Merry Christmas!

This year we celebrated Christmas by traveling to Georgia to visit my family.  We had a great time, and we're so thankful that David was able to meet his aunts, uncles, and cousins.  David LOVED all of the constant attention.  I don't think he was on his own the whole weekend.  Someone was always holding him.  We're also thankful we got to share the Filaski Family Christmas traditions with David.  He really enjoyed opening presents and playing with his new toys.  (Thank you to everyone for the generous gifts!)  He also liked chewing on the wrapping paper.  However, he cried after opening one present that had clothes in it!  (It was adorable.)

David and Dad, waiting to board with our plane in the background

David sleeping on the plane

David on the plane

David and his cousins: Bradley, Brandon, and Bethany

David and Aunt Carrie

David and Uncle Donnie and Bethany

David and Aunt Brandi

David sleeping in front of the fire on Christmas Eve

David opening one of his presents

David getting goosed

David demonstrating the goose

Grammy spoiling David with Ghirardelli chocolate

"Mmmm ... chocolate.  Now how do I eat this?"

The crew going for a walk - with Bethany and Brandon holding David's hands

David and Dad

David as a penguin

David's new favorite way to get a bath

Fun with Gingerbread (2011)

As some of you may know, we have a tradition of building a large-scale gingerbread house each Christmas with the clan back in Georgia.  Here are the results of this year's build-out:

Bradley's self-constructed house:

Bethany's self-decorated house:

The large group house, built by Brandon, Donnie, and Chris with decorating by Brandi:

Now for those who aren't familiar with this tradition, there is always an obvious question of what to do with the various houses once you've finished building them.  They don't last that long due to the Georgia humidity, and with four boys around the first year (I include the adult "boys" in that count), we quickly came up with the proper answer:

BLOW IT UP!!!

We'll post additional photos soon.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! Since our last post a lot has changed.  David had his 4 month check-up (Yes!  He's 4 months already!), and he's doing great!  He weighs in at nearly 16 pounds and is 26.5 inches.  He's already fitting into 6 month clothes.  

Recently, we've been busy getting ready for Christmas!  I insisted on taking David to see Santa (see photo below.)  However, after looking at the picture, I realized that Santa looks a little "special."  Don't worry ... we didn't leave David alone.

Since our last post, David's hand-eye coordination has improved tremendously.  In the photo below, he's actually holding part of the toy stationary with one hand and rotating the shaking part with the other.  It's amazing to watch.  David's also gotten really good at rolling over from his tummy to his back... so good that he can do it in his sleep, quite literally.  He'll "go turtle" while sleeping, so we have to keep running into his room to flip him back over to his tummy.  He's working on rolling in the other direction, but he still needs a little assistance.  Hopefully one day soon he'll be able to roll in both directions.

We're also proud to announce that David can finally wear the three think geek onesies that Chris picked out.

Of course, the one that started it all:

And David's Star Trek science officer onesie:

And last but not least, a biology themed one ... if you can't read it is says "brought to you by G, C, A, and T, and the number 23"  (It's a DNA joke)

ys

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our little turkey!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with some dear friends from UCSF on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  Claire flew out all the way from Virginia, and Brad and Tet came down from San Francisco.  It was great to see them all!  Unfortunately, we didn't get any good pics of Brad or Tet, but here's one of Claire.

On Thanksgiving proper, Chris, David, and I celebrated by going for a hike!  Considering that we were on trail last Thanksgiving, too, we figure that hiking may just become our family's Thanksgiving tradition.  We'll see what happens next year.

David, all packed up and ready to go for a hike

The three of us

David and Dad

David and Dad

We're also proud to announce that David slept in his crib for the first time last night!  He only slept for 3-4 hour stretches, but we're still proud of him for reaching this milestone nonetheless.

The little guy on our monitor

New Skills

It's amazing how David is growing and getting stronger every day.  Recently, he's started to show off some new skills that he finds really fun.  He's far from mastering them, but with a little assistance, he's enjoying the practice.

Holding the bottle

Standing (with Dad's help of course)

And talking ... he actually coo's all the time, but usually gets camera shy

He laughs!

Yup, he got bigger!

Taken shortly after we came home from the hospital

Taken this morning

3 Months!!!

Happy 3 Month Birthday, Baby Dave!

On Saturday, David officially hit the 3 month mark, which is a pretty big milestone for all of us.  He's still doing well, and growing like crazy.  Our last estimate (from our bathroom scale) is that he weighs 15 pounds!  No wonder he feels heavy to carry around.  We celebrated his birthday by going to a birthday party for a friend who turned one this week!  David loved watching the other babies crawl and walk around.  This was the first time he's really shown interest in other "little people."

Here's a recent pic of the little guy.  It's getting harder to take pictures of him smiling because he's started to notice the camera.  

David's taken an interest in his hands.  He's been trying to eat them for a while now, but he's recently started to stare at them.  I think he's finally starting to realize that they're connected to him and that he can move them.

David's also gotten increasingly interested in grabbing on to things and making them move.  The coordination in his hands and arms has improved tremendously in the last few weeks. 

He's still an inquisitive guy who likes to explore.  Although he can turn over now, he usually spends his tummy time trying to scoot forward or rotate.  He does pretty well, too.  He can scoot himself almost off of the blanket now.   I have a feeling we're really going to have our hands full once he learns to crawl.

David went for his first ride on Dad's shoulders... he seemed to really love the view from up there!

Happy Halloween from David, the calf!

Happy Halloween!  We celebrated by taking David to the Goblin Walk in San Carlos, where kids trick-or-treat down Laurel Street.  David went as a calf, and I (not surprisingly) went as a burp cloth.  David also enjoyed some great quality time with Grammy and Grandpa Don, who flew in from Georgia for the weekend.  I think that Grammy and Grandpa Don enjoyed their time with David, too, and they even got new walking shoes while they were in town!

Our calf

David generously sharing his costume with Dad

David, tuckered out from all the trick-or-treating

Grandpa Don and Mini-Me

Grammy and David reading about fish

David showing Grammy how to hold a bottle

David and Dad going for a walk