Weekend Getaway

We just got to Anaheim. It's about 10 pm and we are starving since we didn't get our nosh on before we left. Ironic how we're staying right next to Disneyland, yet we aren't here to visit the "Happiest Place On Earth". We are actually up here for our cousin's wedding banquet. Yes....we have a lot of cousins.

Kalista is still in a deep sleep ever since we left San Diego. She travels very well by car. It will be very interesting to see how she does in an airplane. Maybe we will wait for a bit, since we don't want to be the family with the crying kid. She can't quite do the secret trick all parents seem to know about....taking the bottle while ascending and descending.

Let's recap:
During our mini weekend excursion, Jen got a chance to meet up with her old college roomie. We had a great breakfast with Karin and her family, including her parents. They were Jen's "parents" when she was at UC San Diego for school, so it was great being able to spend time with them again.

Although we didn't make it inside Disneyland, we at least stopped by Downtown Disney. Nothing is as magical as the Disney holiday spirit and those yum yum beignets from the Jazz Kitchen. Mmmmmm!!!

At last, we ended the day with our cousin's wedding banquet. Jana and Brian are such a cute couple! We had a great time and Kalista was finally able to meet a lot of relatives on Matt's side of the family that live in southern California.

As easy as it was to get away from San Diego...we came back in less than 48 hours. What a trip!

First Thanksgiving

It is Kalista's first Thanksgiving!!

In honor of the day, she had sweet potatoes for lunch...or at least a dabble or two to taste. To shake up tradition a bit, we decided to go out for Thanksgiving dinner this year. No cooking...no messy dishes to clean...no hours spent tending to a turkey. Although we do miss the smell and aroma of food in the house.

Kali loves to suck her fingers nowadays. How tasty!

Matt usually has to work on Thanksgiving Day, so we decided to join him and partake in the Thanksgiving buffet dinner at Soleil at K with our cousins (this is the restaurant in the hotel). It was a fabulous spread of salads, main dishes and desserts. If we cooked the same amount of food, it may have taken us at least two to three days of preparation. The highlight of the meal was definitely the chocolate covered strawberries at the end. Just thinking of them makes our mouths water. Yum-o!

Kali with Uncle Carey and Auntie Nhu

We truly wish we had the hallmark picture of Kalista with a turkey drumstick that everyone speaks of, but instead we have many pictures of Kalista enjoying Thanksgiving without the turkey. C'est la vie.

All in all, it was a great day spent with family and that's what matters. Happy happy turkey day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

Goodbye Bay Area

Kalista got to see many of her friends on our trip. Last night, we were invited for drinks and dinner at our friends' house, where Kalista finally got to meet Tyler and Ethan for the first time. It was adorable seeing the babies play with each other.

Ethan, Tyler and Kalista hanging out with each other

In our final days in the Bay Area, we spent a good amount of time with our families. We had a lot of visitors and we did a lot of visiting. We wish we could stay for Thanksgiving, but we all need to get back to San Diego.

Here are a few more pictures of our time there:

Kalista with Auntie Claudia and Uncle P

Kalista smashed her cousin Alex while he was sleeping

Hi Mui!

Back in the Bay

Hello from the Bay Area!!! Jen had an optometry conference in San Francisco this past week and we decided to take the whole family to visit all of our relatives up there....dogs too. Our extended family has not been able to meet Kalista until now and let's just say, she was the center of everyone's attention.

Jen was able to rack up 26 hours of continuing education (CE) credit in four days, while Matt and Kalista drove around town hanging out with family and friends. The dogs stayed at Jen's parents' house since they have a large backyard. We hope they had as much of a great time as we did.

We look forward in spending a few more days up here and meeting up with some of our friends and their new babies. Kalista gets to have one big playdate with all the new little ones this weekend.

Here are a few highlight photos from the first few days of our trip:

Jen's family (oops..we blocked grandma!)

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma were delighted to see Kali

Auntie Pauline and Kali

Four generations of strong women

Finally...a photo with Grandma and Kalista

Fun times with great aunt Barbara and auntie Kim

Geesh...sometimes being a superstar can be overwhelming!
(This is Matt's favorite photo of the trip...look at that face!)

I'm Six Months Old!

Happy 6th Month Old Birthday!!!!

(sorry the pictures are grainy..gotta love that ambient hallway lighting)

Our princess celebrated her sixth month old birthday today. Dad and Kalista went outlet shopping for Christmas presents and somebody got new shoes in the process! Genuinely a daddy's girl...she got her official first pair of real shoes...Nike, of course. They are truly some cute little tennis shoes with bright yellow shoe laces and Air Max for added support. Is she running a marathon soon that we don't know about??? Funny how sophisticated baby clothes are nowadays...grown-up clothing but 1/18th the size.

Old Friends & New Friends

Update from Monday:
We saw Dr. Saenz for the bleeding button incident and of course the darn thing stopped bleeding right a day or two before the appointment. Matt brought her in and the doc looked at and said everything looked good. Not anything to worry about....thank goodness. The area looks much better than a week ago, almost as if nothing ever happened.

So what's new???
Kalista has been busy playing with her friends this week. Quite the social butterfly we have raised! It was a "dads and daughters" playdate on Tuesday. She had a chance to play with Lyla, who is a little bit older than Kalista, and they just sat and stared at each other. It seems like that is what babies do at six months...just stare at each other and play with what's around them.

Getting ready for some lunch with the dads

We also had mini playtime in occupational therapy. Kalista was laying next to her OT buddy on the mat and Kalista reached out to hold the other little girl's hand. It was too cute! Too bad we didn't have our camera at that moment... oh well.

Headlines on the feedings: We have found our new favorite food to taste....PEARS. We tried bananas, but it didn't seem to tickle her taste buds that much. Now that she has tasted real food, rice cereal and milk has become boring. She continues to like holding a carrot stick in her hand and when Kalista drops it to the ground, our furry daughter, Bella, is ready to swoop in for the steal. We think Bella is catching on and is super chummy with Kalista since she is now the giver of foods....more like the weakest link. Our OT goal this week is getting used to a sippy cup and possibly tasting from it. Oh boy...we've skipped bottles and graduated to sippy cups!

We Gained An Hour

Oh...gotta love daylight savings time in the fall. An extra hour is what we need.

Not much new stuff going on in the home front. We do have an appointment with Kalista's pediatric surgeon on Monday since her monkey toes were up to mischief again and gripped on to her g-tube tubing. She is so strong that when her toes grabbed the tubing and kicked her feet outwards it made a good tug on the button and caused it to bleed at the base. It's been lightly bleeding for the past few days and we just want the doctor to check it out. We've been putting antibiotic ointment and doing frequent gauze replacements to prevent an infection. Darn those monkey toes!!!

I don't have monkey toes!

Kalista's newbies:

She has been getting much better at sitting up on her own. She's even learned how to dress and undress herself....just kidding. We're not quite there yet. Although, she loves to hang on to her clothes whenever we change her outfits. Her little fingers have also found a fascination with paper items. She has learned that paper crinkles and loves to scrunch at it. She is also turning the pages when we read to her in the evening. So cute!

Look at me! I have a cool headband.

Adventures in Eating...Taste and Textures

We have some milestones that are noteworthy. Kalista started her Lil' feeders group three weeks ago and is showing some great progress. She has been "experimenting' with rice cereal/baby foods for taste and is now working with carrot sticks and celery sticks for texture and stimulation. She is doing a great job and can tolerate select items in her mouth. The key word is "select"...since bottle nipples are still in the dislike list. She loves holding her carrot sticks and on occasion it makes it to her mouth. We have to keep a close eye on her since she is starting to bite down harder now and we don't want it to become a choking hazard. She has also blossomed into terrific thumb sucker. We're not sure if this will be a positive or negative thing in the long run, but for now...we'll take it as a positive stepping stone.

Messy me and rice cereal

Ooh yum...carrot stick!

Kalista has also figured out to sit up on her own now. It will only be a matter of time before the crawling starts since she is starting to figure out how to get into crawling stance. Watch out doggies...here she comes!

I can sit up all by myself now...YIPPEEE!

I'm so proud of myself!!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Oh my..has it really been a week and a half since we've added anything to the blog? Well I must say, not much has happened since then.

We carved a few pumpkins yesterday and earlier this morning as part of our family tradition...or more like Jen's personal tradition (she loves carving those pumpkins). Kalista dressed up as "Monster" Boo from the movie Monsters Inc. and went trick-or -treating for the first time. Here are a few pictures from the day's events:

Kalista getting ready for the evening's activities

She just woke up from a good nap before we went trick-or-treating

Jen dressed up to match Kalista's costume, Sully from Monsters Inc.

I guess you can say we harvested this "little pumpkin"

Our 2010 carved pumpkins: It became a Disney themed Halloween

Minnie Mouse

Mickey Mouse

We even carved a pumpkin with Mike Wazowski
(the one eyed green monster from Monsters Inc.)

We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Afternoon Update 10/21/10-Baby's New Accessories

Kalista got her ears pierced today. While we were out and about taking care of doctor appointments, we made a visit to the Collins family jewelers since Bill Collins is a baby whisperer in ear piercings. Kalista did a great job and really didn't cry too much after the first ear, but boy did she wail after the second ear. She was probably thinking how could her parents let someone do that to her. In the end, she was a brave little girl and now has these cute light purple earrings.

Kalista getting her prep talk that everything will be fine.

Mr. Bill measuring up her ear lobes for the perfect place

Kalista after her ear piercing with a little bit of tears

Dad wanted to show off her new accessories: