Desmond's Birthday

This is the first catch up post.

Desmond had three birthday parties in October. You've got to do it up for your first birthday, right? The first was at Aunt Patty and Uncle Kendall's.

The second was a joint birthday party with his cousins Devin and Ethan in LA.


Desmond cried and refused to eat his cake when everyone sang to him. Poor little muggle.

Doing that thing he does with Uncle James.

Wrestling with grandma.


Then his final birthday party was at the Berkeley Aquatic Park.

Joe and Mini were there.

Jessie, Caleb and Izzy made a surprise drive by appearance.

David, Brendan and Amber saved daddy's life by loaning him a jacket.

Mary and Michael brought the British flavor.

There were balloons!

And Heather and Myles represented Oakland...until Myles threw up all over mommy and had to go home.

And the day finally ended with lots of presents...but the DVD player was the hit for the evening. Go figure.

Happy birthday, little Desmoid!

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

You were born on October 6, 2007. How is it possible that one year has gone by already? It seems like it was just yesterday, and at the same time it seems like you've been here with us forever. I love you so much, sweet boy. Happy birthday!

Incommunicado

Sorry for the posting negligence - our wireless router decided to route no more. We sent it back to the manufacturer and are awaiting a replacement, meaning the desktop computer has been without an internet connection, leaving me driftless in a low-tech void. (The stupid thing is, we have a laptop that works just fine when connected to an old-fashioned ethernet cable, but I don't like the laptop. Why? Dunno. Just don't.)

So. Desmond. He's a peach! He's finally sleeping through the night, in his own crib no less. We put him down around 8:30Pm each night and he's out until 7 or 8 in the morning. To accomplish this feat, we did resort to a little cry-it-out action. The first night he cried for 30 minutes, the next night 20, then 10, then 12, then 2. Now he cries for 30 seconds at most, and then - conk - he flips himself onto his belly and falls asleep. Hopefully this delightful phase will last, because we're really enjoying it. Naps are another story, he still only naps on me or in his swing. We're working on it.

We're also more or less on a schedule now. A typical day in the life of Desmond Riley looks something like this:

7:00am wake, nurse, play
8:00am eat solids, play more
9:00am nurse, nap
10:30am wake, go run an errand or play in the park
1:00pm nurse, nap
3:00pm wake, go for a walk in the stroller
5:00pm nurse
5:30pm play with daddy, eat solids
7:00pm bath (not every night)
8:00pm read a book, sing a song, nurse
8:30pm in bed for the night

The big news: Desmond is crawling. He started doing a sort of army crawl a few weeks ago, and today we caught him crawling in a typical baby way: left arm forward, right leg forward, right arm forward, left leg forward, repeat. This is very cute, but I am missing the days when I could just leave him to loll around on a playmat. I'm afraid to go to the bathroom now - if I leave him alone for just a minute, he will invariably be chewing on some sort of electrical cord when I return.

I've got a bunch of cute photos, but they're on the camera and I usually load them onto the desktop but this is the laptop and - can't - be - bothered - sigh. I'll get 'round to it eventually. Promise!

Last but not least, today Desmond is 7 months old. Happy birthday mon petite cupcake!

You Probably Think This Post Is About You

This website tells you the song that was #1 the day you were born. Cool!

#1 the day Desmond was born: "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" by Soulja Boy Tell'em. (Was your reaction "Huh? Wha?" That was mine too. I listened to a clip of the song on iTunes. It is not good.)

#1 the day Ron was born: "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees.

#1 the day Sara was born: "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon. (Keep all snide comments to yourself, thank you.)

Dad's Birthday

Yesterday was Ron's birthday. Desmond and I baked him his favorite cake - chocolate raspberry. Happy birthday daddy!

Mommy's Birthday Weekend

For Sara's birthday we went and spent the weekend at Dillon Beach, north of San Francisco. The little man was very well behaved for the whole time, though he developed a ravenous nocturnal appetite. But when you get to sleep in at such a beautiful beach house it makes up for it. The house was Sara's uncle's mother's house and we were really thankful to get to stay. Many thanks, Miye!

We forgot our camera (bad parents! bad parents!), so all we have to document the weekend is this mobile phone pic. But it was an action-packed weekend! We went to an old lighthouse in Point Reyes, saw two male elephant seals fight for territory, ate some great food including a spicy piece of chocolate lava, hiked in redwoods at Armstrong State Park, took long walks on the beach, and indulged in crazy sticky buns. Good times were had by all.

Happy birthday, mommy!