First Week

So, we made it through the first week. On Thurs. I had to return to the hospital to sign the paperwork for k's birth certificate. It was weird to walk through the hospital hallways again, this time as a mom. (Before I went into labor, the doctor had me walk up and down those hallways for two hours to see if I could jumpstart the contractions. I ended up with blisters on my feet!)


Here is k in front of our penguin themed Christmas tree. Christmas was kind of a blur for us since we were so exahusted that day. k was able to meet her great grandma though, so that was special.


It seems that when k is not feeding, she is napping. The times in between when she has her eyes open are pretty rare. Here is one of those times.


Nap Time

On Wed., Uncle Kevin came over and brought us lunch, made fried rice, and showed D how to install GFCI outlets. For the past couple of days, k has also been able to spend some time with her Uncle Simon and Aunt Jackie who flew down from Sacramento. I think k is enjoying all of the attention!

45-10

That was the score in the 2006 Holiday Bowl. The Cal Golden Bears defeated the Texes A&M Aggies tonight and it was, by my estimation, our biggest bowl win since 1938.

Cal won the Citrus Bowl (now the Capital One bowl; Cal was 2nd in the Pac-10) in 1991. However, this Holiday Bowl was the first Rose bowl (for 1st place in the Pac-10) or Holiday bowl (for 2nd palce in the Pac-10) that Cal won since 1938. (The Holiday bowl did not consistently pit the 2nd place Pac-10 team until 1998.) The reason I believe this game is a bigger win than the Citrus Bowl win is that we were co-Pac-10 champions, Texas A&M is a bigger rival than Clemson, the margin of victory was larger, and Jeff Tedford has turned the program around.

It was close in the first half as expected. The line was for Cal to win by 5 points. However, Cal shut out the Aggies in the 2nd half. I was nervous throughout the game until the middle of the forth quarter. L & k watched it with me, which was nice. k was startled once when I started clapping my hands loud.

I am happy about the way the season turned out. It would have been nice to not have lost to Arizona and playing in the Rose Bowl, however we probably would have lost to Michigan so this season is a success in my book. Cal beat Stanford, won the Holiday Bowl, and was 7-2 in the Pac-10. After the bowls finish, I will take a long break from following college football (I will follow the recruiting a little bit). Now I will concentrate on college basketball; however to a less intense degree.

The First Days

I was proud of D for being able to stay in the delivery room the whole time with me. He witnessed everything first hand and had a better vantage point than I did. Here is k being checked out for the first time.



We got to go home around noon on Sat. morning. Apparently, a lot of people scheduled c-sections on the 21st so they could be home for Christmas.






Until Christmas day, k was not able to sleep at all unless she was being held. Once she was able to sleep on her own, albeit for a short amount of time, it was a huge relief.



Our little burrito. I can't recommend this wrap enough--it has velcro tabs, making the whole swaddling thing a lot eaiser. (Thanks jen & jason!)

D+L+k

k:
7 lbs 2 oz
19.75 inches

Nursery Decor

I thought I would share a couple of pictures of the nursery. My mom sewed the valance, which I think is quite cheery. She also sewed the "boppy" cover as seen on the chair. The form is a "nurture nest" from JoAnn's. The changing table is just a card table, but I think it should work. I want to find some cute artwork to hang on the otherwise blank walls. The crib is pretty basic...I think I will wait until KJ comes to show you pictures of it.

The Corner Place (Korean BBQ)

This weekend's eating adventure occurred at The Corner Place in Cerritos. Since it is a Korean BBQ place, I figured it would not be a good place to take a baby, and that we should go now while we can.

We went on Saturday during lunch because I had heard that was supposed to rain at night. It turns out that they have weekend lunch specials (as well as weekday lunch specials) so I was happy. We ordered the #1 (bulgogi and kalbi), $12.95 and #4 (spicy chicken--I don't recall the Korean name), $9.95. Each came with a 1/2 bowl of their renowned cold noodles (more on that later).

After we picked our way through some panchan, the waitress heated up our tabletop grill and started cooking our red meat. She also brought plates with shredded green onion and lettuce to eat with the meat. The kalbi was boneless, and really good. I also enjoyed the bulgogi and chicken. Thankfully, she left a pair of tongs so we could turn the meat. I don't like it when such places expect you to use your chopsticks to cook the meat and then eat with them--ew.

We didn't order rice, but the dong chi mi noodles did a good job of cooling down our mouths. This dish consists of somen noodles served in an ice cold broth. I did some internet research and came across stories about how the recipe is top secret. Sure enough, the menu said that the noodles were not available for take out (they don't want anyone to decipher the recipe!) Another funny tidbit is that many suspect that the secret ingredient is 7-up! One person even ordered 7-up to drink, to which the waitress responded, "cold noodles"?

We finished all of our food and my hair soaked up that Korean BBQ smell. Lovely.

The Corner Place
19100 Gridley Road
Cerritos, CA

(605 N, Right on South Street, Right on Gridley, on your left, across from Toys R Us)

Early Arrival?

Yesterday I went to another doctor's appointment--I have them weekly now. He told me that I am about two weeks ahead of schedule! KJ is full term now (37.5 weeks), so she won't be premature. Still, I was kind of surprised to hear that. Of course, nothing is 100% certain, and the doctor also said that he did not expect to see me before my next appointment next Monday morning.

After my appointment I went to check out a new Famima!! store in Long Beach, close to our first apartment. It seems like a weird location...not quite close enough to CSULB to become popular with the students to whom the store would appear to appeal. It has been touted as a Japanese 7-11. I picked up a fried curry bread (good, not greasy), chicken mushroom bao (a bit undercooked and slimy) and a katsu don buri (ok) for D and I to have for dinner. I also bought some CA rolls for D, but I forgot to take them out of the fridge for him to eat! Last but not least I bought a mini tiramisu but we are saving that for tonight. That is because last night we shared a chocolate fondant from Beard Papa's in Gardena. Yes, I finally tried the cream puffs. They really are not too sweet--I thought it actually needed the chocolate on top as found in the eclair-style puff.

The Holiday Bowl

First, I was glad to see Cal beat Stanford for the fifth time in a row! Next year's Big Game will be at Stanford, however we should be good with Longshore (QB), Jackson (WR) , and Forsett (RB) back. Stanford will have a new coach and will lose both QBs.

The next and final game for the 2006 season will be the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on December 28th. This will be the 2nd time CAL is going to the Holiday Bowl since 2004. The Holiday Bowl is for the 2nd place team in the Pac-10. It is a new era for Cal in college football. We haven't had this type of consistent success since the 1950's.

We are playing Texas A&M. My good friend Chris Willis is an alumni, so there is a lot riding on this game. They have a good running backs and have a 9-3 (5-3) record.