LELAND'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

Thank you to all that attended Leland's First Birthday Party. Hope you had fun!!!

Leland's Ninong Jeff & Uncle Jona took some great pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16870895@N04/sets/72157614979960471

Here are a few of our fave's:

LELAND'S FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY

The Party is set for Saturday March 7, 2009, his exact birthday!

Invitations were created by Leland's Ninong Jeff! Go A's

RSVP! RSVP ! RSVP! RSVP! RSVP!

Please leave a comment and let us know if you are able to make it. Be sure to let us know:

- number of people coming

- name

- address

- email

- telephone number

Hope to see you there!!!

ELEVEN MONTHS!!!

So almost a year ago, I started this blog. More importantly, today marks Leland's 11 month birthday. Believe me, one year has flown by! Its probably been the fastest year of my life. Needless to say, your life is never boring when you have a baby.

What's undescribable is the feeling of seeing all the changes Leland has gone through. To feel the love and joy of watching your baby grow up and start to do things for the first time... You have to go through it yourself.

Here are a few 11 month highlights and milestones:

As of 02/07, Leland has EIGHT TEETH showing. That's right: four on top, four on the bottom. Mama Macho would like to thank Trader Joe's for supplying her with dairy enriched yogurt during her pregnancy. With eight teeth comes the love for anything edible: meat, veggies, fruit, bread. We've been loading him up with a lot more adult food, not to mention whatever we DON'T KNOW grandma & grandpa give him while they're watching him...
Leland with one of his potential "future" GF's, Kenzie (who turned two last week! Oh yeah, OLDER WOMEN!). The funny thing is, Leland is surrounded by a lot of baby girls. The only other baby boy is his cousin Elijah, who he still kind of bullies (territorial?). But when he's around baby girls, he's not like that at all. Actually, they sometimes bully him.

Leland is walking! Ok, not a picture of him walking (just him wearing dad's beanie and holding his socks!). He's been crawling since he was 4-5 months, standing on his own at 8 months, so he was bound to walk soon. He'd take a step or two, then fall. He did that for two months. Then finally, out of nowhere, Super Bowl weekend, he just started walking. Taking 8-10 steps, turning, pivoting, everything. Of course he still falls down from time to time, but now all he does is try and walk when he has the chance. Its awesome!

He sleeps through the night... Like 10-12 hours straight... He's been doing this for awhile now... But... We...Don't... Want... To... Jinx... It... During the day he'll catnap: 30-45 minutes two, maybe three times. Its because he hibernates at night. Down by 8p, up by 6am, 8am on the weekends. He sleeps in his own room, in his own crib. Sometimes we'll sneak him in mommy & daddy's bed, but for the most part he loves all the room he has in his crib. He'll start on one side, and the next morning, he's on the other side. He kicks the blankets off, too...

Leland's First Holidays

Wow, can't believe its already been more than a month since our last blog. It has been a busy past few weeks...

Highlights from the Holidays, with accompanying pictures:

- Christmas at our house with the Pacho and Malazo Families, 12/24/08

Leland of course still doesn't understand the full concept of Christmas, gifts, Santa, etc. He does like the colorful wrapping paper and cardboard boxes, though. They make for perfect chewing objects.

- Christmas Day with the neighbors, 12/25/08

Apart from waiving hello to the folks in our neighborhood, there are a few that we stop and chat with occassionally. Then there's Scott and family next door- Best Neighbor in the Whole World. Might have mentioned this before. Anyways, he had a small gathering he invited us to. This is us next to the extremely large Christmas tree. Leland did great amongst the white folks, being passed around from stranger to stranger without a peep. Social butterfly.

- Post Christmas, MacDigity's come by from LA, 12/26/08

Leland's cousins Xavier and Vinny came by the house on their way up from LA. The last they saw each other was when we visited them in October. They were all pretty excited to see each other. One thing we learned: Xavier loves beer-battered onion rings!!!

- New Year's Eve at Amy's, 12/31/08

With Leland, we knew our New Year's party was going to consist of just us three in our house, Leland asleep in his crib while watching Dog the Bounty Hunter... And that's what we did. Beforehand, we did make it out to a family party and got our grub on. But come midnight, Leland was out, and it was just Melissa and I watching Dick Clark (struggling) to count down...

- New Year's Day at John Muir, 01/01/09So we get a call New Year's Morning from Jay-R. Not good news. We find out one of our good friends got into a bad fight (at a family party) with some hoodrats slashing tires. We all go visit him in the hospital, where multiple stab wounds later, he's up, alert and making jokes.

- New Year's Day at Cha Am in Vallejo, 01/01/09

After eating at our favorite Thai restaurant, we were about to order dessert when all of a sudden Leland started mumbling... "Mmmm...Maaa....Mmmm...Maaammaaa....Maaamaa....MAMA!" You should of seen the looks on Mama Macho's face. Leland has been saying "Dada" really well for the last couple of months, so for him to say "Mama..." Well, Leland got to eat Fried Banana with Coconut Ice Cream for that!

- New Year's Day at the Macaraeg-Collins House, 01/01/09

Along with the MacDigity's, Dustin & Ruby were hear from Chicago. The first time the "Jongs" (James, Leif, Jeff and Dustin) were able to spend time with each other for almost one whole year.

LELAND turns 9 Months... Pac-Man whoops a$$

On Dec. 6, Manny Pac-Man Pacquiao, the Philippines' most popular native became boxing's best fighter, not only dominating De La Hoya in all of only eight rounds, but making the Golden Boy say, "I give up..."

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2008/12/03/fight-pick-pacquiao-over-de-la-hoya-by-unanimous-decision/

Check out my comment/prediction on the Tim Kawakami's Blog in San Jose Merc... All the way at the bottom under Pac That! Was close!

On Dec. 7, Leland turned the big Nine Months!!! We took him to the doctor's for his check-up and he's doing real well. He's in almost the top percentile (72%) for his height, but he's near the bottom in weight (19%). Leland's doc (who won the 2008 Doctor of the Year award for Kaiser!) said its pretty normal considering his habits = nonstop crawling and playing + small cat naps during the day + the desire to not drink as much milk as before.

We're going to do our best to try and pump the kid up. He does have almost 5 teeth now (two on the bottom, three on top) and at least we know he's always happy! Check out these two great pics of him:

Eight is Great!

I know a little late... But our Leland Boy, as Grandpa Pacho likes to call him, turned eight months on 11/7. At this point, he probably weighs 20+ pounds- we can definitely tell when holding him for a period of time.

Luckily he doesn't like to be held too long- he wants to be put down so he can crawl everywhere. Crawl he does... And fast! He likes to stand on his own, sometimes letting go for long periods of time. He's going to be walking real soon, so we're starting to baby-proof the house.

Two teeth fully out on bottom, half of one on top with the other poking out. He's getting picky with what we try and feed him, but wants to eat anything we're eating. Smart a$$.

Anyways, Ninong Jeff came by and took pictures of him with his Professional Camera. Way better than the overpriced studio crap. Check out all the pics at http://www.flickr.com/gp/16870895@N04/21z1y0

Here are a few of our favorites: (*Note- Ed Hardy Clothing provided by Melissa's co-worker Sue, who's getting married in a few weeks! Congrats Sue!)

This year Halloween fell on a weekend...

... The infamous Geto Boys rap. This year Halloween fell on a Friday and was Leland's first. In trying to think of a costume for him, we wanted to incorporate a family theme. So, we went with the Crocodile Hunter, with Papa Leif as Steve, Mama Melissa as Terri, and Leland as a crocodile!

R.I.P. Steve Irwin

We also hit up the Abentoot Halloween Spooktakular. Although we didn't win any of the costume prizes, we still had a blast!

AWW CRIKEY! Take a look at this fellow...

The Irwins/ Macaraegs

Ladies of the night

Ten years ago on Nov. 1 around 1:00am, I asked Melissa if she would be my GF officially. Of course she said yes, and so marks our"Hooked Up" Anniversary. We celebrated this up until we had our Wedding Anniversary, but we always like to do something special on Nov.1.

This year was no different. After hitting up my "Best Damn Neighbor Ever," and sharing my Patron Anejo, he got us (free of charge as usual) Luxury Suite Tickets to Madonna's concert. I surprised Melissa two days before with them and she was pretty shocked because she has loved Madonna ever since grade school. I let her invite her two best friends Denise and (BT) Lyn and they had a blast.

Grandma Vivien & Grandpa Jessie Babysitting Leland, Free Luxury Suite Parking (in the area sort of "underground" at the Oracle- usually where the celebs park!), Free Luxury Suite Tickets, a plethora of Free Food including Jumbo Shrimp and desserts, and Free Patron, Vodka, Beer and drinks= Best Anniversary Gift Ever!

The Machos

Sharing the suite with other MILF's/ friends of my neighbor

The Menu in Suite that night... Never seen one like this before!