Some Month 4 Photos

Somebody's teething! We're thinking that her "cold" symptoms earlier this week may have been related to teething. Claire is starting to enjoy gnawing on her cold toys. She is able to hold them in her mouth and free up her hands for other things.

Sasha is starting to see the benefit of having a baby around, as an alibi! Actually, Claire was more of a partner in crime, since she grabbed a shirt and yanked as Sasha jumped in the laundry basket.

Claire is getting more curious about our faces, and she likes being able to look us in the eye. Daddy is always obliging when it comes to helping her stand, especially during their diaper changing chats.

Rockin' and Rolling

We can't put Claire down on her back anymore. She immediately rolls onto her tummy! It's getting a little tricky to change her diapers and clothes because of this. We are actually going to get to start using the seat-belt on the changing table soon.

In other news although we live in the Bay Area, Yusing does not. He won the Bridge contest from the earlier post and therefore gets two free sentences on the blog post. We were expecting something a little easier to work into an everyday posting but Yusing decided to submit something hard to take out of context. Since it's his two free sentences (for everyone else its $1 a sentence) he's entitled to say what he wants. He says:

"Friends keep encouraging me to move back to the Bay Area, but without a job, it's difficult. I'm hoping a lucrative "manny" job opens up in the Sivitz household, just like Brittany Spears' household."

Our retort to this statement is move back to the Bay Area! It just so happens that we're not getting many applications for our "manny" job. Not sure why, we're offering unlimited free sentences on the blog AND the priviledge of looking after one of the world's premier experts on drooling, fist-eating, and rolling!

Bring on the Snot

The nasal bulb syringe is out of the package and getting alot of use! Claire has gotten her first cold, as of Sunday night. Brian and I have become pros at using the "snot sucker", and Claire doesn't seem to mind us sticking the blue tube up her nostrils. I guess she knows it's helping. No worries yet since her temp peaked only at 100.4 on Sunday night and is already back to normal. That was odd too -- Claire did not mind the first use of the rectal thermometer. I think it bothered us more than her!

Amidst the snot production and sneezing, Claire is still practicing her rolling from back to stomach. She seems to be really getting the hang of it going to the right, but going to the left is more tricky and she stops on her side to yell for a good 5 minutes before continuing on.

Claire seems to be really attached to the elephant in the photo. It plays a lullaby and she hugs it against her face as she falls asleep for nap times. We are sooo happy that Claire is a trooper. We can tell that she is uncomfortable, but she is still napping and feeding as usual, and giving us lots of smiles. Brian and I are MUCH bigger babies when we get colds.

The old tub has left the building

Wow, we have great neighbors. One of them, a man named Bob who is in his seventies, cheerfully volunteered to help us remove our old bath tub yesterday. He marched right over, strapped the 200+ lb tub to his dolly, and rolled it right out! We don't know what we would have done without him. We got the new tub in place ourselves, as it was considerably lighter. Many thanks, Bob!

Brian is making excellent progress on the guest bathroom remodel job. He has put in the ceiling drywall, wiring for new lights and a fan, and new water valves. Claire will be taking a bath in there in no time! While Daddy is busy working in the bathroom, she and I have been pruning all the plants in the gardens. Technically Claire just sits in her bumbo and plays with toys while Mommy does all the pruning. But it's work to her!

This weekend we hiked at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, again carrying Claire in the back pack. There were lots of redwoods as the name suggests but also some great big ponderosa pines to our surprise, at the observation deck. For all you locals, it's a great time to hike in the redwood forests because the rhododendrons are blooming and the creeks are flowing. Claire stared at the trees as usual and fought a nap to the best of her abilities. (Fortunately she caved and napped on the way home.) Brian found a four-leaf clover! Can you see it in the photo?

Guess and Win 2

This is NOT the Golden Gate bridge. Do you know which bridge it is?

The winner's get 2 free sentences in the next blog post.

(The DRs. Juliens are not allowed to guess)

Site Under Construction

As you have probably noticed, we're doing some remodelling to our blog site. The primary objective is to have a bigger space for our posts and photos, since we tend to write an awful lot. It looks like this template will accomplish that goal. We're still playing around with a new title and color scheme.

Poor Kitty!

Sasha had a minor surgery on Tuesday to remove a quarter-sized lump on her back. We just feel awful for her, but 24 hours later she's acting like nothing happened. She is aware of the bald spot however and keeps trying to groom her fur around it in a "comb-over" style. This was the first time we've ever seen her coming out of anesthesia and it was scary! She was extremely aggressive and would NOT get into her pet carrier until mommy came back there and pet her. I thought she was going to bite my hand off based on how she was attacking the cage door, but fortunately she recognized my smell and my hand is still attached. We'll get the pathology results in one week.

Claire is such a big girl now, she gets to ride in a back-pack

on our hikes! We went on a short hike over the weekend and she seemed to really enjoy her new vantage point. She even napped for a good half hour with her head completely lolled over to the side. At four months old, she is such a happy gal and always smiling. We're having a ton of fun making goofy faces and noises at her, just to get a laugh. Claire weighed in at 14 lbs 11 oz, and 24.5 inches long at her doctor's visit last week. She did fine with the round of shots, and we feel lucky that she did not have a fever or any fussiness afterwards. Claire must be going through a bit of a growth spurt because she's now waking up starving during the night. This doesn't surprise us because she has been more active during the day, sitting, standing, grabbing toys, even talking to herself in the car.

Don't be fooled by the following photos...Claire does not know how to read yet, and she is not crawling yet. She just pretends to do these things to the best of her abilities. On her tummy, she picks up all four limbs and flails them around madly. Alas, this gets her nowhere but it's a heck of a workout! And if you hand her one of her books, she appears to be trying to turn the pages. I doubt that she actually knows what she is doing but it's pretty cute to see how hard she is concentrating, as if she really is reading.

Meet Me In St. Louis

We were off in St. Louis for Memorial day weekend, visiting our old college campus and seeing college friends. For those of you who don't know, Brian and I both went to Washington University, which is convenient for these kind of reunion trips. It was a blast to see everybody and reminisce about good old times while taking in the familiar sights. The original intent of the trip was to meet up with Liz, Lizzie, Jasenka, Esther, Dan, Tyler and their signficant others. In the end, Grandma and Grandpa Koster, Uncle Tony, and Aunt Katie surprised us by driving to St. Louis to see Claire! We aren't even going to pretend that they wanted to see all three of us...we accept the fact that she is cuter than us.

We took Claire to her first baseball game, Cards vs. Royals. She slept from the first pitch all the way through to the fireworks at the end of the game with the Cards winning 5-0.

Grandma and Grandpa snatched her up at the botanical gardens and we had a good chunk of free time! Claire was extremely sociable and in a good mood, despite the sporadic rain showers.

Claire slept through most of our campus tour, which was probably a good thing because it is sooo nice now, she might have cried until we let her go to school there.

Brian was worried the Economy or Compact car we normally get from Priceline wouldn't be big enough so he decided to splurge the $17 a day for a "Premium" car. What they didn't explain to us was that "Premium" actually meant "Your Grandpa's Car". It might be hard to tell from the picture, but we spent the weekend driving around in a Mercury Grand Marquis. Aside from looking like a car you have to be at least 75 to drive, its hood was so big it was hard to see out. Aside from the fact that people we're pointing and laughing when they saw us drive by and we DIDN'T have white hair, the car did have several advantages. First was the ultra-smooth ride, which although it was nice, Claire didn't fall asleep as easy in the car because she didn't feel the normal vibrations of a moving vehicle. The second is the amazing amount of trunk space. This made the car equally good for a mobster as two people fit comfortably. Liz and Lizzie proved it by getting and closing the top. We believe that 4 maybe 5 bodies would fit if you were in a pinch.

We were very impressed with Uncle Tony's baby-holding skills, considering his lack of experience in this area. As you can tell in the picture, Claire demands a standing position more and more these days. She can't talk yet but she lets you know how she wants to be positioned!


We also spent a significant amount of time with the Small's (that's their last name, not any indication of their size). Yet somehow we didn't manage to get any pictures of Tyler or Trish Small... again, not because of their size. I promise that we did see them though. Tyler and Brian went for runs together both Saturday and Sunday and although Brian is significantly out of shape he did manage to chase Tyler around the park, through the University and through Clayton. Tyler was going signficantly slower than his normal 5:40 paced 18-miler on Sunday mornings, but it appeared he had a good time nonetheless. At the very least, Brian is very grateful for Tyler kicking his ass around the old school. The biggest highlight of running around St. Louis was
undoubtedly seeing all of the changes that have happened in the last 9 years. Both the South 40 and the Hilltop Campus (excuse me... the Danforth Campus) have changed significantly but the most shocking change of all is the fact that the old house Brian used to live in on Forsyth was gone. Not just altered, gone. The entire house had been torn down and a brand new one was built in its place. Old the old memories, the tire swing out front, even the big tree holding the tire swing were gone.

Another highlight was seeing the "Festival of Miles" put on by the Big River Running Company yearly and held at St. Louis University High. Apparently a bunch of famous runners have gone to this school but the only one I know is Tim Probst captain of the 1996 Washington University Bears Cross Country team. This year's goal was too gather a sufficiently elite group of runner's such that at least one of them would break the 4 minute mile. Tyler and Brian weren't invited but in the end it was an amazing race in which not 1 but 3 people broke the impressive barrier. (The winner ran 3:55).

If you ask Claire she might tell you the highlight of her trip was going to Ted Drewes for the first and second times. Although she didn't get to consume any tasty concrete's she did get an excellent picture of with one.

A final note... After being depressed that Chuy's was no longer around (apparently they're rebuilding somewhere else), Tyler recommended we go to "Mi Ranchito" which is just off the loop in a less than ideal part of the city, but man is it good food. Next time we visit, we'll definately be consuming more of their tasy fare and washing it all down with Ted Drewes.

Claire Laughing

It is very easy to make Claire laugh now. This video is awesome:

Claire in her "pool"

It was another hot day in the 90's so we ventured out and bought a toddler-tub for Claire, which we could double as a "pool". We didn't know what to expect when we put her in the cold hose-water, and she pleasantly surprised us by not screaming. In fact, she seemed to enjoy the experience, especially when we put her in a reclined position so she could kick. Unfortunately we didn't get a video of all the kicking as water was splashing everywhere. Plus the kicking was, for the most part, a result of Claire being naked at the end of her bath and she revelled in the freedom. (No naked video in case she sees this when she is a teenager.) Anyway here's a couple of videos of her initially getting the feel for the situation. I think she was a little confused by the concept of taking a bath with clothes on, in cold water, outside on the lawn. Hence, she was awfully quiet for once!

I'm sure you are all curious about one thing: No, she did not go to the bathroom during her pool experience. We lucked out!

It's time for a photo update!

Claire's latest trick is getting pulled up to sitting and then staying there unsupported for a few seconds. She REALLY likes this. I can't tell you how often she yells for someone to assist her into sitting so she can look around and drool.

As far as fashion goes, I think we may be pushing it with these little baby head-bands. Somehow on Claire they just look like mini sweat-bands. Maybe it's all that hair shooting out in all directions.

Tummy time is getting better and better for Claire. She is reaching for toys in this position now, and staying for 10-15 minutes so long as there is something entertaining to watch (like mommy watering the garden and dodging the bees).

This is Claire's "gym", where she admires herself in the mirror and pets the toys hanging above her. She surprises us sometimes by rolling onto her side or scooting up with her legs. For the most part however she is in the cute babydoll stage where she stays where ever you put her.

The First 100 Days

The American public and the international media recently got a chance to analyze and reflect on President Obama's first 100 days in office. The fact that it's 100 days doesn't really mean anything except that it's a nice round number that everyone can easily remember and it gives the President enough time to either do a bunch of really cool things or to do a number of stupid things that SNL can write skits about. As Claire was born only 10 days after Obama's inaguration that means that we now get the chance to analyze and reflect on her first 100 days.

Coincidentally Claire's century mark was reached the same day as Mother's day so we happened to have a big celebration that she probably thought was for her. How do we assess how good of a baby she is? We don't have much to compare her to. Perhaps the next baby is in trouble as I can't say that I would have dreamed these first 100 days could have been as easy and as rewarding as they've turned out to be. Since I like quantitative things, I'll grade her on several different categories on a 1-5 scale (1 being she's downright terrible and 5 being incredibly amazing... everything else is somewhere in between. Except for 4, If I score her a 4 its like a wildcard in Poker, you can use it as any score you want).

Sleeping: 5 --> I don't think we I could hope for this to have gone any better. 9-12 hours a night with several long naps during the day makes for a happy mother and father.

Eating: 5 --> She's gaining weight like crazy and loves to eat, and once her parents were trained in how to bottle feed her, she did fine with that too.

Communication Skills: 5 --> I know I'm sounding like a broken record, I'll mix it up here soon, but she really is an amazing talker. Aside from all the other parents at daycare commenting on how much she's talking already, an excellent example came on Mother's day. We met up with the Winkler's and Claire and Sophia had another play date. (More on Mother's day later) When the two of them were put face to face, Claire decided she needed to tell Sophia all about the clothe's she's been wearing, about life in San Jose, about her friends at day care, about the trees, Hawaii, and everything else she'd seen. She did this directly into Sophia's face for a good 5 minutes and probably would have continued had we not finally pulled her away. Her voice was getting loud and somewhat angry toned but I think it was mainly because the stunned Sophia was giving her the silent treatment.
Pooping: 4 --> I'll give this the wildcard score as Claire's poops are irregular and unpredicatable. Sometime's she'll go days without pooping only to do it when we least expect it or when it's really inconvenient to change her.

Moving: 1--> It's probably not fair to assess her on this yet, but compared to most other humans, she's very bad at moving. She always stays exactly where you put her and has never crawled or been able to sit up on her own. If we hold her in the standing position and move her legs forward, she sort of emulates walking, but she's definitely never done this on her own.

Patience: 1 --> Another area she definitely needs to work on. In most religious circles, squares, and triangles, Patience is considered a core virtue. But I say patience is all about perspective. Consider if you called up a pizza place and you had to wait 30 minutes for your food to be delivered. Not bad right? Now consider a 1 day old baby. If she had to wait 30 minutes for something, that would be like 1/48th of her life.

I could probably go on all day rating her based on different traits, but patience isn't really a virtue of mine either so I'll wrap up my evaluation by giving her the overall weighted score of 4.8. That's roughly equivalent to an A+.

This weekend was chalk full with action. (Speaking of "chalk full" I just looked up the expression and it turns out I don't even know how to say or spell it. The expression is actually "chock full" and here is its very vague definition from a reputable online etymology dictionary:

chock-full
c.1400, chokkeful, possibly from choke "cheek." Or it may be from O.Fr. choquier "collide, thrust." Chock-a-block is nautical, said of two blocks of tackle run so closely they touch.

But that was clearly a tangent. Mother's day was nice. In addition to a lovely breakfast at the Los Gatos farmer's market (excellent place for Nutella and Strawberry Crepe's on Sunday) we had the aforementioned rendevous with the Winklers and did have a nice lunch at Stait's cafe in the city of redwoods. We also ventured out again to the drive-in and saw the very excellent Star Trek movie. Well done Mr. JJ. Oh, and I also decided that the guest bathroom (where we will soon by bathing Claire) is not up to par with the standards of excellence I demand from things associated with my baby and thus decided to tear out the floor, sink, toilet, walls, lights, tub... well yeah everything. In my copious amounts of spare time I'll be putting it back together and building her a nice little haven where she will undoubtedly refuse to use unless we bribe her with Nerds for being a good little toddler.

FYI: The above picture is what a baby looks like after sticking her finger in an electrical socket.

Whistle While You Work

If you were magical and had the ability to travel through time, here is a neat trick to understand the close mother and daughter bond that Claire and Sarah share. Using your power to bend the space time continuum pick any random time over the last 94 days and travel to that time. Then take out your hourglass (as a magic time bender you undoubtedly have one of these) and turn it over. During the course of that hour observe Sarah and Claire. It would be absolutely certain that at some point while at least one grain of sand is still flowing, Claire and Sarah would be within 50 feet of each other. Yep, Sarah and Claire have never been apart for more than an hour.... Well that is until today.. Today Sarah broke that record, smashed it in fact, and spent roughly 10 consecutive hours no closer than restraining order distance. She did this not because the two of them had a big fight, but because after 18 weeks at home, Sarah returned to work today. Like good parents, rather than leaving her at home with a bottle and a couple of spare diapers, we decided it prudent to drop her off with a stranger... Okay, maybe not a complete stranger. I think we talked to her on the phone once and met with her in person for 15 minutes on a couple of different occasions. So after a total of about 36 minutes of communication, we left our first born child all alone with her. When we got to Sandy's house (she aptly calls it Sandy's daycare) we were the first to arrive as we wanted to make sure we had enough time to get to work on Sarah's first day back. After that, the whole process was a blur, but it did involve us handing the baby to the caregiver and walking out the door, leaving our wide-eyed baby staring at us, wondering what was going on. I don't think I'll ever forget that cute little face watching intently at us as we walked down the driveway. I can't imagine what she was thinking, but she didn't cry, she didn't fuss, she didn't even let out a whimper, she just watched as we slowly turned around, got in the car, and left. Sarah has been talking about how hard this might be for days, but I figured it wouldn't affect me as I've been going off to work for several months. But today was different, I somehow felt like I'd betrayed my little girl. We spent 3 months building up this trust, only to leave her at the doorstep of a stranger. What indication would she have that we'd ever return? For all she knew, she'd just been given up for adoption... (Dramatic Pause as the audience wonders if we'd ever return..... 10 hours passes, or passes magically if you have the aforementioned powers ....) But luckily for Claire, she has two loving parents and she had not been given up for adoption and at a few minutes before 6pm in the evening we showed up at the doorstep, pushing each other out of the way as we attempted to be the first to see our daughter. We had worried she'd cry and scream all day. We had worried she wouldn't eat. We had worried she would lash out at us as we arrived. But none of this happened. Our cute little angel had slept half the afternoon, taken several bottles on command, and appeared extremely happy to be in the company of some many big brothers and sisters. The first day jitters now gone, Sarah and I are really happy to have found Sandy and for all the wonderful opportunities that await Claire as she continues to grow.

Let's All Go To The Movies!

Remember Daddy Warbucks? He was the bald millionaire who adopted orphan Annie in the movie named after that cute little redhead. Arguably his most famous line was when they zoomed in on his animated face and he proclaimed "Let's all go to the movies!". The clip oftens plays during previews when they show the long nostalgic montage showing the best lines from movies of yore. Its such a vivid image, I often dream about Daddy W. and Mr. Clean fighting over who has the balder head. Where am I going with this post you ask? Well its not where I'm going, its where we went. If you didn't figure it out from the title, the Sivitz family ventured out to the movies for the first time this week. But wait, a 3-month old in a quiet movie theater? That doesn't sound like a good idea. True, but we thought the same thing too so we stepped back in time and went to the Drive-In. Yes, San Jose has a Drive-in theater. Complete with a covered concession stand and staggered large parking spaces that not only create a better view of the movie, but offer a much bigger buffer in case your car should turn into a screammobile. Our little Claire did scream a couple of times but overall she was pretty good. In fact, I think she only screamed when we forced her to watch the terrible movie on-screen. We saw "Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past", which Sarah had no trouble getting me to go see because of my deep down infatuation with Jennifer Garner. However, it really wasn't a very good movie and I'd reccommend you save a few bucks and go stick your head in the freezer for 2 hours if you want a similar experience. The best part about the whole experience was the satisifcation that Sarah and I got from looking over at the car next to us at the end of the movie and seeing a couple strapping their young twins into car seats and driving off. At least now we know where to go if we're looking to meet other parents in the future.

Keiki in Paradise

Sarah and I are "brave." At least according to countless numbers of gray-haired tourists who exclaimed this on the airplane, over pineapple at breakfast, on the beach, and in the hotel. Some would call you valiant for taking on the likes of the Spanish Armada or climbing a steep mountain in the dead of winter, but we were rewarded this title for simply taking a vacation. Yes, that is right we took our little Keiki (child in Hawaiian) to the white sand beach of Oahu, spent 5 days lounging, working on our tans, and hiking in lush forests with plenty of water and we are the bravest people on the planet. In all fairness this was not the easiest vacation in the world, but our daughter proved to be on her best behavior for about 87% of the trip which was just enough to have a great time and still produce some good stories about screaming and pooping. Anyway, I should start from the beginning.




Our story begins with two Hawaii loving adults who can't seem to make it through the harsh California winter without spending a few days in paradise. This usually involves a February trip to the Island du jour, but with the arrival of Claire this year, our trip needed to be postponed. As the trip grew near we began to worry about how we would pack for our first excursion with the baby. A 14 lb baby with practically zero interest in toys still requires an amazing entourage. First there is the car seat. Simply enough you might say, but first we packed the car seat base. No problem, but this unit alone (only half the car seat) filled the entire suitcase I packed when we went on our 2 week trip to New Zealand. This left the other half of the car seat, the stroller, all her clothes, her diapers, her wipes, her bottles, and her blankets. By the time we took inventory of what was needed I began to have trouble visualizing how we'd make our way through the airport without dropping bags or forgetting the baby along the way. That is when I had the brilliant idea of practicing towing our luggage and pushing the baby. Although Sarah poked fun at such a notion, my early preparation proved effective as we later effortlessly made our way through security and onto the plane with nearly an hour to spare.

Claire's first flight was amazingly smooth and not because there wasn't any turbulence. The best advice I can give new parents cautiously approaching their first flight is to pack plenty of diapers, a change of clothes, and feed the baby on take off and landing. All the books we read and our recent experience confirmed this. It didn't hurt that we were bumped up to the ample space of business class either. So here we are, we've practiced carrying our luggage, we've planned and packed accordingly for our trip and are ready to collect our rental car. Apparently this is where our preparation ended. Upon arrival at the Honolulu airport we remembered the long roundabout shuttle ride to the car rental center which was less 100 feet from the terminal and decided to walk. This proved to be an excellent idea as we walked right up to the Avis counter and declared were there to rent a car. Great plan right? Well yes, but it turns out our reservation was with Alamo. No problem though as all the rental agencies were within walking distance of each other. We walked right past Dollar, Hertz, and Budget and quickly realized that Alamo was nowhere to be found. Upon returning to the Avis desk, the man declared that we needed to board the shuttle and he'd return us to the terminal where we could pick up the Alamo shuttle. So we did and believe it or not, it took us about 15-20 minutes to get back to the terminal only 100 feet away. The traffic pattern at the airport is such that driving from the car rentals to the terminals requires you to first go away from the airport, then go through departing flights, then loop back behind the car rental places and then finally make your way to the arriving flights. That is where we finally found the Alamo shuttle, boarded it, passed by the Avis cars for the 5th time and were finally able to collect our car.


After unloading the car seat from our suitcase and securing Claire we drove to the Lotus hotel wedged beautifully between Diamond Head and the ocean. Our room on the 8th floor afforded us a wonderful view of both of these and as we put on our swimsuits and headed to San Souci beach, we quickly forgot about the long experience at the airport. The small beach between two nearby hotels had just enough room for 20 or so patrons but there was still a nice spot for us to setup our towels and umbrella for the baby. After taking turns frolicking in the ocean while the other watched the baby, we decided it was time to leave as the wind started picking up and our baby's deafening cry started drowning out every other sound on the beach. The remaining few couples hoping to catch a nice romantic sunset certainly got more than they bargained for as their attention was clearly drawn to the couple unable to calm their baby. We quickly packed our bags and moved our party first to the lobby of the hotel where after scaring some prospective clients we momentarily were able to calm her down. That was of course until we decided to take the elevator to our room. We weren't sure if it was the quick ascent followed by the abrupt stop at our floor or early onset baby claustrophobia but throughout the entire trip Claire made it clear to us that she hated elevators. One time she was smiling and cooing and the minute she saw the elevator door open she cried like the world's supply of milk had suddenly dried up. The good news is that toward the end of the trip we finally determined that bouncing her up and down and waving and singing to her the entire ascent or descent distracted her sufficiently.
Back in our room the baby continued to cry for 15 minutes more as she couldn't seem to get over her first elevator experience and this is when we decided to order room service instead of going out. After a wonderful meal from Don Ho's restaurant (courtesy of "Room Service in Paradise") we burned the midnight oil until nearly 8:30pm and retired for the evening. As an aside, Hawaii time is 3 hours earlier than California this time of year and 2 hours earlier in the winter as they do not observe the mainland tradition of falling back and springing forward. I theorize that as fall and spring have no meaning, they decided that summering back and summering forward made no sense.


The next morning we arose earlier, each went for a run, and then had breakfast at the wonderful Hau Tree restaurant next door. This restaurant was situated right on the beach with a very large and nicely trimmed tree serving as the roof. After breakfast we drove out to the east side of the island and hiked the Kuli'ou'ou tree (aka Top of the World) which was very steep, slippery, rooty, windy, and beautiful. This probably wasn't the best trail for infants; I fell 3 times while carrying her, but boy were the views from the top spectacular. While we've hiked many wonderful trails and seen may excellent sites in Hawaii this one offered by far the best single spot to catch a view. Unfortunately because it was so high and the mountain around it descended so quickly in every direction the wind also howled at the top. This meant of course that Claire threw another fit (I can't blame her for this one) and we had to hurry down to a lower viewing spot that wasn't so windy. We spent the rest of the day at Lanikai beach and again retired to our hotel room for an early dinner. Just as we started going to bed we had the pleasure of listening to Sheryl Crow serenade us from just outside our window. No, our fellow guests weren't blasting music, the actual ex-miss Armstrong was playing across the street in an outdoor amphitheatre. As she continued on about all she wanted to do, we dozed off and began dreaming of our next adventure.

The next day was equally pleasurable. Running in the morning, a walk on Waikiki beach where we ate breakfast and watched a moray eel, a lovely lush waterfall hike to Manoa falls, some more beach time, and a stop at the Dole plantation where we let Claire lead us through the world's largest Maze. With over 3.11 miles of paths and a giant pineapple in the middle, the maze took us nearly one hour to traverse (56 minutes to be exact). Interestingly enough, they record everyone's time as they enter and leave the maze and they claim someone finished in 5 minutes. While I find this hard to believe, who am I too argue with one of the world's leading producers of pineapple? Besides, they make excellent pineapple floats (Pineapple juice and pineapple ice cream).

Monday was our last full day and we again ran in the morning, covered a lovely trail that took us to the top of the eastern most point on the island (Makapu'u head). This point was significant because its geography made it an excellent location to fend off kamikaze attacks during WWII. The top was littered with old barracks and with the right imagination one could easily reenact a high-stakes Pacific battle. After the hike we got ourselves some Shave Ice (no trip is complete without it) and headed to Kailua beach where I failed to properly apply sunscreen. Its not that I didn't apply it, I just didn't apply it properly. Normally Sarah would apply it to my back, but I think she must have been feeding the baby or something when I decided to do it myself. The next morning I had a very interesting strip of red across my back, with clear delineations where my fingers had been able to reach. We capped off the day by heading out to Duke's Canoe Club for dinner (our first evening meal away from the hotel room) where aside from the nice views, fun atmosphere and great food, I discovered the very tasty Hawaiian Itch cocktail.

As all good things must come to an end, so did our trip. On Tuesday morning after running along the beach one more time, we grabbed some breakfast and headed to the very secluded Kahala beach for a nice picnic. It was here where we decided to dip Claire's feet in the ocean for the first time. While we thought she would scream, she did not. She actually really enjoyed the experience and this gave us hope that she'll soon enjoy Hawaii as much as we do.
As we returned to the airport and returned our car (which was "excessively dirty" according to the lady who assessed us a $50 charge for sand on the floor mats) we began reflecting on our trip and dreaming of the next one. Oh but don't worry, there's still a poop story to tell. The flight to San Francisco is 4.5 hours long and although it was the middle of the day, Claire slept for the first 4 hours of it. Right about the time we were descending through 25000 feet I felt something warm on my leg that kept growing and didn't stop until it had wrapped my entire thigh. Oh no I thought, Claire's pee has leaked. Wrong, it was too dark. Poo, lots of poo all over my lap. It was probably the biggest (in terms of volume) poo she's ever had, but I guess as she grows so do her bowels. Aloha!

Super Claire

All right, let's try to write a blog post that does NOT mention anything about poop. This week we hiked in Uvas Canyon park where the waterfalls are flowing this time of year. Claire is still very much into trees, and she spent most of the hike staring upwards again. We had a good laugh when we passed another couple of hikers who commented "he sure likes the trees". Claire was wearing all pink and sucking on a pink pacifier at the time so initially we thought they were talking about Brian but no, apparently our daughter must have looked rather like a boy! Gender confusion aside though, we really enjoy our encounters with other hikers. Everyone loves to gawk at Claire, and plus we always get somebody to take a family photo of us.



The weather has been so nice we've been picnicking and napping outside every chance we get. Sarah has also been spending her afternoons in the garden while Claire watches the ferns sway in the breeze. It's incredible how simple things can really catch her eye, more so than her fancy baby toys. Even a kleenex can be intriguing and can provoke excited kicking and cooing when waved in front of her face. More and more Claire is demanding to be propped up in sitting so that she can keep an eye on us. She is also practicing countless numbers of mini sit-ups when reclined, which must be preparation for sitting and rolling.

Claire appears to be ending her bottle boycot and is now willing to take a bottle once a day. Thank goodness! She is also sleeping 6 consecutive hours at night (in her own room now) which we attribute to her successfully finding her thumb (see photo). This doesn't mean there aren't any fits though. If we don't get her a warm bottle in a timely fashion, she explodes in her classic style. So we have initiated a "Super Claire" protocol which seems to calm and distract her long enough to prepare a bottle for her. A video of this process is posted below. Keep in mind that this is just preliminary and we will add theme music and super-baby attire in the future if it continues to prove effective.

We have Liftoff

In an event not very similar to that of the Somalian pirates holding an American Captain captive in a lifeboat with a Naval ship breathing down its neck, after a roughly 80 hour standoff, Claire has freed both the Captain and all of his crew by blowing out 3 consecutive diapers. These events all took place within a span of 2 hours and happened so fast that some onlookers had to ask "Could that be what I think it is in her belly button?".... I guess we're lucky we didn't have to wait 7 days as one of my coworkers said happened with his daughter. When asked about the events of the last few days, Claire neither confirmed nor denied that her lack of poop was an act of defiance. Instead she simply smiled and continued talking to the ceiling fan.