Victorville, CA Part II

Today is the third day of testing for the DARPA Grand Challenge. There are a total of 3 test areas. The teams test individually and there is quite a lot of waiting time. Sonya's attention span is still quite limited so sometimes it is hard to keep her entertained.


As I mentioned, Victorville is more or less a desert area so there are lots of big cactus plants around. I am totally fascinated by their form and structure. Really beautiful!

Yesterday is the first day we saw blue sky ever since we got here. For once, the photos are turning out much brighter and nicer!


This is the MIT LR3 getting ready before the testing yesterday.


This is Justin trying to keep Sonya entertained while we waited for MIT LR3's testing this morning.




This is Sonya and Clara in the car waiting for Justin to finish with his meeting before we head for lunch.


The weather was really very hot the first few days and so we bought a cap for Sonya. Sonya had another nose bleed a few days ago and also last night probably due to the dry weather. She has a slight cough but she is fine otherwise. Clara looks good with caps and hats and so I couldn't resist putting Sonya's cap on her to see how she looks :)


This is our hotel suite. We got a living room and a bedroom. There is also a little kitchenette in the living room area where there is a fridge, a microwave, a stove, a coffee maker and a sink. If we didn't feel like going out for dinner, I could still cook some simple stuff with the microwave using the Glads Microwave Steam Bags. Really cool!


This is the sofa is the living room. You can see our bag of clean clothes. Justin went to do laundry at a laundromat last night. We only brought 5 days worth of clothing.


This is the bedroom with a king size bed. We also asked for a crib for Clara. Sonya is taking a nap after all the excitement in the morning.


This is the kitchen and some of the things, like cereal, banana, water and baby food, we bought after we got here.


We also drove around and as I mentioned, Victorville is a desert with nothing much. We were very surprised to find this place called Silver Lakes. It is totally unlike its surroundings. Things is so different with a lake. The houses were really nice and many of them by the water. The owners have their own little boats, which I think is pretty useless since it is only a lake.


This I thought was a house with quite a unique design.


We have been driving along the Historic Route 66 and passed by this place with glass bottles and things welded onto metal poles. Yesterday, we finally stopped in front of it to take a picture. We still wonder what they are for.

Victorville, CA

Here we are in Victorville, California. The flight from Boston to Los Angeles was not too bad. Sonya and Clara did not fuss too much. We collected our rental car at the airport. It's a Ford Tuarus :) Nice car and big car compared to our Toyota Corrolla at MIT.



When we reached Victorville on Wednesday, it was already quite late especially since we were still running on Boston time which is 3 hours ahead of California. We had an early dinner at Denny's just opposite the hotel and then went to bed.


These are photos I took of Victorville so you can see for yourself what this place is like. Basically, there is a lot of sand and stone. I think it can be considered as a desert area. You can only find green trees in limited areas.












On the first day that we were going to the competition site, we missed a turning and drove way off our destination. We went in to a convenience store to ask for directions.


This is the turning that we missed :)


This is the MIT LR3 at the practice area. We did good in the first test today. Yeah!


More good news coming soon!

Crazy Weather

It was so cold for the past few days and today, the temperature is back up to 69 F. I saw from the forecast that it will be 78F on Monday! Guess this is New England weather for you. I had to put Clara in her sweater so that her hands can hide in the sleeves and not get cold. I think she felt so cosy that she was still sleeping at 7.30am this morning. She went to bed at 8pm last night, woke up for a feeding at 4am and slept again. We were slightly late for preschool since Clara is our alarm clock and she usually wakes up by 6am.

Clara finally pooped today. I was going to call the doctor and asked what I should do about her not pooping. I can't be using the suppositories all the time. Good thing she pooped on her own :)

It was a frustrating day for me. I had migraine again and badly needed some sleep but Sonya refused to take her usual afternoon nap. To make things worse, when she is tired, she cries over every little thing.

Breakfast at Preschool

The students' parents at Sonya's preschool was invited for a potluck breakfast this morning. I made apple muffins since I still have so many apples left from the apple picking trip two weeks ago.

Yesterday, I realised that I didn't have enough milk to make the muffins so I thought I would buy it from Target since I also need to get some other stuff from there. Unfortunately, they were out of milk. So I thought I would pick Sonya up from preschool and then go to Trader Joe's to get the milk instead. I thought it would be more interesting and less stressful for me since she would be able to get a balloon to entertain herself there. Unfortunately, they were out of balloons. Anyways, I got the milk section and was deciding whether to buy regular or chocolate milk. I totally forgot that I needed the milk to make the muffins so I bought the chocolate milk instead! Silly me! I was going to walk to the campus mini-mart to get the milk after Sonya wakes up from her afternoon nap. Luckily, I met Inka and she gave me a whole gallon of milk and saved me from the trip :)

Anyways, I managed to make 21 regular sized muffins and 12 mini-sized muffins last evening. I think this is one recipe that I will keep since Sonya likes the muffins and there are chopped apples in them :)

Still no poop from Clara :(

1st Roll Over

Clara rolled over on her own for the first time today! She seemed really eager to do so since this morning. She had trouble at first as her left arm kept getting in the way. She seems happier to be on her stomach when she gets there herself. But she still has trouble getting back on her back and will start crying when she gets tired :) The video is the second time she rolled over on her own.


No poop again for 3 days and I bought Gerber Prune Sauce for her. She likes it but I think she still needs to work on getting food on her tongue to the back of her mouth.


Clara could not finish so Sonya ate the remaining prune sauce but she didn't finish it either.

Booooooooooo

Clara's new trick :)

Wonderful Saturday

It is a wonderful Saturday, compared to the past few days that I had.

Sonya seems to be in a great mood. She did some reading and singing herself.

I introduced prune juice to Clara. At first I tried to give it to her in a bottle but she sucks and then spits everything out. I tried giving her using a spoon and I think she likes it! Look at how eager she is to "eat". She readily opens her mouth whenever I hold the spoon close to her mouth. This is the first thing, besides milk and medication, that she has ever tasted. I tried the prune juice. I don't like it.

The biggest surprise of all is Sonya. She ate vegetables!!! Okie, with skittles as reward but she ate them and said she likes carrots! She even praised herself, saying that she is a good girl. It is a very good start. This is the girl who will make you take out finely chopped parsley, that the chef sprinkled for decoration, before she will eat.

Rollover

Clara should be rolling over on her own anytime now. She now turns on her side and stops. It sure is exciting to wait for the first time she rolls over. On the other hand, it really means that I must be extra careful when placing her anywhere above the ground. Today, I placed her on her stomach to take the photos below and she toppled sideways onto the mattress and rolls off the bed. Luckily I managed to catch her else she would have bumped her head :( Even Sonya had a fright!



Clara fell asleep on her own when I placed her in her crib last night and a while ago. I wonder if this would continue or if I would have to keep carrying her like I did with Sonya.

This is the 5th day that I am alone with the kids. I am really emotionally strained by Sonya's sudden outbursts. She can be perfectly fine one moment and the next moment, she would be screaming and crying at the top of her lungs. The worst thing is that these episodes are usually triggered by the smallest and most innocent of things, like locking the car door her way. She screamed and cried for 20 minutes just now. She only stopped when she felt really tired and realised that she needed to sleep. My neighbors probably think that I am piercing her with hot needles or dipping her in hot oil for her to cry like that. Even Clara gets scared when she hears or sees Sonya like that and cries herself. I have no more ideas what to do with her. I still thinks that she is such a sweet and nice little girl but when she gets like that...

We were actually watching the videos I made for her 1st and 2nd birthdays. There was so much more laughter and fun then. I need to figure out what happened this past year...

No Poop

Clara has not pooped for 6 days already. She farts and it stinks pretty bad so I wonder if she might have constipation. I called up the nurse at MIT Medical yesterday and she suggested that I can simply take a rectal temperature or use a suppository. I have never done either before and am rather nervous about it. Tried to get the suppository yesterday but couldn't find it at the mini CVS store at Cambridgeside Galleria. I got it at Target in Watertown. I also got the sleeves for thermometers. The suppository is quite big and scary. The nurse did say to cut it in half but it is still scary.



Anyways, halfway while writing this,I decided that I need help so I called up MIT Medical again and got an appointment with Dr Henar at 2.30pm so that she can show me what to do :) Feel much better now. Hopefully it won't be too painful for Clara. She went through so much pain already when she was in the Children's Hospital the other time.

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Just came back from MIT Medical. Dr Henar inserted the suppository into Clara and within a few minutes, she pooped! I don't think it was painful for Clara. She didn't seem to mind it and she was laughing :) Dr Henar said that I can give Clara 1 - 2 oz of prune juice and if she doesn't like it, I can mix it with some apple juice.

It was a good thing that I didn't bring Sonya with me to MIT Medical as it started raining on our way back. We have the BabyBucks Babysitting Exchange Program where we live and I left her with my next-door-neighbor, Macerena. Macerena has a 7 month old daughter, Manuela. I got Sonya to pack some books and crayons and playdol and she was fine with Macerena. I think being in preschool got her more comfortable being with strangers and also a lot more independent. But when mummy or daddy is around, it is a different story of course.

Chuck E Cheese's

Sent Justin to the airport this morning. It has not been raining for weeks and it has to rain today. But anyways, it didn't stop us from sending Justin to the airport and also going to Chuck E Cheese's after that.


This is Sonya helping Justin with his luggage :)

We went to the Chuck E Cheese's in Everett. It is our second time there. Sonya has been bugging us to bring her there for a long time and I thought since we would pass by it on our way back from the airport, we might as well go. It is also a good way for Sonya to burn off some energy.



They have this huge play structure where the kids can climb and crawl around. It has lots of interconnecting tubes and things, kind of like those you find in a hamster cage. At first I was worried that Sonya might suddenly get scared inside and there is only 3 openings to come out but she really liked it.







One of the rides is this one where the kid sits in the red car with Chuck E Cheese and then there is a machine to take photo and it is printed out on some kind of thermal paper. It is like those black and white fax paper.


Dunno if you can see from the picture below but Sonya very proudly bring her photo with Chuck E Cheese and showed it to an older girl. The place where they are standing is like a stage where there is music and kids can dance. Their image is then projected onto the TV screens around them.


I bought a small cheese pizza and a drink to share between Sonya and myself. I had half of the pizza and she had a quarter. I kept the remaining quarter knowing she would be hungry later and since she is just too excited about the whole place and all the things to play to have much appetite now.



Poor Clara could only watch all the excitement around her. She did nap a little before being woken up by all the screaming and shouting around her.


Sonya finished off the remaining quarter of the pizza after playing for almost 3 hours. We left Chuck E Cheese's at about 2.30pm and the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home.