The Bilbao Family Blog

So my last entry was how long ago?  And Jasmine is behind too. But I’m making a resolution to blog more.

Kalyan withdrawals are no longer.  Kalyan and his family have been here in CA since the middle of June.  It’s hard to believe that they only have 1 week left.  This visit has definitely been a different experience from all the rest.

Kal’s 1st visit to CA was when he was just a few months old.  He was easily passed around and went willingly.  The next visit he was 10 months.  More aware of things, but still comforted by most adults that seemed obviously to be family.  He and Maia would come to Amber and me and be mistaken by who was their mommy.  By 17 months, stranger and separation anxiety had set in.  It took more time getting used to being left alone with us while Mommy and Daddy worked.  By the time it was time to go back to Chicago, he was comfortable.  Since then we would video chat on google.  He remembered all our names and talked about us occasionally.

And now, he’ll be 2 on Sunday.  He and Maia and best buds and worst enemies.  They’ll be hugging, kissing, and giggling, then the next second trying to eat each other…literally.  Biting has been a common way to display authority between the two.

It is fun, though, to see them copy each other and play their toddler games.  I have to admit, I am quite pleased of how well Kal has taken to me and how easily.  Like I said, the last visit took a lot of warming up.  And when Amber was around, he didn’t want anything to do with me.  But from the start, he was excited to see me and hasn’t put up too much of a fight when he is left in my care.  I just remind him that Mommy and Daddy have to work and they’ll play with him later.  He really takes to having his feelings confirmed and then accepts the solutions to his “problems.”

Wow, that sounds so much like a text book.  But as I’ve always claimed, Child Development is no joke.  :)  It does help that he is able to verbalize his wants so well.  Also, Kailee gave us a lot experience in the value of validating ones feelings.  Like for example:

Kalyan:  YOU WANNA MOMMY!

Auntie Megan:  Mommy and Daddy have to work, but they’re coming back.

Kalyan:  YOU WANNA MOMMY! (squirming out of my arms)

Auntie Megan:  Aww, is Kalyan sad?  Kalyan wants Mommy and Daddy to hold you?

Kalyan:  You wanna mommy hold you.

Auntie Megan:  Ok, Mommy will hold you when she’s done with work.  You want Auntie Megan to hold your paci or Kalyan hold your paci?

Kalyan:  Kalyan hold paci. (stick paci in mouth, shut eyes, head on shoulder and asleep)

end scene.

Oh, I’m gonna miss this guys.  The next time I’ll see him he’ll be such a big boy.  (LOL, when I asked him today how old he was he said 2 minutes old).

Oh, and if you didn’t already know, He’s gonna be a big brother!  Yay!

As for JKLM….

I think this has been the longest summer for the 3 of them.  We have taken a rather lengthy vacation.  It started June 24 for Uncle Jhun’s graduation from Family Medicine Residency in Oklahoma City, OK.  The trip going was quite an adventure.  Let’s just say it included an overnight stay on cots in the Dallas airport with 4 children.

We stayed in OK from Friday to Tuesday.  It was nice to just sleep in, hangout and do some minor sight seeing.  But when we landed back in CA, it was off to Santa Barbara.  Amber, Amit, Kalyan and Auntie Morie picked us up from the airport.  We had rented a house to spend the next 6 nights in (including 4th of July).  We couldn’t believe how mild the summer weather was.  Ok, it was down right cold.  But our house was at a very nice location.  I never realized the city of Santa Barbara has preserved so much history.

Then after the trip Maia started pre-school with Kalyan.  They are so cute together!  They are going MWF.  Maia has become really attached to her primary teacher.  Kalyan reacted a lot like his Ate Jasmine.  The 1st day was great for him.  But since then he realized he’d much rather be with Mom and Dad.  He still seems to be enjoying himself while he’s there, but drop off is not always so smooth.  It was bittersweet to hear that Maia had more not-so-good than good day when her primary teacher was sick.  Like I said, she has become really attached to her.

JKL have been patiently waiting to do fun things.  While everyone is at work or pre-school, they tough out the days.  They definitely have been getting on each others’ nerves more often.  But at the end of the day, they know they love each other.  They can’t wait to go to Disneyland next week and then a mommy/big girl date to Disneyland before school starts.

Wow, school.  4th, 1st, and Kindergarten.  What will I do when all 4 kids are in school MWF?  Well, work of course.  Things at dental office have been going well.  While there is always lots to do to maintain and grow, I am trying to phase out the regularity of my presence.  I will also be working more at the hospital.  (For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been only working at the hospital as needed since my daytime hours are not available for sleep due to being at the dental office).  I still have perinatal classes that I teach as well.  But our department is going paperless for all nursing documentation at the end of August.  I will be one of the “superusers.”  During a 4 week period, I will be assisting staff with any computerized documentation. Then there is preparation for the 1 year anniversary open house of the dental office.  Here’s the save the date info (everyone is invited) October 24 10am-4pm.

While we are enjoying the summer, the start of a new school year does sound refreshing.  Weekly routines will return as well as weekly after school activities.

As for pictures, well, lets just say that there are a lot to organize through.  But my mid-year resolution is to maintain balance in life.  What will I be balancing?  Oh my, LOTS: hospital work, dental office work, school schedule, piano lessons, gymnastics, exercise, family fun time, dates with JD, girls nights out, social time with other couples and families, and most importantly, blogging. 

Wishing everyone a great summer!

Although celebrated a little late, JD and I went to Newport, CA in honor of our 9th anniversary.  We ate at The Melting Pot, strolled along Fashion Island, ate at Joe’s Crab Shack, spent a day at Disneyland, and then breakfast a Denny’s before jumping right back into work.

It was a well deserved relaxing time.  The kids stayed home with my sister Amber…and the grandma’s.  The girls actually had a singing engagement at my Grandma’s church.  It’s posted on facebook.

Maia also took off walking this weekend.  She had started the Thursday before.  Her walking progression surely has been different than the other girls and many other babies I know.  She didn’t crawl till 6.5-7mo. then by 7.5 mo was pulling herself up to stand.  At 10mo she was standing and then taking a step or two here and there.  But it wasn’t until she would take 5 steps that she really took off.

She now toddles around the house.  There is no more usefulness for baby jail.  She is also much more verbal about what she wants.  And boy does she have a set of lungs!  She certainly learned well from her sisters to make her presence and desires known.

Her little mind is working and growing so much too.  Her first song was “Happy Birthday.”  Then she started humming the “Lullaby” song.  Soon after she would sing “Twinkle Twinkle.”  And now she has added the “ABC” song.

Like all babies, you teach them to point to body parts.  Kuya Kalyan was a great model for that.  But it has been several weeks in the making.  Finally this morning, I asked her, “Where’s your eyes?”  She pointed and said, “Eye…”  Jasmine and I were astonished!

As for the other girls…

Jasmine continues to surprise us with her reading skills.  JD and I are really proud of how much she enjoys reading and is keeping up well in school.  We are very fortunate she didn’t not inherit our lack of reading enthusiasm.

Kailee recently had a music program that was an ocean theme.  In honor of studying the ocean, her class took a field trip to the Long Beach Aquarium.  Since LLA has a no siblings may tag along with chaparones rule, we crashed the field trip and had our own “school bus.”

Lilli is still princess of the house…that is until kindergarten starts in the fall.  I have had the tradition of taking the girls to Disneyland before kindergarten starts.  But since our Disney passes expired on Jan. 25, I took the 3 big girls in honor of Lilli’s pre-k days on Jan. 24.  She also was officially unofficially diagnosed with asthma.  She has had several wheezing episodes in a year that have persisted past the age of 2.  But the pediatrician in the ER said that it’s not something he would diagnose at an ER visit because he is seeing the patient for the 1st time.  She now has an inhaler that she uses as needed instead of the nebulizer treatments we were doing in the past.

JD has been doing well at his practice.  We hope the new patients continue to come in, though.  He has been working part-time at his office in Highland and part-time for Gentle Dental in Moreno Valley.  He will be coming to his office full-time come mid-February.

As for me, I continue to help out in the office when I can.  I am also trying to actually work more as a nurse.  I’m trying to adjust my schedule so that I can be available to work in the office during the week and in the hospital every other weekend.  It’s a busy life, but we’re enjoying it and getting through.  It is a juggle to balance work and play, but a necessary balance it is.

I am actually taking the time to sit and post a blog.  Many of my faithful followers have probably just stopped checking.  Unfortunately, I can’t even make any promises as to how often I will be able to recommit myself. 

Well, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote.  We had a happy Thanksgiving.  I was working both the night before and the night of.  I got to sneak in a nap before lunch at my mom’s, pick up Jhun from the airport, then off to Victorville for an early dinner.  JD then drove me to work and picked me up the next morning.

The next even was Maia’s first birthday!  We can’t believe she’s already 1.  We had a cupcake theme.  The kids decorated cupcakes and played with our backyard toys.  Of course there was tons of food–even for being just a small party.

Cousin Kalyan had arrived just the night before.  His mom and dad are both able to work from home so they decided to be snow birds this year and spend 6 weeks in Sunny California.  Since he’s arrived I’ve been home with the kids instead of going to the office.  There still is lots of work to be done, so I do what I can from home.

We had our annual Christmas party at our house on Christmas Day.  It was such a warm and beautiful day that we had the party outside.  The next day we went to Victorville to celebrate Christmas with the Bilbao side.  Needless to say, being the only grandchildren, the girls are spoiled.  Hopefully that’ll change soon–lol.

We traveled to Las Vegas to celebrate Christmas with the Pakilits.  Funny thing is we opened presents on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve.  Amber and Kalyan were recovering from the stomach flu.  Fortunately it only lasted 24 hours and Amber was able to go out on New Year’s.   But poor Amit was the next victim and them Kailee.  The bug worked its way from one person to the next sparing just Lilli, my dad and me (and Uncle Hoover too, I think).  Maia seemed to just get a mild case and Jasmine’s was more like the 5 hour flu.

We played hookie for one more day and spent Jan. 4th with the Trivedi’s at Santa Monica Pier and 3rd St. Promanade.  Then it was back to the grind.  Kalyan still cries when it’s time for mom and dad to work.  But he is definitely more comfortable here.  He has grown very attached to the girls, “ah-tah” (”ate”) as he calls them.  Here are updated pictures:

Hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed holiday and wishing you nothing but the best for 2010!

So since the last blog…LOL…

We hosted a reunion for JD’s fraternity.  There was a great turnout.  One major good thing is that it forced us to clean out our back patio.  That was a job LONG overdue.  Loma Linda Academy had their annual fair that Sunday too.  It was a pretty warm day.  The 3 big girls got to have snow cones.  But since it was so hot, I gave in and tainted Maia with the sugary snack.  She thoroughly enjoyed it.  You can tell in the last photo that she is an active girl–she no longer has as chubby rolls as she used to.  But she sure is still as cute as ever.  No step taking yet.  But she can balance for longer and longer periods at a time.  She can even stand and turn or clap her hands with out loosing her balance.  I’m savoring every toddle-less moment.  But I fear that it may end before next month.

Her communication skills have shown to improve.  Lilli had asked Auntie Morie for some more cereal at breakfast time.  Maia sat in her seat and observed as Lilli said something and then got some more cereal.  Auntie Morie didn’t seem to notice that Maia was watching and proceeded to put the cereal back.  So Maia started to yell out as if to say, “Hey, where’s mine?  I want some too!”

We think it was the flu that hit our house in the beginning of the month.  It started with Kailee and of course worked it’s way around to Maia.  Luckily, they all recovered without any major interventions needed.  But Maia actually didn’t eat any solids for a whole WEEK!  That means she was nursing only to make up for all the needed nutrition.  And on top of that, she wouldn’t take a bottle.  I was forced to call in sick from work.  Once her appetite did come back, it came back with a vengeance.  It still amazes me how much she can eat.  She has been refusing pureed foods for several weeks now.  This makes meal prep a little more time consuming for me.  She now has 4 teeth-2 very large upper centrals, mind you.  For the first time today I gave her a whole chicken nugget without breaking it up into tiny little pieces.  She bit into the thing bite by bite until it was finally devoured.  She loves a variety of fruits and seems to be developing the family allergy to green foods. 

Ok, there simply is just no excuse. 2 months without a blog is disastrous!  But anyways, here it is to the best of my memory. 

Maia’s dedication was a success.  She was dedicated along with another little boy.  When the pastor held the two of them together, they both reached out to each other.  Matchmaking at such an early age?  Who would have thought?  After the service, we headed over to the park.  It ended up being a decent day as far the weather.  We were still having 100+ degree weather back then and we feared that we would bake!  But thanks for Grammy, we got the best spot at the park by 5 min. and there a nice breeze.  Maia’s hair is getting much longer, so she got a trim of her bangs before the big day.

Then, on Sept. 30, escrow closed for the practice JD was trying to buy.  We couldn’t be more blessed.  There was a short period of 2 weeks that JD was working only part-time because of the uncertainty of when escrow would finally close.  But it was definitely a blessing in disguise.  We were able to get several of final details squared away before going into business full swing.  Maia became a regular at the office.  Here is the family toasting with Martinelli’s. Then Maia running errands for the new office.  And Maia showing you how boring working in a dental office is.  :)  But lunch breaks sure are nice. 

Where oh where did the time go?  Three fourths of a year has already gone by.  Our baby has changed a whole bunch in the last month.  Her meal time menu has expanded a lot.  However, we’ve been giving her prunes/mangoes/papaya frequently to help with constipation.  So far we haven’t had any allergic reactions to anything.  Yay! Her pincer grasp is very well developed.  I know with the other girls, it was just around 9 months of age that they would start to use it and self feed.  She however, is very dexterous.  A future dentist maybe?

She is so mobile now.  She can get to where she wants to go and fast.  Finally the art of crawling has been mastered.  But only to be experienced briefly, I’m sure (well, okay, maybe not, I don’t want to jinx it…haha).  She has been pulling herself up for several weeks now.  But her balance and strength has improved quite a bit.

Other tricks she has up her sleeve are waving hello & good-bye, giving kisses and giving 5, just to name a few.  She is also a lot more verbal.  Baby talk of course, but she tries to make up for her sisters when they are all in school. We are planning her dedication for next weekend and before we know it, it will be her 1st birthday.

In other news, the girls are all enjoying school.  They are all in different areas now.  Jasmine is on the upper elementary side, Kailee in the lower elementary side, and Lilli at preschool.  They all seem very comfortable, secure and independent.  It does make seeing each other at home much more fun.  One afternoon J&K got out of school early.  J went to a friends house so K&L were left at home to play with each other.  They played made up game after made up game with their dolls/animals and dress up.  It was really like they missed each other and were making up for lost time.

Check out the Month 9 for updated pictures.

I thought for sure that by Labor Day Maia would be sprouting her 2nd tooth.  It was just under the gums.  So everyday I’ve been checking, or rather feeling.  It wasn’t until this evening that it finally broke through.  Tooth O (or her first tooth to cut through, teeth are numbered but baby (primary) teeth alphabetized) is barely visible when she smiles now, but not so clear on camera.  So we’ll update you with a picture as soon as we can capture one.

We had a great time over the long weekend in San Diego.  We have some friends that live down there and were gracious enough to open up their house to us and 2 other families.  So there were a total of 4 families–9 adults (another friend was there too) and 8 kids (half of which are ours :D).  We went to Coronado, bowling, watched Dvd’s, BBQ’d, shopping, museum, made necklaces, had a fashion show, music video recording and just hung out.  It was a nice and relaxing trip.  One funny thing is that all the kids are girls.

Kailee, Mailani, Loren, Tarrah, Lilli, Rheese, Jasmine, Maia

cruisin

Just a couple weeks ago Maia was going from laying on her tummy to wobbling into a sitting position or from sitting to all fours.  It was a very strategic balancing act and she often paused in what I call  yoga pose.

Now she is efficiently going from crawling, to sitting, so standing, and now more steadily CRUISIN’!  Pretty soon my baby won’t be a baby anymore.  *sniff, sniff*

I recently added an “Upcoming Events” page.  You can click on it in the left collumn.  This is for information of any events that we might be attending or hosting.  The next event is Maia’s Dedication.  Hope to see you all there!