Christmas in Palm Springs

We just returned from 6 nights in Indio. My parents scored us a couple of condos so we could all spend the holiday together. Grandma, Papa, Auntie and the 3 of us enjoyed a fun holiday. When we were not all staring at Alexander... we took advantage of the beautiful weather. On Christmas we took the aerial tram up to about 1o,000 feet to visit the snow and on Christmas night my parents treated us to a tremendous dinner at the JW. We also visited the zoo & botanic gardens, hiked the oasis canyons and took a day trip to Joshua Tree. It was a great vacation.

Big changes for our family!

December 19 was my last day working for Jamis Bicycles. My new position as full time stay at home dad has started! I am excited (and a little scared). Amanda starts working 5 days a week after the new year. This will be a huge adjustment for all of us. Her position at the university allows us the flexibility to launch into this endeavor and I am grateful for it. Right now this all just seems like an idea. I'm sure once we get a few weeks into January the reality will be quite an impact.

He changes so fast!

The past month has been busy! Alexander is eating rice cereal now... and LOVES it (big surprise). We will be introducing more foods now which will be entertaining. How can a 28" tall person make such a tremendous mess with a few tablespoons of food? Alex continues to change daily in so many ways. His recent check up put him at the 95% for weight and 90% for height.

A big change for us as a family starts next week. December 19th is Marc's last day with Jamis bicycles. After that he will assume the role of stay at home dad. Amanda's position at the University gives us this opportunity and we are very excited about it.

So that is enough words... on to the photos of Herr Smoochyface...

On Halloween we dressed Alexander up in his custom monkey suit and paraded him around the Tower District. He got a LOT of attention! Alex did not mind wearing the costume at all and it was a lot of fun showing him off.






And in case you need some more monkey fix... check out the video below!

Last night we tried Alexander's Halloween costume on him. It was a big hit!
Granny (Amanda's mom) did a wonderful job sewing the costume.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl340HQWY08

Oh... my... god...

Alex in his Boo Suit

Alex will be 5 months old next week! He's starting to be able to sit up on his own and is really interested in the world around him. His Granny gave him this cute little ghost onesie so we had to take some pictures as a warm up to Halloween. Granny is also making his first costume which we'll definitely be posting pictures of soon.

First time in his high chair!

While we haven't introduced solid food quite yet, we thought it would be fun to get Alex into his high chair. He really seems to like having a bird's eye view of us while we eat.

Trip to Texas!

Alex made his first trip to Texas at the end of September to meet his aunts and uncles, see his Granny again, and had the opportunity to be held by his cousin Keely. Poor kid.

Gratuitous baby booty shots...

Fun after our bath today!



And a milk coma after lunch!

New photos

Click this one to see it larger :-)

Beefcake stands up!

Yeee-ha for baby!

And another video on Youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOagI0bzok4
- an 8 minute slide show of Alexander's first 3 months

3 months old!

Alexander is now 3 months old! Yesterday we took him to the pediatrician and he weighed in at a whopping 16 1/2 pounds. He's in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. They told us he's about average...for a 5 month old!

He has been getting cuter and cuter every day. He smiles and talks a lot and is a very happy baby. We took him on his first overnight trip to San Francisco last weekend where we visited his Aunt Alexis and saw the Chihuly glass exhibit at the De Young museum. He really got a kick out of all the bright lights and colors.

Professional photos of Alexander

Our friends Matt & Suzanne made the long (although scenic and refreshingly cool) drive out to meet Alexander a few weeks ago. Lucky for us they are wonderful photographers and they brought their photo gear! You can see a few of the photos on Matt's blog: http://www.mmayphotography.com/blog/ (scroll down a bit). Just above the photos of Alex there are some pictures of our friend's beautiful kids playing in the pool with their dad. Matt's website, http://www.mmayphotography.com/ , is fun to look at. Make sure to peep at "the places" section. Just make sure you've got some vacation time coming before you look...

2 new videos

There are 2 new videos of Alex up on Youtube.com....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hdvfXmoVb3A

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6EyKGRP1Jr4

New pictures

Alexander is 7 & 1/2 weeks old! He's about 13 pounds and is really smiling and making a lot of eye contact now. We've been having a lot of fun with him and have enjoyed watching him grow and figure things out.

Photo Shoot

Here's a sample shot from Alex's photo shoot with Matt and Suzanne a couple of weeks ago. What a beef cake! We'll post more as they come!

Father's Day in Tracy, CA

Amanda, Katherin, Alexander and I drove up to Tracy, CA, to celebrate Father's Day with some of the Rossi family. Today was also our first time to see Bradley, our new cousin who was born a few weeks before Alex. It was fantastic to spend the afternoon with everyone. I ate too much (including some Graeters ice cream - the best in the world!), laughed a lot and had an all around great time.

This is what I do when Amanda & Alex take a nap...

Amanda & Alexander are getting a much needed nap so I decided to post a few more recent photos. Granny is still visiting with us and it is awesome (help with everything and lots of delicious food)! Today Amanda and I got out for a nice lunch and ice cream while the baby stayed home with Granny. Alex got another good review at his doctor appointment. He is up to 10 lb., 6 oz... so that means he gained a pound in 8 days! What a bruiser!

The wonder of it all...

This video is a beautiful window into our new lives.


Make sure you speaker volume is up at around 23 seconds.

:-) Marc

More baby pictures and movies, please!

Hello. It's Marc again. Amanda and Alexander are catching some much needed sleep. Well, needed for Amanda... Alex sleeps whenever he feels like it! We have taken another 13,412 photos and movies in the past few days so I thought I would post some of my favorites. Enjoy.