Andrew's New Tricks

Andrew is growing up so fast!! He's now 5 weeks old and weighs a little over 10 lbs. Some of our favorite new things that he does are pictured below.

1. Smiling!! Although it sometimes isn't directed at anyone, it's still darling. This was his little smile after his MAJOR diaper explosion when we were shopping at the mall on Saturday. You can tell he was happy to be in a new outfit :-)


2. Staying awake in the car! Although it's only happened once, it was fun to see him look around and enjoy the reflections and light. He loves being outside!

3. Mimicking people- he's been trying to stick out his tongue when we stick ours out at him. It is super cute.

4. Lifting his head even higher and for longer amounts of time- Andrew loves holding his head up and is very determined to look up and around during his tummy time or when he's being held. The most fun is when he lifts his head up, winds it around and around, and then throws himself of balance and rolls himself over. He did it a few times for Elise and my mom during tummy time and they loved it.


5. Making eye contact and holding our gaze for longer amounts of time. Ir's great! It feels more like we're communicating. Here he is looking at his crazy grandma sticking out her tongue. He almost looks like he's going to start laughing.


Happy 5 weeks!!

Fun with Aunt Elise and Grandma

Here are some pics of our fun week so far with Aunt Elise and Grandma. The best part of their visit so far has been in the evenings when Grandma comes and holds Andrew and rocks him for hours. He loves it and Kevin and I (and our arms) have been enjoying a nice break! She has also been an awesome babysitter when Elise and I go out running. We are so excited she'll be around for 4-5 more days!!

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter Weekend. Here are a few pictures of the highlights:

Lunch at Kevin's favorite Dim Sum restaurant in San Francisco on Friday afternoon


Movie night (we started The Lord of the Rings since I've never seen it) and Andrew's first trip to Cold Stone on Friday night

(Andrew watching movies with us)

Saturday afternoon trip to the San Jose Stealth lacrosse game at the HP Pavilion. Andrew slept through the whole thing. The Stealth beat the Calgary Roughnecks by one point with 4.5 seconds to go in the game. It was an awesome game!



We gave Andrew his first bath in our baby bathtub. He loved it! He only cried once we took him out!

Easter morning nap with Andrew


The Easter bunny visited our house and dropped off Easter baskets... isn't he so cute?!!

Hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa

(Andrew in his handsome outfit, waiting for Grandma & Grandpa to arrive)

My dad had to speak at a business event this past weekend in San Jose, so of course my mom tagged along. On Friday afternoon we just hung out and chatted at our apartment while they played with Andrew and tried to wake him up.

(Grandpa hanging out with Andrew)

On Saturday, Kevin and my dad went golfing and my mom, Andrew and I hit the mall. My mom showed him the most important part of shopping- Mrs. Fields.

(sleeping in Nordstroms)

(eating Mrs. Field's cookie sandwiches- mmm!)

After many hours of shopping (Andrew was awesome and slept or just hung out and watched as we went from store to store trying stuff on- such a good kid!), we headed to Turmeric, a great Indian restaurant in Sunnyvale, and then we spent the rest of the night hanging out at our place playing some more with Andrew... or just watching him sleep.

(watching NCAA basketball w/ Grandma & Grandpa)

(time for a diaper change!)

(Grandma & Grandpa working together- Andrew is a little too
squirmy for a one man changing job)

(Grandma hanging out with Andrew as he recovers
from his least favorite activity- diaper changes!)

(Grandpa & Andrew, happy again... and in new dry clothes)

(Grandma cuddling with Andrew as he shows off his newest trick- sucking
his thumb- he's not sure how to do it without his finger in his eye yet)

We are already counting down the days until Grandma & Grandpa come visit again!

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Today is Kevin's birthday. To celebrate a little bit, we had a few friends over last night for some cake. I made Kev's favorite cake (lemon w/ rainbow chip frosting- which doesn't look that great, but Kev says it tastes delicious) and an ice cream pie (mint chip and cookie dough ice cream-mmm!). I am VERY excited that we still have some leftovers!

Andrew was extremely patient as we tried to clean up our condo a little bit yesterday and finish baking. He just hung out and watched.

He also practiced the newest skill I'm trying to teach him- holding his pacifier in his mouth.

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Major cutie!

We had fun giving Andrew some crazy hair styles this morning after his bath. He is just so darling and is growing too fast!!

My Favorite Things To Do w/ Andrew

The little guy doesn't follow much of a schedule yet, so we've been having fun just being a little more relaxed lately (which is really tough for me... since I like to plan down to the minute- or second- if possible). Although there's no set schedule, there are certain things that I've determined must get done on a daily basis to preserve my sanity. I've mellowed out a bit on when they need to actually happen (for example, I used to take my shower every morning at 5:45am... now some days if it happens before 8pm that is a major accomplishment :-)).

Here are a few of these absolutes that have morphed into some of my favorite things to do with Andrew (since he likes to join me for several of them):

1. Working out (right now I just walk for about an hour each day, but within the next 2 weeks I plan to be running)- Andrew will soon join me in my Bob jogging stroller and I'll either run in the morning by myself and walk later in the day with Andrew or he'll join me for both workouts. Here's a picture of us on our walk today.


2. Talking with friends/family- I have felt VERY blessed to have so many supportive friends/family members who call all the time (and some fabulous people have also come over and visited too). Although I have inherited my mom's ability to talk to anyone/thing for an extensive period of time, it is still nice to talk to other people during the day besides Kevin and Andrew. Here is a picture of me chatting on the phone w/ my friend Liz today while enjoying cuddling with my cute little sleepy guy:



3. Showering and doing my hair- This is a daily requirement. I feel best when it happens before 2pm (we usually wake up around 11:30am these days- since some nights Andrew doesn't go to bed until 6am or 8am). The other night my shower didn't happen until 7pm, but it still felt great. I LOVE taking a shower, drying, and straightening my hair- even if I'm not going anywhere and I'm not going to see anyone. It just makes me feel like all is well with the world. Today Andrew came and hung out in the bathroom while I got ready (we were trying to get some of his nasal congestion to go away w/ the shower steam). He LOVED hanging out while I was blow drying my hair (I think the combination of the hair dryer, clothes dryer, washing machine, shower, and fan made him feel really relaxed).


4. Eating chocolate and/or baking- Today Andrew hung out with me a little bit while I baked some cakes for Kevin's birthday party. Unfortunately Andrew doesn't get to be involved with the chocolate eating yet... but he's usually around when I have my chocolatey mid-morning or late afternoon snack. Some day I hope to share my love for chocolate with him... and hopefully he loves it too!

5. Sleeping- this is something we are hoping to do more of in our house sometime soon... or at least at some point within the next several months. I LOVE cuddling up with Andrew and falling asleep on the couch though. Pretty soon I hope both of us can enjoy sleeping in our own beds for a longer period of time at night too :-)

(Andrew totally zonked out after dinner and some play time)

Happy 2 Weeks!

(Sleepy boy waking up for the day- trying to escape out of his swaddle blanket)

(driving to the doctor's office- still sleeping!)

This morning we had Andrew's 2 week check up. He was quite a champ. I'm sure he considered it to be absolute torture. The poor kid was sound asleep and we had to strip him down to his diaper and then the nurse practitioner tried to weigh and measure him. He showed us how much he liked that whole experience by peeing on the table (notice the wet spot next to him).


Once the pediatrician came in, he decided to be a bit more cooperative and show off a bit. His first trick was to roll over all by himself when the doctor was checking him out with her stethoscope. He'd done it for me twice earlier in the week, and although it was probably just a reflex, the doctor was quite surprised- yay for all that tummy time! In about 3 more months he'll probably know what he's doing and be able to roll over purposefully.

After he got checked out, the torture continued as the doctor cleaned off his scabby belly button (the umbilical cord stump finally fell off yesterday, so now we can give him a real bath!) and then helped clear out his stuffy nose w/ saline and the nasal aspirator (boy did he hate that!). We were happy to learn that he's growing perfectly. He now weighs 8 lbs 1 oz. (he's gained 11 ounces since our first doctor's appt. on 2/29) and he is now 20 inches long (no wonder he's finally able to fill out the little feet on his clothes! We thought we'd just shrunk them in the wash).

(Zoning out after the torture was over)

As soon as the torture was over, Andrew chomped down on his pacifier until he felt better and then fell fast asleep! Happy 2 week birthday Andrew!

The Best Time of Year

There are several reasons why I love February and March, but the main two reasons are listed below:

1) Cadbury mini-eggs

2) Girl Scout Cookies!!

Yesterday we went on a little family outing to the supermarket so that I could get some more Cadbury mini eggs (and other essentials like diapers, wipes, etc.). As I entered the supermarket, I heard one of those annoying solicitors at the front of the store and started to say, "no thank you," when I noticed that the solicitors were little girls AND they were asking if we wanted to buy some cookies. My number 1 rule of Girl Scout cookies season is that you can't say no to any Girl Scout... so you have to at least buy one box (but usually I buy two or three... or more). I told the Girl Scout solicitor that we'd buy some on our way out and we did! I enjoyed a lovely snack of Thin Mints as we walked home. It was the best walk ever :-)

I am even more excited to take a trip back to Escondido in a week or so since I think I bought cookies from almost all the 5th grade girls. The highlight of this year is that I actually had a Girl Scout in my class... which meant I had to buy even more cookies. Some girls sell the cookies made by Little Brownie Bakers and some are made by ABC Bakers. The first several boxes I bought this year were ones by the ABC Bakers... so when the girls selling Little Brownie Baker cookies showed up (the more traditional Samoas, round Thin Mints, Tagalongs, etc.), I had to buy even more.

One of the main reasons I feel that I need to support the Girl Scouts is because I used to be a Girl Scout leader. I was actually the Troop Cookie Manager. I had about a hundred cases of cookies in my freshman dorm room and in the hallway during cookie season. That was a bad year for my diet though... since all the cookies my girls didn't sell got eaten by me :-)

My Sleeping Boys

This morning I got up bright and early and headed off to the Santa Clara Ward's Sacrament mtg. at 9am. I fed my little guy and then left my boys (Kev and Andrew) fast asleep. Check out the cute sight I discovered when I returned around 10:30.

(this is a close up of my cute little man)

The rest of our Sunday has been equally as restful. While Kev went off to our usual Sacrament mtg. at 1pm, Andrew and I took a nice snooze. Later in the evening while I cleaned up our little apartment and watched the BYU Devotional, my boys had another nice nap (must've been all that late night Halo playing they were doing last night that made them so tired! :-))