Finally, right?!?!

So ... it has been an extremely long time since I have posted an update but things were pretty hectic in November. To start things off EVERYONE was sick. It started with mama and the kids and eventually made its way to Dawn and Toshi. I was literally the last one to get sick. I actually thought I avoided it muahaha but yeah ... I got sick pretty bad and luckily it was just a head cold.

So to catch up we took some pictures from Halloween. Here's Toshi in his first costume:

When Toshi was sick he was pretty congested so Dawn and I picked up a new booger sucker device. We gave it a go but it doesn't really get the deep snot way in the back haha... but this is what it looked like:

At first he was cool with us jamming it up his nose but after a few attempts he was not a happy camper haha. And yes, you have to "suck" the boogers out hahaha. There is a filter so that you don't accidentally eat the boogers and snot but it's ... ok. 

One morning I woke up early enough to see Toshi watching mommy prepare our lunch for the week. This is what I found:

As the days passed it began to get a little chilly so this was a perfect time to bring out Toshi's cute jackets:

And beanies :)

First, no smile ... 

And then we smile haha ...

For the past few months I have been working extra hours everyday on overtime. I have to say that it does suck but I can't complain when I see extra money in my bank account. I usually check my phone as soon as I get in the car when I head home and these are some of the pics Dawn sends me. They are sooo CUTE!! Makes me more excited and anxious to go home:

Yup ... you said it. He has found his thumb. There are times that he prefers his thumb over the pacifier. You pull it out but it goes right back in like a magnet. And it's not just the thumb; it could be 2 fingers, 3 fingers, or the whole fist!

Dawn took Toshi out to the dog park with Kekoa and these are some of the pics that she took. Gotta make sure he's protected from the sun!! I don't know about you guys but ... what's up with that hat???

My buddy Justin and long time GF Nari has a new addition to their family and we were able to meet Alaka'i for the first time. He was just as excited to meet us as we were to meet him :)

After his meet and greet with Alaka'i, Toshi just passed out! Look at those cheeks!! O_o

Mama picked up some really, really cute bibs and they are excellent quality. On the front side the material is very absorbent to his drool but on the back it's a plastic-ish type of material that doesn't allow the drool to seep through. This one is our favorite:

So .. for some of you that may not know the month of November is Movember.  Guys ... and some girls grow their beards out to support prostate cancer and increase men's health awareness.  Miles and Aya came back from their amazing cruise and it was just in time for Miles' birthday. We had a delicious Chinese dinner and after we ate, Uncle Miles has a "mustache" for Toshi.  It was super cute and perfect size too!

This past week UCLA had a really good game against USC.  They played pretty darn good and to show his support for UCLA and mommy's alumni we dressed Toshi accordingly :P

And of course mommy has to wear her UCLA clothes too!

 Lastly, Toshi is officially 5 months!!! Here's his "Oh yeah, ladies." pose:

Sorry for the looooong delay but I seriously can't believe it's already the first week of December. Time is flying by so quickly that I don't even have time to reflect on what we did and where we came from. Now that I think about it, Dawn and I watched a couple videos of Toshi when he was first born and OMG ... he was so tiny!!! We couldn't believe how little he was and he seriously fit in the palm of my hand. Now .. he's this big, cute and adorable boy that we love so much.

Pre-Halloween Festivities

This past weekend Miles invited us to hit up a local pumpkin patch before heading out to a baby shower this past Sunday. Dawn and I were up for it and excited to take Toshi to his first Pumpkin Patch. We also found a brand new baby pumpkin onesie in the donated clothes bin we had from Miles. So Dawn took the beanie from that outfit and put it on Toshi for "Baby's first Halloween" experience.

We wanted to get there early so we could have good photo opportunities.  This way there won't be so many people and we could move pumpkins around and kinda set up photo spots as we saw fit. Needless to say we had a blast!! It was such a fun filled weekend spent with family and friends but it was awesome to spend time with Miles and his family.  If you haven't noticed we learn a lot from these guys ;) haha.

Anyways, lets get on to some pictures!!

As soon as we walked into the pumpkin patch there were some pretty cool costumes set up.

Looks like Toshi was trying to figure them out... like, "Who dis?!"

So, before the kids got crazy and wild we asked if we could take one cousin photo. Out of the 10 photos I took this was the only good one I got haha. Maybe Miles has a better one... All I know is that I wasn't afraid that Jack was gonna let go of Toshi. He had a HUGE hug or grip around him. The cool part was that Jack actually wanted to hold Toshi and take a picture with him!!!

We then found a nice little haystack that Toshi could sit on and we lined up some pumpkins behind him. This way Toshi could lean back a bit and have some support from the pumpkin. Photo idea/credit goes to ... dun dun dun .. Miles! haha

I love the way Toshi is smiling in this one!

After Aya's baby smiling dance ... I guess he wanted more? Or maybe he was just confused at this point haha. But this look is also so adorable :)

Miles also took some pics that came out really, really good! Here are a few

This one is currently my desktop picture at work!! I love this one!

HEE-HEE!!

Thanks to Miles and his family for inviting us to a pumpkin patch day. We had a blast!!

Smiles all around

Say cheese!!!

Toshi is starting to show his amazing personality ... both good and bad. Let's start with dessert:

Toshi, as you can see, is starting to show off his cute smile! :) We have caught him a few times when it was just myself and Dawn but he has also showed it off to friends and family.

The bad is that Toshi is starting to show his cranky side haha. We've noticed that when we pull the bottle or nipple out from Toshi's mouth (after a feeding) he gives us this, "WTH you doing?!?!" scream. It's soooo dramatic and this is after he chugs down 4.5 mL of milk haha. Also, he gives us a warning that he is getting tired and this is right around 830PM or so. It's a great indication for bed time now. 

We both think that this is great and Toshi is starting to show a pattern which is soo freakin' awesome.  Instead of the crazy, random cries at odd hours he is settling into a routine.  The only part of the routine that sucks is the huuuuge poop at 6AM hahaha j/k. 

A lot has happened since I wrote the last post. Not many know but I finally got a family wagon. Yes, I got rid of my beloved Honda Fit which, by the way, was an amazing car. Super good on gas, spacious to do everything I ever wanted to do (cycling, mountain biking, surfing, and hauling stuff), and it looked super good too!! I had suspension and rims on my fit and it was just perfect for me. If I couldn't go fast I wanted to look really good. Here is what I had on the fit:

So I upgraded to a Subaru Forester!! :D It's such a great family car and the best part for us is that we don't have this huge car loan. I was really worried about finding a car big enough for the family but I also didn't want to have a huge car loan. I also wanted something like an SUV but I don't want to drive a huge boat like a 4Runner or something. The Forester is a compact SUV that puts a smile on my face all the time. So I actually bought this car from a really good friend of mine and I can absolutely trust that he took really good care of his car. I love the exhaust note of the turbo engine, the handling aspect of the mods he put on and it's just perfect. I added tint and a double din DVD player since I wanted an iPod player and a back up camera and this just put it over the top haha. I absolutely love this car!!

From my last post I stated that we started to have Toshi sleep in his own room.  It was definitely rough in the beginning but I'm so proud of him that he is able to sleep on his own now. It's like he is used to his routine of going to bed around 9PM.  For the whole month he has been on such an awesome roll of going to bed easily without too much crying.  

One night, Dawn checked up on him and look at how she found him!!

Still not quite sure on how he got there but the wedge to keep him in place is all the way at the other end of the crib!!!! You can see just a small part of it on the bottom left of the 2nd picture. 

Right around this time Toshi was just over 3 months and before I forget I want to share his "3 month" picture:

We also wanted to see how Kekoa responds to Toshi and needless to say ... we're not sure if he is comfortable just yet haha

Kekoa, for the most part, doesn't want Toshi on him ... at all.  One night we tried to do this again and he got up in a hurry!! So this was a super rare photo moment for Kekoa and Toshi haha. 

As everyone knows kids start to lose their hair around this age.  His hair up top is starting to thin out as well as the back of his head. He tends to sleep facing his left so we hope that he isn't developing a flat spot on his left side =/.  You'll probably notice that in the pictures of him sleeping up top. But this is his bald spot on the back of his head:

There was one night that Dawn was busy cooking dinner and it was right around his feeding time. It was also his last feeding before sleep so he was hungry and tired which is a hard combo to deal with if your not the milk-jug delivery guy.  So I took Toshi to our bedroom and I started to play the ukulele for him. It's been a while since I played but my fingers somehow just knew where to go. If you asked me to write it out I probably wouldn't know how to play it but it just "came out" haha. So I played for about 15-20 minutes and he just stared at me and became calm.  I couldn't believe it but he kept his focus on the ukulele and me while I played for him. Totally amazing moment for us and I think it was one of those bonding moments that has brought us closer as father and son, you know?? So awesome :D

Well to wrap up this post I'll show some pictures of the visitors that Toshi had over the past month. Kim and Jayne wanted to see Toshi and he was all smiles for the girls :)

Oh ... and "Look mommy, I can feed myself!!" haha

A special shout out goes to Toshi's cousins Isaac and Caleb! They just turned 3 years old and this is what Toshi had to say:

We love you both and we hope you had a ton of cake, ice cream, and awesome toys!!!