Christmas 2012

This has to have been one of the most fun yet most stressful Christmas ever! Not only was work a bit rocky for me but running around after a 2 year old as most of you know, is no walk in the park. Luke ignored the presents under the tree for the most part up until he figured out what was inside the bags and wrapping paper. We did "child proof" our tree ahead of time so i was able to keep him out of the gifts and away from pulling on the ornaments.

We had a couple of "pre-xmas" celebrations so come Christmas- Luke had the present opening down. He was showered with gifts as usual. We have a very lucky kid!

Our visit to Santa Clara was fun but exhausting with trying to fit time in to visit family and friends.

It was really fun watching Luke get excited as he opened every gift!

cousins. cant get them to sit still!

Happy Halloween 2011

We celebrated Halloween at our usual spot...10th street in Manhattan Beach at Casa de McDermott  (aka our friend kari's house).  As usual Kari had a delicious spread of cheeses and wine. Although this is technically Luke's 2nd Halloween, last year he was just over a month old and wasn't really into the festivities. This year he really enjoyed people watching. We also took him to a few houses and scored some good candy for mommy and daddy!

Pumpkin Patch

Luke with his friend Lucy



swarm of Bees!



4th of July

Happy 4th of July! We decided to stay home this year and kept the 4th of July intimate. Since Luke is still so small we didnt know how he would react to the loud sound of fireworks so we bbq'd and enjoyed family time.

Luke has attended a couple of play dates with his friends Sophia, Tyler and Lucy.

Boys Day 2011

Boys Day Kodomo no hi or Japanese Children's Day is a festival originally for boys ("tango no sekku") but which has been renamed for both sexes and is held on the 5th day of the 5th month.

Boys Day with dad and the flying fish

On this day families with newborn sons fly koinobori, beautiful multi-colored carp windsocks outside of homes to wish their sons a good future. Otoko means "boy" and sekku means "festival". The festival originated in China and later became associated with May rice planting in Japan. A set of streamers usually has three or more fish. The large black one (magoi) represents father. According to a Japanese children's song, the red one (higoi) represents the first born son.

Happy Cinco De Mayo

grandparents visit in May

visiting great, great (that's right) uncle Kiyoshi

Overwhelmed with Easter gifts and cards from friends and family

Easter Family Pic - Can never get the kid to look at the camera when we want him to!

7 Months

Luke is now 7 months old. He weighs 18 pounds and is 26 inches long. He still does not sleep through the night. Since I am back at work the sleep deprivation makes life a bit frustrating. We think we might need to implement some tough love soon for the sake of our sanity. We'll see how that goes...

Luke is a very active and happy baby. He likes to babble, roll onto his stomach, jump in his exersaucer  and pull mommy's hair.

Luke has been eating stage 1 solids for a few months now. So far he has had peas, carrots, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes and prunes. The prunes are to help his digestive troubles. He really enjoys eating and gets very excited at lunch and dinner time. His favorites so far are the squash and sweet potatoes. I am sure it is because of the sweetness. In a week or so we will start him on the purred fruit. I'm positive he'll enjoy the fruit as well.

Life is returning to normal for us. We are back to being busy and out and about on weekends. Marc and I have even been able to go to a few concerts. We are lucky to have a few babysitters we can count on. This past weekend Luke attended his first park party for his friend Kegan who turned 2 years old. Although he isn't quite ready to mingle with other kids he enjoyed getting a lot of attention from the ladies.

We are looking forward to our next big event which will be Easter and a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Uchida in May.

Enjoying his ExerSaucer

My Sweet Valentine

I know I'm extremely behind updating our family blog but I'm still trying to figure out how to balance all the changes in my life. a quick recap - Lukie had his 4 month doctor appointment last month. He weighed a whopping 16 pounds! He is in the 70 percentile for infants his age so he's right where he should be. He just seems very big to us since my family is used to having tiny girls! We will be having Luke's 6 month doctor visit within the next couple of weeks. He'll once again have to indure those painful vaccines. Poor little guy! In the mean time, Luke wishes you all a Happy Valentine's day!

Luke is 3 months old now and what a roller coaster ride its been! Life as we know it has changed but we are having fun and enjoying every moment of it (thru tired eyes). We can't believe how much attention such a little person needs!

Luke seems to change daily. He is very alert and likes to look at his suroundings. Lately feedings have taken a little longer because it seems as though he gets distracted and pops the bottle out of his mouth and starts to "talk" to whatever object caught his attention. It was cute the first few times but now ...not so fun. :) He is lucky he's cute!  

3 Months Old



2 Months Old

Welcome Luke!

30 Weeks and Baby Gifts!

Thank you to all those who came out to our babyshower. We are very grateful to those who came all the way from Northern California (Berekly and San Jose) Luke will be very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family. A special thanks to my sisters for putting together a beautiful baby shower, Shelley for making the cake, Irene for the homemade jamaica to add to our authentic mexican meal, Gaby for her veggie enchiladas and Linda and Bernie for providing all the fresh fruit!

We received such wonderful gifts and there is no doubt Luke will be the best dressed infant in town! He will definitely be stylin' with all the 'music' onesies he received. (RUN DMC, PINK FLOYD, BEATLES, AC/DC)