Smith: Baby, baby, baby — the Swan triplets of Ukiah have arrived

Ukiah couple Kira and Cody Swan have welcomed into the world identical triplets Kodi Reann, Layla Michele and Madilynn Glen.

“They're breathing on their own and eating well,” Kira reported from the University of California, San Francisco, medical center. Her daughters were born Feb. and 1 weighed in between 2 pounds, 12 ounces and 3 pounds, 9 ounces.

Cody is taking off a little time from his job at O'Reilly Auto Parts, all the more reason that he and Kira welcome donations to their GoFundMe account.

I don't believe I've ever met identical triplets, have you? A study in the Journal of Biosocial Science found that the phenomenon occurs only 20 to 30 times per 1 million births.

For the moment, “home” for the tiny Swans is the intensive care nursery at UCSF.

PEOPLE ARE GETTING EMOTIONAL at Old Mexico, the near-historic restaurant and bar at the curve where Santa Rosa's Montgomery Drive swings onto Mission Boulevard.

“It's a bittersweet thing,” co-owner Gus Lopez says as guests sip margaritas or dip tortilla chips into refried beans or no-nonsense red salsa. “This is the oldest Mexican restaurant in Sonoma County.”

Gus' late parents, immigrants Elisa Avalos Lopez and Dionicio “Tony” Lopez, moved the restaurant to that spot in the 1960s. They'd operated its predecessor for several years across the street, in the shadow of the former Village drive-in theater. They also were pioneers of the Mexican Village at the Sonoma County Fair.

Elisa died in 2012, Tony a year later. Son Gus said his siblings, all of whom learned the art of hard work at the restaurant, are ready now to sell it.

So the end probably is near to Old Mexico as we've known it. But Gus has a plan:

He will meld his catering company, Big Boy's Bar-B-Que, and Old Mexico at a location yet to be determined.

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WHAT DREAM-JOB LIST wouldn't include operating a bookstore in a literate, picturesque hamlet on the sea?

Joel Crockett has lived the dream the past dozen years as proprietor of Four-Eyed Frog Books in Gualala, alongside Highway 1 near where Sonoma and Mendocino counties meet at the Gualala River.

It's probably more correct to say Joel has worked the dream. He's poured himself into making the Frog a community asset and paying the bills.

Nearly 75, he said, “I've got some things I'd like to do.” So he's put the shop on the market.

Joel will tell prospective buyers, in so many words, that he hasn't gotten rich running the Frog, but he would have had he pocketed a nickel every time it occurred to him he couldn't be happier doing anything else anywhere in the world.

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LOVE IS EVERYWHERE but Santa Rosa may be the only place on Earth where you can arrange to have sweet-singing high school students serenade your valentine and present him or her a rose and a custom card.

Oh, the joy and gratitude that flow as a decked-out quartet from Santa Rosa High School approaches an unsuspecting someone and performs three love songs that make the heart melt faster than a chocolate kiss dropped into a latte.

Wednesday, Feb. 10, is the deadline for going onto form.jotform.com/60148351768965 to reserve a singing Valentine for next Friday or Sunday.

For $50, how could you not?