Our New Addition

On February 18th, we were super thrilled to find out we would be having another baby.  I'm sure she was just excited at our excitement, but even Paisley joined in the celebration and laughed and got super excited when I told David.  It was pretty surreal at first, maybe even more than the first pregnancy.  In spite of all the nausea and other symptoms, it was hard to really feel like there was really a baby in there until our first ultrasound where we got to hear the baby's heartbeat.  I think there must only be a few things in this life more thrilling than hearing a little  baby heartbeat coming from inside of you.  We took Paisley to the appointment and she did not like watching the doctor touch her mom's tummy,  but we made it through. Dr. Holmes told us the due date would be October 17th, 2012.  That's a great date, I think.

After much anticipation, we found out that we are expecting another little girl!!  We've been very excited to use the boy names we've had picked out forever, but we are super excited to have another little girl.  I think Paisley will love having a little sister, especially one so close in age to her.  I hope they can be close friends.  Now for the fun task of picking a cute girl's name.  Any suggestions?

Now I am 21 weeks along (past halfway already!) and just starting to feel the baby move pretty frequently.  That's the best part about pregnancy, I think, besides the end where you get to meet the baby!  I'm starting to show now, although I haven't gained any weight yet.  I think I gained and kept enough with the first pregnancy for both of them!  The first trimester all I felt like doing was sleeping all day  - no exaggeration here - and now I'm happy to be at that glorious part of the 9 months where I just feel good and energetic.  Let's hope that keeps up for a while!

21 Weeks - the side view

And the front view

Paisley the 16-month-old

I am terrible at keeping up with blogs about Paisley.  I have a little journal where I write letters to her, telling her about herself, and most times that takes priority over blogging.  But as long as I am on a blogging splurge, I will start with Paisley.

She is almost 16 months old!  She's such a funny little girl.  Just after her first birthday, we found out we were expecting another little baby (more about this later).  So, we started making the gradual switch from breastmilk to milk milk.  We knew she had an allergy to cow's milk, so we started with soy milk.  Well, that didn't agree with her either, so we stuck with almond and coconut milk.  Ugh.  The good news is, she took to it just fine, and she's been a happy baby.

All ready for bed, telling me she wants her bottle

Now she just eats everything!  She loves popcorn ("popem"), rice, chicken, oranges, grapes, and even french fries and ice cream.  Her favorite snack is goldfish crackers, which she calls 'fwishies'.  She always seems to want to eat something, but she still can't grow into her height.  She's 32 inches, and still only 20 lbs.  The nice thing is, we won't have to get a new car seat until baby #2 comes!

Paisley says lots of words now, which is really nice for us!  She can tell us what she wants to eat, where she wants to go (up, down, sleep, nap, and especially outside).  She loves saying the names of everyone she knows: mama, dada, Oma, Opa, Gramma, and especially Emily, and lots more.  She even knows the names of some of her best baby friends like Chloe and Elsie.  She loves saying puppy, ball, pool, water and the last word or two of every sentence we say. Every time she sees a bird she points and says "bood!" over and over, staring at it with this fascinated look on her face. She says 'windy' when it's windy, and 'noise' when she hears one, and it's fun to see her grasp concepts like that and put names to them.  

My personal favorite of all the words she says is the word 'poop'.  We bought her a training potty for her first birthday (I know, super exciting gift for a one-year-old!) and she's learning to use it.  Every time she has to go - number 2, at least - she tells us "poop", we put her on the potty, and within a couple minutes she stands up and exclaims "all done" with a big smile on her face.  The b est is when she looks back in the toilet and twists up her face and says, "ewwww, yuck!".  Haha.

Paisley caught in the act.  She's not normally
 eating on the potty, just this time it happened in the
middle of breakfast, and I've learned to act quickly!!

In short, Paisley the 16-month-old is lots of fun and growing up fast!  She makes every day exciting and fun for all of us.

Paisley's First Steps!!

Paisley has been walking around holding onto furniture for quite a while now. She's even taken a couple tiny steps before falling into Mom or Dad, but tonight she worked up her courage and WALKED! And after she did it a couple times back and forth between David and me, she just took off and started walking around the house! Here's a little clip of her proud moment.

Never too late to log the honeymoon!

On our honeymoon, I lost the charger for my camera. I never recovered it, and never replaced it. It's taken me till now to get the pictures from the memory card, but I figure, it's never too late to blog about one of the most blissful times of one's life. So, here it is.

1 day post-wedding. David told me he was taking me to San Diego for our honeymoon. Knowing how bad David is at keeping a surprise a secret, I fully believed him. So imagine my surprise when we got to the airport and he handed me my boarding pass - for Honolulu!! After a few tears (all on my part, of course) and lots of hugs, here we are in our seats on the way to beautiful Oahu!

Our room at the Aqua Palms & Spa in Waikiki. It was great to be on Oahu, close to home, but not too close.

We ate at the Shore Bird Restaurant, right on the beach.

Shave ice at Matsumoto's. I love David's face in this one.

The happy couple on Waikiki Beach.

Ok, not the most attractive picture, but you can't go snorkeling at Shark's Cove and not get a snorkel-face picture. Plus, if anyone makes a snorkel mask look good, it's David!

Possibly my favorite day of our honeymoon. We cruised down the North Shore all day, got Fumi's Shrimp Shack and ate it on the beach as the sun set. Perfect day.

I got to introduce David to Laie and its many wonders. We ate at the Hukilau Cafe, visited my family, (who were very surprised to see us so soon after the wedding!), visited David's mission president's home, and even took my dog for a walk down Hukilau beach like the good ol' days.; It was nice to share that part of my life with David.

This was David's birthday, April 30th. David's parents arranged it so we'd hit the Polynesian Cultural Center on this day, and we ate dinner at the luau. It was great to sit back and eat some kalua pig, taro rolls, and yes, even poi!

Can you tell how excited I am?

Our final moments on the island, as we're sitting in the airport. This was David's best attempt at a frowny face. It was a great week, in a awesome place, with an amazing guy. Lucky I get to keep the guy!

Play time!

Last Friday Paisley and I went to Arete Gymnasium with some friends and their babies. It's a giant gymnastics gym where they have trampolines, a big bouncy floor, foam pits, and all kinds of cool things. This is Paisley and her friend Noel in the mini foam pit.

You know the bouncy floor where gymnasts do their floor routines? Paisley absolutely loved it. It was like letting a puppy off the leash in a grassy field.

A Paisley Christmas

This is a picture left over from Autumn. Paisley was super excited to jump into the leaves, but not so excited once she found out they were pokey and scratchy instead of soft and pillowy. This is the only one where she wasn't scrunching her face and squirming. I'll take it.

Christmas Eve. Paisley opened two presents: One from Grandma Cindie (the sleeper she's wearing), and one from Santa (the rings toy).

She was pretty excited.

Christmas day. Paisley got a giant Bulls-eye.

And here is Paisley's new doll that she loves to death, Cheeseburger. David insists that Paisley named her, but in a moment of weakness he confessed to me that he named her Cheeseburger out of strategy. The strategy is that 1)the name will either help her to love cheeseburgers, or 2)the name will turn her off of this doll so that she will like her Jessie doll (the one he chose) better. I think she'll just grow up wondering why they named a popular American food after her doll. Either way, Paisley and her doll are inseparable.

New Years at the Doumas and all its delicious food. Yumm.

Paisley and her Great Grandma. I love this one.

Now that I put up all these pictures, I realize that they're all of food and Paisley, and none are of me or David. Oops. Oh well, let's face it - who wants to see me and David when you can look at food and Paisley?

Oh, Canada!

Oh, wow it's been a long time since I've put anything on here. It's been a fun couple of months, now let's see if I can remember them!

Well, fresh in my mind is our recent trip to Canada. That's right, I finally got to go back to my home and native land! And Paisley finally got to meet her Grandpa and Uncle Nate. It was a great trip. We left on Saturday morning, and drove allllll day. Of course we couldn't go through Idaho without stopping for lunch at Big Judd's, where David successfully downed a pound of hamburger (and that's just the patty), a giant basket of fries, and a root beer. Yummmm.... :S

Paisley was an angel. She slept through most of the drive.

On Sunday, it just so happened that one of my best friends, Sarah, and her husband, were in Calgary, so we were able to get together with them. I don't think going to Canada would have been complete without that. Also, Philippe and Marisa arrived with little almost-one-year-old Eli, who is cuter than ever, and it was so good to finally spend some time with all three of them.

My grandma got to Calgary on Monday night, and she looks amazing!! I just kept thinking, I hope I look as good as her when I'm in my 80's! It was so good to finally spend some time with her, and especially for her to meet Paisley.

We went swimming and hiking with my dad. I only wish I had taken more pictures, but pictures or not I'll never forget how good it was to see Paisley playing with her grandpa.

Sigh. There's so much more to say about the trip, but it all boils down to how wonderful it was to be home, with family, all together. Mom's food & good talks, Dad's boistrous laugh, cards with Grandma, Boston Pizza, Canadian Rockies, RW&Co, walks with Ginger, bonding with brothers and sisters, and lots more. It was all long overdue.

On the way back we had a great adventure. We stopped in Helena for gas and Paisley's diaper change, and a weird burly-looking Montanan walked by cussing at us, and saying something about putting up with people like us. Could it have been the homemade breakfast burritos we were eating? Maybe the BYU symbol on our license plate? Maybe he has something against changing a baby's diaper in the back seat of a car? We'll never know. Anyhow, he followed us out of the parking lot after flipping us off, and then got off at the very next exit. Phew!

Well, about 50 miles down the road, we pass a state trooper in an Expedition. He pulled out of his sitting spot and followed us for about 20 miles before we came across some random firewood scattered out in the road. A log tumbled under our car, but we kept driving at our extra safe speed, as there was a cop still on our tail. A few miles later he pulled us over, along with two other cops that had pulled in behind him somewhere along the way.

So, there we were, being pulled over by not one, not two, but three state troopers! The officer explained that he had pulled us over to make sure the log we ran over hadn't caused any leaks, so David and I both got out to check under the car. Meanwhile, the three cops walked around the car, looking inside. They took turns asking us questions about where we were going, where we were coming from, lots of questions about the baby, etc. When we established that there was no leak, the officer asked for David's license and registration, just to make sure we weren't wanted. You can imagine we were pretty curious about why we had really been pulled over by the time the officer came back and told us we were free to go. Weirdest experience ever. We spent the next two hours throwing out different possible explanations. Did the guy at the gas station get a laugh in by reporting that we had stolen a baby? Maybe he told the cops that he recognized us from a wanted poster? Or maybe it really did take three state troopers and a bunch of repeated questions to make sure we didn't have a leak under the car...

Well, now we're back in good ol' Provo. David's back in school and he starts his new part-time job at Squire tomorrow. As for me, I'm at home with our baby that I swear gets cuter by the day, tutoring French twice a week, and taking care of the elderly lady upstairs.

As for the reason anyone reads this blog anyway, Paisley is making some important steps in her life:

• She got her 6 month shots
• Weighed in at 14 lbs, measuring 27.5 inches
• She's eating peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans. Good thing she has nothing to compare them to yet!
• We've established a great bedtime routine: I nurse her, read a story or two, sing her a song, and put her into bed. She'll just play quietly in her bed until she falls asleep! I love it.
• She's been sleeping through the night! All it took was one night of letting her cry it out, and it seems to have broken her habit of eating in the middle of the night. Fingers crossed.
• She's sitting up! She still needs a spotter, in case she makes a sudden move and topples over, but she's almost an independent sitter.
• She props herself up on her arms, and when she wants something badly enough, she'll even get up on her knees. Unfortunately, she usually ends up scooting herself backwards, which doesn't make her very happy.
• And now for pictures.

Oh yah, did I mention football season started? Here's dad teaching Paisley the important things in life

Me and Dad at Elbow Falls

Our little family

Matching Paisley

Four generations! OK not the best picture, but it's a miracle that we got them all in the same picture without photoshop!

Paisley's first trip on the C-train!

This just makes me happy

The cutest nephew in the world. Happy 1st birthday!

Kyle, Sarah, and us. Love those people.

Our happy little baby!