Summer fun!

Well, summer is here and Ursi and I have been out enjoying the weather. It's been really nice here in Central PA, not the stifling upper 90's like a couple of weeks ago! So, after Daddy's many attempts to blow up her new frog pool, Aunt Tina stopped by and finished the job...thanks Aunt Tina! (by the way, Tina bought her the pool for her birthday...good choice!) So, Ursi had a great time in her pool and I got a chance to work on my photography skills, or lack thereof. My new digital camera holds literally about 1800 pictures, so I just happily snap away! Here are a few from her first dip....


So, here are some Ursi updates from her last week....she absolutely LOVES her crib! When it's time for bed, she reaches for her crib and if we don't get our kisses quick, we might as well forget it! :) She plays with her stuffed friends and pillows for awhile and eventually falls asleep on her own and stays there for about 12 hours! When she wakes up in the morning, she just babbles and plays until we come in and get her, which we love so we can ease into our day....we are soooo not morning people! Although, we do both try to be the first one in her room...the reaction to seeing us every morning is priceless! (I'll try to get it on video) She has also become a little cuddle bug! She willingly gives hugs and kisses to us and her animal friends here at home and loves to kiss babies and animals that she sees in books...it's so cute! She blows kisses now, and sometimes prefers this more than waving bye-bye. She really loves our menagerie and I am saying that her official first word (other than dada) is kitty. Now, Steve doesn't believe that she can say it and I agree it's not a clear pronunciation, but she uses the same sounds and tone whenever she sees Lucy (our extremely lovable cat)or we ask her to say it. So, I'm going with that. Ok. Done.
She is pretty much walking on her own now, does not even look for anything to hold onto, just cruises right down the middle of a room. And she's pretty quick too. If she falls, she just goes right into a fast crawl and doesn't miss a beat. She also follows directions that we give her...come here, no thank you...you eat that, give Sadie her ball, no touch, etc. She knows the difference between her toys and the dog's toys...if we can only get the dog to know the difference.....
Let's see, what else? She is becoming quite a little ham, she gets attention everywhere we go and just eats it up! She loves to talk to people or show them all the things she knows how to do. So, my early predictions for her are: actress, singer, or gymnast/dancer. (I'll have this on record here so I can check back and see if any of them are right :)
Oh, and she loves going up and down steps. Not on her own, of course, which makes for some wicked backaches...right Nana?
Well, that's enough for now...I'm sure I'll have tons to post next week after our first vacation as a family of 3! We're off to the beach! I had to add these pics....I just love the puckered lips!

They say it's your birthday.....

We had Ursula's 1st birthday party last Saturday and it was a big hit! We had it at Gammie's house since she has a carport and they were calling for severe scattered thunderstorms. It turned out that we actually had NO rain (well, I take that back, a few drops fell a couple of times), but it was a great, very hot day. I think it was in the mid 90's. Anyway, it was a low-key affair, only about 30 people ;) and I think everyone had a great time, especially the birthday girl herself. She loves being around a lot of people and enjoys the attention. She opened her presents, with Mommy's help, and ate her birthday cupcake like a champ. She started out only using one hand and delicately ate all of the icing, then when she discovered that there was strawberry filling, dug in and there was no turning back! She had it all over her hands and face, and even put her hands in her hair...much to Mommy's dismay. Oh, how I wanted to wipe her face! But I held back and let her, AND everyone else, enjoy the show! Ursula had fun hanging out with her "Aunts" and "Uncles" she had met before and a few new ones that came to meet her along with some "cousins" and family friends too. I think we've made most of the rounds, there are only a few more people she hasn't met yet, but hopefully within the next couple of weeks, we'll see them as well.
Let's see, a few new things for this week...she is walking across rooms on her own now, though she still prefers holding on, she is walking on grass and even crawled on it the other day, but she's still not 100% liking it yet, most of the time she'll sit with her hands in the air and whine to be helped up so she doesn't have to touch it. She knows where lights are if you ask her and she does a lot of things with me during the day that she doesn't seem to repeat for others. Examples of these are.... making animal sounds, like "What does a kitty say"? I say meow and she says something similar in a high pitched voice, even sometimes when she sees the cat she'll do it too. She makes a panting sound for what a doggie says, and says "bock, bock" for a chicken. We made up a game the other day that she has yet to do in public, but it goes something like this...I say "patty cake, patty cake" and she claps with me, but instead of going any further, she just dives on top of me! So it goes "patty cake, patty cake, yeaaaaaaay" and we just laugh! I guess the song is just too long right now for her :) Also, her new thing is climbing on top of things. Mind you, she isn't completely walking yet, so mastering climbing wasn't something I was expecting. She's done it twice now, once she was actually standing on top of one of her new riding toys she got for her birthday and I swear I saw her no more than 2 seconds before just trying to put her leg over the thing. I glanced over again and she was balanced fully on top of it with both feet! I ran over quietly, so I wouldn't scare her and send her tumbling backwards, but I whisked her off of it and told her how we don't do that and put her on the floor, to which she just looked at me and went...."Wahhhhhhhh". So much for not scaring her!:) Then this morning, I was getting ready in the bathroom and she was in there with me. We have a pedestal sink, which she clears by the way, and there is a little stool in there on the floor next to it for when we give her a bath (Easier on the knees!). Anyway, she was just walking around and all of a sudden I kept hearing this sound...thump, thump, thump and felt the movement on the sink. I look down and she is on her knees on the stool and every time she tries to straighten up, she plunks her head on the sink. Now I know what they mean when they say you can't take your eyes off of them for a second!
I've learned a few things this week as well. I've learned that all the expensive toys in the world don't stack up to: empty milk jugs, soda bottles, utensils, measuring cups, magazines, and cardboard boxes. We actually made a trip to the dollar store for some of her very own kitchen ware that she has in a basket in the kitchen to play with every morning. I'm learning more and more about her personality and I like to think I know her pretty well. We are having a great time together and I'm enjoying my time off to spend with her...it's been invaluable to our bonding!
This weekend we are going to a local fair, and to see Daddy play in his jazz band. We're also taking Steve's dad out for dinner for a belated Father's Day dinner and then to a friends' daughters' birthday party. So after a pretty packed weekend, we're hoping for a calm week ahead and will be packing for our big beach trip the following weekend! We are so excited to spend several days down at the shore with our friends and their family! We do this every year and this year it's even more exciting with our little addition. Ursula's "cousin" Kylie, who is 2 1/2 is anxious to show Ursi around and get her familiar with all the "hot spots" we frequent while there. So for anyone in the Ocean City NJ area between June 28th and July 2nd, look us up!
Here are some pictures of the last week and Ursula's 1st birthday. Enjoy.....


My look pre -party....



Now I'm all ready for my party in my birthday outfit!Presents, presents everywhere!Want some?Outside on a beautiful day...My big girl!Hello? Hello? You only wanted half a cup of sugar?

Settling in.....

Well, here we are after 2 weeks home with Ursula and I think we've settled into a nice routine. Ursi is sleeping 11+ hours a night, and most days she is taking a 1-2 hour nap. We get up in the morning and get ready and we are off and running. She has been to almost every store this side of the Mississippi...ok, slight exaggeration, but really, we've been hitting every mall I can find since it's been in the upper 90's here. I'm trying to get her out as much as possible so she can get used to her car seat and stroller (ok, you got me, I really want her to enjoy shopping as much as I do), they do not use these things in Guatemala. After our morning outings, we come home for her nap then spend the afternoon playing around the house and wait for Daddy to come home.
Some new highlights this week: readily waves hi and bye to just about anyone, pats her legs to music in the car, actually sits still to have ponies put in her hair, loves to look at pictures of herself, walks more and more on her own (not sure if I'm ready for that yet), plays ball with her new best friend Sadie on a daily basis, and we've made some progress on her constant attachment to me.
This Saturday we are having her 1st birthday party at her Gammie's house and of course, after I bought all the decorations and invited all the people, I read an excerpt from Baby 411 about how you should keep the 1st b-day party low key with minimal decorations and people so as not to overstimulate the baby. Oops! Well, we'll see how she does. At least I scheduled it in between her nap and bedtime!
Anyway, I'll post some pictures of the big day this weekend, but for now, here are some shots from this week...

Reading the Sunday paper with DaddyJust lookin cute!Ready to hit the mall!Fun on the swings!

One week down...

Well, we have been home one week today...I can't believe it! Ursula has made a wonderful transition, she is a happy little girl who eats everything I put in front of her, sleeps about 10 1/2 hours every night, takes a 1 hour nap in the afternoon and I think overall, just loves her new home. Some highlights for the week...Friday, Saturday and Sunday had visitors galore, all of which came bearing wonderful presents. Thank you, you know who you are! Monday thru Thursday, visited people at work, (big thank you to GB, Steve's work, for the exorbitant GC to Baby Gap!!! Ursula will be sooo stylin!) ran errands and started getting into a routine. This makes for a happy mommy as I'm starting to figure out how to get some things done in my home life, cleaning, laundry, pay bills, emails etc.
I'll insert our one and only issue here...Ursula is very attached to me, and I mean attached with a capital A. I can barely leave the room before she starts whining or even full out crocodile tears crying. We're working on this slowly....I'll keep you posted.
Here are a few things that Ursula already knows in the week she's been home...she can wave hi and bye, both opening and closing her hand and the "beauty pageant" wave too, she says mama and dada (dada being the word of choice),but we're still working on that! She can blow kisses and sometimes give kisses to the chosen few, she mimics almost everything we do, can blow great raspberries, and I swear she's gonna be an opera singer, although she only sings in the car (kinda like her mom), so maybe there's no future in it. She claps a lot when we say "yeeeeaaaahhhh" and she rubs her hands together if you ask her if she needs lotion (we put lotion on every morning and night).
We bought her a ride/push musical lion the other day and she is pushing that guy around like a champ. After she pushed it the very first time, she actually let go and took her first steps to me on her own! Now that she's getting better, she'll take 5-6 steps to someone as long as they are there to catch her. I think she'll be cruising on her own in no time!
As I said before, that she eats everything, I haven't found a food she doesn't like, however, when we went to the pediatrician on Monday, we found out that she is 40th % for her height and only 5th % for her weight....at least there are 5% that weigh less than her :) She weighs in at a whopping 17.4 pounds....man, when Steve was born he almost weighed that much!
So, I don't know if I covered everything so far...she's accomplished a lot in her first week, I can't wait to see what the weeks to come have in store.....
Here are a few pics from our last 2 days. Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home...

These jammies say it all!
Family outing at the Guatemala zoo.
What we found in our front yard when we got home...
First nap in my new crib.




Well, I know I've been a little late in posting about our homecoming, but my days seem to go by so quickly following a little certain someone around my house all day and by the time I turn around it's bedtime and I'm pretty exhausted! :) We made it home just in time to catch the tail end of Ursula's birthday and were greeted by dedicated friends and family strung out on coffee at the airport. It was a wonderful homecoming! Most of them came back to the house with us and stayed until about 2am! We eventually made it to bed around 2:30 and were back up again at 8 to start our first day together. I'll go back a bit and say that our trip home was great, Ursula was awesome on the flights, slept about 1/2 hour on each and never fussed, in fact she hardly ever fusses at all (so far :) The only glitch we had was our immigration experience...we had a 2 hour and 10 minute layover, thinking we'd get through Charlotte pretty quickly, get something to eat and head for our connecting flight to Harrisburg. Boy, were we wrong. We got off the plane, waited in line in immigration for what seemed to be forever, had to reclaim our bags, wait in a small waiting room for them to process her visa (some of the people in there had been waiting HOURS!), Ursula had a poopy diaper which we HAD to change in the room (we couldn't leave, poor people.), had to recheck our bags at which time our plane was already boarding, ran to security...Ursula loving every minute of it, security yelled BAG CHECK for ALL of our bags (keep in mind we were literally the only people there if you don't count the 5-6 security workers!), then ran again to the gate and were the very last people to board. So, we did make it, but we were dripping with sweat and didn't eat a thing! I think our excitement took over and we made it through our last hour flight just anxious to finally get home. It's so surreal to actually have Ursula here with us, but we are adjusting well and each day is getting better. We are trying to work out somewhat of a schedule. Ursula doesn't really nap much, but is a very content and happy baby and sleeps 10-12 hours each night, which we absolutely love! She does great riding in her car seat and strollers and is making fast friends with our 3 cats and 3 dogs. She's never been around animals before and they haven't been around kids, so it's fun to watch all of them interact. She loves to mimic things we do and is starting to already understand some things we say to her in English. She is just so much fun and we are having the time of our lives!
I've attached a few pics from our trip home, so enjoy and I'll update soon!