This week Simon learned how to peddle forward on his tricycle. Earlier today we captured a practice session on the deck along with a wee bit of Simonial frustration...

Watch the 8MB Movie now.

Posted by kagledom at 12:41 AM | Permalink

Simon's visit with Grandma Whee ended with another trip to San Francisco - this time to a playground in Golden Gate Park and lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe. While she was here she spoiled Simon (her favorite activity) as much as we would allow. He is now the very proud owner of his very own Karaoke machine which he carries from room to room and in and out of the car. He is currently enjoying singing the Broadway versions of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Annie. He also scored some fire trucks, a snowman-riding-a-bike wind up toy, some candy, and an airplane and launcher. Thursday morning Simon asked for her to visit again. Alas, she was already off spoiling the Kagle Boys of Seattle.

New things for Simon: he has his first few face freckles, we decided to stop potty training for a while the day before Simon actually told us he needed to use the toilet (a first - he didn't go), he's taken to bossing his parents around ("you sit there!" or "no more talking!"), his language has become so good recently that we're having a lot of fun just listening to him.

Posted by kagledom at 09:08 AM | Permalink

We just returned from our checkup with Dr. K. She reports that Simon is a very healthy boy who finds comfort in squeezing his belly button (for those of you who were concerned, we did ask). He is approximately 40.5 inches tall (98th percentile) and weighs nearly 35 pounds (90th percentile). If the old wives tale of doubling the height at age two to get adult height were true, Simon would be somewhere near 80 inches tall as an adult. People, that's nearly 6 feet 7 inches. We're pretty sure the old wives tale isn't true. Neverthless, Simon's doctor reports that he will remain the tall kid and since he is the size of an average four year old, we should be wary of people expecting him to behave like a four year old.

Posted by kagledom at 03:12 PM | Permalink

Simon woke up with a high fever in the wee hours of Friday morning so Friday and Saturday involved a lot of resting to get over his new cold. We did manage to take him out for a lot of house hunting Friday afternoon and evening which he enjoyed because "Nu nu" (our realtor Danuta) was along and, hey, she is pretty fabulous.

We found four houses that we like but, after some thought about how we want to spend the next five to ten years (eating and occasional outings might be nice), we decided the top two were out of our range as was the fourth. We planned to make a bid on the third runner up but realized this afternoon that our hearts just aren't in it.

Sunday we took the boy over to Oakland to a beautiful house to celebrate the engagement of our friends Amalia and Mike. Who knew it would actually turn out to be a little boy extravaganza? The seven little boys had a great time involving: cups, hard pasta, paint, water, juice, an earthworm (which Matthew eventually rescued), a dump truck, an orange tree, donuts, and a swing.

This week: A visit with Grandma Whee from New York...

Posted by kagledom at 10:09 PM | Permalink

Matthew picks Simon up after his afternoon with Grandmother and begins to drive away.
Simon: "I had fun. I had fun with Granmudder watching buses."

Hava asks Simon about his afternoon with Grandmother.
Simon: "We played Mickey Mouse. We played robots. We played with the vacuum cleaner. Grandmudder showed me the vacuum cleaner!"

Hava returns from work to find Simon alone on the couch.
Hava: "Where's Daddy?"
Simon: "Daddy's going pee pee on da toilet." pause "No, Daddy's going poo poo."

Posted by kagledom at 10:57 PM | Permalink

Finally there are more houses on the market than we can comfortably visit in a two-hour period. Four houses matching our criteria came on the market just yesterday, a few on Tuesday, and a few on Monday. None of the homes in Sunnyvale are listed anywhere NEAR the final price of our bidding war a few weeks back so maybe we made the right decision to stop the madness and wait.

However, as time goes by we are becoming decreasingly enchanted with calling Sunnyvale our home. We currently live in Mountain View, one town north of Sunnyvale. And we are increasingly drawn to houses in Palo Alto (one city north of Mountain View) and Los Altos (one city to the west). The lure of Palo Alto and Los Altos is great; there are things besides houses in walking distance, there are old-growth trees, non-ranch-style houses, and large lots. Sunnyvale feels newer, more suburban, more thrown together at the last minute. Moving into Sunnyvale, however, means the possibility of moving into a large house on a large lot with some cash left over to remodel (and oh how we ache for a satisfying remodel). Palo Alto and Los Altos are both much more expensive. We could buy a small house on a medium/large lot that badly needs a makeover but we'd probably have to live years in tacky fixtures before being able to update. The question becomes, can we be surrounded by tackiness without going INSANE. Madness brought on by track lighting and linoleum? How embarrassing.

While there are now seven homes on our list to see in Sunnyvale only one home came on the market this week in Los Altos and none in Palo Alto (or, they did but not in our range).

We drove by a number of houses yesterday to knock them off our list just by their location and surroundings...

Simon: "I want to buy dat one!"
Hava: "Simon, that's a school."
Simon: "I want to buy a school house!"

Hava sees a church that says "Father's House" on the side.

Hava: "Hey Simon, how about we move into Father's House?"
Simon: "OK, I like dat one."
Hava: "Simon, who is 'Father?'"
Simon: "Granmudder!"

Posted by kagledom at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We can report this because Simon really likes his new sitter, Jackie...

Matthew opens the front door and enters the apartment after a short time away. Simon runs toward him shouting a very happy "DADDY!" and clings to his leg.

Simon: "OK Jackie, go home now. Get your bag and go."

Posted by kagledom at 08:49 PM | Permalink

We started the weekend early Saturday morning with some house hunting (one of Simon's new favorite activities) and spent the rest of the day in San Francisco...

Simon does a St. Patrick's Day jig in the tulips of Golden Gate Park...

And then he hung out with his new friend Leah. She is so much fun! We'll see her again on the Disney Cruise in three months. Right now that seems so far away...

On Sunday Simon was treated to more house hunting after he figured out how to peddle his newly fixed tricycle backwards. Next up -- peddling forward.

Posted by kagledom at 10:30 PM | Permalink

This morning Hava opens her work laptop, Matthew opens his personal laptop, Simon opens Hava's personal laptop and starts typing, moving the cursor around, and claiming he is working on "his" computer...

Hava: "Simon, you're adorable."
Simon: "Wha 'oes 'dorable mean?"
Matthew: "It means Mama thinks you are cute and pretty and loveable."
A big smile crosses Simon's face.
Matthew: "Do you think Mama is adorable?"
Simon: "Yes."
Matthew: "Do you think Daddy is adorable?"
Simon: "NO!"

Posted by kagledom at 08:31 AM | Permalink

Other Simonial Interests...

music (current favorite song: La Bamba), dancing, being outside, helicopters, airplanes, having stories read to him, anything mechanical or electrical, (particularly hairdryers, vacuum cleaners, and fans), running, jumping, climbing, choosing houses ("I like that one!"), eating pasta, watching the occasional DVD (Caillou, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service)...

Posted by kagledom at 10:19 PM | Permalink

We found out yesterday that Simon has been accepted to our first choice preschool Tuesday and Thursday afternoons starting in August. The class he will be in is between noon and 3. Simon has been napping really well since we started putting him down at 2 pm. After a couple of stories he is consistently asleep between two and three hours. We're still on the waiting list for the morning program.

Simon discovers snails.

Out in the sunshine.

Posted by kagledom at 10:00 PM | Permalink

Matthew walks into the bathroom. Simon follows.

Matthew: "Do I get an M&M for using the toilet?"
Simon: "OK!"

Simon runs off.

Matthew goes in search of Simon. He hears giggling in the fort bed and peers in to see Simon's hand in the enormous bag of M&Ms which, until yesterday, was stored in the medicine cabinet of Simon's bathroom.

Posted by kagledom at 02:30 PM | Permalink

Simon in his new car seat. Unfortunately, we're going to have to remember to lock the seat belt straps before each trip. Simon doesn't yet understand that all important rule: when the vehicle is in motion, all passengers must stay seated.

A sick Simon up at 5 am. Here he is watching YouTube to keep him in our room and away from sleeping Grammy and Sarah. We were up around 5 am every morning last week. There was a lot of internet video watching involved.

Sarah cannot resist dancing with Simon forever!

Posted by kagledom at 09:56 PM | Permalink

Simon has had a crazy week. Monday and Tuesday he drove up to San Francisco with Matthew to spend the day with Grandmother and Feefadder Kagle. They rode busses! They rode trolleys! They saw boats and ate at a crab shack! Helicopters and airplanes and clock towers, oh my! Simon had such a good time and Monday night he came home in time to tell us about his adventures and then pass out.

Tuesday night Grammy Rubenson and Cousin Sarah came by to visit with Simon for the rest of the week. Simon wasn't himself and, by mid-morning Wednesday, it was clear that he wasn't feeling well. By Wednesday afternoon he had a fever and congestion. He has been playing on and off, inside and out, and enjoys having Grammy and Sarah around but he clearly misses his Daddy. He wants to snuggle up to Sarah and she isn't interested. He has chased her around to give her a boo on the belly and has asked her to dance with him hundreds of times. Nope! And why won't she play in the tub or pretend with him? Simon, we're afraid, is learning a lesson about seven-year-old girls. He also isn't sleeping particularly well because he just knows Sarah and Grammy are out in the living room playing with his toys all night long.

We all went to Cafe Yulong last night where Sarah confirmed that fish and leek dumplings are really good. She also thinks that "green noodles are the best thing ever!" And that was after telling us that she doesn't like spinach.

Simon's fortune this week:

Very appropriate.

Posted by kagledom at 10:38 AM | Permalink

Not us.

The (fixer-upper! in Sunnyvale!) house will sell for nearly 1.2 million and, well, we're not THAT dumb.

Thanks for playing.

Posted by kagledom at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wehavenoidea.

We intentionally neglected to mention an important portion of the Silicon Valley bidding process. Schmoozing. Our realtor has done the majority of the heavy schmoozing but we were required on two occasions to schmooze the buyer's realtor and the buyer. And by schmoozing? We mean begging.

In any case, it looks like our schmoozing/begging/pleading may have paid off. Hava asked the buyer's realtor to "just give us a chance to counter, puuuuhhlease" and, late last night, a counter was made. Unfortunately, the counter offer - a match of the highest offer they received - was INSANE. So we talked it over and decided, whythehellnot. We are accepting the counter offer this morning and hoping that that will be the end of it. Of course, we have no idea if they are offering the bidders who made that insane offer the ability to go even higher based on our new bid.

So we wait.

At this point we'll be uncomfortable if we get the house and uncomfortable if we don't. Still, it seems better to be uncomfortable and have something to show for your discomfort than uncomfortable with nothing (ok, well, yeah, money).

We will not be bidding any higher.

Posted by kagledom at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We just received word that there are FOURTEEN offers for the same house. Several of those offers are close to ours. They are evaluating our offer with others that are in the same range. More news as events warrant.

Posted by kagledom at 05:22 PM | Permalink

There are at least seven bidders (including us) and we won't know who won until Wednesday morning.

Posted by kagledom at 10:30 PM | Permalink

Every bidding war in Silicon Valley is different; this is how ours will work. Tomorrow morning our realtor will give our pre-prepared bid to the seller's real estate agent. The agent will be accepting bids until 3 pm. At 3 pm, she will look over the bids and contact the seller (the seller in this case is the original owner of the home and has recently retired to Sacramento and will be living off of this sale until she dies). The seller and her real estate agent will choose the best offer and contact the lucky buyer. There will be no counter offers or any chance to find out what the other bidders are bidding or how many bidders there are. We will aim very high - the very height of our comfort level - and hope for the best. Our goal is simply to feel that we did all we could. This real estate market makes every bidder feel like a big dummy (an average size fixer-upper ranch-style house for over a million in a regular neighborhood?) but, in a few years, once we're in, we'll get over it. If we do get the house we will be closing as soon as possible and putting our entire down payment into escrow (that is all part of our devious plan to look devilishly attractive). The lease on our apartment ends in June and we can't sublet so, in either case, we'll stay where we are and, in the mean time, have the chance to get rid of some of the floor to ceiling ugliness of any house we get.

As if this week were not stressful enough, Matthew is attending the Game Developers Conference full-time in San Francisco - getting up early and coming home late. Simon is staying with Grandparents Kagle in San Francisco Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday thru Friday he'll be at home with Grammy Joan. Hava will be spending her time at work making money to support our real estate endeavors and not using the vacation time we're saving for June.

Posted by kagledom at 09:43 AM | Permalink

Simon had a fun weekend and pre-weekend.

Thursday. Library class. Cafe Yulong. Eleven dumplings. Visit from our friend Suzie.

Friday. Mom home sick. Final gymnastics class. Hooray that it is over.

Saturday. Swimming. Choosing big boy underpants. Wet pants. Wet pants. Wet pants. Visit from "Da nu nu" (Danuta, our realtor). New sitter, Jackie. Lots of fun. Hava and Matthew out on the town.

Sunday. Little Joann's third birthday at My Gym. Lots and lots of fun. Jumping! Balls! Climbing! Cake! Farmers market. Tricycle riding outside. Simon turns "self clean" on on the oven before we leave. Scary. Tricycle falls apart. Simon throws sand into Hava's mouth. Salmon night.

Big week ahead. Must prepare...

Pictures!
Simon and Calvin jump on the trampoline and Joann's birthday party

Posted by kagledom at 10:52 PM | Permalink