Men Having Babies Dot Org...

Thanks to Jason of Stalking the Stork, Bill, Cristina and I, along with our surrogate, Mary, will be in Los Angeles sitting on a panel on May 5th for an organization appropriately named Men Having Babies. We'll be talking about our experience and long journey to become parents, which is super cool because I've always wanted to help others of during this process. Especially MEN having babies, since the task seems to be so formidable and there are so many options to get to the final product of that beautiful child of your own. We're super excited to see Mary again, and we also get to see Jason and Adrian, as well as a plethora of friends who live in the LA area.

So thanks, Jason, for thinking of us and allowing us to share our story. Hopefully it helps even one person see a little clearer how they can fulfill their dream of creating a family and becoming a father.

In other news, cute bath time photo alert!

DBCC

85 days, 3 months, 47 years

Today is the 85th day Cristina has been with us. She's technically 3 months old. She's an infant, not our newborn girl anymore, and the changes are happening so fast it's a bit overwhelming. I leave for work in the morning and by the time I get home she's just a little bit different. Babies are so amazing. Here's a slightly boastful list of what's been happening in Cristina World:

1.  No more neck bobbles - that means rides in the Baby Bjorn are much more interesting because she no longer has to face in and can face forward. 

Before

After!

It also means she can sit in the Bumbo and entertain herself...

Video of the first Bumbo sitting (please ignore my irritating voice)

2.  She's getting out a lot...

We spent last weekend on Kauai to go to Cristina's godmother's wedding.

Note to self: when packing, remember to the put the bloomers on the bottom so TSA doesn't think you're a pervert

At the hotel pool. To diva. Or not to diva?

Family photo the day of the ceremony. Beautiful weather!

A day in Hanalei. PERFECT!

My favorite view as we entered Hanalei. Check out the waterfalls!

Sleeping in at the hotel

Wedding dress!

Goofing off -- fish lips x 2

3. She's getting a lot of visitors...

The "GUNKLES" Scott and Marco visited from LA, and we had a nice day at the Elks Club with Cara and Eric, too. 

On our deck with grumpy girl :-)

Godfather Todd visited for a weekend

A stroll through Waikiki with Todd and his aunt and uncle.

4.  She's sleeping a lot -- sometimes from 11 pm to 8 am. How lucky is that???  The trick??? NO FRIGGIN' IDEA!

Baby stretches are the best!

5.  Her feet are getting WIDE.

We call these LUAU FEET in Hawaii. 

But she's hoping to fit in to her new pink Havaiianas from her new uncle Joao in Brazil, soon!

Just kickin' it!

6.  Lots of tracking and smiling going on!

What is it about babies and ceiling fans?

I love this photo. Makes my heart melt.

7.  And with all of this...right here, in this very moment, we are very grateful!

Handwritten messages on diapers from one of our baby showers...it was just too perfect not to take a photo!

Happy Three Month Birthday, Cristina!

(You're probably wondering why "47 years" is in the title of this post. Well, tomorrow is my 47th birthday and I'm doing my best to tell myself that age is just a number, darnit!)

  

9 Weeks Old Today

Cristina is smiling so much these days it's tough to leave her for even a second in case she happens to bless us with another one.  I just can't stand it.  I could post a whole slew of smiling photos but it's come down to these three as my absolute favorites.

She's still drinking just about 5 ounces or so per feeding. We are starting to cluster feed in the evening and she's gone almost 5 hours without waking up so we are happy with that. Bill and I are still working out the "does the babbling mean she's going to wake up and cry or is she going to go back to sleep?" issue.  I'm more comfortable with her being awake or sleep talking and then going back to sleep than Bill is...which is funny since I thought FOR SURE I'd be right there every time she seemed like she was waking up to make sure she doesn't cry. But it's still early and we are discussing how we are going to progress to longer stints of sleep.  And she IS still pretty young but I think not too young for some sleep training.  "Training" sounds so harsh for 9-week old baby but if dogs love structure so do babies, right???  :-)

Speaking of dogs, Chloe is still being just the most lovely sister ever.  I find it hard to believe I was ever worried about this sweet dog ever being aggressive with Cristina. Her diaper-sniffing is getting really good for seeking out the dirty diapers and every once in a while she goes in for a little kiss on the face (which I try to discourage), but she's been a sweetheart with her little sister.

Fetch anyone??

Maybe not.

Overall Cristina is, from what I'm gathering from conversations with other parents, a pretty mellow baby. She takes a pacifier if she wants it, but doesn't need it all the time, cries only when she needs something, and likes to chill out and watch us cook dinner at the end of the day.  Once she starts sleeping more (and she will, she will!), we'll be all set...

...and then she'll change it up on us! But it doesn't matter because she has us wrapped around her finger, anyway.

And finally, a huge congrats to all the babies being born out here on blogland...just awesome!

Our Little Tree Hugger Finds Her Voice

She sighs, and coos, and let's out cute little screams (who knew screams could be so enjoyable????).

In other news, she's tracking us a lot and likes to stare for several minutes at our ceiling fans...doesn't matter if they are running or not.  After a long gaze in to our eyes the edges of her mouth will turn up and she'll coyly smile...and sometimes she'll even blink once or twice (she's winking at us, of course).

Pooping volume has gone down but man, has the frequency gone up. We're flying through diapers like there's not tomorrow.

The newborn look has started to fade and out has come our little infant girl, Cristina.

Just this past weekend she showed off her "look, everyone....I can stand up while holding my daddy's hands!" at my brother's house.  It was quite unbelievable when she started this about 10 days ago. I don't know what is considered normal but this girl has some strong legs and neck and back on her. 

Yay for sturdy babies!

We're taking her around with us a lot, to the beach, to friends' houses, to restaurants, a walk through Waikiki...she's such a mobile little girl and we're loving it. So it's nice she's not slowing us down...too much!

Hatchback diaper change at the beach

Daddy and Cristina enjoying a day at our friends' beach house

The view from the deck...not bad!

Feeding on the fly at Kailua Beach

This video was too cute for me not to post. 

Enjoy!

Tomorrow: 2 MONTHS OLD! 

WOW!

Someone Is 6 Weeks Old

Someone is 6 weeks old today.

Someone who is the light of our life.

Today...and every day...

There still may be sleepless nights (well not for her, anyway).

 But we are having so much fun hanging out with Cristina Lei...

In the back yard...

Holding her while she sleeps (and we don't)...

...watching her while she's awake and full of wonder...

...or when she's taking naps (and we aren't)...

...or when she's exploring new worlds...

...or being awoken by the ringing bells at church...

There is truly no time we don't cherish our little girl 

(even if it's trying to coax a burp out of her at the mall)

Because holding her hand for the past 6 weeks has been one of the best gifts ever.

Happy 6 Week Birthday Cristina Lei!

xo

Papa and Daddy

Happy Father's Day

We had a nice day today. Fresh blueberry organic pancakes made from scratch by our super awesome friend who lives right next door. She even held Cristina while we gobbled down all the goodness. Cristina's gift to her Daddy and Papa was to sleep until 8 am (THANK YOU Cristina!)

Coaxing Cristina to Look at the Camera

That didn't work

Mission Accomplished!

Thanks Natalie for making breakfast and freeing up our hands to actually enjoy it. You rock!

We then went to church for the first time as a family and Cristina was soooo good. Lots of congratulations from our friends. They even brought me communion because I was too anxious about going all the way up to the altar with a newborn.

And then Bill and I took turns pampering ourselves (insert here: a visit to the gym).  We swapped taking care of Cristina while the other worked out and it was actually such fun being one-on-one with my little girl. Since Bill stays home with her this doesn't happened too much just she and I. We walked around Waikiki and window shopped, bumped in to friends, had a poopy diaper, a coffee and then home for a casual dinner with our neighbor friends.

As Bill says, "Welcome to Living the Dream!" I couldn't agree more. We are so lucky.

Happy four week birthday to Cristina!!!

And Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Lotsa Love...