Pumpkin patch

Ryan's classmate's birthday party at a pumpkin patch.

We've got to let Ryan play in the dirt more.  He was so disturbed by the muddy pumpkins…

Ryan's drawings

Ryan's love of drawing is second only to his love of talking about his drawings. Here's one of his creations from Sept 2013...

Happy 11 month birthday!

Connor won't say "Mama"…


Connor spends all day finding weak spots in our child-proofing…

Ryan on a Skuut bike

August activities

Kenworth Family Day








The caricatures weren't very good this year…




Annual fruit picking trip to the Stutzman Ranch with Uncle Minh…












Connor feeding himself…


Here's a typical Connor tantrum. He hates giving up toys…

Happy 10 month birthday!

What a month for his physical development. Just last month he was only able to stand stationary for a few seconds at a time. A couple of weeks later, he began walking around while holding on to the furniture. And by his 10 month birthday, he's walking around great. In fact, he's completely given up crawling. He has gotten so mobile that we've had to put up the "baby jail".

Connor is also better at eating solids. Usually in a day he'll eat three 3-oz servings of chicken or beef congee, and any combination of two of the following: egg yolk, banana, mango, or avocado.  We also regularly try to feed him sweet potato or apple sauce, but he doesn't like them much. We've reduced his milk intake from seven 5-oz bottles per day to five or six.

Connor doesn't talk much. His verbal communication usually consists of a series of ultra high pitched squeals. And when he does babble, he says "da da da da" when he's happy and "ma ma ma ma" when he's mad, uncomfortable, or he wants something. We don't think his "da" and "ma" are in any way referring to his parents.











Ryan and Connor playing a hybrid game of peekaboo and hide & seek…

Connor walking

Here are a few videos of Connor starting to walk around 9.5 months old. He was so determined to walk. He was trying to take steps when he could barely stand…

July activities

The month of July was a busy one for us. We took a trip to the zoo with friends from Boston that we haven't seen in a very long time. In fact, it was our first time meeting their adorable little boy.





Brooke and I celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary with a weekend in Vancouver, BC - the place where we got engaged. It was our first weekend trip without the boys. By coincidence it happened to be the weekend of an international fireworks competition the "Celebration of Lights" and our hotel was packed with Brits who had come to watch the United Kingdom's performance. It was a great show using theme songs from James Bond movies...

As you can see it was a very popular event….

We rented bikes and rode around Stanley Park…








Mmmmm…doner kebab. (It seemed Vancouver had a doner shop on every other block)




We attended a going away party for one of Brooke's co-workers. The party was like a Mr. Wizard episode with booze- while the parents sipped their cocktails, the kids made a watermelon explode using only rubber bands, and then followed it up with a Mentos-in-soda-geyser.

Happy 9 month birthday!

At Connor's 9 month pediatrician appointment, his stats were:
20 lb. 10 oz (70th percentile)
28.5" tall (70th percentile)
17.5" head circumference (45th percentile)

He still wakes up once in the night for a bottle, but otherwise, he's a really good sleeper. He's able to push into a standing position without needing to hang onto furniture. He still refuses to eat any solid foods. We've had most success with congee with puréed chicken, but even then, he'll only eat 5 or 6 small bites. He doesn't mind being held upright so that he can look around, but he absolutely hates being cradled in our arms. Ryan loved being cradled and rocked to sleep, but Connor would much prefer just to lay in his bed.

Ryan's 4-yr Birthday (Part 2)

Birthday portraits at UW (taken on June 29th)













For several months prior to his 4-yr birthday, Ryan's only birthday request was to go hiking on Mt. Rainier. Here are photos from our June 30th trip with Uncle J. It was around 100 degrees at the base of the mountain, but a nice 75 degrees up at Paradise, the starting point of our hike. The snow pack was still very deep so we weren't able to reach Panorama Point. And although we applied and reapplied spf 30 sunscreen, we all got sunburnt…











Ryan's 4th birthday party at Idylwood park on Lake Sammamish…