airport, however, it was a few weeks before we got the car checked out due to my having to fly back home that night and the ensuing bed-rest for Robyn. Once we finally got it there, our favorite shop took a look and did some “adjustments” to the shifter and “shift sensor” at the time and when we got it back, the car seemed fine. Then one night, I took the car to Quik Check and I was unable to start the car. After playing around with the shifter for a while, I realized that, although the car indicated it was in park, it really wasn’t. Subtle jiggling fixed the problem and I was able to get home. Another trip to Vespia, another adjustment and we were good to go.

Then the babies came and the car sat…and sat…and sat. I did start it up once every few weeks, but it was a while before I drove it. When I finally did, the gear selector was very difficult to move. I was able to drive it a couple of times, but then the selector seemed to freeze and I managed to park the car in our yard. It sat there until a couple of weeks ago. We decided it was time to move the thing and get it checked out. We had it towed and Vespia called with the bad news – transmission problem!

Knowing the car was not worth a new transmission, we decided that we would donate the car to a charity and at least get a tax write off.

Today was the day that the car was being picked up. Robyn had gone to clean it out earlier in the week and I went this morning to get the plates and drop off the title. It’s always sad seeing your car emptied of your personal belongings and the things that make it yours. It somehow looked small and sad sitting there in the parking lot. Goodbye Sephia….

Some things that have changed over the past four months:

[list]
[*] We no longer have to watch to make sure that the babies breathe while sucking from their bottles
[*] No noise machine is required to lull the babies to sleep or keep them sleeping
[*] We don’t sleep with our bedroom light on anymore
[*] We all sleep through the night
[*] The songs that Chloe’s swing play bring back memories of her first few days home
[*] No more visits to the NICU
[*] We haven’t been out to eat since a few days after the babies were born
[*] Robyn and I are almost never together in our family room
[*] We spend a lot more time sitting on our bed
[*] Two rolls of paper towels a week
[*] We use our dishwasher every day
[*] We’re starting to think about baby-proofing and buying gates
[*] The babies sleep in bouncy seats 95% of the time
[*] A big day out is when I go to Home Depot for an hour
[/list]

We’re doing Weight Watchers again. Robyn joined about 3 weeks ago and I’m doing the program, but without the meetings and access to the online tools. I gained a fair amount of weight while Robyn was pregnant and even after the kids were born. We were lazy and didn’t do much home cooking, so take-out, junk food and eating out were the norm until the babies came. After that, we did a lot of take-out. But since New Year’s, we’ve been trying to be better about cooking at home and healthier eating.

It’s been pretty easy this time around since I am hardly ever bored. One of my biggest problems has always been boredom eating. So far, I’m down about 10 pounds and Robyn’s down about 12 or so.

This is what happens when your 4 month old boy projectile vomits all over you right after he has eaten:

[img]http://www.oninohana.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=579&g2_serialNumber=3[/img]

Heheheheh.

Gabriel has his first cold and he’s feeling a little under the weather. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until Chloe get’s it, but in the meantime, she has been rolling to her side and has moved from making talking and cooing noises to grunting. She’s definitely experimenting with all the different sounds that her mouth can make. Robyn also taught her to stick her tongue out on command!

[url=http://simplisticsmovielinks.blogspot.com/]Simplistics Movie Blog[/url] is an interesting way to watch films that you might have missed in the theater. This site compiles a series of relatively short clips that have been uploaded to [url=http://www.youtube.com]YouTube[/url], [url=http://video.google.com]Google Video[/url] or any of the other myriad video sharing sites into a single page. I’m not sure how much longer this site will be around, so check it out now and enjoy!

I watched [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443453/]Borat[/url] (full title is [b]Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan[/b]) in short 8 minute segments over the course of a day or two while taking short breaks from work. The movie was really funny and now I am very interested in checking out more from Sacha Baron Cohen. I never really watched much of [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367274/]Da Ali G Show[/url], but the short clips I’ve seen have been funny. I’ll have to search for this online and see what I can come up with.

Today, as I was sitting at the dining room table working on the laptop, Gabriel managed to roll himself over while playing on the play mat on the living room floor. We had placed him down on the mat to do some tummy-time. When we do this, we sort of fold his arms under his chest so that he gets some help holding his head up. While I was looking away and talking to Robyn, he somehow rolled over onto his back. After exclaiming and scaring Robyn, I put him back in the same position and watched as he did it again. Very exciting! I think it was more of a fluke than any real development on his part, but still impressive for his age.

[list]
[*] Chloe “talks” really loudly now
[*] Gabriel laughs very frequently
[*] They both love to touch each other in the crib
[/list]

Although it’s usually Gabriel that annoys Chloe when they’re together in the crib, in the clip below, you can see that she’s getting her revenge by trying her best to wake him while he sleeps.

I can’t sleep.

[img]http://www.oninohana.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=415&g2_serialNumber=4[/img]

もうやった！構えがすごいよ！

A perfect little 怒虎の構 (doko no kamae)!

Another year has come and gone…. As usual this last year went by even more quickly than I can ever remember time passing before. It was an exciting, daunting and sometimes scary year filled with hope, worry and stress. But it was also one of the best years for us. So much has changed and it all feels right.

It seems appropriate that the last week or so has been very busy. My mom, my sister2, my brother-in-law and my two nieces came down with my other sister and her partner on the 28th. Robyn had wanted to make a really nice meal and have the house looking really nice for thir arrival. She accomplished her missions! It was really excellent to see my mom finally holding the babies!

[img]http://www.oninohana.com/gallery/__phpAutoGallery__picLoaderTmp/www.oninohana.com/gallery/Family/320_CIMG5135.jpg[/img]

On our doctor’s suggestion, we decided that Chloe and Gabriel would try to sleep through the night on Thursday, too. We took a chance and they did great! Neither made much noise all through the night and we got to sleep for more than 4 hours in a row. This was very exciting.

You can see the craziness that is our kitchen sink area strewn with bottles, nipples, forumula, rings, binkies, caps, etc:

[img]http://www.oninohana.com/gallery/__phpAutoGallery__picLoaderTmp/www.oninohana.com/gallery/Family/320_CIMG5322.jpg[/img]

The family visit went very well. They all left on Saturday morning. Later that day, we had more company when Robyn’s close family friend Joe came over with his son and daughter, son-in-law and grandaughter. It was nice to see them since we really only get together once a year or so. Joe has been involved in tae kwon do for several years, so we always make time to talk about training and its place in our lives.

On Sunday, we had our Hanukkah celebration with Robyn’s family. Since it’s more difficult for us to travel this year, we hosted at our place. Although we did not have the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah#Traditional_Hanukkah_foods]traditional foods[/url] (especially latkes), there was plenty of other stuff and we ate and opened gifts.

[img]http://www.oninohana.com/gallery/__phpAutoGallery__picLoaderTmp/www.oninohana.com/gallery/Family/320_CIMG5216.jpg[/img]

Hopefully, this year will seem to linger a bit longer than the last…but I doubt that it will. It’s a cliche to say that each year seems to pass more quickly than the last as you get older, but it’s very true. As Chloe and Gabriel get a little older each day, we find that we want to hold onto those days and yet, the more we wish to hold on, the more easily they slip away. It’s a very [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen]Zen[/url] kind of idea.