More Snow!

This past weekend, we hopped on a plane with 4 friends and one other baby and all headed out to Park City, Utah. It was our first vacation with friends. We stayed in an amazing house. It started to snow right when we exited the airport, and continued for most of the weekend. This made Friday a tough day to go out, but we were still able to get Vincent his first snow crawling experience. He seemed to enjoy crawling around in the snow, threw a snow ball at his dad, and even made his first snow angel. Of course, we helped.


Yes, this is Vincent's snow angel.

December 1 - It's Snowing!!

What a fun way to start off this holiday month! Vincent's first time seeing it snow. He was too small the last time we had snow. Today, he really enjoyed seeing it come down. Luckily, I was able to find this fleece jumper at a consignment store just in the knick of time.

1st Thanksgiving

It's been a pretty good, though slightly hectic week. We had to spend 2 days out of our house due to some plumbing problems. But, considering the circumstances, I think we managed well. We still have a couple of holes dug up in our yard as we wait for an inspector from the city to sign off on the work.

Here is the little one bedroom cottage we stayed at for one night while our sewage pipes were being replaced. It was quite cute.

For Thanksgiving day, we packed up again, and headed down south a little for a night at Lucy's parents' house. They were so gracious to have us over for dinner, and let us crash there for the evening as well. This allowed us to lounge around the next morning and enjoy each others' company a little longer. Lucy made most of dinner, & everything turned out great, even my squash dish with inedible skin. Vincent was the life of the party.

I had a goal of getting up early (well, I get up early every morning) & going shopping. I haven't shopped on the day after Thanksgiving in years. I thought yesterday would be my day to brave the crowd. Alas, I stayed in bed while David got up and took care of baby. So sweet.

Growing

No major milestones or anything like that, but I just thought it would be nice to share with you what types of things Vincent is up to these days.

I didn't do a very good job with keeping up posts on Vincent's eating. That was back in around August when I said I'd keep track of it. Oh well. Rest assured, he is eating. This baby loves to eat. Here he is eating a banana, one of his favorite foods. He can now take a big chunk & feed himself.

See how this baby loves to eat? This is Vincent with his "snack trap" cup. It's a semi-spill proof cup that I can put bite sized snacks in for him to reach in, pull out, and feed himself. He gets toasted oats (Cheerio wannabes), puffed corn, & chedder fish crackers in this cup.

These are two of Vincent's car toys. We just recently gave him a third one, but this picture was taken before that. It came in a set of 7 small vehicles, which we give him a new one every few weeks or so. At first, he would just put them in his mouth, but now he's learning to actually play with them. Take a look at him in the next picture!

Out of the three small cars we've given him so far, he clearly prefers the yellow pickup truck. He has learned that he can push it around on it's wheels. Kinda hard to do on the shaggy rug.

Here's Vincent with his yellow truck again. This is one of Vincent's favorite pasttimes. He loves to look out these little windows by our front door. There isn't always something to look at, but sometimes our cat, Stella, will be outside the window, and sometimes he greets visitors as they walk up. If he times it right, he gets to greet his daddy at the door when he comes home from work.

1st Halloween

Vincent kicked off his first Halloween with a baby party at his friend, Dylan's house. Here he is monkeying around with his girlfriend, Sasha. Vincent was a dragon. David was so nice to work a half day from home & go with us to the party. He was the only dad there, but the other babies, especially Eli, didn't seem to mind. There were two monkeys, a dinosaur, an unicorn, a lion, a ghost, a bumble bee, Vincent the dragon, and several others, but I can't remember them all! Oh, there was a very cute lobster, too!

This evening, I took Vincent out for a walk up to 15th Avenue, to see if they do any kind of Halloween festivities. His tail for the dragon won't fit in the baby carrier or the stroller so I dressed him up in this doggy coat & slippers he received as a gift. There wasn't anything happening on 15th Ave, but on our way back we hit the gold mine on 17th Ave. The houses were all decked out & there were so many cute little kids trick or treating. So, we decided to join them. I think Vincent was more excited to see the sites. He obviously didn't get it. Here he is with his very first Halloween candy, "apple coated watermelon Nerds." He chewed on the box & half a block later, it tore open & all the pieces spilled out on the sidewalk. In the end, we walked away with a loot of 5 candies, see below!

10 Months Old

We were just visited by Vincent's Grandma & Aunt Tiffany over the weekend. We had planned on going to Remlinger Farm on Friday, but it was so stormy. Instead we went to the Children's Museum. The rest of the weekend, we mainly just hung out. We did some grocery shopping, moved some furniture around, and went to Sponge for Vincent's Mandarin class. Other than the bad weather, it was a really nice weekend. Next time we see them will be for Christmas & his 1st birthday...just two months away!

No Camera?

That's okay, I've got a cell phone! I recently sent myself these pics off my phone, so some are a little older.

Vincent takes his first ride in a shopping cart. My mom gave us the cart cover as a hand-me-down from a friend. For the longest time, we couldn't figure out what it was. I was just about to give it to Goodwill when I took a closer look at the embroidered picture on it, and realized that it was a bunny in a shopping cart...duh! We were thinking about buying one, too! Lucky us!

We had dinner in Lake City with Bob & Lucy about a week ago. We tried out this Chinese restaurant called Shi'an. It was okay. Vincent was getting upset because it was getting to be his bedtime, but then Bob handed him this fortune cookie. We had a happy baby once more. This was his first fortune cookie, but we won't share his fortune with you.

I've been taking Vincent to the community center to play in their gym. What a wonderful place for a rainy day! He hasn't quite figured out how to ride the little cars very well, but he does like having me push him around. He also enjoys pushing the cars with the bar in the back, and watching all the older boys & girls. Twice now, he has had other kids come up to fake pump his gas tank. It's really cute.

My friend, Kari, & I took the babes to Volunteer Park Cafe. Well, okay, we wanted to meet & eat there, and the babies were forced to tag along. We ate chicken pot pies, some cheese, and some turkey meat. Sasha & Vincent are good friends. I really do think they recognize each other.

In The Back Of The Jeep

Vincent & I went to the Seattle Aquarium yesterday with some other moms & babies. I, once again, forgot to bring my camera, so I don't have a picture. Instead, I have this one of Vincent carrying his teddy bear as if he's a dog.

After we left the aquarium, as I was loading Vincent into the car, I noticed that he smelled like poop. I figured I'd just change his diaper in the back of the Jeep. I gave him a pack of babywipes to play with, and he was an absolute angel. His booty was a little red from sitting in the poop for who-knows-how-long, so I decided to let him air out while I clean up & put stuff away. I looked back at him and there's a stream of pee coming from him. I didn't cover him up because I thought he'd stop soon, but it kept going! Luckily, I had a clean cloth diaper handy to clean up the pee that got on the car. I realized that there was also pee on his changing pad, his legs & his butt. The back of the Jeep is not that clean. There were leaves & such stuck to the cloth diaper, and I was finding myself trying to find a clean corner on the diaper to wipe him up. And, my little angel was no longer being an angel. Ahhh...precious moments.

Oh Boy! Look Out Mom & Dad!

Today, Vincent discovers that his toy car is even better than he thought!

Usually, the car gets you around, rather than you getting it around.

For those of you with babies, you know that it can be like night & day with development. One minute, I'm chasing Vincent around the house, next minute he stands up on his little car & starts pushing it around! Of course, little boy got so excited about his car, he did at one point topple over it & kiss the floor. I may have blood stained on my shirt to remember that by. That's the problem with having teeth now.

Maltby & Mini Cooper

Saturday, September 29, 2007 - The Hunt family fly solo again for the first time in over a month. That's right, we are currently without any house guests. It actually felt a little weird at first. The night my dad went home, I actually forgot he had gone at one point & started to look for him for a second.
Dad was here for a month. He arrived with Mom, but she left after 10 days. He stayed to help us with some home projects. We had bamboo floors put in, and it's awesome. Vincent can really be free to crawl all over the place now. He also built us a small addition off our backdoor. We call it the "cat house." It's basically a storage space & where the litter box now lives.
Yesterday was also my first Saturday of not working, since I stopped working. After having Vincent, I went back to work for one day a week back in the spring. It was pretty good, but we were finding that we weren't getting much family time, with just the one weekend day together. So, for now, I'm 100% stay-at-home again.
To kick off our family time together, we rented a Mini Cooper from Flexcar for a few hours. Yeah, pretty cool, huh? We walked down to the Flexcar "pod" on Broadway with Vincent in the stroller. Turns out, it was a convertible. But, the weather sucked, so we didn't put the top down. Since it was a convertible, I don't think it had a trunk. We barely fit the stroller, car seat & all three of us in there. We drove back home, dropped off the stroller & were on our way to...The Eastside. We just wanted to go for a little drive.
We drove up to a small town near Snohomish called Maltby & had brunch at the Maltby Cafe. I guess it's in the basement of the old schoolhouse gymnasium. It was packed in there. The portions were huge. That plastic container David is carrying was their cinnamon roll. Yes, just one roll. We're actually still eating it. From Maltby, we drove down the 203, or was it the 202? Maybe we drove on both...Well, it took us through Duvall, then Carnation, and to Fall City, where we began to make our way back towards Seattle. It rained while we were out, but it was still nice to get out for a little drive.
As fun as the Mini Cooper was for a few hours, I don't think it's the right, um, fit for us (not that we were in the market for one). So cute, so sleek, so small.

New Floors

Yay! We have new floors in our house! Vincent is so happy to have lots of room to roam & practice his motor skills. Boy, does he have a motor on him, too!

We Have A Crawler!

Well, okay, Vincent has been crawling for several weeks now, but I haven't been the best at keeping the blog updated...

Life has been pretty busy at the Hunt House. We've had several visitors and some home improvements. But, it's all coming to a close soon.

Two of the recent visitors have been Vincent's A-ma & A-Gong, also known as my mom & dad. My mom has been wanting to go to Victoria, B.C. since I moved to Seattle 5 years ago. So, we decided that we'd take a family trip there. David found Swans Suite Hotel, near Chinatown. We scored a two level, two bedroom suite. Downstairs is the kitchen, bathroom, & livng/dining area. Upstairs are the two bedrooms. It was perfect! David and I were able to get out for mini dates after Vincent went to bed each night.

Now, here you go, a little video of Vincent crawling around in the hotel living room.

Back To The Pool

The boys are back at the 1st Street Fitness Pool, after being away for 4 weeks! Yikes! Vincent has missed out on a lot. He and his dad didn't know some of the songs. But, he did just as well as all the other babies, and really enjoyed being in the pool. His grandpa got to come along this time to watch & help out.

Asian Baby Taste Buds

Hey Sunshine! We took Vincent out to South 47 Farm about a month ago. I don't have any recent photos yet, so you'll just have to deal with this one.

It looks like Vincent has his first teeth! The first to come in was his lower middle left tooth, shortly followed by the one to its right. I was in denial for the first couple of days, since they're not that far out, then David slapped some sense in me.

We had our first double carseats experience today. Kari, Sasha, Vincent and I all went down to Ikea and The Great Wall Mall. I think it's Renton. Both babies basically were NOT happy from the 405 freeway until we got out of the car.

We ate dim sum at the Imperial Palace, where Vincent got to enjoy radish cake & bbq pork bun. The ladies at the restaurant all loved Sasha, and humored me by acting half interested in Vincent. We survived Ikea, and Kari showed me a new route home.

Along with some dim sum, Vincent ate Asian pear (from his A-ma's backyard), banana, and green beans with pork chop. He is also getting better with feeding himself Cheerios. Ooh, and we shared two lychees! Yum. Way to show that Asian pride, Kiddo! (Yesterday, I let him taste my glass noodles with Chinese sausage & shitake mushrooms.)

August 10

Today, Vincent started his day with whole grain cereal. For his second meal, he had some yogurt. Lastly, for dinner, Vincent had green beans. For snacks, there was some Cheerios, chunks of peach, and some cheddar cheese crackers. And, of course, breastmilk all day as desired.

Vincent ♥ Shasha

Well, I didn't quite get to taking the picture fast enough, so this one here doesn't really do what actually happened justice.

Three moms, a dad, and lovely Julia took an infant CPR class today at our house. Somewhere between lessons on CPR and choking, Vincent & Sasha got very close & seemed to be kissing! Both babies turned their heads to each other and leaned in with mouths open & touching. It was actually really cute. I rushed to get the camera, but had a fake baby in my arms (couldn't just throw that baby down), and just wasn't quick enough. By the time I got the camera, it was more like Vincent trying to eat Sasha's face. I have video footage, but I'm not advanced enough to post a video.

For those of you interested, the CPR class was really great. I highly recommend it. After it was over, our instructor, Jennifer, even walked out to our cars & inspected our carseats & their installation.

As for Vincent's eating these days, he is doing very well. I think I'm going to try and food blog his eating on a regular basis. It's better than charts, graphs, etc. (which we aren't doing), and it may be nice for me to look back on one day. Today, he ate a little yogurt in the morning, and at lunch time, he had a small amount of green beans with a pinch of grated parmesan cheese. Yes, there is still breast milk between all this as well.

Back from So Cal

Vincent got to see three of his cousins during our trip. Here he is with Spencer (age 5) & Koen (age 3). He loved watching them play, and tried to get right into the action.

Here's Vincent with his other cousin, Anabelle (age 7+ months). Anabelle is only 10 days older than Vincent. We love her wild hairstyle!

It took Vincent a few days to warm up to his A-ma (grandmother), but after that, they were like buddies. A-ma took very good care of him, and even carried him on her back in the Ergo while doing a couple of chores.

Now that we are home, one thing Vincent is starting to learn is self-feeding with finger foods. He's working on his "pincer grip", and is figuring out that he can put food in his mouth, though he hasn't learned how to let go of it. Now, I just need to be even more careful about what he decides to pick up and taste.

Water Baby

We're on our "summer vacation" in Southern California.

Vincent received his first kiddie pool from his A-Ma (grandma).

Here we are in Santa Monica, the day after the Gottlieb/DiGiacomo wedding in Malibu.

The Hunts get fancy at the Ritz Carlton, in Laguna Niguel. Nah, we didn't stay there, just had a nice lunch with our friend, Levi. Vincent tried some olive bread & a tiny bit of mushroom pasta.

Baby loves Laguna Beach!

Hot Baby

Uh Oh!

Sorry for the somewhat blurry pics.

It's been hot here in Seattle lately. I've been trying to let Vincent spend about 10 minutes each day rolling around naked. It allows him to air out a bit. These pictures were taken after our little diaperless mishap today. You can guess what happened...No, not #1. Yup, I set V down on his tummy to play. I checked back on him a couple of times, in case he peed. No pee. A couple minutes later, I returned to find that he had pooped! Oh what a lovely mess!

Life As A Mom

I've been thinking about writing this blog entry for some time now, but was having a hard time putting into words what I've felt for the past 6 and a half months. I'm still not really sure I can fully express the amazement I feel with this beautiful, delightful, little creature that is my baby.

As all my mom friends may know, even after all those pregnancy hormones have subsided, I'm finding that I am more emotional than I've ever been. Something happened to me the day I found out I was having a baby. I was no longer just Anny Hunt. I was TWO-in-one! I never imagined that I could love this tiny little being inside of me that I've never even met so much. And, then, Vincent Tomi Hunt was born, and I love him more than I knew possible.

I'm not saying that everyday is just awesome and beautiful. Believe me, I've had to adjust to this motherhood thing big time. I'm still adjusting. With all this love, came so much guilt. For me, at least. And, the amount of pressure I put on myself. I don't think I prepared myself very well to be a mother. I mean, we were ready with the crib, changing table, cloth diaper service, car seat, stroller, baby book, clothes (although most of them didn't fit, so maybe not so ready with clothes), books, toys, even baby proofing stuff that we're just now going to start using. I just don't think I really thought about what kind of mother I am going to be. I didn't do much reading. Heck, the only books on having a baby that we had were about actually having the baby...child birth. No Dr. Sears, no breastfeeding help books, not even the American Academy of Pediatrics book. I just thought, "I'm going to be loving & caring, and what more is there to it?" Much more.

Breastfeeding, pumping, milk supply, reflux, color of poop, cradle cap, mis-shapen head, tummy time, elimination communication, all the choices of cloth diapers...my obsessions go on. All this, and more, to think about for such a small person. I have gone from one obsession to another. I can't believe I'm even admitting to all of this. I guess I can because I don't think I'm alone. I'm sure with other moms, if it's not one of the above, it's gotta be something else. But, you know what? Vincent has been worth all of it.

Being a mother has been the best thing I've ever done in my life. Every morning, when I hear Vincent's little voice on the monitor, I'm am overjoyed thinking about the first time I get to see him that day. And, when David and I go into his room to say "Good morning" and he's smiling up at us, my heart melts. And, we are like buddies, Vincent and I. We go on outings, we play together, we ride the bus, take walks, take naps, pick on Buster, do chores (when we can).

I am amazed each day that I helped create this person! Every single little part of him. Being a part of all that is new to him, all the growth and learning, has been such an incredible experience. With each stage in his life so far, I want to freeze him there forever, only to find that the next stage is even better than the last.

I can't wait to see what all my dear baby boy has in store for this world!

P.S. - I couldn't have found a better man to be my baby daddy.

New Camera

We recently bought a new digital camera and I love it! Our old one was nice, but this new one has so many more mega pixels. Gotta love technology. It also has different color options, so I can feel extra artistic by taking b&w or sepia photos like the pros.

I think this is supposed to be Vincent's new smile. He started working on it over the weekend.

Daddy Feeds Baby

Or shall we say, baby feeds baby??