Finally.. another post

So the last few months have been absolutely crazy, which is why I haven't had the chance to post lately. I know.. lame excuse, but there is it. I (Rebecca) am now working full-time in HR, which is a huge shift from both a time perspective and a job perspective. I really am enjoying what I do, and I love the opportunity to stay home and see Alyssa whenever I want (unless she is out and about, social butterfly that she is).


Alyssa is doing fabulously. She really enjoys playing all day during the week with Christine (our nanny's) kids. She started walking at 17 1/2 months; just in time for us to be able to say that she is walking at her 18 month appointment.


We are really loving the Vancouver/Camas area (especially now that the weather is getting nice). We have most of our garden in, and have signed up for a CSA. We've also met a really fun group through the Portland Green Parenting group, and have enjoyed learning all about the sustainable and green options that Portland has to offer.


In May, we went to my cousin John's wedding near Mendocino, California. We also were fortunate enough to spend some time with Michael's family during the trip as well. I have included a couple of pics from the wedding, as well as a few other random pictures. Enjoy!

Alyssa walking and giggling

What a running back would look like if Alyssa invented football.

Alyssa and friend Issac

Alyssa (super 49ers fan) and daddy

Blowing kisses!

Alyssa where is your nose?

Alyssa where is your ear?

Christmas

Well, Christmas this year certainly had it's ups and downs. About a month before Christmas, we got so fed up with our house not selling that we just decided to fly down early and do some work on the house. We (without looking at the house again) ambitiously decided to re-paint the entire interior, including baseboards and kitchen cabinets.


We all flew down to Reno on Dec 19th, and decided to drive out to Sacramento that evening because there was a threat of bad weather that evening. As we drove out, the snow was coming down pretty hard and heavy. We got into Sacramento around 8:30 PM with a very cranky 1 year old. We all had a quick snack, then settled down to sleep on our respective pack and play or air mattress.


The next morning we woke up early and did an assesment of the house. We boldly decided to not only take on all of the aforementioned painting, but we wanted to update the upstairs bathroom as well. This entailed re-grouting the tub, new lino, a new vanity, new faucet, new mirror and of course new paint. We then too off on our first (of many) trips to Home Depot. While gone, we received a call from a real estate agent. Evidently, he thought the house was vacant and just popped on by to check it out. I'm sure he was extremely surprised to see our stuff scattered all over, and promptly called. We had a good laugh over that... I only wish I could have been there to see the look on his face when he walked in to a room full of stuff.


We bought all of the stuff that we thought we needed, then proceeded to start painting. And painting. And painting some more. Friday brought Michael's dad to help out with the bathroom. Which was really lucky, because I don't know if we honestly would have finished if it weren't for him. He and Michael managed to get the whole bathroom updated in a day, which was awesome. Alyssa went to play with some friends from our playgroup in Sacramento, so I had the morning to go on a second run to Lowe's and get a bit of painting done. The rest of the weekend was a long blur of painting, taping, listening to Dave Ramsey and trying to entertain the baby. We wisely decided to stay in a hotel room to not have to breathe paint fumes all night (and air out the house).


We went to Kristen and Jason's for Christmas Eve, which was a nice break. We enjoyed dinner, and Alyssa had fun with her cousins for a couple of hours. Then it was back to the grind. We still had a lot to do, and it took until 6:00 AM Christmas day until we gave up. We got a couple of hours sleep (Alyssa let us sleep until 10:00!!!) and then did a couple of touch up things. It was as good as it was going to get, so we packed up, cleaned everything up and drove up to Michael's parent's for the rest of Christmas. We enjoyed a couple of days there, relaxing. Kristen and Jason were up as well with the boys, so Alyssa had 2 more days of playing with cousins.,br>

If you would like to see what the house looks like now, our agents have pics of the inside (and all of our hard work) at: http://www.team-kirk.com/DispListing.asp?ListingID=115746&AdminID=967&PropertyType=A&BuyerID=


Here are a couple of pictures and a video of Alyssa at Christmas

And a video of Alyssa opening gifts:

New Videos

Below are a couple of new videos of all of the cool (and funny) stuff Alyssa is doing

Alyssa knocking a tower over

Alyssa signing

And the funniest of them all.. Alyssa spitting out a bone during Thanksgiving dinner. We had chicken (at least Alyssa, the grandparents and I all had chicken) and we gave Alyssa the bone to play with while we were eating. She decided to spit it across her tray. You can hear me (Rebecca) laughing in the background after she did it..

Thanksgiving and other updates

I guess it's been almost a month since the last post.. time certainly flies with a toddler in the house! Alyssa FINALLY started getting her front teeth, and is on the verge of walking. Just today, she let go of the couch and turned towards us when she was playing. Luckily she did that right after Michael got home from work, so he got to see it as well.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun.. my (Rebecca's) parents came into town for the week. We had a small Thanksgiving celebration here in Camas. The day after Thanksgiving, we headed up to Seattle so that my mom and dad could attend the wedding of a good friend of theirs. Being in one room all together (Alyssa, Michael and I) was a little rough, but she got used to it and slept much better the second night there. Seattle is a really neat city, and it turns out that Rebecca has a friend from High School that she reconnected with while there. So I think we will be traveling up there again in the not too distant future.

Alyssa has started getting pretty good with the sign language. It's nice to know what she is thinking about, or when she is hungry. And it's neat to realize how much she understands! Our fantastic nanny works with her on her signing as well, and Alyssa is up to 4 signs; milk, more (which she also uses for food), light and please. She now says "hi" all day long, as well as "Hi daddy" and "Hi doggie".

We will update with a couple of videos when blogger is not acting funny..
-Rebecca, Michael and Alyssa

Trip to California

We had a great trip to California (although it was very quick). We left for Sacramento on Friday, Nov 2nd at about 8:30 in the morning (yes, it was a very early morning but we were able to make it over the bridge before rush hour traffic really started). The flight was pretty uneventful, and getting out to Kristen's didn't take much time at all. However, I will say this.. we won't ever be renting a car seat from the rental car company ever again. It was a really bad seat; we ended up borrowing a carseat from Kristen for the rest of the trip because I didn't feel comfortable having Alyssa stay in it.

Alyssa stayed with Kristen, Jason and the boys while Michael and I went to a wedding on Friday night. We left for the wedding at 2:30, and came back about 11:30, which is the longest that I have left Alyssa in a very long time. She did pretty well, but ended up waking up about 10:30 or so very fussy because she didn't know where I was. It was kind of a rough night, but not as bad as it could have been.

Saturday was busy; we had lunch with friends, dinner with Michael's parents and Kristen, Jason and the boys and then drove out to Sacramento. It was a long evening in a house with no furniture (we stayed in the Orangevale house) but it was nice not to have to pay for a hotel.

Kinda sucked that Michael left for Finland the next day for a week long business trip; we are missing him terribly, but will see him on Sunday.

Crawling down the hall at Kristen's house

I think that's a hug from cousin Brandon. And yes, Alyssa's shirt does say "I love boobs".

(from L to R) Brandon (cousin), Alyssa and Jacob (cousin)

Unfortunately, Alyssa had had enough with picture taking by the time she started taking pics with Grandpa and Grammy (hiding behing Alyssa).

Alyssa is 1.. can you believe it!

So Alyssa turned the big 1 today. We are still in shock that it has been a year since she was born. Time has really flown since last year.. and I think it will only get faster! Alyssa is pulling herself up regularly now, and she has started trying to stand up on her own without leaning on anything. I have a feeling that she will be walking very, very soon.

My (Rebecca's) mom came out to visit this past weekend to help celebrate Alyssa's birthday. It was a really nice visit; we went to the local pumpkin patch, went out to dinner, to the local farmer's market and got lots of stuff done around the house. We enjoyed the visit, and look forward to seeing the grandparents again over Thanksgiving.

Below are a couple of pictures from the small birthday celebration and from the pumpkin patch.. Enjoy!

Alyssa sitting on a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch

Chewing on the birthday hat

Blowing out the candle on the Birthday cake (or vegan muffin)

Eating the birthday muffin

Walking with daddy

Pumpkin patch

So.. big dork that I am, I had to take advantage of the "famous" spots in the area. And being that I am a closet (or not so closet) reality show fan, I took advantage of the mom's outing to the Roloff farm today. For those of you who may not know, the Roloff farm is featured in the TLC show "Little People, Big World", which I used to watch when I had cable.

So here are some pictures from Alyssa's first Pumpkin Patch outing

Roloff Farms sign

Alyssa, Rebecca and Grandpa Roloff

Alyssa and the pumpkins




Christine, our new nanny

Alyssa and Rebecca with Zach Roloff