7 weeks

Well, life has been quite interesting over the past seven weeks. I think we are adjusting pretty well to being 4 instead of 3 and Claire hasn't wanted to send Delia back yet. Claire is getting a little better each day, but I have definitely decided that 3 year olds are far worse than 2 year olds! So far she has tried to burn the house down, told us she won't need parents when she gets bigger and lately has been telling us that we are bothering her! If she makes it to see 4 it may be a miracle...

Delia is a very good baby. She has been awesome with sleeping at night and continues to entertain us with her pooping techniques. It takes a lot of effort to have a bowel movement when you're only weeks old! She grunts, turns red and even gets tears in her eyes. One day she even spit up and had milk come out of her nose she was pushing so hard- very scary for her and Mommy! She is interacting with us more and more each day and smiles a lot. It's hard to imagine life without her.

Claire started preschool a couple weeks ago and absolutely loves it. She's made a lot of new friends and thinks her teachers are great. She has also become quite an impressive swimmer. She floats on her back, swims under water for about 5 feet and can do a little back stroke. Maybe there is a little athleticism in her yet...

We hope you enjoy the pics (sorry about the one of Delia, I can't get the darn thing to rotate!) and summer is treating everyone well!

Latest Addition

Well the latest addition to the Schwab family is here - her name is Delia Helene Schwab. She arrived on 6/23 at 1.03 pm at 20.75 inches and 8lbs 9 ozs. Sara was a champ again. We arrived to Scripps about 11.30 and it seemed for a while like we might have a long day ahead of us - she checked in at 6cm dilated. Things took a turn for the better and Sara was feeling ready to push so Doctor broke her water at 1 and went to get ready. Sara fired Delia out at 1.03. The nurse caught her head with one half gloved hand while she pulled the other glove on with her teeth while yelling for the Doctor who came charging in to make a webgem shoestring catch - all right - I'm exaggerating on the webgem shoestring bit, but the rest was true. The doctor skipped with the fancy sterile gloves and threw on the purple nitriles, no hair net or surgical gown as the head was all the way out when she arrived. Two pushes and out came Delia.

Check out the pics and see for yourselves - but looks an awful lot like her big sister. Maybe we all look alike after soaking in water for 10 months, but a bit eerie, a rounder face and slightly more hair, but besides that - déjà vu.

Allright, that’s all for now, but wanted to share the great news and some pics. Hopefully Sara and Delia come home tomorrow – and I’m sure after Sara reads this my blogging card will be suspended – but hope you enjoyed! Brandon

BTW - just got a text from Sara and apparently she's inherited my GI track as she's already under 8 pounds and burned through a 6 pack of dipes.

The 3 girls Proud Big Sister

Delia on the top (with hat on) - Claire on the bottom (no hat)
Dad and Delia

Waiting...

Being my first day on maternity leave, I thought I'd find some time to update this thing. It's only

been a year and 3 months! And people really think I have time to do Facebook- ha!

We are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of the newest member to our family. As most of you know, Claire is absolutely determined to have a little sister. I'm sure she'll need a few sessions of therapy if it turns out to be a boy, but either way she will be a great big sister. She has told me that she will be able to feed the baby all by herself and recently has been asking me how I will get the baby out. I told her Mommy would have to push the baby out and she said she would help- she started pushing on my belly. Oh, if it were only going to be that easy!

Claire is also very proud of the fact that she is now 3 years old. We celebrated by going to Disneyland on her big day. Little did B and I know that she would have been perfectly satisfied with staying in a hotel room and going on a bus ride. She did end up having a blast, as did we. Most of the rides were very cool and she thought seeing the different characters was a lot of fun. There was a little hesitancy at first with Mickey, but she slowly got over it by the end of the day. She also got to have a 'rainbow sparkle cake' and a couple of her friends over on Friday, which led her to think that she should continue to have parties on a much more regular basis!

As I said earlier, we are now in waiting mode for the baby. I had my last day of work on Friday and am trying to get a little bit of relaxation in before his/her arrival. We will be sure to keep all of you posted if there is any appearance by the little one. Hopefully you'll be hearing from one of us sooner rather than later!

Rugby and Cabo

I've obviously been slow in updating the blog, so I'm trying to do my best to catch up! February just flew right by us, but it was heaps of fun.

The Masseys paid a return visit to San Diego to join all of us for the IRB Rugby 7's. Shaun and Nicole also came out the same weekend, so there was plenty going on for Valentine's Day. On Friday, we spent the day at SeaWorld with Shaun, Nicole, Bobbie, Casey and the kids. It was quite a crew! Everyone held up well for the most part. We got to squeeze in the Shamu show and even did a few rides- I think Shaun had more fun than Claire on the rides. Later that night, we had two of our aides watch all of the kids for an adult night out. We had a blast and have to say special thanks to Bobbie for putting up with the drunken fools and being the DD for a bunch of thirtysomethings! The kids were well behaved and the babysitters survived. We got to spend a day at the rugby tournament and let the kids run around. They all seemed to enjoy it and were definitely worn out. It was an awesome weekend and unfortunately went by way too fast.

Before we knew it, we were flying to Cabo for the Schwab family trip. Claire's dreams came true

when she saw the pools and ocean all within a stone's throw! Cabo was definitely a little different this time around with a kid, but nonetheless still a great time. Our days consisted of getting up, ordering breakfast and getting Claire down to the pool as fast as possible. We'd then grab a bite, take a nap and go back down to the pool. She became quite well known by the end of the trip and had several of the guests and staff watching over her. She also got right into the swing of things with demanding a drink like Mommy had- obviously without alcohol! The guys caught some phenomenal fish and the weather was perfect. Besides the dance club music, everyone had a good mix of fun and relaxation.

The rest of the month was spent recovering and getting back into the swing of things. It was great to have all of the excitement, but coming home and having some quiet time is always priceless. Claire continues to be more independent each day, from picking out her own clothes and dressing herself to taking herself to the potty. Brandon and I are getting better and better at letting her think she's "making a decision" to avoid an argument. I can only imagine what the teenage years will hold for us. If anyone has any recommendations for dealing with a tenacious 21 month old, we'll gladly take them! Until then, I pray my patience continues to grow stronger and we can still laugh a lot.

Wading Pools in January

It's official, our kid is definitely a Californian. Granted we had a wave of very nice weather, but getting in the wading pool filled with water from the hose on January 18 is still not right. She was enjoying running around the backyard without clothes so much, she pulled her pool over to the grass and waited for it to be filled! Fortunately, she didn't stay in too long.

My parents came out for a week and I'm really not sure who had more fun. Claire got to take lots of walks with Papa, and Gramma helped with Claire's potty training. They all went down to the playground, read plenty of books and tired each other out! Brandon surprised me and took all of us to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday. We had a great day. Claire wasn't too horribly impressed by the rides, but she was interested in Mickey and Minnie. We had lunch with GGP and Aunt Emily met up with us later in the day. It was a very special day and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

We also went to the zoo with my parents and got the royal treatment from our friend Jessi. She works in the Childrens' Zoo and brought us into an area to see some of the animals. She brought out a hedgehog, an ocelot, a fossa and a screech owl. Claire thought they were all really cool, but it would have been even better to play with all of them! She did get to pet the hedgehog, but the fossa or ocelot would have been much more exciting. We also got to see the baby gorilla- he even had diapers on! We all needed to take naps after such an exciting day!

Claire's other excitement is learning to use the potty. Brandon and I never thought we'd be dancing around and cheering for a child to use the potty, but we are definitely doing it! Claire

started taking quite an interest in her toileting a couple of weeks ago and hasn't wanted her diaper on, so we've jumped into the potty training. She's actually been doing quite a good job and is very proud of herself! We'll save the graphic pictures of her progress from all of you, but Uncle Shaun can tell you about them if anyone really wants to know!

Claire is definitely becoming a little girl. It's really crazy how fast she's gone from being this little baby to this independent (so she thinks) toddler. She continues to exhaust us and challenge us, but she can always make us laugh! We hope all of you enjoy the pictures and get a chuckle from them as well!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

What a fun and crazy holiday season! We have been extremely lucky and were able to spend time with lots of family and friends, and Claire has loved every minute of it. The exception to that was Santa- Claire is by no means a fan of his yet! She has figured out who he is and says "Santa" or more like "Sa-suh" whenever she sees a picture of him, but the real thing was pretty tramautizing. Hopefully next year will be better!





We went to December Nights for the first time this year. It's a big holiday festival held in Balboa Park that's massive! Supposedly over 300,000 people were there this year. The park is decked out with lights and decorations, all of the international houses are open and serving food, plus all of the museums are free. It was quite a crazy experience with all of the people and food. We decided it wouldn't be fun if Claire wasn't confined to a stroller, I'm sure we would have lost her at some point! Brandon, Claire, Aunt Emily and I also ventured over to look at the lights on Garrison St. It's a neighborhood in Point Loma that goes all out each year with their decorations. We all decided we could never quite give a good enough description of how amazing these houses are. Some of the homes block out their windows and put displays in them, they look like storefronts! One house even had Santa sitting at their front entry, of course this wasn't very exciting for Claire. The good thing was, she really liked the lights and all of the motorized displays and blow-ups.

Claire had lots of fun Christmas Eve with all of the other kids running around at the Withers'. She was very intrigued by the guitar and got a huge kick out of being a human bowling ball. Between that and climbing up and down the stairs repeatedly, she slept very well that night!
Christmas morning was very exciting to wake up and have books waiting under the Christmas
tree for her from Santa. Never mind the tricycle sitting next to the books, that was only interesting once Mommy and Daddy put the books away for later! Eventually the tricycle was a very cool thing. Claire wasn't overly interested in opening presents with just Mom and Dad, but once she saw everyone at Aunt Emily's opening their gifts, it became very fun. It was so neat, she helped herself to gifts under the tree that were not for her. Thanks again to Aunt Em for understanding and not being bothered with re-wrapping gifts!

The day after Christmas we all went to the Wild Animal Park with the Lee crew to see the lights in the park. I'm not sure if the kids or adults had more fun...We saw a black light puppet show, Makani and Claire went sledding down the 'snow hill' and the lions were wandering around in their exhibit. The male was putting on quite a show with his roaring, I definitely wouldn't want to meet up with one of those in the wild!

Our New Year's Eve was mellow, but plenty of fun. We went over to Jay and Bobbie's for great food, playtime for the kids and as always, a very good time. There was a lot of running around with the kids, they played hard the entire time. It was an early evening, which was very nice for myself and Claire. She was out within 5 minutes of leaving the house and I think I was out on the couch within 5 minutes of getting home! B did wake me up to watch the ball drop, so I guess I officially rang in the New Year. It's a little different than some of the past New Year's celebrations we've had!








All in all, it's been a fantastic holiday season. We're looking forward to the new year and plenty of new memories with Claire. We wish all of you a fantastic New Year with plenty of good health and good fortune!

Turkey Trotting

We made yet another trip to the east coast, this time for a little business and an early Thanksgiving in Plymouth, MA. The trip was loads of fun for everyone and we had wonderful weather to top it all off! The trip began with our first successful red-eye with Claire and as usual, she was a trooper on the plane. We then went to Hopkinton to visit Aunt Carie, Uncle Clint, Aubrie, Charlie and of course Sweetheart! Claire had heaps of fun playing with Aubrie and Charlie, they both are such great kids and it's crazy how fast they're turning into young adults. I'm grateful Claire has good role models to look up to.
After our stay with the Clements we were met in Plymouth by Gramma, Papa, Uncle Shaun, Nicole, Great Aunt Nancy and Great Uncle Jim. The weekend was spent laughing a lot, chasing Claire around and of course eating good food as in typical holiday fashion. Plymouth was a charming little town and as we were told, the rock really isn't that big! Claire had a blast with all of the attention and didn't quite understand why she couldn't go in the water at the beach. She definitely enjoyed the ducks and dogs in the neighborhood, plus all of the walks with Papa were great! It was nice to spend the holiday with everyone and just have time to unwind and enjoy each others' company. There were plenty of special memories made that weekend, and as usual it was a hard farewell. We're already looking forward to our next time together.

The next Thanksgiving was spent in an RV! Brandon, Claire and I rented a motorhome in Oakland and then headed north. We spent the first night in Bodega Bay at a pretty benign campground without fire pits, who knew you had to bring your own?! The area was beautiful with a ton of fishermen. Crab is currently the hot item to catch, so we took advantage of it while we could. We got to take in some amazing views at Bodega Head and then made our way north along the coast.
The views were phenomenal and we were both surprised how untouched the coast was in that part of California. There are a lot of very lucky cows up there- they have ocean front property to graze on every day. We also saw sheep, chickens and goats, in fact B almost ran over one dumb little goat who decided to cross the road in front of a first time RV driver! Don't worry, we didn't hit him, but goats aren't much smarter than sheep! We passed through quite a few small little towns, most would have made Clifton Springs look pretty big!
We spent the next two nights in Caspar Beach, just north of Mendocino. Shortly after we pulled in, a couple asked us if we would like any urchins. Brandon and I were both a little puzzled by the question, but it turns out the two had been diving that day and brought back a bucket of urchins, along with crabs and some other seafood. We took a few and B got to work cleaning them- not an easy task by any means. I decided I still really don't like them no matter how much of a delicacy they're supposed to be! The area was great, we took some hikes while there and Claire spent some time swinging at the playground. We headed up to Fort Bragg and were disappointed that one of the breweries we had hoped to check out was closed, but we had a nice lunch and enjoyed wandering around the town. Mendocino was very charming and they had the most inclusive grocery store we've ever seen. You could get anything from bananas to fishing lures to plumbing needs. There was even a little kitchen wares section, but to top it off there was a lady wandering around in the store wearing a gas mask- we both wondered if there was something going on that we didn't know about!
From the coast, we headed inland. Along the way we stopped in Boonville to check out another brewery, which was also closed. Fortunately they had goats and horses, which easily entertained Claire. We also stopped in Ukiah to have lunch with Miss Debbie. She made us a wonderful meal and Claire had a fabulous time running around and playing with toys. The Belfanti's live in a beautiful setting and we had a good laugh hearing the stories of the random animals they have had in their backyard! With full bellies, we got on the road again and headed to Clear Lake. Nothing too exciting, but it was a nice area and they had some very friendly ducks. Claire definitely is not afraid of ducks and thought it was a lot of fun to throw bread to- or at them!
The last part of our trip was closer to the Bay area. We stayed in Forestville and spent time in Healdsburg, Santa Rosa and the surrounding areas. B was very happy to check out Bear Republic and Russian River breweries and I loved the quaintness of Healdsburg. Claire made a new friend with one of the campground cats, she was friendly enough to let herself in to our RV! B and I had the living daylights scared out of us by the same cat the night before and a boy looking for his cat named Chad, not good to run around the campers in the dark and jump out at people! We all had plenty of good laughs and enjoyed spending the time with each other. B and I were amazed at how many new things Claire picked up in just a week's time. She's talking all the more and has gotten to be quite a dare devil. She thinks she is ready to drive too, thank goodness that won't be possible for awhile. We were pretty surprised when she put the key in the ignition and chuckled when the wind shield wipers came on when the motorhome was started!

Both of our Thanksgiving holidays were great and loaded with fun times. We hope everyone had a special Thanksgiving and ate lots of yummy food. Enjoy the start of the holiday season!