Luka is 5 months old!

Hi everyone! Sorry we have been so bad about adding to our blog lately. Things have been extremely busy. However, life has been full in so many ways and Luka continues to bring us so much joy. He is 5 months old today and everytime you hold him, you just can't stop kissing his cute cheeks! He has now rolled over from his stomach to his back and is laughing more every day. He even seems to know his name! His last doctor's visit he weighed 18 pounds and is 26 1/2 inches long. Both his height and weight is in the 90th percentile. He still is co-sleeping with us, although has now slept in his crib as long as 1 hr 30 min, which is great. He is still waking up to nurse a couple minutes 3-4 times during the night. We've been exploring introducing rice cereal and/or food and we think we're going to wait until he is at least 6 months. Given his weight, he isn't having a problem getting enough to eat. :-) Fortunately, I have been able to continue to breastfeed and pump at work and that has been going really well. Now that the summer is here, our summer camps are in full swing and going well so far! www.galileo-learning.com We are hoping to get Luka in the pool one of these days. Given how much he likes to splash in the bath, we're thinking he'll love the pool too! How is your summer going so far? Here is some video and pictures we've taken recently.

Link to pictures from weeks 9 -12

Click here to see the pics.

Luka is 3 months old!

Wow, it's been tough to get out a blog posting.

Luka is now 3 months old and it is so hard to believe. The last couple of months have been great. It's been so nice to have the time to visit with a lot of family who have come to visit. In March and April, Luka got to meet his Grandma Carol and Grandpa Fred (Chicago), cousins Sue, Matt, Sammy and Colette (Los Angeles), Great Grandmother Shirley (Louisiana), and Great Grandmother Evelyn (San Diego). Thank you so much for coming to visit!

We are also feeling a lot more settled in our new home and actually have a housewarming party coming up next weekend.

Luka is soooooo wonderful! He is such a good baby. He's been smiling a bunch and even starting to laugh. His newest thing is holding rattles. :-) He is also fixated on sucking his fingers....I have a feeling he will be a thumb sucker. We started a 2nd series of the infant yoga class on Saturday mornings. His girlfriend, Riley, and mother Nicolette are joining us too. Last week we weighed him on our scale and he was 15 1/2 pounds! He's already growing out of some of his 3-6 month clothes.

My 3 months of maternity leave is officially over today. :-( The time has gone by so quickly. I am looking forward to the work I'll be doing and the people that I get to work with, but it will be hard to be away from Luka for so much time. I will probably be pumping at least 3 times a day too. I am sure we'll both get used to it eventually.

We found a family care center that we loved, but after a trial run this week we are having serious second thoughts. This has been very stressful and we are now on another hunt to find something better.

Tim has been working with Luka for over a month trying to get him to take a bottle. We've tried different bottles, nipples, positions, etc. and nothing really seemed to work. One good thing about the current daycare place is the mother has gotten Luka to take the bottle...so that is great! Tim was able to give him one yesterday too. Phew!

Gotta run to the grocery store......will send pictures later on today.

How has the month of April been for you?

Luka Pics Weeks 6-8

Here are the latest pictures of Luka with friends and family.

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=285001888/a=3957549_3957549/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

It's hard to believe that Luka is 2 months old now. He is doing great and smiling a bunch, which sure is a treat. At his 7 week doctor's appointment he weighed 12 1/2 pounds! He's probably past 13 pounds already and wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes now.

We are slowly getting settled into our new home and it's feeling great. Our new address is 5980 Majestic Ave., Oakland, CA 94605.

Fortunately, we just secured a daycare for Luka. It's a family care center in a couples home and the mother speaks Spanish to all of the kids. It's also five minutes from our house. We think Luka will be happy and well taken care of there.

We'll send more pics again right before Tajalli goes back to work on April 27th. Have a great April!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Pictures of Luka from weeks 2 - 5

Here are two links to pictures of Luka from the last couple of weeks:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=284803288/a=3957549_3957549/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=284869707/a=3957549_3957549/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

ENJOY!

New house!

Wow, time has flown by quickly and so much has happened. Luka just fell asleep in his bouncy chair, so I'll have a quick moment to write a little.

As of Monday, March 2nd we finally closed on our first home. It still doesn't feel real to Tim and I, but we are extremely happy and relieved. It's the original house we wanted to Majestic Avenue in Oakland. There are pics on the blog from back in October I believe. We are moving this Saturday and have some friends helping us with some electrical work this week. We'll now have more space for visitors, so do come! :-)

I just dropped off my Dad and brother Neisan at the airport. They were here for a long weekend. It was great timing to meet Luka and help us with a lot of house stuff. I'll upload some pictures soon.

Luka is doing great and already 11 pounds and 4 1/2 weeks old. It is going by so quickly! He is already growing out of some of his clothes.

Overall we are doing great. It will be so nice once we are all settled in. I'll upload some pics soon.

PS. Our new address is 5980 Majestic Avenue, Oakland, CA 94605.

New pics of Luka and family

Dearest Family & Friends,

We are so excited to share with you the newest pictures of Luka and our family taken by our friend and talented photographer, Sara Goetz. Sara does amazing photography here in the SF Bay Area. You can first check out a couple of the best pictures on her blog:

http://blog.saragoetzphotography.com

At the bottom of our blog posting is a link to the slide show. It is underneath the picture of Luka smiling with Tajalli holding him. It says " Enjoy your slideshow!" Just click there and it will take you to it....it has music too, so turn on your speakers. :-)

If you are interested in subscribing to her blog, just click on the top right hand corner (subscribe by email). Her blog is wonderful and she regularly posts tips on taking great photographs along with work from her sessions.

If you would like to see all of the pictures or order some prints, you can click here:

http://www.saragoetzphotography.com/pickpic/gallery/jump.php

You click on "Luka" on the top left and then the passcode is: newborn
After putting in your email, you want to click "enter gallery."

We are thankful that she has offered us their special family and friends pricing.

We hope you enjoy these new pictures!

With love,

Tim, Tajalli, Luka and Bubba

Baby Luka is here!

Our new love our life has arrived.

Luka Franjo "Franyo" Horvat
January 29, 2009 @ 6:18pm
7 lbs 14 oz, 20 1/2 inches

Labor went well....my water broke around 8:45pm on 1/28 and then we got to the hospital at 8am the next morning. Active/Intense labor lasted about 3 1/2 hours. We are all doing well and just trying to catch up on sleep. He is such a beautiful miracle.

It is hard to believe that he is now already 10 days old! We are trying to get him to switch his nights and days, which I guess is pretty normal. He pretty much sleeps in 1-2 1/2 hours chunks and then I nurse him for 30 min to 1 hr. Then he hangs out for about an hour and then starts the cycle all over again. I never thought I would be a night person, but I'm finding myself awake quite a bit after midnight! :-)

He started smiling a couple days ago and that has been such a treat. It seems to correlate with breastfeeding and when he is about to poop or fart....such a daddy's little boy! He seems to really enjoy spending time in his bouncy too, which comes in handy if Tim is asleep and I need to go to the bathroom or get something to eat. I'm sure we'll be using it more when Tim goes back to work. He also has managed to pee on his Mommy and Daddy at least 4-5 times now in the midst of a diaper change. That has been fun!

Today we have a photographer coming over to take newborn pictures of Luka. Her name is Sara Goetz and is the wife of one of my colleagues at work. She is such a talented photographer. We will share those pics soon!

We've had several visitors already and it's been wonderful introducing Luka to close friends and family. Our first out of town visitor is Chandra, my best friend from college. She'll be here for a couple days this week....yea!

On the house front, we are so close to moving in we can taste it. The title company is trying to get things wrapped up.....please keep your fingers crossed that it we will close escrow this week. If all goes well, we'll move some time the week of Feb 16, before Tim goes back to work. We'll let you know once it really happens.

Thanks to everyone for all of your love and support and hope to connect with you soon. Feel free to call anytime...if we're sleeping our phones will be off, but we'll call you back as soon as we are able.

Lots of Luka love coming your way.

At the hospital

Tim here: Taj's water broke last night around 8:30 ( 1/28 ). We waited to go to the hospital until 8am this morning. Tajalli was having contractions on and off thru the night. She is doing fine, a little tired but not in much pain. We are on our third nurse so far!! All seem pretty nice though. We will post again soon.

End of Week 38

Hi everyone!

We are just now on the tail end of week 38 and can't believe that our little baby to be could come any day now. I am feeling good these days, just really big and a little less mobile. I keep on bumping into things! I started working from home this Tuesday and will be until my last day of work on 1/23 (unless the baby comes early). I miss being in the office, but I have great peace of mind knowing that if I go into labor that I'll already be at home.

We have the baby car seat installed and ready to go, the bassinet next to the bed, and almost fully packed for the hospital. There are a couple odds and ends that we still need to get, but all in all we have what we need. Now I guess we just have to wait!

On the home front things are looking like we really could have the new home in Oakland on Majestic by the end of the month. It is a miracle! We aren't going to move before the baby arrives and will just take our time after wards to decide when is best for all of us.

Last weekend, Tristi, Johannah, Sarah and Chandra threw me a wonderful baby shower in San Fran. It was so nice to celebrate with close family and friends. Thank you!!!!! On Tuesday, Tim's work surprised him with a shower at their office. Everyone was so thoughtful!

The weather here has been amazingly beautiful...mid 70s and sunny every day this week. It is so unusual! Bubba and I have been able to go for short walks at the park across the street. He is going to be so spoiled having us home for a while!

We hope you all have a wonderful 3 day weekend (hopefully you don't have to work on Monday) and will keep you all posted on baby Horvat to be!

xxoo

Happy New Year & Week 37

Happy New Year!!!

This year we decided to lay low. We ended up going out for a nice dinner at a nearby restaurant. This place is connected to a golf course in Castro Valley. It turned out we were by far the youngest people there and found ourselves surrounded by lovely 65+ year olds with Happy New Year hats on and cheezy loud 80s music playing in the background. It was quite something! After dinner we went home and watched a movie and didn't even make it to midnight. What did you do for New Year's?

Then on New Year's day, Tim and I went to see my friend Kyle Barisich (from USC) perform in a lead role (Raoul) in Phantom of the Opera in San Francisco. It was Tim's first musical experience, and my first time seeing Phantom. My friend Kyle was superb and it was so fun seeing him perform again. We hadn't seen each other since my friend's wedding over 6 or 7 years ago. The show is moving it's way down to Los Angeles in a couple weeks...if you are down there you should check it out!

Last night Tim and I met with Esther, our Doula, for our last prenatal visit. It's hard to believe that the next time we will see her will be for the birth! We practiced a bunch of labor positions and went through our birth plan. I think we are all set! We have all of the baby stuff set up in our 2nd bedroom now (see pic) and all of our baby clothes are washed and in drawers ready to go. We also made space in our bedroom for a bassinet. It feels so good to be set up!

Today Tim's boss Sandy is hosting a work shower for us at her home. Then we are staying at a hotel in San Francisco for the night for our last little get away before the baby comes. :-)

Have a wonderful weekend!