Finally, a New Post!!!

Wow it has been a LONG time since we've updated so first let me apologize for the delay. I did get a new fancy-pants cell phone this past week that will supposedly let me take video, pictures and post everything to the blog right from the phone. This should facilitate more blogging because as Eli has gotten bigger I have a hard time uploading anything onto our computer. Eli is very active so by the time I actually finish uploading a video he has emptied all the drawers in my desk, pulled out every file in my filing cabinet and eaten a sheet of stamps (well, ok he didn't really eat the stamps but it COULD easily happen). Anyway I hope you have some time to kill as this will be a long post!
So let's start where we left off which was back in November! We went to New Jersey to celebrate Thanksgiving and Eli's baptism. We really enjoyed seeing everyone and were so happy so many people could make it to the ceremony. Here is a little snippet of video from the big day!
If you click the link it should take you to youtube. Here is a helpful tip for those of you who aren't familiar with these links: if you hover over the link, right click and select "open in new window" it will pop the video up in a new browser rather than taking you away from this page. For some reason I can't upload directly onto blogger anymore, hopefully this will work because it took me forever to get the technical difficulties smoothed out!




It was fun introducing him to many of you for the first time. Here is Eli meeting his Uncle Dave.


He also got to meet his godmother Aunt Heidi and Uncle Scott



Eli had fun meeting Brian and Joan too!

We discovered that we are not the only ones who succumb to baby talk and here is the evidence!
Video

We enjoyed getting to spend some time with our nieces (Olivia, Renee, Chloe, and Kira) as well as introduce them to Eli. Here is Matt getting outnumbered by the princesses!



Matt got a chance to catch up with his brother's at Thanksgiving. Can you see the resemblance ;)


It was fun to see everyone during the baptism and the brunch afterward. Here are a few of our guests that helped make the day so special!


So after Thanksgiving we got to take a much needed vacation in Hawaii (the Big Island) and had a lot of fun. If you're thinking, "wow they just fly that kid all over the country" you're correct. If you count all his trips to date (and you count each segment individually) he has been on 28 planes! Of course we live by a small airport so everywhere we go involves at least 4 planes, but still! I never set foot on a plane until I was 13 and Matt was in high school when he took his first flight! I guess that's what happens when you live in California, have follow up appointments in Texas and have family in NJ. In any event here are some of my favorite pictures from Hawaii


Here is Eli loving the pool!


Touring Kona Brewing Company (and no, Eli did not get to sample any beer)



We took a sightseeing flight around the island (one of the 28 planes I mentioned earlier). It was a small Cessna but it didn't phase Eli, I think he liked the vibration of the propellers.



This was the awesome sunset we got to watch as we were landing from our tour.

Matt hanging out with the natives in the rain forest botanical gardens.



On our way back from Hawaii we had an unexpected stay in San Francisco when our flight got canceled due to foggy weather. If you're going to get stuck somewhere San Francisco is not a bad place to be, and it gave us a chance to introduce Eli to Glen and Val.



When we got back from Hawaii Christmas was upon us and it was nice to spend it at home.



Eli got lots of presents from Santa but I think he enjoyed eating the wrapping paper more than anything!


Although he did seem to like his drum, I guess he takes after his dad and Uncle Andrew.
Check out the video!

Uncle Andy did provide some instruction when he and Jen came to visit for New Years.

Once we were done with all our traveling we starting feeding Eli "semi-solid" food. Here's how the first feeding went.
Check out the video.
You can tell we were amateurs in the beginning!

Things did start to go smoother and we started working on the talking (we're still working on that!) Here's the first "mama"
video
Yes I know we sound ridiculous :)


Ok so that at least catches us up into February at least. I will try and post again soon with all the fun stuff from March through now! I will leave you with three of my favorite pictures.

This one I like to call "Eureka!" it was taken right after a bath.


And these two are favorites from our house. This one was taken from our front porch. It's actually a double rainbow. You can see the second, fainter rainbow to the right of the bright one.


This is a spectacular sunset taken from our back porch. No photoshop, this is how it actually looked. What can I say? I love living in California!

A Pony, Some Pumpkins, and a trip to Texas

Hello to all! It's Matt; I'm finally contributing to the authorship of this blog dedicated to our Little Man; Eli. It has been a while since we have posted and as most of you already know Eli had to have surgery for sagittal craniosynostosis in San Antonio, Texas in September so we took a little sabbatical from the blog. It went as well as could be expected and the outcome is excellent to say the least. He was back to normal within about 5 days. We are all looking forward to seeing many of you soon for his baptism in New Jersey in November. Anyway, enough of the exposition. On to the pictures!

Here is little man, or Easy-E as one of my friends has dubbed him, with his favorite toy, The Pony which Aunt Julie gave him. Aunt Julie has threatened to buy him a real pony and I'm frightened because she has a reputation of following through on her threats. Whenever we make a galloping sound he starts giggling.

Eli at the gym. He loves this thing. He is rolling over, grabbing toys and doing all of the expected baby stuff he is supposed to be doing.

"Well, did you take two aspirin like I told you to?"

The Grandparents bestowed this onesie upon us. It's cute; we will see how the healthcare system pans out before Eli commits. Anyway, he can be whatever he wants.

Ugh! There is daddy with that blasted flasher thing again! Can't he see I'm busy?

Larry (Terry's father) was kind enough to meet us in Texas to help out during Eli's surgery. Most of you know him. As Terry's family knows, this is a common position. It looks like he has a loose grip on that remote but only a rookie wouldn't know better...

Despite his relaxed look in this photo, he was very supportive in Texas and we are grateful he was there!

Daddy and Eli at the pumpkin patch. Eli was mostly unimpressed but Daddy and Mommy wandered around eating roasted corn, fresh apple pie with fresh ice cream and wandered around in hay-mazes for hours. You can also see Eli's helmet which he wears for 23 hours a day for the next year. Built in protection for the upcoming toddling which is sure to come soon.

And here is our first attempt to post a video. Notice the silly voice and meaningless phrases I use to get him to smile. Terry chose this video for a few reasons. One, it shows Eli and his precocious navigation of the Exersaucer (I call it the Parents-Can-Eat-Together-Now Saucer). Two, it makes me look stupid with all my silly baby-talk. Three, you can see where his scars are. Actually what you are seeing is Dermabond which has since fallen off. It covers the incision and makes sure it stays together. Anyway, you can barely see the incisions now but we thought we would show y'all.

We will try and post again soon as he is growing and changing rapidly! Hope everyone is having a fantastic fall!

Some Smiles to Brighten Your Day

It took a lot of silly high pitched noises (you know, the noises you swear you won't make until you actually have a baby), lots of goofy faces, a little bit of singing and the promise of a pony but we finally captured some smiles on the camera! (And we're hoping he won't remember the pony promise....)

Here is Eli in an outfit I bought him because it makes me smile. 

Here you can see he is really getting a lot of head control. We've also noticed that he is beginning to move his eyebrows more and I don't think it will be long before he can raise an eyebrow.  Hmmm, I wonder where he got that from.....

Anyway, we hope this post added a smile to your day! 

Sleep Deprivation

I know, I know it's been awhile since the last post, but we've been tired!  

Eli is 2 weeks old in the first three pictures, you can see we all look a bit sleep deprived! 

This is Eli (with Grandpa Larry) at 3 weeks

Eli is 4 weeks in this picture, you can see how big he is getting. He is hanging out on his playmat. He is getting good control of his head and we have seen some intermittent smiles, although we haven't gotten any on film yet. 

Eli is 6 weeks in this picture (he will be 7 weeks on Monday 7/13).  He has slept through the night a few times (which means he slept from 8 or 9pm until 4 or 5 am). I've never been so happy to wake up at 5 am!! 

Luna has been adapting well to Eli's addition to the family. We yelled at her the first couple of times she tried to lick him and she got the message and decided that Eli is just not fun and now just ignores him. I'm sure that will change once we start solid food and he discovers that the food disappears when he throws it on the floor! I expect they will become the best of friends at that point.....

So that's all we have to report right now, I will try and post more pictures soon. I hope everyone is having an awesome summer!

Welcome to the world, Elias Matthew Steiner!

Here are some pictures of our little "Eli" who is proving to be a GREAT baby (i.e. he sleeps a lot and is easily consoled).

 Eli was born via C-section after 30 hours of labor! Apparently he likes to do things on his own terms. He was born May 25th, at 4:23am at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. He was 7 lb, 1oz and 20.9 inches long. He was, however, born with a large conehead so he may now actually be under 20 inches!
He is eating and sleeping like a champ and has already started to gain weight.
Terry is doing well and was up out of bed the day after the c-section and guess who is currently updating the blog....

We came come from the hospital and everyone is adjusting well. 
Here are some initial pictures so you can see what the little man looks like, Enjoy!!!

Fun in May

May has proven to be a good month so far.  Brian and Joan came for a visit, and we had a good time taking out the convertible. Here we are out on Pacific Coast Highway near the Big Sur. 

This is me pretending to push Brian off a cliff (at least he thinks I was pretending)!  Ever see a pregnant assassin before? 

My birthday this year was a lot of fun. Matt took me to the historic Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo for dinner. The whole restaurant is the color of Pepto-Bismol! I had told him I didn't care where we went as long as I could have some chocolate cake. As you can see he definitely provided the chocolate cake!  

What can I say? It doesn't take much to make a pregnant lady happy! We ate two slices, took a small piece home and Matt took the rest to work so his staff could enjoy the cake too. I asked him to take the cake to work since I don't want to give birth to a 20lb baby! 

And last but not least here is the latest belly picture. You may or may not be able to tell in the photo that the little guy has "dropped".  It makes for easier breathing but now everywhere I go strangers ask me when I'm due (I think they are worried I'm going to go into labor in front of their eyes)!  2 more weeks!!!

The First Picture of the "Little Man"

I'm not sure how clearly you'll be able to see this but this is a picture from an ultrasound done in late March. Most of the ultrasounds are done in 2-D imagery but at the end they always turn on the 3-D feature to get you some good pictures, and this is one of those 3-D images. Technology is amazing! Although the doctor who does the ultrasound did say that the 3-D technology hasn't actually helped them at all diagnostically but it makes for great pictures! 

Here is a belly picture of me, also taken in late March. You're probably thinking, " Wow she doesn't look that big." Which is true if you look at me head on........

but when I turn to the side, the truth pops out!!

Here is one more belly picture taken just two weeks ago. You'll notice the blue t-shirt that I'm wearing is the same one from the photo in the first blog post.  The receptionist at my doctor's office said I look like I've swallowed a bowling ball, I would say it's more basketball shaped myself.....

Anyways, one more month to go and I am counting down the days!!!