Damien Celebrates "Discovers" Santa

Last year, Damien was too small to get Christmas. This year, he was still a little too young, but he liked opening presents and getting gifts. He did pretty well with the tree, he would occasionally decide to relocate some of the ornaments around the house, but for the most part left it alone. Despite Mommy's best efforts to rein her shopping impulses in, Damien ended up with a lot of loot. One of his bigger presents was a talking Elmo doll, since Damien has recently been enjoying watching a little bit of Sesame Street here and there. He loved it. He also received some bath toys, some dinosaur magnets, some kitchen food for his little kitchen, and many books, cars and ornaments. As an added bonus, D's Aunt Pamela was up to spend the holidays, and it was great to have her. It took D a few days to warm up - he seemed nervous that her presence meant Mommy and Daddy were going to leave, but once he did, he smothered her with kisses.

Checking out his Elmo doll.

He immediately pointed to the eyes, said "ball" and then proceeded to try to eat them!

Happy with his new toy.

Loving his Aunt Pam.

Oh, the ever more present skeptical look - You mean I can't have whatever I want?

Damien Has a Special Birthday Lunch with Grandparents

Continuing his birthday celebrations, Damien hosted some of his grandparents for lunch on Friday afternoon. Well, it was supposed to be most of his grandparents (Grandpa Richard had a work retreat unfortunately). But, momma screwed up and accidentally reversed the airports when booking Grandma Linda's flight, so she booked a ticket from Oakland to Ontario instead of vice versa. With $200 to change the flight at that last minute, Grandma agreed to come the following weekend when she could have little D all to herself. And Grandma Lo Lo got sick and couldn't make it. But Grandma Colette and Grandpa William and Maurice were there. And boy was it a nice sunny day. It was a nice time to celebrate Damien in the calm before the birthday party storm.

Enjoying his new walker that godmother Auburn got him.

Enjoying his water table that Maurice made him.

Loving Maurice.

Giggles with Grandpa and Daddy

A riviting game of peek-a-boo with William

An overtired but sweet little boy.

Damien is 1 Year Old

Wow, hard to believe that our little pumpkin, munchkin, monkey, boo boo is one year old. Boy time flies when you are having the time of your life. What an incredible journey this has been. Damien's 12th month was filled with lots of exciting developments. Mostly in the way of language and mobility. He learned how to pull himself up onto furniture, how to "cruise" (i.e. walk while holding on to such furniture), he learned to push a walking toy by himself, he learned to blow kisses, and he learned to stack blocks. His words now include walk, shoe, cracker, aqua, baba, avocado, more and bye (in addition to his first words of ball, dada and mama). He's pretty good at imitating now, and likes to mimic what the adults do - sometimes to hilarious results. He LOVES to walk assisted. He is quite clear about this desire, as he will scoot/crawl over to you grab one hand to pull himself up and then reach for the other hand and either start moving or say walk. Then off he goes, saying "walk, walk, walk." He loves to go up and down stairs both assisted on his feet and unassisted on his hands and knees. He has really come to love his blanket and monkey, and often wants to take these two items out of his crib after waking up. He finally loves to go for walks in his stroller - making many trips to the park and Berkeley Bowl. He's not so interested in his toy pit anymore, and prefers to walk, walk, walk - and play with rocks and dirt and water. We continue to explore new foods, and he is generally a good eater, but will occasionally reject the usual favorites - by spitting and throwing. But, you usually can't go wrong with yogurt, avocado, raspberries and goldfish crackers. He's a true delight.

Obliging Momma with his birthday crown and bib (Thank you Grandma Linda)

He's all smiles on his birthday.

Especially if he has his comb that he loves (and knows how to use!).

Damien got to go to a special sushi restaurant for his birthday dinner, where he enjoyed edamame, tofu, fruity yogurt (with sugar!) and french fries (in duck fat).

Hey guys, it is time to get out of here!

Back in his birthday suit.

Thanks to the fruity yogurt, D was able to stay up WAY late until Papa returned from his business trip at 8:45pm. Papa was thrilled.

Damien managed to stay up till 9:09 PM to celebrate the official time of his birth. A real party animal.

Damien Gets His First Haircut

Rookie mom mistake: getting 1st haircut BEFORE 1st birthday party. What was mom thinking, that it would turn out perfect. Why: Who the heck knows how mom got that silly thought. So, Mom took D over to Papa's hair place, and he did remarkably well. Thank goodness the woman cutting his hair let us have the spray bottle, that made it all possible. Overall, it was a pretty good cut given the circumstances. Just really short. Momma missed his long locks instantly. Live and learn. Could have been worse.

What have you done mom?

Yeah, not gonna lie to ya momma, it's a little short.

But ... I still love you anyway.

Damien Celebrates Grandma LoLo Birthday

Grandma LoLo came to San Francisco to celebrate her birthday with Opera and family. Sam and Jane hosted a delicious dinner at their gorgeous house on Sunday evening. D dressed up in his Sunday's best. He had a great time seeing their chickens, ducks, and goats. And D loved playing with his cousins. The party animal got to stay up way past his bedtime!

Happy to see Grandpa William again.

What do you think about the menu?

Feeding the chickens with Jane.

The Craig boys.

Damien tackles Mariano (out of love!).

Damien takes it all in.

Damien smootches his cousin Alma.

Damien and Mariano - what cuties.

William and Mathias entertain the cousins.

Damien Goes to Baby Gym

Our local park San Pablo Park has a great community center in it and they have this amazing program for 1-5 year olds. It is a big play gym, with lots of different toys and activities set up for the children. Best part, it is free! Damien loves it. Momma snuck him in before he was one, because he is so big, but he's definitely the youngest there since all the other kids can walk. It's from 9:30-11am, right during D's first nap, but momma takes him anyway for a little while, and his day gets a little off, but it's worth it for all the fun he has.

View of the gym.

Playing with bean bags.

Playing with kooky balls.

Playing with bowling pins.

Playing with blocks.

Chasing balls with his scoot crawl.

Playing with hula hoops.

Playing with fun pillows in the reading area.

Damien Goes to Maya's Birthday Party

Damien went to Maya's 1st birthday party - his first birthday party. Maya held a cupcake themed party in Damien's favorite park totland. He had a blast. He was fashionably late to the party because the party started at 2pm, when he goes down for his second nap, but he helped bring the party to a close in style.

"Sharing" paper plates.

Chasing after girls already.

Lovin the push car.

And the swings, always a hit.

Damien is 11 Months!

Once again, Momma is late with this post, but she has a good excuse - she was very busy getting ready for all of D's first birthday activities.

D's 11 month was mostly spent on vacation in Sonora, Mineral King and Los Angeles. Lucky guy. Although he's now old enough to really like his routine back home and to have trouble sleeping while on the road (unless he has his own room!). D's biggest milestone this month was becoming mobile. The day before we left for vacation, Damien learned to scoot crawl - he won't just sit on a blanket or the floor anymore! He gets up on all fours and looks like he will crawl normally, and does so with one leg, but then thrusts the other leg forward in a straight legged position. Damien also learned to give you a high 5 (thank you Gabrielle Clarke). He says ball pretty consistently, since he loves to play ball. He also discovered the joys of rocks and dirt in Mineral King. D also tried a lot of new foods including Mexican (which he loved), tuna casserole (in tribute to late Great Grandma Nelda), grapes, cucumber, biscuits (which he loved), rice, tofu, and cottage cheese. He also started to become a sometime fussy eater, sometimes he would eat his usual favorites (hummus, mac n' cheese, turkey, avocado, strawberries, and yogurt) and sometimes he would reject all of that (with gusto, i.e throwing) in favor of jarred baby food. You never know. He loves to walk (assisted) and loves water.

Damien tried to attend Papa's trivia night fundraiser at a bar in the city, but he was kicked out - no one under 21 means no babies either!

Damien and Kellen Play at Cal

It had been a long while since their last playdate, and with Kellen starting daycare soon, one last Monday playdate was arranged for a nice sunny day at Cal. Papa Hoju and Momma Craig packed lunches for the boys and visited an old sandwich place from college days and took to the campus for a picnic. It was about 12:30 pm and it sure felt a little funny to be walking among all the very young kids with babies. We found a nice shady spot (that unfortunately was a little damp) and had a nice lunch. Damien was very nice and shared his fruit with Kellen. Then we let the boys walk/crawl around before hitting Bancroft Clothing Store for some Cal gear. Damien scored a Cal shirt and a mini Cal ball (because Mommy made the rookie mistake of giving it to him to prevent a meltdown while shopping and he was not letting go without a fight. A fun day.

Papa Hoju and Hoju Jr. showing their Cal pride.

Yay, crawling in wet grass and getting muddy is fun!

I love water!

Cute as a button.

This is my skeptical face.