new camera! yay!

so i finally got a new camera this week and i took darren outside for some pictures. he wasn't in the most photogenic mood, but i still got some good ones. i am loving the new camera, for sure! the old one made me hold down the button forever before it would take a shot.

darren is all about sucking on his hands these days! and drooling. maybe he will start teething soon?

happy fingers

so about 7 months into being pregnant my fingers started tingling on both hands, 24-7. it was really annoying at first but eventually i got pretty accustomed to the feeling, though my sense of touch was messed up. i thought i had developed carpal tunnel, since i was working at a computer all day long, but learned this can be a side effect of being pregnant, somehow. still don't understand why that would be. but after darren was born, sure enough the tingling didn't go away. two months after he was born when i still had tingling fingers, but had lost pretty much all of the baby weight, i figured it couldn't have been the pregnancy after all and was just good old carpal tunnel. today all of a sudden i realized that my fingers are normal again! so it must have been the pregnancy after all, right? but the important thing is that it's gone. hurrah!

back east!

We went back east to visit law schools and I got to see Philadelphia and Boston for the first time, and Manhattan from a distance, and a little bit of Connecticut and New Jersey in the process. We left Darren with his grandparents so this was a fun little getaway for us, although I missed the little guy a lot as this was the first time I have been away from him. I am glad to have him back now! Unfortunately, there are ZERO pictures of this trip since my camera decided to stop working and I am now in the market for a new one once again. Boo Minolta cameras! We went to Philly on Thursday night/Friday-- we walked all over the part of downtown called "Center City" where one of Paul's friends lives and walked down to the Liberty Bell. The parts of the city that we saw were nicer than I expected and I didn't see a single bum out on the streets while we walked - way safer than LA feels, since you practically can't drive through there without someone approaching your car to beg for your cash. On Saturday we drove the five hours or so to Boston and stayed till Sunday afternoon. I can tell that the area will be really pretty when there are leaves on the trees, but it was still wintery looking and in Boston it was freezing! I had to buy a sweatshirt from one of those cart vendors on the street when we were downtown because the four layers i was wearing were not enough to keep me warm with the icy winds blowing in my face. I can only imagine how it feels in the real winter. I am shivering just thinking about it. Boston and Cambridge were every bit as historic and charming as I imagined in my mind. We walked part of the Freedom Trail, which took us through a lot of cool streets with three story brick buildings with a shop or restaurant in the bottom floor and apartments above. It was a quick and busy trip, but loads of fun and very helpful in the decision-making process. East coast here we come.

notes on flying

So somehow I've taken Darren on three roundtrip flights to utah already, and due to various reasons I have never been with paul and I have had to manage carrying Darren, a big pack on my back, and a bag to check in each arm. Once I got to the front of the check-in line (after getting wet in the rain outside) and my big suitcase was 3 pounds over the 50lb limit, so with a crying darren in a front pack I had to bend over and open up the suitcase on the ground and rearrange my stuff between bags- it was not pleasant. But believe it or not the point of this post was not to whine. I wanted to mention that many of my fellow travelers went out of their way to help me get through security, or lift or pull out my heavy backpack up into or down out of the overhead bin for me, or pull the big heavy suitcase off of the baggage claim. I guess I was too pessimistic - I didn't know there are so many nice people still out there who are willing to help a complete stranger struggling to travel alone with a little one.

He found his thumb

a few weeks ago i woke up to the sound of loud sucking. i looked in darren's crib and lo and behold, he was sucking his thumb. none of the kids in my family ever were thumb suckers, and my initial reaction was "uh oh, this will cause future orthodontic nightmares!" but i have since decided that it is cute. he usually only does it when he is tired or sleeping, and he will not accept the pacifier as a substitute. here's our little thumb sucker in action.

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!