Spring is Here!

Who'd have thought parenthood would take up so much of our time? Between working full time for me, and Lyzz taking care of Mal and going back to her martial arts class, we've been keeping fairly busy. Along those lines, I'm a little tired of working for Wave Broadband. It's mostly a combination of poor management and the fact that my paycheck is never a consistent number, seeing as how I get paid a base+commission. We're keeping our ears to the ground in case something better opens up, but for now I have to put up with incompetent management and a fluctuating check.

Lyzz is enjoying being back at Total Confidence Martial Arts (TCMA for short). Right now she's doing the "Lean and Fit" class to get some good exercise, but hopefully she'll be back into the actual Muy Thai class soon. She's been working so hard to get a black belt for such a long time now. Also, Lyzz is heading back to Whatcom Community College in the fall to finish her Associates' degree and then the plan is to transfer to WWU, or perhaps elsewhere, and get an Accounting degree. Once she's got her degree we're hoping she'll be able to find a good job with it and support us while I head back for a Master's or Doctorate. I'm still not sure what subject I'd like to do for a MA though.

And now, the real excuse for us posting most anything on our blog, Malcolm. He turned 3 months old two weeks ago now and is growing like a berserk patch of blackberry vines. His current stats: 16.5lbs, 25" long, and wearing 9 month-old clothing. Mal is no longer just a little bundle of pooping blankets. During most days, Mal wakes up around 7-8am (with Dad) and then hangs out until I leave for work at 10am. He might cat-nap for 30 minutes or so a couple times during the day, but otherwise he's awake until around 8-9pm in the evening.






Lyzz bought him a little suit for church/special occasions. It has pinstripes. Awesome.











Besides growing like mad, Mal is doing great. No health concerns so far, though he had a fever at the same time I did for maybe 2 days. Infant Tylenol kept that under control though. His ability to stand with a little support have continued to improve to the point that he no longer resembles a bobble-head most of the time. Also, he has discovered the joys of munching on his fingers, which means drool ahoy. We've been awoken a few mornings by the sound of him loudly slurping on his fingers to signal his hunger. It's better than a screaming baby, I suppose. Oh right, Mal has finally spent two nights in his own bedroom in the crib! His first night was a little restless, so I spent a fair bit of time up making sure he wasn't hungry and was comfortable. Last night he slept for 8 hours straight and just needed a quick diaper change and some food at about 6am, then was back to sleep for two hours.









The obligatory St. Patrick's Day outfit for the wee Irishman.








And finally, here's a little video we managed to capture. Mal has proven difficult to actually record, since he always notices the camera and it distracts him from whatever it is he was doing that we wanted to record. Little punk.

Welcoming Malcolm into 2011

So 2010 has been a very interesting year to say the least. Sam graduated from WWU, we found out we were expecting, moved in with the Hancock's for the summer, Sam found a better job, had a baby, and now Sam is applying for a promotion. Yeah, crazy year. But I wont recap on all of that since that was what the other posts were for. This one is all about Mal and our hopes for the new year.

Sam already posted about the whole hospital experience, so now it's on to the Mal at home phase. It has been a very wonderful trying experience. The vicodin helped a lot. Mal came home from the hospital on Friday the 17th of Dec. Mary met us at our condo with soup and bread for lunch. Yum. It was seriously the best tasting thing I had eaten in a very long time. Mary also wanted to help out more so she decided to do some cleaning. Well some is an understatement. She clean the entire house except for the bedrooms. And well Mal's didn't need it. Still in pain and waiting for the vicodin to kick in, Mal and I just relaxed and hung out for a few days.




















The first Sunday after Mal was born we went to the Ferndale 1st Ward to spend the Christmas Program with Sam's parents, and of course Mary wanted to show off her new grandbaby. After church we spent the rest of the day at their house just hanging out. It's always nice to have a few extra hands to help out with a brand new baby. And of course naps ensued and Mary had to take a picture of her first son and his first son. Mary pretty much leaves her camera out when we're over there now. She wants to get as many pictures of Mal as she can.


Sam had 80 hours of paid time off so to extend the weeks he could take off, we thought it would be best for him to work two days a week for 3 weeks instead of taking two entire weeks off. This worked out great for everyone. On the days that I was still on vicodin and Sam had to work Mal and I were dropped off at Sam's parents to hang out with Mary and Amy. They took every chance they got to steal him away and hold him for a few hours. Malcolm also got his very first bath. His umbilicol cord had fallen of the that morning, and since I'd never bathed a baby before, I figured it'd be good to get some help, and Mary was super excited to help out with his first bath. It's so nice to know that Mal has such loving extended family. Mary is SO excited to have her first grandchild. When we first got home Mary called us every day to see how we were doing and if we needed anything. It's nice having family so close. Sam and I really appreciate all the help from friends and family both that we've received. We'd probably go crazy if we didn't have such a great support network.


Christmas was amazing. And Mal was so freaking cute. I bought that outfit hoping it would fit him (newborn size) and while he's always been the weight of the next size up, it's all in that huge head of his. So he still fits into newborn clothes, at least for now. My adoptive grandparents bought the hat for him. They of course wanted a picture of him in it, and well, who wouldn't?

We had a Christmas Eve Brunch at my sister, Bonnie's house with the rest of my family. Very loud, but it's always nice to see everyone again. And most of them hadn't seen Mal yet, so that was a great treat. After that we went over to Sam's parent's house for the traditional Asian Christmas Eve dinner, wontons included. Sooooo delicious. We even tried some dessert wontons this year. Those turned out great as well. I can't wait for next year when Malcolm is able to rip open his own presents.

Christmas day we spent first at the Hancock's, but we left at about 5 to go over to the Perez's. Jim had to work on Christmas so Sam and I felt Jony should have some company. And who doesn't want to hang out with a cute little baby in an elf suit? We watched A Muppet Christmas Carol. I fell asleep again for a few minutes, but I did watch most of it this time.

And now for just some cute pictures of Malcolm Flynn Hancock.