Happy Birthday Papai!

Dear Darls/Papai,

Today we thank God for your birth 31 years ago and for making you so special. We love you so much and feel so blessed that we are so intimately related to you; me as your wife and Daniel as your son - we really could not ask for a better husband and father! Thank you Lord for creating Jonny and giving him to us!

May God continue to bless you in this new year of your life and may you be guided by Him more and more to fulfill His perfect purposes.

We are looking forward to celebrating your birthday with our families during our upcoming trip!

With all our love,
Wife and Babes

***

A summary of Jonny's 31st Birthday...

Our day started with Jonny putting Daniel on his tummy before we left for work and he used his arms a lot more this morning which was fun to see! He also enjoyed looking at the mirror - see the third picture below:

In Jonny's lab, there is a tradition for the last person to have a birthday to make a cake for the next person. So Jonny's research assistant, Yu, made this beautiful Chinese sponge cake (which Jonny also loves to make but cannot decorate as well :-))

Jonny and Yu with Beautiful Birthday Cake

Finally a photo of us together - it's been a while!

After work we picked up Daniel who continues to thrive with Azad. It is also wonderful to reunite with him each time we pick him up and he's always so happy to see us. He's now sound asleep and has no idea that at this time tomorrow, we will be at the airport... We're really hoping that this trip will not be too hard on him... but we are so excited and can't wait to see many of our loved ones reading this blog again.

***

And here is an extra photo...

We love this close-up of Daniel taken this past Sunday, it is very him

Getting Ready to Cross the Atlantic!

Only 6 days left until we travel to England! We've been busy getting things ready for our trip and are getting more and more excited! First, we will participate in Jonny's cousin's wedding in the south of England and then in my dear sister's wedding in London! Can't wait, we are soooo excited! We will finally be able to introduce Daniel to his grandmother Heather, the extended English and Brazilian families and lots of friends!

There is sooo much to think about and prepare when traveling with an almost 6 month old! Long gone are the days when I could pack a couple of hours before our flight! And we are really wondering how Daniel is going to cope with the long flight and jet lag... I think it will be interesting to say the least! He has finally been sleeping through the night quite consistently and now we are going to interrupt his body clock! Oh well, it will be worth it!

After England, we will be going to Portugal for 6 days. My mother is so excited about taking Daniel for a walk along the beach - she's been talking about this since I was pregnant! So it's going to be very special.

Our little boy is growing up so fast and is already weighing 17 pounds (almost 8 kilos)! He continues to be obsessed by his feet and sucking his toes. In the last week he has done some new things like: grabbing and holding his bottle on his own; clearly stretching out his arm towards things he wants (like me or his bottle); he turned from his back, to his side to his tummy once; and has been blowing bubbles with his saliva - quite messy! :-) What has been really fun recently is taking him for walks in the stroller. He really enjoys it now (about a month ago he really did not and I had to quickly rush home!) and loves to look at the trees! I can actually stop walking for a few minutes and he just keeps peacefully looking at the nature around him. I think he gets that from his dad!

After we get back from Europe, we will start to introduce solids. I can't believe he will soon be starting this new journey! If any of you reading this blog have a specific book you recommend about introducing solids, please let me know. I'm actually getting excited about this and seeing how he will react to each new and exciting flavor!

Anyway, here are some photos I took of Daniel yesterday (5 and a half months old) outside on our deck - he loved looking at the trees and feeling the breeze (August this year has been just perfect - not too hot!):

So cute holding his hands together!

My heart melts each time he smiles!

Daniel enjoying looking at the trees...

Daniel at 5 Months and Showing Signs of "Independence"

We can't believe Daniel is already 5 months old! We've been enjoying him more and more as he has been doing more things and becoming more aware of the world around him. Yesterday was my "day off" with him and we had fun, though by the end of the day I was completely wiped out - it's so much harder being with him all day than working outside the home! :-) I have so much respect for full-time mothers with multiple children, how do they do it!?

Here are some recent photos of Daniel and his new found love: his feet!

Daniel is an energetic little boy!

He loves to hold his feet with both hands and tries to eat them!

Look at his concentration and how he folds in half!


He does these new things as if he's always done them, so matter of fact!

He is thriving staying with Azad 3-4 days a week, thank God it's working really well. He naps sooo much better there than at home. The other day he slept there for 3 hours and at home it's rarely more than 30 minutes!? The main difference is that there he sleeps in the same room as other children (usually with one other, sometimes up to 3 depending on the day). It just seems weird that he would sleep better with more people around... I don't know, it's so strange! He's always happy when we pick him up and now we leave him there completely at peace.

One big thing that's happened in the last few days that has been difficult for me to accept is that he has started to prefer the bottle over nursing. Only a month ago he did not like the bottle! He still nurses but quickly gets impatient even though he is hungry... When I realized this this past weekend and we tested it by giving him a bottle which he quickly consumed, I was devastated... I had had all these dreams about nursing him until he was about 1. But I guess that with the bottle he can eat much faster and so it's much less work for him. Apparently this is quite common for babies who have several bottles a day. Oh well, I'm starting to accept this transition though I still have not given up on nursing just in case he learns to enjoy them both... My little boy is growing up so fast! But as Jonny likes to remind me, our goal as parents is to bring him up to be independent, so I guess I'm already seeing signs of that happening. It just seems too soon! Oh well, I'm thankful that at least I have been able to nurse him for 5 months and I will always cherish that experience.

On a more lighthearted note, we had a funny experience on Tuesday night with Daniel pooping in the bathtub. Since he was only a few weeks old, we have been bathing with him every night and we cherish our bath times with him. But on this particular night, Daniel decided to poop during bath, and oh, how he pooped! This night it was my particular turn to bath with him. I was holding him upright playing with him a little and suddenly I saw some poop floating around me. I said "Jonny, we've got a problem here!" He then pooped AGAIN and AGAIN! In between the first and third poop our door bell rang and Jonny went to answer the door. After the third poop when I realized that the quantities were vast and it was all around us and starting to stick to our bodies, I started calling for Jonny and shouting "HELP!" I could not get out of the bath because I was holding Daniel and trying to keep his hands down because there was poop on his hands and he was trying to put his hands in his mouth! When Jonny returned, he was shocked to see that we were literally surrounded by poop! Jonny said "I can't believe this little boy can produce so much!" "Yes, he can, and what timing!" :-)