Jenn's Christmas list

Two can play at this game, Matthew!

OK here is the Amazon version so that duplicates are avoided: Jenn's list

1) Vacation in So Cal near a beach before baby #2 comes during which I get to relax (no sightseeing)
2) massage
3) pedicures
4) Cute Apron, something girly and frilly that my boys won't steal and mess up
5) Becoming Jane DVD
6) Jane Austen dvd's: 2008 version of Persuasion
2008 version of Sense & Sensibility
(these are available on Amazon)
7) Penelope DVD

Also, here is an image of the type of apron to which I am referrring

Matthew's Christmas List.

A few people have been asking me for a Christmas list, so here's one from Amazon. Some of the items are a bit expensive, but there's a load of books at the bottom, too.

Also, there are a few boardgames that I'd enjoy. I think the best prices are at a retailer called Thoughthammer, although I'm not sure how much they'll charge for shipping. Here are some the games I'd like:
Citadels (New Box Format)
Lost Cities
Pandemic

Jenn and I are also putting a list together for Bronson; I think we'll have it ready tomorrow.

Hope you all had a nice (American) Thanksgiving. We had some tofurkey.
Matthew

Happy Diwali!

Last Saturday after seeing Thomas in the morning, and napping in the afternoon we went to a Diwali celebration on campus in the evening. It was wonderful! We stayed until 9pm because Bronson was having so much fun - normally he's cranky and ready for bed at 6:30.

There was a yummy Indian buffet, a variety show with dancing and singing and lots of lights (Diwali is the festival of lights). Here you can see a coloured sand drawing made by our friend Swarnima.

(This photo courtesy of monx)

Here is a picture from the variety show, this is Radhika who is an amazing dancer, every year she does a solo performance in the most beautiful gowns. Bronson was very attentive during the whole show, but he especially liked watching her dance.
(This photo courtesy of monx)
Bronson's favorite part of the party was the dancing! The sticks are a part of traditional dandya dancing done on Diwali, but Bronson used them for every dance. He was a dancing machine!

Here is a really beautiful photo of B and daddy dancing, taken by a member of OASIS. (This photo courtesy of monx)

Bronson was totally starstruck when Radhika came and danced with him, he was captivated during her solo performance earlier during the show, and who could blame him, she's lovely!

Bronson made lots of friends during the course of the evening :)

Since the Stevenson's can't attend an event without getting tattooed, I got mehndi done on my hand. I've been scrubbing ever since to get it off, since I don't think they really appreciate it at the hotel :)
Here we are with Laura and Varun. When we got there, Bronson pointed across the courtyard and said "Varun!"
Here are Laura and Walter. They brought Bronson and I our outfits when they visited India earlier this year. Varun brought Matthew back his shirt. They also brought Bronson squeaky shoes that make a sound with every step. We took them out of hiding for the party.

I should mention that for the past week we have been well. On Friday Matthew had surgery on his wrist to have a cyst removed which was causing him mobility issues. Today he is hopped up on codeine and recovering. Unfortunately this means that neither of us should be picking up Bronson which is hard, but we are managing. Mostly I throw a toy to the top/bottom of the stairs and race him to get it. We will have a quiet weekend of recovery and videos and hopefully be back to our active selves next week, just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.

A(nother) Day Out with Thomas

This summer we saw Thomas in Winnipeg, that's where Bronson's love of all things Thomas began. Well, Thomas continued to travel West (as did we, but we were alot quicker), and we were able to meet him again this morning in Perris, CA. That's right, we drove 90 minutes each way to do this all over again.

We did not tell Bronson where we were going, though he got some hints, like the conductors hat instead of his regular ball cap and the fact that mommy was humming the Thomas song all day.

He was very excited when we parked and joined a whole lot of other toddler boys in conductor caps and Thomas paraphenalia. When we arrived at the gate to buy tickets and he saw a Thomas billboard he started to grin and grin and grin!

First we played a little on the mini trains at the railway museum...

...then we met Sir Toppham hat.

Then it was time to get in line for the main event, a ride on Thomas!

I am very happy to be riding on Thomas!

Next we did all the other activities which were icing on the cake, a STRAW bale maze, playing on trains, Thomas tattoos, playing with Thomas toys and the petting zoo!

We've had a very fun morning. On the drive home we passed near one of the fires, it was smoky. We are fine where we are in Pasadena. The 210 freeway is closed further up, as is the 5, which would cut us off from any northern travels, but as we are not scheduled to go anywhere, that's ok for us.

OVRO working holiday

We were up at OVRO for the past 3 nights and had a wonderful time. We had 2 great dinners and Bronson and I had alot of fun visiting the park each day, and playing outside. It's autumn up there, so we threw leaves in the air and wore pants and long sleeves.

On the 2nd night we went out to dinner with all the grad students who were up there; Walter and Joey were up working with Matt, Laura was up working at CARMA, an array near OVRO and Swarnim and Shrihirsh are 1st years who wanted to visit OVRO, having never been before.

I forgot to bring the camera, but Matthew let me use his on the last day. It seemed to be broken, so I didn't get all the pics I wanted... and as I fiddled with it, Bronson lost his balance and fell head first in to the duck pond. A local called it his 'High Sierra baptism'.

So, that was that. Luckily we had a bag of clothes for Goodwill that hadn't gotten there yet, so B wore one of daddy's old shirts for the 20 minute ride home from the park.

I read 2 books in the evenings and absolutely loved the dinner we had at 'Whiskey Creek' our last night. I had artichoke canelloni and we split a 6 layer piece of chocolate cake for dessert. It was awesome.

We were going to visit CARMA on Sunday morning before driving home, but there was a snow storm and the road was closed, so we did not venture that way. There was no snow on the Sierra floor where we were, but CARMA is on a higher plateau in the mountains. Poor Laura was snowed in up there.

Also, here are a couple pics from Halloween that our friends sent us:

The Wednesday prior to Halloween, Matt and Bronson wanted to dress up for park day. I did not want B to ruin his costume, though, so we came up with a backup that was park appropriate - Matthew.

Here are a couple of 21 week belly pics that Matt just took of me. Baby is kicking like mad!

At the Zoo

Halloween was fun for us. We dressed up pretty well all day. I won the pumpkin carving contest at work (after placing 2nd last year, I was out for the win this time!) and that came with a nifty $100 prize.

I will try to get a pic from work to post.

Bronson trick or treated for the 1st time this year, he does not say trick or treat, instead after entering our neighbours houses he thrusts the bag at them. We just went to a few of our building's neighbors and then drove to Laura and Walter's to trick or treat. The astro Halloween party began at 9pm, by then Bronson had been asleep for 2 hours and Matt and I were heading to bed after relaxing with Halloween candy and television.

We had a really hard week with lots of commitments which just left us exhausted. So we tried to take it easy on the weekend. We did a few errands on Saturday, but Sunday we just slept and went to the zoo and hung out.



Bronson has been asking to go to the zoo for the past 2 weeks "Zoo, zoo zoo zoo zoo!" so he was thrilled to go. When we got in we saw our friends Dania and Bertrand and their 2 year old son Niki. Happy coincidence, so we went around the zoo with them for awhile before we got tired and had to head home.

Mama & baby Koala, so cute and so gentle!

The highlight was when the 2 boys were looking in at the gorillas, who have a huge area to play and hide in, but enjoy being near the glass. The boys were pressed up to the glass when the 2 year old gorilla came up to them and stood on the other side and banged at them. Bronson was stunned, Niki banged right back. It was an amazing interaction to see. The gorilla then sat near the glass while the boys conferred on what had happened.


In other news, we head up to OVRO on Thursday, until Sunday, which means that we're missing the Olive Harvest, which is so sad, but I do not have the energy to do it alone with Bronson anyhow, so might as well enjoy Owen's Valley instead. The weather up there is sunny, in the 60's, but cold at night. I look forward to wearing sweaters. We don't have the cabin this time, so we'll be at the motel, which is fun, too. Walter and Laura are up there, so we can dine with them some time. I will take pictures this time of what we do in Big Pine and Bishop, I really do enjoy our time up there.


The weather here has gotten a tad cooler, I now can wear a sweater with my shorts and t-shirt and it has rained a few times, for a few minutes this past week.

Bronson has become interested in tackle soccer, which is a great game for a 5 month pregnant lady to be playing, as well as frisbee.
I am 5 months today, 20 weeks, just past halfway until baby is here...only?!?

Happy Halloween from Leia, Han and Chewy!