05.31.2011 Top of the world (almost)

On Sunday, May 29th, I got up to feed Evan at about 4:30am and decided to go to Mission Peak.  It had been probably well more than a year since I've summited this hike.  I arrived at the Stanford Av parking lot at about 5:10 am.  I started (entered the gate) hiking at 5:15 am.  I didn't stop at all (except for very brief pauses) and reached the summit in exactly 1 hr 8 minutes (6:23 am).  I took some videos at the top, the sun had already risen but there were still plenty of low clouds.  When some of the rays of sunlight shot through to the bay below and across the penisula and south bay, it was extremely clear and beautiful.  The air was crystal clear and refreshing and the lighting was as conducive to fantastic photos as you'll ever encounter.   It took me about 50 min to descend and I got home just before 7:30am, just in time for Evan's waking up.

05.21.2011 Evan's play area and laughters

Once you have a baby, the house is overrun by stuff for the baby, and all real estate becomes his.  As is seen here in the following video.  This was our living room, but it's his play area now, fully padded and all.  He's laughing hard here as I make trickster sounds.

05.20.2011 Evan the piano maestro!

Ever since Evan discovered that different objects had different textures, he would eagerly reach out and touch whatever objects that were within his reach.  If you were holding him, he would examine your shirt, face, buttons, or whatever you were holding.  So he loves all toys that had different textures, and especially those that made some sounds when he touches the objects.  It comes as no surprise then that he loves the electronic keyboard and its wide array of buttons and keys.  And now that he can support himself standing and have more intricate control over his finger movements, he gets extremely excited when we turn on the keyboard and he can start banging away!  As the following video demonstrates:

05.14.2011 Evan laughing to silly noises from daddy

Evan laughs at the silliest things sometimes, which makes him that much more adorable.  Here I'm just making popping noises and gestures with my hands and mouth, but he loved it and laughed very hard!

05.11.2011 Evan's first words!

I had been over the past month or so been 'teaching' Evan to say or at least recognize a few words; sometimes using books, cards, or just pointing/patting on the object and repeating the object's name over and over.  Most of the time it seems he is just ignoring you but I knew he was absorbing it, even if just a tinsy tiny bit at a time.  About a week ago, I told June that I thought Evan would utter 'da-da' in two week's time.  He was vocalizing more and more and I could sense that he really wanted to say something meaningful, or something that we would understand.


Yesterday day and then at night after bath, he randomly uttered softly dsa-dsa.  It wasn't very clear, but it was definitely different utterances from his usual babbling.  This morning, however, at about 5:50 am, when I had changed his diaper and he was struggling (and crying) to fall back asleep, he uttered da-da a few times, in between his wailing!  I ended up feeding him about 3 oz of milk after which he was more able to fall back asleep.  Then this morning at breakfast, he loudly said DA-DA a couple of times :)  He even waived at me once (although I hadn't waived to him) while changing his outfit to day-wear. 

So he did a few firsts the last couple of days:
1. First words!
2. First waving of hand (bye bye, hi hi)
3. First time he can pull himself up to standing position from sitting position.

05.09.2011 Evan laughing after a bath

After a nice warm bath, Evan is readied for bed.  Here, he's laughing in delight, obviously very comfortable after the bath.