Squishy Face

Cami the ham...She's nine months old today. For the past few months, she's been making this scrunched up face and also making a sniffing noise to go along with it. I came to realize that this was her way of smiling and being funny!

Her other trick is clapping. The other day, Miho came by and I was holding Cami on my lap. I said, "Cami, can you clap, clap, clap?" And sure enough, she started clapping. Miho was impressed and I said, "I didn't actually know if she would really do it!" What a smart girl.

She is just starting to get in to the crawling position. She really wants to be mobile. Any day now, I'll see her cross the room.

She loves her Cheerios, and she started eating real peas and rice, not just the baby food. She's a good eater, just like her brother and sister were.

March birthdays!

We celebrated Lia's 7th and Phyllis's 37th with some family and close friends on St. Patty's Day. Amah flew into town and got a big dose of the grandkids. The following weekend, Lia had her birthday party with her school friends at the Iron Works Climbing Gym in Berkeley. They had fun just "hanging out" together!! I can't believe my little girl is already seven--going on 13! Luckily, we still have Cami!

SJUMC and SACBC

Ryan's team played in a tournament in Sacramento, where apparently the kids have nothing better to do than play basketball. On Saturday, we played 2 games. The first game was against a local East Bay team, and Ryan's team won. Our second game was against one of the Sacramento powerhouses who dominated the game by over 30 points! On Sunday, we faced another Sac team. Once again, our boys got a pounding, but at least they had fun getting pounded. They played their hearts out and got 4th place (out of 6).

Lia's team played 2 games at SACBC's tournament in Fremont. They lost both games, but that didn't seem to bother them. The second team they played even "held back" per their coach's instructions since they were clearly better than our kids. It was an honorable move on the coach's part.

Now we have a break from basketball...moving on... to spring soccer, golf, tennis, swimming...woohooooo

The First Tournament

She shoots...she scores! Lia's team won 3rd place (out of 3 teams) at the Ohtani Jamboree. In the first game, she took a spill as she and Alexandra played bumper boats and collided. In the second game, they lost 6-3 to BMU. The 3 points that we scored were thanks to Lia's free throws. Luckily, I was not present at that game, so Lia could feel less pressured to score! I think I make her nervous when I shout "SHOOT THE BALL!!!!" at her during the games.

Ryan's team did great! They won 1st place (out of 4 teams). They played against a co-ed team that they had played twice before (each team had one win). But at the Jamboree, Ryan and his teammates played good defense and came out ahead. The second game was against a San Mateo team whom they had never met. Before the game, Ryan said "I have a bad feeling about this." However, they played hard and were able to beat them 14-10. The best part of the tournament for these boys was when Coach Marty rewarded them with Yu-gi-Oh! cards.

We are really proud of all of the kids for playing their best. It was a long and busy day, but they came home and happily displayed their participation trophies in their rooms.

Matthew Turns 40!!

Happy Birthday to you,....!! We had a really nice celebration at our house on February 17th. Matthew was very surprised by the appearance of his parents the day before the party. It was a beautiful day in Oakland. We could not have asked for better weather. Young and "not so young anymore" seemed to enjoy the BBQ from Everett and Jones as well as the sushi. The cake had an image of a young skateboarder. Matthew will get to re-live his teen years when he goes to pick out his b-day gift--a skateboard.

Ohtani B-Ball

Ryan and Lia are playing basketball in a Japanese league. Here is a picture of Lia and her team. She's number 22 (as in born on the 22nd of March). Don't let the fact that it is a Japanese league fool you. Only half of her team is part-Japanese. This is the first time that these kids are playing basketball. There are no scores kept, but the team has made 1 basket so far in the whole season. Most of them lack the strength to even shoot the ball high enough to make a basket. (Some of them lack the attention span to know what side their basket is on.) They are having a great time and learning so much. Matthew gets to referee every now and then. I get to yell and scream from the sidelines. It's fun for all!

Aaaargh!!!!

Okay, so I've been trying to update this blog for the past hour, but I couldn't sign in. I guess my memory is not what it used to be. I forgot my username (which turned out to just be my e-mail address). And when I tried to use the blogger function to help me recall it, I was given an old username that was not linked to this blog. Well, finally, I clicked on something else, and it got me here.

Anyway, I wanted to post a some photos of the kids. Ryan is 8 1/2, Lia is 6 1/2, and Cami is 6 months old.