The girls and I went to breakfast at the local diner the other day. They find eating at a diner so comforting. 📷

Mia enjoying snacks from the Harvest Festival at daycare.

Instead of celebrating Halloween at daycare, they have a Harvest Festival. Parents are invited to enjoy time with the kids. There are a few activities, such as building necklaces, playing with pumpkins, and painting. Mia has a little bee temporary tattoo on her right hand. And the necklace she is wearing is one she put together herself!!! Mom and dad only tied it on her.

This photo was taken on October 26, 2012.

Mia Enjoying a Sunny Day

This photo was taken back on April 21, 2012. Mia was watching us break down the cardboard boxes that had piled up in the garage. It was a beautiful sunny day, so she decided she wanted to read. As you can see, her choice of reading material involves dinosaurs. My, how she has grown since then.

Trying to recreate a photo from Farrah’s childhood. We’ll need to go back to Hawaii and try again.

Trying to recreate a photo from Farrah’s childhood. We’ll need to go back to Hawaii and try again.

On our last trip to Hawaii, Mia and Farrah tried to recreate a photo from Farrah’s childhood, circa the late 70’s early 80s. Mia wasn’t as cooperative for the photo, unwilling to stand on her own. This just means we need to go back to Hawaii to retake this one day soon.

After a Sunday Mother’s Day Brunch at Coconut Grove, we all headed down to the Boardwalk to watch Mia ride the merry-go-round. She did well for the most part, with Auntie Susana holding her. Towards the end of the ride, she was getting a little antsy, but hung in there.

Also, I posted photos from the brunch and dinner as well.

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Hummingbird for Life

Today was Mia’s last day with the Hummingbirds at 2nd Gen, the daycare at Genentech. She was there for fifteen months under the care of all her loving teachers: Barbara, Cathy, Stefani, Joanna, and Fely. Oh, and so many friends both older and younger. She’ll miss  2nd Gen. But it’s time to move on. We won’t forget the Hummingbirds!

Mia enjoying a malasada

I am so behind in posting photos that I have taken this year. I hope to rectify this by posting a photo album every three days until I am caught up. I was going to post an album a day, but that seems a little too ambitious.

The above is a photo of Mia Izobel taken by Farrah on her iPhone 4S at the Waikele Shopping Center. Let’s just say she enjoyed the malasada. 

Today we visited Pearl Harbor to specifically see the USS Arizona. Unfortunately, Mia fell asleep during the short film that is watched before taking the short boat ride out to the memorial. She was also asleep all the time we were at the memorial. It wasn’t until we started to leave that she stirred from her slumber.

Next, we went to the zoo, where these photos are from. Mia loved to see the fish, monkeys, birds, and all the other animals at the zoo. To our surprise, there was so much to see. We’ll need to visit our local zoos to see what they offer.

All in all, it was another beautiful day.

A few photos from our first day in Hawaii. The first day was mainly getting Mia acclimated to the new time zone, and for me to recover from my Dramamine hit. Oh, but plenty of good food was eaten yesterday. What’s on the menu for today? We shall see.

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A post shared by AJ Giron (@verbal)

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A post shared by AJ Giron (@verbal)

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A post shared by AJ Giron (@verbal)

Farrah thought this multi-colored jacket Mia is wearing was lost. But luckily, the great folks at daycare found it - stuck in a backpack. So I put it on Mia as we left daycare yesterday. Oh, we had to stop by the pumpkins that were placed throughout the lawn area. It gave me a chance to try out the camera on the iPhone 4S. Not too bad.

It’s going to be a fun Halloween this year!

Mia’s daycare was having an end-of-summer luau. Even though sunglasses and hula skirts were handed out, the weather wasn’t exactly sunny and tropical. We stayed as long as we could (the hula performance started late) until the wind and time forced us to leave.

I took only a few photos, on August 26, 2011. You can find the rest here.

Mia Bathing

At 10:16 am last year, Mia arrived in our lives. And what a year it has been. Ever since then, time seems to have been moving so fast, often a complete blur. I’m sure every parent has a similar experience.

Wasn’t it just a month ago that it seemed like all she could do was cry, eat, and poop? Wasn’t it just last week that she learned how to crawl? Wasn’t it just this morning she learned how to stand? And it seems just now, at this very moment, she really knows, by the glint in her eye, who mommy and daddy truly are. There is so much to share, but now so little time to write about it.

I took this photo as Mia was bathing this morning, getting ready for her day (or actually the whole weekend). I hope to post more photos later today - when I can find a moment. We’ll see how that works out.

But for now, Happy Birthday, Mia!

I’ve been meaning to write for some time now. I’ve had the desire to do so. But having the desire, and having the opportunity, are two different things. When they don’t sync up, it can make for one cranky person.

Luckily, I’ve been too busy to be cranky.

Commute Map

I started a new job a few weeks back. It’s a job that I was interested in taking. I took a 12% pay reduction and increased my commute by 45 minutes, but to me, it was worth it. At least that’s how I looked at it when I said yes to the opportunity. It is how I look at it now, as well. I’m sure, almost positive, it will also be how I look at it in the future. But sometimes, in the haze of commuting, it is difficult to see the sanity in the decision I made.

I get to spend more time with Farrah and Mia. Granted it is morning commute time, but it is time nonetheless. The evening commute is spent apart. When I get home, which is often after 7pm, I only spend an hour with Mia before her bedtime. Then the time I spend with Farrah is only eating, catching up briefly on the day’s events, then getting our things together for the next day.

For now, it seems like a cycle ride that has no end.

In October, things may change. But October is months away. Who knows if the change will be for the better or for the worse. The optimist in me hopes for the former, and I will continue to think that until October comes to pass.

I’m writing this on my evening commute home, on the CalTrain. It hasn’t been a bad experience on the train. The people are as friendly as can be, for being cramped into a train, going from point A to point Z in such-and-such time. I’ve only had a few delays here and there. Nothing to complain about just yet.

When my job moves deeper into the City – yup, we’re moving downtown – we’ll see what the train commute plus Muni will be like. I’m guessing it’ll be a bear for a few weeks until I get my pattern down.

And so I’ll try to post when I can. I hope I’ll find opportunities to do so, whether it’s writing while I’m on a train ride or when I’m winding down from the day in bed.

I have the desire. Opportunity is the issue.

At almost ten months of age, Mia is now starting to crawl! I know everyone is different when they start crawling, talking, etc. There were signs she was working her way up to this. It is simply amazing to watch her scoot around. Now, it is time to baby-proof everything!

On to the video:

Rabbit ears. Eggs. Money.

It’s Mia’s first Easter. It was a quiet Easter, spent at the house with the grandparents. It was quiet by choice, as Mia was recovering from being sick all week. Otherwise, we would have made a trip to spend Easter with family.

We had a lovely lunch - a Honey Baked ham, fried chicken and egg rolls from King Egg Roll, green beans, and Brussels sprouts. Then it was to the living room to watch Mia open her Easter eggs.

She’s a little too young for candy, so money was a good substitute. Yes, she did try to eat the bills. We then headed outside to take a few photos with each grandparent and ourselves. I wanted to take a full group photo, but unfortunately, I ordered the wrong tripod plate for my camera. I’ll need to get a new one.

You can find more Easter photos in the://Easter album.

Photos were taken with both the Canon 7D and the Canon S95 on April 24, 2011.

Mia and Her Bunny Ears

Bunny ears. A gift in Mia’s Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa. She wore them yesterday and this morning, even though she isn’t feeling 100%. Hopefully, she’ll be hopping around with them on Easter Sunday.

On a different note, Mia woke up at 2 am crying. It’s a bit unusual, but since she’s not feeling totally well, it’s understandable. What was interesting was that Farrah found Mia sitting up in the middle of her crib. We haven’t seen Mia get herself from a lying posting to a sitting position, so this is the first occurrence we know of. Next thing you know - she’ll be climbing out of her crib. Eeek!

This photo was taken on April 20th, 2011 using a Canon S95.

We were able to get a lot done this weekend. We first started at the Mountain View Farmers' Market, it was off to Milk Pail to get other fruits and veggies not found at the market. We finally ended the triple play day at Whole Foods. Mia has been enjoying all the new textures on each type of food she’s tried. She’s been enjoying chicken, carrots, and rice. We need to expand her palette even further, as she’s shying away from the purèed food. In this photo, taken at Whole Foods, Farrah is searching the baby foods trying to find something that would appeal to Mia. What’s Mia doing? Just hanging out on the BABYBJÖRN. This photo was taken on April 10, 2011, using the Canon 7D. This photo was edited in Photoshop CS5 as well as Flare.

Mia loves listening to Dr. Seuss stories on the iPad. She started off with Dr. Seuss’s ABC. In this photo she is making her first pass at Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, a bit of a long story for her to sit through.

Oh, don’t worry, we don’t let the iPad do all the reading to Mia. Farrah takes time each day to read to Mia from the stack of books we have sitting on our bedside table.

This photo was taken on March 6, 2011, using the Canon S95.

I wanted to start writing a regular post on Sunday, time permitting of course. I’m not sure what subject it may be. Perhaps it will be about something that happened during the week. Or it could be a summation of the week’s events in total. Or it may simply be another photo. Let us see what comes of this.

Mia turned nine months old this past week. She has been out of the womb longer than she was in it. A fantastic thing to realize this week. If you were told me 18 months ago we’d have this babbling bundle of joy to deal with I would have simply replied, “Huh? You’re crazy.” Yes, we’re happily crazy.

Farrah was able to put Mia in short sleeves, sunglasses, and a hat, as the sun finally came out of its hiding place behind the clouds. Earlier that day Mia had some blood is drawn, an unpleasant experience for all of us. I was the lucky one to hold her still while the needle was inserted. It’s a task I hope I do not have to do often. But going outside in the sun cheered up Mia immensely.

I had a birthday recently. As a whole, it was a pleasant experience. But there were individual elements, like being stuck on Highway 17 for over two hours, that were unpleasant. A tree was down across the highway, making the trip to Santa Cruz more arduous than normal.

Part of the presents I received was a very cool backpack and tickets to WonderCon.The last time I went to a comic book convention was over 15 years ago. I had never been to WonderCon, a large local comic book convention. This would be Farrah’s first comic book convention, making the experience even more memorable.

The Moscone Center, where the convention is held, was extremely crowded. There were many people in costume, though a majority of the attendees were in everyday clothes. We saw at least a dozen Stormtroopers, a couple of Wonder Women, a Superman, an Alien, a couple of Jokers, and several scantily clad women who were, I’m guessing, some Sucker Punch characters. (I need to watch that movie.)

We were able to attend a talk from one of my favorite comic book artists, Bill Sienkiewicz.  I’m not an artist, and not being able to draw is worth a lick. But I enjoy listening to creative people talk about their passion. Sienkiewicz talked with no prepared topics, simply taking questions from the audience. It was interesting to hear about his past experiences which help shape his artistic point of view.

Wondercon was crowded. Moving around the first half of the show floor was like swimming through molasses. When we got to the middle of the showroom floor we had more opportunity to move a breath more freely. Even with all of this, I think I’d like to go to Wondercon next year as well.

The above photos were taken on April 1, 2011.

Mia was sitting in her high chair, waiting for her next spoonful of lovely baby food, when I took this photo. Doesn’t this picture make you want to pinch her chubby cheeks?

This photo was taken on March 24, 2011, using a Canon 7D and the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8.