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 :)