Countdown to 2008

Time to bring in the new year. When the ball drops my New Year's resolution for 2008 is simple: eat, drink and be merry. Oh, and play. Lots and lots of playing for me next year.

Here are my Top 10 resolutions for 2008.

10. Poop, poop and more poop.
9. My crunches will pay off -- those baby abs of steel will be mine.
8. I WILL catch that rubber ducky.
7. I'm going to crawl after those doggies.
6. Must master cheerio attainment.
5. I am the master of my jumping domain.
4. Gotta keep training "The Moms".
3. Diaper rash begone!
2. More teeth, please.
1. Forward motion, baby. It's all about the walking.

More Baby Mug Shots

Here are some final mug shots to close out 2007. See you in 2008!

Train Travels

One of the things I enjoy doing is going on"train" with my Mommy Jenny. The best part I don't even need a ticket! It's an all-expenses paid trip around the living room. Now that's what I call traveling!

Cheerios!

Today officially marks the start of my Cheerio craze. Cheerios here. Cheerios there. Cheerios everywhere! Mommies Cia and Jenny are sprouting Cheerios from every nook and cranny and doggies Sydney and Lucy couldn't be happier.

Check out my masterful seeking and handling of the ever-present Cheerio.

Teething Time

Teething. Mommy Cia thought I might be teething a few weeks ago so she stuck her finger (yes, it was clean) and lo and behold, she felt a tooth nub.

Now, anyone who tells you teething doesn't hurt is lying. That's why, when we are teething, people sometimes use the phrase "cutting a tooth". Cutting - which implies pain. And yes, there's plenty of it. That said, I think I've been handling it pretty well.

Worse than the pain, though, are the other downsides to getting the new nubs. Namely....

1) Drooling. Lots and lots of drooling.
2) Diaper rash. What the? I never had diaper rash before, and it sucks.
3) Teething gel. It tastes awful, I don't care what flavor they give it.
4) Ear infections - I've lucked out here. No ear infections yet, but The Moms are watching closely just in case.

On the upside, I do get a fun, recently chilled teething ring (thanks for the great Christmas present, Aunt Lakia!). Plus, Mommy Jenny makes an awesome Asian Pear slushy!

Upon further inspection these days, not only is my first tooth thoroughly visible, a SECOND tooth is starting to emerge. Now I have TEETH! Ohh, the things I can do with teeth. Wasn't there a turkey leg around here somewhere?!

Christmas Celebration

My first Christmas has officially come and gone, and baby, what a treat it's been. My mommies told me they didn't feel they were nearly half as ready as they needed to be, but I think everything went off without a hitch. My Grandmas and Grandpas, my Aunts, Uncles, cousins and four-legged, furry siblings all under one roof...you know it was a recipe for some serious calamity. But it was great! Wrapping paper everywhere, tons of food, lots of playing. Awesome.

Check out some great pics from the Christmas revelry.

Let's Eat!

Hangin' with the Gramps

Grandma Coca's mini-Santa

Jumping bean...

Uncle Rob, Aunt Brenda and Cousins Hayden and Myra opening gifts

Passed out on Grandpa Bob's lap

Post-Christmas fun with Grandpa Jessie and Grandma Bertha

Until next year

Merry Christmas, Baby

...sure hope Santa treats you right!

Baby Babble

These days I'm talking a lot better now. I'm particularly keen on the gah's, the da's and the zerberts (otherwise known as raspberries). Back in July I was really getting my babble and coo on. Here I am giggling with my Mommy Cia.



Stay tuned for more. Christmas is just around the corner and my Grandma Coca is a "talker", so I know she's going to be testing my vocabulary. If they're lucky, The Moms will be able to catch me in the act!

Holiday Haiku

hai·ku
–noun, plural -ku for 2.
1.
a major form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, and employing highly evocative allusions and comparisons, often on the subject of nature or one of the seasons.
2.
a poem written in this form.
[Origin: 1895–1900; <>haikai + ku stanza; see hokku]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

The Gramps come to town.
I eat. I play. I pass out.
Presents, they are mine.

Baby Blair Witch Project

The Moms took this picture of me the other day. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Or at least that's what people should say when the Parental Unit pulls out their cameras.

See what happened to me this past Halloween?


...and here I am in my Penguin costume. Oh the humanity!



More mug shots in chronological order...

September 2007

October 2007

November 2007

December 2007

Thanksgiving Recovery

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner. This time next week I will have opened my presents, eaten more pureed sweet potatoes that one baby can handle and played with my cousins until my legs fall off.

...and I'm still recovering from Thanksgiving! Some of my Mommies friends came over to celebrate, plus my Uncle Rob and Aunt Brenda came over with cousins Hayden and Myra this year. My Uncle Rob fried a turkey, too! Did you see how I took control of the turkey leg? Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, gets by me...

Pretty soon I'll actually get to eat these turkey legs. Until then, I'm relegated to just holding and sniffing (with an occassional lick getting snuck in there). I tried to shove the turkey leg in my mouth, but my Uncle Rob stopped me. He instigated the whole thing though, so you think he would've let me at least get a gum on it. Next time!

My cousins and I also had lots of fun together. They brought me a fun gift - a jumpy toy that let's me jump, jump, jump (currently my favorite physical activity)! The Moms still haven't put it up yet though. Slackers.

Here I am with my cousin, Myra.


Next week everyone's coming into town for Christmas. I can't wait to see my Grandma Coca and Grandpa Bob, Grandma Bertha and Grandpa Jessie, little Uncle Larry and little Aunt Lakia. Plus, Uncle Rob, Aunt Brenda and cousins Hayden and Myra are coming to visit again. Party time - yay!

Go Red Sox!

Did I mention that I was a Red Sox fan? Heck yeah, baby! My Mommy Cia enjoyed keeping me up late during the 2007 World Series. Awesome!

Here I am watching the World Series with my Mommy Cia. She was busy taking our picture, but I was all about the game.

Hello World! (Part 2)

Time To Take Over The World

Once I passed the three month mark things really started to get interesting. Around this time I started to learn how to roll thanks to lots and lots of time on my belly. Belly time also really helped me learn how to hold my head up and hold it steady. Wow, there's a lot to see! When you're on the floor you see lots of ankles and feet and the bottom of bookcases. Oh, and plenty of lint. Even with the extra blankets on the floor, you can't miss the lint. And dog hair. And cat hair.

In short order I started to find my voice. It started with a small conversations with my Moms when it was changing time. Some of our best conversations were had on my changing table. Boy, I love making conversation when my legs are over my head and I'm getting my butt wiped. I mean, you really have a captive audience at that time, you know?

As soon as I was able to sit pretty steadily, my Mommies Cia and Jenny let me try rice cereal.

Here I am sucking down my first spoonful of rice cereal.


Man, was that GOOD!

Ok. I'm lying. It was really bland. Thankfully, it didn't take my mommies too long to realize I was interested in trying other things. Soon, I was gobbling down sweet potatoes, carrots, pears and apples and just the other day I decided to try peas. Mommy Jenny is a great cook. She really knows how to puree like a pro (and she's quite keen on the the sweet potatoes).

With my ever expanding palate an healthy appetite, I'm strong enough to get on with the work at hand. There are places to go and things to learn and this happenin', party boy (that's for a story at another time) just can't keep still. Keep up with me if you can!

Hello World! (Part 1)

My First 3 Months

Hello and welcome to my first blog entry! It's hard to believe 7 months have passed since I was born, and now that I've hit a good rhythm with the parental unit I'm ready to jump on the blogger's bandwagon. Vitals first and then we can move on to the fun stuff! My Mommy Cia had a most uneventful pregnancy with me, or so she and my Mommy Jenny thought! You'd think a clean bill of health, excellent pre-natal check-ups and no morning sickness would be ideal, because it sure felt that way. Things were rolling right along and everyone fully exected I'd arrive right around my due date in June.

I had other plans.

Here I am on my birthday...


On May 15, 2007 at 7:19am, I decided it was time to greet the world. Even though I was a little early, the doctors said I was a "near-term" baby and thought I'd weigh around 6lbs. Boy were they shocked when I came out at only 2lbs, 12ozs! Yeah, I was really, really small! They wisked me away to the NICU and hooked me up to wires and monitors and watched me for a couple of weeks to make sure I was OK.

Here are some more pictures of me when I was still in the hospital:


Here I am with my Mommy Cia...


...and this is my Mommy Jenny.


Despite my small size the doctors said I was very healthy. I had a healthy set of lungs and a healthy appetite. No one knows why I ended up being so small - some even asked if my parents had the right due date, but they think that Mommy Cia developed pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy) sometime during the middle of her pregnancy. She didn't have any symptoms though so it took everyone by surprise. That's the funny (and scary) thing about pre-eclampsia. It can come without warning sometimes. After 2 1/2 weeks in the hospital the doctors felt I was doing an awesome job growing so they cleared me to come home. Yay!


That first month seemed a little hairy, but it went by very quickly. During my second month I spent most of my time getting adjusted to life at home and essentially sleep-depriving my parents.

See how tired I made my Mommy Cia?


They say our first three months are usually spent being a baby bump on a log. Lots of eating, sleeping and pooping. Followed with more eating, sleeping and pooping. Did I mention the pooping? By the end of my third month my personality really started to come out in spite of the massive eating, sleeping and pooping. The Moms started to understand what my crying meant, they learned how to quickly change a diaper (and not get hit with a wizzer of the errant pee stream) and they began to function pretty well without much sleep at all. It doesn't take too much to train those parents, you know...all it takes is some persistence.

And so with thoughts of eating, sleeping and pooping, I end Part 1 of my very first blog posting. My first three months were a whirlwind. A bit of dramatic entrance to the world, but it's been smooth sailing ever since! Check again soon to learn more about how the next few months have been. I've had a bunch of firsts recently, so I hope you tune in!