Bye bye 2007 and hi to 2008

We're back in our rainy adopted city. Within the first several hours of our return, the weather gods gave us sunshine, dark clouds, rain, wind, and finished up with a crazy hailstorm that left everything as white as if it had snowed. We just had to laugh - it was quite the welcoming gesture on the part of the atmosphere.

We had a wonderful week down in sunny CA. Thanks to our many family members, we actually got to relax quite a bit, which was really the best holiday present we could have gotten. Unfortunately, our poor little guy picked up a bug and had a low-grade fever show up a few days before we left. I still don't get how 101 is low for a baby, but whatever. He spent the day sleeping and sleeping and it all felt quite peaceful. I mean, we felt terrible for him that he was sick, but he hasn't slept that much since he was a newborn and it really was quite restful for all of us! We marveled at how our kid isn't one of those that doesn't sleep when he gets sick.

Then we woke up the next morning and were nearly drowned by the massive river of snot coming out of our son's nose. We probably could have sailed home on it and skipped the plane altogether. Even though he's all better from the bug, his body is still producing massive amounts of mucus. I mean, it is crazy. Apparently, this is normal! Just goes to show you how much I know about kids. So we've spent the last several days wiping and aspirating and saline-solution-ing and generally getting everything we own covered in the remnants of M's cold. We are praying that when 2007 leaves, it will take the snot with it. Please, please.

To celebrate New Year's Eve, we had a lovely dinner with my grandmother and her caregiver tonight. Mateo roamed the house saying "hi!" to everyone and generally having a great time. We're home now, cozied up on the couch, and are planning an early bedtime. Could there be a better way to start the new year?

Actually, there could: today, Sacha felt the first flutters of the little one in her belly. It was thrilling for her and for me (and I think I might have felt something, too, when I had my hand in the right place at the right time) and filled us both with thanksgiving for events of the past year as well as those to come in the next. She said I could post some belly shots, so here they are.

First, her at 4 weeks pregnant, standing out in the sunshine.



Then, tonight at 17 weeks with her cute baby bump.


As Mateo might say, if he could grasp the concept of a new year, bye bye to 2007 and hi to 2008!

Happy holidays!

We've had a wonderful week visiting my parents for the holidays.  Sacha's parents came down for several days, as well, and we all spent lots of time eating, drinking, making merry, catching up with old friends, and exploring the area.  We even went to the Oakland Zoo on the day after Christmas, which ended up being quite the experience.  After the terrible events at the SF Zoo, there were news cameras everywhere at Oakland and quite the crowd at the tiger exhibit.

In more important Dec. 26th news, we celebrated Sacha's 30th birthday that day!  Happy birthday again, sweetheart.  We met when Sacha had just turned 23 and I was 22 and look at us now!

Adding to the lineup of big days around Christmas, today is the 7th anniversary of the day we met.  Wow!  I'll tell the full story of how we met some other time, but suffice it to say that we never could have predicted that we'd end up being married and procreating!  I'm so glad it worked out this way. 

We fly home on Sunday and then we have Sacha's next pre-natal appointment on Jan. 4th.  She's been feeling really good these days, for the most part, and we are both very relieved that the nausea and exhaustion seem to be gone!  Her belly has really popped in the past week or so.  Her uterus was apparently tilted towards her back originally and the nurse practitioner told us that it would tip forward at some point and her belly would pop out.  It did!  She has a very cute little baby bump going on.  Maybe I'll get her to let me post a picture :)

Mateo's been having a fun time basking in attention from all sides.  He's spent quality time with all his grandparents and his auntie and uncle.  He's also learned some new words and signs - where, car, neigh, moo, bear, grrr, sleepy, book, bath, water, mommy, bubby (grandma), poppa (grandpa), dance (the sign), and maybe some other ones.  We looove watching him learn!

Life is pretty great these days.  We feel so lucky to be at this point in our lives.  Happy holidays and a very happy new year to all! 

Sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar

Today, in a burst of energy and in homage to my grandma, I made a batch of sugar cookie dough and we rolled it out and made a bunch of holiday cookies. Then we ate and ate and ate them until we just about made ourselves sick.

Then we took a little break until we felt slightly better and ate some more. Mmmmm. Sugar, butter, and frosting are just an unbeatable combination.

I was telling Sacha that it's too bad the baby's not quite big enough to feel yet, because I'm sure s/he was zooming around like crazy in there.

Yay Christmas cookies!

New addition

For some reason, I started thinking about birth today and how we'd never put M's birth story up on this blog. Sacha and I wrote it down soon after he was born and are so glad now that we did that. Since this blog is kind of like his baby book, we wanted to post the story of his birth here. It's backdated to his actual birth day and it's here if anyone wants to read it.

13.5 months - photos

I just have to show off some pictures of our kiddo. Here he is at thirteen and a half months:

15 weeks!!!

We have some good news to share. In fact, it's great news.

First, some background:

Soon after Mateo's birth, Sacha and I started to consider who would carry our next child. Our deal from the beginning had been that I would carry our first and that Sacha would probably carry our second. She wasn't completely sure, however, and wanted some time to think it over after the intensity of labor and delivery. By this summer, she was sure. She wanted to be pregnant!

Knowing that these things often take some time, and sometimes quite a bit of time, we got things lined up with Z and planned to start trying in the fall. We decided to start in September, so that just in case a miracle occurred and she got pregnant on the first try, she would be able to give birth after school let out for the summer. However, we both expected that it might take quite awhile.

Well, in the words of a friend, we have a One-Shot Sally on our hands. My fabulous wife managed to get knocked up on the very first try! We started to sense that something was happening when she couldn't keep her eyes open past the middle of Chicago, which we rented in the middle of the two-week wait. After getting faked out by some inconclusive cheapo tests, we got a couple of higher-quality ones and watched in amazement as two lines came up immediately. It was a moment of true surprise and delight and lots of shrieking and jumping around.

After being very public about Mateo's conception, we wanted to keep things more private this time. Now that she's reached 15 weeks and is in her second trimester, we're thrilled to share the news.

We've seen the little bean twice, once for pregnancy confirmation and once for a dating ultrasound (unnecessary since we knew the date of conception, but still cool) and heard its heartbeat twice, too. All very reassuring and awe-inspiring. Sometime around early June 2008, we expect that Mateo will be a big brother! And that we'll have two kids approximately 19 months apart. We may be a little crazy, but we couldn't be happier. Yay!

Thanks and bananas

Hey everybody, thanks for all the sympathy and good thoughts (here and via email and phone). We're doing a little better and have been reminiscing about all the funny things Beso used to do. We still have his blanket down at the foot of our bed and think it might stay there for awhile.

Sacha said that today, while I was out getting my hair cut, Mateo kept coming up to her, signing kitty and saying "mow, mow" over and over. Like, where is the cat, moms? He must miss him, too. I wish we could explain better.

In happier news, Mateo spent the day doing a sign that we didn't recognize and he had us totally stumped. Then tonight, when we were watching Baby Signing Time (which he has spent most of the last several days asking for), we realized it was the sign for banana. After the video, we sat down to eat dinner and he kept signing it and saying "ba! ba! ba!". He normally hates bananas. For that reason, he hadn't had one in long enough that we couldn't imagine he even remembered what a banana really was.

Anyway, finally the ba-ing wore us down. We gave him a banana and pretty soon he had eaten a tummy full of it! I guess he really did want a banana. It always amazes us what a clear sense he has of what he wants. He really has his own mind and strong preferences about things. It's cool to begin to communicate about them instead of always playing a guessing game.