9 months old!

On April 12th Charlie turned 9 months!  At his checkup he weighed in at 23 pounds 12 ounces and he is 29.5 inches.  His head is in the 97th percentile, his height is in the 90th, and his weight is in the 95th!

It's hard to get good photos anymore now that he's on the move...

We got the all clear to eat anything except strawberries, honey, and nuts and to encourage finger foods.  The next weekend we met up with Kari, Stella, and Paul at Q in SF for breakfast.  Charlie ate everything we put in front of him.  Black beans, eggs, pancakes, bacon...

Uh oh, bacon!  He loved it so much that he sucked some of it into his wind pipe and Scott actually had to do the baby heimlic maneuver on him.  Scott was very calm about it.  He picked him up, put him face down over his leg and after the second shove, two little pieces of bacon popped out.  Good thing we took that class!

Charlie is crouching now and his consonants are becoming more clear.  It seems like he can say 'no' and 'yes' now and sometimes his babble sounds like words.  He definitely knows his name now.  He's starting to remember things like where the cable cord is coming out of the wall, where the glassware is stored, which furniture is the most dangerous.  He seems to get bored and frustrated at home now so we are out a lot more when he's awake.

This month he got double pink eye and a double ear infection.  He's on his second round of antibiotics and it's causing havoc on his digestion.

Charlie is a water baby!

His favorite thing in the world is being in the water.  He splashes and dips his face in the water and screams and gets very upset when we take him out.  During his first baby pool experience we just wanted him to test the water by leaning into it from the outside.

Instead he decided to leap forward into the water.  He wanted to be in the pool.

 And... success!

Stella was not happy at first to share her baby pool at grandma and grandpa's house.

But she warmed up once she realized he's here to stay.

Happy 9 months baby!  We love you!

Manresa Restaurant

I'm writing this due to inspiration from Mrs. Kirbyface's posting about French Laundry.  You won't get the same amount of excitement but I'll do my best!


Saturday night Scott and I ate at Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos.  Manresa has been awarded two Michelin stars for five consecutive years.  David Kinch, chef-proprieter, has won the Best Chef in America award for the Pacific region from the James Beard Foundation.  It's unreal that this restaurant is walking distance from my parents house!   


We originally made reservations to celebrate my sister and Paul's 6th anniversary but they had an unexpected conflict.  We decided to go anyway.


Please forgive the photos.  I took them using my iPhone.


This was a 7 course prix fixe menu.


Course 1: Smoked avocado ceviche.  What a teaser!  We were SO hungry.  This ended up being Scott's favorite course.  I could have had ten of these.  I don't quite understand the ceviche part since I associate ceviche with fish.  The avocado was creamy and there was a clear broth around it that was salty.  It definitely tasted smoked.  I have no idea how they made this.  Even the glass was impressive.

Course 2: Toasted buckwheat and duck foie gras, etrog citron.  I can't comment on this as I told them I did not eat foie gras.  Scott said it was delicious.  I didn't get the photo taken before Scott dug into it.  Note the fork.  It was very heavy.  

My alternate course 2 was a citrine gelee.  I loved it and I wanted more.  Is it rude to scrape your plate?  What about licking the plate?

Course 3: Into the vegetable garden, their juices.... roots, raw, leaves, flowers.  This was my favorite.  It even inspired me to grow my own herbs and vegetables in my garden and make seasonal salads.  This is not likely to happen but a girl can dream.  Oh and the plate was glass with a gold rim, spectacular.

Course 4: A spring tidal pool, shellfish, mushroom, seaweed...  it was at this course that I realized the silverware they brought out was specific to the course and I was free to use it all.  New silverware for each course!  

Course 5: Sea bream (aka foam), a crab and squid risotto without rice, root vegetables.  Two servers came around with each course and set the plates down at the exact same time.  A third server came and poured the broth in, very carefully.  She switched hands when pouring into Scott's bowl so as not to have the back of her hand facing him while pouring or something to that effect.


Underneath the miner's lettuce were two little squids complete with eyes.  I popped one into my mouth for the experience and gave the second one to Scott. 

Course 6: Duck, slowly roasted in hay and salt crust, homemade walnut wine.  I couldn't believe all those tiny little dishes made me so completely full but I still somehow made room for this course.

Course 7, dessert 1: Roasted parsnip pudding and demerara crumble, lime and yogurt sorbet.  Delicious.

dessert 2: This was the best tasting creation I have ever had.  Caramel custard with cassis and chocolate sorbet, red verjus granita, walnut.  More foam to have.

We were sent away with two macaroons, eight pistachio cookies, and a handful of handmade salted caramels.  It was an amazing experience!  Sorry you missed it everyone but Scott!!

Charlie and Cousin Stella

Charlie loves his cousin Stella.  Last Sunday they ate waffles together at grandma and grandpa's house.

Then they tried out Stella's wagon (she used this to walk up the aisle at my wedding when she was 11 months old).  Stella got in and said 'push me!'

He tried really hard but wasn't able to push her.  Maybe in a few months time.  At least we have the pecking order already in place.  That little girl is going to OWN him.  At least he'll learn early on that girls are the boss.

8 Months Old!

Charlie is 8 months old!  I feel like this month things have changed more than any previous month.  It's been amazing!

He is crawling!

He can sit up on his own.

He can push himself up to stand.  This started while we were in Aptos on vacation with Scott's family.  Now he can stand in his crib when protesting sleep.  Not fun!

He loves the jumper now.

His sleeping is getting more consistent.  He's down to just two naps a day and 11-12 hours of sleep at night (most of the time, I am thankful for every good night of sleep we get).  He likes to jam himself up into the corner and sleep on his tummy while clutching his bear blanket.

We have put away the activity gym.  Charlie no longer wants to play on his back and he doesn't sit still to jab at the swinging toys.  Bye Bye activity gym!

The worst part about his progression is that Charlie will not sit still during a diaper change.  He immediately turns over into the crawl position and tries to take off.  It's getting really tough, he's so strong!  Every time I put him on his back he screams.  Diaper and clothes changing takes five times as long now!  I change him on the floor.  Here he is, triumphant.

He is now in SIZE 4 diapers, weighs about 22 pounds and has a really round belly. He can hold his own bottle and prefers it.  I am no longer nursing.  We made it to 8 months and I am sad and happy about it.

His hair is growing longer.

He has his own basketball bracket (photo taken in Aptos).

He is starting to form consonants rather than just screeches and grunts. He says 'baba,' 'dada,' and 'wawa,' and 'mama.'  He doesn't associate the sounds with their meaning yet, obviously.

He is so much fun to be with now.  I always try to enjoy my days with him during his short time as a baby but I am truly enjoying it more now.  I am not getting much done as I find myself on the floor a lot playing with him.

Happy 8 months baby Charlie!  I love you very much!

25 Things About Me

I like to read People magazine.  My Aunt Pat has subscribed to it for the past 20 years or so and when she's done with them, she passes them on to my mom who passes them on to me.  One of my favorite things they do in there is '25 Things You Don't Know About Me.'  I thought I would try and write one about myself.

25 Things You Don't Know About Me

1.  I watch Gossip Girl every week.  It's so terribly awesome.

2.  In 7th grade we got to choose an elective to take and I chose 'Typing.'

3.  In 8th grade I chose 'Office Assistant.'

4.  I am a terrible waitress.  Terrible!

5.  I am a great coffee barista.

6.  I want to be on Wheel of Fortune.

7.  My sister is 3 years and 7 months older than me.

8.  Winter is my favorite season.

9.  We don't have a dishwasher in our house.

10.  I love Vin Diesel.

11.  My favorite place that I've ever been is Kakadu State Park in Australia.

12.  When I was little I always said my favorite food was watermelon and egg rolls.

13.  I played Field Hockey in high school.

14.  My niece Stella is two years and 2 weeks older than Charlie.

15.  I didn't like my first semester of college and I told my mom I wanted to quit.

16.  When I was little I had a recurring dream that I was sitting on a pad of butter inside an artichoke.

17.  My recurring dream now is that it's the last day of a semester in college and I realize I'm registered for a class that I never went to and I'm going to fail if I don't cram for the final.

18.  My perfect day would include an intense workout in the morning, a massage and nap in the afternoon, and wine at night.

19. I have 16 first cousins.

20.  I met Scott at a Christmas party and our first date was on a Monday night.

21.  Scott wanted to propose on top of a hill overlooking SF but the headlands were so foggy he couldn't find the turn off so he stopped at a random spot, we walked down a path for about 10 minutes and he proposed.  We will probably never be able to find that spot again. We could see nothing in front of an arms reach.  On the way back there was a man playing in a tree with his two kids and they were all speaking French.  It was literally like a dream sequence.

22.  I gained 42 pounds in my pregnancy.

23.  I got pregnant 5 months after my wedding.

24.  A baby was conceived at our wedding.

25.  I am NOT pregnant right now.

There's so much more but that's a start!  Thanks for reading.

7 Months Old!

Charlie is 7 months old today.  Scott and I celebrated by leaving him with Monica, our 17 year old neighbor, and going to a movie!  We saw Hugo.  I loved it.  The first half was good but the second half was great.  Monica did a great job with him, they both seemed happy when we got back.

Charlie continues to grow and progress and I love him and enjoy him more each day.

He is getting really close to crawling.

He can use his stomach muscles to sit up if I hold his legs down.

He still doesn't love his stroller. Here we are last week waiting to meet up with Carey and Zinny for a walk.  Charlie lasted about 10 minutes in here:

He's starting to understand the concept of the jumper but he still doesn't love it.

Of course, he still loves his mobile above his crib

I noticed this morning that both top teeth have broken through at the same time.  Those top teeth have been working him into a frenzy for the past month.  Of course I don't have a photo of them because that would be impossible.

Two weeks ago, once we were back from Montana, we decided it was time for Charlie to drop his night feeding session.  It took two or three nights of Scott rocking him back to sleep early in the morning until Charlie caught on.  Now whenever he wakes up at night, dad is on duty.  The last week or so I have been getting a full nights sleep without getting out of bed once.  I can't believe my luck.  I know it won't last forever so I appreciate it for now.

Happy 7 months baby!

Sleep, Eat, Fuss

(P.S. (pre-script)... I was in Big Sky, Montana last week and I want to write about it and post photos but I haven't yet)

Today was intense.  Charlie woke up at 3:30 am and didn't go back to sleep.  He usually sleeps till 7.

He spent most of the day screaming and banging and biting and pinching and barfing and pooping and there was snot coming out of his nose.  He was not happy.

I think I'm feeding him too much.  Can a baby overeat?  Or maybe he was just tired?  Or maybe he's getting a cold?  I think it's the overeating thing or his tummy is still maturing.

I'm adding an excerpt of today's activity that I wrote into my food journal so I can document how clueless I am right now in figuring out how to feed a baby.  Don't read it, it's boring.

My daily log (written each day in a spiral notebook) says the following:

3:30am wake up and nurse (9 hours of sleep, not enough)
5am nap (1 hour)
6am nurse (please go back to sleep now, I'm tired)
7am banana and avocado (from a mesh feeder)
8:30am nap (45 minutes)
9:30am 1 oz. peas, 4 oz. formula
10:30am nap (45 minutes)
12:30pm 4oz. formula
1:30pm nap (45 minutes)
3:30pm cereal and sweet potatoes
4:30pm SOS to Scott, lots of screaming, lots of grunting, some barfing, some coughing, definitely pain.
5:30pm 8 oz. formula
6pm ASLEEP!!!!!!

Why are babies so INTENSE?

On a side note, Charlie peed on his own face three times today then laughed hysterically when I reacted.

Here's a photo from our bike ride today.  I had to take him out of the seat and set him onto the sidewalk while I put the chain back on the bike.

I love him all day long but I especially love the peaceful moments.