This was an amazing year and an amazing Christmas. Bill and I are incredibly blessed to have this beautiful baby girl in our lives. We are surrounded by a huge community of support of family and friends and we are so, so grateful. Here are some images and moving pictures of the holiday season.
Santa baby...so santa baby cute...and was so on cue for the photo shoot. PERFECTION.
Cristina Lei's first Christmas present -- wrapping paper -- YUM!
Daddy and Cristina Lei on Christmas morning.
The Gunkles Marco and Scott, Daddy, Papa, Cristina and Chloe for a Christmas 2012 Photo
The day after Christmas we went to the beach. This little beach girl, in her new rash guard and bathing suit, was a beauty at the beach. LOVE!
After a family swim. Cristina got dunked under water and was surprisingly calm after. Happy it all went well...
Happy Papa, Pensive Cristina...
Just beachin' it with her Dads....
Talking story, or just chewing on her sunglasses, with Gunkle Scott
Gunkle Marco just before his flight back to LA.
Tiny sand on her cheeks, nose and lips after her fun beach outing.
Cristina has officially figured out that she's wearing a diaper and the next step is that she will figure out how to take it off. In a climate like Hawaii, where it's always fairly hot and humid, a t-shirt and a diaper is pretty much what she lives in most days...but we think a diaper cover is soon on the horizon. God forbid she takes it off while we aren't looking and well, poopy diapers explode.
Here's what tipped us off...
Enjoy the babbling, the smiles and the diaper discovery...
In other news...she loves her bath time and splashing around! Check it out:
I remember last year's post at this time was all about the many questions Bill and I were getting about having a baby, and the questions I was asking myself about having a baby. But man how things change in just a year. This year the only question I'm asking is...
"What in the heck do you buy a 7-month old baby girl???"
she already has all the love in the world surrounding her...
her dresser and closet are overflowing with clothes...
and her favorite toy is a teething ring or Chloe's tail...
So this is my valiant attempt at soliciting advice from all my blog buddies (in a world of much unsolicited advice when becoming a new parent!) On a humorous note, someone said to get her a cardboard box, cut holes in it, and put the money in stocks. Not an option!
Cristina had a beautiful baptism this past Sunday, November 18th, her 6-month birthday.
Her godparents were a mix of Buddhist and Catholic...and her parents were a mix of Catholic and Mormon (I was baptized Mormon but no longer practice), but we all gathered on a partly cloudy day at St. Clement's, an Episcopal church just down the road from our home, and we all promised to God that we would take care of this amazing little girl that has blessed our lives. I started this blog three years ago saying that family comes from everywhere...and it's true. The evolution of all our lives, as parents, godparents, surrogates, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, cousins, grandparents and close friends, crystalized on this special day to celebrate Cristina Lei. About 30 of our family and friends witnessed the baptism and we couldn't have been happier.
As our surrogate said, the family and community part of coming to church is one of the best parts...and I agree. Here are some photos to capture the day.
Godparents Todd and Kay, Me and a sleepy Cristina, Reverand Liz and Bill
My cousin's husband, Mal, and my older brother, Matt
Nephews Balen and Aidan, and Niece Mariah
(they all were very good throughout the service, especially B&A)
My older brother, Scott, giving Cristina some love.
A little blessing...
She's still trying to make sense of it :-)
Mal, Tressa, Nohea, Kaula and her BF, and my cousin Linda
My oldest brother, Mark, gave me our grandfather's bible, which was handed down to our mother, and then to our family. Very special gift!
Super close friend and God father Todd
A little party after the baptism...lots of smiles
Incredibly grateful, especially at this time during Thanksgiving, for our awesome blessings.
Well I Googled "Daddy + Daddy = Me" because I saw Mike and Colin's blog, who are about to have a baby via surrogacy in India (congrats boys!)...and they posted a photo of this great onesie that I thought I should buy for Bill and me. But when I found out it was an Australian company, I thought for sure I could search a company in the U.S. that made something similar and could maybe ship it cheaper. So off I went, thinking it was an innocent search for a cute onesie for our daughter.
Well, here are the very different images that came up in my search:
Dude, I have this covered. I'm old too.
No words, just laughter.
Cute, very cute.
This makes me feel ancient. Because I know Cristina will not be using an iPod, but something equal to what the iPod represented to me when I was a kid (albeit a 35 year old kid).
This was my favorite search result because this is what we LOVE to do with our newest baby members of the family. And I can kind of relate to the mother's and kid's perspective. In fact, check out this video I took with Cristina just a couple weeks ago:
Maybe I just added another kooky search result to the World Wide Web with this video...but needless to say, I was very entertained this evening.
I think once a month is the best I can do right now...though I may get some energy around the holidays but I'm not betting on it.
The latest and a huge photo dump:
1. Cristina started rice cereal a few days ago. She loved it and gobbled it up...(well, kind of!)
I think she enjoyed eating the bib more than anything
Of course, a video documentation of the first semi-solid food.
2. Last week we traveled to LA to visit some friends and I also had some work to do. So it was fun and exhausting, but great to see so many good friends and some family.
Landing in LA. Daddy showing Cristina the tarmac.
A nice visit with our friend, Pam
Our LA baby shower hosts and their daughter, Flynn, with Cristina.
A fun train ride in Griffith Park...and my attempt at a cute video (with stolen music!)
An attempt at a family photo...NOT!
Buddies -- Cristina and Flynn
A better attempt at a family photo
Got Pride? LOL
Cristina's first pumpkin patch at Mister Bones' Pumpkin Patch in West Hollywood.
Smiles all the way around...
Godfather Todd and Cristina snuggling...
We met up with Jason and Adrian of Stalking the Stork...
...and finally met the beautiful Olivia and Clara!
Jason and Cristina
Group photo in the parking lot
(there were some hilarious stares from customers and employees, wondering what the dozen or so men were doing with four baby girls...we finally let them in on it...it was a G.D.O. = Gay Dad Outing!)
My nephew Lucas, his son Ashton, and Cristina
Cristina and Asher
Ready to fly home (Cristina was great on the way to LA, not so great on the way home)
3. We're doing a little construction, mostly a small guest space for our out-of-town friends (since their room turned in to Cristina's nursery!):
4. I'm the luckiest guy in the world:
5. Cristina came to work with me one day and it was a hoot. She tried to answer some emails but I stopped that quick enough!
6. Chloe and Cristina are becoming Super Sisters...getting along extremely well...
7. I'm the luckiest guy in the world...
8. We walked to fight breast cancer in memory of my mother and sister (Cristina got her pink on!)...
Rigg brothers
9. I'm the luckiest guy in the world...
10. We all went to church for the Blessing of the Animals and Chloe got a certificate of blessing!...
11. I'm the luckiest guy in the world...
12. Cristina and I are still trying to make the same faces...
13. She's starting to reach for things...albeit the wrong things!
