Matt Does It Again

So not only has Matt has won the Tantalus Triple Trek 30 mile trail race again, this time he set a course record by 12 minutes!!! Nate and I are so proud of his tremendous achievement. Matt trained really hard for it and deserves lots of congratulations. The previous course record was 4 hours, 8 minutes, and Matt finished in 3 hours, 56 minutes.

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Next up is the Maui Half-Marathon on September 20. The trip to Maui is our birthday and anniversary gifts to each other. Both our birthdays and our anniversary fall within 9 days of each other at the end of September. So hopefully every year we can do something special to celebrate. This year makes two years of wedded mostly-bliss. :o)

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Nate asked me to include a special thanks to Nana and Pop for the awesome Nike running shorts and to Aunty Karen and Uncle Andy for the Nike shirt.

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Nate was so inspired by Daddy's performance that he wanted to get out on the trails himself: Nate chills with PJ as they wait for Matt to finish the race.
Todd came out to watch. And chill with Chubbs.
The top three guys and future top three guy (Daddy hopes!)
Nate is perfecting this new trick of shoving both his fists into his mouth at once. Hey, earning a nickname like Chubbs isn't easy.

First Laughs

Little Nate is learning how to laugh. The first video has him learning by imitation, and the second video is a little more natural. Enjoy!

Xterra Ad

Imagine my surprise when flipping through the Hawaii Sport Magazine, I came across this full page ad. HSM comes out every other month with listings of all the upcoming run, swim and bike races in Hawaii, including entry forms as well as past results. Matt got 4th place overall in the Xterra off-road half marathon last year, but happened to be the top local finisher, so they used his picture to advertise the same race coming up again this year. WOW! Matt had no idea they were going to use his picture! :o) This is a huge full page ad, the size of a regular sheet of paper. In small print right below his right foot, it says "Matt Stevens // Hawaii Champ // 4th overall in '08." What a stud. I'm so proud of him!

Four Months

The Nate Update:

Nate is sick for the first time. :o( He is congested and has a cough. He's also thrown up twice after big coughing fits. Poor little guy. It breaks my heart to see him cough. Luckily he doesn't understand what's going on and after coughing, looks at me with a big grin. I think it's because of all the attention he gets when he coughs. He got sick Thursday evening, and the doctor said he would probably be better by this Thursday.

We had his four month doctor appointment today and he got a shot even though he is sick. I thought he might have been trying to get out of it, but no such luck for either of us. He was a real trooper, and didn't even flinch while he got poked. Brave little guy. Unfortunately, later that night he got pretty upset. I think his leg must have started hurting.

He is now 16 lbs, 3 oz which puts him in the 74th percentile for weight. He is 25.12 inches long, which puts him in the 56th percentile for length. Yay! He's made it past the 50th percentile. I was worried he might be destined to be short all his life. He just got a slow start.

Nate's new favorite thing is squealing at an incredibly high pitch. Enjoy:

Holding Things

So Nate is starting to hold things! He really has almost no control over what he does with them. All this is adorable right now, but ask me again in a few months when he's grabbing things off shelves at the grocery store...

This picture was just taken today. Nate received this beautiful handmade quilt from Karen Keane and we LOVE it. One of the fabrics was actually the same exact fabric that I picked out about a month ago to re-cover Nate's nursing pillow (which he is laying on in this picture). We took this picture today to send to Karen with the thank-you note. Thanks Keanes!

Here are three video clips of Nate holding things!!!

Karen and Andy's Visit

We had a really good time hanging out with Lesley's sister Karen and her new husband Andy a couple of weeks ago. They are moving to Switzerland soon, and Karen wanted to show Andy where she had grown up before they leave the US. We did lots of fun activities, including kayaking to the Moks, scuba diving Shark's Cove, bodyboarding Makapuu, climbing the Stairway to Heaven, and watching the sunset in Waikiki. Here are a few pictures:

Our little family on the beach at Makapuu.

Karen diving at Shark's Cove.
There were tons of awesome caves to swim through.

Lesley on the left, Karen on the right. Andy and Karen kayaking to the Moks.

Around the backside of the left island.

We saw a monk seal! Very cool and special.

Matt and Andy kayak-surfing.

Sara's friend Alethe on the Stairway to Heaven.

The whole crew on Stairway.

Chubby Smile Videos

Nate's newest trick is blowing air through his sealed lips to make a vibrating noise. Usually there is plentiful drool available and he can blow some nice bubbles at the same time. How efficient.

Here are a couple of cute smile videos for you to enjoy:

Chubbs

This week we've had a great time hanging out with Lesley's sister Karen and her new husband Andy who are in town for a week. Pictures of our adventures to follow. I feel pretty behind on posting Nate pictures, so I just grabbed a random handful here.

Chubbs is growing up a storm and continues to rank high in his weight percentiles. At his 3 month doctor's appointment on Tuesday, he weighed 14 lbs 12.5 oz, placing him in the 80th percentile for weight. His length is now 22.8 inches, placing him in just the 44th percentile for length. Short and fat. There's a reason we sometimes call him "Thunder Thighs."

The first few pictures here are of a 1.4 mile swim race that Matt competed in at Waimea Bay. He didn't train for it at all and still managed to do really well. What a natural athlete! However, we all enjoyed the fact that our friend Alex (short for Alexandra - a GIRL) beat Matt by two minutes. Turns out Alex was swimming varsity in 7th grade, though, which made Matt feel a little better. :o)

Matt hanging out with Chubbs in the cool Waimea morning air before the start of the race.

Making faces Matt looking ripped before the start of the race. He is so fit right now. But YES, that is Alex the speedy fish on the left! Todd is on the right (who also did super well).When we got home, both Nate and Daddy crashed out in the living room. Nate loves napping in his swing, and Daddy loves napping on the floor. Believe it or not, we do own a bed!

Chubbs sitting by himself on the rocker.

This was the first (and only) time that Emma showed Nate any affection.

Watching Daddy run an 8K race around the Lanikai loop.

This Newfoundland looked like a bear, but was the most gentle dog you could imagine.

Saddest face ever.

Nate Talking To His Mobile

Nate has been talking a lot recently. His two favorite things to talk to are his mobile and his grandma. Grandma Stevens talks to Nate and he just blabs and blabs back to her all about what it's like to be two and a half months old. He cracks us up.

Big milestone last night: Nate slept seven and a half hours straight! He might have even gone longer, but I woke him up to feed him because I was worried at how long he was sleeping. The trick was to move his crib out of our bedroom into the living room. When he was right next to our bed, he would half wake in the middle of the night and suck on his hand. I would wake up from the noise and go feed him. Now, I'm sure he still sucks, but I don't hear it, and he just drifts back into full sleep without complaint. I should have moved him earlier! I read that after two months, babies don't really need nighttime feedings anymore, they just wake up out of habit. Seems to be true for this little guy. Hopefully this will keep up and I'll be able to allow him to sleep even longer through the night. Yay!

Fun in the Water!

We had a really wet Fourth of July weekend. It didn't rain a single drop, so we spent a lot of time in the water. Matt's mom hosted her annual Fourth of July barbeque (which had been on hiatus for a few years) which was a lot of fun - probably the best Kailua fireworks display I've ever seen. Our water adventures included:

• Chillin' out with Nate in the backyard kiddie pool
• Watching massive south swell at Point Panic
• Scuba diving at Three Tables on the North Shore
• Kayaking out to the Mokes on a really flat day and paddling right into the cove in the back and free diving
• Trying out Sara's stand up paddleboard in Lanikai

The last three activities were all courtesy of babysitting a la Matt's mom. Mahalo nui loa!

Lesley and Nate in the kiddie pool. Matt was such a natural and picked up stand-up paddle boarding immediately. It is so much harder than it looks! I never got in more than three strokes of the paddle before falling in the water. The back cove of the Mokes - so beautiful. Some of the massive south swell that rolled in last week. Random bodysurfer on a perfect wave. We were able to borrow all our scuba diving equipment so we just had to rent tanks. The coolest thing was the rock formations about 30 to 40 feet deep. I really liked swimming through the caves! Lesley doing a silly pose.
Matt doing some deep water exploration.