Travelling with kids

Plane travel with two kids under 3 years of age is a feat unto itself. I found myself juggling Lily, switching her from one arm to the next in the security line as I unlaced and took off each of my shoes, removed my jacket, belt, wallet, keys, cell phone and sunglasses. I was proud of myself for being so nimble, realizing that I was the spectacle for a dozen people to watch. I attempted to do all this and keep my ID and boarding pass in the other hand. Katie had the task of unloading Jacob from his stroller, along with Thomas the Tank engine backpack, portable DVD player, Handbag, food bag, Laptop case, baby blanket and 2 jackets. Unfortunately, the security line is only the beginning of the adventure in travelling with children..

At present, I'm writing this midway through our flight to Salt Lake City. Katie is in the middle of feeding Lily, and Jacob is watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on his portable DVD player.. with these gigantic earphones over his head, to protect all of our fellow travellers from having to hear the raucous that Disney produces.

When it was the two of us, travel was so easy - on a whim. Grab a bag and go. Well, for the most part that's true.. although Katie does prepare more than I do. But, the simplicity was divine. Travelling with Jacob seemed so hard compared to when it was just the two of us. But, at least there were two of us, to tag team against one of him. Now, we're evenly matched and I can see how much more patience this requires - not only for us, but for everyone else around us. I remember being one of those passengers who would make a comment after the flight: 'How was your flight?'.. "It was great.. except that someone had a baby on the plane". Now I'm that father who has a baby on the plane and a toddler tagging along too.

You hope and pray that your kids don't have a meltdown, and that they spare themselves and everyone on the flight from listening to hours of crying. So far, so good. We've been switching Lily back and forth, trying different techniques to keep her amused. Feeding ,rocking, changing her.. whatever it takes to make her happy. Thankfully the portable DVD was invented, and Jacob is content to kickback and watch Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Life experience is a great way to learn empathy – empathy for those who travel with kids.

Just as a concluding note.. it took us over an hour to get out of the airport. It was an amazing lesson in patience.

Acute viral nasopharyngitis

For those of you who don't know what acute viral nasopharyngitis is... it's the medical terminology for the 'common cold'. This common cold.. is very common indeed. In fact it's the common denominator in our home at this very present. Katie, Lily, Jacob and myself have all been feeling under the weather. Hopefully we get better in the next few days, because later this week we fly to Utah (our house hunting trip).

I spent this morning hanging out with Lily and Jacob. Katie teaches the thirteen year old girls' Sunday school class. Being the trooper that she is, she went to church, while I tended to our kids. I was able to sit and hold Lily for a long time.. something I don't get to do very often. She's such an angel - lying on my chest - content just to be held. Jacob spent his time watching the Disney channel and reading. Just a side note.. We think he's a genius. At the age of two, he's memorized a dozen books - and when I say memorized.. I mean every word, page.. from cover to cover. Katie and I don't quite understand it... since neither of us have this ability.

Part of my day was also spent looking at homes in Utah.. on a variety of builder and real estate web sites. There's a definite lack of architectural appeal and lifestyle features in the homes in the Utah and Salt Lake counties. After having lived in California for a number of years, and seeing homes from Atherton, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Los Altos, Menlo Park, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Beverly Hills, La Quinta, Palm Springs, Newport Beach and other similar cities/towns.. it's hard to look at homes as just boxes - especially when you observe how a home can create or accommodate a lifestyle. There are so many great homes in California whose influence I would love to see in Utah. However, there was one particular builder who I found intriguing in my online search today, and coincidentally, found out that he was originally from Northern California.. but resides in Utah presently. Silver Creek Development produces a great home.. with the big down side being the price (I didn't find anything on their website for under $2.8mil). The market opportunity as I perceive it.. is to produce a home with similar feeling, only smaller - yet possessing the same architectural attraction and function. I also discovered in my search that the median priced home in the Sandy, Draper, Alpine and Highland area's is over $500K. Utah has definitely experienced a boom.. Part of my dream down the road is to produce homes of architectural distinction by forming a development company with my brothers' at some point. It would be great to build communities that are green, eco-friendly and where the homes compliment the area - beautiful to look at and live in. Time will tell whether this is a dream or not..

Being sick does have its advantages. I had the opportunity to spend an entire day with my family.. Looked at homes on the internet.. Watched movies with Jacob, Katie and Lily - and took the opportunity to unwind and relax after a busy week. Hopefully this acute viral nasopharyngitis leaves us all before Thursday. Wishing you all a great week ahead.

On our front steps - Christmas 2006

Katie, Lily, Jacob and Jonathan

Tae Kwon Do

Dave came up with a great idea about a week or so ago. We've been spending way too much time behind a desk, staring at a computer, and tied to the phone all day. There are days when we work 8 - 10 hours straight... and then wonder why our legs feel numb. It just comes with the territory and how we setup our business. But, it doesn't mean that we like it. Having grown up as super active kids, this idea of working and sitting for hours on end, is hard to endure.

But to counter these long stretches of sitting and working, we've tried several things. Tennis. This has been a lot of fun. During the summer we were attempting to get out about twice a week after work and hit the ball around. However, there were definitely times when we lacked consistency IE: Not getting out as often as we should. So.. we decided to take it one step further.

Around August time frame we went out and purchased mountain bikes. And we went all out... helmets, camel water packs, puncture kits and padded gloves. We took the tennis routine and took it up one notch. So the idea behind the mountain bikes (since McKinney is as flat as a pancake - although the natives think this place is hilly.. Yeah right!); we decided to get up early in the morning, around 8am and cycle 4 miles to the tennis courts. After the cycle to the courts, we'd play for about an hour and then head back to our separate homes; and get ready for the days work. This was awesome... and we were doing really well - in terms of consistency. That is, until Lily was born - and that all went by the wayside.

It's been a struggle trying to get back into the cycle/tennis routine. Besides... Lily was born in October, and the weather here in Texas started to get colder than I had anticipated. So.. the excitement of cycling in 40 - 50 degree weather, lost its appeal. We quickly lost our routine, and haven't been very active since late October.

Now that you have that history and background, I bring you back to David's great idea. He had been researching the idea of engaging in some form of Martial Arts. I wasn't too keen on the idea at first.. thinking back to the days when I took Karate lessons for 4 years. I was punched in the face, kicked in the legs and stomach.. and those painful memories of a 12 year old in pain are still there. But, not wanting to be left out of anything, I told Dave that I thought it was a great idea, and that I'd be happy to join him.

Tonight we went to Vu's Dojo. Master Vu wasn't there (at some Ninja conference, we were told).. instead we were trained by one of his apprentice's - Sebastian.. or Mr Sebastian, or Sir as everyone else referred to him. The style of Martial arts that we trained in tonight, was Tae Kwon Do.. similar, but also quite different from Karate. It was incredibly fun. I cannot believe how much flexibility I've lost.. but then again, I'm 30 and the last time I was doing side and front splits was 15 years or more ago. Hopefully, some of that flexibility will come back as we continue training. My inner thighs are still stinging..

Tomorrow we go back for another hour training session. So this is our new exercise routine. I think this is going to work out though. For a few reasons. First one being that there is a fixed schedule, second, the fact that we are having to pay to go, and third - Dave and I like the idea of becoming lethal ninjas. This is what we hope to accomplish. I'll let you know how we do...

There's a first time for everything

This is the first time I've ever published anything. In a weird way I feel exposed. To a large extent I've lived my life privately, kept my thoughts private, and now I feel like I'm starting the process of peeling away some of those layers.

The real purpose of this site is to give friends and family a means of tracking my life... a journal or diary of events I guess. I think in starting this, I hope to make my life full of amazing stories and adventures so that this is worth while reading. But to begin, I think I need to briefly recap last year.

2006 is already behind us, and I can honestly say that it was a great year. Katie and I made the bold move to leave our little apartment in Cupertino in late May, and made the monumental decision to lay down roots in Texas for a season. Looking back, I'm not too sure what the plan was.. but it seemed more lucrative than living in our little cave, or attempting to buy a larger, more expensive one in Northern California. With a little baby girl on the way, we had to do something...

We toyed with the idea of moving to Southern California, Orange County to be more specific - but felt a little deterred that by doing so, my brother, Dave and his wife, Sarah wouldn't be able to afford a home. We liked the idea of finding common ground for both families - and the idea of both families being able to afford a home was the goal.

Texas seemed like a logical solution, I suppose.

On moving here I found that it was hard giving up the great California weather, and equally hard giving up many of the friendships and associations that we had cultivated during our three year adventure. The people there are so fun to be around. Traffic moves at 80 miles an hour, and it seems that everyone holds down six jobs, or is involved in starting up a company, buying and selling real estate or something else ingenious to find a way to pay for the mad cost of living.

Texas, on the other hand, still moves at a more reasonable pace. People seem to have more time on their hands, and there appears to be a lot more families, with kids. Ironically though, it seemed easier to make friends in faster paced California, and ironically - our 2 year old son, Jacob - had so many more friends to spend time with. I still have a hard time figuring that one out.

But Texas has also come with it's advantages. For one, we learned that owning a home comes with a new sense of pride and responsibility. I can testify that owning a home, and renting an apartment are two very different things. With owning this home, I found myself constantly worrying about things I've never worried about before. Things like: how annoying our shedding rugs are, or those pesky weeds that poke out-of-nowhere in the lawn, when to water.. how much, fertilizing, dusting, cleaning. And for some reason it feels like I'm constantly taking out the trash.

Lilian was born this year. Katie and I were hoping desperately that she would be a good sleeper, and a good eater. Jacob, our oldest.. struggled with colic and slept in two hour spurts. It was difficult to say the least. So.. when she arrived, and quickly adopted great eating and sleeping habits.. it felt as if our prayers had been answered. Believe it or not, our little two month old sleeps an average of 8 hours a night, and has done so since the 3-4 week mark.

Jacob has grown a lot since moving into this home. Katie and I can see the benefit of having more room and a backyard. The backyard has been sparsely used, since the Fall came.. but having the room indoors has proved invaluable - giving him the opportunity to build his train tracks, and run around. He's so light-footed. It's fun watching him run because his style of running gives the appearance that his feet don't touch the ground. It's hard to explain. I think I'll post a video clip to demonstrate.. (first I need to figure out how to do that).

But to all of you, those who I've spoken to and those I haven't. I wish each of you a happy and prosperous 2007. This may be my first, but it won't be my last.