Good-Bye Uncle Chuck

My brother leaves for Spring Training today. I'm bummed he's leaving because there will be no one to wipe up the counters, wash the dishes and clean up around here! I'm kidding.

It's always fun when he's here. And it always seems like I just picked him up before I'm driving him back to the airport again.

My brother and I have always gotten along really well. Even while we were growing up. And I just think the world of him.

He lives with us 6 months out of the year and then he plays minor league ball the other half. Even though we miss him when he's gone, we're excited for him because we know that he has a once in a lifetime opportunity. What a lucky guy.

When he is here, the simple things seem funner. Like cooking the "perfect" meal, going to Target or watching one of our shows (The Office, ReDesign, Samantha Brown). He and Matt make fun of each other constantly and I'm simply entertained.

Evan loves his uncle Chuck. He just has a way with kids. Evan will just hang out with him in his room. Carlo puts Evan on his lap and lets him ride like a motorcycle. He also holds him up in the air and swings him side to side on a pillow.

Next time Evan sees Carlo he will be a year old. We will have our webcams but it won't be the same. So hopefully we'll get to go visit him in New Hampshire.

Evan at 2 months

Evan at 4 months




Evan at 5 months

Makeover Your Body Contest

Matt and I entered a fitness contest along with some friends. We went in and got our body fat and lean muscle mass measured. As you would imagine, the winner is the person who loses the most fat and gains the most muscle. I officially started today and Matt started last week... So far, I think Matt has the contest terms backwards. On Day One, he stuck with it. On Day Two, he went to the Barona Casino buffet. Should I go on?

Quite honestly, he's not doing too horrible. And I shouldn't talk quite so early... I'm only on Day One. Who knows how long I can go without chocolate and ice cream.

So to help my chances, I ordered a rebounder online and the plan is to use that for 15 minutes first thing in the morning next to Evan in his exersaucer. He'll probably think I'm trying to play alongside him. Then I'll eat breakfast and do 100 push-ups and 100 situps throughout the day. I'll go on walks with Evan and push his stroller with my rollerblades at Mission Bay or Miramar Lake. I also upped my pilates sessions to twice a week and Genevieve, my trainer is not taking it easy on me. She loves this new challenge.

Even if I don't win, there should be some improvement and that will be a nice reward.

I'm not posting before and after pics but here are some pics of baby, ofcourse and my nephew, Damien. He came over to spend the night and he was my model for today. He also got to hang out with Carlo who took him to hit some balls at our neighborhood park.

So Many Pictures of Him

We have so many pictures of our little Guy. We cannot savour every moment any more than we do. We really make it a point to cuddle with him, play with him, just be with him... study all of his features, smell him. Every little thing he does, however small deserves our applause. The way he curls his toes. The way he looks at his hands. The way he stuffs his foot in his mouth. The way he pouts his lips.

And no matter how much we try to savour every moment, time still escapes us and Evan is getting so big so quickly.

I love being a mom. Evan and I went to baby gym and we also joined a playgroup. We go on walks around the nieghborhood (and at the mall). I like to spend time in the bookstore leafing through magazines and skimming through books (that I'll later buy on amazon.com). Now that Evan is here I find a spot to sit in the childrens section and he is entertained just looking at his fellow little people. I end up making friends with the other parents. I don't think I've ever met as many people as I have since being pregnant and being a mom. You can strike up a converstaion with just about anyone. And I find all kinds of interesting people... although, I did get in trouble from Matt for being friendly with the waiter last night. I promise, I wasn't flirting. The waiter happened to be from Iran so I was asking him questions about the people there. Anyway, it turns out he is studying photography here and I recently took that up as a hobby so I was really interested in this class he was telling me about.

I've taken up a lot of hobbies lately. I've always enjoyed photography but was in a hurry to graduate and didn't want to take classes I wasn't getting credit for. But after paying a professional photographer to take newborn pictures of Evan (which I cannot even post online for copyright infringement) I decided to invest in a professional camera of my own and Photoshop CS2. Believe it or not, I also took up scrapbooking, which is a very mom thing to do. But I really enjoy it. I get together with my girlfriends and catch up.

You'll probably see a lot of practice pics on my blog from now on... bare with me.

Weekend in the Snow

We spent the weekend in Big Bear and came home just in time for the Super Bowl yesterday. We've been going to Big Bear Lake every winter for as long as I can remember. Big Bear Lake, for you non-Californians is our winter resort town... about 3 hours from San Diego. We would rent a huge cabin and all of my aunts and uncles and cousins would go. Well, a few years ago, my aunt Judy and uncle Oscar bought a cabin and now we go up to Big Bear a lot more often. We usually do some skiing and try to find a spot for sledding. During summer, we do watersports on the lake.

Although I love to ski, what I like most about going to Big Bear is hanging out at the cabin with my family who constantly make fun of each other. We play board games. Boulderdash is a fav... we always know Matt's answers because he is too hilarious and he always has to write about West African aardvarks or champion mote swimmers.

I don't mind the food either. Aunt Judy loves to cook up a feast and so we always eat more than we should. But hey, we're on vacation and calories don't count at that elevation or when you're having too much fun. Monster Bagels, Rasberry French Toast, Hot Cocoa with extra extra whipped cream! Matt goes crazy on all the snack food as you could imagine. He's a big hit with my family because he's easy to make fun of in the eating arena. Last time we went he put away a whole family size of pudding snack packs. He won't ever live that down.

As with everything, this was baby's first trip to the snow but there isn't much to tell about that since he didn't get to do much. He just hung out and looked cute. My cousins and I, we all went to a sledding place nearby and we tried to be creative about the way we would come down. We would all come down together in a train or a circle holding on to each others arms and locking our feet. You had to be there.

I don't know why we all hurried back for the superbowl. We fell asleep. Does anyone know who won? Just kidding. The Chargers weren't playing so it didn't matter.