One Year Later...

Our little snuggle bug a year ago.

At his one year old doctor's appointment. (Trying to open cabinets, of course.)

Happy baby in the bath!

Daniel's most recent stats from his one year old doctor's appointment:
Weight- 17 pounds 10 ounces
Height- 28 inches
Teeth- Two on the top and two on the bottom
Stats at birth:
Weight- 6 pounds 10 ounces
Height- 18 3/4 inches
One Year Old- What He Loves:
Daniel loves playing with cars, balls, opening and closing cabinets/drawers, his dog Charley and exploring. He also loves looking at books and has his "favorite" books he wants us to read to him. His favorite time of day is when Brian gets home from work. As soon as he hears Brian, Daniel books it to the door as fast as he can. He hates staying still for diaper changes and will throw food off his highchair when he is finished. Daniel started walking on his birthday and he looks so cute toddling around. And, finally... (drumroll please) we can put him to sleep at night awake!

Happy Birthday Daniel Kai!

What an adventure this year has been! Looking back, the year has gone by so quickly (with the exception of some really LONG, challenging days/nights!)
My parents had originally planned a traditional baby luau for Daniel at Goleta Beach to celebrate his first birthday. The plans were to have a roast pig, but then swine flu hit and although it doesn't pass through food, we thought we should skip the pig this year. We had lots of friends and family from out-of-town coming to Daniel's party which was supposed to be the Saturday before his birthday. But come Friday, the Jesusita Fire was a major threat and my parents were in an evacuation warning zone (and two blocks away from a mandatory evac zone). So with smoke and ashes filling the air and nearly 30,000 people evacuated from their homes we decided to cancel the party. All the other weekends were already filled with prior committments so we ended up celebrating three days later on Daniel's actual birthday (May 12th). Since it was a Tuesday night, not as many people could make it but there was a good turn out and we still had a great time. Daniel still got to celebrate with both sets of grandparents and all of his great-grandparents. My parents and family cooked up tri-tip, chicken and we served "long-life" noodles. While everyone else had cake, Daniel got to dig into a mini angel food cake with fresh whipped cream and strawberries.
Daniel was so exhausted and fell asleep in his carseat on the way home. He didn't even wake up when we took him out and just crashed on his changing pad. (See last photo!) Happy Birthday to our sweet little boy!

Pack me up Auntie Val!

Daniel absolutely loves when his Auntie Val comes into town from San Francisco to visit and spoil him. On a recent visit, he decided to climb into her suitcase- I think he wanted her to take him home with her!

Hapa Baby Reunion

You may remember the above photo from our trip to Pasadena in July when Daniel got to meet Nephele (my good friend Erika's daughter) who is exactly one month older than he is. Daniel also met Phoebe (Erika's sister Jessica's daughter). In April, Nephele and family came from Vermont to visit again and we went to Phoebe's house in Pasadena to hang out for the afternoon. It was so fun watching the babies play and interact with each other. Needless to say, they had all changed so much since the summer!
Above is a sweet photo of all the mommies and babies. Every mommy is 1/2 Chinese and 1/2 Caucasian (Hapa) and all the babies are 1/4 Chinese!

We switched babies for this photo and I think that Nephele looks way more like me than Daniel does! Whoever thought I would give birth to a blue-eyed baby? I miss Erika so much and wish she still lived in town so our little cutie-pies could grow up together.

Daniel and his future wife Nephele! ;)

Driving Cars

Cars have been Daniel's favorite toys ever since we went to Hawaii and Daniel found matchbox cars to play with. He loves to push them around and make car noises too!