A Bargain!

Recently Saul and I were talking to some friends who mentioned that they looked into the price of having a child and that the grand total for their lifetime was $240,000. After some thinking about it, we agreed we are getting a bargain. When you first go and get Andreas in the morning or after a nap, he will just be calmly talking to himself, but when he sees you, he has the biggest smile and is so happy he has to squirm around -- that has to be worth at least $10,000 per instance. Then there is the first time he laughed and all of his other upcoming firsts like when he will first walk or say "Mama" and "Papa". That's got to be worth quite a bit too. So overall, we are definitely getting the better end of this deal!


Here he is playing with his gym and wearing the outfit from Aunt Erika:





Sucking his thumb -- it usually doesn't last long, but who knows once he is able to control his arms a little more.

Saul thought he looked so relaxed here:
He is starting to grab his toys. My hair is no longer safe!
Here he is 1/2 rolling over. This is about as far as he goes, but it won't be long now.

Buttermilk Galore

This week we had another cooking catastrophe that can go down in the annals of history with Aaron's using Mapeline in place of vanilla in the chocolate chip cookies. Saul wanted to do something nice for breakfast so he decided to make waffles. We did not have any buttermilk, so I suggested using the powdered buttermilk. Due to the additional complexity this involves, I tried to explain how it all worked, but Saul balked at my lack of confidence (I think you see where this is going). My thought was, if he screwed up like I thought he might, there would be no way he would be able to use 2 cups of the powder -- the container isn't that big -- and that he would figure out to read the directions. Well, somehow he managed to pull a few cups of powder out of that tiny container. The waffles were so heavily buttermilked it nearly knocked you out. And since Saul did the taste test and didn't really understand what had happened, he ate enough of the said waffles that I am pretty sure he cried buttermilk when we watched Benjamin Button last night.

And since no post would be complete without more pictures of Andreas, here you go!

I like this picture because it looks like he is being pushed against the chair by some ultra strong g-force. Hold on kiddo!

Don't be deceived -- he HATES this outfit. I think because he wants to eat the hood, but somehow it is always just out of reach

Smiley Andreas is 3 Months - Jan 2010

Andreas is so fun due to his long smiling sessions. Here are a few that we captured today on his 3 month mark (Jan 28 2010):
Which way to the gym?



Taken in early January:

Saul's 33rd Birthday

Saul turned the big 33 on January 11 this year. Of course he wanted a tres leches cake, which turned out pretty well. Here are the pics:

Is that a Christmas tree in the background in the middle of January?!? Yes. Yes it is.

I'm pretty sure 3 seconds after the smiles in this picture 75% of the people shown were screaming or crying:

Budapest, Hungary January 2010

I had a business trip to Budapest last week (Jan 16-22) that was the best of times and the worst of times. The food was probably the best I have ever had in Europe (which means I could probably live there), but it snowed the whole time we were there and I was stuck in so many meetings I was never able to get out and about during the day time. Plus it is hard to be away from such a cute baby and cute husband! It was a very nice city though and Saul, Andreas, and Grandpa Z had fun doing projects around the house and doing other boy activities (what happened to all of my ice cream and lunchmeat?!?).

I took a night tour of the city, which is where most of the pictures came from. Unfortunately, my camera (or the photographer) doesn't do very well at night, but here is what I got:
Mosaics at the natural hot springs (they supposedly had about 30 bath/hot springs there):





During the day -- the view from my hotel:

Universal Studios New Year's Day 2010

For New Year's Day we went to Universal Studios, which I would highly recommend since no one even came to the park until the late afternoon. There was no line at several of the rides so it ended up being a good time to go. We also got our pictures with a lot of characters since there were no lines for pictures.

Mom in the background of this picture cracks me up



On the Simpsons ride (it is a virtual roller coaster that took over the Back to the Future ride):

With Conan O'Brien:
Waiting for the Lot Tram tour to start:
The set of The Grinch:
On the set of Psycho. There was a guy reenacting one of the scenes. I turned around since we were on the last tram car to see how long he would stay in character. He kept it up until I couldn't see him anymore. That is dedication.
On the set of War of the Worlds (the Tom Cruise one)
The hat pictures:

The Vin Diesel pictures:


Andreas snuggly in his stroller:

Erika's penguin was really excited to get a picture with her. I thought I was going to have to get the hose...

In front of the Philmoore Dentistry office at Universal: