First night away

Last weekend Justin and I went to a wedding in Charleston. I've been planning this since we got the save the date card sometime last August or September. I figured she is almost five months old and we should be ready for this! Our good friends Jason and Leslie came and stayed with Alina. We left Sunday afternoon and came back Monday afternoon.

I love Charleston and have always wanted to spend the night down there, because we've only taken day trips. This was our chance. I knew I would miss Alina, but I thought this would be a good thing to do. The wedding was beautiful. Justin's friend from USC, Eric, was getting married. He and Meredith are both from out of town, but since Eric studied Charleston they decided to get married there. The ceremony was in an old Luthern church that was built in 1742 and Eric studied for his dissertation. It was a true Charlestonian wedding, classy yet casual, good southern food and fun! Here are some pictures, before our camera ran out of batteries:(

Sipping on drinks with Dave (another USC grad student)

The center pieces were huge mason jars with poppies and daisies.

Jason and Leslie had a great time watching Alina, she was an angel for them! Although, when Leslie was looking at the instructions, Alina did this:



Here are some more pictures of the three of them hanging out. They even went on a walk together. Leslie was great about texting me all the time with updates, so I did not stress or worry at all! Thanks so much, it looks like y'all had a great time!

Going on a walk

She ate very well for Leslie!

Sometimes May showers bring May flowers

It has been raining so much lately! Since planting my garden in late April, I've only had to water two or three times because it has rained so much. My flowerbeds have also really benefited from all of this rain. The lilies are blooming beautifully! Here are some pictures of the pretty flowers we are enjoying. I am especially excited about the cala lily!

Playing with big girls

On Saturday, Alina and I went to play at Dawne's house with Harmony and Ella Grace (Torry's little girl). The girls are both three and a half and they loved to play with a baby. Harmony kept wrapping Alina in the blanket, it was so cute. Alina really enjoyed them also, she wanted to play with them on the swing set, but realized she would need to wait until she's bigger:) Thanks Dawne for a great time and we hope to do this again soon!

Why daddies just aren't mommies.

So on Fridays Alina stays home with Justin and they have a great time together. Justin is great at feeding her, playing with her, and even giving her a bath when she needs it. However, today, he did something outrageous...he cut Alina's hair without asking me or having me around! His argument: her hair in the back was too long and she had a bare spot so he wanted to make it match. How dare he? I did make him pull out the hair from the trash can so we could save it. We'll just have to call this a trim or pretend it didn't happen and give her the first real haircut later. And that's why daddies just aren't mommies:)

We'll miss you Kelli and Kyle!

Our good friends Kelli and Kyle are moving away this summer. Kyle got a job at Baylor (at least its in Texas:) and we are thankful for that. We will especially miss them because their baby girl Kate will be born in July and we won't get very much time to spend with her. Saturday night we went to their house to hang out and play games as we get ready to send them off. We all know God has great plans for them out in the Lone Star State, but wish they didn't have to go so far away. We'll miss you!

Kyle and Kelli (and baby Kate:)

Trying to pass the baby bug to Kim and Leslie:)

Matt and Jessica have already had it!

Playing Bladerdash

It requires lots of thinking to make up things people will actually believe.

Movie Date

Recently, Alina has started to enjoy TV! She started noticing the colors and movement a while back, but now actually seems to really enjoying watching it. Saturday mornings she sometimes sits in her Bumbo and watches Strawberry Shortcake, or Veggie Tales or some horse cartoon. Here she is watching TV with her buddy Josiah (Jo-Jo). Isn't it adorable? Now I have a reason to watch all those Disney cartoons I love. Beauty and the Beast here we come!

Pauline took this picture. Apparently, Jo-Jo wanted to wear a bib, because he noticed Alina had one on. When Pauline took hers off, he took his off too:)

She is too cute!

And that is why we have pictures of her doing everything. Here she is trying to drink the water as I rinse her during her bath. Alina loves bathtime! She kicks and splashes the whole time and I think she'd stay in there forever if we let her. This weekend we tried out the jump and go. We put it up in the doorway between the laundry room and the kitchen so she could "hang-out" with mommy as I cook dinner or whatever. She seemed to really enjoy it. The toys were fun, but she really liked it when she figured out she could just chew on the seat!

What a face! I just think she's the most precious thing I've ever seen. Also, those eyes are totally her daddy's. When she looks at me with those big blue eyes, I can see Justin. I am so blessed to have the cutest husband and daughter ever:)

Can you believe its been four months...

since Alina came into this world? We can't! Our little "doodlebug" is growing everyday. She is such a blessing to Justin and I. Alina loves to smile and laugh. She enjoys playing and eating and is a good little sleeper:) Yesterday, Alina went in for her four month check up, so far she seems to be more like her daddy, tall and skinny:
Height - 25 inches (75 %)
Weight - 12 lbs 8oz (25 %)


When I got home from school we gave Alina rice cereal for the first time. She seemed to think it was okay, whatever actually got into her mouth, because I'm pretty sure most of it ended up on her bib! Since then, she hasn't been as crazy about the rice cereal, I may be putting too much in there, so I'll back off a bit and she if she likes it better.

Dr. Cope also said we should change her to a four hour schedule instead of three, so we are working on that and she seems to be doing well, we'll see how tonight goes. The only things she needs to work on is rolling over and tummy time (which will help with the rolling over). She had a couple of tummy times in her crib today and seemed to like it ok, she even rolled over all the way once on her own! We've been slack with tummy time because she hates it so much, she does what Dr. Cope calls "skydiver," where she lifts her arms, head and legs off the floor so only her belly is touching. That's some serious ab work, no wonder she hates it!

We also learned this week that she still needs zantac for her acid reflux, she was really fussy the two days she went with out it. Also, dairy still is bothering her. Dr. Cope said I should hold off on the dairy until she is 9 months old (yes, 5 more months without cheese!). Usually, babies outgrow the dairy issue between 9 and 12 months he said. So today, I went to Publix and bought soy cheese, yummy:( I haven't tried it yet, but hey some cheese is better than no cheese, besides its been so long since I've had the real thing maybe I won't remember what it tasted like. It's amazing what they can do with soy!

Meeting Patrick

Tuesday night we went over to the Michaud's to see Patrick. Justin finally got to hold the little guy. Now that he has a baby of his own, he is not so intimidated by babies and likes to hold them. Before Alina, he had only held one baby for 30 seconds, because his friend just handed him over when the phone rang:) Isn't he doing a good job? Patrick looks very content. Here is Alina getting a good look at Patrick. I can't believe how big my little girl is!

Of course Linus had to check everything out as well:)

Tired...

So Alina usally falls asleep in her crib, or is at least fussy until we put her in her crib for a nap. The other night, she totally surprised me. She was playing on her gym as I was doing some work on the computer. When she gets tired in the evenings, she usually lets me know by fussing, but instead she stopped playing with the toys and started sucking her thumb. Yes, she loves her thumb, what can I say? Then all of a sudden she just went to sleep. It was so cute. She just took a nice little nap right there on the floor. I've never seen her to that, so I figured it was blog-worthy:)

Hanging out with Sarah Ann

Alina got to hang out with Sarah Ann on Saturday, while mom and I went to a tea party at church. I really appreciate Cortney and her parents watching her so mom and I could hang out. Sarah Ann is nine weeks older than Alina, so Cortney and I are constantly talking about them and she has been so helpful with advice and questions I've had. Thanks so much Cortney!

Here are some pictures of their play time. Isn't all the pink so cute? Sarah Ann is already sitting up, so she's gonna have to teach Alina some things!

It looks like their holding hands, I love it!

Sarah Ann says "come on, just sit up!"

Nina

Mom came to stay with us last week and we had so much fun! I really appreciate her coming to spend time with us. She took great care of Alina, I think they had a blast together. Mom was really impressed with Alina's schedule, you can pretty much set your clock by our little princess.

I love having my mom here. Each day she asked what she could clean and what kind of treat I wanted when I got home. Monday I got homemade donuts, Wednesday cookies, and Thursday fried squash, one of my favorites. She cleaned my windows, helped (yes, I actually did work too) me plant my garden and vacuumed the couches. Not too mention the weekly work of vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, laundry. It was GREAT! Thank you so much mom.

After all the work we did enjoy some time together. On Tuesday, I took mom to Travinia's as a thank you, happy mother's day thing. Friday night she went with me to a girls-night-out-mini-flock. On Saturday, we took Alina to Cortney's and we went to a tea party at the church. We had a great time. Justin was out of town Friday through Sunday, so we got to spend some great time together.

Patrick is here!!!

Our friends Matt and Jessica had an adorable little boy Thursday night. Patrick David was born at 8:04 pm. He was 7lbs 5oz and 20 inches long. He is so cute!
He held onto to Matt's hand as he was getting checked up in the nursery, I thought this was so sweet.
Proud papa taking his son to the nursery!
Jessica's mom was so excited! As we were waiting for them to tell us we could go see the baby, she would just jump up everytime someone came through the doors and kept saying, "I need to see my babies." Both sets of grandparents were there by the time Patrick arrived.

What a great looking, happy mom!

Patrick was very excited to see me as you can tell. Like his friend Alina, he already is sporting Gamecock attire. These USC fans are serious!


Kim and I visited them at the hospital on Friday. I had to have my chance to hold Patrick, because on Thursday the nurses took him before I was able to hold him, so I had to go back. We look forward to many playdates, babysitting and fun times with Patrick and Alina!