"Schooooooool's Out...... For...... Summer!!"

Tim's spring term at Art Center is officially over, hooray!! He's gone for five terms straight now, without any breaks, so he is sincerely, deeply looking forward to this summer off from classes. (He'll still be a TA for three classes with a professor that he loves, and he'll also continue to work in the Illustration department. But no classes and no homework finally, yay! Actual time to spend with Wifey and Tadpole in the evenings, yay!!)

Here he is, compiling his artworks for an internship fair:

And here he is, looking cute in front of his display:
The last Working Title club meeting took place last week, and it featured a speaker (the guy in the hat) who works at Lucasfilm. It was a good time had by all:

Cuddle time with Captain Duckie Bum!

FYI, Weston looks bigger and bigger each day. I love how Wendi put it: he's a tank!!

A Most Unexpected Greeting...

Today was the greatest day of my life.
Okay, second.
Third.
Top ten, for sure... We got a card in the mail from the Terminator.

I'd like to leave it at that, but I guess I should elaborate, for the sake of accuracy (this blog may be a lot of things, but a factory of lies it is not). We got a card in the mail today "written" and "signed" Governor Schwarzenegger and his first lady, congratulating us on our baby. "Congratulations on the birth of your new baby, blah, blah, blah... As parents of four fantastic children, yadda-yadda... feed them, keep them healthy, etc..." Pretty generic until you imagine Arnold himself reading it to you, and then offering the chance to live if you just come with him. It was pretty exciting.

My governor can beat up your governor.

Edit: I guess I should clarify... the image above is what I wish the card had been. It was really just some fluffy watercolor painting Hallmark number...

The Super Mario Bros. Theme (after a fashion)

Amazing!!

I think there are certain people out there who are in a contest to come up with the most bizarre things imaginable...


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Favorites

Lately I've come to realize that Weston, though yet a wee infant, has several Favorite Things that appear to represent the highlights of his young life:

(1) His best friend, The Window;
(2) Mama's special recipe Creamilk;
(3) Warm and cozy chest-naps on Dad;
(4) Anything that provides jigglement (the front carrier, stroller rides, car rides, roller coasters, etc.); and
(5) The sweet, satisfying relief of a good burp (spit-up optional).

It's great being able to feel like we're getting to know The Tadpole a little bit better these days. He smiles more and more each day, and also seems to have longer periods of environmental engagement (as opposed to sleeping or blank staring... although he still enjoys these activities too). So, on that note, my favorite thing right now is (yes, you guessed it) my little Tadpole! Here are some of my other current Favorite Things:

(1) SLEEP. Well, sleep has always been a highlight of my existence, ever since day one. However, a good stretch of sleep is now especially delightful. Weston actually went 7.5 hours between feedings the other night, which was astounding!! He has since regressed back to the 4- or 5-hour stretches between feedings, which means a couple nighttime naps for Mommy and Daddy of about 2.5 to 3 hours each. (Whoopee.) Hopefully our periods of slumber will once again increase to a blissful 4 or 5 hours.

(2) Ben & Jerry's. I rightfully consider myself a Ben & Jerry's conoisseuse, given that I have sampled almost every one of their pint flavors, that I am a certified Chunk Spelunker, and that I have in the past received a lovely collection of B&J paraphenalia (direct from Vermont!) due to my unwavering devotion and impressive kiss-up poster-making. The 2008 flavors just came out, and I've tried all but one of them so far (with the last remaining flavor resting peacefully in the freezer as we speak). I highly recommend the Imagine Whirled Peace variety. Yay Ben & Jerry's!

(3) Disneyland!!! Tim and I haven't been to Disneyland since having a baby, and we are pee-our-pants ecstatic to pick up a couple more annual passes and start going again. It'll be a whole new thing with The Tadpole (dealing with feedings, cryings, ride restrictions, general crowd frustrations, etc.), but we adore Disneyland and are thrilled to introduce Weston to it. I'm especially excited because I can go on all the rides again!! (Assuming that Tim takes the baby... after all, the baby's the one who kept me off the coasters in the first place, heh heh... but at least he's detachable now). Love it love it love it.

Tim has been constantly busy and phenomenally sleep-deprived this week with final homework assignments (term ends next week), so I'll spare him the bother of compiling his favorite things, and just go ahead and do it myself. They'd probably sound something like this: Captain Duckie Bum (aka baby), pizza, Carl's Jr. Six Dollar burgers, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, HD & surround sound, Disneyland, and of course, Syd Mead. There are probably many others that I'm missing, but those are the things that come to mind first. :-) What a swell guy I have.

Anywho, even though I've already written a pretty piece here, I'll go ahead and post some pictures as well, in order to try to temporarily appease my reader demographic that I like to call The Insatiables (Mom and Uncle Joe, I'm looking in your direction). So, here are a few photos from the past week or so:

Cuddle time with the little guy! (I find my boys to both be so adorable.)
Weston in his dashing overalls and wee sneakers:
Ahh, hold tight, Tim, he's going to fly away!!
Weston's first trip to a Working Title Club meeting at Art Center:

Father and son look one in the same here...
Tak and Jacob get acquainted with The Tadpole:
Jean taking a picture of herself in front of her desk, given that she is the family photographer and no one ever takes pictures of her unless she forces them or sets the automatic timer:
Okay, okay, I'll ease up on the camera bitterness and simply admire a darn cute baby!!

95th Percentile, Baby!

(i.e., we have a huge child.)

So, our little Weston had his one-month check-up today (even though he's actually five weeks old now, but whatever). We got up bright and early (or, West got us up bright and early), showered, dressed, fed the baby, ate breakfast, packed up the baby, and drove to the doctor's office for our 9:15 AM appointment. Once at the office, we realized that our appointment was actually at 4:00 PM. D'oh!! Okay, okay, it was totally my bad -- sorry, Timmy dear!

Anyway, his *afternoon* appointment went just fine, and he didn't cry at all, except for a brief wail when he got his Hep B shot. (The examination room was nice and toasty warm, so that helped.) We were told that Weston now weighs 11 pounds, 8 ounces (95-97th percentile!) and measures 23 inches long (90th percentile!). So, he is GINORMOUS! Way to go, little guy! We thought he's been chunking out a little bit lately, but apparently he's nearly the biggest baby out there in his age category. (I guess I produce cream instead of milk, ha ha!)

We also learned that the little red spot on his lip is actually a birthmark. Only 4-10% of Caucasian babies get this kind of birthmark, but supposedly it goes away by age 7. In the meantime, he'll be sporting the Queen Amidala look. :-)

Now for photos!! This is a picture of the window above our couch in the living room. Weston is OBSESSED with this window - he loves to stare at the light coming through the blinds:
Here he is, staring up at the window:
Fun time on the play mat! (That little lion plays a few different mini-songs, and Tim and I love to dance to them.)
AHH! Warning: bizarre scary picture! Weston has this little mirror toy in his crib, but the mirror is a little warped, so he looks freaky in the reflection (hahaha!):

This is our friend Tiffany -- she's very fun and crazy:
Dave and Tiffany treated us to a yum-o dinner at Marie Callender's, and then posed (with their adorable daughter Malia, who put her arms around her parents all on her own, hahaha) after the meal:
This weekend, we took a scenic drive through the Angeles National Forest, which is just a hop and skip away from Pasadena. It was very pretty and peaceful:
It even got really cool and misty up in the mountains, even though it was warm and sunny down below! Awesome scenery: