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

Whew-it's been a long week!

I have to say, this has definitely been one of our most challenging weeks to date as Seanna really isn't feeling very well with her new teeth coming in (hopefully very soon). She is chewing on everything and anything, is having challenges drinking bottles and sleeping and generally, in her own little way, saying she does not feel very well. We did manage to slip in some fun holiday events though when she was feeling up for it! Earlier in th week, we were invited to High Tea with some of our friends and we enjoyed a storyteller (Seanna and I were sitting on the floor listening until she got so excited that she started interupting the storyteller in her very loud voice--I have to say it was hillarious! We went to the back of the room, but she still loved hearing the story and then we sang Christmas Carols and she loved that even more). She also met Santa Claus for the first time today and we met some other friends out and about and enjoyed a very beautiful fall/winter like day before the big rains come into town. She also decided that my folded pile of laudry looked like something that she wanted to dive into yesterday, so I've included the photo of her playing in what had been my folded pile of laundry. She is getting really close to crawling and does more of an army crawl with a dive to move forward and if that doesn't work, she rolls to her desired destination. You can't turn your back on her for a second as she will be off to the races before you know it. Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

So Many Changes!

Wes, Seanna, Axel and I all celebrated Thanksgiving at home this year, for the first time in a very long time! We normally head up to Pismo Beach to spend Thanksgiving with family, but Wes was on call this year and we decided to cook our own dinner at home. After so many years of not cooking the meal, Wes and I were a little rusty, but laughed alot and had a wonderful turn out afterwards. Seanna surprised us all that morning as she found her voice and started hooting and hollering from the moment that we got her out of her crib. She was excited for Thanksgiving too and she made it an extra special one with all of her input!!

The following day, Wes and I celebrated our (10) year anniversary--it's hard to believe that the time went by so quickly! We enjoyed the day together as a family and went to the park and many walks. Seanna enjoyed the baby swing and Axel just loves going to his old parks where we took him as a puppy.

On Sunday, we had a wonderful visit with all of Seanna's Birth family members at a local spot up in Fountain Valley. Everyone was there and we all sat around and enjoyed all of her changes over the last few months. She's already grown 5 1/2 inches and is getting ready to crawl as of the last few days. She is able to push herself up on her knees and is "scooching" forward--she can't believe this new and exciting activity that she has discovered. I believe our lives are about to become alot busier!! :)

Speaking of busier, I have been in full holiday mode trying to get ready for the season that is coming upon us so quickly! We have decorated the house with lots of lights and pointsettas in celebration of Seanna's first Christmas and getting presents wrapped and stockings hung!

Hope everyone is doing well and hugs and kisses to all...

Oh my goodness!

We had Seanna's 4 month doctor appt today (yes she did receive her shots and was very upset, but handled them very well)... The doctor is absolutely amazed by her developmental progress and her growth! She weighed in at 15lbs 14 oz, which is the 75% for her age and is 26.5 inches long, which is off the charts for a child her height! She is super agile and can move so quickly you can barely turn around without her being in a different position. Her legs are extremely strong as well as her arms and her grip. The doctor mentioned that her top teeth seem to possibly be coming in before her bottom teeth, which was news to us as we had been working on helping make the bottom ones feel better.



She is sleeping through the night still in her crib and absolutely loves her room! We also had our final music class this week (it will start back up in January) and the teacher brought out all of the props for the kids to use during class. During one song, she pulled out all of the kitchen pots, pans, colanders etc and I put Seanna inside the colander and tapped the bottom so she could feel the beat of the music throughout her body. The teacher was so excited that she asked one of the ladies to take photos for her of Seanna because she looked so cute!

Enjoy!