The Gift of Date Night (and Rich as a movie star)

This post has nothing to do with Trent.
It has to do with his daddy.
I'm a bit of a graphic designer, and I toy with the photoshop as well.
When I saw the poster for the new Sherlock Holmes movie, I knew I had to try this. It helps that Robert Downey Junior has the same coloring and face shape that Rich has.
I am a big RDJr fan, and I have been looking forward to this movie for a while, and as luck would have it, one of my mother-in-law's gifts to us was a movie voucher for a date night. I'm looking forward to it, but we have to decide between seeing this and seeing Avatar. 
Now I just have to convince Rich to grow his hair out...

Christmas, you did not disappoint!

Christmas has come and gone. It was awesome. I was spoiled by "Santa", and Trent did OK by Santa, and was completely spoiled by his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and great-grandparents. We didn't film Trent opening all his gifts, but we did get him opening up one of them, the one he got from his Aunty Shaunna.
I've recently discovered imovie on my mac, so forgive me if this is a weak clip; its my first try.

We hosted Christmas dinner for the Holmes family at our place, and it went great. I have to sing the praises of the pre-stuffed butterball turkey that we had. The stuffing tasted great, and the turkey was moist. I think it was a combination of my skills and the butterball people's skills, but it was good if I do say so myself.
I couldn't help but wonder what things would be like next year. Trent will be walking, and with any luck, we'll either have a baby, or one on the way...

Trent is 7m, 2w, 3d old

Trent's First Visit with Santa

I can't believe that I haven't posted this here yet, since we took this picture sometime in November. I think I didn't post it here because I posted it in other places. I must apologise to my husband, because he wasn't with me at the time. I was in LA visiting my family, and we were at The Grove. I was killing time there while waiting for my mom to finish work and meet us there, and since there was a Santa there, I figured I would get his picture taken with him. I am a bad bad wife. I stole that moment from Rich. I really didn't do it on purpose. Sometimes I just don't think.
As we waited in line to see Santa, the "Elf" at the door told me that I should take him out of the stroller and let him see Santa, get him used to the idea of sitting on his lap, so that he wouldn't freak out when it came time to take the picture.

**Warning** the following may sound like boasting, but its NOT, I swear, its just the way it is.

I wasn't worried about Trent get used to the idea of Santa. The kid is fine with strangers. He was great. So great in fact that they asked if they could use his picture as a sample. I said SURE, no problem, so proud of my little guy.
You'd think they would give me a free printout or something.
Nope.
They even screwed me on the deal that I chose. For $20 I was supposed to get a memory stick with all the images from the shoot (there were some really cute ones of him gazing at Santa) but I only got the one shot, and it was only of high enough resolution to get a 5x7 print. Ah well. Maybe that was karma.

Trent is 7m, 1w, 6d old

Trent meets the Christmas Tree

The tree has been up for probably about a week or so now, but Trent hasn't really paid that much attention to it... until today. In his experimentation with his large muscle groups, he ended up close to the base of the tree, and he took to one of the ornaments:

 
Trent is 7m, 1w, 5d old

Christmas Memories

Saturday was an awesome day. One of the best in recent memory, and it wasn't even that special. I was in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies, and Trent ad Rich were in the living room watching that stop-motion Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special, you know, the one with Burl Ives as the snowman? I loved that special, have for as long as I can remember, and I love that (even though Trent shouldn't be watching TV) it will become something that Trent will probably love too.
I know this sounds lame, but I just want to create as many happy memories/times for Trent that I possibly can. I know he won't remember much of this year, and I can't wait until he can. I have so many happy memories from my childhood, and I want Trent to have the same.

And, on an only semi-related note, my baby-fever has kicked into high gear again. I want Trent to have siblings, because some of the best memories are of your brothers and sisters.
And if I may toot my own horn, here are the cookies that I baked this year:

1. white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
2. peanut blossoms,
3. oreo cookie truffles,
   
4. macaroons, 
5. jam thumbprints.
   
6. dutch cinnamon almond cookies, and
7. mexican wedding cakes.

 

Christmas is in the air!

Things are better for us this year than in a few years past. Last Christmas, we didn't even get each other anything. This year, we can manage to get each other a few things, but nothing like the first year that we were together. That was just insane. Fun, but I think I might still be paying for it...
This Christmas is even more special because its Trent's first! Now that we have a kid (and hopefully will have a few more) it's gotten me thinking about the kind of traditions that we want to start. Traditions are awesome, and I would love to have those for the kids, and for us. Some of them won't really take on a lot of meaning until the kid(s) are older, but there are a few that we are starting this year:

• Christmas eve PJ's: In Rich's family, everyone gets together and opens presents in the evening on Christmas Eve, so, every Christmas Eve we will all get a new pair of Christmas Themed PJs to wear for opening presents. I bought Trent's first, and then Rich's and mine. I haven't wrapped Trent's yet... I wonder if I should bother.
• Tree Ornament: Every year, I want to buy an ornament that has the year on it. This year's has a charm that has the year on it. I want to put the kid(s) picture(s) in it, so we can see the progression of our family every year.
• Christmas Day Breakfast: I'd love to start the tradition of having a big crazy Christmas Day Breakfast. We aren't doing that this year, since we are doing the Christmas dinner, and we can all wear our new PJ's through opening presents on Christmas morning and the big breakfast!

Those are my only ideas at the moment, and I am sure as time passes, we will think of a lot more that will enrich our holidays. I want to incorporate some kind of charity activity to take place over the holidays, so that the kid(s) will see that not everyone is able to have a Christmas, and that getting gifts is not the only part of the holidays, giving is important too. I am not sure yet though, where that will factor in to our holidays. Maybe one day to volunteer, maybe collecting food for a food bank, maybe donating one of their Christmas gifts to a charity. We'll see.



Trent is 7m, 1w old

Fun for Trent!

We've had the jolly jumper for quite a while, but he hasn't realllly been that into it until lately. We got this video of him the other day:

Trent is 7m, 1w old

Gah. Sleep

In all my pre-pregnancy, pre-child imaginings, I never thought that sleep would be such a huge issue.
These days, naptimes are going OK, I don't have to fight him too much to get him to sleep for naps. I do have to still nurse him down for all his naps. I've learned that I have to wait for him to be good and tired before I put him down, or else he just won't go to sleep. I almost have to wait for him to start crying for him to be ready to go down.
If we go up for a nap and he is playing for his feet, I know that he isn't ready to sleep.
It's amazing how much it affects me though. If he naps easily, I am in a great mood, if I have to fight him to get him to sleep, it makes me miserable.
As for nighttime sleep? Well, instead of his bedtime getting earlier, its getting later... *sigh*
He won't be down for good until 11pm. We can put him down before 11, but he'll be up in 45 minutes. His time between naps is extending as well. It used to be 2 hours on the dot, but now it's seems to be 2hrs after waking up, 2.5 to 3 hours after his first nap, and sometimes up to 4 hours after the second nap. Timing his naps are killer for just that reason.
He is napping for up to 3 hours more often though. Not every day (I wish) but every now and then it happens.
But, back to my point about nighttime sleep. After 11, he's down for about 1o hours, without too many wakings. I actually get to sleep on my stomach (and not on my side with him latched on). Someone suggested that I wake him up earlier than 9am (which is his typical wakeup time) and that might make his bedtime earlier. I don't know if that will do it.
Anyway, that's the one and only thing that stresses me out about having a baby: sleep. Sleep can be like an evil black cloud with tentacles that reach out and mess with many different aspects of life.
No one ever told me about this, or at least told me that it could be this intense.


Trent is 7m, 1w old

7 Months Old

Weight: 23lbs
Length: 29"
Head Circumference: 18"

Therefore:

your child is 23 pounds, and that is
at the 95th percentile for weight.

your child is 29 inches, and that is
at the 92th percentile for height.

your child has a head circumference of 18 inches, and that is
at the 80th percentile for head circumference.

Last Months Milestones: Started to want to stand all the time instead of sit; eating solids, a combo of purees and table foods
Last Months Worries: Still not sleeping early, but from about midnight to 9am. Naps are getting easier, as I wait until he is good and tired to put him down, then he conks right out. Still nursing to sleep for all naps and nighttime. Still bedsharing for the whole night.


Trent is 7m old

Everyone told me he would sleep on the plane...

...but he didn't. I should have known better.
Thank god he is a super-zen baby, or else his overtired meltdown would have been horrific on the plane. But, since he has to pretty much cut off a limb to make a peep, he just fussed a bit. I had him asleep for a few minutes in the mei tai, but then I must have been feeling the effects of the difference in air pressure on the reasoning center of my brain, because I thought to myself, "I can take him out of this carrier and lay him on the seat and he will stay asleep. Of course he will. I mean, that has never worked before, but I really want to watch Julie and Julia in some comfort, so it will work now."

I was wrong, of course.

I guess I should have opened this post with why we were on a plane.
Last week, my folks told me about how they were going to AZ to spend the American Thanksgiving with my uncle. I thought to myself "man, I wish I had Trent's passport so that I could go visit them too. I mean, what better time than when I am on mat leave."

Cut to 24 hours later, with an expedited passport request in, and a plane ticket booked.

So, now here we are in LA, with plans to head to Tucson tomorrow. I forget how much I miss my folks sometimes.

I love LA.


Trent is 6m, 2w old