KaiserTales

I must say, Eli (@elikaiser aka @babykaiser aka Dim Sum) is a handsome boy  and @mjkaiser is one beautiful mom!

Eli in the first few minutes

A tale of the new Kaisers

Kaiser family with Aunt Ailey and Uncle Ritchie

Fun times at the park:

1. Hormone roulette is real and scarier than you can possibly imagine. The best defense is a good offense and HUMOR is the only thing that can save you.
2. Listen to everyone and ignore all of them -> They are all well meaning, but this is your experience and it will be far different than anything they experienced.
3. Be safe and make the right decisions for you -> if you are high risk, take that seriously, if you aren’t high risk, take that seriously as well. Make the right decision for you and your family.
4. The Borg will consume you! How did our parents and their parents have kids that lived to see their 2nd day without all the crazy stuff you can buy at Kids-r-Us or anywhere else?
5. Have as much sex as possible… (partner willing).
6. Men are affected by hormones as their wives are (at least I was – poor @mjkaiser).
7. Delight in every moment, from the messy to the sublime.
8. Make fun of the baby classes and those that attend (including yourselves) – People are crazy, they should be ridiculed mercilessly.
9. Don’t listen to your Dr. about sports, @mjkaiser was playing soccer into her first trimester (until she got nailed in the belly by the ball), tele-mark skiing well into her second trimester and sail boat racing well into her third trimester.
10. Ignore this post completely!

Enjoying the Sun at the 4th of July Parade in George, Washington

This is an annual trip for the family, and this year we decided to stay home as Dim Sum could arrive “at any time.” What we should have read into that was that he/she would arrive on their own time. And good for him/her!

At the end of the day, I think this process has brought Mars and I even closer and I couldn’t imagine experiencing this with anyone else.

Marissa and I have been wondering if Galt (@galtthedog) knows that there is serious competition around the corner… Though, if he does suspect I can certainly say that he wasn’t expecting this…

Thanks Aviel and Corwyn!

Marissa and I were all excited to hear that she was 3cm dilated and that Dim Sum could arrive at any time. This excitement was fed by the “fake” contractions that occurred early Monday morning. All of this led to both of us getting quite anxious and ready to GO should Dim Sum decide to make an appearance.

Dog sitters are lined up, the bag is packed (complete with duct tape and real Gin-u-Wine Texas dirt), gas tanks are full, Twitter updates are already written, camera has a full battery (a first), and much, much more. It is all sitting their waiting as the clocks keeps its incessant tick-tock, tick-tock.

I have an iPhone, I am on Twitter, I drive too fast, am always online and to put it simply I am horrible at waiting. Tick-tock, tick-tock. Maybe this is teaching me a good lesson… Who knows. I am still not good at it.

I continue to wait. When all is said and done, I am simply excited to meet Dim Sum. Boy or girl, I just want to meet him/her.

Is that so bad?

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

After our Mt. Hood Ski day (which happened to be our last day of the season… glad it was EPIC!), we stopped at the lodge to have a bite. Hazel had a few more bites than the rest of us.

And after she ate, we all had fun watching Hazel imitate Uncle Nate.

If you want to see more of Hazel imitating Uncle Nate, check out her blog >> (It’s too cute!)

It was one amazing weekend, well day actually. After a whirlwind day visiting with friends and running errands on Saturday, Marissa and I decided to head off to my parent’s cabin in Eastern Washington.

Upon waking up to an amazing morning with crystal clear blue skies, Galt and I decided to hike the ridge and see if we could get a clear view of the community where the cabin is located:

Upon returning from our little hike, we found an amazing homemade breakfast of Huevos Rancheros waiting for us (well me, I am sure Galt didn’t get any…).

Yum, who doesn't like Huevos Rancheros?

That one meal pretty much invalidated my whole hike, but sometimes you have to go with the flow!

The rest of the day / afternoon was punctuated by naps, snacking, and a bit of plinking…

You talkin' to me? (said with a smile)

Nothing cooler than doing a little shooting in the afternoon. Upon our return, we had homemade enchiladas… More yum, more arterial plaque.

All worth it.

As all good things must come to an end, so did our 24 hour foray to Eastern Washington. The rain hit where it always does on our return to Seattle; halfway between Easton and Snoqualmie Pass.

It was an amazing day.

Marissa’s Po-Po (Chinese for the Maternal Grandmother) learns about DimSum…

Marissa asked me to post a few Galt videos…

Here is one of the first ones of him learning the stairs:

And of course enjoying his new bed…

We’ve had a great three days on Oahu.

• We’re staying in the Hilton Hawaiian Village Vacation Club, thanks to a birthday gift from my mom.
• We’ve had amazing meals with friends and family: pupus, some of the best Vietnamese food ever, delicious Korean BBQ, and Laoatian/French cuisine.
• We’ve swam in the Pacific Ocean at every opportunity.
• We’ve driven to the North Shore and sampled all sorts of ice cream and shave ice along the way (and swam a little there as well).
• We’ve hiked 5 miles through the Honolulu hills.
• And we’re off to Kona tomorrow for another 7 days

I am so thankful for the fun times, the great company, and the tons of memories that we’ve collected. Here’s some more pics and highlights.

It’s been a loooonnnng time since I’ve posted to our blog. I’ve neglected to post about anything in regards to our awesome summer… the trips to the cabin, the purchase of a Toyota Tacoma (a failed attempt at cashing in on cash for clunkers), my painful back spasms… but I’ve turned a new leaf. For my new year’s resolution, I vow to post more often, beginning with these pictures from our first days in Hawaii. What a great way to ring in my 31st year!

Ice Cream at Bubby's: Tanya and Chris joined us for a birthday dinner. After too many tapas.. sorry, pupus... we went out for ice cream. YUM.

Beachside of our hotel. Everyday thus far we've gone for a morning swim.

Dole Pinapple Plantation: It was meh. Ice cream was good.

Pinapple fierceness

Flora and fauna at the Dole Pinapple Plantation Gardens.

This was my first invite out the annual Golf Balls and Gunpowder. As you can see from the video, there was lots of gunpowder!

Here’s to hoping that I get invited back next year!

And the chickens run for cover!