Narduzzi Nation

Ryan - 7 Weeks

2010-07-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some new pictures of Ryan at 7 weeks old. He is such a good baby and we're loving the smiles and cooing that we get when he's awake. Sean loves his little 'Baby Ryan' too.

Smile!

2010-07-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Ryan started smiling about a week ago...here are a couple that we caught this morning. Baby smiles are the best! I can't believe he's already 5 weeks old, time is flying.

Gilroy Gardens

2010-07-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

The four of us went to Gilroy Gardens today and had a blast. Well Ryan didn't wake up until the very end, but I'm sure he had fun in his carseat being pushed around all day. Gilroy Gardens is an amusement park that's mainly geared towards young kids. Sean had a blast! He rode all kinds of rides, and we saw a Curious George show that he liked. I highly recommend taking your kiddos here, especially if they are 6 and under. We got there at opening at 11am and stayed until 4 which is a long time for a 1-month old and almost 2-year old. Here are some of the highlights.

Sean, Jeff, and Ryan on the 'Choo-choo train'

This is what Ryan did all day...well he woke up twice to eat but you get the picture.

Sean and Jeff on the Strawberry Ride

Fire Engines

Racecars

The water park, next time we will spend much more time here.

This was Sean's favorite ride of the day.

We had to go on the carousel.

Here's Sean on the ride home, about 5 minutes into the car ride.

We will definitely be going back to Gilroy Gardens sometime soon.

Visit from the Schnells

2010-06-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my best friend Suzi came to visit on their way back from Monterey, so we got to see her son Carson who is 8 months old. He is such a cutie! He loved Sean's phones. Sean wouldn't get close enough for us to get a good picture. Ryan had a blast as you can see. Thanks Suzi, Jeff, and Carson for coming to see us, we wished you lived closer so we could see you more than every 6 months! And happy 30th birthday to Suzi!!

Bath Time

2010-06-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

We gave Ryan his first bath at home, and he of course hated it.

Ok, it's not so bad now that I'm dry.

Why does he get to take a bath and I don't?!

All clean!

Baby Ryan

2010-06-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I have been home since Friday and we are loving it! This little guy is very calm except when you try to change him. He's been great so far, and is a great eater which keeps him and Mom happy. Here are some pics from the last couple days.

And just a cute one of Sean who actually poses for the camera now. Sorry it's blurry, he still doesn't stand still but at least he smiles! He loves his little brother 'Baby Ryan' too!

Ryan Baker is Here!

2010-06-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

Ryan Baker Narduzzi made his debut on June 9th via schedule c-section. He arrived at 2:03pm weighing in at 7lb 13oz, 20 inches long. Everything went smoothly and we were released to go home on Friday. Sean is happy to be a big brother and we are so in love with our new addition to the family.

Check out the online photo album here:

Ryan's Birth

Welcome Ryan!!!

Happy Hollow

2010-06-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

This morning I took Sean to the zoo/park area called Happy Hollow near our house. It was a lot of fun for Sean, although there were a million school groups there today. Here's Sean checking out the Lemurs (I think) with a school group.

Along with the petting zoo, which Sean wasn't thrilled about and a lot of animal displays, there are some rides. I think there are two that Sean can go on being under 36". I didn't know if he'd like it but he ended up LOVING it.

I had to pry him out of there once the ride was over. Here's the after math. It was NOT easy to get him to back in the stroller!

On our way out we ran into "Ducky" but this was as close as Sean would get :). Overall it was a successful morning. I figured it was worth it to bring him since Sean has less than a week left of being an only child.

Long Overdue Update

2010-05-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

Lately we've been pretty bad at posting on the blog as I'm sure you've noticed. No real good excuses but I think it will pick back up once the new little guy arrives. We've been busy lately with some exciting things. Our yard is ALMOST done. Today it is being planted and it already looks amazing. Here are some progress photos of how far we've come.

Goodbye tree!

We're so excited for the yard to be done, it's taken forever due to the fact that we had to wait 6 weeks for a tree removal permit from the city. But it will be well worth it, Sean is already dying to go run around on the huge new lawn. We'll post some more pics when it's all done, hopefully by the end of this week just in time for the long weekend.

In May we were lucky enough to spend a weekend down in SLO with the Narduzzi family. We celebrated Mother's Day and hung out with the family and our friends the Parentes. We stayed at the Seacrest in Pismo and had a wonderful time. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures. Sean loved the pool and we spent a whole day there overlooking the ocean, that place is the greatest. We of course also enjoyed Firestone's Grill twice over the weekend. If you haven't been there before, you should definitely try it if you are in the San Luis Obispo area.

I'm now on maternity leave so I have some time to get some things around the house done which is great. I painted the baby's room and it's all ready to go for when he chooses to arrive. If he chooses to stay in until his due date, 6/9, unfortunately he'll be forced out. So come on out baby Ryan!!!

Smiley Sean

2010-05-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Here are a few newer pics of Sean. He's quite the grown up little boy these days, talking a lot and keeping us entertained. He will finally pose for the camera as you can see in these pics. And he LOVES yogurt or "yai-yo". I think he would eat it for every meal if we let him.

Oakland Zoo...

2010-04-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we met our good friends the Schreibers at the Oakland Zoo. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather for being at a zoo. In addition, because of it being mid april, everything was particularly green. If you have never been to the Oakland Zoo and have kids in your life, I recommend taking them. It opens at 10am, which is when we got there, as did many others who want to get a couple good hours in and make some memories before naptime.

Huge turtles:

Malana wearing a cone for a hat, and thinking it was pretty cool:

Something about sitting in the net was very fun for Sean:

There weren't any casualties:

Sean did a lot of running around, but mixed in some laid back stroller time too, as you can see here:

Yes, those are Giraffes in the background:

And this one, well... because I'm in it:

Nutty Professor

2010-03-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Sean is into wearing stuff lately, including his hats, sunglasses and recently these safety goggles that came with a Home Depot tool toy set. Here's some new pictures of him sporting his gear.

Daddy even let him wear his safety goggles to daycare today.

And here's just a pic of Sean being silly and saying "cheese" for the camera.

Malana Stays for the Weekend

2010-03-01T18:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend we watched Malana while her parents attended a wedding in Tahoe. The two of them got along quite well, even though they are still at the age where they seem to rather play independently than collaboratively.

On Saturday night they took a bath together, and had a ball.

After their bath I read them a few books.

Earlier that day we went to the park, where they played on the playground equipment, which included swings.

... and the tire swing!

I didn't get pictures of it, but they also went down some big slides. They had a blast.

Billy Joel and Elton John - 2/16/2010

2010-02-17T22:35:00.000-08:00

Darcy and I, accompanied by our friends Andrew and Krissy, went the Billy Joel & Elton John concert last night, at HP Pavilion in San Jose. Both of these piano-playing legends produced their first albums before Darcy and I were born, but their music transcends generation.

You may recall my post about seeing Billy Joel a couple years back in Oakland.

They came out singing together, starting with Your Song. See for yourself! Oh, and turn up your computer speakers or put on headphones for the rest of this post.

Here's Elton playing Tiny Dancer, made famous to my generation by it's appearance in the movie 'Almost Famous'

When I was about 9, my parents got me Billy Joel's 'Storm Front' cassette tape for Christmas. I loved the album, but especially loved We Didn't Start the Fire. I studied the lyrics and memorized them. The words are still engrained in my brain 20 years later. Last night, for the second time in my life, I got to sing along with the inventor.

At the end they performed together again. Three of the songs they performed in this final set were:

Uptown Girl:

Candle in the Wind:

They finished with, of course, Piano Man:

They played for over three hours in total, as the concert ended past 11pm. Here is the set list:

Elton and Billy Together
Your Song
Just the Way You Are
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
My Life
Elton's Set
Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding
Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
Levon
Madman Across the Water
Tiny Dancer
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Daniel
Rocket Man
Philadelphia Freedom
I'm Still Standing
Crocodile Rock
Billy's Set
Prelude / Angry Young Man
Do You Know the Way to San Jose (Dionne Warwick cover)
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
Allentown
Zanzibar
Don't Ask Me Why
She's Always a Woman
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
River Of Dreams
We Didn't Start the Fire
It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
Only the Good Die Young
Elton and Billy Together
I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
Uptown Girl
The Bitch is Back
You May Be Right
Bennie and the Jets
Elton and Billy Without Bands
Candle in the Wind
Do You Know the Way to San Jose (Dionne Warwick cover)
Piano Man

Narduzzis Come to Visit

2010-02-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

On Saturday my parents and big sister came to San Jose to see Sean (and us, perhaps). The plan was to visit, then go to Toys R Us to shop for a bike for Sean, and then to get dinner. We did exactly as planned.

Before Toys R Us we showed my family the bike seat that my little sister Beth got me for Christmas. We've been using it a lot, and Sean loves it! Trisha got on the bike and took Sean for a short ride.

After getting home from Toys R Us, my dad and I assembled the bike. Sean's feet can't quite reach the pedals yet, but he loves the handlebar console that has various buttons and sounds for him to play with. For now I have to push him, but I'm sure he'll be able to ride it himself very soon. Thanks for buying the bike Mom and Dad. We, and I'm sure Sean, really appreciate it!

We ate dinner at Giorgio's, which is an upbeat neighborhood Italian restaurant close to our house. It was delicious. Sean ate a bunch of my mom's angel hair pasta and loved it. Thanks for treating us to dinner Mom and Dad.

After dinner we came back to the house and visited a little more. My dad and Sean played ring around the rosy and I caught it on video. Sean got a kick out of it and kept urging grandpa to do it again and again. See for yourself:

Play Time!

2010-02-02T20:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend Darcy, Sean, and I went on a Los Gatos Trail walk. For you locals, we got on at Lark, and headed west past the lake into the picnic area. There is also a playground for kids there makes for a perfect turn-around point for us after we stop and play with Sean there for a while.

At first Sean waa quite cautious, and made me help him up or down a scary step. But, by the end, he got more confident, and even a little more daring.

Here are some pics. He even suprised by going down the slide head first without our assistance!

See for yourself in this video:

Uh oh.

2010-01-31T17:38:00.000-08:00

Today Sean started staying "no". At first it was to Bosco because he was taking something that Sean was playing with. A couple hours later to me when I asked him if he wanted to go to bed. I think everyone is right in saying that the "terrible twos" actually start around eighteen months, which is this coming Friday for Sean. Hopefully he'll forget about his new word tomorrow, but I think the chances of that are pretty slim.

His other favorite word is "basketball." It's amazing how he can say basketball perfectly clear, but he still likes saying "da-doo" for cracker. I guess it kind of sounds like cracker?

His other words at the moment are:

duck
turtle
dog
ball
Dad
fishy
water
cheese
shoe
night-night
Papa (Grandpa)
Bosco
kitty

There are more but I can't think of them at the moment. Our little guy is growing up!

Sean's Keyboard

2010-01-20T13:31:00.001-08:00

I just bought a new keyboard for our office. The old one was too bulky and the keys made a lot of noise when we typed on them. Some of the keys you had to hit really hard too, just to get them to register.

We gave the old keyboard to Sean, and it's one of his favorite toys!

Baby #2

2010-01-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

Today we had the big ultrasound for baby #2 who is due June 9th. I didn't have a "feeling" of what the sex would be, but the little guy made it very apparent that he's a boy! Sean is going to have a little brother. We are very excited!

Here are some pics of his face and profile. He was very cooperative in the ultrasound and we got to see great views of everything.

I am going to be even more out-numbered by males now...Jeff, Sean, He-who-has-not-been-named, Bosco, and Eddie!

Our New Home

2010-01-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve we moved into our new home in San Jose. We are almost completely unpacked, and love the new place. Sean, Bosco and Eddie all love it too. Here are some pictures from before we moved in.

Front

Kitchen and Pantry (on right)

Living Room

Dining Area

Backyard

When we're all unpacked, I'll upload some new pics. We have some work to do in the backyard but that will come in time. Right now we're enjoying having a single story so Sean can run around, central heat (we had baseboard heating before), a yard, and a garage.

We also have the big ultrasound for the new baby on Monday, so we'll be updating then with the sex if the little gummy bear cooperates.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-29T10:26:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was yet another adventure, which as it has in years past, contained quite a bit of driving around the bay area.

We started out by driving to Ceres on Wednesday night, Dec 23rd.

1st Event: Opening gifts with the Bakers (8am - 11am, 12/24)

2nd Event: Scott luncheon to get this group together (1130am - 2pm, 12/24):

And most importantly, to get our children together for the first time:

3rd Event: Xmas Eve gathering at Dave and Laurie's house in Modesto (3pm - 730pm, 12/24).

Following this event we drove directly to Santa Rosa, arriving just before 10pm.

4th Event: Xmas morning at the Narduzzis (830am - 1pm, 12/25).

5th Event: Visiting Jeff's Nonni & Nonno and Mario's family (who live in China) (130pm - 230pm, 12/25)

6th Event: Xmas with Jeff's Mom's side at Rick and Rocky's house (230pm - 9pm, 12/25)

These six events sum up our Xmas 2009 activities. Not bad, heh!? We had a great time but were definitely ready to wind down when it was all over. On 12/26, we took advantage of grandma and grandpa to babysit Sean while we saw Avatar in 3-D, which was very cool. My friend Dylan came with us, as well as Trisha and Beth.

On Sunday, 12/27, we left Santa Rosa for home just before 9am.

Click this sentence to check out more pictures from these two busy days of Xmas 2009. I even did captions for most of them.

Alton Kirkpatrick Narduzzi - Dec. 13th, 2009

2009-12-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

I just uploaded 223 pictures taken over the last two weeks. The first group of those pictures was from the 20th-somethingth Alton-Kirkpatrick-Narduzzi Christmas gathering. Due to scheduling issues, it had to take place on a Sunday this year.

I wrote about this event last year, which took place at my parents house HERE. This year we went to the Kirkpatrick's house in Healdsburg.

I so wish I would have stolen an old 80's picture of the group from this gathering, but didn't think of it when I was in Santa Rosa. It would have been great to include an old photo of us all as kids and of our parents looking a tad younger ;). But I didn't... so we move on...

First, here are the originals:

The Additions (with the originals). We used the timer on the camera to get everyone in:

I'm so happy we make sure to schedule this event each year. I look forward to many more in the future as well as a continually growing group!

Bosco Update...

2009-12-21T22:41:00.000-08:00

As you faithfuls know, Bosco had knee surgery in mid November. Following surgery, his shaven left back leg was stitched up and in more pain than ever. When we set him on the grass to pee, he hobbled around on three legs, not even letting his sore knee tough the ground... After all, it had just been cut into, had a wire placed in it, and then sewn back up.

Five weeks later, we are thrilled to report that Bosco is doing much better. His walk still has a small hitch in it, but he is noticeably more active and spirited than he's been in a long time. He can easily jump on the couch, or up on our bed, and has no problem going up and down the stairs; Just like old times. Sometimes he gets a little too excited and ambitious and we have to calm him down, or even put him in the crate for a little time-out. We are still worried that the wrong move could damage the surgery before the tissue around it has a chance to fully strengthen.

We are hopeful that by mid-January, Bosco will be walking completely fine, like before the injury. We will no longer take him to the park and let him tear after a chucked frisbee, but we hope to start walking him again. Back in the day we used to take him on some pretty long walks, and at only six years of age, we still think he has many more long walks in him.

Cold Weather

2009-12-08T22:08:00.000-08:00

I remember one Santa Rosa winter morning in the mid-late 90's something unfortunate happened.... It was cold weather related... the cold weather today reminded me of it.

That high school day morning, the windsheild of my trusty white 1986 Mazda 626 was totally frozen over. In fact, my helpful mom probably had to run out and throw a jug of water on it as I revved the engine and ran the windshield wipers just so I could see. This was very common. I had zero period so left for school especially early, and this day it was especially cold.

That day, little did I know, the door was also frozen shut! When I attempted to open the door it wouldn't open, so I pulled harder. Didn't open again. So I pulled even harder. Still wouldn't open. Then I pulled so hard I broke the handle! The chinsy handle was connected to the inside of the door by two bars of plastic. After this incident, it was now hanging by only one. Just great! Like that would ever get fixed. But it sure would be an annoyance as long as I drove the car.

I drove the car for a couple more years, including the third quarter of my freshman year of college when I finally convinced my parents to let me take a car to school. All through that time, I had to deal with the fate that pulling a little too hard on a frozen car door handle that one cold morning brought me.

Cold Weather... I'll never forgive you for that.

Sean - Almost 16 Months Old

2009-11-30T18:15:00.000-08:00

Sean will be 16 months old this coming Saturday and he is definitely a toddler instead of a baby now. He is developing quite a funny personality, he loves to be silly and laugh. It's nearly impossible for us to get him to sit still for a picture these days, but here are a few that we managed recently.

Sean's favorite things to do are sit on our lap or the couch while we read him a book. Sometimes we even get to read the same book three times in a row or more. He loves to go into the kitchen to get utensils or tupperware, or try to escape up the stairs before we can get to him. He recently discovered the back deck and loves it out there, especially when Eddie goes out there with him.

He likes to show us his belly, pat his head which triggers us to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," tackle Eddie, and of course anything to do with electronics. Cell phones and remote controls are his favorites, and if we forget to put them up high enough it's hard to get them back without a fight from Mr. Sean. He likes to sit on his little car and push himself around the house backwards (he can't really go forwards yet).

He says Daddy, bye, dog, ball, sit, turtle, and kitty the most. We can tell he wants to start talking (and actually making sense) and when he does we're going to be in trouble! He's quite a dancer and will start up when a commercial jingle comes on or in the car if we have the music up.

He's quite a handful but he's keeping us entertained and laughing all the time!