One Year Close-Ups

I took this pictures of Nate yesterday at Punahou track and in our apartment with a black backdrop.

Jamba and Red Cars

Things are going well here at the Hawaii Stevens house. Nate has adapted to being weaned, and started drinking milk pretty well about a week after being cut off from breastmilk. Although, for some weird reason, he still won't drink cow's milk from Grandma???

We are currently fighting an ant infestation. One of the pleasures of living in a tropical paradise are the bugs. I think they are attracted by Emma's dog food. Yuck. We put out some ant baits but I think they forgot to put the poison in them.

So I just had to put this picture on today's blog because it melts my heart. Awwww... Daddy reading Nate his bedtime story. This is one of those father/son moments that I'm so glad I got to capture on camera.

Matt ran the Jamba Juice 5K again this year and won second place overall with a time of 15:47. Amazing race! This is the 5th or so year in a row that he's won the "year of free Jamba juice," which now equates to 26 free 16oz smoothies. The first year he won it was 52 24oz smoothies. Blame it on the economy.

Also running this year was Frank "Da Tank" Lim, a.k.a. Dr. Lim, who ran a swift 25:11 at 65 years of age. It totally put me to shame, as my last 5k was a 27:16 in my twenties. We were all hoping he would win the jamba by scoring top three in his age group, but unfortunately this year some ripped 60-69 year olds came out of the woodwork and he placed 5th in his age group. If he had run any other Jamba 5k across the country or in Hawaii in years past, he would have won the prize. But his appetite for racing has been whetted, and he and Matt are already planning their next race together on July 4.

Matt took Nate up on the podium with his to collect his prize, as usual. :o)

Grandmom took Nate to get a balloon animal at the race. It is a monkey climbing a palm tree. Nate pinched the monkey soon afterwards and popped it. Oh well, it was cute while it lasted.

Nate sat on Grandpa's shoulders and played with his hair.

Matt showing off his prize. I love his "thug" expression.

Here's another picture of Nate with his favorite toy ever, his cozy coupe. We brought it with us to a barbeque at Todd Iacovelli's house so that Nate would be entertained while we hung out with our friends. Also note adorable new shoes from Todd for Nate's birthday!

The cozy coupe is a bit large for our tiny apartment, but he loves it so much that we got him an apartment-sized Lightning McQueen car that he loves riding around the living room. Cozy coupe stays at Grandmom and Grandpa's house to enjoy during our frequent visits there.

Lastly, here is a picture of Nate and I at the beach a couple of evenings ago. Matt and I have been at Ala Moana park quite often lately to get a little exercise and swim with the little guy. Nate really LOVES the water. Can you tell? :o)

One Year Update

For anyone who might be interested, today is officially my last day of nursing Nate. He turned one on April 21 and I've been trying to slowly wean him for the last two weeks. The problem is, he won't drink cow's milk and I've been afraid he won't get the nutrition he needs if he's not nursing. I've tried whole milk, soy milk, formula, even milk with a squirt of chocolate syrup in it! He rejects everything. He only wants breastmilk or water. At our well baby doctor's appointment today, I explained my dilemma to my doctor and she told me to go cold turkey on him because the slow weaning is confusing him. Why would he drink cow's milk if he knows the good stuff is coming? So with mixed feelings, I nursed him tonight for the very last time.

I feel a huge sense of relief that I am no longer nursing. I can wear dresses again, and non nursing-friendly shirts and undergarments. Matt can feed the baby anytime. I'll have so much time now that I previously spent in the rocker nursing.

At the same time I feel a huge sense of loss. Where is my little tiny baby that depends on me for his nutrition? I'm going to miss the countless hours that we got to cuddle and stare into each other's eyes. I'm going to miss being able to provide the most comforting thing in Nate's world. No matter what happened - a fall, a shot - nursing always made it instantly better. It's the only time in the day that my little explorer wanted to curl up and cuddle with me for a while.

Sigh. I rocked him to sleep tonight and held him tight long after he fell asleep.

Okay, so enough of my sappy mom stuff. Here are some pictures of some of our adventures this past week:

We randomly went down to Waikiki one afternoon last week. It's always a fun place to people-watch. We walked through the Hilton and looked at the penguins and flamingos, walked along the beachwalk, then ate Ono's Cheesesteaks for dinner on the beach (entertainment coupon!).

Nate and I enjoyed a trip to the playground near our house. There is hardly ever anyone there, so I find it just a little creepy. Happily Matt was able to meet us at the playground towards the end of the session. Nate isn't walking yet, but he loves cruising all over. (walking while holding onto something)

Nate SCREAMS when he is having fun. Can't you just hear it from this picture?

Sitting on the slide. No sliding, yet. :o)

Early Saturday morning, Matt challenged Todd and Brandon to a race up Tantalus. They both just got sweet super expensive carbon fiber bokes, and Matt just has his old aluminum frame bike, plus he's been fighting a bad cold all week. But Matt has been cycling for years.

Pic: (L to R) Brandon, Matt, Todd

Brandon ended up winning by a long shot and Todd managed to edge Matt by a nose hair at the end. I think Matt now wants a new bike.

Uncle Tim, Aunt Desiree, Scarlett and Colt gave Nate an annual pass to the zoo for our whole family! Awesome! We went to the zoo on Saturday after the bike race. Nate was totally conked out the whole time Matt and I were enjoying the cool animals. I actually had to wake him up after about an hour and a half so he could see SOMETHING before we left, so we took him to the petting zoo area. So he still hasn't seen an elephant or a giraffe or a monkey, but I plan on going back to visit A LOT, so I'm sure he will soon. Here is a really cool koi display that he loved.

He didn't know what to think of the goat.

I hardly know what to say about this one. Except that I'm a little embarrased our kitchen was such a mess that day. But I'm pretty sure that's not the first thing you noticed about this picture.

It was a rainy day today, so Nate and I drove down to Ala Moana and walked around the mall. Here he is in the Lego store, where you can choose any combination of lego pieces and pay by the cupful.

More koi to check out in the center of the mall.

Just for kicks, I walked through Neiman Marcus. There is no way I would ever buy anything there, but I had never even been in, so we checked it out. A baby polo shirt cost $55! Ridiculous. But they did have this cool tent in the children's section. We played a rousing game of peek-a-boo through the window.

And they also had this awesome toy piano. Press the play button to hear our little Mozart play some beautiful music. His Baby Einstein mobile has really paid off. :o)

"Where is my sheet music, MOM? I can't play without my sheet music!"