6 Months Old

Baby: He has been a busy one. As you know, he got his helmet, got his glasses and now is cutting his first tooth! (Needless to say, he hasn't been the happiest camper, but gosh darn if he just isn't the most adorable little turd.) He is rolling over easily from his back to his stomach, but can't quite figure out how to go the other way. He gets pretty irritated when he's stuck on his belly. He smiles all the time (sometimes even in the middle of crying he can't help but turn those lips upward). He is laughing at Mommy's silly noises. He is ticklish all over, but doesn't love being tickled. He gets all tense and doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Enjoys just chilling on our laps once in awhile. We are not going to talk about his sleep (or lack thereof).

STATS:

Head - 17" (25th %)

Weight - 19.5 lbs (75th %)

Height - 26.5" (50th %)

Parents: We are ready to get this guy in a crib or something. Still sleeping in separate quarters, but we're making it work somehow. We know it's temporary, that's how we do it day to day. But I think this weekend we're gonna try letting him sleep in his own area to test it out. After his next surgery, I have the intention of putting him back in our bed if he needs it (although I'll probably need it more). But that's still 3 months away, so we need to get him out to keep our sanity! Since the baby is doing so well, we are a little more comfortable going out and doing things on our own once in awhile. We even saw a movie and a concert last week, so it's nice thinking those kind of things might be more frequent in the months to come. And after all the madness of this year, we are already looking forward to 2012. This year can just be over, thanks.

Mommy's Thoughts: I've had a few friends get pregnant in the time that the baby has been around. And with all the difficulties we've had with our little one, you might think I'd feel sorry for these parents-to-be. I was telling my hairdresser all the little (and not so little) things we've been dealing with and she said "Wow. You're not really selling me on the whole kid thing!" I agreed that I'm not exactly the poster-child for having babies. But as other parents know, the joy these little tykes bring you more than makes up for any struggles they put you through. So even at their worst, you love them. And you never want anything bad to happen to them. So much in fact, that I not only don't feel sorry for new parents, I'm actually excited for them! Stoked, even. It's a journey, that's for sure. And you never know what hand you'll be dealt. But man, what awesome rewards you get for being responsible for these little beings. Seriously. And sure there are days where I don't exactly enjoy being in Mommy Mode, but overall, being a parent rocks. Hard.

Road Trip

We had a plan.

My husband got 2 weeks off from work. We were gonna go to Southern Utah to visit the family for the weekend and then spend (at least) one night in Vegas so we could take advantage of the warm weather lounging by a fabulous pool.

Our plans changed.

The season premier of Gene Simmons Family Jewels did so great in the ratings that the network spontaneously wanted to add more episodes, thus calling my husband back to work a week early. A blessing and a curse all in one. So instead of relaxing in the sun, my poor husband is stuck in an office and will probably be working really long hours. And I'm just home tending to poopy diapers and waiting for doctor appointments.

I swear we always get the best pictures in my Mom's backyard. It has perfect light!

It's OK. We still squeezed in our little road trip to Utah. And we had such fun on our mini vacation. (Plus I made my husband promise he'd make it up to us later with a weekend trip to Palm Springs or San Diego or something.) The traffic getting to and from Vegas was atrocious, but once in UT, we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Maybe too much. And you know when I say that, I'm mostly talking about food - BBQ steak, burgers, homemade spaghetti, oreos, chocolate cake, s'mores - oh, it gives me a stomach ache just thinking about all the food we took in this weekend. But that's beside the point! The family fun time was great too. It was fantastic just to get away from it all for a couple days.

Loves his Mümmi (that's Grandma in Finnish)

Stevie had the best time with Mümmi & PopPop. They are so sweet with him. They even baby-sat so we could take the cutest nephew in the world to see Cars 2. Hubby and I thought the plot was really complicated, and the 3 year old just LOVED it. Go figure. He said "Tomorrow we are going to see Cars 3!" He just couldn't wait. It was so cute. I had a great time with my sissy too. We are planning a girl's trip for August to the Midwest and I'm really looking forward to that! This mini vacation was a grand slam for sure. Now that we know the baby can handle the long car ride, I hope we get to do it lots more!

After a good read.

Playing in the sprinklers

At 5 Guys

Nephew with Sissy / Stevie with Brosef

Today

Today was a big day for the little guy. He got his helmet, he got his glasses and he turned 6 months old! Hard to believe. In some ways, I feel like there is no way he's 6 months old - that went by so fast! But in other ways, I see him as much older - probably just because he's been through so much in the short amount of time he's been with us. A lot has happened in the last 5 and 1/2 months, and they've been kind of long months. What a little trooper.

Slightly pooped after the long day!

So far, he hates the helmet but loves the glasses. Probably feels pretty good to see. And I'm sure he likes being a 6 month old. So 2 outta 3 ain't bad.

Daddy's Hands

When I think of my husband becoming a father, two images stand out in my mind.

The first is the way he looked at Stephen when he was first born. He was so amazed by this little creature and sort of in disbelief that we created something so perfect. He took great pride in his mini-me and becoming a daddy came so naturally to him.

The second is the way he handled everything while Stephen was in the hospital for his heart surgery. There were moments of despair and anger. There were moments of comfort and support to me. There were tears as he saw our baby struggle. There was joy in his eyes when we got good news. His heart ached and he worried for Stevie's future, but he never, ever let it get the best of him. He was a pillar of strength and was determined to keep the little one safe and do whatever needed to be done. That's why I love this picture so much. Those hands provided assurance and comfort in a time of uncertainty.

And the way he looks at Stephen now and interacts with him and awes at him, well it would just melt your heart. He is the ultimate daddy, through and through. I couldn't have picked a better man for the job.

Happy Father's Day to a man who truly deserves it.

We CAN Be Spontaneous!

Friday afternoon, I get a text from my husband:

Him: Wanna see U2 tomorrow night in Anaheim?

Me: Um, yeah!?? What time, how, why?

Turns out an old co-worker of his was selling his nose-bleed seats, and we were more than happy to take them off his hands! Thank goodness I have a sister-in-law who lives close by and loves Stevie time more than anything else. She's the only baby-sitter I trust. And since she was available, we got to enjoy a great date night to a pretty rockin' band.

I've seen them one other time several years ago and if you've ever been to a show, you know its quite a treat. The stage was insane - so elaborate. The whole time I couldn't stop wondering how they put it up and take it down. It was like a crazy space ship. So cool. The setlist was great. I was worried I wouldn't know as much of their new stuff as I should, but they played tons of old songs and I heard almost all my favorites.

But as much fun as we had, we committed the ultimate sin for concert-goers and left before the encore *GASP* I have never done this before. But we are old and we got tired and we were missing the little one and we wanted to beat the traffic... So we booked it after Walk On. Aren't we so lame? Ah, at least we went out I guess.

Here's the goods:

Even Better Than The Real Thing

The Fly

Mysterious Ways

Until The End Of The World

One

Where The Streets Have No Name/All You Need Is Love

I Will Follow

Get On Your Boots

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of

Beautiful Day/Space Oddity

Elevation

Pride (In The Name Of Love)

Miss Sarajevo

Zooropa

City Of Blinding Lights

Vertigo

I'll Go Crazy (If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight)/Discoteque

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Scarlet

Walk On/You'll Never Walk Alone

Encore: Ultra Violet (Light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment of Surrender/Jungleland

See? A totally sing-along-worthy set of songs! We may or may not have done a little dancing too. And we DID hear the first 2 encore songs on the way to the car, so we didn't miss THAT much. Don't think of me differently, ok?

Lazy Eye

Today we went to a new ophthalmologist for Stevie. I decided to find a new eye doctor when it took the last one over a week just to return a phone call. I wanted to bring him in and they had no appointments available for 3 months. She was just way too busy. And when there's something I'm concerned about, I don't want to wait a week or 3 months or 6 months. I want to get it taken care of ASAP. So off to the new guy.

There aren't many pediatric ophthalmologists in LA (the one thing we don't have an abundance of) so we drove about 30 minutes to Arcadia. When I first arrived at the office, I was already annoyed. The bug had a rough morning, so he was grouchy and the place seemed a little crowded. They wanted me to fill out {more} forms, he was fussing and I was just overwhelmed and tired in general. When we got into a room, the nurse asked a bunch of questions (that I had just answered on the forms) and then we waited.

To my sweet surprise, the wait wasn't that long, and the doctor was a really nice, older guy. You can tell he's been doing this for awhile. He quickly and sweetly looked Stephen over and we talked about my concerns. They dilated his eyes for the exam and we waited about 20 minutes before the actual eye exam.

I was shocked how smoothly it went. If you remember the last one, it took 4 people to hold the baby down as he screamed his lungs out while the doc examined him. This time it was just me and the doctor, no tears. He used little tricks to make the baby look where he wanted instead of forcing his head one way and his body another - and it was just a huge relief! At that instant Dr. Fierson won me over.

The diagnosis for the little guy is that he is extremely far-sighted, more so in his right eye. Plus the ptosis is covering his right eye enough that it is making it lazy - because he is not using it to it's full potential, it's not developing properly. Baby glasses will be here in about a week. He tried them on in the office and boy, did he look cute. We will also have to patch his good eye for 2 hours a day to force his bad eye to do some work. We'll see how he likes that!

They'll look kind of like this! (Just smaller and blue)

So between his helmet and glasses, we will have the cutest little nerd on our hands this summer.

Mommy Faux Pas #4

I'm about to post something that LOOKS horrifying. But it's not.

My son has legs of steel. If he is awake, they are moving. Constantly.

Knowing this, I decided to sit next to him on the couch anyway with my morning fruit shake. We got a bit too close and he kicked the cup right out of my hand.


Luckily it was mostly on me and didn't ruin the couch or carpet!! The baby may or may not still have raspberry seeds stuck between his toes.

Oops.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christening

Religion can be a hot topic of debate when a husband and wife come from two different backgrounds. Luckily my husband and I are of the same mold, where the religion isn't as important as the morals our child grows up with. If you had asked me years ago if I would let me son get baptized in any other church besides Mormon, I would have said "No way. I won't baptize my kid until they are old enough to decide for themselves what they want." But leave it to falling in love, learning about compromise, and evaluating what is most important in my life to change all of that.

The Armenian Orthodox religion is one of the oldest in the world. But more important than the religion itself is the tradition that has run through Paul's family for generations upon generations. So when the topic of Christening the baby came up, there was no argument from me. This was for the sake of tradition. And my mom very wisely pointed out to me that "Hey, it can't hurt anything." And ain't that the truth.

So on May 28th, our little baby was brought into the fold, so to speak. We invited our families and closest friends to witness the big day and it really was special to have everyone together for the occasion. Stevie wore his Sunday best to the church (which included his red Chuck Taylors), and was on his best behavior. I didn't understand much of the ceremony because it was in Armenian (or broken English that I couldn't quite make out) but the basic jist included a lot of prayer and blessings for the baby. The priest blessed the water and the oil that he was anointed with, and then the little guy had his big moment. We undressed him and took him to the baptismal font and he pretty much had a meltdown. I think when they rubbed oil on his lips, he tasted it and freaked out. But either way, he was pretty ticked. After the actual baptism, we changed him into his little Christening outfit - kind of like a little baby tuxedo - and showed him off to everyone. Cue the swooning and giggles from the audience. We had a couple photo opps and were outta there. We celebrated with everyone at an amazing luncheon hosted by hubby's Aunt. And the day was just perfect. I'll post more pictures when I get them from the photographer.

The biggest treat for me was that my family made the trek (and a lot of rearrangements) to be in attendance. We are so grateful for all the support we've been given with this little bug and I'm glad I chose to partake in this experience. Now my son has a Godfather and Godmother who will always be on his team, plus the countless aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, etc who love him unconditionally. We really are blessed, regardless of religion. Or lack thereof.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

One of the sad things about pregnancy ending is that the gorgeous hair you were sporting starts to fall out. Like, a lot. I couldn't deal with finding hair EVERYWHERE (shower, bed, couch, baby's fingers & mouth) so I chopped it off. Bye bye locks, I'm sure we will meet again one day.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Star Tours 2.0

Does anyone else remember how AWESOME Star Tours was when it first opened? I remember as a kid riding it over and over and over again. I came off the ride with big excited eyes and just couldn't wait to do it again! As the years went on, that excitement diminished quickly. It got to a point where I didn't care if I rode it again. It was one of my last priorities while at the park.

Well, not anymore!

The new Star Tours opened today, but I was one of the lucky fans who got to ride a couple weeks ago before it opened to the public. I showed up to Disneyland before the park opened (which was a thrill all in itself to see the place completely empty!) and waited with 999 other people for the revelation that was Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.

It was really similar to the old ride. But way awesomer. Yeah, I said it - AWESOMER. Its in 3-D this time around, but what I didn't know at the time is that there are like 50 different ride combinations, so each trip will be a little different. That was so smart of them to keep the ride fresh and keep fans coming back for more.

I know I'll be back to see where Star Tours takes me next!