Please Pray, and Take Action!

A couple of things here...
Please pray for our friends, the Blackwells, for the recovery of their little son Elias who was in an accident.

This second point, is not a life/death situation (except maybe to some wildlife species or possibly, surfers) but it's still a big deal, especially for those of you who love San Onofre as much as us. Please take action by clicking here-- it's really quick-- to sign a petition to try to stop the toll road as the Coastal Commission will vote on this issue on Feb. 6.

David & Gigi at San O'.

Also at San O'-- me with my surf buddies,
Heather & Sarah.

Swing Set Girl

Today was a warm one- just over 50 degrees! So we went on a little walk through the "Open Space," starting at a park near our house. We had fun walking on a frozen creek and when we got to the end of the trail, back at the park, we thought we'd let Gigi try out swinging for the first time! She didn't mind it (until the very end), but she did seem a little unsure, and boy did that "baby swing" make her look small! We keep thinking how big she's gotten, but she's actually pretty small still! We'll know for sure how big she is when we go to her Doc in couple of weeks.

Enjoy this little slide show of our outing (click the picture to see it)... extra points to the readers who know the band name! :)

Swing Set Girl 1/26/08

Funny Baby Advice

I found this post by way of Neatorama... there are some pretty funny tips here on what to do and not to do with your baby. Heehee. I think my favorites are "Bonding with Baby" and "Waking Baby." Leave a comment and let me know which one you like! :)
Click HERE.

On an unrelated note (although also from Neatorama), if you like water as much as me, you might like to check out these awesome pools.

Breanna's Visit

This post is a little delayed, but I wanted to put up a few pics... right after New Year's, my cousin Breanna visited for a few days; we had a lot of fun! We hung out around the house with Gigi, made a yummy Rachael Ray recipe (Bre is going to culinary school after all), watched a couple of old movies, and took the train downtown to walk around. Here are a few of the pics from her visit.

Yummy coffee at Maui Wowi.

Our state capitol.

Matching chapstick!

On the train ride home.

Gigi's new "car" from Breanna's family.

A fun look...

David likes to sometimes put pictures on his work computer's desktop to show something he has to look forward in the coming month, or sometimes he just likes to put a cute picture of Gigi there to look at. :) So I made him this tabblo which is like a collage of sorts, representing the things coming up in February and March-- Valentine's Day & my birthday (I guess that's more for me to look forward too- heehee), Our trip to Florida for the Dodgers' Spring Training, and visits from the Dears and David's Aunt Jann!

See my Tabblo>

Breckenridge Trip

We had a great weekend up in the mountains with some friends from David's work. Some of them are old friends who flew out here from CA, along with one who works here in CO with David, and some other new friends that we met through the Chows who planned the trip. We had an awesome cabin (heated floors!!!) and great snow. David and I split the day snowboarding on Saturday at Copper and it was really fun.

Here's the group at Copper Mountain. (L to R: Dominick, Geoff, Chris, Margaret, Denny, David, Pao, Wes, Me & Gigi, Laura, Daphnie & Vivian)

Alex, we made sure to get some sweet icicle photos for you!
Here is the photo album: http://flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157603733223785/

Big News

Hi everyone! Sorry we haven't posted much lately. We went out of town (more on that later from Mommy) and we've all had colds (my first one unfortunately). I just wanted to share some important news. You know they say that babies sometimes take many tries before liking a particular food, and after several unsuccessful attempts by Mommy & Daddy, I have now finally decided that...
I do like bananas after all! Especially right from the actual fruit!!

In other news, naps are going a little better these days. Mom wanted me to tell you thanks everyone for your suggestions, encouragement, etc. It's getting better as the novelty of standing up is wearing off a little, and I'm learning to get down by myself easily.
Now the only problem is when I drop the pacifier outside of the crib- that's when I really get mad. Mommy says we'll deal with that issue in a few months. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I doubt I'm going to like it!
Love you all!
Love, Gigi

My Exact Sentiments

Read this wonderful Ode to Trader Joe's (fyi- just click on the underlined words) that I came across... I couldn't have written it better myself! Although if I did, I would include these items that we miss most from our beloved grocery store:
Orange Chicken
Jo-Jo's
Fried Rice
Shaving Cream
Mochi
Teriyaki BBQ chicken
Spanish Rice
all the yummy ready-made salads
Organic vanilla bean yogurt
Salsa
white cheddar popcorn
decaf chai tea latte powder
and so much more!!!

We also miss the tropical atmosphere, nice employees, artistic handwritten price tags/descriptions, grass roots feel, cheap prices, yummy samples, etc!

This seems like an appropriate place to give a shout-out to my Aunt Laurel & Uncle Joe who sent us a lovely TJ's care package right before Christmas.

Help!

Our latest dilemna: Gigi has realized her mad skills of pulling herself up to standing! It's great and real cute when she does it on the couch or the coffee table during playtime, but not so great when we try to get her to take a nap and now all she wants to do is stand up in her crib! She thinks it's really funny at first (as we continually go in, and lay her back down), and then she gets overtired, keeps doing it, but now is simply crying each time she stands up. Yesterday she slept a total of 1 hour during the day! I think she might also be a little stuffy, maybe getting a cold (her first!) too so that could have something to do with it. But I'm pretty much at a loss as to what to do about the standing up. Any ideas from you experienced moms? Please help!!

The Culprit in Action