Princeton-By-The Sea

We woke up on Saturday morning to dense fog on our street. Since the kids were up early, we decided to take a chance that the weather would improve and headed out to Princeton-by-the-Sea, just north of Half Moon Bay.


Sure enough, the fog burned off with the morning sun. Spencer had fun running around with Ryan on the beach, Eunice and Tyler took a nice stroll on the pier, and we ate lunch at Barbara's Fish Trap, a seafood restaurant with great views of the water and some of the best clam chowder and fish and chips in the Bay Area. Click here to view a slideshow of more photos.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Spencer discovers the age-old truth that as yummy as the Thanksgiving meal always is, somehow the leftovers are even better.

Thanksgiving 2008

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again this year with Adam, Rachel and the Barrons. Adam and Rachel came over the night before to start prepping their 16-pound organic, free-range turkey. The intricate process included piercing little packets of pancetta wrapped garlic and rosemary into the turkey's thighs, cramming the stuffing (made out of dried apricots and ground pork!) between the skin and meat, and closing the turkey cavity with a warmed whole orange. Our Thanksgiving spread also involved sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes with chives, homemade cranberry sauce, broccoli salad, beet and pear salad with feta, chocolate frosted angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries, and a pumpkin pie. Mmmmm!!!


Ryan, Adam, and Spencer managed to go for a hike at Purisima Creek in the afternoon, Rachel and Tyler got in a good nap, and we all got to spend some great quality time with the Barrons. A wonderful Thanksgiving, indeed!

Click here for a slideshow.

Matthew the Train

Spencer always has a great time playing with the other kids in our church home group. His latest favorite activity is climbing on Matthew who pretends to be a train carrying Spencer as "cargo." Thanks for humoring our heavy little boy, Matthew!

Spencer's Artwork

Spencer loves to draw, so we're going to try to get better at saving and sharing some of his artwork. Here's the first piece in his online portfolio...


"Fish in a Stream" By Spencer Lin Nichols, 11/22/08

Tyler Sits on His Own

Tyler hit a major milestone this week: he can now sit up, unsupported! That may not seem like a bit deal, but it makes a huge difference in Tyler's life.



The world looks a bit more interesting from this vantage point!

Funny Feet

We don't know why, but Tyler thinks his feet are very funny.


Some giggling, the old-fashioned way...

After Dinner Antics

After dinner, Ryan and Spencer had a lot of fun pretending to go on a car ride. The trip involved stocking up on coffee, getting the bags ready to go, and then going "faster than fast." The destination? "Shopping for shoes for daddy and Rachel." Go figure.

Dinner with Dad

Some nights, getting Spencer fed, bathed, and into bed can be quite a task. We're tired. He's fussy... But then there are some nights when dinner miraculously comes together, Spencer makes it through the meal without any whining, and we end up having a great time together. Here are some photos and a video from a particularly fun dinner at home...

Ryan discovered a sure-fire way to get Spencer to eat his vegetables. Eunice isn't so sure she's willing to replicate the process since it involves hoisting Spencer up on your shoulders, blindly trying to find his mouth with a forkful of carrots, and then letting him wipe his dirty hands on your hair... :)

In the video below, Spencer sings "ABCD" with his dad.

Magic Mountain Fun

Gaby and Spencer spent a morning blowing off some steam at the Magic Mountain playground in Coyote Point Park.


Despite the overcast weather, they had a ton of fun "racing" each other on rocking horses, climbing up 3-story slide structures (though only Gaby had the guts to slide down), twirling around in the tire swing, and eating snacks in a wooden boat.

Sleep Training and Coordinated Naps

Two months ago, I started Phase I of Tyler's "sleep training," which involved getting him to drop feedings in the middle of the night. I would lull him back to sleep whenever he woke up instead of feeding him (based on the assumption that if he was able to fall asleep again, he must not be hungry). With Ryan away all week for the Dreamforce conference and the confidence that Tyler no longer needed to be fed at night, it was the perfect time to move on to Phase II - getting Tyler to put himself back to sleep without my help the countless times he would wake up in the middle of the night...i.e., let him cry it out. So, I moved Tyler out of our room and set him up in our guest room. The first night, I put him down to sleep at 8pm. He woke up at midnight, cried (really loudly) for 40 minutes, and then silence. I didn't hear from him again until 5:30am, at which point I fed him and he fell asleep again until 7. Not bad. The second night, I put him to sleep at 7:30pm. He woke up at 8pm, cried for 15 minutes, and then I didn't hear from him again for eight hours. The third night. I put him down at 7pm. He didn't wake up until 4:30am, cried on and off for 30 minutes before I fed him at which point he fell asleep again until 8. Progress! If I can get consistent, consolidated, uninterrupted sleep from the time I put Tyler down until 5am, it's going to make a huge difference in my quality of life. Hopefully that's just around the corner. And with a little luck, if we can stretch that until 6 or 7am, we'll move Tyler into Spencer's room and the brothers will finally be roommates!


The other thing that has made a big difference in my life is that the boys have been taking coordinated afternoon naps for two months now. The silence in the house from 1-4pm is pretty fantastic. Plus, the boys are pretty darn cute when they're snoozing together. :)