Mary Poppins (aka the Nanny) offered us a treat this past weekend. She hosted a kids sleepover for our kids with a few other kids, which meant Ryan and I had an evening and a morning off from kid-duties!!
It was a last minute plan and we took the opportunity to play out our kid-free evening on a whim. Should we go out for dinner? maybe Thai food since it usually has nuts and we can't take Liam..or should we take the extra time to get more things done on our extra long to-do list? We decided to go rock climbing! Yes, yes. Ryan does go rock climbing regularly. And yes, yes, so do I. And in fact, both of us had climbed on our own time the day before... But we never ever get to go climb together anymore, and the few times we have, it was with kids.. which usually means no rock climbing.
Rock climbing with Ryan was such a treat! Back in the day, prior to kids, prior to dating.. Ryan and I were mere friends that would meet up after work (~6pm) and work on climbing problems for HOURS until the gym closed, at 11pm. In fact, the workers at the gym would have to kick us out. I remember watching him climb with such finesse, and trying to learn the techniques that he displayed. My skills improved significantly back then climbing with Ryan, in part because I learn from watching such a great climber, but also because he inspired me to work through difficult climbs and try different approaches.
Our evening climbing together did exactly that. It inspired me again, to climb smarter, to climb harder as I watched my now hubby climb with such skill. I tend not to climb as hard by myself.. fall short when I really can do more. This evening, my hands were burning red... callouses were forming near the finger joints and palm.. and when I clenched my fist, I could feel the pulsating of my heartbeat in my hands. Now THAT is how a good rock climbing session should feel!
Showing posts with label Ryan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ryan. Show all posts
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Kiddies Heart Daddy
Note: This is a random out-of-timeline-sync post.
This post was originally conceptualized for Ryan's birthday this year.. and I'm late enough that it could be probably be considered an early next birthday post! So happy late/early birthday! ;)
Back in the wee days of Ryan's first year with Emilia, we had this post. This year was Ryan's first year with Liam, and so it seemed fitting to re-create the sweet photo op.. besides, the onesie fit him perfectly. Liam was about 9 months here, while Emilia was at 6 months.
The kiddies have the best dad! It's pretty evident.. they heart their daddy!
This post was originally conceptualized for Ryan's birthday this year.. and I'm late enough that it could be probably be considered an early next birthday post! So happy late/early birthday! ;)
Back in the wee days of Ryan's first year with Emilia, we had this post. This year was Ryan's first year with Liam, and so it seemed fitting to re-create the sweet photo op.. besides, the onesie fit him perfectly. Liam was about 9 months here, while Emilia was at 6 months.
The kiddies have the best dad! It's pretty evident.. they heart their daddy!
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Lots Of Busy-Ness
Lots of busy has been going on. That's why it's so quiet on here. So here's bullet style update.
(Check out Liam's one-arm plank! That's my babe!)
Liam Updates
* Has tried 3 different rice cereals now (include one homemade with nothing but white rice and water). He has upchucked all of them. Total of 4x upchucking due to rice cereal. He has also upchucked yams 1x. With everything going on, we've decided to suspend his solids for now.
* Fell off the bed onto hardwood floor and hit his forehead. Poor kid had a huge bruise and lump. My fail. I was distracted by Emilia and turned away from him. Almost caught his legs as he was going down, but missed by a fraction of a second. =( He's okay now though.
* Craws (bunny-hop style) really fast now. He is going to be a climber! He loves climbing on top of everything. Also he has really good abs! He is always doing some plank or downward dog pose.
* Gets upset at Emilia now when she takes his toys away from him. Oh.. let the fighting begin!
Emilia Updates
* Starting to prep for potty training and we plan to follow the Potty Training in a Day method. Ryan has read the book (I'm next) and we have a potty training doll that drinks water and pees when the belly is full. Now we just need some time.
* She has lots of little friends around, though we cannot see them. She is always waiting for Julian and Perry to put on their seat belts before she'll drive them around in her invisible car.
* Occasionally I'll catch her dragging Liam around by the feet or by the hands.
Ryan Updates
* He's completely focused on our zombie fortification as things are underway really fast. Permits are approved and work is in full force.
* Old deck removed and certain areas repaired. We have workers, contractors, inspectors... and lots of activity going on. Retaining walls are also up!
* Ryan found another rattle snake a while back when he was moving rail ties around.
* Avocado season is over. Avocados were harvested a good while back and it turned out to be a decent season. Looking forward to when the Reeds start coming out, which will be around fall time.
Connie Updates
* Work - I have a new project and given full responsibility towards design, verification, implementation, and debug of our testboard FGPA development on an upcoming high-profile testchip. That's a whole cycle with a bunch of new things I am unfamiliar with. Excited to work on this and learn new skill sets, but also nervous as to time, family/work balance, and the consequences if I mess it up. (Essentially there can be no mess up.)
* Dealing with a painful hamstring/glut injury for the past 2 months. I am getting treatments with an ART specialist. Have gotten referrals from a friend in the local competitive elite running/tri-athlete community (thanks WK) and started seeing a PT. Good news is that the PT's analysis gave me an answer to why I sustained a hamstring injury and also the root cause for several other periodic issues I've always had. Now I am very hopeful there's a solution to resolve all of my ailments.
* Last attempt, I am up to 12 max pull-ups. 2 away from my goal that I set back at the beginning of the year.
* Crossfit and regular workouts are now suspended, and have been for the past 1.5 months. Bummed that I'm stopped, but silver-lining (2 bullets above) which will hopefully help me in the future to get stronger and better in the right way.
* Diet - Been doing a mix between keeping some Paleo ideas and Bob Harper's 20 rules. Re-incorporating limited whole grains. Mainly oatmeal, brown rice, or my latest find, SmartCarb bread (also comes in gluten-free and Paleo versions), high in protein and fiber! I am focusing on eating foods with high fiber and protein with each meal.
Family & Friends
* Lots of family visits lately, which the kids (esp Emilia) love.
* Visit from cousins Emily and Elizabeth, who was out here for a rock climbing competition.
* Grandma "poa-poa" came by to spend time with the kids for a week.
* Szeto cousins were out visiting (crazy, fun madhouse! Kids LOVED it.)
* Distant cousin Patty got married and we had the honor to take part and celebrate with them.
* We had a last Collective hoorah with the Chuckster before he headed off to Australia!
* And we found out that the Collective will be having a new addition at the end of this year. Congrats JL & Irma!
And, lastly, everyone here has been rotating being sick in one form or another.
(Check out Liam's one-arm plank! That's my babe!)
Liam Updates
* Has tried 3 different rice cereals now (include one homemade with nothing but white rice and water). He has upchucked all of them. Total of 4x upchucking due to rice cereal. He has also upchucked yams 1x. With everything going on, we've decided to suspend his solids for now.
* Fell off the bed onto hardwood floor and hit his forehead. Poor kid had a huge bruise and lump. My fail. I was distracted by Emilia and turned away from him. Almost caught his legs as he was going down, but missed by a fraction of a second. =( He's okay now though.
* Craws (bunny-hop style) really fast now. He is going to be a climber! He loves climbing on top of everything. Also he has really good abs! He is always doing some plank or downward dog pose.
* Gets upset at Emilia now when she takes his toys away from him. Oh.. let the fighting begin!
Emilia Updates
* Starting to prep for potty training and we plan to follow the Potty Training in a Day method. Ryan has read the book (I'm next) and we have a potty training doll that drinks water and pees when the belly is full. Now we just need some time.
* She has lots of little friends around, though we cannot see them. She is always waiting for Julian and Perry to put on their seat belts before she'll drive them around in her invisible car.
* Occasionally I'll catch her dragging Liam around by the feet or by the hands.
Ryan Updates
* He's completely focused on our zombie fortification as things are underway really fast. Permits are approved and work is in full force.
* Old deck removed and certain areas repaired. We have workers, contractors, inspectors... and lots of activity going on. Retaining walls are also up!
* Ryan found another rattle snake a while back when he was moving rail ties around.
* Avocado season is over. Avocados were harvested a good while back and it turned out to be a decent season. Looking forward to when the Reeds start coming out, which will be around fall time.
Connie Updates
* Work - I have a new project and given full responsibility towards design, verification, implementation, and debug of our testboard FGPA development on an upcoming high-profile testchip. That's a whole cycle with a bunch of new things I am unfamiliar with. Excited to work on this and learn new skill sets, but also nervous as to time, family/work balance, and the consequences if I mess it up. (Essentially there can be no mess up.)
* Dealing with a painful hamstring/glut injury for the past 2 months. I am getting treatments with an ART specialist. Have gotten referrals from a friend in the local competitive elite running/tri-athlete community (thanks WK) and started seeing a PT. Good news is that the PT's analysis gave me an answer to why I sustained a hamstring injury and also the root cause for several other periodic issues I've always had. Now I am very hopeful there's a solution to resolve all of my ailments.
* Last attempt, I am up to 12 max pull-ups. 2 away from my goal that I set back at the beginning of the year.
* Crossfit and regular workouts are now suspended, and have been for the past 1.5 months. Bummed that I'm stopped, but silver-lining (2 bullets above) which will hopefully help me in the future to get stronger and better in the right way.
* Diet - Been doing a mix between keeping some Paleo ideas and Bob Harper's 20 rules. Re-incorporating limited whole grains. Mainly oatmeal, brown rice, or my latest find, SmartCarb bread (also comes in gluten-free and Paleo versions), high in protein and fiber! I am focusing on eating foods with high fiber and protein with each meal.
Family & Friends
* Lots of family visits lately, which the kids (esp Emilia) love.
* Visit from cousins Emily and Elizabeth, who was out here for a rock climbing competition.
* Grandma "poa-poa" came by to spend time with the kids for a week.
* Szeto cousins were out visiting (crazy, fun madhouse! Kids LOVED it.)
* Distant cousin Patty got married and we had the honor to take part and celebrate with them.
* We had a last Collective hoorah with the Chuckster before he headed off to Australia!
* And we found out that the Collective will be having a new addition at the end of this year. Congrats JL & Irma!
And, lastly, everyone here has been rotating being sick in one form or another.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Where'd November go?
November was busy... I think.. It's all a blur now. Where'd November go??!
We had both sets of grand-parents here helping out in alternating, consecutive weeks. During that time frame, it allowed us to focus on working with Liam to get him on a consistent schedule of feeding time, active time combined with awake time, and sleep time. He has naturally adapted to a 4 hour interval schedule. The nights have been still hard with less sleep than optimal for Ryan and I. Liam has been good though, and has gone as long as 6.5 hour interval between feedings, but that's not consistent yet. The hardest time interval is still the 4am feeding.
While this period has been exhausting, it has also been quite fun getting to know the little dude. He is mellow and chill, quite different than Emilia was at this stage. Emilia naturally takes on a big sister role with him - sharing with him and asking for his whereabouts when she does not know where he is. She has tried to play with him too. In fact, the other day she tried to play horsie ride with him and sat on his back while we were not looking. Ah.. the fun of watching (or not watching) two kids!
Here are some random November photos of the kiddies:
We had both sets of grand-parents here helping out in alternating, consecutive weeks. During that time frame, it allowed us to focus on working with Liam to get him on a consistent schedule of feeding time, active time combined with awake time, and sleep time. He has naturally adapted to a 4 hour interval schedule. The nights have been still hard with less sleep than optimal for Ryan and I. Liam has been good though, and has gone as long as 6.5 hour interval between feedings, but that's not consistent yet. The hardest time interval is still the 4am feeding.
While this period has been exhausting, it has also been quite fun getting to know the little dude. He is mellow and chill, quite different than Emilia was at this stage. Emilia naturally takes on a big sister role with him - sharing with him and asking for his whereabouts when she does not know where he is. She has tried to play with him too. In fact, the other day she tried to play horsie ride with him and sat on his back while we were not looking. Ah.. the fun of watching (or not watching) two kids!
Here are some random November photos of the kiddies:
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Two.
Two. It's been two years of marriage with the two best parts of my life... (soon to be three when three years roll around!) Life is never boring with these two. I can watch them play and do things all day. Imagine how much fun it will be when there's three of 'em! Here's to my two best counterparts and two years of life together!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Steppin' Stool Dad
One hot and lazy afternoon, Ryan decided to take a nap on the living room floor. Emilia decided to take advantage and found a good use of a sleeping dad... also provided me some entertainment!
Friday, December 10, 2010
MotoGP
During MotoGP....
this is what goes on.
Definitely Daddy's little girl... she likes MotoGP and speed racer cars.
this is what goes on.
Definitely Daddy's little girl... she likes MotoGP and speed racer cars.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Em's E-Card to Dadda
Yes, I'm looking at you,
and well, I've got something to say...
In fact, both momma and I have something to say...
Dadda, It's your birthday!! And my 1/2th birthday too!!
Happy birthday to an awesome husby and dadda! Now let's go and celebrate!! I declare play-time all day today!!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Mission Accomplished
At the beginning of April, I started running again for the first time since my neck operation. I made a goal at that time to run the Project Athena 15K trail run on May 8. Well, I completed the race (maybe survived is a better description), and finally feel recovered after about a week of rest.
I finished 13th overall out of 66 runners, and 2nd in my age group. My time was 1:42:39 which is really slow, but the winning time was only a 9 minute/mile pace so that's a testament to how grueling the course was. One of the runners measured the actual distance on his GPS, and it was 9.7 miles - slightly longer than the advertised 15K. We don't know exactly how much elevation gain there was, but a friend mentioned that a similar hike she does out there has about 2000 ft of gain. In any event, there was a lot of climbing, some very steep descents, a couple of river crossings, some singletrack, and even running along a streambed. Overall, a very sweet course. What probably made it particularly tough was the temperature - it was hot. There weren't very many aid stations so I was glad I was carrying my own water. Even so, I was wilting in the last mile, and was so glad to see the finish line.
Ok, now to start thinking about the next goal...probably something like a Half Marathon trail run. Long term goal is the Catalina Marathon which is a very hilly, very tough, all trail marathon.
ps. I got beat at the Project Athena race by a 65 yr old dude. That's incentive to keep going no matter how old you are!
I finished 13th overall out of 66 runners, and 2nd in my age group. My time was 1:42:39 which is really slow, but the winning time was only a 9 minute/mile pace so that's a testament to how grueling the course was. One of the runners measured the actual distance on his GPS, and it was 9.7 miles - slightly longer than the advertised 15K. We don't know exactly how much elevation gain there was, but a friend mentioned that a similar hike she does out there has about 2000 ft of gain. In any event, there was a lot of climbing, some very steep descents, a couple of river crossings, some singletrack, and even running along a streambed. Overall, a very sweet course. What probably made it particularly tough was the temperature - it was hot. There weren't very many aid stations so I was glad I was carrying my own water. Even so, I was wilting in the last mile, and was so glad to see the finish line.
Ok, now to start thinking about the next goal...probably something like a Half Marathon trail run. Long term goal is the Catalina Marathon which is a very hilly, very tough, all trail marathon.
ps. I got beat at the Project Athena race by a 65 yr old dude. That's incentive to keep going no matter how old you are!
Monday, March 15, 2010
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