Play time at the park!

Since Andrew was born in March, he was really too small to take to the park during the beautiful summer and fall months. When my family decided to forgo the cold, and hit up the beautiful Vasona park in Los Gatos... we decided it would be a perfect time to introduce Andrew to all that is swings, play sets, and more. And he...... loved it!!

Andrew and Uncle Ryan.

Welcome to 2010!

Since last years "public goal setting" seemed to work pretty well.... I thought I'd do it again for 2010.

Left over 2009 goals, now moved over to 2010!
- Grow a few of vegetables/fruits/herbs in our back yard.
- Participate in the March for Babies. And I'm going to bump this year's goal up a little bit... I'm going to create a TEAM! The race is April 24, 2010.

New 2010 goals:
- Walk 30-45 min, 2-3 days a week. Before I got pregnant with Andrew last year, I was walking during my work lunch. But then I got knocked up... and my good coworker/friend Annie left... and I got lazy... and I stopped walking. I really want to start that up again.
- My "green" efforts are to *try* and eliminate paper towels from our kitchen and instead use rags. I would also like to purchase only environmentally friendly cleaning products from Method. (We use their soaps now, but once our other cleaning products are empty - I'll replace them with Method).
- Date night *alone* (not with friends) with my husband once a month.
- Explore community churches to participate in.

Merry Christmas - Part Three

Our post Christmas celebration included a trip to Saratoga to visit my mom's family.

Great Grandma loved spending time with her grand and great grand kids. This is my brother, his wife and their daughter Evey.

Every year my family spends the afternoon of the 27th (my Grandma's birthday) playing bocci ball at a local in door court. The whole family gets in on the action - and Andrew's no exception!

Merry Christmas - Part Two

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Brandyn's family in Fresno.

On Christmas morning, Andrew woke up early, and found that Santa had left one VERY special present for him - unwrapped under the tree - a xylophone.


Andrew received a lot of very nice gifts - but I think he enjoyed playing in the boxes and paper more than anything!


Andrew loved all the time he got hanging out with his cousins.

And, of course, we squeezed in a little nap time too. Andrew had trouble going to sleep... so obviously, I had to help him.

Merry Christmas - Part One

A very merry Christmas it was at the C Family house! I'm so behind on our blog updates and so much has happened over Andrew's first Christmas - that I want to document it all! So a three part series. The first showing our pre-Christmas at home, then actual Christmas in Fresno with Brandyn's extended family and finally a post-Christmas with my extended family.

The first weekend in December we picked up a tree.


Andrew helped with the lights!

And with the decorating.

Baby Sign...

So Andrew's day care uses sign language to help communicate with the babies. Ms Stephanie is helping us learn too. So far Brandyn and I are using "milk," "all done," "eat/food," and "more." We make the signs when we talk to Andrew so that he can hopefully learn to use them back to us and tell us what he wants/needs before he can actually talk.

Yesterday I tired to add a new sign to our repertoire - "stop." Which looks like this... (try to ignore the scary looking guy... they were the only pictures I could find.



As soon as I did the sign... Andrew started busting up laughing. And then I remembered... I wasn't thinking at all about my future in baby sign when I spend 20 min. making Andrew laugh with my impression of "Who's gonna get chopped!" I guess I created the "monster" who laughs at his mom trying to tell him to stop!! My bad.

Wrapping up the year!!

About this time last year, I got ambitious and wrote down my goals for 2009. As the year comes to a close, and I look back at my goals, I think I did OK. I was able to get some accomplished... and others... I'll just move over to 2010 and make them top priority!!

My list of 2009 Goals:
- Begin composting at home. Done! We have a large bin/barrel that my parents gave me for Christmas last year in our backyard to collect our scraps. And with all that Andrew has been eating - the peels, rinds, and cores - have been great contributions to the compost!
- Grow a few of vegetables/fruits/herbs in our back yard. Nope. Need to move this one over to 2010. Something I definitely want to make a priority!
- Cut my hair and donate to Lock of Love. Done! And I can't believe I didn't blog about it! At the end of August, I cut off 10 inches - and STILL have enough left for a pony tail! :)
- Participate in the March for Babies. Nope. After MUCH consideration, I decided that walking a long distance, only 6 short weeks after having a baby, was probably not a good idea. But 2010 March... here I come!
- Get back on the healthy living/eating bandwagon. Done! I'm back to meal planing, Weight Watchers recipes, and packing my lunch! Since returning to work in June... I'm down 15 pds... and counting!
- Become a mom! ;) Done!! ;)
- And my optimistic goals for breastfeeding. First... 3 months (while I'm on maternity leave)... then I'd LIKE to get to 6 months... and I'd really LOVE to get to a year. Let's see how it all goes. Done!! (Sorta). I made it to six months.

Now... to think about the rest of my 2010 goals!