Lots to catch up on...

Last week was a bit of a blur as I was the first one to become sick, follwed by Seanna (with her very first cold, fever, ear infection etc), Wes and then Axel. It was more like the television show MASH around here than Valentines day, but at least everyone is back to being healthy again this week.

Instead of celebrating last weekend, we postponed to this weekend... Wes and I had our first "Gourmet Night" with some other couples from the Mom's Club that I joined and we had a fabulous Italian Dinner and conversation and were actually out until almost 10:30. As of lately, Wes and I both can barely make it until 8pm before we are sound asleep as Seanna is up at 5:30am on the dot! The good part of that is she also wants to go to bed at 5:30pm each evening--she will actually pull on my pant leg and asks me to put her to bed. I swear she has an alarm clock in her head!!

Today, we celebrated our non-sick Sunday together by taking Axel to the dog park in Irvine (Seanna LOVED the Dog Park and it was Great Dane Day so there were tons of them running around and she was in awe watching them play) and then we headed to the Irvine Zoo. It's a small little zoo that was absolutely the perfect size for Ms Seanna's first zoo outing. We have a few photos from the day and wish all of you a Happy Sunday as well!

Standing Up, Crawling Up Steps and Upper Teeth

As so many people have said, things come in threes and Seanna seems to be following this rule of thumb closely this week. Late last week, she started climbing our stairs, and as of yesterday, she is now able to pull herself up into a standing position and balance there for quite a long time. We can't actually believe that in the morning she could not master this feat at all and by the afternoon she had repeated the same motion probably 30 times in various locations around the family room! She is now officially into everything... and has discovered a whole new world at that level. Tonight she located the drapes in the family room and the fake tree leaves make a great sound when she pulls on them and the spanish moss actually comes out of the pot! I'm also pretty sure that her top teeth should be coming in any day. She wakes up screaming the last several nights around 2 or 3am. Her fist is constantly in her mouth and we are having more challenges with her drinking her bottles again. Hopefully these top teeth won't torture her too much longer.

On Saturday Morning, I woke up to Wes bringing Seanna in our room at 6am before he fed her(unfortunately, I didn't sleep very well the night before so I was still a little groggy) so he was taking over the morning duties for me. All of the sudden, Seanna's face lights up and she says "HI!" and Wes and I got a huge chuckle out of this as did she! Now, that is her second vocabulary word--we are still working on Dada so hopefully that one comes soon. She also decided this morning that she was going to learn how to crawl up the steps from the family room into the kitchen. When I came home from the gym, Wes said "you are not going to believe what she did" and sure enough, she has already mastered the task 4 other times today. She scoots all around the hardwood floor in the kitchen and is attempting to open every cabinet we have--babyproofer is on the way to lock them all!! We had a pretty quite weekend overall, we did go out to feed the ducks on Saturday and Sunday we went to a Superbowl Party for a short time (Seanna isn't really big on loud nosies so when the Steelers intercepted and ran the ball back for a touchdown--that was the end of the party for us!! :) Looks like it might rain again this weekned so we have a few play dates lined up so far and should have fun come rain or shine. Enjoy the week...

18 lbs-Really??!!

I was finally able to get a shot of Seanna's two bottom teeth and last night, she was screaming at midnight as her upper ones are also starting to break through! All things considered she is doing really well with as much pain as the teeth are causing her. We try to manage it with the Highland Teething Tablets, Orajel and Motrin in the evening before she goes to sleep. Soon, she will look like a whole new little person once those top ones arrive and we will make sure to get some great new shots for everyone... She also had her 6 month doctor appt on Thursday of last week and measured in at 27 inches long, and weighs 18.6 lbs! The doctor's office decided to start taking bets as to when she will be taller than I am!! On a side note, Wes met Dora Torres last week, and had his photo taken with her during the National Sales Meeting in Orlando, so we are going to frame the photo and put it in her room with the caption "Daddy and Dora". Wes has given Seanna the loving nickname "flipper" because her feet are growing so quickly that he swears that she will be a swimmer and use her feet to her advantage. She is also a SUPER fast crawler now and has decided to move to the next stage of pulling herself up on things (or at least pulling the object down to her level). She is also saying "mama" clearly and eating solids on the Level 3 baby food now. The doctor was very excited about how well she is developing and also mentioned that Seanna will probably be walking around 9 months. You go girl!!!!!!!!!!!

Inauguration Day and Catching Up

Today is very historical day as our new 44th President Barack Obama has taken office-Seanna and I were able to watch him take his oath while she drank her bottle on my lap. We're very hopeful, as is the rest of the country and the world, that he can bring some postive energy and action to our country.

What's been happening for the last few weeks? Well, a TON--to put it mildly!! Seanna has absolutely mastered the art of crawling and is so fast that we can barely turn our backs before she is exploring something new. She is most interested in anything that is not a toy of hers--the dog chews, phone charging cords, pampers, on and on... She is now moved on to trying to master pulling herself up on the crib and the step from the kitchen.

Secondly, she has broken through her second bottom tooth and both are somewhat visible. I am still trying to get a photo of her smiling which is proving more difficult than one would think. During the last few weeks, she has absolutely gone on a nap as well as food strike. She threw her both schedules out the window while the second tooth was coming in, however we finally seem to be getting back on track this week.

Thirdly, we started music class back last week and she enjoyed it so much more this time around. She is mobile (which no one in the class can believe) and she recognizes all of the songs and gets a HUGE smile when the group sings her favorites.

Finally, she has taken the art of expressing herself through joyfully screaming and screeching. It starts as soon as she wakes up in the morning (she normally greets me with it at 6:30am when I return to the gym as daddy is feeding her--I'm sure our neighbors love the new wake up call, but the funny thing is their daughter did it as well so we really don't feel too badly :) and continues until she goes to bed. In public, people think she is soooo unhappy until they see this half tooth grin that reaches from ear to ear and then they too start laughing. She really is a regular comedian that is happy most of time--she does however have a temper shows up from time to time. She really does enjoy the every day things in life.

6 Months Ago Today!

It's hard to believe that 6 months have already past since Seanna arrived on the 4th of July! She seems to be growing daily and quickly changing before our very eyes... She went from this quite little creature on the left--to this on the right in a matter of six months!

We enjoyed a very simple, yet wonderfully special Christmas with just the four of us (Axel included) and then took off the next morning for the wedding in Bakersfield. Many of Wes' extended family members were able to meet Seanna for the first time and absolutely fell in love with her right off the bat. Friday evening we enjoyed the rehersal dinner at Rusty's Pizza Parlor--Wes and I don't eat pizza very often, but this stuff was fantastic and worth every calorie! Saturday morning was a little tough for Seanna as she cut her very first tooth that morning (the lower bottom one was the first to come in but isn't actually showing enough to take a picture of yet) and was pretty much miserable the entire day.

She did wonderfully on the car ride up the day before, as well as the day of the wedding as it was an action packed day starting with photos at 2pm, followed by a wedding at 3:45 and a reception following that... By the time the reception rolled around, Seanna needed a few quite moments so I tried to feed her in the car parking lot and she decided to toss up her entire 6 ounce bottle on my dress as well as hers before we entered the reception :)--I officially entered mommyhood at this point as I smelled the remainder of the evening and walked in with stains on my clothes and yet still very much enjoyed myself and Seanna did as well. She was able to dance her first dance with her daddy on the dance floor and then proceeded to break out her own style on the dance floor...

As for New Year, Wes and I celebrated our wonderful addition to our family and how lucky we are to be her adoptive parents! We made it up until 9pm PST and watched the ball drop in New York and then fell sound asleep at 9:05! Wes' parents and Jay and Michelle joined us on New Years Day to watch the Rose Bowl and eat some Mexican food. Seanna decided to started crawling actually today on her 6 month bday--she's such a ham!

Hope everyone had a safe and lovely holiday season!
Love to all...

Merry 1st Christmas

It's early in the morning and I was awoken by something on our rooftop!!! Santa must be here to deliver our presents--and I forgot to leave cookies out (complete rookie mistake) and so hopefully Santa will eat some of our bananas instead. We are celebrating here at home, and Wes will be cooking prime rib complete with all the trimmings. Our holiday music will be playing and we're due to open our presents first thing this morning. We are also in the process of madly doing laundry and packing for our trip to Bakersfield tomorrow morning. We will be with tons of family up there to extend our Christmas Celebrations to include Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents and Great Grandparents! We thought for sure Seanna might wake up with her "two front teeth" so we will have to wait and see!!

We wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas and hope that Santa brings you everything you've asked for--Wes and I are very blessed to have Seanna in our lives as well as all of you. We could not ask for a better Christmas Present this year and always!

PS Seanna has photos for all of you too, but I have not had a chance to get them mailed so I will probably have Wes drop them off to Lynn (sorry about that...)

Love to all, Wes, Heather, Seanna and Axel