Short Point Panic Video

Lucky

I made this little video during Nate's nap times the past two days. Even at this moment, I am typing with one hand while Nate sleeps against my chest. I want my incredible husband, Matt, to know how lucky I feel to have a wonderful marriage with him!

A Little Culture

Matt, Nate and I experienced a little random culture this past weekend. On Saturday, we went to a dog festival put on by the Hawaiian Humane Society down the street from us in Thomas Square. We walked down with Nate in the jogging stroller, and he was so comfortable that he ended up sleeping through the entire event. Matt and I had fun running Emma through the dog obstacle course, dunking her in the kiddie swimming pools to cool her off, and entering her in a dog race. The dog race was the big disappointment. Emma is fast. And not just chihuahua fast, I mean legitimately speedy. So when she lost the dog race to a random slow dog, Matt and I decided it was a question of motivation. She barely ambled towards me upon the start of the race. Ug. It was pretty funny regardless of her losing. Here are a few pictures:

Had to start with a close up of the cutest baby in the world. Matt chilling with Emma and Nate before the big race. His pep talk at this point later turned out to be largely uneffective.
Emma did, however, do really well running the obstacle course.

Yes, Nate is always trying to nurse, even when Daddy's holding him.

He loves sleeping in his carseat.

Then Mommy and Nate went down to Point Panic to watch Daddy do some bodysurfing.

To finish off our cultural weekend, we went with our friend Todd to the Lantern Festival last night at Ala Moana Beach Park. After performances by various musicians and dancers which were projected on three giant screens, participants released 2,000 floating lanterns into the ocean just after sunset. It was very cool.

Uncle Todd even changed Nate's diaper later before a Menchies frozen yogurt stop!

Supervised tummy sleeping - Nate loves his butt in the air!

This was just this morning - look how big he's getting! 5 weeks today!

Memorial Day Weekend

Summer Mission: Capture the Perfect Point Panic Barrel on Video

Here's is my first attempt, but I'm hoping for big glassy summer swells to aid my mission!

I'm One Month Old!

On my one month birthday, I, Nate, thought I would publish my own blog post so everyone can see what a day in my life is like. Since my one month birthday was yesterday, I'm going to include pictures from two days of my life - yesterday and today. It's only fair since Mom didn't get around to posting this yesterday. I, of course, had nothing to do with her not being able to get that done.

I started out my morning with a little tummy time. The darn chihuahua makes sitting up look so easy, but it's not! I'm currently working on mastering holding my head off the ground. I can do it for about 5 seconds. Not bad. After all, I do have quite a large head. It's because of my large brain. What can I say? I am writing a blog post at one month old! Mom then let me use the boppy pillow to prop me up and make practice a little easier. It also helps me show off my big blue eyes!
Then I had some man time with Dad. We chilled on the bed and had a good talk. It was a little one-directional, but I'm working on my social skills.

Next, I pooped the biggest poop of my life. It had so much force that it shot out the top of the back of my diaper and all over the back of my white outfit! Score! I'm pretty sure Mom had a lot of fun cleaning this one up.

She stuck me in the bouncer for a bit to chill me out with the "calming vibrations." BORING!

Then for some real fun I visited Mom's 8th graders at HBA. I love all my HBA aunties and uncles! Mom is holding me in this picture on the sofa, I was just a little camera shy hiding behind Kanoe.

And lastly, (and this picture was actually taken a week and a half ago), I wanted to share a picture of me and my future wife, Zoe Lim Stevens, chilling with our moms. She is such a hottie. She is exactly two weeks older than me, but I like the older ladies. She obviously thinks my company is enthralling! Well that's it folks. Being one month old is a lot of fun. I'll keep you updated on all my adventures!

Karen's Wedding

This past week, Matt and I went up to Portland, Oregon to celebrate my little sister Karen's wedding to my new Swiss brother-in-law, Andy. Nate slept through his first plane rides (yes!) and emerged perfectly healthy. He still has yet to experience so much as a sniffle. The week before the wedding was spent letting Nate get to know his Nana and Pop, and the American relatives getting to know the Swiss relatives. Fifteen people came from Switzerland for the wedding! A few of them didn't speak English, which made communication especially interesting. I really enjoyed getting to know all of them, and am glad to now be related to such nice people.

Here Mom, Nate, Karen, and Aunty Kay pose in Aunty Kay's backyard (that's the Columbia River in the background) before a dinner where the Mackays hosted our family plus all the Swiss relatives.

This is Nate next to a picture of me as a newborn - I was surprised to see such a resemblance!

Pop with his first grandson.Nana and Nate.Aunty Carla with our chubby-cheeked little man. My mom then hosted dinner at our house for our family, Aunt Susan and Uncle Cliff, plus the Swiss relatives - 18 total people! The food was delicious!
My Dad on the beautiful bench he built in the backyard out of a fallen tree. Our little family at the wedding. The McBane side of the family with the bride and groom. The reception was in a quaint old barn!
A short video of Pop dancing with his new grandson! They were watching "Dancing With the Stars" together and were inspired.

Bombing Tantalus on My Bike

This afternoon, I strapped our digital camera to my handlebars and made a little video of descending Tantalus. I sped the video up so the nine minute descent is only a 3 minute video. For those of you who know and love this road, whether by bike, skateboard, moped, or running, I think you'll like this.

Jamba Juice 5K and Nate's First Tub Bath

This morning, Matt made the Stevens family proud (and well-nourished) at the Jamba Juice 5K race. Matt ran a strong race, finishing first place in his age group and fifth place overall with a time of 15:30. Nate was excited to be able to watch his first real race. Well to be honest, he actually more or less slept through the whole thing. :o) Matt's parents also came out to the race to cheer him on. We look forward to this race every year because the prize includes not just a Jamba Juice thermos, tumbler and t-shirt, but 26 FREE JAMBA JUICE COUPONS to the top 3 overall runners and first place in each age group. Matt has won the Jamba Juice prize for I think 3 years in a row now, and we enjoy them well into the hot Hawaiian summer. We are stoked about this payoff for all his training.

Matt's strong finish.

Celebrating with Nate afterwards.
Nate making a funny face.Matt took Nate up onto the winner's podium to receive his prize.
(Those other two guys got second and third in his age group)

When we got home from the race, we gave Nate his first at-home tub bath. His umbilical cord stump fell off earlier this week at his doctor's appointment, so we figured that by today things were totally healed up and ready for a little dip. The baby bath tub is at Matt's parents house at the moment, so we used the little tub they sent home with us from the hospital. It was a little small, but Nate seemed to enjoy the warm water. Maybe he will be a beach bum after all!

Drying off afterwards.
Warm and dry in his robe.

And lastly, just for fun, here is a picture of Matt at Sam's Club a couple of days ago after Nate spit up all over him. Matt actually had a receiving blanket over his shoulder to catch any spit up, but it all happened so fast!

Two Week Doctor's Appointment

Nate had his two weeks old doctor's appointment today! He got a clean bill of health. Here are the details:

You may recall that Nate was born at 7 pounds, 7 ounces. Today he measured in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces! He has an average weight gain of 52 grams a day over the last two weeks. The doctor was thrilled with his weight gain, saying he was happy if newborns gained 20 to 30 grams a day average over the first two weeks. He said it is impossible to overfeed a breastfed baby. And that weight gain is one of the primary markers of good health in newborns. Nate definitely looks like he is filling out. Good job, little guy!

Also, Matt and I had been hoping that Nate's umbilical cord stump would fall off soon, since it was beginning to get a little smelly. It fell off today during the doctor's examination! Yay! I'm happy to report that Nate appears to be an "innie." His belly button still needs a few more days to completely heal, but at least the dead stump is gone. It was last physical piece of my connection with him while he was inside me. I won't miss it though.

Overall, Nate was a champ, only crying a little when I stripped him down for his weigh-in, as opposed to last time, where he protested VERY strongly to the cold metal scale. All his reflexes were good, his sight test was good, and his cuteness factor was off the charts! Okay, that last one was my scientific opinion. :o) We feel so blessed to have such a healthy baby!

Week 2

This past week has been quite an adventure. Matt was stoked that there was a south swell during his 9 work-day paternity leave, so we took Nate down to Point Panic three times so that Matt could go bodysurfing. Nate and I just chilled in the shade. It was so nice to have Matt home over the past week and a half, and to be able to hand baby off to him to be burped or for a diaper change. Matt went back to work today, so I am now on my own with Nate during the day. Donna came over today and that was so nice to finally be able to introduce her to our strapping young boy. She brought over three stuffed toys that she sewed herself! I was very impressed with her hidden talents. :o)

Matt's parents have babysat Nate twice this week, allowing us to have our first post-baby date night and to go to a graduation party. It is so nice to have them here locally and to know that we can trust them with our baby. They love spending time with him too!

Nate's accomplishments this week include focusing on faces and holding his head up for a few seconds. His neck is still really wobbly and we look forward to the day that he can hold it up himself. It is a great feeling to have him stare at me. I wish I knew what was going through that little head of his! Here are some random pictures from this week:

Our whole little family, chihuahua and all. My little man.

Matt multitasking...

Lesley multitasking...

Going for a walk around Magic Island with our sweet jogging stroller.

Daddy reading Nate his first story "Where the Wild Things Are."

Mommy and Nate.