HALLOWEEN '09

Such a tired boy! These first three pictures aren't from Halloween, but they are so cute, I couldn't resist posting them. All tuckered out from playing video games with Daddy.I don't know if he's excited about wearing his new shoes for the first time, or because he's finally getting to go outside. Either way, I dig his grin and mis-matching jacket and pants. Note to self: dinosaurs and Mickey Mouse don't go together.Halloween begins at Grandpa and Grandma Mo'unga's house for my little giraffe!Damien tried scaring Elias with Uncle Aisake's mask.It didn't really work. As you can tell, Elias is smiling. Teane thinks this is because we tease him so much; he's become numb to anything we do.Damien actually agreed to carve pumpkins with me this year. YEAH! I think secretly, he enjoyed it too. It's a shame I forgot the candles to light. They would've looked pretty cool all lit up.Grandma Mo'ugna thinks Safety First and got this little light for Eli to wear. He of course had to make sure it truly was safe by testing it in his mouth.Back from Trick-or-Treating...mmmmm, CANDY!Great Grandma Esplin made yummy rice cripsy treats with chocolate covered pretzels...can you guess what Elias ate?The video is a little shaky, but you'll get the point.

13 months old

Well, I can’t believe that I officially have a child over 1 year old. We’ve enjoyed many firsts with Elias these last few months. Here’s a few to bring you up to speed.

1. First July 4th Celebration
2. First trip to the Hogle Zoo
3. First tooth; he now has 5
4. First steps without help; he’s still a little wobbly, but can handle his own
5. First funeral
6. First exposure to the swine flu
7. First family reunion
8. First 5 generational picture
9. First birthday, and eating cake by himself
10. First experience eating dog food
11. First time playing in a puddle

Some fun things Elias like to do:

1. Hide things under his pack & play
2. Takes imaginary binky from his mouth and hands it to you
3. Stands up in his push around buggy and leans on the handle until it falls over
4. Points and says “dat”
5. Throws the ball for the dogs; at least he tries, sometimes the dogs just take it from him
6. Tries to run faster than his little legs will go
7. He initiates peek-a-boo
8. When he gets tired, he’ll rest his head on my lap, or lay down on the floor
9. Tries to tickle us, and laughs while doing it

May Flowers

Elias is an angel. I mean, just look at his face. How could anyone not immediately fall in love with him? It's positively impossible! You just want to squish him or eat him. I can't decide which. All I know is that I can't get enough of him. He's definitely put a spell on me because I've been trying to talk Damien into letting me get pregnant ASAP. No woman in her right mind should ever want to experience getting fat voluntarily; even though she doesn't get to eat loads of delicious food, and spends her days vomiting and peeing her pants. That’s just an absurd desire.

This month we celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary. Damien’s family watched Elias for the weekend and we went up to Park City to get away from it all. We had a lot of fun just being alone and having to participate in the everyday hustle and bustle. But, Park City was a bit of a let down. I mean I’m sure it’s perfect for those who have a crap load of money and like to drink a lot of booze, but we don’t fall into either of those categories. For us, Park City equals Roquefort. And for those of you who don’t know what Roquefort is, it is a cheese; made from ewe milk; super expensive; tremendously disgusting. “Roquefort” is how we describe everything that is supposed to be remarkable, but in reality its not.

I also had my very first Mother’s Day. Since we were in Park City on Mother’s Day, we celebrated the following week. My boys gave me a beautiful Golden Chain Tree for my gift. We’ve been working hard on putting all of our trees in our yard this year. It’s really coming along quite well. We only have 4 more to buy and plant! I’m thinking maybe Damien should get a tree for Father’s Day too. This way, we’ll always have something to remember our 1st Mother’s and Father’s Day with.

For Memorial Day Weekend, we went to California because Damien’s fathers’ mother is in very bad health. She is in renal failure, refuses to eat, and recently was diagnosed with myeloma; cancer formed in the bone marrow. We had a wonderful weekend. We got to introduce Elias to her. He was a little scared at first, but by Sunday he was quite comfortable with her and they played together as he grabbed for her lei and she’d slowly move it across her chest to get him to come closer to her. And since he is so determined to get his little fingers on everything, he played along beautifully.

Lucky for me, Damien’s family doesn’t live too far away from mine. We worked in a visit on Friday night. Heather had her last High School Show Choir Concert. I’m so glad I was able to. That was only the 2nd time I’ve ever seen Heather perform, and the 1st time with some solos! Needless to say she was incredible. Heather’s bestfriend, Grace, sat next to me for the 1st half of the show. After Heather was done with her 1st solo, Grace leaned over and said something to the effect of, “I can’t help but cry every time I hear her sing.” Yeah, Heather, you are inspiring. We also went to my parent’s house for Sunday dinner. As always, mom’s home cooking was delicious; roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, rolls, and her poppyseed salad. Yummy. And to top off the dinner all of the family was there, including Damien’s! (except dad who of course wouldn’t leave his mother’s bedside). It was so great to have everyone all together. What a party! Oh, and might I just add that I have furthered my crown as favorite aunt by getting the kids “Pop-its” to play with. Yep, I’m rad!

On Saturday, after visiting with Grandma Hala, we took off for Huntington Beach. The weather was perfect, not too hot or too cold or too windy. With the exception of Elias, we all had a blast playing in the water. I think the water was just too cold for Elias, he preferred to crawl around and eat the sand. We wanted to stay and do a fire at night, but since it was a holiday weekend, all the pits were taken early on in the day. That ended up being a blessing. Turns out, when you play in the ocean, sand gets in places it shouldn’t be, your hair gets nasty, and being wet really isn’t all that great. We were glad to go back to the hotel and shower. I did get some cute pictures of Elias though. Check ‘em out!

Elias turned 9 months old this month too. For a while there, I thought he’d be close to walking by now, but lately he seems to be content with crawling; which is fine by me. He climbed up our entire stair case on Wednesday, without any help. Okay, he was really interested in his shoe, so I kept throwing it further up the stairs as he’d get to closer to it. So I just incentivised (and yes, I did just make that up too). He’s wearing 12 month clothes already, even though he’s only in the 25 percentile for height. He’s favorite things to eat right now are Lucky Charms and Honey Nut Cheerios, plus any sweets G’pa M. gives to him. Occasionally he’ll stand by himself, until he realizes what he’s doing and he’ll immediately drop to the floor. He laughs at just about anything, especially when I have the hiccoughs and Peek-a-boo is a big hit, too. His dexterity skills are picking up as he pinches his thumb and pointer fingers together, now my floors have to be extra clean. He loves to babble on and on. He gets quite loud sometimes. When we were at the hospital with G’ma Hala, she said to him (in Tongan), “We’re not at the farm you know.” We all had a good laugh.

7 Months Old

The Mo'unga clan has had quite an exciting week; Elias reached some major mile stones! He can now sit up on his own from a reclined position, he can stand up in his crib, and he finally figured out the whole crawling thing. He's been scoot'n around since Feburary, and something just clicked this week to alternate moving the legs. Look out! We are in for one wild ride, I'm sure of it!
Last month we took an unplanned trip to California. My work is experiencing some difficult times financially, due to this awesome economy, and is mandating involuntary furloughs. Which means everyone gets to take a week off of work. The first furlough in March, we had the opportunity to choose whether to use vacation pay or no pay at all. But for our 2nd and 3rd furlough weeks, one in April and one in May, we don’t get a choice…it’s unpaid. Anyway, since I had a week off we hopped in the car and took a nice little drive to So. Cal. Okay, so with a 6 month old, the drive took 13 hrs. one way, but it was so worth it! Chris was released from the hospital the same day we arrived, a blessing and a curse since the doctor’s still weren’t sure what was going on with him. We went out to dinner with Dad, and Angela and her crew to their favorite pizza place Vincenzos Pizza Esperienza. That was a lot of fun, with the exception of the fat, high school girls who were dancing along to the awful karaoke they were failing at performing. Seriously. Damien and I felt dumb for them they were so bad.
We got to go to Jake’s flag football game, where he made the last touchdown of the game! What a little athlete! I have to be honest we weren’t all that stoked about going in the first place. I mean, who wants to watch a bunch of 5 yr old boys run around, pick the grass, and dance while in the line up? Well, after this game, let me tell you, I’d be more than happy to go to another 5 yr olds flag football game! They were so funny. It was like the Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting, only better ‘cuz they didn’t have to be at all reverent. We were laughing so hard at these little kids who were trying so hard to play the game that they clearly do not understand. It was a good day.
One of the afternoons we went down to Emily and Ryan’s and played Guitar Hero for a few hours. It amazes me that something as simple as pushing buttons to music can keep adults attention for so long. Damien and I concur that Rock Band is still better though. Sorry Wii lovers.

Along with hanging out with the family, I got to visit with some old friends. Lisa and Nicole Esposito came over for a while. Nicole is the first friend I can remember. Our moms met when they were prego with us, she’s 20 days older than me, and for the first 6 or 7 years of our lives we lived on the same street. It’s good to catch up.
We also drove down to Orange to see the infamous Struss family. Baby Elias was a surprise treat for momma Daryl, not to mention her Sugar (that’s me). We had lots of good laughs at Ricardo’s. Elias couldn’t get enough of daddy David. Damien was holding him and feeding him his bottle. What seemed like every 10 seconds, Elias would stop and look over at David and get this cheek to cheek grin across his face and then continue eating. It was great! That kid is something else. Below are some pics that Stacy took in their “Jesus light” in their backyard.

Tell me he's not beautiful...I dare you.