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!"

New Nate Video Clips

It's time for some Nate videos! He brightens so many lives with his little baby laughs. And no one can make him laugh like Daddy can!

We pumped up this air bed in preparation for Lesley's mom's visit next month. We put Nate on it when it was halfway blown up and Matt and his dad bounced him up and down to his delight.

Whenever Nate hears music, he starts his dance. His favorite is the office theme song, which he hears almost every day since mommy and daddy are addicted to the show.

Cracking up at Dad.

This is Nate's newest thing. He leans his head back and gives a huge smile to the ceiling. SO CUTE!

East Coast Trip

We had a wonderful trip to New Jersey and New York. We spent the first weekend with some of Matt's relatives in NJ, then traveled to Pearl River, NY for AIM's Candidate Week, then back down to NJ to see Lesley's grandpa and Alyssa and Bobby, then a final morning with Matt's aunt, uncle and grandmother. Whew! Yup, it was a whirlwind!

So, the first thing I want to say is that everyone who has a kid under 25 pounds should request a baby bassinette from your airline when you travel. They give you the bulkhead seats, the baby sleeps cozily and safely, and it's free!!! Nate slept 7 straight hours on the way there, and 5 straight hours on the way back. AMAZING. Wish I'd known about these earlier!

We arrived in NJ post winter snowstorm to find a foot or two of snow still on the ground. It was pretty special for us islanders.

Nate was cozy all week in hand-me-downs from his cousin Colt and friend Pena. Everyone is always complimenting this adorable hat! And the shoes are from Aunty Carla from Kazakstan.

Matt's super cool cousin Shelley and her husband Derrick brought their adorable kiddos down from Pittsburgh for the weekend. Nate loved hanging out with Reese, who is about two months younger than him. Here, he's checking out her toes. Nate is always fascinated by babies that are smaller than he is.

Nate enjoyed lots of playtime with Daddy, Aunt Margie and Carter (Reese's big brother). Matchbox cars were the toys of choice that weekend.

A whole bunch of family came over on Saturday and it was really fun to meet so many new people. Here is just one picture of Nate with Matt's uncle. This is one of my favorite pictures because I LOVE Nate's huge grin in this one.

It was really special that Nate got to meet Matt's maternal grandmother for the first time, who Matt is really close to.

We spent Sunday morning at the Philadelphia aquarium. We got to see penguins, hippos and of course fish, and touch sharks and sting rays! This was just some random photo op on a wall at the aquarium. Again, I just love Nate's grin. He's such a happy kid.

Nate trying to smile, his handsome Dad, and some tropical fish.

Touching the sting rays. Well, Mommy and Daddy touched them, but Nate just splashed the water a bit.

Looking in a HUGE tank.

He was completely exhausted by the end of the morning.

We were outside to see the penguins.

But he woke up after only 20 minutes so he wouldn't miss the penguins.

More playing with Reese. Note the matchbox cars again.

Then it was up to Pearl Rive for Candidate Week. Nate learned to draw on the windows in our room after a hot shower fogged them up.

All of the February 2010 candidates. Lots of new friends.

Then Nate got to meet my maternal grandfather, also living in NJ.

His daughter Alyssa (technically my aunt, but she's about our age) and her husband Bobby and their two sweet kids joined us for an awesome pizza dinner with grandpa. I hadn't seen Alyssa since we were in our early teens. Matt and I both really enjoyed getting to know her and Bobby.

All in all, it was a wonderful week!

Tons of Pictures from BEFORE Candidate Week

I wanted to post pictures of our recent East Coast trip, but I realized that we had some fun pictures from January that I have totally neglected to post, so I decided to just post a whole bunch of random pictures so I feel semi-caught up, then next post will be the trip.

So first of all, here's Chubsy displaying the latest in baby fashion. Here is Donna and her granddaughter Aeryn at Josiah's 2nd Birthday party at Kailua Beach.Barbara got an amazing arm workout toting these two around together for a while. This chick is ripped!
Makapuu Lighthouse hike with Brandon and Todd.

Mommy was there, too! I like this picture because Nate is flashing the "Thumbs Up."

Nate's first campout at nine months old.

Mmmmmm...chili and sausage over rice for dinner. Delish!

(Debbie, Matt, Brandon, Trish, Todd)

We got a big group together to mark such an important event in Nate's life.

(Nate, Sara, Ben, Lucia, Alex)

Matt actually slept in the big tent and Nate and I slept in this regular one. The regular one was a bit too crowded for all three of us.

New Year's Eve Party #1 at the Wilkinsons with Jimmy, Blake and Ali (Blake's girlfriend).

New Year's Eve Party #2 at the Lims with me, Jon (holding Nate), Brian, Keri (holding Zoe), Ella, Matt (holding Jessie), and Jeremy (holding Tyler).

Two of my homeschool kids mix up the flour, salt and water to make dough for their model volcanos.

The 5th and 6th graders (and one little sister) about to blow their volcanos up...

HUGEST poop of all time. HAPPIEST baby about it.

Straight to the tub. SOOOO proud of himself.

Lunch picnic during the middle of Matt's workday at a park near HBA.

This is the sweet image I come back to every Thursday after teaching. Nate loves napping on Grandmom!

We went to the LOST season premiere at Sunset on the Beach and took pictures of Nate with some of the actors. Here's Desmond...

...and Hurley...

...and Sayid. Good fun. We took this picture at sunset on our way back to join Matt's parents to watch the show. Fun evening.

Okay, I think that covers most of the January pictures I wanted to post. Next post: NY&NJ!