Our Little City

In many ways, San Francisco is a small city. Despite that, however, our little city seems to overcompensate on all fronts, offering much more in terms of activities, events, arts, dining, and culture than many similarly sized cities across the country. The Little City That Could. Just another reason to love life in S.F.!

Back to Back

Excited and reinvigorated by our great Saturday in Marin, we decided to go for two-for-two by crossing the Golden Gate in search of adventure and renewal on Sunday. This time, we traveled a bit further out, into the rolling green hills of the Point Reyes National Seashore. Although we didn't quite make it into Point Reyes itself, a visit to the Vedanta Center in Olema and the the town of Point Reyes Station, as well as Tomales Bay State Park put us quite close... close enough to realize that a visit to Drake's Beach is long overdue. Lucky for us, winter is the best time to visit!

Sunday Evenings are Tough

How can we be expected to get excited about going back to work on Monday when we've just had a wonderful and relaxing weekend with our boys?

Just 20 minutes away, Muir Beach and Green Gulch Zen Center make the perfect getaway on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon. Looking at those cliff homes over Muir Beach, we couldn't help but fantasize about living here. If we only had a few million dollars...

The Climber and the Thinker

Rai has never been the most confident of kids at the playground and it's not the social aspect that troubles him. He has no problem interacting with other children, it's the interactions with the play structures themselves that are a bit tough for him. There's different ways to play, though. Some climb while others think about climbing. Rai is the thinker. In his mind, he's zipping up those ropes and swinging from those bars.
Ko is the opposite. He's already showing us his prowess on steps, ladders, slides and other structures. In fact, all the activities that Rai avoided, Ko is embracing. So, now Rai has his perfect companion; he finally has someone who will perform any of the daring acts that he has managed to dream up in his mind.

Three Hours of Comedy

The three hours we have with our boys after we pick them up and before they go to bed are three hours of non-stop comedy. If Dad can't come up with some good jokes, then Rai quickly steps in with some great one-liner and Ko's smile and sense of humor keeps the humor flowing. Ashe is incredibly lucky to have not one, not two, but three stand-up comedians in-house, every day of the week!

The First (of Many) Third Birthday Parties!

Let the celebrations begin! Rai (and K0) attended a wonderful third birthday party at the Randall Museum this past weekend. With all of Rai's friends at school and in the Golden Gate Mother's Group approaching the magic number three, we're sure that this will the first of MANY parties celebrating the age of three! Goodbye, terrible twos!

8-Year Anniversary

Eight short years ago, on January 22nd, we were married in the fabulous rotunda of San Francisco's City Hall. It was Chinese New Years Day, our wedding was the last of the day, and the lion dancers made their unmistakable entrance immediately following our ceremony. Since then, we've celebrated our anniversary on Chinese New Years Day. Every year, this has meant a different date, sometime in January or February, for us to celebrate our anniversary on. This year, the "real" date and the Chinese New Year date fall just one day apart. To celebrate, we made a day trip to a hot spring that is called the only true Japanese style onsen in California. Wilbur Springs was the perfect place to spend our anniversary. Our ninth anniversary may see us actually spending the night at their historic hotel instead of driving 5 hours two ways in one day.

Super Bowl to Super Shame

Turtlenecks are Back!

Preschool Friends

It's hard to believe that Rai's first 2 weeks at preschool were a very difficult time for him. These days, it's getting harder and harder to get him out the door at the end of the day and, with friends like he has there, we don't blame him!

More Rai Being Ko

We've mentioned that we've seen a bit of a role reversal lately. It's now Rai imitating Ko instead of the other way around and today's episode was Rai desperately trying to get into Ko's one-piece pajamas. Once the feet were in, the rest was easy. Easy, that is, until he had to zip himself up. Then, we got to the shoulders. Getting those into the pajamas? Impossible.

Biking Soon?

It's not uncommon for us to put Ko down for just a second, only to find him long gone a moment later. Nine times out of ten, he's off racing through the home, looking for brother Rai. Where Rai is is where Ko wants to be. Seeing as Ko is quickly mastering walking, climbing and sliding, it's only a matter of time before he gets on a bike and zooms off. If it's a pink bike with LED lights on the spokes that blows bubbles, even better!

Poor Ko!

Ko is sick. We miss that smile of his.

Always Colorful, Always Beautiful

By day or by night, San Francisco is always colorful, always beautiful.

Kotaru is 15 Months Old!

Kotaru is now 15 months old! Little Ko is not so little anymore. Month by month, he gets bigger, stronger. It no longer seems like we have a toddler and a baby in our home. Now, we've got two little boys, running around, playing, and talking, talking, talking. Even though Ko resembles his big brother in action more and more every day, we still realize just how far Rai has come since he was 15 months old when we look back on his photos from that age. Before we know it, Ko will be Rai's age. Thinking about that, we make sure to remind ourselves constantly to enjoy every single moment at this stage. Happy birthday, Ko!

Crawling? What's Crawling?

The attached video is already a couple weeks old so it doesn't do justice to Ko's current skills as a walker but the point is the same: Ko is now a walker. Crawling is a thing of the past, a stage now almost forgotten. It's sad but exciting at the same time.

Friday the 13th

Only luck in our lives...

Surf's Up

There's no way Rai will get within 20 feet of the real waves, but murals with ocean scenes, he definitely braves those and he'll even pose for a photo if we give him some frozen yogurt.

Urban Hiking

Beware of Coyotes

The Bay Area coyote population is enjoying a bit of a renaissance these days. With most of their habitat claimed by urban sprawl, coyotes have finally found a way to coexist with humans. Today, it is not uncommon to spot a coyote in one of the many urban preserves. Lands End and the Presidio are great spots to hunt down a coyote in the city. Or, is it the coyote hunting us?

Make that Two Babies in the House

Now that Ko is firmly establishing his presence and personality in our home, it has been interesting to see a change in Rai, as well. Not long ago, Ko would watch Rai keenly and try to emulate his behavior. Now, it's the opposite! Ko will say something, do something, act some way and, a moment later, Rai will be doing the same. Although this means a resurgence of "baby" behavior from Rai, it's still pretty entertaining to watch!

Another Visit to Benihana

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, we made another visit to Benihana recently and, this time, Rai and Ko were both captivated by the performance. Our chef was clearly new to the trade, but he was still quite the entertainer. Our server, on the other hand, has been working there for more than thirty years and remembers serving the Wattles family back when Ashe was a little girl. Wow!