I wanted to introduce your fuzzy friend, Chili.  I know you know who Chili is, he’s been around almost since you were born.  Actually he’s about a month older than you, but he didn’t join our little family until about a month after you were born.  Like you he was very new to the world, and we had to teach him how to be gentle with you just like mom’s been teaching you how to be gentle with him.

He was a lot more mobile than you, and we had to teach him what things he can play with and which things he can’t.  I know your mom has been starting to teach you the same thing now that you’ve become a master of your own destiny with this new crawling thing you’ve learned.  But he’s growing up much faster than you, and he’s supposed to.  That’s his job - to look after you as you grow up.  He’s there to play with you.  He’s there to protect you from danger.  He’s there to be your friend.

And I hope you can be his friend.  He’s going to love you unconditionally his whole life, and I hope you can learn about love and life from his example.  I have no doubt you’ll come to understand why every little boy needs a dog in his life.

So that’s his name up there.  Those Kanji characters mean ‘Chili’ in Japanese, pronounced ‘Banshou’.  Japanese, of course, ’cause he’s a Japanese Akita.  It also happens that Banshou means ‘Evening Sun’.  Both good descriptions of your little red dog.

蕃椒…AKA Banshou, AKA Evening Sun, AKA Chili… yes, that’s correct… Chilidog.  He’s a ninja, by the way.

蕃椒

David continues to be a wonderful sleeper. With a bedtime of 7 to 8:30 and usually a wake-up of 6:30-7, Mommy really can’t complain about getting up just once in during the night. And for a few nights there I thought we had made the breakthrough when he slept all the way through the night for about 3 nights in a row. Of course an ever growing boy gets hungry during the night, so that didn’t last for long.

Speaking of growing… look at our big little guy! We finally decided it was time to make the step from bassinet to crib. I think David’s pretty happy about it too. What do you think?

Yes, that’s our little man standing up all by himself showing me just how tall he is. He likes to play the “look no hands!” game, but soon realizes there was a reason he was holding on!
It seems his curiosity with foods just could not be held back any longer so we decided to try some carrots. As you can see… those were a pretty big hit. As are yams, peas and pears. Mostly, we haven’t found anything yet that he isn’t a HUGE fan of. Even Oma was amazed that Momma can’t seem to shovel the yams in fast enough!

And just today he has learned how to roll from his belly onto his back! He did it probably about a dozen times either when I rolled him onto his belly, laid him down that way, or if he flopped from sitting. And he can roll either direction, so I’m pretty convinced that he’s actually figured it out and it’s not merely an accident. Now if he just had ANY desire to be on his belly in the first place we could work on rolling the other way!

Be sure to check out his gallery at www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=jgm1q5o.2gvcjluw&x=0&y=-kr2kic&localeid=en_US as I will try to post more of his “everyday” photos there. Also don’t forget to check in on www.youtube.com/sernapilot occasionally as well as I post new videos there fairly often.

I’m not entirely sure from whence they grow, or what they look like exactly, but you seem to be growing one. Or maybe personalities are like baby teeth; you’ve always had one, but only now it’s starting to surface. But you ultimately lose your baby teeth when your adult teeth finally push through. Are you going to lose this personality as you grow? Or does your personality grow with you, like your hands and feet?

I can’t remember being your age. Nor can I remember ever not being me. So I don’t know if I had a personality transplant some time (or several times) during my wee years. I have seen some of my personality traits come and go during the years that I can remember. Shy at times, outgoing during others. I have had periods of being driven, and times of fully embracing a laissez-faire perspective on life. But perhaps it truly is that, “The preceding verses are the halves of my soul, I’m just the battlefield and that is my role.”

You have so many expressions; so many looks. While your many smiles may seem similar, the glint in your eye - that sparkle of your soul changes with each one. You can be so chatty at times, constantly stoking this burning desire within me to understand what you are trying so hard to explain. I so want your energy and excitement to keep growing with your personality, and I don’t want it to fall out like baby teeth. I want it to be part of your life that you can remember, and therefore always be a part of you.

I guess selfishly I’m also hoping that this part of you, these glimpses I see of the emerging you will still be there when I come home. That while some of your traits may fade with time, I will nonetheless still see in you all that you ever were, and maybe not have missed a very special part of you that phone calls and photos failed to capture.

Daddy graduated from flight school,

Uncle Greg came to visit,

Chili (our puppy) joined our little family,

We traveled across the country in a big truck and Mom’s Acura,

We visited Jared and Jenni,

We got to visit your Great-Grandparents Serna and the Hollister Sernas,

And Daddy’s now part of the 4th Squadron of the 6th Cavalry back home in Washington… soon to deploy.

… I promise to elaborate on some of those events in the near future (with backdated entries). But as you can see your mother and I have been a bit busy to keep you up to speed on all the current events.

You in particular have been keeping mom especially busy. While we are very excited with how long you’ve been sleeping every night, you have proportionally been more alert and active during the day. This leaves us (Mom especially) with a exciting new opportunity to interact with, play with, entertain you during your every waking moment.

Okay, perhaps not your EVERY waking moment, but your little baby brain is definitely needing outside stimulus. And while we are beyond happy engage with you as much as possible, it’s the ‘trying to get other things done’ while entertaining you that has proved to be more difficult.

You have shown a particular affinity toward your (usually morning) exercise routines which your mother and I have managed to capture a couple of times on video.

Now when you can figure out what your arms do, we can include some upper body in your workouts.  I am particularly excited for you to learn how to ‘push the ground’.

Now I don’t really believe you’re actually going to be embarrassed. Well, maybe the first time you have a little girlfriend who has internet access. I’ll have to ask Angelo and Anthony whether they’d be embarrassed by a video like that being seen by a girl. I think you’re so young that nobody’ll care. Now if I were to catch you on video in the future when you’re thirteen years old and still wearing jammies with little booties built in - well then you might find yourself taunted just a bit.

So to fairly balance that little flick, here are your Christmas pictures to show the world how handsome you are.

Yes I realize it’s Christmas, and I’m just now posting these pictures. You’ve been a handful, kiddo. Don’t worry, I’ll get your Merry Christmas posted soon enough.

You and your cousin Rogan (not to mention little Kaitie and Liam, who shall be very special penpals) are going to have access to some of the coolest technology the world has ever seen. I was talking with Liam’s dad, Mr. Don, and we were discussing how kids in developing nations are beginning to have access to educational laptops that can be hand powered out in the middle of the desert, jungle, or whatever. Even kids in third world countries are going to be plugged in.

Suddenly there’s this huge responsibility to ensure you learn not to use a hammer to drive a screw in - electronically speaking. One of these educational laptops I was looking at had installed the first computer programming language I ever learned back in 1st or 2nd grade. Logo (better know for its Turtle Graphics) is kind of like a digital etch-a-sketch that we used to use to command a robot turtle. Admittedly I became somewhat nostalgic realizing that the basics I learned are still viable tools for teaching today. Then once the nostalgia wore off, I was struck by the idea that kids in third world countries are going to know more than kids in the United States about what makes their Xbox 360 tick.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m no more worried about this than teaching you how to read or properly throw a football. I am just continually blown away as I look at you at just how pristine and unspoiled your little mind is, and how much fun it’s going to be to introduce you to all the hows and whys of the myriad of electronics you’re going to grow up with.

Speaking of YouTube, this seems to be the most popular of the videos I’ve posted so far - and probably will eventually be the most embarrassing for you, which is naturally why I posted it here:

(Of course, the other videos can be accessed by clicking the YouTube.com link in the first paragraph)

So here you are, my son. David Brian Serna is the name I give you. You are loved and you are strong. I will expand on the etymology of your namesake at another time, for now all you get is the paraphrased version. There was, however, a very long time ago, someone very special with the first part of your name. He was, among many other notable endeavors, a musician. Your mother and I are both musicians, but that’s not why I mention this. We both hope to see you grow loving music and perhaps be a musician yourself, but neither is that why I bring this up. I wanted to tell you about this particular musician because of what he did with his music.

David loved God with his music. His whole life, through all his ups and downs, David always loved God with his music. Now David was not a professional musician when he wrote most of his music, but even though he was not a professional musician, the largest book in the Word of God, Psalms, is attributed to works throughout his life. David was a lot of things during his life, even a soldier like your daddy, but he always loved music and always loved God with his music.

You’re probably going to be a lot of different things during your life. A builder, an artist, an explorer… so many possibilities in that little tiny body of yours. You may have dreams as you grow of being a cowboy or an astronaut. But through all the things that you do, and all the things you become I hope you can always remember to love God with your music.

The ultrasound technician was saying we are getting towards the end of the window to do the 4D because of specifically that problem. They keep getting bigger, their space keeps getting smaller and it gets harder and harder to manage to get a good (non-squished) shot of them. And of course, it does require a certain amount of cooperation on their behalf as well.

I think we managed to get lucky with a few of these. Most of the time he had either his hand over his face, his arm, or the combo hand and foot! In the first picture on the left below, those are toes covering his eye and his little hand pressed up against his cheek. If only I were still that flexible I can barely manage to get my socks on without straining myself! Overall she said he was doing just perfectly. He has settled into the head-down position and is up to 5lbs 5oz.

She was guessing he will top the scales at just over 7 lbs if he decides to join us around his due date. His mother on the other hand… (for the more curious of you) is up to 141 lbs. and a whopping 39″ around. So, 6 weeks and counting! And we’ll see if those truly are Brian’s chubby cheeks and lips that I see here