Giving mama some love

A very messy diaper led to a bath in Grandma's sink.
The flash on our new camera makes everything look yellow. Ale says the baby looks like a Simpson here.



Grandpa has a new fan.

We spent Christmas with little Cousin Holly and the Larson family in San Francisco.

Holly: "Ok, Alex, let me tell you what it feels like when your first tooth comes in."

Strolling through Golden Gate park

Tio Odin came up to spend the month of December with us. The baby loves him and has started to laugh out loud. Here they're in the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.

Ale finally gave in and let me cut the baby's hair. He still has a puft of hair in the middle that is really funny

Christmas 2008

Hi friends. Merry Christmas! We're finally back up and running. Our camera was stolen (long story - all American Airlines' fault), but we bought a new one and now we're back to capturing all of baby's firsts and cuteness on camera! Aunt Linda - we got your message, we're updating, updating, updating! Thanks for reading our blog!

We drove up to Santa Cruz for the holidays. Baby Alex is finally happier in the carseat...as long as someone is sitting in back to entertain him.

Our son the conscientious citizen...

Election Day was a big event in the Castillo family! Baby Alex got an early education in the importance of voting. We took doughnuts and cookies down to our local poll workers and they expressed their gratitude by stickering the baby. Next we hosted an election day open house with lots of wine and cheering for our new president elect. I even made an apple pie for the first time ever....although I didn't realize it had to sit for a while before serving, so no one actually got to eat the apple pie...

"What do you mean I can't really vote yet?"

3 Months Old!

We're 3 months old and drooling! Drooling everywhere.... He still hates the car, but now loves television. I've been counting my favorite things that he does and at the top of list are laughing in his sleep (which he gets from his Daddy and is the most precious thing ever), sneezing (he has the cutest sneeze!) and giggling when he's being changed. He thinks diaper changes are really funny and it's so endearing.
Playing with the big kids...Edward brought Bridget and Jackson over for dinner...

Baby Alex met his new buddies!

We went to our first birthday party. Little Griffin Lee turned 1 year old and is super precious! True to character, Ray tried to offer Baby Alex a tequila shot but Papa stepped in and enjoyed it for him.
Our little boys met for the first time, but Griffin was too busy with his new BMW to pay much attention to the baby. He is SO Ray's son.

Next we went to visit Katie and little Diego, who is also about to turn 1. He was sweet and curious and looks so much like his mama! He's learning Spanish and English too, so it will be fun to get our boys together once they're talking and see how they communicate :)

Baby Alex is 2 months old and cuter every day! He's now giggling and talking and starting to roll over. He got his vaccinations on Monday - super ouch! The Doctor said he's in the 90th percentile for height and 75th for weight. He's a big boy. Alejandro wants him to be Spiderman for Halloween. :)

Miss Y comes to visit us every couple of weeks and the baby adores her! He's yawning here...not crying, which he still does lots of, but not as much as before.

How cute is he?!

We had our first play date this week! We went to the mall with Vanessa and little Owen to play in the kids zone, but really spent most of our time in the Women's Lounge at Nordstrom nursing and changing our little guys.

Aunt Ruthie

Aunt Ruthie flew in from Seattle to meet her nephew. She got to be his first ever babysitter while I went to Andrea and Tyler's amazing wedding at Yamashiro's. Aunt Ruthie is devising early plans to make sure the baby calls her anything but Aunt Ruth, which she thinks sounds like a senior citizen's name. Speaking of names, I still can't bring myself to call him anything other than "baby". The family is worried he's going to grow up without an identity, but he's just not Alex to me yet. Maybe I'll gradually transition into it. "Baby Alex" sounds okay....


Baby Alex and I made our first trip home to Santa Cruz last week while Daddy was in Mexico for work. Grandpa was ready to take him to the county fair, but we decided it was premature for a 6 week old. Although we did take him to a movie! You gotta love small town theaters with crying rooms. The novelty of going to the movie with the baby was more fun than the movie itself. (I wouldn't recommend seeing 'Burn After Reading'.) We spent a day with Jenny and Abigail and the boys. Little Abigail had on her 'Alex's girl' Tshirt - too cute. We went to visit Grandma at her office and showed off the baby. Then had dinner one night with the Lewis family. Godmommy Keidi is busy cooking another little playmate for Alex! We're all very excited. So now we have exposed the baby to clean air and real stars....I feel slightly guilty for raising him in Los Angeles. At least he'll have trips to Santa Cruz to look forward to...

Baby Castillo is Baptized!

Memorial Day Weekend was certainly memorable this year. The family came in town to celebrate Baby Castillo's baptism on Sunday. The good news is he didn't pee on the priest. The bad news is he cried...rather howled....through the entire service. Poor godparents Calvin and Keidi got a workout, but handled it beautifully. We now have a baptized little soul to care for. We're all hoping his bath with the Holy Spirit will quiet his spirit. He's been exercising his lungs far too consistenly lately.

Over the weekend we spent some time in Santa Monica and introduced the baby to the beach for the first time. Of course at 4 weeks old he couldn't be bothered with palm trees and seagulls and really just wanted to nurse. Grandpa was quick to point out that his grandson is very mature for his age - all boys really come to the beach for is breasts anyways. Little Adessa awed us all with her teeter tottery walk and sweet kisses for the baby. Mommy learned that I can no longer cook a meal without being interrupted for feedings and diaper changes. Evidently it will be a little while until we resume our dinner parties. We had a great weekend and are lamenting our now quiet house. Good thing Aunt Ruthie flies in on Thursday.

The baby had lots of firsts this week, including first shower and first bottle. He's now over 10 lbs and in the 75th percentile for length.

Baby's first bath

Grandma came and took good care of us.

Grandpa is already designing the new swing set he's going to build me.

He's here!

Hi friends and family!

Baby Alex Castillo finally made his grand entrance! A 5.4 earthquake in LA on Tuesday sent me right into labor. 12 hours later our little man was born....all 8 lbs 6 ozs of him. He was 22 inches long and official birthday is July 30th at 12:24 a.m. Daddy chose to name him Alejandro Luis Castillo for many sentimental reasons, not the least of which was that it will sound good when called out at his graduation from MIT. Yep, we have big plans for this little man. Grandpa is going to make him into an Ironman, Grandma is already planning his first trip to Disneyland and Uncle Seth is committed to making him a Giants fan. As for mommy, I'd just like to get him to sleep 6 hours a night. I'll think about karate classes and swim lessons down the road. For now I'm content to stare at him and wonder how he could be so perfect.

We're in love with this little boy! Thanks for reading.