Almost Acoustic Autumn

So it has been a while since our last blog post in June and, as you can imagine, a lot has happened since then.  Baby Mitchell seems to get bigger and learn new tricks every day.  His latest favorite skill is “cruising” where he walks around holding onto the furniture, or hands, or arm hair (if you happen to be me/Ben), or whatever he can get a hold of.  We were thinking that he might completely skip crawling, but then he started crawling backwards (forward is overrated) and then sneaked in a couple of army crawls in the last couple of days… so he might crawl before he walks after all.

Even though times have been tough in a lot of ways, it really has been a joy having Baby Mitchell around and we just adore him.  Just look at this infectious smile:

Mitchell got to meet his friend Eva when her parents Allegra & Matt were in town.

The cousins got to play together again when we took another trip to Seattle.

A visit to the Seattle Aquarium.

At a pumpkin patch.

Mitchell the Tiger.

At the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach with the other grandparents – as it turns out, Mitchell is a fan of fish.

Cousins

Usually becoming an aunt for the first time would be the most exciting thing going on in my life. Under normal circumstances, I would have hopped on the first plane to Seattle as soon as my sister had her baby. However, since Mitchell was only 5 days old when his cousin Calvin was born, we had to postpone the first trip to meet Calvin until we felt comfortable traveling with Mitchell. Waiting for 3 months to see Calvin was difficult, but thanks to modern technology, we were able to share lots of pictures and talk over Skype a couple of times.

Our trip to Seattle was monumental in a way since we were meeting Calvin for the first time and my sister and brother-in-law were meeting Mitchell for the first time. It was also fun to see the two babies right next to each other. Since the boys were barely the size of blueberries, we have been sharing advice and experiences (“he did this yesterday… is that normal?” and “how do you deal with…?”). I was glad to finally get some quality Calvin-time.

Soon after our trip to Seattle, Calvin and his parents came down to California to spend some time with us. While it was exciting having 4 adults and 2 infants in our little condo, we had a great time. Here are some photos commemorating the trips:

Kasdan Family Photos

For Marissa’s first Mother’s Day, I arranged to get some family photos taken by this great local photographer, Michelle Sullivan, who also happens to be a good friend of our good friends, Matt & Marilee.  You can see the previews at her blog here: http://msptheblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/old-town-tustin/

Taking the show on the road

So we aren’t ones to miss a good party… and the wedding we traveled to Sedona for last weekend was no exception. It was the first trip to Arizona (not including the Phoenix airport) for all three of us and the first trip out of California for one of us (I’ll give you three guesses which one). Well, the little guy was a great traveler… which is good since his parents like to travel.

The wedding was spectacular and Mitchell was quite the little star. He looked adorable in his wedding outfit (on loan from Cousin Calvin… thanks again for sending it) and was a hit with the wedding guests, the photographer, the crazy bartender, and other random strangers. I just hope that when the wedding photos come back, there aren’t more photos of Mitch than of the bride. She looked beautiful too, by the way.

We have been to more than a dozen weddings in the past three years and my favorite part is how different they have all been. This particular wedding is the first one we have been to where Mexican food was served and there was a piñata filled with little bottles of tequila.

Isn’t it “Saint Diego?”… Agree to disagree.

Last weekend, okay 2 weekends ago… we have a 2 month old for crying out loud… we were able to go down to San Diego for the day to visit with our friends Rob & Maria and their new son Andrew.  Besides the usual baby related activities (changing diapers, crying, etc.), we had lunch and walked around La Jolla.  Mitch and Andrew had a great time “playing” together… you know, lying in their respective carriers next to each other.

Why is this Passover different from all other Passovers?

This week Mitch participated in his first Passover Seder. Lucky for us, it was a slightly abbreviated version, because Mitchell isn’t always the most patient of babies. He did manage to find the afikoman and check to see if Elijah would be joining us (with a little help). Grandpa gave him a pass on reciting the 4 questions (traditionally done by the youngest member of the group), but next year he might not be so lucky. So now in addition to learning how to crawl and talk, we have to add learning Hebrew to the list of things to do this year.

Our little Angel

It is hard to believe that Baby Mitchell was born only 7 weeks ago… and at the same time, it is amazing that he is already 7 weeks old.  It is quite a paradox, as he is almost twice as big (in terms of weight) as when he was born… yet he is still so little and cute.  Marissa and I have loved every minute of the last 7 weeks; even when his crying for no reason, or when he is wide awake at 3am, or spits up on a new outfit.  I cannot help but continue to utter the cliche that he is the cutest baby ever!!  Seriously… how did we become so blessed to get such a beautiful baby?

Baby Blue Steel

About a week ago, our great friend Marilee (of The Whole Mischpacha fame) was nice enough to take some photos of Mitchell.

On the high side of normal

Now don’t get me wrong, I feel like like I was totally blessed with the whole pregnancy and child birth thing… I felt mostly good during my pregnancy, labor and delivery went very smoothly, and the baby is absolutely perfect… but every time that we have had tests done, the results have been “on the high side of normal.” The doctors are always saying: “it’s probably nothing to worry about, but we just want to be sure, so we are going to have to do a few more tests.” Thankfully, they are right, it always does turn out to be nothing. In the meantime, the additional stress is annoying.

So my little explanation there was so that none of you will worry when you see these photos. Mitchell was on the high side of normal on his jaundice test, but he hung out in the baby tanning booth for a couple days and now the situation is under control. I just thought the photos of him sunbathing were so cute.

Welcome to the world.

Mitchell Aaron was born on Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 6:55am. He weighed 6 lbs. and 11 oz. and was 20″ long.

I know every new parent says this, but we have the most beautiful baby in the whole world. See for yourselves: