#83

To my growing boy

Your cuteness surprises me on a constant bases! The other day I had given you a cup of goldfishes to snack on. I went off to finish the dishes when I hear a bazaar sound. I went to check it out, as I turned the corner to the living room I found you grabbing handfuls of your goldfishes and putting them into Annie's food bowl. I was curious to see what you were going to do, so I hide behind the door. When the content of your snack bowl was emptied you stood back, pointed your figure at her and started gibber jabbing away at her. Annie will only eat when you tell her OK, so the poor dog just sat looking longingly at her bowl. When I final came over and told her "OK" she gobbled it all up. You just started laughing and clapping

The one thing that I love about you is that you're not afraid to try new and exciting thing. This weekend we went over to some friends house to try their famous beef curry. At dinner time we sat down to enjoy our meal. You and best friend were sitting at your own table eating y. Let me rephrase that, you were inhaling your meal. At one point we had to take your bowl away so that we could take your shirt off. You let out the loudest howl that we have ever heard. When we noticed that you were getting to the end of the bowl and still looked hungry we did not dare take your food away, instead we just made you a whole new bowl.

You are the highlight to my day and love spending every moment that I can with you.
Love
Mommy

#54

Tuesday September 13, 2011

Cake Smash!

Dear Aj,

I can't believe you're officially one years old. This time last year, we were just getting to know you. I was still learning what your noises and what your cries meant. So much has happened this year and I have learned so much about you. I know what will make you smile and what will make you crack up laughing. I have learned what your favorite foods are and what you will just spit out. We have years of getting to know each other and I am looking forward to every moment. I know that there will be times when you are going to drive me crazy but that is okay, no matter what just remember that I will always love you forever and always.

Love your mommy

Cake Smashing Time

Aj Go Smash! 

The Cake never stood a chance.

Someone Took  a lot of time and effort on this cake

To Bad all Aj wanted to do was Smash it

Just a little bit off the top

Look at all the pretty colors

What Im not doing anything

I swaear

Just a little bit more

This is yummy

What was left after all was said and done

Caught red handed

Aj Leaving the scene of the crime

Aj's First Birthday Party

Oh I can't believe how fast this year has come and went. It feels like only yesterday the doctor put this tiny little stranger in my arms. Here we are a year latter and you are the joy to our lives. Every laugh and  smirk brings sunshine to our days. 

Happy First Birthday Baby Boy

Lets Get this Party Started

Your Friends

What is Mateo Doing? Does he have berry eyes

Grandpa, Mommy Grandma-ma and Aj

Lanie

Carrie, Shea and Robin

Gail, Seena and Mateo

A very Brave Kamasu

And then Came the Cake

You are one year older. I am looking forward to see how much you go in another year.

#53

Tuesday September 6, 2011

Birthday Boy (tomorrow)


"Happy Birthday to You... Happy Birthday to You... Happy Birthday Dear Aj... Happy Birthday to You!"

Love Mommy and Daddy

Kids Fest

Little Drummer Boy

Oh What new sound did you find?

Rock Out Baby Boy

We went to Kids Fest today and saw a lot of really cool things. We saw big boys doing crazy tricks on their bikes, we saw little soft bunnies and a scaly alligators. As cool as those things were they had nothing on the music station. You could not get enough of banging the drums and ringing the bells. If it was up to you I think you would never have left. Maybe one day you will grow up to be a musician just like your dad. 

#52

Tuesday August 30, 2011

Water Baby

Dear Water Baby,
This photo was taken one day this week when you just could not be consoled. You were crawling around crying. I would pick you up and you would cry, I tried to give you a bottle and you would cry no matter what I did you would cry. I was at my wits end so I did something that I have never done before, I put you in the sink for some water fun. You loved it! You sat and played with the running water or the water that was around you for almost 20 minutes. You were just as happy as can be.
You are such a great baby
Love you, your very happy Mama

Celebrate Good Times... Come On!

On Friday August 12, 2011 Aj, Grandpa and I made the familiar drive into Oakland to go visit our favorite  pediatric  oncologist Dr. Goodman.  Three month back when we found the tumor the Doctors noticed that Ajs AFP was also elevated. After the surgery his AFP never dropped like we were expecting, since then we have been watching his levels very closely hoping that they would fall back into normal range.


Aj's AFP History
5/25 - 35.4, 5/31 - 31.1, 6/7 - 25.8, 6/14 - 30.3, 6/21 - 21.5, 6/28 - 23.06, 7/5 - 28 and finally 8/9 - 27.8

Most doctors would consider 0-15 to be the normal AFP range.  Since day one Aj never has done anything normal, so why would his AFP be any different? Dr. Goodman is confident that because everything else looks good that this slight elevation in his AFP just happens! He is eating, sleeping and playing like a normal healthy little boy. All his blood work and ultra sounds are also coming back normal.  This all comes down to.... Aj has been given a clean bill of health... its time to celebrate!!!

In this time of celebration, I would like to take a moment and send out a prayer for all those families who are still going through the fight or who have lost the battle. My thoughts, love and prayers will always be with you

#51

To my Little Boy,

I had to leave for a couple days to go to a friends wedding. Your daddy was still revoverying from his throat surgery so I made sure that some of your favorite people were here to help take care you of.  Grandma-ma Barger, Uncle Tristan, Grandma Carbaugh, Robin, Shannon and Seena all came over to help. Everyone loved being able to spend time with you and really enjoyed seeing all the new things that you could do. You showed Robin how you play peak - a- boo and Grandma-ma how you play drums with the wooden spoon and bowl. I loved recieving messages from everyone with all the cute things that you have done. I missed you so much but I was so proud of you for being such a good boy.

Love your very proud,
Mama

#50

Dear Aj 

Can I try your Finger

You are so full of life and wanting to always be on the go. I Knew you were full of energy but I did not realize how much until I saw you next to you cousin Lanie. She sat all sweetly in her Daddy's lap all morning and then there was you. Crawling like a mad man all over the place. You older cousins were following you around the house to make sure you did not get into any trouble. I have come to terms with the fact that you will only cuddle with me when you are sound asleep. I can't even get loves when you are drinking your bottle. You will drink about 2oz and the start squirming around wanting to be put down. 

I may put you down and I may allow you to explore the world but I promise you that I will never let you go. EVER! 





Love you 


Mommy

Brunching it up with the Family

More time Enjoying the nice weather and my wonderful Family

Pool Time 

Working together to fill up the Pool

Me with the Babies

Someone had a vist from the tooth fariy

Beach Babies

Summer Time is a time for us to all enjoy the nice weather and each other. I love when I get to spend a relaxing afternoon with family at the lake. We are so lucky to be able to enjoy this hidden gem all summer long

Brookie Jumping off the Dock 

Tristan shows Brookie how the Big boys do it!

Dont rock the surf board

Brookie and Aj

Dylan and Aj

Aj playing in the Sand

#49

Tuesday August 9, 2011

Dear Aj aka little busy man,

You have been full of energy this week  and are constantly moving. You have places to go and people to see apparently and will not let anyone get in your way. If you are not crawling like a mad man you are walking around the furniture. You are CRAZY in just the cutist way possible. Your new trick is something we like to call "Aaron Go Smash" this basically consist of you coming up fully on your knees with your hands above your head and you flinging your arms and your whole body forward until your hands smack the ground. You then finish by coming up laughing waiting for someone to shout out "Aaron Go Smash!" Oh the simple things in life.

We went swimming on Sunday at the local pool. You have become more and more comfortable in the water. The pool has an area for little ones that is only 11/2 feet deep, you love to hold on to the edge and play with your toys.  This week you figured out that you can also walk around the edge. You are perfectly content to play by yourself, every once in awhile you will look over your shoulder to make sure I am still sitting right behind you. Sometimes you will fully turn around a do a superman dive towards me! You make going to pool special again for me. We can hang out for hours if I let us. I know when you get older we will spend our summer days pool side. Those day will come, until then I will cherish every little memory that we make at the pool this summer.

I lover everything about being your mom, the icing on the cake this week has been your cuddleness. You have always been so interested in the life going on around you that you have never been big on just letting me hold you. For some reason the last couple weeks you will just lay your head on my chest or crawl into my lap and hold on. I love it with every oucne of my body. I think you cuddling with me is definitely in the top 10 best moments of my life and always will be.

The Luckest Mom in the world
Mamma

#48

Tuesday August 2, 2011

Dear Baby Aj

You have taken cuteness to a whole new level.  Your Daddy has been telling me that you have been giving high five's but I have never seen it. One night this week you were eating dinner and I was proud of you from finishing your veggies so we clapped bravo bravo  and then I placed my hands out to give you five and guess what! You. Gave. Me. High. Five. Back!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, how cool are you!

So as I have mentioned you have started to crawl and pull yourself up to standing on the furniture. This week I noticed that you would pull yourself up on your playpen and take your hands off the side and just stand there for a second or two just balancing and then you would plop down. I have also found you walking along the couch and then reach over to the coffee table and keep going. My favorite of them all though is when you crawl over to me and do your little monkey climb up my legs till your standing behind me!

You always fill my heart with love and joy. Your smile can light up my whole day and I love you so much.

 Love you Always and Forever

Mommy

#47

Dear Aj,                                                                                                   Tuesday July 26 2011

Daddy Kisses!

With every week comes new found adventure, new found talents and new found love. This week your Uncle Tristan walked into the house and started shouting "He's standing, He's standing, I found him standing!" It just broke my heart to tell him that this was not a new trick. It just shows how quick you are changing in front of everyone eyes.

If I could bottle up your laughter and wear it around my neck for an eternity, I would. Sometimes if I am having a bad day, I will give you a little tickle just so I can hear that beautiful sound. You truly bring joy to my life and I feel so lucky to be your mother.   There are times when I feel like you are growing up way to quickly and I am in shock that your first birthday is not that far away.

After I had you I tried different work schedules so that I could find the right balance between being with you and fulfilling my professional duties. I finally found that four, ten hour days worked the best for us. This means that by the time you get up at 6am I am hopping in the shower getting ready to leave for work, I give you a quick kiss on the forehead and I am off for the day. After work I pick you up at 6pm from daycare and we drive home. By the time we walk through the door it is time to feed you, cook Mommy and Daddy's dinner, unpack the bags, bath time, bottle and bed. I sometimes don't even feel like I have time to breath let alone enjoy you, but then Friday rolls around and we start to slow down. We spend the morning running errands and going grocery shopping, it is just you and I.

On weekends when you Daddy has to work, I get you all to myself! And this was one of those weekends, we had a blast. We went to the farmers market and the library, we went swimming and on a walk with Annie,  you even sat in your little fishy swim pool and played for a little while. I love spending time with you and I know that you love being with me too. Sunday night always comes around to quick and a part of my heart cringes when I lay you down to sleep. I know that the up coming week will be hard and fly by in a blur, but Friday morning are always right around the corner and that is what I will be looking forward to.

I love you Baby Boy,
Mommy

Splish Splash

To me the perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, and there is a pool to jump into. 


I grew up spending my summers in or near a swimming pool. I would spend hours in the pool with the neighborhood kids joking around, or spend my Saturdays playing cards waiting for my turn to swim in a competition. As I got older, I worked as a lifeguard and taught swim lessons. 


I wanted to pass my love of the water on to Aaron at a very young age. I signed Aj up for swim lessons the day after I got the "all clear" from his doctors. 

At first Aj was a little scared of the pool. He held on tight like a little monkey, not wanting to be far away from me. When I put Aj's head under water for the first time he came up shocked and not sure what to make of the whole situation. He decided that it was not something that he liked and cried for the rest of the class. I understood why he cried, I would have cried too! It is scary to try new things, but it is my job to make sure that he learns that trying new things can be a lot of fun. So we went swimming again and again until I started to see a smile spread across his face with sheer delight of being in that water

Over the next couple of weeks we would sit in Aj's little baby pool or go next door to the neighbors house and us there pool. Aj learned that it could be fun to put his face in the water and even started to do it on his own. I love that when we get into a pool he has started kicking his legs really quick with the michive smile on his face. If I place Aj on the side of the pool he leans forward to do a sitting dive in, and will laugh the whole time. He is not afraid of the water anymore, in fact just the opposite. If we are near a pool he will do a made dash towards it, whether we are ready or not to go in.

Today after we got done swimming we were taking a shower I looked down and saw a nice tan back and a light white behind. You official have a tan line my little friend.

  It is officially Summer time Baby!