Malia turns 1

Saturday, January 24, 2009 is the day Malia turned 1. We cannot believe our lil girl is 1. A year flew by so fast. Recently, we watched the video the day she was born...so tiny and so precious. We also looked at her photo album and saw all the changes in her. From her birth weight of 7lbs. 7oz. and 20" long to 17lbs. 12oz. and 29" long. We enjoyed all her milestones up until the day she turned 1:

Malia
her first smile
her first giggle
rolling over on her stomach
tummy time
sleeping through the night
sleeping in her crib
eating solids
crawling
pulling herself up to stand
saying Mama and Dada
cruisin'
etc...

Malia's getting really close to walking. She loves holding Mama or Dada's hand to walk. One of her favorite words is "Wow!" Malia's now drinking Whole Vitamin D milk. Malia's beginning to eat "adult" food. So far Malia has tried cheese quesadilla and Spanish rice.

Malia had her first sweets on her birthday...Malia didn't eat her actual birthday cake, but licked a lil of her frosting on her cake. Her cake was a marble cake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting in purple and pink. We celebrated Malia's 1st birthday at our favorite mexican restaurant-Valle Sol. We played a couple of games-"Guess how many Cherrios", "Find a Word"-custom made by Daniel. He included all the words that had to do with Malia like all her stuffed animal names. Dina's parents did a raffle for two winners. The celebration lasted about 3 hours. It was a very nice intimate celebration with close friends and family....we all missed Grandma Jane, Grandpa Bill and Nana Edna!

Malia & cousin Taylor

Pall Pall & Malia

Grand Auntie DuAnne, Pall Pall, Malia & Mommy

Friends-Mike, Dylan, Yvonne, Mommy & Malia

Grand Auntie Pat & Malia



Auntie Christine & Malia

Cousin Marisa & Malia (btw, she didn't close her eyes due to the flash-this is her sily smile during picture time :))

Cousin Lori & Malia

Malia's 1st Road Trip-San Diego, Day 4

Day 4....Daniel woke up early to golf with his dad, brother-Erick and Chris-Auntie Liz's boyfriend. They golfed across the street from our hotel-RiverWalk Golf Course. Daniel and Erick were competing against one another for the family trophy. Daniel golfed with rented clubs (and two broken arms and a complete loss of his vision and feeling below his waist), so he wasn't able to get his game on... so sadly he lost the trophy by 1 stroke. How sad... the trophy was only displayed in our living room for 4 months. But Daniel being the optimist, he knows the next time he golfs with Erick and/or his dad the trophy will become his again!

While Daniel was golfing, Malia and I went shopping (also across the street from our hotel) at Fashion Valley Mall. We (or I) ate at Nordstrom Cafe and had a delicious Parmesan Crusted Chicken Salad and a cup of Tomato Basil Soup.... the best soup and salad I've ever had. Malia was really good while I was eating my lunch. She too was enjoying her food or well I guess more like a snack... Cherrios! We headed back to the hotel around 1ish which was around the same time Daniel finished golfing. We all rested before we went to dinner with the Saiz's.

6:15pm...dinner reservations at Piatti's in La Jolla.....Abel, Lori & Gabriel's favorite Italian restaurant. It was a very nice restaurant with a friendly atmosphere. All of our entrees looked really good and were very reasonably priced. Unfortunately, we did not take a lot of pictures, but we have a couple of special moment pictures.

Great Grandma Saiz bonding with Malia.

Malia and Grandpa Abel are sad to say goodbye. ;)

Malia's 1st Road Trip-San Diego, Day 3

Day 3...New Year's Day. Happy 2009!! We decided that today would be a good day to go to the San Diego zoo. This day turned out to be the perfect day; the weather was sunny and nice in the low 70's. We woke up about 8:30am and went to Denny's (again) for breakfast.

We got to the zoo about 10am. The admission was a lil pricey...$35, but we were excited that Daniel got a 10% discount (woo hoo!) for having served in the Navy...every lil bit counts :p Our first stop was Daniel's favorite..the flamingoes. So beautiful! Then we headed to the atrium...Daniel loved this as a kid and remembered it to be so big, but now being 32, he said the atrium isn't as big as he remembered. Hmm... I wonder why?

Then we saw the gorillas. There was a mama gorilla nurturing her baby... so sweet. After the gorillas, we saw a hippo. We hoped that the hippo would get in the water - as Abel mentioned hippos looked like lil ballerinas under water - but no go. The hippo just turned around and teased us and just laid down and never went in the water. Oh well, next time.

During the time we were at the zoo, the pandas were there. We had to see them so we stood in line (Daniel stood in line while Dina hit the gift shop). The line wasn't as bad as it looked. As we entered the panda area, to our dismay there was only 1 panda that paced back and forth, back and forth. It was still cute to see.

As we were heading over to the tigers, Christina called and let us know she and Jeremiah were at the zoo to meet up with us. Malia got to meet Uncle Jeremiah and let him know that she was dancing to his music when Daddy was watching Uncle Jeremiah's band-"The Silent Comedy"... our cute lil dancing, grooving baby girl. Daniel and I were starving and Malia also had to eat lunch so we hung out with Christina and Jeremiah as we ate lunch... nowhere near as good as Grandma Saiz's food. Anyways, it was something to tie us over.

After lunch we all headed over to the giraffe's-Auntie Christina's favorite animal. Then we saw the elephants. Malia liked the elephants. Malia waved "hi" to the elephants... so cute! We saw rhinoceros and llamas. Malia was getting tired from watching her Daddy carry her all around the park, up and down the hills, so she fell asleep in her stroller. Malia didn't get to see the koalas but Mommy and Daddy did. The mama koala was nurturing her baby... so sweet!

After the koalas, we visited the gift shops, Mommy's favorite thing to do. We bought Malia two big stuffed animals. One was a koala and the other was a panda. Then of course we bought Malia's favorite- a bunch of books... very cool. We haven't given the books to her yet since she would devour them before we could actually read them to her ;p

Well, that was our adventurous day. We headed back to the hotel to finally get some rest.....

Malia's 1st Road Trip-San Diego, Day 2, part 2

Day 2, part 2...we had dinner plans at 6pm at Grandma and Grandpa Saiz' to have some delicious homemade authentic Mexican food!! Grandma Saiz made burritos, tamales, rice and beans....dinner was scrumptious! Daniel stuffed himself.....he could hardly breathe....but he was extremely satisfied and so was I. Malia met Grandpa Abel, Grandma Lori, Uncle Gabriel, Grand Auntie Liz, Uncle Chris, Grand Grandma Saiz, Grand Grandpa Saiz....she was so excited to meet Daddy's family. Malia and Uncle Gabriel got along well. Uncle Gabriel took good care of Malia as they played together. Uncle Gabriel made sure Malia was protected and made sure she was comforted by her new stuffed animal cat that Grandma Saiz gave her. Malia was so lucky to receive so many gifts from everyone. Malia's going to be styling with her Baby Phat and Rocawear clothes. We all had a nice time visiting with one another. Malia fell asleep between me and Grandma Saiz as we were chatting away about how we were so lucky for our husbands. At 9pm, Abel turned on the tv so we could cheer in the new year New York time. It was nice to celebrate the new year together as most of us were so tired....we all went home at 11pm.

Malia's 1st Road Trip-San Diego, Day 2, part 1

We woke up around 8am and went to Denny's for breakfast after Malia had her cereal and her bah bah. Our morning and afternoon was open, so we thought we would call Danny's friend Chris to see if they were available. They were and so we headed to Chris & Kristy's beautiful newly built house in El Cajon. Malia met Chris, Kristy & their lil boy Christopher, who will be 2 years old in February. Malia felt right at home with all of Christopher's toys. Malia got along really well with Christopher. Christopher even gave Malia a ride on his motorcycle...so cute! They also have a few cats and Malia was fascinated by one of them his name was Spaz. Malia got excited every time Spaz came around her. Malia followed Spaz around the house and even got to pet him. This was Malia's first time seeing a cat and we were surprised and happy that Malia was not afraid of the cat....very cool. We went to Chili's for lunch and Malia took an hour nap. Then we headed to BabiesR'Us to get Malia some socks. After BabiesR'Us, we went back to Chris & Kristy's to hang out some more. It was so nice hanging out with Chris, Kristy & Christopher....too bad we live so far from each other....Malia & Christopher could have playdates together..Well, that was Day 2-part 1 of our road trip...stay tuned for Day 2 part 2....

Malia's 1st Road Trip-San Diego, Day 1

We left our home at 8:30am on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 and headed to San Diego for 5 days. Malia's 1st road trip...so exciting! We crossed our fingers hoping Malia would do well in the car..seeing that she would be sitting in her car seat for at least 7 hours. Malia took her typical 2 naps in the car, but for only 1hr the 1st nap and 1/2hr the 2nd nap. Even though Malia didn't nap long she wasn't crabby or fussy. We kept her busy with her music and toys...oh and course her favorite Cherrios!

It took about 8hrs to get to San Diego after taking 4 breaks-3 consisted of potty breaks, stretching, diaper changes, filling up our gas tank and the 4th was to eat brunch. We arrived in San Diego at 5:30pm..we stayed at the newly opened Courtyard Marriott (CM). It was actually very nice..better than we expected. This CM in Mission Valley is not like any other CM...the decor was so contemporary. Not only was our hotel nice it was situated in a very convenient area. Fashion Valley Mall and RiverWalk Golf Course was across the street, 2-3 other malls were within 15minutes and Daniel's family and friends were all within 15minutes as well...but as Daniel would say "San Diego is very compact".

After settling in our hotel, we headed over to Trophy's Sports Bar & Restaurant to eat dinner. After dinner, Malia met Auntie Christina and Uncle Erick for the first time. Uncle Jeremiah and Josh were out recording, so Malia did not get to meet them. Malia enjoyed meeting and spending time with her Auntie and Uncle. Malia especially loved climbing their stairs...up and down..up and down. Malia's getting really good at climbing stairs. We stayed at Christina and Erick's for about 1 1/2hrs and then headed back to the hotel...and conked out!! So that was Day 1....stay tuned for Day 2.