The many faces (and visitors) of Pinklet

Catching up on the last couple weeks...

"Hey, Aunty Sandy! Look at ME!!"

Uncle Sean has the soothing touch with the ladies...

"High five, Aunty Mary!"

"Aaaah! Uncle Leo!"

Shannon is more my size...

Do you think I have Mama's eyes?

"So many new people, Aunty Teresa!"

"OK, Uncle Justus, I'm gonna take a nap"

Piggies!

No reason...just for fun! Piggies are cute!

These particular piggies are attached to a baby who weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces as of yesterday and was 20 1/4 inches long. Also, she squirms enough that sometimes her feet end up coming out of the bottom of her footie pajamas, thereby creating the opportunity to take this picture.

All the girls love Nana (and the boys, too)

Look at Nana surrounded by all her girls!

Last week, Nana came to stay with us, starting from Pinky's birthday all the way through the following Saturday. Lily loooooves Nana! As you can see in the picture to the right, she fits just right in Nana's arms. (I know you can't see Nana's face...more on that later. You'll have to take my word for it, though, that's her!)

Nana basically made life liveable for us that whole week. Little Pinklet seemed to pick that week (specifically, right around bedtime) to really show us the levels of fussiness she was capable of, which under other circumstances might have caused her parents to call the pediatrician, don earplugs, seek Valium prescriptions, and/or simply join Pinklet in crying. But Nana has the magic touch. Some nights, only Nana could soothe our tragic child, just walking and singing until she eventually settled down. I think we probably should have recorded her. But Nana taught us that patience DOES eventually work, and also that it doesn't matter if you know the words, just keep singing. :-) It was really wonderful to have her there, to help us get that extra hour or two of sleep in the morning after a fitful night, and to feed us yummy food. (Mmmmm, adobo...). Nana also proved that it IS possible to put Lily in her bed and get her to sleep there by herself, and we've managed to successfully do it several times since. Yay! Mommy and Daddy actually get to sleep at the SAME TIME now! (Well, sometimes, anyways)

Lily doesn't care about the bassinet or the adobo, though. She just wants the loving. And oh, the loving she got! Nana snuggles are the best, and Lily got LOTS of them last week. Unfortunately, I didn't get hardly any pictures of Nana because she mostly wouldn't let me take her picture without her makeup on, but I snuck one in and I think she looks beautiful.

So thank you, nana, for coming to help us, and giving baby Lily so much good loving. As you can see, Lily says please please PLEASE come see her again soon, and she promises to try and be good!

Scariest thing EVER

It's 12:45AM. Just cut her nails for the first time. Chickened out on the last thumb when she started to wake up. However, all her fingers appear intact, and she's quietly nursing, so I'm calling it a victory.
I may need a drink...

but if she won't sleep in the papasan, usually she'll sleep like this...

and that's nice too...

To any Ryland managers reading the blog...

Just in case you were wondering, that papasan swing chair you all got for Lily is, hands-down, her favorite place to sit that's not an actual human being. If we didn't have this, there would be days when we couldn't put her down at ALL. She'll even sleep here sometimes! Thank you all!

By the way...the picture to the left was taken Wednesday April 11th. The picture to the right is her in the same chair, but on February 28th. Look how much she's grown!!

Pinky's birthday, and Easter!

Last weekend, we had a house full of love.

Saturday was Pinky's 40th birthday. Under different circumstances, we probably would have gone away for a birthday this momentous, but with Lily so recently on the scene, our options were somewhat limited. In the end, we opted to throw a party at the house, and I'm SO glad we did. All of Pinky's Orange County family (including Rina's in-laws Noel and Tita Chang!) came down, and many of our favorite people here in San Diego all came over to join the fun. We were able to decorate the house on the sly (thanks to Rina getting Pinky out of the house!), we had a great mix of catered and homemade food, but most of all, just a wonderful gathering of wonderful people. The house was alive with great conversation, children playing, wonderul food smells, and just an overall sense of happiness and friendship. As one friend aptly put it, we had "a house full of love". Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures because I was running around like a maniac, so if anyone else has pics (Thom...hint, hint!) they'd be greatly appreciated.

After the party wound down, we were left with just family...Nana and Nono, Thom and Rina, Madi and Mallory, and of course us. That was sooooo nice, too. It really was great just to have everyone hanging out...THIS is the reason we got a house this big, so that family could comfortably stay with us! Not just for the company, even...it was great to get Mommy advice from Rina and Nana, Daddy war stories from Thom, Madi calling out "Uncle Maaaaarkie" every few seconds, and of course, heat butts from Mallory. So nice! Having so much family sleeping together under our roof really gave us a wonderful sense of well-being.

The next day, we all went to church together, followed by a FANTASTIC brunch courtesy of Nana and Rina. YUMMY! And lots more good family time. Of course, we had to take pictures of everyone in their Easter finery, especially all the girls.

Sadly, Rina and her clan had to head home, and Nono left the next day, but Nana has stayed with us all week, and is basically saving our lives. That'll be it's own post in the next few days!

Duck!

Not really anything to do with baby Lily, but since we have an open forum here...

Ever since we've lived in this house, we've had an issue right about this time of year with migratory ducks trying to take up residence in the swimming pool. The first time it happened, I actually thought it was pretty cool, until we realized much to our dismay that it can be quite difficult to convince the ducks to leave. The big problem is, if they stay long enough that they lay eggs, you're pretty well stuck with them for the duration: your swimming pool becomes officially classified as "wetlands" and you're not ALLOWED to run them off until the babies hatch and they move on of their own accord.

The internet has lots of advice on what to do in this situation, ranging from just chasing them off whenever they show up, to noisemakers, to sculptures of predadtory birds, but what we actually have found to work is to have big obnoxious inflatable creatures bobbing around in the water. This apparently makes the ducks nervous enough that they're easier to convince to leave for good.

Anyways, the reason I'm going into all this now: last summer, we put a thermal cover on the pool. So I figured we would have to worry about it at all this year. But as you can see from the picture below...apparently, ducks are not all that bright:

Sigh...guess we may have to break out the pool toys again!

Awww...

Our good friends Sean and Christina came to visit us on Friday. They brought us dinner and Christina made Pinky some yummy sugarless double chocolate muffins with cream cheese frosting. MMMmmmmmMmm! This marked the unofficial beginning to Pinky's birthday season, because they also brought candles for the cupcakes and we all sang. Yay!

As you can see here, Lily and Christina got along pretty well, and that's putting it mildly! Lily very happily snuggled with Christina for more than an hour! Sean and Christina are pretty recent newlyweds, so they don't have kids of their own...yet. These baby things are contagious, though!

Thanks, Sean and Christina, for a really fun night!

Tata Rina!! Yay! Now we have the complete set :-)

I am happy to report that, after patiently waiting for her Tata Rina to be relatively sniffle-free, Lily finally got her long-awaited snuggle. Tata Rina (along with Nana, Nono, Toto Thom, and cousins Madi and Mallroy) had come down to Legoland for the day last Sunday, so we got to meet up with them for dinner before they headed home. At two months old, Lily is only just now getting to the size Rina's babies were when they were born...7 lbs 3 oz, 19 1/4" long as of Monday the 2nd, to be specific! Rina can't get over how light Lily is! Of course, Lily was on her best behavior for Tata Rina, even letting her give her a bottle. Yummy! Lily says this first snuggle is a good start, but she wants lots more, and as soon as possible! Aunties give the best snuggles.

Cousin Madi still hasn't held Lily as she has not been certified 100% germ-free. ;-) But she did pose for this cool picture with her Tata Pinky, resplendent in war paint.

(we may have to let Madi hold Lily next time if she asks, just so we don't get on her bad side. Madi looks fierce!!)

Anyways, the whole crowd should be coming back down to San Diego this weekend for Pinky's birthday, so everyone will get more chances!

Small baby, medium baby, large baby

Tita Teenteen came to visit us last Friday, and she brought her babies Amelia and Allie. We took this picture of all the girls. I just get a kick out seeing the three little girls siting together. Kind of has a Goldilocks and the Three Bears vibe, doesn't it?

(by the way...we loved the visit, Tita Teenteen! And thanks for the cake!)