3 Months old

Andrew is now 3 months old and is growing quickly! We think he is a little over 24 inches long now and somewhere between 14 and 15 lbs...or heavier, we haven't weighed him recently but our backs hurt more and more each day :) Time is flying by way too fast!

Andrew's favorite things to do these days are...

- look at books with mom (especially with owls, giraffes, dogs, airplanes, and trucks)

- smile at the toucans on his play mat and swing

- sleep for 8-9+ hours some nights (I am less of an emotional wreck on those days!) and only wake up once during the majority of other nights

- scoot from one end of his crib to the other in the nighttime

- kick his legs out of the Miracle blanket (a.k.a. the baby straitjacket) while he sleeps

- talk to mom & dad- his tongue moves around and he looks so intently at the person he is talking to that I'm always surprised he's not saying words

- stare and smile at other little kids/babies

- stand up on his tip toes with mom and dad holding his arms- he gets annoyed if he's on his back for too long!

- take naps during the day in his crib (yay!)- they're not long, but at least they're happening

- drool!

- eat his fist or fingers and almost choke himself

- play "Super Andrew" with mom and fly through the air

- kick his legs in the bathtub and push off things and move

- smile and smile and smile- he's such a happy kid!

- hang out in his crib in the morning making happy sounds while we sleep a little bit more

- relax and spend time with his dad (he especially loves watching dad play Guitar Hero)

Half Birthday Celebration

This year my birthday fell on Thanksgiving weekend and my twin sister Elise's wedding weekend, so we didn't do too much birthday celebrating this year on my actual birthday. My cute husband knows that I love parties, cake, presents and everything related to birthdays and the number 23, so this year he surprised me with lots of fun stuff on my half birthday, Friday, May 23rd!

He really shocked me with all of his surprises because all week when I would mention my pending half birthday he would mock me and roll his eyes. I was starting to get a little mad. :) It was all part of his plan.

Then on Friday he arrived home with all of these things...

- A delicious Mrs. Fields cookie sandwich... (it was gone pretty quickly)


- A Bag-o-presents- The best of which was ANOTHER protector case for my phone (I drop it every day)... he gave me one on my real birthday and he says that the look on my face was pretty funny since it said something like, "Did you seriously just give this to me as a present?" I tend to think practical things shouldn't be presents. If it is something you would buy anyway or for yourself, it doesn't count as a birthday present (unless it is chocolate). Of course, I have dropped my phone a lot since then, so the cover has been destroyed. A new one was the perfect 1/2 birthday present! :)

The other cool gift won't arrive for a month or two. It is coming from Japan. Some of my blogging friends introduced me to this cool little machine called a Gocco.

Print Gocco is a tabletop silk-screen unit which requires no chemicals, no darkroom, no big unwieldy wooden frames.The printed area is about 3.5" x 5" - perfect for cards, postcards or text and image in handmade books.

I love drawing and creating things, so I'm excited to use the Gocco to make my own invitations, thank you cards, announcements, etc. I always feel I spend WAY TOO MUCH on cards, invites, etc. so now I can spend less time wasting money and more time being creative!

Lastly, the best present came from Andrew. His card read, "Happy Half Birthday, Mom! Thanks so much for taking such great care of me during the last 3 months! I really like all the different treats I get to experience through you. :-) I love you! Andrew" and then he gave me a big cookie card from Mrs. Fields that said "Happy 1/2 Birthday Mom!" (his dad is training him well!)



We celebrated by enjoying dinner at a burger restaurant close by called St. John's Restaurant and catching up on all of the Greys Anatomy episodes we had TiVoed. It was the best 1/2 birthday I've ever had! Thanks Kevin & Andrew!

Week in Review

This is one of my favorite pictures of the little guy lately. He is so much fun to hang out with these days that we have a hard time leaving the condo!


Highlights of this week have included...

- Andrew sleeping through the night 2-3 times! On Wednesday he went to bed at 9/9:15pm and woke up at 7:40am and then went back to sleep until 9am. I was amazed and didn't know what to do with myself (since I got up at 6:30 and couldn't go back to sleep)! I had 2-3 hours to work on the IEPs I'm writing for some upcoming student meetings, it was great!


- lots more talking/cooing from the little guy! He has gotten so much louder and even more smiley (which I didn't think was possible)!


- attending a Baby reunion/Baby Shower for my friend Shea- my friends Katharine and Lorna brought their little girls and it was so fun to hang out and see how much their little ones have grown (Katharine's daughter is 5 weeks old and Lorna's daughter is 6 months old now). Andrew looks as big as the 6 month old little girl and looks HUGE in comparison to Kailee (Katharine's little girl). The best and worst part of the event was that the hostess sent me home with a whole bucket of leftovers- chocolate covered strawberries, brownies, etc.

- date night! Google bought out several of the theaters at the AMC Mercado for the opening night of Indiana Jones... so Shari (Kev's mom) watched Andrew last night and Kevin and I headed to the movies. It was so fun! I'd forgotten how much I love Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford. Shari- thanks for babysitting!!


- jogging with my jogging stroller! I finally made it out for a whole hour + yesterday. Normally I only go for 40-45 minutes b/c using the jogger is a harder workout than my usual run. It felt so great especially since the heat wave is gone now. I love Northern California weather!

So far it's been a great week! Can't wait for the holiday weekend to start!

Balding Boy

Andrew is losing his hair. It looks like he has a receding hairline, plus one side actually looks like a patch of hair has been lost.

(Here he is in the hair glory days)

(this is of his special spot that has lost the most hair...besides his forehead)

Fortunately, it looks like there is some hair growing back in VERY SLOWLY... partially due to the cradle cap crap that keeps returning. I am hoping his hair is still strawberry blondish when it is all done growing back... but we'll see.

In other exciting news, Andrew graduated to the next size of diapers. Yay! He actually almost weighs 14 lbs or more by this point... so pretty soon we might have to move up again. I feel so fortunate to get an arm workout each day without even trying. :)

Best Job Ever!

A few months ago I was asked to be the Activity Days leader at our church. This job involves working with some darling 8-11 year old girls. We meet on Thursday evenings every other week for fun activities that my assistant leader and I plan. Participation in the activities helps the girls earn their Faith in God Award. Right now we're working on the "developing talents" achievement and I feel so lucky to have so many gifted friends who have been able to share their talents with my girls!

At the beginning of May, Heather came and taught the girls how to make yummy chocolates and fancy boxes to give to their moms/special women for Mother's Day. The girls LOVED the tasty treats (and so did the leaders)... and it was really fun to learn about how chocolate is made.


Last week my fabulous friend Alie taught the girls about photography. She gave them 6 simple steps to help their pictures turn out great and taught them how a camera works. Hopefully now my photo taking will improve too! They spent the rest of the evening taking pictures of each other and several of them turned out really cute. They really liked taking pictures of the adults, so here is one of the pictures:

(Left to Right: Alie, Me, Sharla)

This weekend we had an Activity Days Garden Party with the girls where they learned some gardening skills and made some other fun projects. The girls helped plan the activity and invited special guests to attend and it was a blast! The best parts were the double chocolate chip waffles (cooked by our chef Kevin) and dirt dessert! (I'm sure everyone went home with a stomach ache though!)

(pots made by the girls filled with little flowers they transplanted)

It is so fun to work with such great girls AND learn new skills at the same time! I am really excited to learn from more of the talented women that I know and see them in action with the little girls!!

Thanks again Heather and Alie!!

Mother's Day Surprise!

Kevin's gift to me was a trip to Utah for Mother's Day. It was such a fun and spontaneous idea and he was able to convince his mom to join us, so we were able to spend a wonderful Mother's Day weekend with both of our incredible moms! Andrew also got to take his first airplane ride. He was a perfect angel the entire trip. We left on Saturday afternoon around 3pm and returned Sunday night around 10pm. Such a crazy, busy, fun weekend!

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Andrew getting ready for our trip.

Hanging out at SFO. Andrew LOVED the lights and windows at the airport.

Entertaining Grandma Shari and Kevin with his smiles while waiting for the flight.

Sitting with mom on the airplane.

Showing off his airplane wings that he got from the flight attendants.
They loved him! He either slept or smiled for the entire flight.

Delicious dinner and dessert at Shauna's! Andrew got to meet his Johnson cousins and we enjoyed spending time chatting with Randy, Shauna, and Shari. We also celebrated Shari's retirement from working at Challenger. Shauna made a yummy chocolate bundt cake.
It was a great night!

The highlight of the trip was surprising my parents at 10pm on Saturday night. Here's my dad when he opened the door.

My mom heard the noise at the door and came running.

She was so surprised and excited that she started crying... and so did I.
It was the perfect Mother's Day surprise!

My mom fed Andrew and we got him all swaddled and asleep in the pack n' play and the darling little guy slept ALL NIGHT! Happy Mother's Day to me! (that was the 3rd time in the week he'd slept through the night- what a great present!!)

Andrew and I were up by 7am on Sunday and so were Grandma Julie and Grandpa Kim- of course! They spent the whole morning playing with Andrew. He loved all the attention and was all smiles. Kevin & my dad watched the little guy for a few hours so my mom and I could go on long walk up in the Provo hills. We went and checked out the beautiful neighborhood that Shari is moving into. Her home's architecture is somewhat similar to to this other home in her neighborhood and she's only 5 minutes away from my parent's house!

Still playing with Andrew

Kevin and my dad also took Andrew on a walk around their
neighborhood so that my dad could show the little guy around.

Later in the day we headed off to church with my parents and were fortunate to be there when my dad got called as the Bishop of the Meadow Wood Ward. Here is Bishop Smith with Kevin and Andrew after he got set apart. We felt so blessed to be with our parents on such a special day for them.


After that we headed off to another church meeting to listen to Allen and Liesl speak about families, children, and motherhood. They both did an incredible job and left us thinking about different ways we can strengthen our family and be better parents. Afterwards, Andrew got to meet his Buskirk cousins.

Leah and Andrew had fun playing on their tummies and being entertained by Kate.

This is a picture of beautiful Leah- she was born a little less than 2 months before Andrew.
It'll be fun to have a cousin so close to his age that he can play with!

After a delicious Mother's Day dinner with my mom and dad and a visit w/ Karl and Wendy, we headed back to California. We were in Utah for about 28 hours and it was a super fast trip but totally worth it! Andrew was a gem on the airplane and slept almost the entire flight. The airplane was pretty empty as well, so he even got his own seat. It worked out perfectly!


When we got home I was able to enjoy the beautiful flowers that Andrew (and Kevin) sent to me. What a perfect way to spend my first Mother's Day! We are so grateful for the wonderful mothers that we got to spend this holiday weekend with. Happy Mother's Day!!

Fun Times in the Elevator

Andrew and I had a little adventure yesterday as we headed out on our walk. I loaded up my jogging stroller w/ the car seat and usual travel items and we headed to the elevator. I pressed the button for the first floor and jokingly said to Andrew, "hopefully the door opens once we go down" (since it didn't last week and we were stuck for about 3 minutes). This time we got to the first floor and nothing happened. I pressed the buttons again and again to open the door and we just sat there. I tried pressing the 2nd floor button, hoping maybe it would let us out on the 2nd floor...but we just went up again and still the doors didn't open. I could hear people by the mailboxes, so I banged on the doors and yelled, but nobody could hear us. I tried using my phone to call Kevin or closeby friends, but no calls went through and my phone showed that I had no service. Usually, I would panic, but since I've taken the "if ye are prepared ye shall not fear" scripture literally, I knew I had enough diapers (at least 10), clothes (at least 3 outfits), blankets, water bottles, etc. with me, so we would be fine for a few hours. I was just sad I'd forgotten my usual bag of chocolate goodies!

After quickly planning the next few hours in my head, I noticed there was an emergency call button on the elevator control panel...so I called. I was excited to discover that you actually talk to a real person. After she had me try a few things and the door still wasn't opening, she said they'd send out an elevator technician to come rescue us and fix the problem. Yay! She also said she'd call Kevin to let him know what was happening... can you imagine getting that call at work?!

Fortunately, since my camera is glued to my hand these days, we got pictures while we waited for help-about 10 minutes or so till we got out...so not too long :) It was quite a crazy day! I will no longer take the elevator... so my arms are getting quite buff as I carry our BOB jogging stroller up the stairs.

(Andrew: My mom is CRAZY taking pictures at a time like this!)

(No, it wasn't that dark in the elevator...I just covered the flash by accident)

Happy Birthday Uncle Dan!

Dear Uncle Dan,

You're such a cool uncle and I want to be just like you!


Today I tried to do a few of your favorite things to celebrate your big day!

Sleeping in... (I slept for 8 1/2 hours- my mom really likes you- and me- today)


Working out...


Chillin with my Diet Coke watching Law & Order...


Hope you have an awesome 30th birthday! I hope I can be as cool as you in 30 years... man, you're old! :) I can't wait to hang out with you again soon. Happy Birthday!

love,
Andrew

Hanging out with Aunt Jessie

My sister Jessie got to stick around for an extra day and hang out with Andrew and I after the rest of my family left. We were able to get a lot of fun adventures squeezed into one day! First, Jessie babysat Andrew so that I could go on a nice long run in the morning. It usually go running after Kevin gets home around 7pm, so it was nice to go in the morning and still have so much energy! Jessie played with Andrew and he loved smiling at her!

After that, we headed over to Google for a delicious lunch at Charlies Cafe with Kevin. Jessie and I especially loved the samosas and other Indian dishes... and the desserts- flourless chocolate cake and mini Ben & Jerrys ice cream cups! Here's a picture after Andrew got his diaper changed at Google. He decided it would be fun to have a major explosion at each of the locations we went to during Jessie's visit :)


Here's Jessie posing by the Google sign at Kevin's office.


Next we headed up to San Francisco to the Haight-Ashbury district, or "The Haight" as we usually call it. We usually head to the Upper Haight where there are tons of fun vintage clothing boutiques, bookstores, etc. My favorite place to go is the Buffalo Exchange because I always can find random pink t-shirts. Yesterday was a successful shopping trip because I found 3 pink t-shirts and barely spent anything! (Kevin thinks I need to branch out and buy some new colors :)). Here's Jessie posing with Andrew as we bopped around The Haight. He was the perfect shopping buddy...either sleeping or just checking out the shops while we roamed.


In typical SF fashion, it started getting pretty windy, chilly, and foggy later in the day...so we decided to head to my favorite spot for some hot cocoa- Ghirardelli Square! The cocoa was insanely rich and full of whipped cream and marshmallows. It was the perfect way to end our day of shopping in SF!


We already can't wait until Jessie can come visit us again! She is a super Aunt and Andrew and I loved hanging out with her!

Blessing Weekend

This weekend several family members flew into town for Andrew's blessing at church. We had a great time hanging out and helping Andrew get to know his Aunts and Uncles better. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Andrew sleeping during dinner at The Counter.

Aunt Jessie cuddling w/ Andrew before bed

Aunt Jessie scaring Andrew

Andrew in his blessing outfit

After Andrew's blessing

Smith clan after the blessing (+Buskirks, Heymans, and Caffees)

more family photos after the blessing

Kate hanging out with the guys at the BBQ

Dad and Kevin grilling the burgers

The grandmas (and Jessie) admiring little Andrew

The Heyman family

Aunt Jessie & Uncle Scott

Andrew "rocking out" during his blessing BBQ

Kate: "Where did all the brownies go?"

The Heymans w/ surrogate Grandma Julie
Happy Birthday Jenny!

Thanks to everyone that joined us in celebrating such a special event for Andrew and our family! Andrew also got to share his blessing day with his "cousin" Olivia, so that made the day even more special. Olivia was blessed around 9am and Andrew was blessed around 1pm...it was a marathon day of blessings. Both babies were perfect little angels and so darling in their outfits!

Candice & Bryant- we are so glad you guys live close by!