We just experienced the infamous five/six month growth spurt.  Phew!  I’m glad that’s over.

Other than that, we are having a wonderful time.  Even when Ethan is teething and uncomfortable, we can always get a laugh out of him.

We have started solid food, which is a very messy experience so far, but still fun.

Tom and I are still working from home so that we can be with Ethan, although we recently started having a nanny watch him for a few hours twice a week.  So far so good.  I love that we can spend so much time with him.  He is so much fun to have around.  I love waking up to his smiling face every day.  I can’t wait for him to start talking.

He’s been sitting up on his own for about a month, which he totally loves.  He rolled over a few times last month, then decided to just yell at us whenever we put him on his stomach.  Hmmm…. We’ll see if he crawls, of just skips straight to pulling up and cruising.   The dude has some great balance.

Ok, enough bragging about my gorgeous, amazing, wonderful, boy.  Here are some pictures from the last two months.

I’m still breastfeeding him and plan to continue until I get pregnant again.  Ethan is a very quick and efficient eater, so it’s actually more convenient to breastfeed.   I’ve learned so much these last few months and can’t wait for baby number two because I’ll actually know what I’m doing right out of the gate.

Every day he seems more aware and able to communicate with us.  He has been a joy to have around since day one, but he is especially fun now that he can sit and stand up (with a bit of help .  He seems much happier now that he’s more independent.  We found a carrier he likes, which is wonderful.  He’s not the type of kid to just lay around, and he isn’t big on daytime naps, so it is very helpful to have him in a carrier part of the day.

Here is a link to a few videos.

He was born, two weeks late, on December 6th at 12:17am.  He measured a healthy 8 pounds, 9 ounces.  I was hoping to have a home birth, but as it turned out I had to be induced due to the fact that I had been in pre-labor for five days (with no sleep) and my water had broken.  We were ready for that possibility, so we had a very good backup doctor ready.

Everything went very smoothly and he came out exceptionally healthy and as hungry as a week old baby.  Our biggest challenge was getting him to wait for my milk to come in, which he was not happy about.  Luckily, that occurred rapidly and he has been very calm and happy ever since.

It is so much fun to get to know this new member of our family.  He seems to be more aware each day and gives us new noises and expressions constantly.

Here are some pictures.

The photographer is Olesja Mueller.   I was really impressed with how she captured this time for us.

As many of you know, Tom and I are expecting a baby in less than four weeks!  I have been very bad about posting pictures on this site. but I will be posting frequently from now on.  I have had a wonderful time with my pregnancy, thanks to a lot of good advice and a lot of reading.  I was disappointed in my initial experience with my Ob/Gyn (too many false positives and some unnecessarily stressful months as a result).  I currently love my midwife (Leslie Stewart), and my backup Ob/Gyn (Dr. Wu, head of Obstetrics and Glendale Memorial).  It has been smooth sailing since I switched over to them.  Here are a few albums chronicling the prenatal journey so far.

Baby Shower Pictures
My shower was more of a co-ed pool party.  I have been to so many showers in the last few years that I wanted something different.

Baby Ultrasounds

Belly Pictures

In August, we spent a week in a cabin up in Mable Lake, Canada. Mable Lake is about 5 hours North-East of Vancouver.It was so wonderful being out of LA. We learned some very important lessons on this trip:

1. Water skiing in the rain is COLD!
2. No one looks sexy on water skiis.
3. Every passenger of a boat driven by Arin Morfopoulos comes home with many mysterious bruises.

4. Never play Risk with Jessica Morfopoulos. You will be slaughtered. (Who can hold Asia, I mean come on!)

5. Cabins have septic tanks. Septic tanks occasionally become full and need to be emptied. It takes about a full week (the duration of our trip) to get someone out to empty a septic tank.

6. It really sucks to hike up to an out house at 4:00 in the morning, with an Ipod for a flashlight, even if your husband is sweet enough to come with you to protect you from man-eating out-house spiders.

If you want to see the pictures, here you go.

I found a blog, by a Scientologist, that has some great, in-depth answers to many of the questions that I have been asked.  It also has links to many of the legitimate church websites.

Here’s the blog: Answering Questions About Scientology

We started the trip in Auckland and drove down to New Plymouth.  The wedding was held on a lovely bridge in Pukekura Park.   It was absolutely perfect.  Click here for the photos. 

After the wedding, we took the ferry to the south island, where we visited Picton, Lake Tekapo, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Haast, Franz Joseph Glacier and Christchurch. 

We did a whole lot of hiking, some horse back riding, jet boating, and sky diving.

If you’ve never been to New Zealand, it’s totally worth the plane ride (only 12 hours).  It is, by far, the prettiest country I’ve ever seen (sorry Switzerland).  The people are also extremely nice.       Click here for the South Island photos.