I feel like I haven't updated in forever, but I guess I'm actually above par for my once-per-quarter average. Anyways, it's been a busy month, with ups and downs:

UP - we went to San Diego at a few weeks ago to have a little family reunion with the Luke side of the family. All Keith's siblings and parents met up at his brother's place to see all the new babies! In addition to Taki, his sister Ashley had a son that is one day older than Taki, and his brother Jason just had a new little girl in February! It was also the first time I met Jason's other boys. MOSTLY a fun and relaxing vacation, except for being bookended with car repair issues: about 4 miles out from getting there, we blew a tire, and the day before going home, the windshield shattered. Good thing we got our tax refund! I'll edit some pics to this post later.

DOWN - dad is in the hospital. Fell off his bike last Tuesday and was taken by ambulance to UCDMC. Thank god the closest hospital is also the area's #1 trauma center. And the fire station was right around the corner, literally 1 minute from where he was. Anyways, he wasn't wearing helmet (let this be a warning to ya!) so he fractured his skull in the temporal/zygomatic/mastoid area. The shock to his brain caused a small bleed that is a minor concern, but it also is causing him to lose CSF out his left ear. They had hoped it would slow on its own, but it's not, and therefore he has severe headaches and nausea. So they installed a lumbar shunt to try to equalize the pressure, but that means they had to upgrade him back to a neurosurgury ward, out of regular trauma ward. AND the shock to his system has pushed him from borderline to full-blown diabetic, so he has to receive insulin and will likely have to continue to do finger sticks and injections after he is released. We are on day 7 here, with at least another 3 days before they even reevaluate him for discharge. It's been difficult trying to find someone to leave Taki with so I can check in on him and look after him as he is and hour and a half away from us, and between my work schedule and Keith's, we're never off at the same time, and my mom is working as well as caring for my great-aunt who lives another hour away. Sigh. Not much sleep lately, for sure.

UP- did I mention that we got the HUGEST tax return EVER? Perfect timing for car repair issues and me missing so much work to go to the hospital.

UP- always the 'up' in my life: TAKI. Still the most adorable, good-natured, calm and patient baby EVER!!! No teeth yet, but he's starting to pull on his ears more, so maybe soon! Also he's sitting up MUCH better, although we still have to make sure he's braced with the boppy or against the wall of his playpen so he doesn't slam his head on the floor when he flops over. No crawling yet, but he does wriggle and roll around to whatever toy is out of reach. Starting to kind of pull his knees under him and completely push his chest and tummy off the floor with straight arms. Not at the same time though.

And we are fully weaned to bottle. Also eating meat with his solid food which is still stage 2. No chunks until he has teeth, but he loves gumming on teething biscuits. Our poor dog is confused because they look a lot like his dog biscuits! :) His favorite foods are pretty much any fruit and the sweeter veggies like sweet potatoes, carrots, corn and even green beans. Squash upset his tummy a bit right now, so we'll try that again later. Turkey is good, but chicken is kind of yucky smelling and tasting. Even mixing in applesauce doesn't quite do the trick.

He's very talkative: lots of babbling that ALMOST sounds like 'mama'. I like to think so, anyways. I've been trying to start incorporating signs for 'diaper change', 'go to bed', 'mama', 'dada', 'grandma', 'grandpa', 'all done', and 'more'. Not sure if mom and Keith are working on that too, but we'll all get there eventually. Will also edit more pix of Taki to this post later.