Wish Us Luck...It's Vaccination Day

Our poor sweetheart has no idea what's coming...

Let's just hope the Infant Pain drops her pediatrician recommended help ease the pain...

Today is Vaccination Day for our little princess...her two month shots...good thing Mommy and Daddy will both be there to smother her with hugs and kisses when it's all over!  

Wish us luck!

A Sexy New Dress, a Hot Date, and a Breast Pump

For those of you who are curious, these are the ingredients that make up the perfect one year Wedding anniversary.

Well, I take that back.

It may not be the perfect combination for most people's one year Wedding anniversary, but it surely worked well for us.

Did I ever imagine I'd be packing a breast pump on this special occasion?  Heck no. But I did (and let me tell you...nothing makes you feel sexier before a special night out than using a breast pump!). 

Did I ever expect we'd be dropping our baby off for a slumber party at her grandparents house?  Not necessarily. But fun was had by all (as evidenced in this photo).

And did I ever think we'd be missing our 2 month old daughter while enjoying a delicious 5 course meal at Gary Danko?  Honestly, no.  But we wouldn't have it any other way.  Here's a little photo recap of our amazing night.

Happy Anniversary to my best friend and the most amazing Husband...and now Father...on Earth.  I love you!

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 25: a Favorite Photo

This is EASY!!!

I took this picture yesterday while it was raining cats and dogs outside...Abigail just so happened to be smitten with the smiling sun toy that was dangling above her head (it's as if she knew it was raining) and I snapped this shot.

My happy baby. 

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 24: a Travel Story

I'm going to cheat on this one...I really want to complete this 30 Day Blog Challenge (I got a little distracted when Abigail was born), so I'm just going to use last weekend's trip as my "Travel Story."

In case you missed it, read about it here: {Our First Family Road Trip}

There...now I can move on to Day 25!

Mommy Challenge #4: Rainy Days

When I was a little kid, I loved rainy days.

And it wasn't because I wanted to stay inside all day, watch movies and eat ice cream (I saved those activities for my "sick Ali" days).  

I loved rainy days for other reasons...

:: They were the perfect opportunity to play basketball in the driveway (making me appear like an extremely hard core, dedicated female basketball player when all I really wanted was attention)

:: They were the perfect excuse to get as muddy and disgusting as I wanted knowing that warm towels, dry clothes and a heater vent were waiting for me inside

:: They were the perfect forum for my brother and I to bond through mud pie contests, who-could-find-the-largest-puddles-to-splash-in contests, and basically any other wet weather contests we could think of (we were hardly competitive...)

Getting dirty was my specialty

Rounding up mud pie materials

Unfortunately, however, rainy days aren't quite as glamorous as they once were...

Cute, I know...

But I gotta say - there's something about being an adult that turned the exciting feeling of being soaking wet into a feeling of being damp and disgusting.  

I don't know...maybe it's the mascara running down my face that I never had to worry about in my youth...or maybe it's because it seems to take much longer to defrost than it used to...or maybe...juuuuuuust maybe, it's the fact that I have a newborn.  

And while it was quite "thrilling" to get caught in a rain storm last week, it's not something I plan on us doing on a regular basis.  Abigail was a great sport, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't a huge fan of the rain pelting her car seat, the wind whipping us from side to side, or the fact I had her completely enclosed in what probably felt like a coffin caught in a monsoon.

All I can say is that I look forward to the day when rainy days are fun again...when Abigail and her someday siblings ask me if they can frolic around and make mud pies in our someday backyard or play hoops in our someday front yard...and I, being the loving and caring Mom that I am, will tell them to have fun, get as muddy as they'd like, and that I'll have warm, dry towels straight out of our someday dryer waiting for them at the front door.  

That will be a great (rainy) day!

For now, however, I'm open to rainy day suggestions...if you have any indoor activities that are fun on rainy days (with a newborn in mind), I'm all ears!

An Improved San Francisco

I can't even tell you how excited I am to make the following announcement...

My parents are moving to San Francisco!!!  

The big items were moved into their new place yesterday, but now they're in the middle of unpacking, getting situated, and trying not to get too overwhelmed (because we all know how stressful moving can be).

Abigail and I stopped by yesterday to help out a little and she found a comfy place to lay down...Belle followed her lead...

Now we're going to do our best to help them get 100% settled in.

Welcome to San Francisco, Mom and Dad...we're so excited you're here!!!

The Panda Report: 2 Months

I woke up this morning with an email from BabyCenter informing me that my baby is two months old today.  While I knew that already (remember, I celebrate everything?!?), I did learn that at this age Abigail should be "talking" to us.  

Well, she most certainly is.  In fact, she found her voice at a very young age when she came out of the womb screaming at the top of her lungs. And while her cries and screams have become exponentially louder over the weeks, she has also discovered a softer side to her voice (thank goodness).  

In fact, she had a lot to say during her photo shoot this morning...

As you can see from the video, Abigail is smiling...AWAKE smiling (the sleep smiling was cute and all, but it does not even begin to compare to her awake smiles)!  

In other news, Abigail had a blast on her first road trip with Mommy and Daddy and she has a slumber party to look forward to...that's right, a slumber party!  This coming weekend is Mommy and Daddy's one year Wedding anniversary and Abigail will be hanging out with her grandparents as we celebrate our amazing year!  I'm sure I'll have a slumber party update for you...

For now, here are Abigail's Panda Report pictures at her 2 month milestone (and yes, those are pandas on her outfit - thanks Auntie Mindy and Uncle Toph!)...enjoy!

Take a look back at previous Panda Reports:

The Panda Report: 1 Month

Abby (the Panda) on ETSY!

The Panda Report: 3 Weeks

The Panda Report: 1 Week

The Panda Report: Birthday

The Panda Report

Our First Family Road Trip: a Recap

We did it!!!

We officially survived our first family road trip.  And I shouldn't say we survived because what we actually did was DOMINATE our first family road trip.  I'd love to take credit for the domination, but all we can really do is thank our precious daughter for being a little angel.

We departed early Thursday morning after packing (far too) thoroughly for a four day getaway.  We packed loads of diapers, too many baby clothes, excessive blankets, and we even managed to squeeze this little nugget into our suitcase... 

Totally joking of course, but she was definitely a good sport when Daddy tried to pack her up!  What a goof.  After this little stunt, Abigail put on her finest traveling outfit (and the first dress she's ever sported).  What can I say, she wanted to look her best on her first big family outing!

The first stop on our family road trip was San Luis Obispo where we visited with Abigail's great-grandparents, ate an amazing feast, enjoyed some glorious weather and took some fun photos...shockingly enough, Abigail slept the entire way from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo, making the first part of our trip even better! 

Pop-Pop & Shereen, thanks for a WONDERFUL time!  We love you guys!

After SLO, we continued on our adventure and headed down to Thousand Oaks where we spent more time with family (we love family!)...we stayed the night at "Hotel Sandman" with Aunt Lynn, Uncle Paul and Alix where we enjoyed a couple long walks (my fav!), more delicious food, totally sinful sticky buns and great conversation.  Oh, and yes...Abby slept the entire way from SLO to Thousand Oaks...once again, thank you Abigail!

And thank you Aunt Lynn, Uncle Paul and Alix (woohoo for you being home at the same time as our visit!) for an amazing time!

After a leisurely morning at Hotel Sandman (well, leisurely for some of us...Travis was working the entire morning), we loaded up the car and headed off to Santa Barbara for a weekend at Bacara {Check out our stay two years ago HERE}. 

Abigail wanted to be the first to test out the bed...

Then Mommy and Daddy joined her!

And although the weather only held up on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, we managed to venture back out to the beach where we took this picture two years ago...

Here's our updated version from this weekend...

And here are a few more pictures from Abby's first trip to the beach.

The rest of the weekend was wonderful.  Abigail continued to sleep well, eat well, and only cry a little bit.  She's becoming more aware of her surroundings all the time.  She even manged to be a little angel for the babysitter (yes, we had a babysitter...two nights in a row so we could attend the events of the weekend!). 

Here are a few shots from Mommy and Daddy's big night out!

And while Mommy and Daddy had a great time attending the Carnival themed event the second night, we were both more than ready to head back to our room and hang out with Abigail...as I said last week, it's amazing how much can change in two years.

We're so incredibly blessed and love our life more and more every day...Abigail has introduced a whole new dimension and neither of us could imagine our lives without her.  I mean seriously...look at this face!

After our amazing time in Santa Barbara, we made it home safely on Sunday afternoon and hung out with Abby...I think she had a great weekend too because she gave us this bigggg grin that could have made the grumpiest person on earth crack a smile.

Stay tuned for our next big travel adventure which will include a FLIGHT to DC! 

If you have any tips and tricks for flying with a 3 month old, we'd love to hear them!!!