My little mister had his half birthday this weekend. 6 months, I can't believe it. For his birthday we headed to Babies R Us for some new age appropriate toys. Rick wanted to get him some learning toys. I don't know that you can really call them learning toys but I guess they are good for a 6 month.

We then headed over to Palo Alto to the Sunset magazine celebration weekend. Rick had VIP tickets from his work. We got there pretty late. I wish we had gotten there it a little earlier. It was fun. They had tons of booths with food, gardening, vacationing, decorating etc. It was such a hot day so we were in our shorts, flips, hats and pony tails. We were invited to the dinner which started at 7:00-10:00. We headed over to REI after the the festival closed at 5:00 to wait around for the dinner. When we showed up at the dinner at 7:00 we felt a little awkward. We were still in our shorts, etc. plus we had Athen in the Bob stroller. We thought it was going to be a buffet style dinner that we could drop by and leave shortly after. We walked in to a cocktail party with everyone dressed in nice clothes and heels and a sit down dinner with a three course meal. Oops. People were looking at us like we were crazy for bring our kid and wearing our flips.

On Sunday Rick invited the missionaries over for dinner and I invited my friends A & W. I tried out some new recipes that turned out pretty good. I made a mixed rice dish. I had red rice, basmati rice and brown sweet rice mixed together and added some butter at the end. It was good. I picked up the red and brown sweet rice in San Diego at the Asian market. I then made an asparagus dish with the asparagus wrapped in procuitto, sprinkled with parm cheese and drizled with melted butter, minced garlic and pepper. I loved it. It was so good. I then made a 2.5 pound salmon fillet. I made a honey soy glaze for the salmon and baked it in the oven (we don't have a grill). I then made a strawberry cucumber salsa to add to the top. The salsa had strawberries, cucumbers, green onions, yellow peppers, cilantro and rice vinegar. It looked beautiful and tasted nice with the salmon.




My little mister had his 6 month check up today. Here are his stats:
17 pounds - 40th percentile
26.5" - 50th percentile
head - 70th percentile
It looks like he is going to have his daddy's head.

He can do the following:
Eat his toes.
Roll both ways - although he dosen't do it often
Sit up all by himself
Has two teeth
Laughs out loud when tickled
Cruises all over the loft in his walker
Eats bananas and mangoes in his little mesh bag
Is learning to enjoy solid food
Loves to play in his rubber ducky bath tub until he is pruney
Loves to splash and play with his rubbery ducky toys
Screeches really loud
Holds his arms out and reaches for mom.
Pretty much he is a by the book baby. He does everything when he is suppose to - he is on the average (except for his cuteness, he is way beyond)

Here are a few cute pictures of him playing with his feet, and eating a banana for the first time. Notice how messy he is.

San Diego

We took our first little family vacation down south for a week. We left the bay area around 5:00 pm when Rick got home from work. We decided to drive into the night so Athen could sleep most of the trip and it wouldn't mess up his schedule. It worked out pretty good. Athen doesn't like the car seat very much. Of course we hit tons of traffic just trying to get to the 5. By the time we hit Livermore (about an hour and a half) Athen was starting to scream. We decided to stop off for a Togo's sandwich and a little dinner break for Athen. By that time it was his bed time and he fell asleep until we arrived in Woodland Hills at our hotel.

We woke up and headed over to my grandparents house for a quick visit. This was their first time seeing Athen. It was grandma's 80th birthday. We had pizza and salad for lunch with them and then headed on our way to San Diego. It was great to visit with them for a while.



We got to San Diego to Evan and Natalie's house a little before dinner time. We took the kids to a delicious Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was a nice relaxing weekend. Evan and Rick were able to go surfing and kite flying (not enough wind to board). We went to an Asian market and had a great time buying unique fruits and foods. We bought a gaya melon which looks like a mini watermelon, a dragon fruit and jackfruit. I use to eat jackfruit in the Philippines all the time and loved it, so I was so excited that they had fresh jackfruit there. Everyone else got to try it and they all enjoyed it as much as I did. The gaya melon and dragon fruit were both delicious. The dragon fruit was beautiful and similar to a kiwi. The gaya melon was a lot like a cantaloupe and honey dew melon mixed.



Isn't the dragon fruit beautiful?

We went to the beach a few times. Athen played in the sand and went in the ocean for the first time. He mostly stayed in his peapod tent and played. The sound of the ocean put him right to sleep which was nice.





On Monday we did some shopping at the surf shop outlets and they headed up to Aaron and Brock's house in Corona. We stayed the night there and headed home on Tuesday morning. I was a little nervous for the all day drive home with Athen, but it went okay. We left around 9:00 to avoid traffic. It was perfect time for Athen, his nap time. A few hours later he woke up happy as can be. Once he started getting fussy, we pulled over to a rest stop and laid our blanket under the tree and had a picnic lunch. It was fun. Athen got to move around, stretch out, play and eat and we got to relax with a picnic lunch. It was a nice break. We hopped back into the car and Athen was ready for another nap. We stopped one other time to do the same thing. Rick and I ate ice cream bars while Athen played in the shade under the tree. It went much better then I was expecting and was good quality family time together.




Over all the trip was a little harder than I was expecting. Athen had a hard time being in a different place and on a different schedule. He definitely isn't use to his play and pack yet and missed his bed. Naps were hard because of our schedule and other kids being around. He woke up several times each night. I feed him each time so he wouldn't scream and wake everyone in the house up. Needless to say, I was pretty tired most of the trip. It is nice to be back home where he sleeps good in his bed.

The little mister did learn house to sit this last weekend and has been doing a pretty good job at it. He turns 6 months this week. I can't believe it.