Ralph's rockin' a sweater vest today...bringin' it back from the old school!

You like my handlebars?

First two weeks

Mason had his two week appointment yesterday. Everything checked out well...he's getting faaaaatttt! He weighed in at 8lbs, 9 ounces. He was 7lbs, 1 ounce when we left the hospital. I think Nolan's been slipping him fruit snacks when we aren't looking. On the Nolan front...he seems to be adjusting to having a little brother around. Every morning when he wakes up he ask where "Mason Ryan" is. Heidi and I are getting sleep when we can...



Tummy time



















Mason's first outing to the park with the gents (Dad, Nolan and our lab Riley).







Nolan showing Mason the proper way to swing.

Party of four...

So we have been home for over a week now and are rapidly being introduced to the dynamic of managing a growing family. Nolan came down with Bronchitis when we brought Mason home from the hospital. It was a blessing in disguise because it mellowed him out and made getting Mason settled into the household much easier. Heidi and I thought "Great," he's adjusting well. That was just the calm before the storm. As many of our friends warned us, Nolan is going through an "adjustment" period. Heidi and I have both been reduced to tears at points but in the grand scheme of things, it's all part of growing our family and we are trying to embrace what he's going through. Mason's been really easy going thus far. He basically eats, poops, and sleeps. It's just the honeymoon I know... We kind of forgot what having an infant around is like and are finding ourselves having to relearn a lot of things. Fun times at the Mejias house to say the least. We are really looking forward to the holidays and sharing it with family and friends.

This is the life.

Mommy and her boys!
Nolan loves his new baby brother (the eyes may have been a little foreshadowing).

Mason's first bath.

Peek-a-boo.

Daddy's wiped out

Introducing Mason Ryan...

Mason Ryan Mejias was born early Saturday morning (December 1, 2007) at 5:16 AM. He weighed 7.4 lbs and was 19 inches long. He looks a lot like Nolan did when he was born--minus the cone head--but has really dark hair. Mom and baby are doing well and Nolan was very excited that he finally got to meet his little brother. We got released from the hospital yesterday morning and are adjusting to life in our growing family.

Update...

...Heidi had her weekly doctor's appointment yesterday and she is very "close." We'll see if she makes it until Monday. My bet is that it's just a matter of days...if not hours. Stay tuned.

An Update on the Expectant Mother

Many of you have asked so I figured I would "blog" about it. We're getting pretty close. Heidi is at 36 weeks as of this posting which is one week further than she got with Nolan so we're in uncharted waters. She has begun her weekly appointments with her doctor and is moving right along. Her C-section has been scheduled for Dec. 3rd so if she makes it that far...that's when Baby Boy #2 will arrive. No--we still haven't decided on a name yet. May end up being a gametime decision. The baby's room is complete save some minor accessories and we have started washing clothes and getting out all the stuff associated with a newborn. We are definitely better prepared this time around. Nolan is very excited that he's soon going to be a big brother. We are looking forward to welcoming the new addition to our family and sharing the holidays together.

Stay tuned...

Our Contractor

We found this great new contractor. He's fast, does a good job and very cheap (likes to be paid in lollipops--go figure!). He's also very safety conscious.

Halloween 2007

Nolan and his cousin Brayden were firemen for Halloween. His younger cousin Dylan was the firehouse dog. The boys had a great time trick or treating. We now have enough candy to keep Nolan awake for three months.

The Air Show

We took Nolan to the NAS Miramar Air Show a few weeks ago. Ralph's Dad was in town so it was a nice way to spend some time together.


Nolan taking the Marine Physical Appitude Test...he did 10 pull-ups. Sign 'em up!

The Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend, the family went down to Tanaka Farms in Irvine, CA. for their Annual Pumpkin Patch. It's a real working farm. They have wagon rides, a petting zoo and best of all you get to roam around the grounds and select your pumpkin right off the vine. Nolan had a blast.


(Of note...since I took on the responsibilities of maintaining a blog on our family's happenings, I have had several "visitors" comment that there was never any pictures of Heidi. Eat your hearts out Sarah and Heather!)


Nolan's attempt to "wrangle" the goat.
Mom and Nolan sharing a special moment...and a hot dog.
Oooh, really scary.
Our stash!

Ralph's Kid For Sure

There's an urban legend about Nolan's dad and how he used sit in his room at Tendrich Hall (LMU) and tan through the window. I guess it's hereditary...

My Big Boy Bed

Wow...where'd the summer go? I haven't "blogged" in a while so I thought I'd update everyone on the going's on. We embarked on getting Nolan out of his crib and into his big boy bed over Labor Day Weekend. It took him about a week to get used to it but he's back to sleeping through the night without any calls, should I say "yells!," to mom for help in the middle of the night. As parents its hard to see you're little man continue to grow up but that's part of the process I guess.

Other than that, we haven't been up to much. This month is marked with weekends full of either birthday parties or baby showers so we're keeping busy.

Potty Training...

Nolan has started the process of potty training. The other morning he ran down stairs, sat down on the potty, asked me for a magazine and in his words said "Daddy, can you please close the door? This stinky!"

I am so proud!

My trip to the top of Mt. Whitney

Last Friday, I climbed Mt. Whitney with a group from the Merrill Lynch office in Brea (the office I used to work at). Mt. Whitney is in the Eastern Sierras about 3.5 hours from Orange County. It is 14,495 feet above sea level--the tallest point in the lower 48 states. We started hiking from Mt. Whitney Portal at 5:30 am and reached the summit at 11:30 am--an elevation change of 6,130 feet. The group hung out at the top for approximately an hour and then started the descent. Inclement weather looked like it was rolling in so we decided to get the hell out of dodge. We were off the mountain/trail by 5:30 pm. Total distance covered was 21 miles; total time was 12 hours. Not bad for a first timer.

This was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Not only from a physical standpoint but also being able to appreciate natures awesome beauty. I met some really interesting people throughout the day from all over the world. A lot of people have asked me if it was like doing a marathon. My reply is that its maybe not as physically or cardiovascularily challenging but definitely no walk in the park. The mental aspect of it is in my opinion more demanding. The duration along is trying enough not to mention being out in the elements. One area specifically that I want to comment on is "97 switchbacks" just above Trail Camp. The is a series of literally 97 switchback above the timberline prior to summitting to Trail Crest at 13,650 feet. It is very exposed and all rock. I compare it to mile 20 in a marathon--you just have to "plug in" and focus. It took us about 1.5 hours to get through this section and it was gruelling. The positive was that once we reached Trail Crest, we only had another 1.9 miles to the top but believe me, the last 1.9 miles was not clear sailing. In fact, this area consisted primarily of large rock where you were basically boulder-dashing. The fall off was straight down--pretty scary!

Nevertheless, reaching the summit was surreal. I felt a real sense of accomplishment. Like I mentioned above, climbing Mt. Whitney was an experience I'll remember forever. I highly recommend it!

Recent Summer Photos

Since I've been bad about sending everyone updated photos, here's some from the last month or two...

Our weekend at Surfside!

We took advantage of Heidi being off this month and spent a long weekend down at the beach house in Surfside this past weekend. It was a really great "family" weekend. The weather was awesome...not too hot and no marine layer in the mornings. Nolan got a lot of beach time in. He was on the sand the minute he woke up and would endlessly run back and forth to the water (or "Shore" as they say in Jersey). He loved getting in the water but would freak out the minute I had him out to a wave--"I want to go see Mommy!" Other highlights included taking Riley on his morning and evening walks along the water, a seashell collecting expedition, Nolan ripping up and down "A" row on his bike (he loved going over the speed bumps for some reason), playing with Madeline, the neighbors one and half year old and having the Brittons over for some beach time with the kids to name a few. On Saturday we went down to Main Street in Seal Beach for dinner and found this amazing BBQ place. If you are ever in the area, we definetly recommend trying it out, www.beachwoodbbq.com. The food was delicious and they have a great selection of microbrews on tap.

We managed to only get one picture of the entire weekend because bonehead Dad forgot to charge up the camera battery prior to leaving home. Nolan was all jazzed up about going out on the boogie board--only thing was that he didn't care for the waves. I had to try, right? Maybe next time we'll conquer the waves. Surf's up!

Introduction...why are we doing this?

I've decided to start a blog--thought I'd get web 2.0--in effort to do a better job at keeping everyone informed about what's going on with our growing family. As many of you know, we are expecting our second child in December and I thought this might be a good way to communicate the madness that is the Mejias household.

To that effect, we were delighted to find out yesterday that baby numero dos will be a boy! There was some humor to this, as is usually the case with us. The ultrasound technician actually told us we were having a girl after surveying Heidi's tummy (in conjunction with the monitor) for about two minutes--apparantly "she" was lying spread eagle and the technician had gotten a "really clear shot." Well, after checking to make sure all the organs and such were developing properly she paused and said, "umm, it looks like your lil' girl has a weenie." We made sure she was sure and it looks like (we have some photographic evidence that I'll try and post later) we indeed are having a boy.

In closing, I hope enjoy our musings. Check back often or add us to your RSS feeds to get updated.