Where Lukas Can & Cannot Go

So 2 weeks ago, we took Lukas to a children's concert. It is a local Caribbean style guitar player. He's very entertaining. I took Lukas a few months ago and he loved it, but it was during the day, so Edwin couldn't go. Here is a video of this concert:

I hope everyone had a good Halloween. I'm still waiting for photos from everyone to post our pictures. Lukas had a great time with all his little friends. We gave out 33.5 lbs of candy this year, though Jamie claims the number to be higher since we re-distributed candy from the ones that went trick-or-treating. I'll post photos when I get them!

In the meantime, you can enjoy a few more videos. Here is Lukas's first carousel ride with our friends Johanna, Marty and their son Mason:


So they finally openned up the Bay Bridge yesterday and today was the first day I went over it since it was closed. I would tell you about it, but I was asleep, so I guess I wasn't too stressed about it. Edwin saw it yesterday and claims that it looks like it's being held up by yellow duct tape.

OK- one final rant. So I am invited to a baby shower that is being held by the mother-in-law of the pregnant woman. The invitation said spouses were welcome. I indicated in my response to the evite for them to let me know if I needed to arrange childcare for Lukas. I didn't think that they would actually respond and tell me that I should "consider" finding childcare. Who doesn't allow babies at a BABY shower? Something about them owning a lot of antiques and a dog. Granted, it's not the mother-in-law's house, but still... I'm still going because I have to go since it's for my boss, but do you think I'll be staying long at this hoity toity shower in Tiburon? Sheesh!

Bay Bridge Down

So on Tuesday, a cable on the Bay Bridge broke and caused a 3-car accident right at rush hour. Luckily, no one was killed and only 1 person had injuries. I was working from home that day, but it did make me think because both Edwin and I cross that bridge almost everyday to go to work. What is worse is that it was the part of the bridge that was "fixed" over Labor Day weekend. They were even late reopenning the bridge to take care of it. So did they prevent an even bigger accident from happening or did they screw up the patch job and cause the cable to break?

Since then, the bridge has been closed and no one knows when it will open again. I've been working from home for most of this week, but I'm starting to get a little stir crazy. Check out this crazy picture taken by someone who was on the bridge when it happened.

Hopefully, the bridge will be reopened in time for our annual Halloween party on Saturday. Guess we'll see...

My Baby is Growing up So Fast!

Lukas is definitely changing faster than I can post. He's on the verge of crawling and yesterday, I think that he waved good-bye for the first time. Our nanny was leaving for the day and I told him "Say good-bye to Claudia" and to my surprise- he waved good-bye! Like everything else he does for the first time, he hasn't repeated it since, but I saw it. He waved his hand twice. A few weeks ago, Lukas had just woken up and I usually take him to our bed for his morning feeding. However, I smelled poo, so I started to change his diaper instead of heading to our room. When I put him down, he said, "Mama." I was half awake, but I stopped in my tracks and said to him, "Did you say 'mama?'" He looked at me and didn't say anything else, but his expression seemed like, "Did I say something wrong?" So now I have this game with him and I usually will say, "Did you say 'mama?'" in a funny voice and he will laugh. Hasn't said it since.

We're getting ready for his first Halloween and we are so excited. We went shopping for our costumes last weekend. I won't spoil the surprise yet. I'll let you see if you can figure out who he is in the photos, but we're having a lot of fun with it!

Lukas turns 8 months tomorrow. Where did the time go? I would say that he still seems like a newborn to me, but I don't think that I can given that he's tipping the scales at over 20 lbs. Speaking of newborns, congrats to Sarvi & Aaron in LA who just had baby girl Ameneh! We can't wait to meet her. They do change right before your eyes, but maybe it's just the blurriness from the lack of sleep...

Parents Day

So last Friday, we celebrated our first Parents Day. What is Parents Day, you ask? It's a day that 3 sets of parents decided to take the day off and enjoy SF. We kept our kids in their normal childcare and didn't go to work. We went out to brunch at Brenda's. Then, the women went shopping in Union Square while the guys went to get drinks. Matilde was deliriously happy. I was looking forward to just not working and being able to finish a conversation without distraction.

I did feel a little guilty. It's a day that I left Lukas and it was not necessary. We didn't limit ourselves and say that we couldn't talk about the kids. Of course we talked about the kids. We love our kids, why wouldn't we want to talk about them? It's just that we were able to talk about them to each other.

After shopping, we went out to a late lunch at Swan Depot for a seafood extravaganza. By the time we finished, it was time to leave the city to return to our children and start our weekend a little early. Here's a photo commemorating the event:

Foodie in Training

So we've been a little remiss in posting Lukas's progress into eating solids. We started giving him rice cereal in August, but he really wasn't that interested in it until a few weeks ago. We couldn't figure out why he didn't seem to be that interested in eating. It just didn't seem to be possible given our voracious appetites. We added breastmilk, we added rice cereal, we made it thicker, we made it thinner, we ate with him... the only thing he seemed to like were rice puffs. Finally, one day, I decided to heat the carrots we were giving him. That was the trick. Lukas likes his food warm.

We should have known because Edwin had figured out a long time ago that Lukas wouldn't drink his milk from a bottle if it was cold. I always like my food warm too, so I don't know why it took us so long to figure it out. He now likes whatever we give him as long as it's either room temp or warm. He's had avocado, banana, carrots, squash, green beans, rice cereal, and oatmeal. His favorite seems to be squash and avocado. I wasn't sure if I would be making his food or not. It looks like I'm not really doing it. We have a Magic Bullet, but it just takes so much time and is a lot of work for just a little bit. I am fine with purchasing baby food that is just steamed veggies, so the carrots, green beans, peas, etc. However, I am a little more hesitant to purchase the chicken pot pie or beef and veggie stuff. For the fruit, I just mash it up at room temp like the banana and avocado, so I guess I'm willing to purchase somethings, but not others. For 50 cents a pop, I'm willing to pay someone else to steam my veggies and puree them. I think that I will be making him congee when he starts eating rice.

Here are some videos of his eating adventures:

Birthdays and Colds

So last week, we had quite a few birthdays to celebrate. It was Jeannette and Alex's birthday on 10/2. That makes it easy for me because both of my siblings-in-laws have the same birthday, so I only had to remember one more date! It was also Kaori's birthday on 10/4, Lukas's nanny share Charlie turned one on 10/5, and it will be Kokomi's birthday on 10/10. We also celebrated our friend's son Connor's first birthday on 9/26. Last Sunday, we also attended a dinner for my great-uncle who turned 80. Binh and Bo have birthdays coming up on our third wedding anniversary which is 10/20. So a collective Happy Birthday to everyone. Did I miss anyone?

Last weekend, we also went out to Lukas's first baseball game. We saw the Oakland A's vs. the Anaheim Angels. Jeannette's friend Jimbo came for a visit and wanted to go, so we did. Here's a fun family pic:


Last week , I was battling a cold. I'm not sure if I gave it to Lukas or he gave it to me, but we both ended up getting a cold and then giving it to Edwin and our nanny Claudia. I feel very fortunate that Lukas has not gotten sick until now. However, he hasn't been sleeping as well which is hard. He's been waking up and wanting to be held. When he's not sick, we usually will let him cry a bit, but we feel sorry for him when he's all congested, so we rock him. Edwin and I are pretty much recovered, but Lukas is still battling it.

I guess it's been a while since I have posted some of Lukas's milestones. He is now eating solids twice a day. We give him rice cereal, some cheerio-like puffs, and vegetables. It took us a while to figure out why he didn't seem to want to eat the carrots and sweet potatos. Basically, Lukas likes his food warm. We knew that to be the case with his milk, so I don't know why it took us so long to figure this out. We also have to add the rice cereal to his food to thicken it. His favorite though are the rice crackers. He loves them. We tried giving Lukas avocado for the first time tonight. I think he seemed to like it since he wasn't spitting it out, but he was a bit fussy tonight. I'll post some videos of his eating adventures later, but here are some pictures during his 6th month. I can't believe he's already 7 months!