Mother's Day!

11 Weeks, 3 Days

Happy Mother's Day all you wonderful mommies! It's Sonja's first (kind of), but we still haven't told everyone, so its our little secret. I have loved my mother my entire life and I'll love Sonja for the rest of my life, but I'm now starting to see the unique emotional bond a mother has for her baby. Different than every other form of love. I won't digress too long as I can't begin to understand it, but I can see it starting and its a beautiful thing. Obviously men are important to the process, but its so so different. Something only you mothers can comprehend. The children don't get it and never will, men try to have it, but never will, its a special one way love that you uniquely have. Thanks to my Mom, Sonja, and all mother's who've sacrificed health, sleep, emotional well being, time, money, and their figures to grow and sculpt beautiful people and in turn a beautiful world.

Its a gorgeous day. We have a little secret celebration at the house with Heather, call all our special Mommas and head out with Corby, Sallie, and Johnny to the Pasadena Flea market. For those who don't know, this is no ordinary Flea Market. Its huge with antique everything from clothes to furniture to anything you might want but don't need. It takes place once a month at the Rose Bowl. Sonja's dying to get her hands on a nice coffee table and dining room set. I'm dying to not spend a grand. We browse, run into a surprising amount of friends, see a classic live performance by George Herbert, watch Corby buy half the lot, and strategize how Heather's gonna take the field. Unfortunately they lock it up before we can convince Heather to go. Sunburned, we head out for a nice lunch in downtown Pasadena. After lunch everyone's about to pass, so we take it to the house.

A great dress rehearsal mother's day. We're ready for the real deal next year with The Buddies!

Great Grand MaMaw

11 Weeks, 2 Days

The Buddies only great grandparent, Mamaw (Soriano), was visiting Sonja's Aunt Sandra and Uncle Rod in Orange County for her 89th birthday! We headed south to Rancho Santa Margarita after a quick stop at the Santa Monica Barb-B-Que cook off. The vibe of a BBQ cook off overlooking the pacific ocean doesn't quite have the same feel as the Georgia Rib Cook off I attended a few years back. As you might suspect, GA had more food, more beer, more fat people, and the band Survivor! And yes, they played "Eye of the Tiger" to the thrill of us all. After pounding down a few plates of Q and peach cobbler we headed south to the OC.

SoCal traffic was in full bloom, but we finally made it. We rolled into an excited reception from Mamaw and all the family and friends. As usual we were fed a delicious feast of Filipino favorites, Pansit Bihon for Sonja and my favorite Lumpia. Dinner was only the beginning. After dinner was karaoke time. A classic display as one by one we were prodded on stage by Heather trying her best to delay requests to perform "Wind beneath my wings." Trying to impress the buddies, I delivered a stirring rendition of "Suspicious Minds" then forced into an awkwardly inappropriate "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." Not surprisingly the entire clan could sing. I was way out of my league, but I hope I made the buddies proud.

We headed back to LA with a huge bag of leftovers, always a plus. It was a great start to Mother's Day weekend, and it was great too see everyone. We still hadn't gone public with the news, but I know Sonja was thrilled to share the day with her grandmother and family.

The Young Family Compound

10 Weeks, 6 Days

Its official, we're moving! We just signed the lease on an amazing house. As much as we love our cute little apartment and as little as we know about raising kids, we knew enough to know that Sonja, Inman, the buddies, Lilah, and family visitors were too much for the old place. We reached out to a familiar place, Beachwood Canyon. Yes the same Beachwood that was my home for the first 9 years of life in LA. The house is literally overlooking the driveway of my old apartment. I loved Beachwood and am happy to be returning, plus we'll have Walker, Jay, Robie, Gower, La Poubelle, and all the old friends back in the hood. Most importantly, there's a one bedroom apartment in the back for special guests. An incredible addition to a amazing new place. Plus I made a promise to Lilah a few years back that I'd give her a yard one day.

We loved our time in Los Feliz, and is certainly on our list of places we'd live as we move around LA. Kingswell was great! A beautiful apartment, host of many great gatherings. But its time for something bigger and more fit to be a home for two little babies. Plus there's plenty of space for guests, so all family and friends have no reason not to come visit. Reserve your room starting this June on The Terrace.

Here's a link to more pics.
Young Family Compound
Its a gorgeous mediteranian style home complete with parking, private yard, and guest house.

Can't wait to bring The Buddies home!

Blog Block

9 Weeks, 5 Days

We're constantly wondering how the buddies are doing. Unfortunately we don't have a home ultrasound to check. Anxious and waiting till May 13th, our next doctor visit. There's nothing really to report. Sonja is doing amazing, not feeling too bad, not craving anything too weird. She drinks smoothies all the time, and food she used to love makes her gag, otherwise business as usual. They're definitely in there, and they must be growing, but its still hard to believe. Sonja and I talk about it, but we haven't told anyone so its not part of our social lives. She doesn't say so, but it stresses Sonja out having to keep it from our friends. I look forward to being able to tell everyone. Its hard to keep such excitement contained. I'm sure I should embrace the quiet, it won't be like this for long.

The Buddies and The Boss.

8 Weeks

No time to rest or contemplate or worry about the news, The Buddies attended their first concert tonight. Who better to rock you into the world than Bruce Springsteen, The Boss! Floor, standing room only at the LA Sports arena, or as BS calls it "The Dump that Jumps." Along with us was Jay, Marina, and Dixon. I clearly remember my first concert, Frankie Vallie and the 4 Seasons at Chastain Park in Atlanta. I remember enjoying the show, but feeling like it was kind of lame. There's no question in my mind The Buddies enjoyed this show, it was epic. The kind of show that genuinely makes you happy to be alive! Immediately goes down as one of my 3 favorite live outings ever, along with the Jackson "Victory" tour, and Bon Jovi 2001. Each for their own special reasons, but they all were incredible nights. The Boss put on as good of a show as I will ever hope to see. He taught us all a lesson about youth, as he looked like a 30 year old kid dancing around on stage. I truly hope that The Buddies don't find The Boss lame, but I'm sure they will. At least until I pull out the old turntable and rock the A side/record #1 of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Live 1975-1985.

There's no question Bruce will be touring in 8 years, at which time we'll all go again.

Oh, there's two!

7 Weeks, 6 Days

We went to see Dr. Tsui today. It was my first visit ever beyond the waiting room of an OBGYN office. The stirrups and instruments made me glad to be a boy. Our first stop was the 8 week ultra sound. This is your first glimpse at the tiny growing embryo and also the first time you get to hear the heartbeat. The nurse came in gave Sonja some brief instructions and left the room. When she returned she grabbed a device that looked like a high tech curling iron covered with a condom. There's no question where that's going. The tv monitor comes into focus and it looks exactly like that 135 degree, radar looking, ultra sound view you've seen before. We're all staring with anticipation, what are we gonna see, is the baby safe, doing good (a thought that crosses your mind constantly), how much detail can you get at 8 weeks? What transpires next is one of those "moments" in life that you'll always be able to playback forever. In clear view is the embryo, or rather....

Nurse: "Oh....there's two!"

Inman: "You mean twins?"

Nurse: "Yeah, twins. CongratuLAtions."

Sonja: Laughing and crying at the same time - "We're gonna have twins?"

Nurse: "Yes you are."

There they are clear as day on the monitor. Two little embryos side by side. And complete shock and surprise on our faces and in our minds. A few fertility jokes go around then we recap for the nurse about finding our we're pregnant and the wedding a mere 8 weeks earlier. She proceeds with the ultrasound, and labels the little ones, Baby A and Baby B. We check the heartbeat of baby A, which at this point isn't stressful for us as I think shock is controlling our life. Heartbeat is 168, and then checks baby B, 164. Sounds like what I imagine a humming bird's heart would sound like. She says everything looks good, and there's really nothing else we can study at this time. No way to tell if their identical, fraternal, boys or girls at this time. Of course that's all we've been able to think about since. All of this information will be visible at our next "major" ultrasound during week 18.

We compose ourselves and go upstairs to see Dr. Tsui. His nurse Rosie takes us back and we show her the ultra sound. She of course thinks its the greatest thing every and starts cracking up as well. Dr. Tsui comes in checks the chart, throws out a simple, it's twins, congratulations, and he's off doing what he does. Checks out Sonja, stirrups again. Having seen this twice now, I'm sorry women. He talks to us for awhile about genetic testing, which is important due to Sonja's age, and refers us to an office which will handle any tests we decide to have. We make an appointment to come back for the 12 week check up, and head out of the office.

We're holding hands really tight walking to the elevator. I don't think we could have been any more surprised or any more excited than we were at that very moment. We'd always discussed having two kids, probably neither of them this soon, but now there's two and they're coming together, and its perfect.

Sonja calls them "The Buddies."

Knocked Up!

My wife, Sonja, came from the doctor today and told me that she's pregnant! Why not, we've been married for almost 6 weeks. This is what we in the business call a "honeymoon baby." I was in the den watching "Knocked Up," I'm not kidding, and she delivered the news. After getting past the ridiculous irony that I was actually watching "Knocked Up" the shock that we're having a baby hit. We spent the next 30 minutes in a mixture of laughter, tears, hugs, shock face and finally the realization that this is happening! The happiest of all happy surprises.