Dear Santa...

We went to the mall today to get Stella and Desmond's picture taken with Santa. This was Desmond's first outing besides visits to the doctor's office and he did great. Stella did great as well considering last year she was terrified of Santa and cried the entire time.

C'mon Desmond, Smile for Us

Desmond has not yet really smiled for us/at us when he is awake. But as soon as he falls asleep, he is all smiles and even giggles sometimes. We managed to capture one of his sleepy smiles on camera. We can't wait for him to smile at us when he is awake!

Merry Christmas

The holiday season always sneaks upon us all too quickly and this year especially so, but we finally managed to purchase our tree last Sat (12/8/07) and got it decorated the following day. Stella enjoyed helping Mama decorate the tree while Dada tended to the Gup who just watched from a distance. Stella then really got into the holiday spirit by donning her Santa outfit. Here are some pictures from our fun filled afternoon of tree decorating.

Desmond's First Haircut

Desmond was born with a full head of hair and came out looking like he could use a trim around the edges. Well we finally decided it was time for his first haircut on Sat (Dec 8, 2007) and he was not even 7 weeks old yet. We trimmed the sides and little off the front, but took a lot off the back since we didn't want him to sport the mullet look. Mama started the haircut process, but Dada quickly took over because he said that Mama was cutting Desmond's hair like a girl's! Luckily for us, Desmond was a good sport throughout the process.

Here are some before shots of the Gup...

...and here are some shots of the Gup after his haircut.

Stella Loves Chocolate

Stella has quickly gone from not wanting to even try chocolate to a chocoholic! When we made a yellow cake with milk chocolate icing for Desmond's 1 month birthday, Stella proceeded to eat just the chocolate icing off of the cake. She has recently figured out that she can just eat the chocolate chips off of the chocolate chip pancakes Mama makes for her...the sneaky little devil!

Look Who's Awake

If Desmond had his way, he would prefer to sleep his whole life away. In fact, if someone could pump milk into his stomach through a tube so that he doesn't have to be awake for a feeding, he would be as happy as a clam. But as the days go by, he is starting to be awake more and more and looking at the world around him. Here are some pics of Desmond awake and enjoying his bouncy seat.

We have also been trying to give him about 10-15 minutes of tummy time daily but that has been a challenge because he is usually awake after a feeding and we don't want him to spit up his milk while on his belly. When we do give him tummy time, he doesn't really try to lift his head up (see pics above) unlike the times when we hold him upright against our shoulder and he is constantly lifting his head up to look at things.

It's Potty Time!

We had been trying to potty train Stella before Desmond was born and were making some progress, but upon his birth, things had been at a standstill...until now. Stella will tell us when she has to go potty but it is a matter of whether she wants to sit in the potty or not. Last Sat (Dec 1, 2007) , she actually told us when she had to go potty and had a successfully potty experience on the big potty in her bathroom. As a reward, she got these Elmo (one of her favorite characters) slippers she is modeling in the pics. She also had another successful potty experience the following day. Hopefully this trend will continue, but it becomes difficult to help Stella go on the big girl potty when Mama, Stella, and Desmond are home by themselves during the day because without fail, Stella always has to go to the potty when Mama is feeding Desmond and Desmond usually screams his head off if Mama interrupts his feeding to help his sister! Wish us luck.