Bronson's first Christmas present!

Today Bronson received his first Christmas present, from grandma Val and grandpa Tim. He's been forced to play with it on and off all afternoon. At first he seemed a little unsure, so I lay down in it with him, but he promptly kicked me out.
He especially enjoys the star at the top that I leave on motion sensor, so everytime he moves the bars it plays a classical song and it's lights illuminate to the music. He also likes the tummy pillow, now he can prop himself up instead of just staring at the floor during tummy time. If he could speak he'd say thank you grandma and grandpa!
Gotta love Baby Einstein.

The rain in Pasadena

Well, it's rained ... it probably actually dumped, however we did not see it for it seems to only rain at night... for now. We awoke yesterday to the sound of cars slushing through rain and a cold draft from the window ( and of course Bronson crying out for food). After taking care of the baby factor, I ran to the window with glee, reminiscent of snowy mornings in Port Alberni, but I was disappointed to only find some wet pavement ... and some had already dried up. So far it seems to only rain in Pasadena when no one is looking, it does make the sidewalks slippery, though.

Excited for the cool day Bronson and I bundled up in pants and sweaters. Matthew wore a t-shirt. Matthew was right, by the time we hit campus I was rolling up my pants and sleeves and there was sun in the sky. After dropping dad off at work Bronson and I headed for Lake avenue to finish up some christmas shopping for the prairie folk. We went up to Trader Joes and found some really neat food stuff, then came home to sleep off our morning/afternoon adventure.

It's the last week of classes for Matthew and he has 5 assignments due. yesterday was assignment one and he stayed until 8 finishing that off. I think we may be equally glad when these assignments are done, after the long weekend I've gotten used to having him around and it's weird when he doesn't get hom until 8 ... it means that after dinner we only have about an hour together before I need to head to bed. I'm really looking forward to Christmas vacation when we get him nearly all month 24/7. Heck, I'm looking forward to these first 3 terms being over so that he can be done classes and resume a normal-ish work schedule, but by then I'll be working too.

Anyhow, life continues down here and our immediate concern is informing Westjet that Baby Boy Stevenson now has a name to fly under.

... more Huntington pics

Bronson amazed by trees

Bronson, still amazed by trees
Bronson even more amazed by trees
B getting tired of mom snapping pictures
B subtly telling mom to stop taking pictures
Matthew and I wanted Bronson to stick his head in the

lion's mouth - Bronson refused
B falling asleep due to overstimulation of tree watching

A Hunting[ton] we will go!

Today Matthew, Bronson and I spent the early afternoon at the Huntington botanical gardens. It was a rather cool day (pants and a tank top), but sunny nonetheless. I'm enjoying Southern California's version of "fall". We started at the cafe for lunch and went through most of the gardens. This was Bronson's first big expedition sitting forwards in the Bjorn, although he and his father did a short trial the other day. He seemed to really enjoy chewing on the sling, as well as being able to see out. He spent some time napping, and the rest of the time looking up... he's not too interested in looking down, and only a little side to side. Here are some pics from the expedition: Matthew held the baby and I held the camera - better for my back and better for the blog :) Most of the pictures are of the baby, and not the gardens, I'm sure my blog readers will have no complaints :)

Bronson happy and excited for the expedition

Bronson and Matthew checking out what's what

This cactus looks like it's made up of noses!

Barrel cactii - my new favorite cactii
Bronson checks out some Birds of Paradise
Bronson at the end of the day - ready to go home

More pictures of the day below

Happy [American] Thanksgiving!

Well, our first american thanksgiving was pretty great - the weather cooled off to be fall-like and we had a traditional dinner at one of the CalTech profs houses: Tony Reedhead. It was great - quite a big to do. I spent the day sleeping and baking pumpkin pies (we brought 2 tonight... it seems everone decided to bring pies, though and there were ~ 12 pies for ~25 people) My pumpkin pie had more slices taken than any of the other pumpkin pies... however that may be because Matthew forced our friends to all take pieces of mine. Oh well, I still declare myself the winner (you can take the girl out of the competition, but you can't take the competition out of the girl - Matt looks forward to me going back into sports)

I felt like we should be calling our families to say happy holidays... it almost feels like Christmas, getting all dressed up to go out and party like adults. Dinner party like adults. We talked politics and global warming and about books... sometimes I need to remind myself that I am an adult, and I can speak a language other than baby talk, so parties like this are really great.

Anyhow - Happy holidays everyone, off to bed for me... looking forward to having Matthew home for yet another day off (that's right, they have a 4 day thanksgiving long weekend here - apparently tomorrow is the busiest shopping day of the year, all the Christmas sales start.)

It's been awhile, but we're back baby!

Okay - we didn't go anywhere (well, Matthew did), but it's been a busy tiring past week. I'm still tired. HINT: Matthew, come home and take the babe so that I can sleep. Or, you know, Diane hop a plane here :)

I'll start with now. Bronson is growing. We've had to get him some 6 month onesies because the 3 month ones no longer fit... even thought he won't BE 3 months for another 12 days! He's a big guy. Everywhere we go ladies swoon over him and just love to watch him looking around. Some guys, too. But, there aren't many men at the fabric and craft stores on weekdays - not sexist, just a fact. He is drooling up a storm, and he loves sucking on his hands. We've determined that he's right handed, so if anyone wants to bet he's a leftie, you're on! He's VERY aware these days... which means he needs more entertaining. Yesterday I bought him a set of mirror cards, basically the mirror replaces the face of animals on cardboard cards, and there's a rhyme on each one - He loves them! I don't think he cares about the rhyme at all, but he sure loves to look in the mirror, so we went through those 3 times yesterday, then Matthew got home and went through them with him some more. His neck support is getting better and better - we're going to try facing him forwards in the Bjorn on Saturday, when we go for a walk. His legs are getting stronger, and when Matthew makes him walk on the bed/table/floor/couch he's pushing down.
He also is sort of discovering toys, and grabbing a little at stuff.

Alright, so, the past week...

Matthew went on a field trip from Thursday through Sunday to Owens' Valley to see some telescopes (duh). So, Bronson and I obviously stayed here. We had lots of fun... for the first day. I think that Thursday night was a novelty to him because I let him sleep in the big bed with me, and it worked out well, then we had fun on Friday, but come Saturday he was very touchy and easily upset. He wanted me to hold him and never put him down. On Sunday when Matthew walked in the door he woke up in my arms to greet him and he's seemed content ever since.

While Matthew was gone Bronson and I had some adventures. Our most exciting one was going to Huntington Library, Art Galleries and Botanical Gardens. We sttuck to the gardens. We spent 2 hours there the first day, and didn't even see all the gardens. It's great! Every visitor henceforth will be forced to visit this place with us. We even bought a year's membership that we couldn't afford, but will save us money in the long run. Bronson and I visited the gardens again on Sunday morning, and still have not seen them all. There are many types of gardens there; desert, japanese, chinese, herb, childrens, shakespearean, palm, lilly ponds, jungle, rose... etc.
We avoided the Childrens garden because there were lots of kids there, and Bronson's not old enough to enjoy them, anyways. His favorite was the Jungle.. it's nice and shady in there, and lots of trees for him to look at. We had fun. The Japanese garden is amazing, far better than Butchart. There is a Bonsai garden and a Japanese house, a traditional house that's wall-less and the rooms are set up for tea, a dressing room, etc. It's really cool. There's also a Zen rock garden. Because Matthew had the camera for his trip, I took no pictures, however here are some of the quick sketches I made... pardon the one of Bronson, it really is impossible to capture his cuteness. :(

The beginning of this week was spent getting Christmas presents together and sent off to those Canadians we won't be seeing over the holidays (the West Coast Canadians). The deadline to send them to guarantee on time arrival was November 15th... we did it!

Well, I'll let Matthew tell you about his trip to Owen's Valley, he may take a few days because he has lots of assignments due today and tomorrow. The preview is: He had a great time, they went to Hot Springs every night and he climbed up the largest telescope and he's going to take Bronson and I up there some time next year because he can rent the cabin even if he's not observing on the scopes. And he saw a cow. For some reason, that was big?!?

In the meantime: Thanksgiving is Thursday and one of Matthew's profs has invited us over for dinner, it should be good. He has a 4 day weekend and we're going to Huntington Gardens on Saturday and also going to explore Old Town Pasadena (finally!) one of the other days. I am hard at work on great presents for Bronson and his cousin (once removed, but this is the last time I type it) Ethan who is 11 months older than Bronson.

Bronson demands the last word... as he is so often doing these days.

Where has the weekend gone?!?

What - we just had a weekend? I must have missed it. Sure we went to a party on Friday night (Happy Birthday Meg!), but Saturday was a cloudy "cold" day and we spent it sleeping, oh and losing 5-0 to the CalTech Chinese soccer team. Saturday night we also ventured out to discover more of Lake Avenue than we already know of - we headed to Trader Joe's.

Now, as a naive Canadian visiting America in February I thought Trader Joe's was probably some sort of Army Surplus store, and I couldn't figure out why people had grocery lists written upp for the place. Since moving here I suspected that I was wrong, that it was in fact a grocery store, perhaps a box store and really cheap. Last night we discovered that it's a small-ish grocery store with good prices and odd and unique items, in terms of the regular foods one finds here. For example, they have many different types of goat cheese at reasonable prices. Most of what they sell is organic, lots is also of the 'Trader Joe' branding. At the checkout my lovely husband grabbed me a 'Trader Joe' chocolate bar. How happy was I to discover when opening the bar that it has the word 'Callebaut' written on every second piece. :)

Today we didn't do too much ... sleep, walk ... boy, it is tiring taking care of a kiddo. Matthew and Bronson played alot this afternoon, some pictures are below. (Check out that neck support!)


One last note - Congratulations Teri Lynne and Jay on your engagement!!!

Good Morning Sunshine!

(Alright, so there's no sunshine at 4:11am when Bronson chose to wake up this morning, but we hope to see some soon)

Sushi & Seinfeld at the Stevensons'

You see, some things don't change just because you've had a baby! Tonight Matthew and I made sushi. Good times - as always some rolls turned out better than others, and we have left overs for tomorrow. Of course I'm not advocating people eat left over sushi... but we're vegetarians so raw vegetables keep well :)
Bronson and I had a heck of a time finding a sushi rolling mat within walking distance - in the end we bought a sushi "kit" at the bookstore - chopsticks, rolling mat, rice paddle and book.
Bronson was touchy today indicating to us that he may be growing again in spurts. He still fits his 3M clothes, but I only buy him 6M stuff now, which also fit because he's gotten so long.

Matthew received a special import from Canada yesterday - 3 authentic poppies. The Remembrance day poppy is a Canadian thing, this I never realized, and Matthew contacted the Canadian Club on campus to try and get some. It's a very mob-like organization, a girl went to the local embassy and picked up the stuff, then distributed it among the Canadians via the school mail system. Very covert. However, I think that the people down here see it as a fashion statement gone wrong - large flowers on shirts are a current fashion craze. Or maybe passed. I don't know I was busy having a baby - Tanya would know.

Nothing too new. Matt slept off his midterm hangover [what happens when one stays up until 2am writing a midterm, then still needs to feed and put his baby to sleep] between classes, and other than an afternoon walk B and I slept, gave kiddo a bath and caught up on the crazy sarcasm of Dr. House.
For those of you in the know, Cuddy from House is George's girlfriend in Season 4 of Seinfeld (she's Risotto girl), it's weird.

Here's Bronson showing us how to eat sushi.

"You put it in here like this..."

Here he is cuddling with mom.

(The blankets are because I keep the house freezing with air conditioning)

Guess who found his hands! ...

Matthew, and it's about time, his writing has really improved.... Sorry - I've been watching a lot of House. Bronson did! I looked over at him today and he was looking at his hands and touching them. He seems to have grown alot today, because he's showing some awesome neck support ... it seems we may not be too far away from facing forwards in the Bjorn after all!

... anyhow, here are some pics from today, I know that's the real reason y'all check the blog :)

Bronson played santa today and gave dad an early Christmas present - a desk. He figured he could use it sooner as well as later. Here are some pics indicating how he felt about assembling it today (excited, unsure, confused).

Well, it's off to bed for me, B and dad are starting out on a 4 hour Instrumentation midterm.

A weekend out

This weekend was one of sleep and adventures for this Stevenson family. Friday evening was the Halloween party at Matthew's office. It was fun. Many pictures were taken of Bronson, and he ended the evening with a lipstick kiss on his forehead which we're not sure who it came from :)
There was a great bobbing for apples competition, a couple dressed as Borat and Ali G who were funnier than the actual Borat and Ali G, and Bronson's best friend Jesse was there! (Although they have yet to actually discover each other or realize that they're being forced to be best friends) Yes, it was really great to see Elina and Joey and their son Jesse who's 1 month older than Bronson. Although Jesse and Bronson are the same size, Jesse has his neck support and was forward facing in his Baby Bjorn - something Matthew and I are really looking forward to with Bronson.

Saturday was a day to catch up on sleep for Matthew and I, and that's what we did all morning and early afternoon. We even had to skip our soccer game to work on this. To be fair it was a 10am soccer game, and it's just not that easy making it anywhere that early with the babe. In the afternoon we lured Matthew out for a walk and grabbed lunch at the Baja Grill. This is a fast food mexican grill restaurant that is popular in SoCal. It's 2 blocks from our house and although I have a hard time going out for Mexican (because it's so easy to make!), this was worth it. BEST burrito I ever had. Saturday night we watched the "highly political" and totally disappointing 'American Dreamz', save yourself the money, it never really pushes the limits that it claims to.

Sunday Matthew needed to write a midterm exam. CalTech grad studies works on the basis of trust. So, he downloads the exam off the net and works on it 5 hours straight, and that's it. Finished. This one was open book, another one he has to do by Thursday is closed book, 4 hours wherever you like. It's cool for them to show that trust. It makes me think of all the times I saw cheating in University and realize that those people didn't make it in to grad institutions.
While Matthew did his exam Bronson and I endeavoured to be out of his hair. Our first outing was to the Pasadena City College Flea Market - people come from all around LA for this, it happens the first Sunday of every month, and is only ~ 4 blocks East of us. We walked there and walked around and came home disappointed. I'd hoped for a market, but it was like 480 garage sales in one place. Not good garage sales, either. Dirty junky ones.
At various times in my life it would've been awesome, second hand clothes, reto things, etc. But not anymore, I'm really no longer into any of that. PLUS, everything was really overpriced! I was shocked. Just because you call it an antique, doesn't mean it is. There were 3 things that tempted me; 2 for Aimee, a dress but it was expensive, and a beautiful pink guitar where the hole in the front was shaped like a heart, but it was WAY too expensive, like, if I won the lotto expensive. The other was the dvd's, there were many of them, new even, but they were all mostly the latest hits and as much as I like Mission Impossible, my dislike of Tom Cruise far outweighs it and I can't bring myself to see it much less purchase it. Also, they were unwatched and very cheap and I just don't know where they came from. Although, I have my suspicions.
So, that was a major disappointment.
After a brief stint home to change diapers and feed, we headed West to do some Lake Avenue Christmas shopping. I think Bronson had alot of fun, he was all smiles and sleep.
After this, we went home and hung out in the small back yard of our building watching twilight set in while Matthew continued his exam. We met some of the kids who live here, they liked to watch the baby, and I enjoyed lying on a blanket under the sky with my son and no mosquitoes around to bother us. It was sunny and warm yesterday, I'd been wearing sunscreen, and the smell of that coupled with lying on a blanket made me think of Rathtrevor beach. I think we need to take Bronson there as soon as he can run around and enjoy it.
Anyhow, there's our weekend in detail - I was so exhausted by my day yesterday that I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow - so much for catching up on sleep :)

Bronson takes time out to goof around with mom

Bronson is really getting into playing with people now. He and mom play two games that never fail to make him smile. Of course dad has other games that he plays which involve rolling and flying.
Game 1 is mimicking mommy's faces, usually done with air kisses and yawns. Sometimes after playing for a bit, when I stop, he'll re-instigate it. This one is nice, too because we can play it while walking him in the stroller.

Game 2 is the hand walk. I walk my hand from his tummy to his face and poke either his nose or a cheek while making a baby sound "boo bo bo bo bo bo boop". It's like a tickle and he never knows where I'm going to poke, so I get big smiles out of this one. These are some pictures from playing game 2 this morning.

...and still he sleeps

Bronson continues to appear to want to sleep today - after waking for a feed at 4:20 of course
:) I mean, he's got to draw the line somewhere, right?
Yesterday we went to CalTech in the early afternoon and met up with dad for lunch. I love the CalTech cafeteria, there's tons of vegetarian options and 5 or 6 different types of food to choose from - they have a brick oven right there to make pizza for you, a Mongolian wok area, a mexican buffet, various warm entrees area (yesterday was greek), sandwich maker person, pasta area, sushi and my favorite - an awesome salad bar. I really don't know how Matthew forgets to eat when he's got that place to go to. Maybe it's because he's not a breastfeeding new mother?
I love that I had fresh locally grown watermelon yesterday :)

After sleeping all afternoon, Bronson suggested we take an early evening walk to the grocery store. We also did some christmas shopping and then ended up at - and this was a bad idea on Bronson's part - Ross. The american version of Winners - only way better. With a TON of baby clothes at great prices beckoning out to me. Saying "It's getting colder Bronson needs a sweater..." and "He's growing out of his longsleeved, long pants pj's and could use some more. In the end the kid got 5 new outfits for ~$6 each. Unlkie his mom he didn't have a fashion show when we got home. He prefered to go back to - you guessed it; sleep.

Well, I'm going to join him for a morning nap on the couch, then we'll see what the day brings us.

Love and missing our families and friends.

Sleeping like a baby

Our little boy wonder is at it again. He slept most of yesterday. He slept some of last night. And today he's sleepy, sleepy, sleepy. I believe he's doing another growth spurt. I thought I should post this picture now that he fits his soccer outfit, before he outgrows it!

Today in Pasadena it's cold. I'm wearing long sleeves and very excited about this. After being so hot for the last month, I'm glad that the temperature has dropped for awhile. I'm not talking snow in Manitoba dropped, but more jeans weather than shorts weather is welcome by me.

Not too much planned for today - a walk and then some top secret shopping and then maybe some napping later on. I prefer taking advantage of his sleepy days and just resting up with him, but first some matters to attend to.

Welcome to my blog.

So I finally managed to wrest control of this complaint column from my over-controlling wife. Good for me. Now I'll tell the real story.

It's all Jenn's fault. Yep -- everything. Well, just the bad stuff. The good stuff is due to me. So, for instance, things that are due to me:

1. Bronson is handsome.
2. My tummy is full.
3. The collapse of the USSR.

To contrast, things that are Jenn's fault:

1. Bronson poos a lot.
2. Sometimes I forget to eat lunch.
3. China.

I think I've made myself clear.

Here's a picture of the kid:

Guess who hates Halloween?

Bronson. Although Matthew's not so keen on it either after getting a serious burn on his lip from the Halloween pizza he made.
We're not sure wether it was his costume that upset him so much, or mom's makeup (there was lots of it - I was a vampire) but he spent the evening screaming and the trick or treater kids at the door asked "Why's he screaming?" We dismantled the outfit and washed our faces off after a few trick or treaters and some pictures, but the Halloween party we're attending is on Friday, so I guess I'll dull down the makeup and we'll see if he's okay with being Dracula again.