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    Baby hugs are…

    October 12th, 2009

    … the best thing EVER!

    Yes, it may have taken a while to get one, but S and I were each treated to a hug from G tonight.

    G and I were playing on the living floor, when he came over to me, scooting on his knees, then stood up, stretched his arms wide and fell into me. Confused, I asked “Buddy are you giving me a hug?”, then hugged him back as he just stood there.

    It was an amazing feeling.

    Then S came down from rinsing off diapers (today was poop day galore, apparently), and G did the same thing to him.

    Yeah, after spraying down poo, a hug from your kid is a pretty good reward.


    Visit to the pumpkin patch

    October 12th, 2009

    We took G to meet some pumpkins yesterday. Last year he was too young for a visit to the pumpkin patch, so I had to wait my turn. Well, no more waiting! G’s a big boy now, ready for some orange gourd action, and I’ve been really excited seeing the pumpkin patches getting setup around town.

    We spent our morning at Lemos Farm, and while S and I were having a pretty good time, G was just “Eeeh!” I don’t know if he just needed a nap, or he was still feeling poopy from yesterday (he had a light fever and spent almost all day sleeping it off), but he was not in a mood to be social. He was quiet and focused, and generally just stared off into the distance. My happy-go-lucky boy who mostly smiles, was just in a “Eh! Can we go home yet?” mood. We got a few grins, so my face was glued to the camera in hopes I would capture one should it present itself.

    Either way, enjoy the photos.

    Lemos Farm also has a petting zoo. There are a family of goats enjoying the grub provided by kids. We took G up to the fence, but didn’t give him any feed (mostly because I was worried that G would end up chowing down the pellets along with the goats). Well, the goats, expecting food, wouldn’t take empty hands for an answer and decided to conduct a pat down search: it began with eating G’s sweater. At first G was perplexed over what was going on, but feeling the constant tug of a hungry goat made him mad and he started crying. Yeah, it was pretty darn funny!

    Want more photos? These and many more are posted on Flickr.

    Oh, PS. Did you notice the photo of him standing unsupported? Oh yeah — he did it a few times yesterday each lasting for 10 seconds or more. I have a feeling unsupported walking is but a month away 🙂


    Oh, Ice Cream — where have you been this whole time?

    October 11th, 2009

    Last week, after a nice warm spell (thank you Indian Summer!), I decided that it was time to introduce G to ice cream. I’ve been relaxing some of my food rules of late and thought that it would be good to give him some frozen yummy goodness. To be fair it wasn’t “real” ice cream — it was soft-served frozen yogurt, but none-the-less, fullfilled the frozen sugary treat purpose.

    Verdict? Major win!

    G got over the first taste of coldness and kept coming back for more. He had his little vanilla taste (which if you’ve ever been to Yummi Yogurt know that it’s big enough for a small serving) and then proceeded to help S and I with the one we were trying to split.

    Well, at least now 3 of us can split the calories.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emQTVsHldnM]


    You NEED this chair

    October 5th, 2009

    Ok, so it’s a little early for another edition of “Surviving the X year: The Gear” post, since we just did one not too long ago, but here’s another baby gear item that’s been really good to us: the Fisher-Price Deluxe Booster Seat.

    We got ours used (thank you T and D), and although it wasn’t a great seat for us at first, it’s been really handy lately. We have the Fisher-Price Space Saver high chair at home, which I love. It reclines, which was key to us when G first started on solids. He just used to hunch over too much, and wasn’t able to sit absolutely upright, so this chair didn’t quite work out.

    However, now that’s he’s a confident sitter, this is quite good. For us this is the chair that we take on the go whenever we go out. It’s actually better than high-chairs you get at restaurants (at least to me). Sadly, there are also many places that either don’t have enough of, or don’t have any high-chairs at all. So this is super handy. It collapses small, so it doesn’t take up much room in the car (and with our Honda Fit that’s a plus). It’s light to carry, and easy to clean. The trays also easily fit in the dishwasher too if you need a more serious spray-down. All of a sudden any chair you have access to becomes a baby seat. G to your left is sitting on a stool at Noah’s bagels (he loves him a cinnamon raisin bagel, by the way). A stool people — a chair with no back. Ha!

    As our second high-chair it’s also really convenient for when we have company with babies over — that way G can enjoy his meal with a friend, rather than waiting to take turns.

    I wouldn’t use this as my only high-chair, but as on-the-go item, it’s a really nice to have and at $25 a pretty good buy.


    Foto Friday

    October 1st, 2009

    We spent last Saturday hanging out with Augie (Augie Chang) and his family. His kids are so sweet to G and it’s just good to hang out with everyone. We did Dim Sum for lunch. In my mind you can never have too much Dim Sum! Since Augie and I used to work together (back in the day before he decided that he was too good for the corp job gig ;p ) we used to go out for lunch a fair amount, so Augie knows all the stuff I like to eat. S on the other hand never had a desire to do Dim Sum with me, so he knows nothing about my favorite treats. So it’s just funny to have your friend say to your husband “Oh, I know what A likes”. Good thing S is not the jealous type. On the other hand, since he’s a Dim Sum newbie, he just gets to benefit from our tested taste buds.

    Anyway, in addition to some quality fun w/ the C family, we took some photos. These are G’s 1 YR pics, albeit a tad little late. Oops ;p

    G decided that day that he hated the outfit I had picked out for him. He went from Happy, “My goodness he’s so mellow” Baby to Fussy-Temper-Tantrum Child after he got dressed. He spent most of the time crying and looking like this:

    … so we had to take off his fancy duds and take some pics frolicking around in a diaper.

    In addition, now that he’s hit the Big 0-1, G’s come to the conclusion that he’s a big boy and doesn’t want to be in any pictures with his father and me. So he hogged the camera spotlight. Man, I thought being embarrassed of your parents was going to hit in his teens, but I was wrong. In most “Us” photos, G displayed the similar scrunched-up face. Sucks for me, ‘cuz our Holiday Card photo this year will probably need to be PhotoShoped to get all of us in.

    Anyway, without further adieu, some photo fun:


    G’s first masterpiece

    September 29th, 2009

    G has now produced his first masterpiece. S brought this home from daycare the other day.

    I saw the flower, and G’s name on the pot and thought “Oh, how nice, G has his very own planted flower”. And then I saw it – G’s first drawing was surrounding the pot. Oh the use of color (purple with just a touch of green), the amorphous shapes, the meaning behind the negative space, the choice of medium (marker. confident)…

    G’s an artistic genius don’t you think?

    All jest aside, I’m surprised I never thought to put G down with some big ole’ construction paper and a marker in hand. It’s fun and as long as I don’t pull out the finger paints, we have a shot of keeping it clean too. My mom saved every drawing I ever did for a long time. I remember a huge pile of randomly sized paper with evolving scrabbles in our home. She framed a few of my better early “pieces” for me this year and it’s been good to have them around. I’d like to be able to do something similar for G (actually my plan is to scan in all his work and then print them in a book, annually) so that he’ll see himself grow as an artist over time too.

    Either way, hurray for baby art.


    13 months of G awesomeness

    September 29th, 2009

    Today marks G’s 13 month b-day (yes, I’m still counting). This month has been quiet, but none-the-less eventful.

    G is now walking around with assistance. He enjoys pushing his car and giraffe riding toys around and doing laps around the coffee table.

    He has 7 teeth. He now has all central incisors, both top lateral incisors and a top first molar. The molar kind of snuck-in on us. I knew he was teething his lateral teethes, so I didn’t even think to look in other places around his mouth. Woe and behold this week-end at Augie’s as G was throwing a little “I don’t want to wear this outfit to pictures” tantrum we saw the molar. S and I both looked at each other in shock.

    He has 3 words: uh-oh, da-da and ball. He’s working on the “m” sound, and although he’s said “ma-ma”, it’s really been more like “ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma” with no end in sight. As much as I would like to think that this is representative of his un-ending love towards me, it’s just him working through sounds. I could have sworn the other day he mimicked the sound of the word “tissue”, but I believe that is also wishful thinking.

    Daycare is going well for him. His adjustment to the new place was phenomenal. I still can’t get over how quickly he clicked with the new kids and teachers. He’s not napping as well as I would like, but it is getting better. The teachers really like him, which is a huge relief for me: I was worried that in a bigger place he wouldn’t get the 1:1 attention and care and the bond between him and Ms. F wouldn’t be found anywhere else. I’m happy to say I was wrong. Instead of getting love from Ms. F and her assistant, Ms. V, he now has at least 4 wonderful teachers oogling him.

    Lastly, we spent some time last month chasing the Boogie monster around. Although, thankfully, G never developed a full blown out cold, he was a snot transport vehicle for awhile. Glad we’re getting over that, but with winter around the corner, I know this isn’t the last we’ve seen of nose goop.

    That’s it for now. So…. uhmn, what do you think of G’s new shirt sticker? ;p Thank you! Thank you! They did turn out pretty awesome.