Better eater

It feels like Tesshin is finally gaining some weight. His face is getting a little bigger and he feels heavier when I pick him up. He's got that pot belly now too. I'm sure it has a lot to do with changing his diet. We've been adding whole milk to his Stage 2 formula for some extra fat. The daycare lady gives it to him straight. He's not a picky eater. He eats pretty much anything we give him - fish, chicken, all kinds of vegetables, cheese quesadillas, scrambled eggs, pancakes, avocados, mac & cheese (a favorite). We still feed him baby food but instead of the combo dinners, we mix it ourselves with some type of meat and two vegetables. That seems to be working out the best. Some people think it's strange to mix it all together but it's not that bad. Yes, I still try everything. I'm learning to cook better meals so we can all eat the same thing. It's hard to not reach for the salt and pepper. But who likes bland food? I still have a lot of learning to do. It'll be interesting when we go to Japan. Maybe he'll come back eating rice and miso soup.

Redondo Beach Lobster Festival

The three of us made our way over to Redondo Beach at the Seaside Lagoon for the 13th Annual Lobster Festival. Our lobster festival adventures began in 2005. Tessho and I were watching TV and saw a commercial for the one in San Pedro. We just hopped in our car and drove down to Ports O'Call to experience our first lobster festival. It was pretty good. The lobsters were cold, took a lot of work to get every piece of meat but well worth it. We really filled up with food from all of the other vendors. I even bought an apron that year. (I'm not sure where that apron is now). Anyway, the next year we decided to go to Redondo Beach instead. OMG!!!! Way better. The lobsters were nice and hot - they steam them in huge pots right next to the line. We always have to get corn on the cob. We missed the festival last year because we just had Tesshin and I think we were still in San Diego. Anyway, we made it this year and it was great. They still cook them right in front of the line so they're ice and hot. They'll crack 'em open so it's not too much work. The tri-tip and chicken were really good too. Tesshin enjoyed the corn on the cob. He had corn poop all night. He also enjoyed watching the wakeboarders do their stunts and tricks. We tried to get him to walk around barefeet on the sand but no luck. Just like the grass, he lifted up one foot and stood tippy toe on the other. He has pretty good balance.

Happy 1st Birthday Austin

We went over to the Chang's house today to celebrate Austin's 1st birthday. They had a great set-up with a Jungle theme. Lots of activities for the kids - drawing station, make your own leis station, cupcake decorating station. Just tons of fun. Austin kinda dug into his cake, more than Tesshin did. You can see he's got blue icing on his face. Good job Austin! I hope you didn't poop blue icing. Tesshin also got his first taste of ice cream cake (Cold Stone - yummy!!!). I can't believe our babies are 1. I remember going over to Debbie's house and we would stroller them around while we were both still on maternity leave. Fun times! They'll be running around together and playing basketball in no time. There's definitely plenty more to look forward to.

See if you can catch me now

Tesshin is walking!!! Yay!!! Once he starting cruising along furniture, everyone said "He'll be walking in no time". I didn't believe that it would be this quickly. It seems like he would build up his confidence little by little, day by day. It was three steps in the beginning, then it went to five. Then it would be from one object to the next. Just a week ago, he walked from the TV to the couch - easy breezy. I think as long as he knew where he was going, he would try to get there. This past Monday, he actually pulled himself up to a standing position (in the middle of the rug, nothing around him to help him get up) and took three steps, paused, took another three steps and then fell to his knees. The daycare lady has been saying that he'll walk from one side of the room to the other side and then clap his hands. He'll have a huge grin on his face like "Yay, I made it without falling on my butt!" We would walk outside and he would reach up for our hands to help him but today he wanted to do it all on his own. After dinner, he got down from his high chair and walked from the kitchen to the living room - no problem. I'm pretty positive that he'll be really walking, maybe even running by the time we go to Japan.

Third tooth

Tesshin's third tooth is coming through. It's his top left tooth. He looks so cute with his two bottom teeth and this teeny tiny third tooth poking out. He wasn't too fussy with this one. I can't believe he has teeth! It took him forever to get them so it's kinda weird that I don't remember what he looked like without them. It wasn't that long ago. Well, he's doing a lot better with his teething biscuits. They should call those biscuits "after you get teeth" biscuits. When he didn't have teeth, he would get them all soggy with his spit and then rub it through his hair. Now that he has teeth, he just tears through them. He'll actually bite off a huge chunk and work on that til it's gone. He likes the japanese rice biscuits and Earth's Best Organic Wheat Biscuits. It sounds like he's a better eater at daycare too. He likes the pancakes in the morning and tuna fish sandwiches for lunch.