noodle boy

Well, Dorian proved that he is definitely my son by trying his first noodle. They kept sticking to his fingers and he wasn't quite sure what to do with them. But hey, they came off of our plates, so he liked them. Anything that is mom and dad food.



He is also standing mostly on his own now, and starting to creep along furniture a little bit. Pretty amazing. He's very excited about it because he can get to anything he wants now (we have to baby proof the house quick!).

Yay Naked!

Today was the first time Dorian and I attempted to take a shower together. He's been in the shower before, but usually we have Karl to help take him out after he's clean to get dried off. Well Karl was already hard at work, so I decided to try the whole routine myself. Worked pretty good actually! Dorian turned into a little monkey and clung to me. He's used to baths now and wasn't sure what to make of the shower. A whole lot of soap and one handed shampooing later we were both clean. He does love his naked time, so here he was getting down to his birthday suit for the shower.

When we made it to Reno last night, through some mild snow, Dorian was ecstatic to see Daddy. There were slobbery kisses, lots of grins and some very enthusiastic hand wavings (as you can see). When he gets really excited, there's no stopping those arms. Despite having some gum issues (looks like the teeth may put in an appearance, finally), he's a happy boy.

working working

Dorian pretty much likes all the toys that are not really toys. Lotion bottles, tupperware, food lids, baggs, wipes containers, you name it. The most recent fascinating toy is grandma"s calculator. He likes to push all the buttons and flip the screen up and down. Great fun. Beating it on the ground makes great noise too, we're working on "gentle".



This other picture is him sitting in a high chair that grandma got for when she has both boys at her house, Milo and Dorian. He's testing it out with Mr. Mouse. He's a bit squished, but he likes to share with Mr. Mouse. He also likes to give him kisses and chew on his nose.

peekaboo giggles

Dorian is a very happy baby overall. He laughs a lot and he grins at people. He flirts with the old ladies in costco, actually he flirts with all the ladies everywhere. Karl says he's already getting phone numbers! Well, pretty recently he is starting to giggle. Sure he let out a little laugh here and there, but now he is doing that cute little kid giggle. The infectious kind that makes you want to laugh along with him. It is incredibly cute. Yesterday I was lifting up his shirt and looking at his belly, then I would look back at him and make a surprised noise, like I found something on his tummy. He thought that was the funniest thing ever and would let out a big giggle every time I did it. It works with peekaboo too. Lucky for me, my handy phone was right there, so I took a picture of him giggling. When he gets really excited he stuffs his hand in his mouth. Watching him giggle around a mouth full of fingers was pretty funny too. Everyone should be so easily entertained! May you have a giggly day...

faux hawk!

Dorian LOVES bath time. He gets to splash around in warm water, play with the washcloth and shampoo bottles and generally have a ball. Last night we had bath time and mommy got to have some fun too. His hair is now long enough to do some cool shampoo styles! :) It was cute. So, here is a picture of his first faux hawk. Hopefully he never has a real one in his "identity crisis" teen years, but I suppose there are many worse things.
We also got a new towel at IKEA last week, so here he is in his nice fluffy new towel. I am not sure if it is supposed to be a green monkey with a huge red mouth and blue ears or what, but it's cute and warm, so hey.




I have decided that I love this age, 8 months. I think I really started to have fun with him once he was 6 weeks old and was smiling and I didn't feel like I was going to break him anymore, but this time right now is awesome. He responds to people, he flirts, he grins, he crawls all over the place, he is SO excited that he can crawl, in general he is quite the little man now. Very fun.

when life gives you lemons...

Here is another picture in the getting up to date atempt. I think every parent has a wicked little thing in them wanting to see their baby make funny faces, like a dog with peanut butter! Totally funny. So Karl and I were at a restaurant and we had lemons in our water. This is when Dorian first started to really watch us eating food, around 3 months or so. So of course, we both say, "hee hee lets get a picture of him making a sour face with the lemon!". We get all ready, camera, lemon piece, expectant expressions etc etc. Well, this is what he did with the lemon. As you can see, there is no sour face involved, he loved it! He still likes lemons and limes. I really craved limes when I was pregnant, wonder if that could have had anything to do with it? Anyway, this has become one of my favorite pictures because it looks like the lemon is his big smile. Hilarious. That'll teach us to try to get him to make funny faces. Wonder how he would do with peanut butter... :)

Food!!!!

Dorian has been really happy about big people food. Especially if it comes off OUR plate. It's the funniest thing, we can be eating the same exact food but his is in a jar. He won't touch his, but he'll eat all of mine. He knows that the food in the jar is "baby food". So I think I am going to put all his food on a big plate and see what he thinks of that. It also helps if I eat some of it first and show him how "yummy" it is. Now I remember why I hate spinach. Wow, some of that baby food is just NOT good. yech

visit with Tricia

It has been snowing like crazy, so they have been closing the pass on and off. Needless to say, D and I decided to stay in California. So, to get out of grandma and grandpa's hair (and to keep mom from going stir crazy), we decided to drive to modesto and visit Tricia and her new little man, Quinn.

He was sooo cute! I always forget that Dorian was ever that small! Amazing. Well we had a very nice visit. I caught Quinn smiling in his sleep. So who knows, maybe a good dream, maybe just a toot, but a cute picture anyway.



We also drove up to Stockton for breakfast with another mommy and baby. That was fun. Dorian did SO good in a car this time! On the ride down (which is 3+ hours), he slept most of the way and only fussed a little. Thank you baby einstein for putting out such good videos! Then, on the ride back, he watched his show one more time and then fell asleep holding my finger. He slept until I pulled up at mom's house. Awesome. Now if he could only do that in his own bed...

Out walking again

Well, we went on a walk again at the Independence Trail along the Yuba river when Karl could come with us. Nice healthy air, beautiful greenery, great exercise and....french fries? Yup, that's Karl walking along with the fench fries. Pretty funny. Actually, I'm not one to talk, all of us had some before we started out.

We of course took pictures again. Dorian was all bundled up and warm. He fell asleep for a lot of it and got in a good nap in the nice fresh air. Milo on the other hand stayed alert for the entire trip, even managing to pose for a family portrait with his mom and dad. For those of you who don't know for some reason, that is my sister Maria and her husband Micah. The M&M family. :)

two funny things

Dorian was being so cute the other day. Well, he's always cute, but definately with these. He was working on this really big novel. We're starting him early on reading. Yeah, so most of the work he was doing involved chewing on the corners and generally drooling, but hey, it's a book.

Then in the morning when we were having naked baby time on the bed (should I have put a little bar across private parts?), he was practicing his standing by using me as a jungle gym. But the really funny thing was that he was trying to peel my tattoo off my skin. He was getting quite upset by the fact that it wouldn't come off. Funny for me, even though he would grunt and scratch at it harder (ow).

food coma

Here is Dorian after Daddy fed him and put him down for an nap. Looks peaceful right? Well, that is the goal. We need your advice and good luck wishes this week. We are going to work on getting him out of our bed, and into his own. He has slept with us for 8 months and mom and dad would like their bed back please. Especially because little man kicks off the covers (it's cold!), sleeps sideways, and crawls over us and over the pillows to get wherever he wants to go. Grandpa calls him Tank for that very reason! So please send your well wishes and any advice you may have! We're gonna need it...

Cousin Milo

This is Milo. He is now 4 months old! It is very funny to see him with Dorian. I think he thinks Dorian is crazy. He watches him waving his hands around and making noises, and gets a very serious expression on his face. Very cute. Milo is also extremely different from Dorian. He has been nicknamed "mellow Milo". When he was younger he looked worried a lot. He would have a little frown between his eyes and just look very earnest. Now he looks serious and less worried. Not that he always looks that way, he has awesome giggly moments. I was holding him up above me and he was laughing his littlel head off! He smiles a lot, especially at mom and dad, and giggles too. He's reaching for things and likes to gnaw on grandma's finger, something he does have in common with Dorian. So, there is an intro to Milo, who is probably going to get in lots of trouble along with Dorian. I can see the two becoming little terrors. Milo the quiet instigator and Dorian the loud "doer". Funny

4 month pictures

At four months old we went and had the same photographer take some more pictures. Of course we did the picture crazy parent thing and had already taken a million of our own, but hey, why not have someone else take some too? So here are a few of our faves again.

It was actually really cold that day, breezy. It had been raining for a couple days, and on our day the sun was gorgeous and shining. Very nice! And the flowers hadn't all frozen off yet. Of course it was only September, so it wasn't cold like December/Januray, but it was nippy and windy.

Dorian did very well with pictures, even though he was so interested in the plants that it was hard to get him to look up at the camera to smile. He fell asleep as soon as we were done, worn out from all that picture taking!

prego pictures

I promised to "catch up" to the point where D is now, so here is another attempt. Let's start with pregnancy! We went and did a professional photo shoot, so here are a couple of our favorites. We took these when I was 8 months pregnant, I think 2 weeks before I had him. So I am HUGE! Looking back now I go, wow, I really did look like I have a beach ball under my shirt. (no wonder I got the stretch marks to prove it!)

Rearranging the house

Since Dorian is crawling all over the place now, he is also getting into everything (of course). Well, he has discovered DVDs and CDs. They are great fun to pull off of shelves, to gnaw on, to hit on the floor and anything in reach. They are even better if mom or dad opens them like a book, so he can open and shut and open and shut and open and shut (yes, he has to do it many times). He's not so good at following us around yet, he gets distracted too easily (SOD: shiny object disorder), but I am sure he will get there. Other than not being able to leave him anywhere alone now, it sure is cool to see him up and mobile!

My boys

Dorian and Karl are so cute together, I thought I would share a couple pictures of my boys. They are rivaling each other in their hat collection, though I think that Karl still has a few more. Here Dorian got to wear one of Karl's. He likes to take the hats off Dada's head and play with them. Playing usually means drooling on them, hitting them on the table and then throwing them on the gound, but hey. Karl gets back a well loved and soaking wet hat. ;) If anyone sees a really cute and unusual hat for D, we'd love it!

Another cute thing is when Karl feeds Dorian. Of course, half the time most of it ends up around his face rather than in his mouth, but it's fun anyway. So far he likes bananas, plums, apricots, apples (all the sweet things of course), sweetpotatos and carrots. Green beans and spinach are sort of indifferent. Peas on the other hand are loathed.

Uppy!

Well, now that he has mastered crawling, Dorian is set on standing and walking asap. He pulls himself up on things all the time. He's not really cruising along furniture yet, but I am sure that will happen any minute now. He has this little toy that sings songs and has flashing lights. That's what he is standing up with. He also pulls himself up on the couch, his exersaucer, people and of course his crib.

His crib has little gummy rails to protect his supposed teeth, which are refusing to make an appearance, and also to prevent him from gnawing on the railing. Well, he likes to stick his mouth on it and try yelling at the same time. It's pretty funny and gets VERY drooly. He also gnaws on it, but the yelling is much more fun.

Standing tall

Today D and I hung out at home. We had a very eventful day of crawling and playing. He is now pulling himself up on things, like his crib. Here he is standing infront of a toy that can convert from a kick and play all the way into a standing sing along center. He's standing there now gnawing on anything he can reach.

He is crawling really well now. It was so cute, he heard the door open this evening and I said "Daddy's home!". He pushed out of my lap and crawled out of his room really fast and started down the hallway towards his Daddy. It was sweet. He really gets excited to see Karl, and the feeling is mutual. :)
~Kat

Independence Trail

We went walking at the Independence Trail along the Yuba River. We being me, Dorian, Maria, Milo and Micah. It was the first gorgeously sunny day in quite a while, and after that much rain, no power and snow, we were all ready to get out. It was still a bit chilly, but we bundled up. Dorian had a bit of a hat issue, it kept slipping down, but he was happy bouncing along, and talking the whole time.

The Yuba river is where I grew up swimming. This is a shot from above, one of the little "landings" along the trail. We walked for a good hour and a half, and the trail continued long after we turned around. It's funny, I've lived in this area for 20 years and I never knew you could walk downriver on this trail also. I've only ever gone in the other directions. So this was a nice treat for me too. Everything smelled all fresh and clean becaue of the rain, and all the green things were going nuts, moss and ferns everywhere!

power outtage

Well, when the big storm hit us, we had no power for 5 days! It was all very interesting, but I was more than ready when we had power again. :) Driving home one day, it had just snowed, and I was lucky enough to end up right behind the snow plow! Best person to be following! We were lucky, the roads were plowed and the snow only stuck around for about two days. The power however took a bit longer since there were 150 mile per hour winds rushing about. Gale force, I believe they called them.

During this lovely power outage it was also my Dad's birthday. We had planned a big chocolate cake and flowers, the whole nine yards. Well we ended up with a big cookie and a little candle. Ah well. It's hard to bake without power.

Halloween!

Well, Dorian was a bee for halloween. I think that is what Karl was for his first Halloween, so of course, like father like son. :) We didn't actually go trick or treating, it was really really cold. But, he got to wear the cute outfit for some pictures.

I don't think that he will fit into it next year, so we'll have to think of a good outfit then. Any suggestions?

Office

Well, since so many people have been asking about what my office looks like, I thought I would put up some pictures. There is a picture of my front room with seats, the hallway and the massage room. The hallway has the first two rooms which are adjusting rooms, the third room which is the massage room, the office is the 4th room, the restroom at the end and then a big x-ray room at the end on the right.

The front office also has nutritional stuff, the gigantic information board and my vitamin gumball machine! The massage room is an orangish color, though when the lights are up, it really does look like a highlighter exploded. Oops.

Well there is a view of everything! This is where I hang out for 8-9-10 hours per day. Yay. I have a massage therapist who works with me and also a personal trainer who teaches fitness and stretching classes upstairs (HUGE open space above the office). That's it! :)

Lake Tahoe

We went to Lake Tahoe to show Omi around when she was visiting. There was some fresh snow on the hills but it was actually pretty warm. The scenery of course was beautiful. Dorian got his first look at that much water, though he seemed to be more concerned with trying to climb out of our arms so he could explore on his own. We



There is a representation of lake tahoe carved out of this piece of rock. Karl knows more about it, but it looked pretty neat. It shows the shape of the lake and talks about how deep it is at certain points. Mom, Omi, Karl and I all went together.

family portraits

Like I said, my Omi was here for 5 weeks at the end of October. We went to take family pictures because we haven't done that since I graduated from college in 1998 (wow, now I feel old). So we went to a place called the Crystal Hermitage with gorgeous flowers and trees and views of the Sierra Nevadas and took some there.

This again, is the little man with one of his hats. This is the one that used to be mine.

Let's see from left to right:
Nadja (my cousin)
Renate (my Aunt)
Dan (my uncle)
Karl (my lovey)
Me
Dorian (the cutest baby ever)
Omi (her name is actually Helga)
Maria (my sister)
Milo (her cutest baby ever)
Micah (my brother in law)
Mom (also known as Marion)
Dad (also known as Ed)

My other cousin, Chris and his girlfriend Jenny and their cutie pie Kavien were not there yet.