Merry Christmas to All

You may think we are delinquent with out Christmas card but think again. It is all part of my plan to grace your physical mailboxes with New Year's cards that may also be Valentine's Day cards. Won't that be a refreshing winter surprise?


While this is Eric's second Christmas, it is the first Christmas that he really participated in the actions of pulling apart tissue paper and swimming through his brightly colored sea of toys.He has also become quite demanding of tunes insisting we open the cabinet doors and turn on music and in this case Christmas music.


Here is Eric helping Dad open his walk n'ride car that Maria gave Eric for Christmas. He loves it so much that he had a little tantrum when Dad was trying to get it all put together. Eric just couldn't wait to motor around the flat.


We spent Christmas at home in San Francisco and had a very cozy Christmas Eve and Day. The afternoon of Christmas eve took us to a park in P-town to play with the Grandma Linda, Grandpa Terry, and the Montoya gang. Cousin Sam showed Eric how to wif a ball and scoot around the park.


Christmas afternoon brought another gorgeous day so we grabbed the pack and a bottle and hit the new portion of the coastal trail. This is truly one of the most beautiful views, so beautiful you forget about the many stairs up and down. Eric loved pointing out all the birds to us.

Delisioso

Eric loves his graham crackers and is starting to prefer feeding himself versus Mom,Dad, or Maria spooning it in. He loves to feed us too.

Happy first year at home

Can you believe it has been one year since we brought Eric home from CPMC. He came to his new home on December 10th. We hold that dear. And can you believe it has been this long since I last updated his blog. I am full of excuses that I won't bore with.

I will start by giving you a little Holiday update. Halloween was celebrated at the Annual NICU Halloween Reunion party where we met up with Superman (Spencer)and Robin (Ryan). Eric was Batman but revealed his identity early on in the party by removing his mask/hat.




For Trick or Treater visits Eric opted to be Spiderman to show off his super spidey agility.




Eric gets around and grabs things in his reach with pinpoint accuracy. He is a top speed crawler and now uses is right foot in track start position to give himself an extra boost with each crawl forward.



Mom's birthday was in November and Eric and Dad helped me celebrate by making me a homemade strawberry birthday cake. Eric isn't eating cake yet but he has mastered all things meltably crunchy and loves to chomp them using is 4,make that 5, front teeth.



We celebrated Thanksgiving at home and Mom did up a good turkey with all the fixings while Eric and Dad to a hike through Golden Gate Park. Eric loves the view from the backpack and found that it can also be a nice place to take a nap.



Yummy turkey

Cheering

Blueberries in the park



Relaxing after cheering mom on during her celebratory run - Nike Women's Half Marathon. Eric and Dad were a great cheering squad and waiting for me at the finish line. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice picnic in the park. It was a gorgeous day



We are cheering Eric on has he learns to get around. How exciting it is for him to be able to simple go and get things. Exciting for his too, let me tell you. Eric is crawling all over, pulling to stand up to every shelf he can reach and has taken his first steps holding mom's hands and his push cart. He is a mover, will only sit still to read or watch his sing along signing time video. He loves to pull every book off the shelf one at a time investigating both the front and back cover before discarding it and pulling off the next discovery.

He loves to do this same activity with our CD collection which is behind clothes doors most of the time. But when see's that cabinet open he kicks in his turbo boosters and is pulling out CDs in a flash. His favorite CD case appears to be the Samples.

Photo to come after I catch up on downloading/uploading.

Swinging

Ba,ba,ba,ba

We Believe - Way to go Sox

Doing a lot of stuff

Visit from our friend Mary. Thanks for the cool outfit Mary.


Hey Mom, look what I can do. Sitting up in my crib. Time to lower that mattress


Last month Eric had is NICU follow up at the Whitney Clinic. He checked out perfect except for not responding to his name. At home he responds to us and others all the time so we weren't worried. He knows his name, but if I were surrounded by all these new toys, a new face, and a new room I wouldn't be paying enought attention to respond to my name either.

Eric has two chompers and is working on some more as evidences by his need to chomp on everything including our toes. He is also quite active. Once he could sit up on his own his crawling up on all forms came with a top speed. We race down our long hallway daily. Then a few days later came pulling up to his knees and now he has been pulling up to standing for about 2 weeks. He is working on taking a little steps while inching his way around his little table. There have been a few head bonks but they don't seem to phase him.

He has decided that once he has gone to be it is a good time to practice standing. The only thing is he isn't quite sure how to sit back down to go to sleep. So we are working on that these days. If anyone knows and good tips we would all be greatly appreciative.

My favorite thing to do, read books with Dad


Give-me-the-camera photo while we sit in the grass watching the Blue Angels. Boy are they loud, glad I just woke up from my nap


Jamming at the San Francisco Hardly Simply Bluegrass Festival


Eric is definitely into seeing the sights and enjoys going out top (very) early dinners with Mom and Dad when there are few people in the restaurant. He loves to befriend the wait staff by flashing them look which each visit to our table. He looks at them as if to say "who are you, and where did you come from". Then he proceeds to grab at anything on the table within his reach including Dad's beer.

He is always flipping around to see what is in front of him, behind him, or above him and always zeros in on the birds in the sky. He got a kick out of the blue grass festival.

Eric's birthday party video

Uncle Sean & Aunt Courtney did a great job. Thank you

Party Pics

You know it is a good party when your plaids don't match. The Brown's throw a good First Birthday Party pizza, cake, carrots, sippy cups and all.


Eric knows how to treat his friends on their birthday. He is really enjoying playing with Spencer here and all his new toys


Spencer digs into solid sugar. That is what birthday cake is all about. Happy Birthday Spencer.


Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Brown for inviting us to such a fun party. We had a great time meeting your family and putting names to faces.


The Crew celebrating together with their mommies right behind them. We were so excited the morning Mrs. Karbowski (Jennifer) called to say they could make to Eric's party. This was the first all three families were able to hang our since the NICU. The boys loved checking each other out.

What's new

If you haven't noticed, Eric has curls. The curls keep coming. At first this was puzzling because neither Aaron nor have even a single wave in our hair. Looking at the family tree it seems that my dad, Grandpa Ralphy, is the likely source. Uncle Sean also inherited the loopy locks.

Eric has been "combat" crawling, pulling himself forward with his arms, for about 3 weeks. He is starting to make good time with this maneuver and can pretty much get anywhere he chooses to go. Watch out. He is also quite the pivoter and can do a 360 to avoid needing reverse.

He has figured out that his knees bend and has been pulling them underneath himself. Today he has been holding himself on all fours swaying forward and back but hasn't quite figured out what he needs to do to crawl. Meanwhile Aaron and I are babyproofing like crazy.

He has figured out how to get out of the sitting position so no more sitting him down and expecting him to stay there. He does get what Aaron calls the "gravity assist" for this move but he is gaining a little more control.

He has also managed to go from his tummy to sitting a few times but I have yet to catch him in the act. I will turn around for a second and back again he is sitting up. He his quick.

Eric has caught on that food tastes pretty good and his current preference are the carotenoid vegetable sources: butternut squash, winter squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots. He is a veggie man but his starting to acquire the flavor for fruits. He has no interest in chunking food yet and gags nearly at the sight of it. He will pick up any toy you put in front of him, but put some foreign food on his tray and he won't even touch he. He is definitely telling us he prefers puree at the moment.

Favorite "word" is Ba, Ba, Ba. and he is quite good at adjusting his tone. He is also good with Mumm, Mumm and I am pretty sure I have heard a Momma in there.

He is attentive when we read to him looking every page over as if he is reading it himself and turns the pages when we're ready.

The NICU has a follow-up clinic that Eric will go to every 6 months or so called the Whitney Clinic. His first visit was last week and it went well. He is right with his chronological age for his gross motor skills and responsiveness. He is in perfect health and is growing just has he should. Eric is a go-getter and I have a feeling his determination is going to have him catching up to his birthday age in record time since he is there for most everything already. There is also know doubt that his IQ will be high - because we can tell you that he is very bright.

Our household has also made it through our first cold in over 18 months. Dad got it, then Eric, then me, and of all of us Eric handled it like the best and besides being a little more sleepy only had a bit of a drippy nose, a cough, and possibly a little sore throat. He smiled at the doctors and was quite playful, all good signs that a little cold wasn't slowing him down.

Eric got lots of great toys for his b-day and continues to be spoiled by Aunt Courtney and Uncle Sean. Check out the cood panda all the way from the best toy store, FAO Schwartz. I think he likes him.

Happy, Happy Birthday

Today, Eric, is your first birthday. There is no mistake, September 7th, 2006 at 4:34pm was the first your Dad and I heard your beautiful cry. What a wonderful sound that was. It was the first time we met face to face. Immediately after you were born I felt so calm and at ease. It must have been exhaustion because the feeling didn't last too long. But in that moment I must have known that everything was going to be alright, that you were going to teach us to be strong, patient, and determined, all good training for when you came home, and that we were embarking on a great adventure.

This year feels like a timewharp. It feels neither long nor short. You have brought us more smiles than I can count. When you were still "in the store" as your Dad says when refering to the hospital, your Dad said he could tell you were a good guy, and he was absolutely right on. You are a great guy and people and babies love your company. I must kiss you 10,000 times a day at least.

You are really coming into your own and showing us the personality behind those eyes, those eyes that I new were blue from just about the first day you opened them. Everyone kept telling me it was too soon to tell but knew I could see the bright blue beginings in them. Your Grandma Lorraine and I were there the first moment you opened them. You looked right at me and although you couldn't yet see me, you could feel me holding you close, and hear your Dad's voice and his stories of each day.

On your first birthday I hope you enjoyed your first push in the swing at Alta Vista Park. We know you loved watching the yboy push his red car around the playground. You also met Angela Williamson for the first time and she of course loved your curls.

So you weren't into getting messy with your cupcake. I understand your need to be neat. I am definietly messy Mommy but messes are ok as long as you clean them up. The candle was cool though and Dad helped you blow it out. You got tons of cool presents. The deliveries poored in dropped off by our favorite UPS driver. The phone rang off the hook with Happy Birthday wishes on your special day from friends and family: Bobby fay, Grandpa Ralph, Grandma Lorraine, Aunt Susie. Cards poored in from Gram Jeannie, nurse Kathy, and Great Nana.




I am your Mom and that gives me the right to be sentimental. All these birthday wishes were reminders of all the support that washed over us in waves this time last year. You are blessed with so many wonderful people who care about you.

Party, party, party is what we will do all weekend with your Birthday Buddies Ryan (September 5th) & Spencer (September 8th). Heck, all year. Do you know why? Because things are really good and we are so happy. Yes we are all a little tired in our little family but being tired is really no big thing when we know we get to be tired together. Let's celebrate - All our love, Mom & Dad

All at LWW

Can you believe that we finaly got the California based Aunts, Uncles, cousins, grandma, and grandpa all together for one fun-filled action-packed weekend at Lake Wildwood (LWW)




......and we managed not to wait until the last minute to try and cram in a family photo. Good suggestion Uncle Mike.


Eric had constant entertainment with big cousin Sam running laps in the living room, and baby cousin Maylin flashing those two big teeth of hers. Eric loved the action but was a little harder to get to sleep. Who would blame him with all the activity. Someone was always eating, sleeping, splashing, or rolling around.





Aaron and I were surprisingly treated to a fabulous dinner out in Nevada City for our fifth anniversary. Thanks FIL & MIL. We felt like a king and queen the way the rolled out the red carpet for us at New Moon. I would recommend that restaurant to anyone for special occasions. We even got through dessert before we got called back to the house to calm Eric down. Eric needed a little more adjustment time than we gave him before leaving him for the evening with Grandma and Grandpa. Don't let his constant smiles fool you; it is his party and he will cry if he wants to. He is always a little suspicous of Grandpa Terry at first, but after a good book and a baby massage he is grandpa's boy.


Today was the start of my first 40 hour work week. Well, actually yesterday was. Good to ease into this with a holiday week.

5th Year Anniversary

August 24th Aaron and I celebrated 5 amazing years of marriage. It has been 9 years since we met on Notre Dame in Santa Clara - Jen and Tony thought we might be weird enough for each other. Thanks for the enoucorage guys, because as you know, you were right.

Our adventurers are many, but what I have learned this year is that the real adventure is just being together, where ever that me be, doing or not doing, raising Eric, and growing our family.



Being together is timeless. I have already lost track of the years and every minute we have spent together seems like just
yesterday.

Caviar & Karbowskis

Recently we enjoyed both caviar and a visit with our NICU buddies the Karbowski family.

Caviar was definietly impulsive. We found ourselves strolling on the Embarcedero and into the Ferry Building during happy hour. We pulled up to Tsar Nicoulai and indulged ourselves. Having never really tried the stuff I wasn't sure what it was all about, but we found it pretty tastey. Eric opted for his organic sweet potatoes and flashed his big orange grin and big blues eyes to every passer by. I had to slap a few hands away, but I was nice about it, I think.





We also took a drive up to Sonoma to meet Jennifer, Ryan, and Kevin. For our long time readers you know them from our time together in the NICU. Ryan was born September 5, 2006 at 25 weeks and 1 pound 12 oz. (By-the-way, does anyone check the blog any more? I haven't enjoyed many comments lately) Ryan is now pushing 20 lbs and loves to do cheers. Eric and Ryan were happy to play together in the park while we parents took obnoxious amounts of pictures and revelled in the fact that were actually picnicing with our boys rather than cramming cookies and milk down after pumping or eat in the car.



We had a great time, but I don't think the boys had enough toys to play with because the seemed to want the one the other had.

Santa Cruz

We took a quick overnight trip down to Santa Cruz the other weekend. I usually volunteer at a Camp de los Ninos, a camp for kids with type 1 diabetes, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but this year we drove down to drop off snacks and menus and left the carb counting to the counselors. The camp staff I work have worked with for the past 8 years were happy to meet Eric. Eric was more interested in the flys and very tall trees.



We went down the night before and strolled around downtown Santa Cruz. As the evening approached it got a little too funky for me. It really isn't my scene anymore. After dinner we started our search for the nearest grocery store because we FORGOT DIAPERS. Amateurs. Can you believe we couldn't find a grocery store. While college students are emerging to party we are driving around Santa Cruz desparate for diapers and our bedtime.



We had a good time in Boulder Creek which is just 5 miles from the summer camp. It really is beautiful there.

Lots of motion

Eric is Mr. Motion, always on the move, rolling, scutching, and semi-crawling from toy to toy to toy and book to book to book and anything else he can get his hands on. This week he has also mastered sitting up on his own while wildly shaking his larger toys. Very talented.

Yes those are blonde curls you see. Uncle Sean and Great Grandpa Eric both had wavey hair at one point but that is the closest thing to curls on either side of the family.


Eric loves to play and loves to have people to play with. Last week he played a lot with Grandma L & Grandpa T and over the weekend Spencer and Eric had some great play time after the preemie friend's, James, birthday party. Happy Birthday James. James was born a month before Eric, Ryan, Spencer, and Ms. Pacitaat 27 week and 6 days. He of course is doing fabulous and very much Super James.



Eric gets very excited when someone comes to play. We have had a nanny helping us out this week, Alzira, and Eric loves to show her his toys. He waves his hands and swings his legs in pure joy, and so fast too. He the makings of a sprinter.



Eric may look like and expert eater here but don't be fooled. He rarely hits his mouth or even is face and he is just pretending to know what end of the spoon goes in his mouth. Or maybe, we he really does know how to feed himself and is just putting an act for us.