Playgroup At Gianna's

Well, Playgroup was at Gianna's house today, we had 6 babies (and Mommies) come over to spend the day out of the 105 degree weather! It was nice to finally have a big group here and Gianna was in a really great mood. She was also really good about sharing her toys and except for her scratching Nicolas (sorry again!) and Sean's "fussyness" (I still think he is a perfect angel) it was perfect!

Sean wasn't in to being part of the picture so here is a picture of Gianna (clockwise), Nicolas, Madison, Hayden and Sophia. That's right, we had an even number of girls and boys! Although I think that Gianna is going to be able to hold her own with the boys judging from past playgroups. There is also a really great picture of Gianna trying to eat Sophia's face on Sophia's blog (just click the link in the margin!). I am so excited for all of the babies to grow up together...today we got to talking about trips to the park and girls' (and boys if they want) trips to Libby Lu.

How amazing that Gianna has these friends who she will be able to truely say have been in her life "forever".

Here is a video of one of Gianna's favorite things- swinging with Mommy. She loves anything that involves moving fast, swinging, being upside-down or being tossed in the air. She is a daredevil!

We went to the Dr. today to have a quick check-up because she hasn't been eating or sleeping well, but I guess she's doing better than I though because she weighed 16 lbs! Just 6 weeks ago she was 14lbs 12oz, she is growing so fast. Anyway, the doc said she looks great and doesnt think anything is wrong. For now we are just going to keep an eye on her sleeping and eating because the Dr. said she looks great but wants to just keep checking on it, I'll let everyone know how it turns out. She is getting even closer to crawling, she can even move from a crawling position to sitting with grace, pull herself to standing, and laughs and smiles a lot despite the lack of sleep...I wonder how she does it!

Update! Update!

Okay, so we've been sort of lazy since Justin got home...and I haven't updated. :)





Lets see...Gianna and I got up early Saturday and went to get Justin at the Airport (after a quick stop at Jarrod and Kelly's to get their extra carseat-I highly recommend having one! and play yard--Thanks Guys!). Gianna knew who Justin was after just about 1 second and was so happy to see him and flirt with him. We spent the rest of Saturday just hanging out, it's nice that he's home.





Sunday we had a playgroup picnic which was so much fun! I meant to take a picture but I think I was too excited about Justin being home and all the Daddies getting to meet all of the other Mommies and Babies that I just forgot! We'll have one again soon though and I'll be sure to take a picture then and post it.





Monday was also a nice lazy day (Justin had it off) so it was nice to spend a little more time together before he went back to work. Plus He and I were recovering from Gianna's wild nights. She is just so excited to have Justin home that she has been awake almost around the clock, with the exception being the occasional nap in the car--how's that for irony? For those of you who don't know (or have blocked out the memory) Gianna HATED the car for the first 5 months of her life or so. We tried everything, even about a week where the only places we went were by foot or bus-that was interesting. Anyway, she is better [most of the time] now.





One really exciting (and scary) thing is that Gianna is getting really close to crawling and also can pull herself onto her feet from sitting if she has a really good grip and really wants to. I took her shopping for some standing and sitting toys and she really loves them so much more than that old "Baby" stuff.





One last funny thing: At the Picnic Gianna was being her usual verbal self and commanding attention and today Chelynn told me that her husband Rick said Gianna was the typical Girl- talkative and attention grabbing!





Love,


Jessica

Justin Is Home!

Yay!

Video?

I know, I know....I just finished posting but I wanted to see how hard it would be to post a video.

I know the quality is terrible, but I took it on my regular digital camera.

Justin is almost back!

Well, it is late Thursday night here in California. That means that it is now Friday afternoon for Justin, and he is about to begin is arduous journey home. I am sure knowing that he is coming home will make it fully worth-while though!!! :)

Gianna and I have been keeping busy walking with our playgroup friends, cleaning house, and we even went to Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek with our friends Chelynn and Nicolas for a nice day of shopping and lunch. It was amazing how well the babies did without ever taking any naps!!! It was also so nice to escape the heat in Livermore, although it was still plenty hot in Walnut Creek.

I am posting a picture of Gianna is the beautiful romper she got from my cousin, Gina. I think she looks so cute in it--and it is perfect for the weather. She is laying on the adorable quilt her 'auntie' Erica in North Dakota made for her. We are all excited because just this week we finalized plans for traveling to North Dakota this November to go to Erica and Corey's wedding. It should be a blast and Gianna might even catch her first glimpse of the snow!

Thank you to everyone who helped make the time that Justin has been gone particularly easy for Gianna and I, we are so grateful, especially to: Johnny, Sarah, Grandma C., Dawn Sean & Brian Hogan, Chelynn & Nicolas, Great Grammy (thanks for the dishes), Mandy & Hayden, Jenny & Sophia, Cheryl Ashley & Ryan, Renee & Spencer, Toni & Madison (& Noah), Jadyn & Cole, and anyone else who helped. You made the time fly by!

Almost time to leave Japan :) !!!

Well, it is finally time to leave this place, in like 15hrs. I am very excited and can't wait to leave!!! I love you Jess and I will see you and Gianna very soon.
-Justin

Jessica's Night Out!

Well, Over the past few days we have been winding down a little bit. Both Gianna and I are ready for Justin to come home...and we know he's anxious to make the 20-hour trip back.

Anyway, on Monday Aunt Sarah and Grandma C. (who drove to Livermore for the night) watched Gianna while I went and had a night out with a few of my friends from the Mom's Club. It was a bit strange being out without Gianna or Justin, it was definitely a first since Gianna was born (but hopefully not a last!). It's nice because Justin and I have been in Livermore for over a year but it's just now starting to feel like home now that we are meeting people and getting out a lot more. We are both looking forward to our Playgroup Family Picnic this weekend even though I'm super bummed that not everyone can go :( By the way...The margarita's are AMAZING at Casa Orozco in Livermore, I highly recommend them to anyone who has the chance.

Sarah and Mom left today and Gianna and I joined Jenny and Chelynn for our usual walk in the park, but wow was it hot!!! Gianna seemed bothered by it so she got to be a naked baby - her favorite. She seemed a lot happier once I had her down to just a diaper, hat and sunscreen!





Other than that, Gianna has just been eating a TON! She is getting much better at bottle-feeding and she eats those Gerber star-puffs by the handful (along with just about every veggie we can find). She talked almost continuously all day and we had fun just spending some time together. I can tell she is going to crawl any day here. Lets hope she waits until Justin gets home!

Japanese food?

Hello again. Is anyone hungry for some Japanese cuisine? Today we are serving sea urchin...yum. I did not order this, Cap-san did, however it was pretty good I must admit. I tried a little thinking I would not enjoy it but I liked it very much. We stopped at this place on our day off somewhere near Hagi, Japan on the island of Honshu. One cool thing about this dish was it came with its own "bunsen" burner candle that was lit and placed underneath the bowl to cook the rice. The only problem was we had to wait ~25min for it to cook right in front of us. I'm starting to wonder how much "work" Japanese chefs do if they even leave the cooking to us. Well...when the food is cooked, which it rarely is :) Anyway, this was a good dish, if I ever return I will have to try it. Good bye, I love you Gianna and Jess XOXOXO
-Justin

Hello from Japan!

Hello, I have some pictures of my Japan Adventures. The pictures were taken on our day off. Cap-san and I are standing in front of the largest cave in all of Japan. It was nice and cool standing there with the cool misty air of the cave blowing on us. We started out heading north to the island above us. The largest of the islands, Honshu. We traveled along the coast and saw lots of beautiful scenery along the way. It was very interesting to travel so far in a car. I still haven't gotten used to driving on the left side of the road. Fortunately for everybody in the car I wasn't driving. It took about 2 hours to get to the bridge pictured above. This is a famous place in Japan with nice white sand beaches. The color of the water is very blue and pretty as well. I enjoyed my day off but could only imagine how much Jess and Gianna would have enjoyed it. I miss them very much and appreciate all the work Jess is doing on her own. I love them very much and cannot wait to see them! I hope they continue to have good time with Aunt Sarah. Hey, not bad for my first post! I hope to do more as well. Goodbye from Kurosaki.

Promised Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised:

Pincer Grasp


















Zoo Outing with Playgroup:


-(near to far) Gianna, Spencer, Nicholas, Hayden






















-Gianna and Spencer

Little Ballerina

Well, we just got back from church and so many people commented on how Gianna looked like a little ballerina. I guess it could be the pink dress and the little pink shoes that look exactly like ballet slippers. She was good in church, just doing her usual flirting with everyone (from a distance). Of course the whole congregation got to hear how loud she is. She seemed to know exactly when the priest was going to stop talking because she started just talking up a storm and doing some squealing and yelling every time. People thought it was funny though, we got a few comments about such a big noise coming from such a little person. One thing's for sure: she has a good set of lungs!





Yesterday we went to Grammy's (after picking up Uncle

Johnny on the way) and spent the day visiting with family and helping Grammy move everything back into the breakfast room. Gianna was in the WORST mood I have seen her in since last time we were at Grammys--I guess that's how that goes though. She did enjoy spending some time with her godmother, Jenna, I'd love to post a picture but the only one I got Gianna was screaming in...so we'll have to try again when she's in a better mood some time.





A nice surprise was that Tim and Kelly brought Courtney by to say hello. It's so funny because Gianna at 7 months and Courtney (almost 3 months) are the same size!!!! Although Courtney was much more mellow than Gianna and even tolerated Gianna trying to eat her face, head, hand, foot etc. It will be so fun to see them together once they are both moving around!





A little update from Justin: he had the day off yesterday and went up to the main Island of Japan with some of his co-workers. He has been very very busy this trip otherwise and we haven't even gotten to talk to him all that much. We are excited that he will be home in less than a week though!





One thing I wanted to add was a picture of Gianna eating her new favorite food: Naan. She had it twice this week and she loved it!

Playgroup outing

Over the last few days we have been trying to keep busy with visits from friends and trips to visit other people. I want to say thank you to everyone who has been helping to make it a little easier this time while Justin is away. On Sunday, we took Johnny back to Berkeley and went to eat Indian food, as it turns out, Gianna loves Naan. It was so funny watching her suck on a piece of it during the later part of dinner (after she got bored of her star puffs, which she most often loves).

The following night we went over to Dawn and Seans house to play with Sean's toys and make an incredible mess for Dawn and her husband to clean up! We were all spoiled by Brian's fabulous cooking and it was a perfect night that was accompanied by well behaved babies and great weather for an evening stroll. Thanks again to them for making the transition so easy for us. The first few nights are always the hardest.


Then tuesday we went for our playgroup walk and later picked up Tracy from Bart. It was great to see her and we got to go out for awesome mexican food at Anitas. Thanks for coming all the way to visit Trace. Gianna loved playing with tracy and her fun jewelery.

On wednesday we headed back to berkeley, this time via bart. We met up with Grandma C, Auntie Sarah and Uncle Johnny for Thai Food and another visit to Johnny's Apartment. Sarah is here staying with us now and today we went to the Zoo with Playgroup.



Now, I don't think I have directly mentioned playgroup before but it is a wonderful group of 5 boys and 3 girls and their lovely Mommies. We have so much fun together and today was no exception. We had a great time looking at the animals (and other children) and Gianna is really starting to pay attention. I think the highlight was watching the tiger play with a ball. We did have to leave a little early because the zoo seemed so busy and was a little Overwhelming for Gianna. She seems to like it every-other time.

Justin has Landed

Justin is safe and sound in Japan.

And...

Gianna has started doing the Pincer Grasp!

I think I got a picture of it, I'll post it later.

Justin is off...

Justin headed off to Japan today, we took him to the airport this morning but as I type this he is still enroute to his final destination of KitaKyushu, Japan. Jadyn and Cole also went home this evening but not without a visit (and a little help for me) from Uncle Johnny. Okay, he's not their uncle, just Gianna's but the name is growing on us!

We took the boys to the Livermore icecream social and to the park and swimming-they seemed to have a great time. I hope that they can visit a lot more often, I miss them already!

Okay for now it's off to bed I'll let everyone know when Justin has landed safely.

Love,

Jessica

Oh yeah...If I forgot to mention it before, Gianna LOVES swimming!!! She kicks her legs and giggles the whole time. She is such a waterbug. She also LOVE LOVE LOVES the swing at the park-I wonder why she hates the one at home?!

Jadyn and Cole are here!

Well, we've had a busy week getting ready for Justin to leave. Luckily we knew that Jadyn and Cole were coming so Justin packed early. Gianna loves playing with clothes so she loved helping daddy pack-sitting in his suitcase and talking to him. When Justin would put something in the suitcase she would throw it out and wait for the "Uh-Oh!" It's her favorite game.

This will be Justin's third trip to Japan since Gianna has been born and it seems so routine now, but we are still so sad that he has to go. Luckily we have all kinds of media to keep in touch and with that and pictures it's almost like Gianna is still seeing Daddy everyday.

So, then on friday afternoon Jadyn and Cole joined us for the weekend and we've been having a blast!!! We've been swimming (Gianna loves the pool) going to different parks around livermore and today we went to the Oakland Zoo. Everyone has been really great and it's been like a vacation for us with how much the boys help with Gianna. They entertained her in the backseat all the way to the Zoo and back.

Tomorrow we're going to go on their first ride (I'm not sure if this is accurate or not) on BART and they are very excited about going on a train to the aiport. Then Johnny is going to meet up with us and we'll head over to the Livermore Icecream social for the afternoon. I'll actually be sad to see them go.

Commenting

Okay...I'm still figuring all of this out :) I just made it so that anyone can leave comments on our page, just click the "Comment Anonymously" button thingy. We'd love to hear what anyone has to say about our adventures and especially about Gianna!!! With posts and comments the hope is that eventually she can look at this page and see her life documented by us and everyone around her.
So now feel free to comment away! (You can also do it using your GMail account too).

Awesome beach weekend!

We're back from an awesome extended weekend in Santa Cruz. Justin took a few days off of work so that we could make it a long weekend...so it was extra special (besides that it was Gianna's first trip to our favorite place!). We headed down there on friday night and got settled in the beach house, then Saturday morning when Jessica's mom and Grammy arrived we headed out to the Wharf for our favorite food-Grilled cheese from Riva.


After a walk to downtown (and a nap for Gianna) we quickly renewed our season passes (a last minute decision). A few rides on the Giant Dipper later...yay, it feels like summer now! Saturday night Justin and Jessica went out to Shadowbrook, the restaurant where they got engaged, for a real date. Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Chuck watched Gianna.

On Sunday we spent most of the day at the boardwalk and Gianna even rode the carousel. She was unsure at first, but loved the wind in her face.

On monday we went for a walk in Capitola then headed back to the boardwalk for more rides including the dragon ride and pepsi truck ride for Gianna (and of course another ride on the carousel).

Monday, we went to the aquarium and Gianna really seemed to love it! She looked at the fish, otters and Jellyfish. She tried to grab a penguin through the glass and even pet a starfish! I highly recommend visiting there.

Now we're back for a few days before Justin leaves again for Japan. But not without a visit from Jadyn and Cole for the weekend! This should be fun!!!