Damien Bottles Beer

It is no wonder Damien is fond of beer bottles, he's a junior brewmaster. After brewing beer a few weeks ago, Damien returned to his friend Kellen's house with Papa to bottle the beer (well, really to watch Papa and Hoju bottle beer, oh details). After the hard work was over, the boys went out to lunch where Damien enjoyed his homemade lunch of chicken apple puree with broccoli & acorn squash on the side. Next step, beer party. Damien hopes he is invited.

Damien Poses for GQ

Proving that he is indeed quite photogenic, little D struck quite a pose while modeling some of his new clothing from Grandma Linda. The photo below is Momma's favorite photo to date. Damien might have a future in male modeling, even though there is more to life than being ridiculously good looking!

This is how we do it.

This is my Blue Steel baby!

Damien Gets A Visit From His #1 Fan

Just two days after Aunt Candy left, Damien received another guest. This time, the self proclaimed President of his fan club, Grandma Linda. Grandma Linda came bearing so many gifts of clothes and toys for the "Pharaoh" as Papa likes to call him, that she had to check an entire suitcase just for Damien (and this was after she hijacked Candy's suitcase to send up toys and clothes!!). D just loved the toys, which included a musical keyboard, stacking rings, teething toys, a musical Thomas the Tank Engine book that he loves, and an animal music toy. He also received some awesome clothes, the best of which included a Harley Davidson outfit complete with chaps and fringe vest (pictures forthcoming). Besides modeling his clothes and playing with new toys, Damien enjoyed showing grandma all his new tricks since the last time they were together, including his love of jumping, his love of eating, his love of people watching. Damien looks forward to his next visit with Grandma in May (she just can't stay away, but can you blame her?).

Milk and Grandma, a winning combination.

Grandma and music - even better!

Back to snuggles and milk!

Damien loving his shopping adventure to Trader Joes.

Damien Gets a Special Visit From Aunt Candy

Damien's aunt Candace is madly in love with him and despite her previous distaste for the bay area, she was dying to come and visit her boo boo. So, for her spring break, instead of partying on a road trip with friends, aunt Candace came to visit D and got to wake up at the crack of dawn and change poopy diapers instead. If you know Candace, that means Love with a capital L. Damien was thrilled to have Candace, as was Mom and Dad who loved having the extra loving hands. Candy accompanied Damien to his first professional photo shoot. Unfortunately, Damien was going through a little rough patch - we now think it was related to teething or a digestion issue with soy - and so our usual happy smiley baby was a train wreck at the photo shoot. We managed to get a few decent shots, thanks in large part to Candy's sweet attempts to console little D. All the Craigs can't wait for a repeat visit.

Enjoying the nice Berkeley weather.

Damien shows Candace his favorite spot.

Damien Loves His Special Time with Papa

Damien now gets to kick it with Papa on Thursdays and Fridays. Damien just loves to hang out with Papa. He gets super excited when Papa takes over from Mommy after the morning shift. It makes it hard for mommy to leave her favorite people for work. Papa is really kind, and often take D to meet mommy on her walk home from work so she can see her little boy as soon as possible.

Bye Mommy, we'll be just fine.

Sorry Mom, we can't tell you what we do without you, it's a man thing.

Wait a minute Mommy, did you dress me in a matching outfit with Papa, that is not cool.

Damien Is a Happy Baby

Damien is a super sweet baby with a Hollywood smile. He smiles a lot and lights up for the camera. This makes momma very happy, she loves taking pictures of her smiley boy. Here are some good ones.

Yay! no more pea's.

Playing in bed is soooo much fun!

I love these new clothes Grandma Linda bought me.

Yeah, I'm a big guy, girls like big strong guys.

That was a fantastic nap, just playing with my monkey and blanket, that's what I do when I wake up.

I love this toy arch, especially the little mini wind turbine (not pictured).

Yesssss, time for more food. I love food.

Ahhh, geez Mom, you are sooo silly when you try to eat my toes.

Damien Does Dinner

Damien started eating dinner around 6pm after Mommy gets home from work. If he had it his way, it would just eat fruit. But, mommy is torturing him with veggies in the hopes that he will get used to them. If you put a little bit of fruit on the spoon with the veggies he will generally eat them. If you give him veggies alone, he spits it out! It's pretty hilarious. Breakfast (where he has oatmeal cereal, prunes and fruit) is a pretty clean affair. Dinner, on the other hand, about as messy as it gets. Damien tries to grab the spoon, bat the spoon, spit it out, stick his hands in his mouth, etc. He does love avocado though (now, he didn't at first) so we'll be giving that to him more often. Mommy's gonna try some different veggie combos as well.

I like to do it myself.

Chewing on the spoon is fun.

Oh yeah, wearing your dinner is all the rage.

Can I eat the bowl too? What it is not made out of corn?

Damien is 6 Months Old!

Wow, time is flying by. Damien is already six months old. Not surprisingly, but the Dr. appointment confirmed that our big boy is still in the 97% for height and 90% for weight at 20lbs!!!! Our little tiger has, well, decided he's a little tiger. In his six month there have been lots of changes. Perhaps our favorite is that he sometimes just starts to go "Grrrrrrrrr" "Grrrrrrrrrr" "Grrrrrrrrrr." Some of the other changes are that he loves loves loves to jump in his Rainforest jumperoo and Johnny Jumperoo, possibly preferring the Johnny (in the doorway) one since he swings around in it. He also started eating dinner so now he eats two solid meals a day. Still not a huge fan of vegetables (even though mom made pea/carrot and spinach/sweet potato combos to mix sweet veggies in), but he will tolerate them if you actually mix it with some fruit on the spoon (gross!). He can sit up now by himself for short periods of time, he tips over pretty easily though, but he likes to sit and when lying propped on a pillow will try to sit up. And, he figured out how to get out of tummy time, rolls from front to back likitty split every time. He's still getting up once a night for a bottle, the Dr. said this was not necessary, and to try to wean him off this. We've been giving him less, but Mom doesn't want to do the cry it out thing since he sleep so well otherwise, hoping he'll just grow out of this (and he's sleeping through the whole night more often now). He's a happy smilely baby most of the time and so much fun.

Our Big Boy: Height - 29 1/2 inches (97%); Weight - 20.2 lbs (90%); Head - 46 3/4 cm (97%)

Showing off his yoga moves, he loves his toes.

Family Photo on Damien's Half Birthday

Six month photo shoot with his monkeys. "Hey Dude, look over there, someone is coming."

"Oh man, you are sooooo funny, such a silly monkey."

I wasn't going to eat his hand Mommy, I swear."

Damien Loves His Hot Tub

Well, our little mini-vacay to Stinson beach allowed us to realize that Damien loves to swim. So, we decided to utilize our hot tub for some splish splash time by turning the dial down to 95 (basically a nice warm bath). Damien LOVES it. Seems like he could stay in there for hours. He was so calm, quiet, happy, and completely willing to give momma all the snuggles and kisses she wanted. A great new discovery.

Damien loves to splash his feet.

And gnaw on Mommy's hand.

And practice standing up and splashing with his arms.

Damien Loves the Park Swing

Well, our babysitter Suri told us that she put Damien in the bucket swings at the park and that he loves it. Momma felt a little bad that she didn't discover this first (let's be honest) but she is really happy that D loves Suri so much. So come the weekend, Momma and Papa took little D to the park to see it with out own eyes. True indeed, he loved it. As did we, he looks so darn adorable in that swing.

See Ma, I'm totally old enough for this.

Ohhh, look its another baby.

Oooohh, this is soo much fun! More, more.

Damien Plays with Auburn and Rob

Sooo, we finally got on the busy Auburn and Rob calendar and they came over to cook us dinner and enjoy the hot tub. Little D had a nice late nap so he was able to stay up a little later than usual. He was really into Rob's beer and Auburn's scarf. Auburn and Rob cooked the BEST dinner - the best fish I think we've ever had, with grilled asparagus and veggies. Awesome. Then some glorious hot tub time, during which we managed to convince them to spend the night. D was super excited about this, and tried to wake them up to play at 3am, but had to settle with a more reasonable playtime. You guys are welcome back anytime. =)

Damien is eyeing Rob's beer.

Damien see's an opportunity when Rob closes his eyes and he goes for it.

In a split second he has achieved his objective, much to the surprise of his friends.

Damien Parties in Stinson Beach

Good friends Gabrielle and Big Guy celebrated late March birthdays and to celebrate in style they rented a PHAT house in Stinson Beach right on the water! With such an easy going, flexible baby, Momma and Papa signed on for the party weekend, with the caveat that they get their own bedroom. The weather was incredible, sunny and warm, just magnificent. It felt like perfect LA summer weather. D adjusted pretty well to sleeping in his pack-n-play, getting up just a little more than normal. On Saturday, we took another great hike on Mt. Tam and D again loved the ride, sleeping most of the time except for a lunch break at the peak. The highlight of the trip for him though was Saturday after the hike where he got to go swimming (full body swimming for the first time) in the heated pool (was like a very warm bath), had his first water, and took his first shower. He's a water baby just like Momma!

BG and D coordinated their outfits!

A little small, but a bath nonetheless.

Our little monkey enjoyed his bath as usual.

Breakfast with Auntie Jenny

Oh boy, he sure does like to stand, but he's not even 6 months and looks like he is ready to take off - god help us all when he does.

D was fascinated with the liquor bottles

Father and Son go into the wild.

The Craigs hit the trail.

Another great lunch with a view.

Lovin the good outdoors.

Proof that Damien will eat anything.

Our cool cat sure loves the water.

He wouldn't take no for an answer, he had to have the water bottle. He loves it.

View of part of the house.

Another view of outdoors, amazing house.

Walking down to the beach, trying to keep my WHITE baby protected from the sun.