Our 4 Year Wedding Anniversary Weekend!

March 28, 2008

Today is our 4 year wedding anniversary. Sometimes it feels like "wow, has it been that long?" But most of the times, after 2 kids, countless dirty diapers, and many sleepless nights, we say to ourselves "really, has it only been 4 years since we got married?"

Well, to help us celebrate and give us a much needed break from our daily routines, Ommy came over to watch Stella and Desmond for the weekend. In the evening, we went to Morton's Steakhouse for dinner and to a movie afterwards...we hadn't been to a movie in about a year!!! It was a fun and relaxing evening. To top off the night, Ommy took care of Desmond's 4 AM feeding while Mama and Dada had a night of uninterrupted sleep...so nice!

March 29, 2008
We slept in a little bit, went out to breakfast by ourselves, came back, packed up our stuff and headed down to DC in the afternoon. We went to the National Museum of Art (we wanted to go to the Spy Museum but it was sold out) and afterwards, headed to our hotel in Georgetown. We got ready at a leisurely pace and went to dinner at CityZen in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in DC. CityZen is rated as the #2 very best restaurant in the DC metro area by Washingtonian Magazine and we couldn't agree more. Our dining experience was a culinary masterpiece and the service was absolutely impeccable. We capped off the night by a visit to the Kennedy Center and took in magnificent views of the city from its famed rooftop. And then we just headed back to our hotel and crawled into our comfy bed and slept in until 9:30 AM...woo hoo!!!

March 30, 2008
We rounded off of our anniversary weekend with a leisurely brunch at Mie N U restaurant in Georgetown.

The break that we got during this anniversary weekend was long overdue and marked a milestone for Smitha since this was the first time that she had spent a night away from either Stella or Desmond. We had such a blast this weekend and came back very refreshed and relaxed. Ommy said that we looked 6 years younger when we returned...did we look that bad before? ;)

This weekend would not have been possible without Ommy and we are so grateful to her for her help and her time. Ommy had a great time with the kids and the kids behaved beautifully for her. Here are some pics of Stella and Des from their weekend with Ommy. Unfortunately Ommy was taking all of the pictures so she isn't in any of them...

The Gup enjoying some time on the mat while Stella ate breakfast.

Stella enjoying the eggs and "waffle fingers" Ommy made her for breakfast.

Des looks on as Stella colors.

Stella and Des playing together. Desmond is a drool monster these days.

Desmond's hair is getting long again...he will be getting his 4th haircut soon!!!

Ommy giving Desmond some tummy time.

Des and Stella on their daily walks with Ommy. Our kids love being outside, just love it, despite their somber expressions in this pic!!!

Stella stopping to smell the roses...in this case, daffodils and azaleas.

The Gup was out cold during the end of one of their walks and he slept for 2 hours on the couch with his hat and coat still on. Here, Ommy was trying to get a shot at his eyelashes.

Thanks again Ommy for watching our kids this weekend!!!!

Desmond is 5 Months Old

Desmond turned 5 months old 3 days ago on Easter Sunday. We can't believe that it has been 5 months since Des was born. Time sure does fly. Desmond is a super happy baby who giggles all of the time. He is very social and wants lots of attention from us. Since this blog is also a way for us to document events and milestones in the lives of our kids, we wanted to list what Desmond's personality is like and all of the things Desmond is able to do right at this moment.

• Desmond is a super happy baby who giggles and laughs all of the time, especially when Mama is around.


• He loves Mama like crazy. He gives her the biggest smiles and giggles and laughs. He especially likes to grab Mama's face and slobber all over or bite down on her chin. We think this is his way of kissing and saying "i love you".


• He is ticklish and laughs when you kiss his belly during diaper changes.


• He loves it when you make kissing noises to him.


• He loves to be outside and look at things and put new things in his computer.


• He is very social and wants lots of attention and lots of people to talk to him.


• He loves cereal and snarfes it down. He watches us eat adult food very intently and longingly and will try to swipe at it if he is within arms reach.


• He swipes at any toy Stella should happen to have in her hands if she is near him.


• He can hold is head up 90 degrees when on his belly and can push up and lift his chest off the floor...but he still doesn't prefer belly time much.


• He is very close to flipping over onto his belly from his back.


• He prefers to sleep and roll to his right side.


• He doesn't cry during his bath anymore...he stopped crying somewhere around 3 months of age.


• His favorite toy is the exersaucer. He can play with all of the toys on it and push all the buttons. But what he really likes to do is eat/chew the plush toys on it like the sun and the pyramid shape and the dragon puppet.


• He can grab both of his feet, but unlike his sister, he doesn't try to eat them.


• He loves to chew on his fingers although, he doesn't suck his thumb.


• He likes his pacifier, especially taking it in and out of his mouth.


• He is a big boy because at 4.5 months, he was already wearing 9 month size clothes and they just fit him perfectly now. So we predict by 6 months of age, he will be wearing 12 month size clothes.
• He has several nicknames and they are: specky boy, gup, guppa, guppa bear, gup-o-matic, guppers, Des, and Desmo.

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter weekend by first getting some studio pictures of Stella and Desmond. We were thrilled with the outcome and some of our favorite ones of them individually and together are posted above. This was Desmond's first professional studio shoot and despite a few crying spells, he did pretty well.

Sunday, Stella and Mama went to church. Desmond and Dada met us at church after the service for the church's annual Easter Egg Hunt. Stella had fun collecting her eggs despite the chilly weather. We think she would have collected more eggs had she known ahead of time that there were chocolate candies inside of the eggs.

I'm Not So Sure About This!

As we have stated many times before, Stella loves her baby brother to pieces. Recently, Dada allowed Stella to hold Desmond in her lap and Stella thought that it was the best thing ever, but we don't think Desmond felt the same way! Take a look at these pictures and judge for yourselves...

"Wait a minute...if Dada is sitting across from me...

and Mama is taking these pictures...

then, who is holding me?!?!?"

Desmond's First Cereal!

Desmond had his first solid food today...rice cereal! Desmond showed himself to be a champion eater when it comes to solids and scarfed his cereal down without spilling one bite. He was a natural at eating from the spoon from the first bite. In fact, he liked this new food so much that he would complain in between spoons...Mama couldn't feed him fast enough!!!

Here he is buckled up in his high chair looking concerned not sure what was going to happen next.

Here he is enjoying his gruel.

"Bring on the steak people!"