Open Book Moments

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Happy First Birthday!

This past weekend we celebrated B’s first year. We had a low-key barbecue with family and friends. It was a hot, summer’s day in the backyard. I see future birthday celebrations including a pool or by the water of some sort. A few weeks prior to the big day, B started walking! He is officially a walking machine proudly showing off his new milestone on his birthday.

Updates on the last two months go a little something like this…getting some pool time and sunshine rays in our day. Thursday play-dates with Mr. Dante and his mom which include lunch concert in Fremont park or Bertha Henschel wading pool. This week we eliminated formula from his diet and he’s been drinking whole milk. Last night he went to bed without a bottle without a fuss. We’ve been trying to do the whole no-bottle-at-bedtime thing for a couple weeks now. Some days he knocks out without while others we give in and hand over a bottle. He is such a happy babe and the transition has been fairly smooth. In other news, he has three teeth and the fourth (being the second top tooth) is poking through the gum as of a few days ago.
All in all, this 12 month old is right on target developmentally and behavioral. This first year has gone by amazingly fast and we’re off to a fantastic start!

Mr. & Mrs. Nissen

Thank you uncle Kev for the birthday cake(s)!

B’s first birthday cake

Didn’t get much messier than that. I don’t think he’s a fan of getting messy.

Dante growing up so fast!

Happy Family <3

Love them together

Beautiful, pregnant auntie Heather and uncle Joey.

Auntie Kayla

Silly Miss

Walking all over the place

The Hardaways

Beautiful almost one year old, Nola.

Friends

Uncle Kev

Grandma Molina

Thomas & Kimberly striking a pose

The DeLongs <3

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

April showers…err April Summer!

Time is passing before our eyes. This seems to be a pattern with every post as much time passes in-between writing. We had a fabulous month of summertime weather and good cheer! There’s a couple of ‘firsts’ to report that occurred this month. Our first night away from the babe and two pearly whites have popped through B’s bottom gums. Steve and I haven’t spent much time away from B since the day he arrived, in fact, we hadn’t been away longer than 10 hours. Of those times at his grandparents, we spent those as working hours. We stayed the night at a friend’s house after dinner, adult conversation that included yummy dirty martinis and left the following morning to install 7 bike valets at the new Hot Italian location in Emeryville. B stayed with my parents and did great! I think it was really good for us to have a little break. Flash forward to my birthday weekend, the 21st, Steve and I were invited by College Cyclery (events sponsors) to the Sea Otter Classic 2012 at the Laguna Seca Raceways event in the Monterey/Carmel area. We took 6 of our bike valet displays and joined College Cyclery of Sacramento for the event. We had an amazing weekend! We promoted the bike valet, met a lot of friendly people, watched some really cool competitions and hung out. Neither of us had been to Carmel before and it is a beautiful, little beach town. We couldn’t have asked for a more gorgeous weekend!

Two bottom teeth - this is me pinning him down for a photo.
He think we’re wrestling and laughs hysterically. 9.5mos

My handsome man - Carmel, CA

Beautiful sunset - Monterey, CA

Hotel Tradition - nerd alert

Reps from Oakley were fans of the bike valet
and we photographed their awesome bike!

Rain or Shine Jump Jam sponsored by College Cyclery - Sea Otter Classic 2012

Birthday kisses on the beach

B hanging out at the pool with Aunt Kay -
it was 90 degrees in Sac last weekend

Bike Blended Smoothies for Brunch by Primal Cycling Apparel
at Sea Otter Classic 2012

The beautiful beach of Carmel

Carmel Sunset

Golden Poppies everywhere - CA State flower

Onlooker: “That bike valet is sexy!"

Hello handsome!

My favorite bike we photographed on the bike valet!
Orange is my favorite color indeed!

The beach feels like home.

Just hanging at the Sea Otter Classic drinking a bike blended smoothie

Friday, March 23, 2012

Crawling, Bubbles and Laughter Videos - March 2012

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Hello Spring! When did you get here? ...TODAY!

I sure do have a lot to catch up on since January or whenever my last post was, don’t I?!

For starters, our Bike Valet Kickstarter project I posted about was successfully funded! We are in production and will be shipping the bike valets all over the world in the next couple weeks. We could not have done this without everyone’s love and support. We have been able to breathe again and are happy to get the product to buyers!

Since my last post, not only have we been busy with the business, I started running the social media part-time for a local nanny service company in January (B and I were on the news last week. Check out the segment here), jumping behind the camera and practicing my photography, guest-blogging, continuing modeling gigs and doing some substitute teaching for young girls taking modeling classes all the while being home with the little man. I also found out that I made the cover of an International Photography Magazine too!

UK Photography Magazine Cover

I wrote an article/mom article on new moms and fashion for a friend in Ohio who runs a well established lifestyle blog. Stephanie asked if I would guest blog for her from time to time and I had so much fun writing the first article that I cannot wait to do it again! Check it out here.

This past Second Saturday, we did a Live Fashion Photo Shoot event at Lounge ON20. We invited a live audience of people to come watch a photo shoot take place. Guests got a sneak peek of behind the scenes from hair to makeup and clothing. We had an amazing turn-out and Miss Bethany Crouch from Fox40 also did a segment on the event. You can watch the segment here.

Anyway, enough about me! Let’s get to the goods and the updates of our little man - he’s the main man behind this blog after all. While still being an amazing sleeper, eater and all-around great babe, he had a major milestone TODAY! He is officially crawling today! He is finally over and done with the whole downward dog head scoot and on to using those 2 chubby arms and 2 chubby legs to get around. Yesterday he started blowing spit bubbles which I think is hilarious! I have been able to capture the crawling and spit bubble action on video and will post soon. He also knows how to lean in and give a big, slobbery, wet open-mouthed kiss. One of my favorite things even if I’m slurping down some baby drool. Early February he started pulling himself up to stand and walk along the couch, or any surface for that matter, and now adding crawling makes him that much more mobile. I’m excited for this new mobility. A lot of parents try and dissuade my excitement saying that I’ll be chasing after him 24/7 and to them that might not be exciting but for me, it is. Every ounce of independency little B gains brings excitement and won’t require me to do every little thing. He can after his own toys now! We still don’t have any teeth but we have a lot of drool to keep bibs in business.

Steve is doing well. Busier than ever and back to working 7 days a week. We hope to have a date night soon and take my parents up on their continued offers to take B for the weekend! Soon…soon.

OH! And B started saying ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ a couple weeks ago too! How could I possibly forget that?!

That’s all for now. Happy first day of spring!