Irvine Park and Zoo

On Saturday, another one of our family day, we took Taj to Irvine Park and the OC Zoo. Since he has become so interested in animals (puppies!), we thought it was the perfect time to show him some of the animals at the Zoo. It was also our first time at Irvine Regional Park, a neat little place with a lake, playgrounds galore, a choo choo train that goes around the whole park, lots of horses and pony rides, and plenty of nature trails to explore and go bike-riding on. We plan to come back here in the Spring with our bikes (and a bike seat for Taji when he is big enough.) The weather turned out very nice for the day, and we had a wonderful time on our stroller walk around the park and zoo!

The brown bear, burro (donkey), mountain lion, bobcats, anteater, potbellied pigs, bald eagles, and loud peacocks were some of the highlights at the zoo, but Taji's favorite part was the Children's Petting zoo, where he got to pet the miniature goats and watch other children feed them.

After the zoo, we played at the playground. Taj loved going down the slide and riding the bouncing animals. We also waved at the train passing by and watched the little ponies at the pony rides area..... one day in the near future Taji will love riding those ponies :)

Summer in January

Only in California can you relax by the beach in 80 degree weather in the month of January. It was just one of those days.....and it happened to be a thursday, one of my usual days off from work. The warm breeze, sunny blue skies, beautiful scenery, just me and my precious boy. Special mother-son time. Priceless. I cannot describe how happy my heart feels to cuddle with little Taji on a blanket at the park, push him on the swings, take a walk around our neighborhood while he napped in the stroller, and end up at Inspiration Point (in CDM) overlooking the ocean, with a root beer float in hand. I want to hold on to this moment for as long as I can.

Taj, at our neighborhood park, wearing the adorable onesie his favorite aunt got him. Thanks Peti! Taji is very excited to play with you, uncle Bryan, and his cuz Chloe this weekend when mommy and daddy get to go on a lunch date :)

Allow me to walk down memory lane a little bit...... this is a pic of me with Taji (in his bassinet stroller) when he was just born standing at scenic Inspiration Point:

and this is Taji and I, 8 months later. Same location, same people..... my, how time flies!

Getting to spend such an amazing and peaceful day with my handsome and smiley little boy is what I live for, feel so lucky to have, and look forward to each and every day of my life!

Taji turns 8 months old!

Happy 8 months to our 18 pound speed crawler and chunky ball of energy. This last month has been quite a rollercoaster ride for both Taj and mommy & daddy! If he wasn't congested or sick, he was teething (yes, say hello! to his first upper tooth (totalling 3 teeth now, and a 4th will be joining the party in a matter of days).

Sleep deprivation took on a whole new meaning when we would be up with him sometimes every hour of the night, Baby Ibuprofen became our best friend :) ----(LATEST UPDATE: Just when we were on the brink of sleep training, Taji has been pretty much sleeping through the nite this last week! When he wakes here and there he will go back to sleep on his own within a few seconds, and sleeps a good 10-11 hours! I really think us changing his bedtime to an early 7pm and doubling up on the diapers (we had a 2 week pee diaper leaking situation) has a lot to do with it!)----- So, as I was saying, by night he would be fighting the discomforts of having a cold or teething, by day he mastered crawling (7 1/2 months old to be exact), pulling himself up to standing, and now he is truly speedy gonzalez as he zip crawls throughout the house, uses our legs and furniture to pull himself up, and he is even starting to "cruise" (from his music table to the sofa and back). Here are a couple adorable videos of him speed crawling and standing/dancing at his music table (if you haven't guessed it, it is his most favorite toy right now!)

Taji loves pushing buttons on his musical toys, hitting the drums, shaking the maraca and clapper, basically, anything he can get his hands on that makes noise! (We are signing up for another 8 wk Kindermusik session!) He still really loves the big keyboard daddy bought him a couple of months ago :) Taj loves to crawl and chase after balls and cars on our wooden floors; he also loves to play peekaboo and chase when he is in crawl position. Daddy is teaching him how to wrestle with him, and the two of them like to gang up on mommy and chase her around the house (you should see how excited Taji gets! I'll get it on video soon ;) Taj is an impatient eater, and although his appetite has kind of gone up and down due to all of the above, he continues to be open to all the different tastes I keep introducing him to. He LOVES avocados, peaches, baby yogurt, chopped up bananas, blueberries, likes to bite on his teething biscuits, and is liking all the meal combos I have recently been blending. Some of the faves: jasmine rice-chicken broth-spinach, lentils-chicken broth-avocado, and for the first time, CHICKEN dishes! He had chicken for the very first time on the day of his 8th mth bday, and i I have since blended it with potatoes/carrots, and rice/peas. Taj is eating 3 solid meals a day along with approx 25-28 oz of formula. He takes one really long nap in the mid morning (typically 2 hrs), then a short 30-45 min cat nap after lunch, so that 7pm bedtime is really working for him!

first time eating chicken..... hope he likes Mr. Turkey, Mr. Beef, and Mrs. Salmon when he is introduced to them this upcoming month!

Since his laying days have turned into sitting and crawling days, I felt he was ready for the VERY big boy tub! Its like his own private pool! He loves bathtime and his bath toys:

Taj has been attending Montessori 3days/ week now for the last 2 weeks and is Mr. Popular with the teachers. He is a very happy baby when he is there, and I was amazed at how easy the transition was. All the teachers comment how "vocal" he is (you mean.... "demanding", right?!! LOL) he's all smiles and is an attention hog. There are a total of 2 baby boys and 2 baby girls in the infant room, all around the same age. I think there's already been a love triangle in the classroom; Taj has a little "girlfriend" (she's 4 months older than him!) he always likes to be next to while the other baby girl must have gotten jealous so he pulled her hair and she swiped at him! Ahh, the drama of baby puppy love!!! Speaking of puppies...... Taj is a big fan. He takes his puppy security blankie (from Aunt Wendie) with him to Montessori and also sleeps with it at home. He has really taken an interest in animals, specifically dogs, maybe because of our Colorado trip or because we always see them out and about on our walks. On our days off from school (both Montessori and my place of work) we frequent the parks and playgrounds walking distance from our home. We have 3 favorites so far, and especially love the one on our street that has a big grassy hill we like to lounge on. (i think of it as our Big beautiful backyard just a block up). Taji loves to swing, and go down the slide (us holding him of course!). He also likes to crawl on the grass and pull the grass out.... which brings me to the perfect segway to..... Taj's 8 month photo shoot at the park!!! Enjoy!

Naptime Gymnastics

Well, he was supposed to be taking a nap, but instead......



and this is how he got there:

On your mark, get set, CRAWL!

We have a CRAWLER! Time to baby proof the house!

Yippeeee! We are very proud to announce that Taj is officially crawling forward on his hands and knees! After weeks of crawling backwards and swaying back and forth (and teasing all of us), he is now in the crawling club! Maybe Bodee had something to do with it, and Taji felt the pressure to catch up to him LOL

I got really lucky today and captured his first real crawling on video!! A little long but you can see the transformation and finally the courage for Taj to just let go and crawl a few steps! If you want to see his "first official crawl" you can forward the video to the 5 minute mark and watch until 6:30.... he crawls 2 different times!



As I mentioned, Taji has been crawling backwards since before his 7 month birthday, and he is now super fast, especially on the hard wood floors! This has been his mode of transportation throughout the house and he is really good at turning and manuvering himself from toy to toy. Supposedly this crawl is called the crab crawl! I got this video earlier this week, and I like to call Taji's backward crawling his "moonwalk" :)

Our Family's 1st Trip: to winter wonderland Colorado

We took our very first out-of-state trip as a family of 3 to Denver, Colorado, where we visited and stayed with our good friends: the Johnson Family, Hagstrom Family, and Scott Moorhead. What a wonderful time we had in the white winter wonderland of Colorado! On this trip, Taji experienced many more "firsts", but most of all, he loved the adventure and the people! Here's a recap of some of his new "firsts"!

1) First time traveling on a plane! He did AWESOME, the ear pressure going up and down didn't even seem to bother him even though I had plenty of bottles, pacifiers, and things for him to suck and munch on. He was a bit restless on our way back home, but aren't we all?! We think Taj is a traveler-at-heart like his mommy and daddy! He enjoyed the airport and getting people's attention on the plane..... he was a curious little kitty cat and had a smile planted on his face throughout. The 2 hour flight to Denver was just a practice round for the big NY summer trips (7 hour flight) and our international vacations (10+ hours of flying.)

2) First time seeing SNOW.... and experiencing what cold really feels like! While in Colorado, we had temperatures from a sunny 40 degrees all the way down to below 0 snowing! Taji braved the cold in this super cute fleece blanket peekaboo car seat cover....
He loved the snow, touching it and looking at it. On one day, when it was snowing, Taji actually caught some snowflakes on his eyelashes and lips when we were walking. He played in the snow bundled up in his down fleece snow suit... and he looked twice his size in it but so freakin cute! :)

In Boulder, Colorado.....when it was snowing. You can see a big snowflake in front of us in the picture.

3) First time meeting his "drool brother" from another mother: Bodee! Brad and Matt grew up in Bemus, NY together, had their weddings and baby boys the same year..... and the babes were actually born only 2 days apart! Seven months later, the boys finally meet and the torch has been passed on to them! Now they (Taji and Bodee) will be the little rascals their daddies were growing up. Taji had a fantastic time playing with Bodee! The boys bonded over their play table, crawling, and even ate baby yogurt for the first time (got that on video too, click on the link in the last paragraph)
Here's a video of the proud dads introducing their boys:

Taji also LOVED watching, playing with, and being entertained by Braxton, The Johnson's 5 year old son.

4) Taji's first time in the pool! And a heated indoor pool!! I swear, I think Taji thought it was bath time with everyone else joining in on the fun LOL

here's a video of him splashing around..... check out his little speedo (swim diaper) he wore!

Thanks to the Johnson Family, we had an awesome family day at their exclusive spa-like athletic club they belong to. Taji hung out with other babies in the infant day care room at the facility while the adults got to work out and relax in the spa-like locker room. Then we picked up the kids and played at the indoor pool. Wish we had something as cool and affordable as this near us, so Brad and I could do this on the weekends.

Here are more pics of Taji playing with his new friends.....

5) Taj's first time ringing in the new year...... as much as it was sad to say goodbye to quite an amazing year 2010, we were thrilled to celebrate the beginning of 2011, which will bring us even more incredible memories :) On NYE, we had a big slumber party at the Johnson house. The kids and babies got to play, while the adults feasted on a steak and wine dinner. Then when the babies went to sleep for the night, the adults got to party! I do have to add that during the 10 second coundown to the new year, guess who woke up and wanted to join the celebration? You guessed it! After our midnight kiss, Brad and I ran down to our little Taji boy, where we showered him with kisses and good wishes, and after he got his hugs and kisses from us he winded down back to sleep.

We even attempted to go up to the mountains skiing, however, once we found out that the temperature was -45 with wind chill, we decided it would be best to save this for another time, especially when Taj is a little older and can go snowboarding/skiing with us! Our Colorado Trip was the perfect getaway and ending to Taj's first magical holiday break. These pics and videos were just some of our favorites, for more click here.

Thank you Johnson family and Hagstrom family for the hospitality and good times! It was soooo nice to spend time with you and ring in the new year. We look forward to many more trips and memories. Can't wait to come back and visit again :) xoxo