Family Reunion

The past 2 weeks has been amazing but exhausting! The craziness begin when my cousin drove from Nevada with her kids for a visit.  We all met for dinner at my cousins house a few days after their arrival.  When Monday arrived, we all had a great surprise!  Another of my cousins from Hawaii flew in with her kids so we could all spend time together.  We had almost everyone under one roof! This was about 10 years in the making! It was crazy fun and my cousin was brave enough to host everyone at her house.  It was really nice to have so many family members together.  And this all started with me only getting about 4+ hours of sleep every few days.  I wanted to take advantage of the fact that my cousins were in town and wanted to spend as much time as I could catching up.  Park was amazing thru all this.  He would take Alyssa home first so I could hang out.  It was really hard going into work with only a few hours of sleep, but it sure was worth it. 

Alyssa also had a great time meeting all her cousins, especially Caitlyn.  She took such good care of Alyssa that I didn't even worry about anything except catch up and have fun!  

It was a sad night when their last day rolled around.  It seemed like they has just arrived and now they are all home!  We were all talking about another family reunion in Hawaii next year.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it happens!

21 Weeks

How far along? 21 Weeks and 3 days

Baby Size: Banana (7 inches, 11 oz)

Total weight gain: 8.8 pounds
Maternity clothes? Only on the weekend when I wear my maternity leggings.  I normally just wear my regular tops and with pants, I'll have to wear it without buttoning it up or zipping it up.
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Ok to good.  
Best moment this week: Having family in town!
Movement: Oh yes!  Lots and lots of movement.
Food cravings: Went thru a watermelon phase but still always craving ice cream (chocolate) or almost anything chocolate related and french fries.
Anything making you queasy or sick: No
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: None
Belly Button in or out? Out.  I don't think it ever recovered from my first pregnancy!
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!

Alyssa's First Flight/Vacation

Over the 4th of July weekend, we flew to Buffalo, New York for a friends wedding.  The wedding was fun but getting there and back was not.  We flew out around 8pm on the 4th which is usually when Alyssa goes down for the night.  Since it was her first flight, she was too curious about what's going on.  She did really well during the take off and landing but the middle wasn't so much fun for mommy and baby.  When we purchased our tickets, we had selected for our seats to be together but for some reason, our seats got split up.  I ended up sitting with Alyssa in the aisle seat, which was good for getting in and out without bothering anyone.  Alyssa has always been on the move, she can't sit still for long so she wanted to get up and walk around.  That wasn't too bad but during the flight home, I ended up sitting in a 3 seat row and by the window!  That was horrible!!  Alyssa started to get fussy right when the drink carts were coming by and I couldn't get out and the flight attendant was trying to help me calm Alyssa down but all she wanted to do was walk around.  I was stuck in my seat and can see the people across the way giving me the eye.  I have never felt so embarrassed to have a fussy baby.  I'm already a pretty emotional person, but when I'm pregnant, I'm 2x more emotional.  I was getting so upset and tearing up that I had to use my baby to hide so people won't see me cry.  I was able to get myself together and the dad and his kid finally moved for me to get out of my seat to take Alyssa for a walk to the back of the plane to see her dad.  I told Park, the next time we have to fly, we have to make sure we are sitting together.  I don't think it would have been so hard if we had been sitting together.  

That's the terrible part of our trip, now onto the more fun part.  Late Saturday morning, our friend Andy (who's from Buffalo), took us on a little walking tour of downtown Buffalo.  It was nice to be out in the city and walking around and doing something different instead of going to all the same places as we would do at home.  After walking around for about an hour, we met with another couple of our friends for lunch.   And afterwards, we all headed back to our rooms to get ready for the wedding. My cousin, who is also living in Buffalo, watched Alyssa while we attended the wedding. 

The next day, we attended the farewell brunch and Alyssa was finally able to meet little Maggie. They were instant friends! It was cute watching these two cuties play together and holding hands and walking together. 

Later that afternoon, we drove out to see Niagara Falls. Park and I enjoyed it but Alyssa was preoccupied by these little birds. She was watching them hop around and she was also busy saying hi and bye to all the other visitors. 

Overall the trip was fun but I felt like I needed a vacation to recover from this vacation! 

Here we go again...

We are so so SO very excited to be adding to our family at the beginning of December.  Not only are we having another baby, we are having a BOY!!!  

I will be 19 weeks in a couple of days and have been feeling really good this time around.  Just mostly tired, working all day and coming home to start the routine of getting the family fed and Alyssa ready for bed.  Alyssa still doesn't understand that she's going to be a big sister soon.  We have been calling the baby "Peanut" and every time we will ask Alyssa to kiss Peanut, she'll pull my shirt up and kiss my belly button.  Sometimes I wonder if she thinks Peanut is my belly button.  She and the baby will be 20 months apart and I really hope she takes to being a big sister.

Watch What You Say

Last week we went out to dinner and Alyssa was sitting in her high chair, the kind that attaches to the table, in the booth with me. Park forgot to strap her in so she stood up and lost her balance a bit and we both thought she was going to fall. Park called out, "gosh!" And immediately, Alyssa said, "gah!"  Park and I looked at each other and just started laughing! We also knew from that moment on we have to watch what we say around her. She's just a sponge, soaking up everything that's going on around her!   

Yesterday I picked her up from daycare and her teacher, Ms. Jackie, was telling me that they were playing in the common area. Ms. Jackie was sitting on the floor leaning on a column when Alyssa came out from behind her trying to scare her. Ms. Jackie realized Alyssa was waiting for a response so she acted surprised and Alyssa just cracked up and walked away. I love picking her up and talking to her teachers and hearing these cute little stories about my little Bee! 

Winning daddy moment: we have had a constant supply of watermelons in the fridge that I cut up and store in Chinese soup take out containers. After sitting in the container for a few hours, it'll start producing the juice. I looked in the fridge the other day and found an empty container theat had some juice that Park was saving for Alyssa cause she really likes it. So sweet. My heart just melted. 

1 Year Photo Session

Alyssa's 1 year photo session was the one I was looking forward to the most.  I had pictures in my head of her just going at it and getting dirty when she got her cake. Well...she wasn't interested in cooperating.  It's ok since we has so much fun at this session.  We were outside and the weather was really nice and sunny.  Here are some of my favorites...

Thank you again to the talented Angelina at Asterisk Photography.   Thank you for being part of Alyssa's first year and capturing the most amazing moments!  

Alyssa's First Birthday!

Wow, I can't believe we have a one year old!  How did her first year fly by so fast? It seems like just yesterday we were holding this tiny little babe.  She has brought so much love and joy into our lives, I can't even remember what it was like before Alyssa.  

Back in December, I was driving to work and just thinking to myself that I should probably start thinking about her first birthday party thinking that 3+ months wasn't too early to start planning. Then realizing that she would be turning one in less than 4 months!!! What??  

I like to thank everyone that was able to come celebrate Alyssa's birthday.  We had a great time and we hope everyone did too!  Also like to thank Stephanie for taking pictures during the party.  

 Birthday girl was so happy and excited about everyone singing happy birthday to her.

But got a little too excited cause she let go of daddy's hand and went straight for the candle!

Take two...

Thanks for the photo bomb Andy.