Baby talk

Trying to crawl

Hanging out with my family

These were taken while Kayla and I were in Sacramento for my high school reunion.

Miscellaneous pictures of Kayla (8 months)

Kayla's first tooth is coming in!

JFK Alumni Party

I went up to Sacramento for an informal high school reunion on May 2nd. Kayla and I flew up and she behaved so well on the plane! She is really a good baby. Here are a few pictures of me and some of my "cronies" from the good old days! I can't believe it's been 16 years. It was a really fun reunion at a cool club called The M!X Downtown. It was for Class of 89 through 94 so I got to catch up with alot of old friends. I even recently joined Facebook so I can keep in touch with everyone.

Happy Easter Egg Hunting!

Kayla's Red Egg & Ginger Party

The Red Egg & Ginger Party is an ancient Chinese tradition. It is usually given when the baby turns one month old. The Chinese believe that both mother and child are vulnerable to illness right after birth, so you're not supposed to leave the house or have guests over for the first month. Also, in the old days in China there was a high mortality rate so it was thought that the baby had a good chance of survival if it lived to be one month. So at one month, there is a big celebration to introduce the new baby to friends and family and to welcome him/her into the world.
Here, my Grandma is snipping off a piece of Kayla's hair. The symbolism of this practice is not entirely known, but it is speculated that this is the removing of the birth hair, to mark the point of the child's independent existence.

Then they roll a hard-boiled egg dyed red for good luck on the baby's head. Eggs are significant because they symbolize fertility and the renewal of life. Also, their shape is traditionally associated with harmony and unity.
Another tradition is to have a young family member carry the baby on their back. This symbolizes that someone will always be watching out for the baby. My cousin Kianna volunteered to be Kayla's "guardian".
Posing for pictures with my mom and grandparents at the restaurant just before guests started to arrive for the party.

Devin's mom Evi flew down from Oregon to celebrate with us. You can see Kayla's gold and jade jewelry really good in this picture. Girls will traditionally receive jewelry in addition to other gifts and leesees (red envelopes stuffed with "lucky" money).

Kayla with some of her cousins: From left to right, Jake (14 months), Daniel (10 months), Kayla (7 months), and Brandon and Cameron.

Kayla's green outfit for St Patrick's Day

I don't have any good stories to share, so I thought I'd just post some new pics of Kayla...

Kayla's "boyfriend"

I used to go hiking every Saturday morning with my friends Michele, Nicole, and Suzy. Then Nicole and I got pregnant and when we got too big, we downgraded to walking around the park. Now we push strollers as we walk and afterwards, we go to Starbucks for coffee and bagels. Kayla's boyfriend Connor, AKA the Tank, is only 2 weeks older than her but about 3 lbs heavier.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mmm Mmm Good!

Kayla is 5 months old now, so I decided it is time to try feeding her solid foods. I've been putting rice cereal in her milk at night and she seems to like it. Here is a picture of me feeding her with a spoon for the first time. She's going to get the hang of it pretty quick. She managed to eat a half jar of carrots. Yummy!

Little Green Bumbo

Every time I was in the baby section at the store, I considered getting this "Bumbo" chair for Kayla and resisted until now. They had a green one in stock so I finally splurged and bought it. Now I'm glad. As you can see, she likes it alot! She'll just sit back in her chair and watch TV with us. It's great!

Tummy Time

For the first time EVER, Kayla did not cry when I put her on her tummy! I haven't been enforcing tummy time as much as I should because she usually just lays her head down and cries. But on this day, she liked it! Well, at least for 5 whole minutes.

Kayla meets her Great-Grandparents

Uncle Barry, Auntie May, Cousin Bryant, and Paw-Paw and Gung-Gung (my Grandma and Grandpa) all came down for a quick visit. This was my Grandparents' first time seeing Kayla in person. They'd only seen her through Skype (webcam). Of course Kayla was cranky most the time and didn't want to be held by anyone but me so we didn't get very many pictures.

Oh Kayla, you're so cute!

I finally decided to take Kayla's Jumperoo out of the box and put it together. Here she is trying it out for the first time. You can't tell in this picture, but her feet don't touch the ground yet and it's on the lowest setting. She seemed to like it anyway. I've since then put a pillow underneath so that she can use her feet to bounce. She'll be ready for the walker soon!

She loves her Binky now! For three months I tried to get her to take it and she'd just spit it out. I even tried several different shapes and sizes. Now she can't live without it. She prefers to suck on her fists, but I'm trying to not let her get in the habit of that. I'm relieved because finally there is something that helps to stop her crying!

The Holidays

Christmas is always a special time of year, but I'm glad it's over now and I'm ready for the new year. I went back to work last Monday and although I was dreading it at first, it does feel good to be a part of the outside world again. Kayla seems to like Kim (her daycare provider) and has been a good girl so far. It was so nice to go back to work on a short week. We had a nice, low-key evening at home on Christmas Eve and went to bed early so we could get up early and have a big breakfast and open presents. Christmas will be more fun for Kayla (and us) next year. On Christmas Day, we went to my friend Nicole's house for dinner. Her son Connor is only 2 weeks older than Kayla. Unfortunately, Kayla was cranky the whole time so I never got a chance to take a picture of them together on their 1st Christmas. Today, Devin and I took the day off because daycare was closed so we did a little after Christmas shopping and went out to breakfast. I'm feeling lazy now so I'll probably wait until tomorrow to take down the tree. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and we wish you all a Happy New Year!

My little snow bunny is ready for winter, baby pink ugs and all!


Kayla's new trick, sticking her whole fist in her mouth.


Here is the view from our driveway looking up Jasmine Lane on Christmas. The snow on the mountains is really beautiful.

Merry Christmas!

My dog Pookie (the big brown fluffy one) is 14 years old now and I'm afraid this could be her last Christmas. :(

So when we were taking our family picture for our Christmas cards this year, I insisted that we include the doggies. Unfortunately, none of them came out very well. Trying to get both dogs to look at the camera and get Kayla to stop crying all at the same time turned out to be impossible. So here is our best attempt. We love you anyway Pookie and Roxy!

Daddy's little girl

Squeaky clean!

Kayla has learned to like bathtime now. She still cries when I first put her in the tub, but after a minute she starts to enjoy kicking in the warm water. She also likes being all wrapped up in her giant bath towel.