Viv's First 3 months~

We have had so much fun getting to know Vivian Suzette. She has changed our world!

Some Highlights over the past 3 months...



To My Spicy little Girl:

We have fallen in love with you sweet girl. Your first 3 months of life have been so fun. Your Dad and I never realized what we were missing not having you around! We are so glad God chose us to be your parents. You are such a gift and we pray for you daily. God has an incredible plan for your life, we are thrilled to help you live it out.  Some of the things we have been praying for you; to be a wise and tenderhearted leader-for joy to be quick in your spirit and forgiveness to always be freely given. For your heart to not be jealous or envy, but always cheering others on, that you would be a blessing to everyone you come in contact with. We pray longevity and health over your sweet little body and that the Lord would always surround you with great friends.

"For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."  -Jeremiah 29:11

 November was such an exciting month. We moved in to our new home in Richmond, Virgina. We bought a house and as daddy describes in it's original form , "a toxic wast dump" but we saw the potential. We gutted the kitchen, painted the whole house and your Mama spent endless hours designing the rooms. I watched lots of HGTV to get inspired! We had the house mostly put together right before you were born. The kitchen was complete exactly one week before you arrived. Your room was by far the most special. We had a little mishap with your original crib and had to buy a new one the week before you were born. SueSue worked SO hard and sewed your bed skirt. I had in my mind what I wanted, but couldn't find it anywhere, so I enlisted SueSue to make it. She wrote you a letter about the bed skirt. The letter to you is precious. I know you will treasure it forever. I'm actually still in the process of putting your room together because you only starting sleeping there two weeks ago. Your Daddy and I LOVED sharing a room with you. The first night you stayed in your own room like a big girl we both cried. You slept with us in the bed and also in a bassinet (the professionals say not to let babies in the bed, but we were very careful with you) we used a co-sleeper to ensure your space would be protected. It was such a memorable time. We really feel like we all bonded as a family. We will never forget it! But we are glad you enjoy your new independence of sleeping in your own room.

You are so blessed with such incredible grandparents! SueSue was here when you were born, in fact she was in the delivery room and got to see you take your very first breath. "Big" came to visit a week later and stayed for Thanksgiving. You loved listening to Big's voice. You had a special love for him from day 1. He is very special because he is your only Grandpa that you will know for now. Grandpa Bert (your daddy's dad) is in heaven and I know it will be a treasure when you get to meet him one day. Grandma Peggy and Grandma Wanda came to visit 3 weeks after you were born. We think it is such a treat for you to get to know your Great Grandma ( Grandma Wanda) not everyone get the priviledge of knowing their great grandparents. It was a really relaxing week. Grandma Peggy loved to sing to you and you intently listened. Both Grandma's made some yummy meals for us.

December was a whirlwind! We packed up your 5 week old cuteness and headed to Missouri for Christmas. It was pretty wild making the rounds! Mommy got very sick and ended up in the hospital with a stomach bug! Yuck! I was so afraid you would get sick, but you never did!-Tough girl! You got to meet pretty much to whole family. All your cousins and even your newest cousin Kaylin who is 4 weeks younger than you. You played next to her in the pack and play. Your Aunt Kari and I were please that you played very well together for the first time! ;) You also got to meet your cousin Smith who is 5 months older than you- He was so much bigger than you. Your Aunt Alison and I got a kick out of the difference in you guys. You are just a little peanut and Smith is our big guy. I hope in the years to come you will have so much fun playing with all your cousins especially Smith and Kaylin since they are your "size". Another treat was getting to meet some of Mommy's Best friends and also some of your new friends! You met Lucy Robbins. She was born two weeks after you. Her Mommy Ashley is a dear friend of mine and has been an incredible support through our pregnancy's together and she has been such a comfort as we figure out the new Mommy thing together. I know you and LuLu will be good friends and will be in the same cabin together at kamp one day! You also met one of Mommy's dearest friends Jonya and her sweet little girl Jalee. I know Jalee will always have some great fashion tips for you! :) Also a highlight was meeting Elisha.. she cried when she held you the first time- you guys bonded. In December you started to smile at us. It was such a fun milestone. You sure melt your daddy's heart every time!

January was our trip to California. You met the west coast family-the Albas. We visited for two weeks. The house was loud, full of food, and lots of love as usual. Fran aka "FiFi" had clothes she bought waiting to be opened when you arrived. FiFi has really good taste- You were stylin in your new threads- Complete with a new pair of Uggs which will fit you next winter. :) We had so much fun hanging out and soaking up the California Sun! We also introduced you to all of our dearest friends in California. It was a memorable time. You really started "talking" on this trip. I think all the loud Italians in the house might have had something to do with it-you just wanted to join in.. You also had your first five star hotel experience at the Four Seasons! It was such a treat. There was a basket of baby gifts when we arrived and a really cozy crib set up- You slept SO well there! We enjoyed breakfast in bed and looking at the beautiful view out of our window. When do we get to go back Daddy?!? ;)

February we got settled back in Richmond and took a little break from all the travels. We had two visitors. Theone' and SueSue. Your daddy was on the road a lot so we enjoyed the company and ate a lot of cookies! Both Theone and SueSue got snowed in on their visits. We saw TONS of snow in February. It was beautiful and forced us to relax by the fire. As frustrating as snow can be I was very grateful for it. You also started a music class in February- Kindermusik! You are the youngest one in the class by 7 months, but you do very well keeping up with the "big" kids. You squeal and laugh a lot during class- I can already see you love music. One of your "milestones" this month was rolling over and sucking your thumb! The first time you rolled over I got so excited I scared you and made you cry.. oops! Sorry. I will have to remember that when you start to crawl and walk! (wink)

We are so excited to see how you grow the next 3 months!! XOXO- your MaMa

Confessions of breastfeeding

Vivian and I are not so graceful when it comes to breastfeeding. I say "we" because the nurse in the hospital explained to me breast feeding is like learning a dance and your baby has two left feet. Viv is a very lively baby and kicks and moves her arms like an air traffic controller while eating her "meals". The hooter hider becomes completely useless. One day there was an old man full on staring while I was nursing in the middle of a department store. He looked so concerned. I'm sure he thought a squirrel crawled up my shirt or something.

You would think after a few months we would get the beat of this dance and the squirreling would stop-but it's not stoped she is just getting bigger! So you can only imagine. I have two sisters-in-law who are currently b-feeding their infants and are total professionals. I had in my mind after watching both of them for the past 6 years on and off feeding each of their 3 children-that breastfeeding is a breeze. Not for me! My Mom also BF me for 18 months. She always reminisces on how sweet of a bonding time it was and how memorable. I can say this time will definitely be memorable.

Bottle line of this story.... I have given up being an exhibitonist. The pump has become my best friend.

The baby road show!

There is no way I could blog about our incredible last month plus, so I will try to quickly sum it up. We have officially named the last 7 weeks of our life "the baby road show." We wanted to get Vivian around to meet all the people we love and who have poured in to our life in one way or another. Since babies are little for such a short time we wanted her to receive all the baby love she could handle...

Viv was officially on 8 plane rides before she turned 10 weeks old! :) 4-round trip to Missouri for Christmas and 4-round trip to Caili. Three of our segments were first class. (love those upgrade points!) I told Vivian people paid extra money to be in these seats so she needed to be a real good.. she slept the whole time! :) Reasoning with an 5-10 week old is like talking to a puppy dog..all they hear is wahwahwahwah. Someday soon she is going to know what we are saying-just getting our practice in now. I've been told travel gets more interesting when they are big enough to crawl over the seats and push the flight attendant call button- so we are taking advantage of our good little sleepy traveler now. :)


On our trips I was reminded how incredibly blessed we are by the friends and family in our life. Unfortunately it seems like everyone is scattered all over the globe. So when we get face time with these sweet friends and family we capitalize on (cell phones are turned off) great quality time. We stayed with our big fat (none of them are fat. ;) Italian family, the Albas! The house was loud and full of lots of love and food as usual. Vivian loved meeting her West Coast "grandparents" We miss them so much. They add lots of color to our life. Another highlight in California was a visit from our dearest friends Aaron and Rachelle Trank, who drove down to Los Angeles from San Francisco. Rachelle is now 23 weeks pregnant and it was so fun to see her sweet baby bump- She is glowing. Vivian is a big fan of Auntie Chelle too! We are so excited to meet their sweet baby girl coming in May! We know Vivian will love to play with with baby Trank through the years on our travels together. :) We love you baby Trank, We pray for you daily. We know you are going to grow up and walk with the Lord. You have two amazing parents who will always inspire you and encourage you in your faith.

I could write a book on all the great visits we had with friends in Caili, but to sum it up...We loved seeing the: Leonards (all of them! ) , Rutledges,the Howell/Horowitz, the Levy's, the Abikasis family, and Nicole and Adam! :) We love you all and are honored the call you friends.



David is currently in New York and then he's back to LA for a few days next week. Vivian and I decide to take a break from the road and spend a little time at home. My sweet Mama came to town to keep us company while the "boss" is away. We also had a fun visit with my friend Theone this past weekend. Poor thing flew all the way from California to get snowed in our house in Richmond. We ate cookies and watched lots of movie-actually pretty nice and relaxing.

Ok, I'm going to try to be better about my blog now that I'm back to a computer, the Iphone is great, but a little intense to try to blog on. :/

Leaving on a jet plane!

Our house currently looks like a bomb blew up in it. I am not an orderly person by any definition, but the one thing that consistently I try to keep in order is our home. I can't stand yucky dishes and dirty laundry . I'm a bit OCD when it come to germs too, our house always has a hit of antibacterial smell. But the last ten days that's all gone to pot! We spent two weeks in Missouri for Christmas. ( which was great, but I was sick most of the time..that's another blog for another time) We got back to Virgina 10 days ago and I didn't bother emptying the suitcase because here we go again! Tomorrow we are packing up our sweet little bundle of 8 week- old-joy and heading out west for 2 1/2 weeks. LA baby! I'm so excited we are staying with some of our dearest friends. It always feels a bit like going home when we go to visit them.

The debate of the day is...should I use my airline freebies and upgrade us to first class? The poor people that paid a hunk of change to be up there could potentially listen to a screaming baby for 6 hours..

Dear Blog,

All my friends have a blog. It seems like you are as common as a family pet these days. Since I am pretty much a joiner and often follow the fun crowd I decided to get one of you.
I'm not sure how personal we should get, but if I am going to write about my daily life, guess we are going to get personal one way or another. I guess if I named you the dairy queen you can smell where this relationship might be going anyway...

Till I have something intresting to write..signing off for now.