Baba's first Christmas

Baba had a very busy, eventful and merry Christmas. He spent almost the entire weekend at Grandma's with the family and a few close friends. It was great to have the entire family get together for the first time since Rick & Elena's wedding in September. There was lots of yummy food and loads of fun to to be had all through the weekend.

He got to spend a lot of quality time with everyone and from what we could tell, he looked like he was having fun. He enjoyed being constantly carried around, serenaded to and generally fussed over by everyone, can't blame the kid. Here he is playing with Aunties Helena & Elena.

Grandpa and Grandma made sure that he got his fair share of spoiling over the weekend as well.

With the rest of the family keeping him well entertained, Mommy & Daddy got some well deserved time off

He seemed pretty excited when it was time to open the presents. Need I say that in the presents department, he beat everyone else hands down. In fact I would venture to say that it was not even a contest. His favorite presents seemed to be these characters from Sesame street. Bert, Ernie & Big bird have since become a regular cast of his bedtime routine. Mommy and Daddy will need to take some classes on ventriloquism.

But his absolute favorite moment was at the end of the weekend when Uncle Jon decided to go absolutey bonkers on him. He could not for the life of him understand what his uncle was up to. He does this thing when he gets really excited, buckles his knees and goes up and down.

Aiden gets a glimpse of what awaits him in the dating world

The other day Barbara invited the Harveys and us over for brunch. As usual there was enough yummy food to feed a small island nation. I stuffed myself silly with more bacon than I've had in the entire year. We put the kids down on the floor to let them play. This was the first time that Aiden & Bailey had been together, so we were all curious to see how this new relationship would pan out. Bailey seemed very excited to pay with the new boy and couldn't stop chuckling. But for some reason Aiden was holding back a bit. It was almost like he had a sixth sense of things to come.

As time progressed, he slowly warmed up to the new chick in his life and there was a little more interaction. He began playing with Baileys toys and things started looking up.

Bailey even pulled out some tricks out of her bag to impress the boy. She was especially good with this trick that could be called "Smother myself with a blanket'. All signs pointed to lots of fun play dates in their future.....

But suddenly she discovered Aiden's irresistible ears and decided that they needed a little bit of tweaking to improve his listening ability or something. This was Aiden's first glimpse of what awaits him in the dating world. We hope that he has a short memory and that the next play date would be a fresh start :)

In defense of a game called cricket

It is the destiny of every Indian man to love a sport called cricket. Being only half Indian, Aiden will, one day, have to make a decision that will determine the course of his life- to cricket or not to cricket. This is not something to be taken lightly in the Stoddard-De Souza household. Daddy thinks nothing of waking up at 6 am and driving over an hour to play cricket (this is someone who thinks 8 am is *very* early) or waking up at 4 (am!) to watch someone else on the other side of the world play it. Mommy is not nearly as enthusiastic and can't understand the draw of a game that takes 5 days to play especially if, after all that time, they still can't always figure out who won.

What will Aiden do? Recently Daddy took us to hang out with his cricket friends at their yummy restaurant 'Cupertino Bakery' and they bribed him with hugs, a tour of the kitchen and fancy cakes.

You expect me to play what? It takes how long?

But cricket players get to eat cake during the tea break!

Now you're talking!

Happy Holidays!

Embarrassing though it is to admit, I've only recently finished thank you notes for gifts Aiden received after his birth. So, I don't have it in me to start on holiday cards this year. Instead, I give you a heartfelt if generic holiday blog.


Happy holidays! We hope that the coming year is as exciting for you as it will be for us. We can't wait to continue experiencing this first year together. So far, it has been a beautiful, beautiful journey. In the last 4 and a half months, we have been transformed into a family.
If you are reading this blog, chances are that you have shared in some of the joys and challenges of this process with us. Thank you to both friends and family for all the support, all the encouragement and for sharing your stories and your selves with us. We couldn't have done it without you.

Love, Angela and Lac and most especially Baba (Aiden)

Christmas is no time to procrastinate!

This picture was taken late November. Guess where Mommy is standing and where the photographer is standing.

Wish List

1. Socks that match. Better yet, no socks at all!
2. A ceiling fan in every room (this is what happens to kids when you don't buy them a mobile... they make friends with the ceiling fan).
3. 2 clones of Mommy to hold me, kiss me, feed me, love me 24 hours a day.

4. A visa for Maizine so she can come visit me.

5. For Daddy to sing "On Top of Spaghetti" and Aunty Pam to sing "Down in the Valley" to me every day.

6. A hot tub to swim in.

The boys on their own

Over the thanksgiving weekend, the boys decided to give Mommy a break for a couple of hours. (Actually we were literally kicked out of the house, but we won't get into specifics). It wasn't the best of days for anything outdoors, so we started off thinking that we'd just go to the neighborhood mall and hang out. It's not something that Daddy enjoys doing, but we both thought, heck, why not give people watching a shot ? But as soon as we pulled into the parking lot it was immediately apparent that we didn't pick the best weekend for this activity. So we turned around and headed off to the nearest trail called "San Andreas Trail" off Skyline boulevard in San Bruno. We stopped at this bench to make sure that Aiden was all bundled up and off we went on the 4 mile hike.

Aiden likes being outdoors so much that he falls asleep as soon as we get started. There were a few horses along the trail, but he slept right through it. The trail passes close to San Andreas reservoir and provides beautiful view points.

By the time we got done, we were out for more than a couple of hours and he was all rested and happy. Here he is sporting a hat sent to him all the way from Edinburgh by 'Aunty Desterin'. Mommy got a chance

to reload and she was very happy to have her boys back