The Great Pumpkin...Wait for it...

Niko's 1st Halloween was a busy one! First we headed to the airport to surprise Grammy and Pop-Pop on their return from their 2 month vacation. We stopped by my office in the morning to show off lil' Eeyore (I am getting my money's worth out of this costume!) and then headed to the airport. As luck would have it there were too huge accidents on 101 so we ended up at the airport at 10:40 as opposed to the planned time of 10:15. Of course, as we are waiting at the Customs departure area I called my parents to check their status...yup, they were already on bart. ARGH! So we packed up and met them in Daly City and headed home from there. Since we missed out on the surprise-infused photo shot at the airport, Grammy and Pop-Pop were nice enough to humor Nikos and pose for the slightly anti-climatic-but-still-adorable shot in front of the garage.

Next up Mel and the kids met up with us and we headed to Chicago's Pizzeria Uno where Maile got to make her own pizza and Niko showed off his 2nd Halloween costume of the day - Pumpkin #1.

First you add the sauce...

Make sure to spread it around.

The finished pizza!

Niko sports his Eeyore face for the pumpkin pic. Please excuse the non-matching socks, they are left over from costume #1 (Eeyore).


And now...the piece de resistance. The reason you tuned into this blog today. Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin has nothing on this...

And since he was covered in pumpkin goop - the bath afterwards. You can tell by the look on his face he is NOT HAPPY with me for putting him through this pumpkin humiliation!

Disney Pumpkins

Today we met up with Mel and Vernie and took the kids to the pumpkin patch at Smith Family Farms. The kids (Alice in Wonderland, Donald Duck and Eeyore) were the hit of the farm. The owners told us that they were the cutest kids that had stopped by this year and took some pictures of them to use in their store.

Ahh, the night (day) is young and little Eeyore is still smiling. Don't worry, he'll get into character real soon.

Still smiling...

And the true Eeyore breaks free. Alice and Donald try to occupy him...but to no avail.

Different venue...same attitude.

Ha, this one is too funny. Love the look on Maile's face and poor Nikos, half his face is hidden. Ha!

Maile and Mason take a break to check out the little piggies.

Sadly, I think this is our fourth family picture ever (1st in the delivery room, 2nd in the NICU, 3rd on 4th of July.) We need to step it up.

Smiling Eeyore!

Eeyore tries to figure out where Alice and Donald went (they're looking at the pigs).

And the day ends with a fist in the mouth. What more could you ask for?

California Cup and All Hail the Bison Tap

This Saturday Taki and his friends played in their annual golf tournament in Foster City, the California Cup. The red team defeated blue (wahoo!) and we all enjoyed a day of golf, drinks and sun. Niko spent his first day on the golf course, clad in his golf hat and golf shoes. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of him in his duds but hopefully someone else took one that I can post on the blog. In the meantime, please enjoy this picture of Niko hanging out under his dad's tap handle (on the wall at the bar at the golf course).

Let Them Eat Rice (Cereal)!

Taki has been chomping at the bit to let Nikos start eating solids. Up until now Niko has only had breast milk (okay okay, maybe he did have a little pizza crust in his mouth last week, but really he just drooled on it). So, we mixed up the rice cereal and got Niko all set up in the recalled-Bumbo...well, it didn't go so well. I think we were more entertained by the whole thing than Niko was, so looks like we will try again in a week or so. Enjoy the pictures below of our first attempt. -- My favorite picture is the last one where he is almost cross-eyed trying to look at the spoon. Ha! --

Mangia Mangia

After Taki and Jeff worked up an appetite moving tvs and couches, we headed out to Castro Valley to partake in Neapolitan Wood Fired Oven Day at Pyzano's Pizzeria. Last month, the owner of Pyzano's, Tony Gemignani, won the pizza-baking contest at the City of Naples Trophy, International Championship of Pizza Makers. The pizza was fabulous and we all had a great time.

Here I am, so excited to share my favorite food with Nikos.


Note the photo album in this picture? Niko spit up all over it a few minutes after this was taken. Whoops!


The master in action.


To wrap up the night we stopped by to visit Jack and Brooke (Katie was in the city preparing for a half-marathon the next day).


After Brooke heads to bed, Nikos trys to play with all of her toys at once.

Busy Weekend

Our weekend was jam packed with activities! Saturday morning we headed out to Jeff and Sarah's house so that Taki could help Jeff move furniture out of their nursery and into their newly renovated family room. While Jeff and Taki were doing all of the heavy lifting, Sarah and I chatted and while Niko chilled on the couch.


Next up Niko enjoyed some time in the Baby Bjorn.

He then tried out Baby Cecchin's tummy time mat. It looks like he approved. (Melanie, no Shorty-Big Head comments here...)


After a long morning of entertaining Sarah and I, Niko napped on her couch.

Huh?

I thought it would help some of you out if I labeled the pictures below in Taki's post, that way it is easier to figure out what you are looking at.

From top to bottom, the pictures are:
1. This view is looking from our living room,into the kitchen. The french doors lead out to the backyard and future deck and the window on the left will be above the sink. All new windows in the house are courtesy of the handiwork of Tyke and Jack D'Angelo. Hopefully in a later post we will be thanking Steve Grochol for help with the future deck. Hee hee.
2. This is the master bedroom, again with french doors out to the make-believe deck.
3. and 4. These are pretty self-explanatory, the front and back of the house, wrapped to protect it from the weather.
5. This is looking from the kitchen, into the living room. Have no fear, we will be moving that fridge into the kitchen when the house is complete.

Construction Update II

Construction is running somewhat smoothly. Most people have problems with keeping their contractors on schedule. Our contractor is having problems keeping us on schedule. The first real hick up is that I failed to order the floors on time. They are still a couple of weeks from delivery, which is keeping Jason (the contractor) from maintaining his schedule. He is doing his best to keep things moving. I have a feeling I will be asking for volunteers to help finish this thing off before getting kicked out of Antioch. By the way, the commute is killing me.

As Mason would say, "Go Eagles!"

In Pop-Pop's absence (the itinerary says he and Grammy are touring Perth, Australia today), Niko decided to watch the Eagles game. He demanded we put on his hand-me-down Eagles pjs (he wanted to be comfortable during the game) and hand him the remote.

Here he is wading through the channels (all 12 that Grammy and Pop-Pop get) trying to find the game.

...twiddling his thumbs at half-time.

...begging us not to tell Pop-Pop that he fell asleep before the Eagles won the game.

Seven and a half % baby!

This morning Taki and I took Nikos to his 4 month doctor's appointment. He weighed in at 11lbs, 15.2 oz and was 24 inches long. His height and weight put him around the seven and a half percent range (up from 5% - wahoo!) His head size clocked in around 20-25%, so I guess he is a little bit bobble-heady. He did really well at the appointment and took his shots like a champ, letting out a nice high-pitched scream at the end but calming down fairly quickly. Dr. Ray was happy with his progress, she explained that he was behind a little bit but that was too be expected since he was a preemie. She also gave us a list of the foods we can start trying with him when he shows an interest - so that should be fun!

So Many Stuffed Animals...So Little Time

The Arrival of Eyebrows and the Departure of a Swaddle

So a few exciting things have happened in our house lately. First of all, Niko's eyebrows and eyelashes debuted early this week. They are quite stunning if I do say so myself! In addition, starting Friday night we put Niko to bed without his swaddle. WaHOO! So far, so good. He slept ten hours straight both Friday and Saturday nights...we are crossing or fingers that he keeps it up!

Construction Update

Heather has been after me to post a message for some time. Because I have so much to say, narrowing down a topic has been tough. I have decided to update you all on our little project out in Berkeley.

Most of the major construction has been completed. This week our contractor will be finishing up the electrical and start putting up the new dry wall. Adrian, our local plumber from our Bison days, will be completing our plumbing this week as well. If all goes well, the windows will be installed this weekend and the floors will go in late next week. So far things have run very smoothly with only a few hitches.

As far as living in Antioch goes... I think we need to start a rescue fund to help get Heather's family out before it's too late.