More smiles!

like i mentioned earlier, we went out to utah a few times this month. paul came with us for part of the second visit on his spring break from school. darren was such a smiley guy during the trip - he loved being held all the time and cuddled by his grandparents. i was able to get some more cute smile pics. we sure love little darren. he has recently learned how to laugh, so paul and i are constantly doing goofy things to try to make him do it again and again.

some pics

darren and i went for a couple of wonderful visits out in utah this month, hence the lack of posting as we were too busy being pampered by grandma and grandpa. before we went out, though, grandma joan came out to visit us! paul and i went out on our very first post-baby date while she babysat little darren. here are some pics from her visit - we went for a walk at one of irvine's many beautiful parks. it was so fun to have joan out to visit us!

well, at least two of the three of us are sleeping now

so darren must have inherited at least some of my genes, even though he looks like his daddy. most of you know i have a reputation for being a sleeper - i have always enjoyed me some good naps, going back from when i was in high school. so three of the last four nights darren has slept ALL NIGHT without waking up. fantastic, you are thinking. but i can't get used to it! i keep waking up and checking on him - i grab his little hand or poke him a little to make sure he's ok. i know i need to just let him sleep but i can't stop compulsively checking! so now i am a zonbie in the day, thus making me take MORE daytime naps. it is a vicious cycle.

can i just say i love babies?

darren's at such a fun age now - he smiles and gurgles all the time. he sure is a great little guy! he is getting better at sleeping every night,

My lucky valentine's day

somehow i've always liked valentine's day - mostly because i love getting romatic gifts. this year i lucked out - paul was gone at school all day long but he very sweetly thought to order flowers for me and have them delivered. so i found a box full of flowers and chocolates on my front step at noon on valentine's day. a few hours later, i heard a knock and there was another box full of flowers and chocolate, identical to the first, laying on the step. i thought paul was just being doubly romantic, but later found out that the flower people messed up and gave me double flowers by mistake. i would appreciate many more mistakes of this kind, please.

It's a President's Day Miracle!

okay, so darren only woke up ONCE last night! this is a major first, and who knows if it will repeat, but it was awesome. the down side is that I kept waking up all night waiting for him to wake up, so i really didn't sleep too much anyway but i can't blame the baby this time. also worthy to note - this sleeper is MAGIC. he takes wonderful long naps every time he wears it. i'm totally going to buy a bigger one when he grows out of this one!

One big kid!

Yesterday Darren went in for a checkup and got lots of shots. Or at least it seemed like lots to his mommy - there were like four or five syringes on the table and they all got emptied into the poor little guy. Other than his initial freakout after being poked, Darren was a great little trooper and wasn't irritable the rest of the day like they said he might be. He's healthy and doing great! He's also a big kid - at 7 weeks he weighs 12.5 pounds and is 23.5 inches long, putting him in the 85th and 95th percentiles for weight and height, respectively. His head is officially off the charts, but we knew that one already :)