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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

2 Months...

Ayla had her 8 week (2 month) check up this week. She has grown 2 inches and weighs, drum roll please..., 8lbs 15oz! Almost 9lbs, whoa! My little, little girl who weighed only 5lbs 13oz when we left the hospital, has grown SO much to ME. However, in contrast, she is only in the 10th percentile, but the doctor did say she is doing very, very well.
Also, Ayla got her first round of shots and did surprisingly well. She let out a little yelp when the needle stuck, but did not wail or hardly cry (both times). This was good timing because as of last week, Whooping Cough was declared an epidemic in California and infants are especially vulnerable. Immunizations PEOPLE!!!!

Next week I will slowly start back to work. I am both excited and apprehensive about returning to work. I am excited because I can already feel my brain starting to atrophy. In fact, I listen to NPR podcasts so I have something other than baby-stuff and dayt-time TV to talk to Bob about when he comes home (Although, I think I have been forever turned a "View from the Bay" fan). And I'm apprehensive because I don't know how I'll fit everything I need, and more importantly WANT, to do into a 24 hour period. HA! I bet you thought I was going to say apprehensive about leaving Ayla! I still have another month to worry about that.

That's because, if you don't know, I mostly work from our home office (which has been reduced to a desk in our living room) and Ayla will actually still be at home with me until she is 3 months old. My manager is aware of this too. That's when she'll enter daycare - Spanish immersion daycare. Yes, her care givers will only speak in Spanish - ALL the time. I am both excited and worried about this. Actually I don't know why I'm worried. Lily, our cleaning lady, and Ayla are mutually enamored with each other. Lily loves to hold Ayla and Ayla is in wonderment of sweet Lily and her language.  Maybe I'm worried because I can only ask "where is the library" or say "the cat is very large" in Spanish. The daycare is within walking distance of our house and right next to the light rail so Bob can drop her on his way to work and I can walk to pick her up.

We will be heading to the beach for the 4th of July so I know we'll have many many pictures to share from that! Until then some video I shot today with Bob's  Father's Day prez: The super tiny Flip HD Video Camera. So if you've got HD TV... I'm sure the thing you're dying for is some baby movies to show on it...  Am I right or what?!

Well, you're off the hook! I just tried to upload the HD movie and apparently it's too much memory for YouTube (all 3 minutes of it). Have you subscribed to my YouTube Channel? I post more video there than I do on the blog. And if you're REALLY bored: my Work YouTube Channel. <-- This link is a quick preview of some of my products for my family members who continually ask me what my job is not understanding how I work from home. ANYWAY, until we find an online HD solution, I guess all you Ayla fans will just have to do with regular ol' internet quality video *sigh* LOL

The first min is especially funny because Ayla is interacting with herself in the mirror, and the rest of the video is for die-hard fans, you know who you are! You have to be, in order to sit through all 3 mins :-) It's more of Ayla and "The Tree". Ayla's changing table is under our bedroom window which is hilarious because it stares right at a big tree and she can just lay there forever and stare and talk to herself <- which is how I get things done in the morning!!

Mirror Mirror on the wall, who's that that baby that I see?
What do you know? It's ME! Ayla Jeanne.
 

Other quick iPhone snaps from today:
Look how strong my neck is!
Happy Baby!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Blue Jean Baby Queen

Rock on





Since I always capture Ayla all sweet looking, I snapped a pic of the diva starting to dislike her photoshoot...


- Posted from my iPhone

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Faces of Ayla

G'ma and Grammy can never have too many pictures...













Posted from my iPhone

Monday, June 21, 2010

Happy Father's Day!

I don't know if I've said it enough, but Bob has been THE BEST husband and new dad ever. He has kept me centered and given Ayla so much love. In addition to being back at work, Bob still does most of the dinner cooking and he almost always helps with the middle of the night feedings and diaper changes and I don't even have to ask him.
It was absolutely gorgeous weather for Bob's first Father's Day. After having guests in town we took it easy and just did our usual farmer's market and then went to the park to watch him play frisbee.

Did I mention that one other fatherly task that Bob loves to do with Ayla is... BATH TIME! I'm not sure if I can go so far as to say she enjoys it too, but she doesn't cry. See for yourself.
Not sure if I will cry or not
Little Froggy
All soaped up
Now I'm clean!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Mummy and Ayla







- Posted from my iPhone

Super Mario

This is really geeky, but if you've ever played Super Mario 3 you'll understand...
Every time Ayla is in this swaddle wrap I think of the Super Mario green bouncy boot





- Posted from my iPhone

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Kenny's Garden

Kenny's zuchinni is THIIIIIS big...


- Posted from my iPhone

Too Darn Hot...

We got out early enough today to hit the farmer's market and the early heat told us that it was going to be a "scorcher".  Appropriately enough, Ella Fitzgerald's Too Darn Hot (click link to listen to a 30s clip) came on our Last.fm radio channel during breakfast. Our extremely busy day yesterday and the heat of today helped Ayla and I decide that we would relax at home instead of joining Bob for his Sunday frisbee game. Which gives me some time to blog beyond my short iPhone posts.

Tomorrow Ayla will be 6 Weeks old. Each week I get more and more energy and ability to accomplish things. Bob has also decided to work from home once a week so that I can have at least one (mostly) uninterrupted day do things like jog and run errands - what a GREAT guy - but we all know this already :-) Only 4 more weeks before I have to start back to work, but "I can't think about that now. I'll think about it tomorrow."

Ayla is talking and socializing more and more (you could probably tell from my youtube videos) which is fun. At her last doctor appointment she was 7lbs already! She is a little more predictable so that we can schedule our lives a little better.

Everyone keeps asking if Alya is sleeping through the night and the answer is a big old NO. She eats almost every 3 hours like clockwork. Sometimes we give her a little more to eat so she would sleep longer, but that doesn't always work and if it does, we have to pick our poison. For example, do we want her to sleep from say 10-2:30ish or 1-5ish either way it's a short span of sleep and we are super tired zombies tending to her.

I just remembered that I wanted to share a great, inexpensive wine that Bob found. It's a Meritage , rhymes with heritage - yes it does - many people try to "Frenchify" the word pronouncing it similar to "garage". But it's an American made up word combining merit and heritage... but I digress. Anyway, it's a Meritage from Nine Points. It's the best "everyday" wine we've come across yet. Not surprisingly, Nine Points is a "child" winery of Stag's Leap. Read a review here: http://thecorkscrooge.com/2010/01/29/wow-2006-nine-points-meritage-scores-a-perfect-10/

Also, this coming weekend, our friends Jackie and Connor Bates will be visiting with their son Noah. We used to live in parallel apartments in Santana Row. Jackie and I both worked from home and would walk over to one another's place for a late afternoon cocktail concoction, mostly of the frozen kind. Poor Bob and Connor would come home from work to sticky kitchens and tipsy wives. But no matter what, our faces would hurt from laughing so hard. It was a sad sad day when they moved to away to Baltimore :-( In the last 3 years, Bob and or I have only run into either one or the other Bates briefly from coinciding business trips. So it will be nice to get everyone together again.

Well, goodbye until I get my next quiet afternoon to blog, who knows when that will be. But there will be many pictures in between for sure ;-)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

New Tricks

Ayla has a new trick and some more happy time videos that she wants to share with Grandma and Grammy



YouTube Video


YouTube Video

- Posted from my iPhone

Friday, June 4, 2010

Ayla 1 Month

So much to say but I have such little time these days. See for yourself... Thank goodness for my iPhone to quickly capture some fleeting moments.
Here is a short video of Ayla's one month milestones. Smiles and coos, though they are few and far between for right now, they make such an impression that makes it all worth while and eagerly waiting for more!

YouTube Video


I also snapped a shot of her little feet (that were in my ribs for 2 months)



Some more iPhone moments





- Posted from my iPhone