almost 2 years old...

it's been a while since the last update...
Luca has grown so fast in the last 2 months. I started documenting his new words every day in July and by end of Aug. he was coming up with new words every day that I can't keep track. I think it all took off when he started to repeat what we say and word by word now he listen and his eyes will be thinking then the words would come out and it sounded so sweet in his baby voice. Tonight he said "i lo you mama" soooo sweet and i think he was happy that he could say it-even though he doesn't know what it means. i think he can say up to 5 words... "i don't want that song", "here u go", " e-ma let's play", "okay", "i did it!", Got it?", " where did it go?"

here we are at Cayucas a few weeks ago and had a great time! he was so scared of the waves i was holding him in my arms and he would be screaming no-no - no. then he would want me to walk closer to the water... he just doesn't like the cold water. I think he loved the pizza and ate a whole slice. we also went to the Avila Valley Farm and he got a chance to sat on a tractor and he was turning on/off the lights and was so proud... pretending to driving the tractor.

Happy New Year 2012!!!

i know it has been so long since the last update... so many things have happened.

Sept. we made an offer on a house in Alameda and got accepted.

Oct. we then went to NY, NJ, DC for 2 weeks to celebrate our new purchase J/K! It's funny how things happen when you plan a trip. We closed our house 2 days before our trip. As soon as we got back we packed up our loft in a week and moved over 1 weekend. Good thing is the house is just a few blocks away. We moved to the east side of Alameda and we love our new neighborhood! Luca celebrated his 1st Halloween as a monkey, wrestler, and a dinosaur all in one day! Our neighborhood was a zoo filled with a ton of trick or treaters. We handed out 2000 candies in 1.5 hours and turned off our lights at 8pm. Marco's mom met us in NY and stayed with us for 2 months to celebrate Luca's first birthday.

Nov. Luca turned 1 on 11/3!!! what a milestone! 365 days ago we were wondering when and what will be like on this day - and here we are...! We have 6 birthdays in Nov. in our family... starting with Luca, then Marco's mom, Marco, My mom, My aunt, and My Grandma who turned 99 this year over thanksgiving weekend! let's just say my grandma party like a Rock Star for 3 days! My aunt/uncle and cousins from Canada visited us for her birthday- it was a fun long Thanksgiving weekend.

Dec. there's Christmas...! Luca's 2nd Christmas, but this time all he wanted was to shred the wrapping paper and playing with packaging materials. I got us a duckie ornament for this Christmas and Luca loves to go and touch the duckie. He also loves the tree mainly because it's got lots of lights and he would say "woow" every time he sees the Christmas lights. Luca met Santa this year at his daycare ... let's just say he was not happy to see him. Luca finally after 2.5 months of bottle strike since NY trip, he's now drinking milk - in his sippy cup and I was able to wean off completely on Christmas day. Our baby is growing up!

1/3/2012 - today everyone went back to work and things went back to norm and here we go another year. This year we have lots of plans for the house remodeling and a few mini vacations. We look forward to an exciting / unexpected 2012!

Merry Christmas 2010

i love these fun videos of us - enjoy!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/12Fjp3ymNyMp5R55

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/6WY1DkgEWSMDXJUk

last summer vacation

here we are at Morro Bay last weekend and we had a blast. The weather was great and the company were so much fun. Here's a picture of Luca enjoying beach! ... until next summer...
i will load more pictures once i down load all the rest of my pictures off of my camera.

chair covers

i came across these wool felt chair covers. i just love it and it's so cute! i'm gonna try to make in my spare time-Ha!

Happy Moon Festival

Happy Moon Festival!!!

the moon was really bright but small tonight... Luca enjoyed playing with the moon cake. I don't think he knows that it was something he can eat, so he just tossed it around and got bored with it and prefer his sweet potato dinner better. by next year i think he will love his moon cake!

Music Class

marco got this ceramic instrument from our trip to Taiwan and i think Luca finds it pretty funny :-)

First day of Swim Lesson

Red MEAT

this month we started to introduce red meat = protein. here we have beef chopped down in cubes with oregano and just boiled down until it's cooked then we puree and freeze it in ice tray. i have to say the smell of chicken or beef boiled down with no seasoning is pretty grooose... but Luca eats it all every morning!!!

this is Luca's feeding schedule as of 9M and our Dr. tells us that it's time to cut back on milk and more solids. the idea is to have him eating table food by 12M.

Here's a typical meal for the day:

630am - milk

830am - milk 7 oz

nap

1030am - solids (we give him beef with potatoes with a side of kale and carrots = 3/4 cup = 6 oz. of mashed food ~ yum ~)

1pm milk 7 oz

nap

330pm - solids (brown rice with beets and sweet potatoes (3/4 C) + finger food like cut up bananas)

500 - solids (millet with red bean and sweet potatoes (chinese dessert - 1/2 C = 4 oz.) + cut up peaches)

730 - milk (sweet dream... see you tomorrow at 630am!...)

as you can see he eats every 2 hours and every waking moment, non-stop which keeps me really busy in between changing his diapers.

swim class

marco wanted him to take swim class ... at 9M?!!! i think it's too early but.. it's all about playing in the water. this is at Alameda Aquatic center where the water is heated to 85 degrees and the class is 30 min. with signing and few techniques.

here are some images of his first day. he was crying for the first 5 min. but soon he was getting comfortable also hanging on to pa-pa very tight and by the end of the class he was splashing and playing.

graduating from baby tub

after this bath time we knew this was the last time he'll be in this baby tub... way too much splashing all over the kitchen and he won't sit still in the tub. we now bathe him in the adult tub and he bathe it with his pa-pa... and he can splash all he wants!
my little Luca is growing up! didn't think this day will come so fast at 9M.

//... good morning...

...buffing eyes... stylish hair...

good morning!!! these are my favorite guys!!! it's wonderful to wake up with them.

Hawaii BBQ

Here we are at Marco's co-worker, Lou's house for a nice hot summer BBQ and the theme was Hawaiian. Luca has a perfect Hawaii shirt! thanks for my co-worker Lindsay!

have you noticed that both parents were cut off from the each picture..?! it's all about the baby now...!

8M

Luca is now 8 Months!!!
already?!!!
i still remember when i reading about what your baby will be doing at 8M and thought when will that get there - it seems like a fun age.... and here we are. I felt like the last 2 months since 6M has gone by really fast and he progresses so much from rolling to standing while hanging on to things all in 2 months. Yesterday he Clapped his hands!!! finalllllly!!! i've been showing him how to clap his hands since 4M i think and today he did it again :-) we were all very proud of him! and soon i think in a few weeks he will wave bye-bye. Luca is a textbook baby - right on target! so i can pretty much expect what will happen next month by reading the book.
he has been teething really bad and i think we even found some blood on the cloth when we dry his mouth from chewing on his toys. his top 2 teeth are coming in - i can feel it! it's all very exciting to see him grow and sad at the same time... i just want him to stay at his age for a little bit longer so i can enjoy a little bit longer. i'm glad that my work schedule is only 3x a week and i get to catch up with him the rest of 4 days. when we get home around 6pm we have to clean him, change, play, and i have to cook, then marco will get home, then feed him, and he'll goes to sleep at 7:30 or 8pm, then we eat dinner around 8:30pm. we really only get to spend about 2 hours with him and it's his worst time, because he's usually so tired by the end of the day and he usually don't get his 4 hours nap at daycare, some times he'll sleep as soon as we're in the car for a short nap of 30 min. poor little guy...
we can't wait to watch him grow, learn and experience life with us!

daycare

here's Luca sleeping at daycare last week when we picked him up. they even has his name on the wall.

Standing with one hand

yesterday Luca was standing in his rain forest again, but this time we put his rattle ball at the top and he was really focused in getting the ball slowly with one hand while the other hanging on to the bar and standing all on his own. what a big boy now!!!
part of me don't want to grow up so fast and still wants him to be a baby but part of me can't wait for him to walk and talk so we can have a in depth baby conversation.

aaaaeeeeehhhhh

i could be a flirty girl

if Luca was a girl i think he would look like this... (click to see his lashes)

i bought him a sun hat and i was just trying it on his big head. he looked sooo cute and he looks sooo girly only if he was wearing a pink dress... hmm... next time.
daddy didn't like the hat since it's made of polyester... so we had to return it-good thing i took some pictures!

Dia de Portugal

i think we caught a big one here!

We went to SJ to celebrate Day of Portugal at Kelly Park. It was a warm afternoon and we just finished having our grilled sardines with potatoes and bread. Luca had sweet potato with millet for lunch.
I looked up and found a pacifier in his mouth the next scene was him spitting it out and the pacifier went flying.

Angel Dear photo shoot

Luca and I showed up at the photo shoot in SF Glen Park neighborhood, it was actually at the house of the owner. They were all very nice and very friendly and of course when they see Luca they were like 'oh he's a happy baby this will be easy' Luca SMILES at everyone :-)
he took a big poop there, so i had to change him before the shoot, good thing it didn't get on the nice clothes. The photographer also took some pictures of Luca and I - I think it's gonna turn out really nice. We were the last baby there and it all went really fast with only 1 outfit ... it only took about 15 min. at the end they gave us their famous blankie ( i got him a tiger one, since he was born the year of Tiger) and a sweater jacket. They told us that the Spring 2012 catalog should be out in 3 months and that is when we will get our photos and catalog.

to see more photos from the photo shoot click here.