Christmas Tree Decorating

This year, we wanted to start the tradition of decorating a tree.  Malia was so excited helping us decorate the tree.  The joy in her eyes reminded me of the joy I had as a child during Christmas.

Malia's 2nd Birthday Part II

Malia's 2nd Birthday Party Part I

Malia's birthday weekend consisted of two separate party's to accomodate each family's large size. :)

How Malia learned to walk

Before Malia started walking, she practiced on her little shopping cart around the house. It gave her a lot of confidence to start walking.

Then, at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Carson, Malia started walking on her own. Thanks to my Mom for helping her take longer steps.

My First Steps

This is Malia taking her first steps last week.

Malia's Halloween Party 10/25/2008

We had a Halloween Birthday party for Malia in Carson on 10/25/2008. Stacey and I agreed this year to have two parties since her parents were on vacation in China that weekend. Since it was so close to Halloween we also decided to make it a costume party. Erin did most of the planning for the party and Jamie helped her with the decorations and games. There are too many pictures to upload for one post so I split the photos into two separate posts.

Shopping with Mommy and Daddy

Now that Malia's 10 months old and can sit up on her own, we can take her out to the store when we go shopping. The photos above are from random trips to the grocery, South Coast Plaza, and the local Target.

Dancing Baby

Malia just learned to dance this past week when Grandma and Grandpa came down to visit from the valley. Every time she hears music on TV or the radio she starts to dance. She had just woken up before I videotaped her in these two videos.

Feeding myself

Mommy doesn't believe that I can feed myself so daddy wanted to show her by posting pictures of me holding my bottle.

Crawling Baby

Just when we thought Malia would be walking before she started to crawl, she proved us wrong. She was crawling for a little bit before I brought out the camera so I only caught a small video of her actually crawling.

Sitting up is hard to do

I'm practicing the art of sitting. Daddy says my sitting muscles will soon develop...but in the meantime I'll continue to enjoy falling on my back.

Here I am finally sitting on my own...daddy thinks I'm showing off now.

Flashback - Ultrasound Photos

Ultrasound on 06/08/2007

First Ultrasound 04/06/2007 to confirm that Stacey had Malia inside her

Flashback to April 6, 2007: Stacey was pregnant, though it didn't seem like it because her belly was still sporting abs. We headed down to Huntington Beach to see her Obstetrician, Dr. Feldman. When we saw Malia for the first time, it was surreal. She was about the size of a peanut and looking at the screen, Stacey and I were elated to see her floating there. Granted that the nurse had to label the parts (I was among the majority of people who can't see their babies during an ultrasound).

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June 8, 2007: We got a really good look at Malia during this ultrasound session. I think she was a little smaller than a "Smurf" (according to Stacey, Smurfs are three apples high). We also found out our baby was a little girl. The nurse was 95% sure.

Labor Timeline 10/28/2007-10/30/2007

Below is a timeline of Stacey's labor from first serious contractions to actual childbirth. I've also plugged in the pictures I took at home and at Hoag Hospital.

10/28 - 7:00PM - Pumpkin carving at Lola's. Serious contractions start.

10/28 - 8:00PM - I start timing contractions and time between contractions.

10/29 - 8:00AM - Contractions stop and subsequent contractions are lighter.

10/29 - 3:00PM - Serious contractions startup again. Called the doctor and he said, "call again when contractions are 5-6 minutes apart.

10/29 - 7:00PM - Contractions are getting worse (8-9 minutes apart on average) so I decide to put in the car seat. My sister Erin took over on keeping records of each contraction. Took me over half an hour to figure out how to install the car seat.

Timing contractions at home. Water retention at its highest and Stacey says she felt like a beached whale.

10/29 - 10:00PM - Called the doctor again as contractions were less than 5 minutes apart. The doctor on call, Dr. Diaz, told us to head to the hospital. We gathered our stuff and called our parents.

10/29 - 10:30PM - Admitting nurse looks at Stacey and is a little skeptical because she didn't look like she was in that much pain. Our actual nurse Kim briefed us and explained that we might need to walk around to speed up the delivery. She checks Stacey to see how far along she is...7-8 centimeters!!! She called in another nurse just to confirm because she could not believe how far along Stacey was in the actual delivery. Second nurse confirms that Stacey is in labor. I think they were going to actually send us home if she wasn't. They start hooking Stacey up to all the machines and an IV.

7-8 CM dilated and ready to give birth. Picture taken before epidural.

10/29 - 11:30PM - Epidural anyone? Anesthesiologist swings by to do a quick Epidural. It looked painful, but Stacey tells me that it wasn't as painful as an actual contraction. This causes the labor to slow significantly.

Stacey highly recommends an epidural. This picture was taken right after the anesthesiologist came in.

10/30 - 2:45AM - Nurse comes by to check on us. Only a centimeter of dilation. Stacey's water breaks as nurse is checking.

10/30 - 3:30AM - Contractions grow stronger. Nurse does some practice pushes and breathing techniques with Stacey for about 10 minutes. Baby crowns and our nurse contacts the Doctor. Baby is coming!

10/30 - 4:10AM - Doctor Diaz arrives and gets prepped. Two contractions and two pushes and baby Malia is born on 4:15AM. Nurse does routine cleaning and runs tests on Malia while the Dr. Diaz is waiting for the after birth and patching Stacey up. Nurse is done and hands over Malia to the new mommy.

Nurse checking on Malia

She looks so cold

Back with mommy.

10/30 - 4:45-5:45AM - "The Golden Hour" is what Hoag Hospital calls this hour and is a policy that they stress for each expecting mom. Its the first hour in which Baby, Daddy, and Mommy can meet and bond for the first time. The nurse doesn't come in or allows any visitors to come in during this time...not like we'd have visitors at 5:00 in the morning. Stacey and I spent this hour talking to our little girl and looking into her eyes. The first thing we noticed was the amount of hair she had on her head and her "pirate" eye.

We spent the hour getting to know our little girl.

My first picture with Malia as mommy rests behind us.