Category Archive: Jessie

Life with Lucia (her first month)

Posted by Lisa On May 21st, 2015

Lucia’s first day of life

When Lucia was placed on my chest I was completely overwhelmed with how much she looked like Sirena! It was as if I had given birth to Sirena a second time, I was blown away. When Sirena was born she was pretty alert but it didn’t compare at all to how alert Lucia was. She just stared at me with her big eyes for those first 5-10 minutes in my arms and I just stared right back at her. Just a few minutes after she was born my sister and Sirena arrived and it was surreal telling S that here was her brand-new sister, after all those months talking about it! She and Jessie left the room and Kevin took L while the midwife and the birth attendants joined forces to help me get out of the tub and onto the bed. After I was settled, Kevin brought L back to me so that we could attempt breastfeeding and she latched on immediately which I was so happy about.

For the next couple of hours the birth team allowed us bonding time and all of the visitors (Nani and Bopa, Grandma and Papa, Auntie Jessie, Brianne and Brian) got their chance to hold L. Kevin and I were finally able to eat the dinner my mom had bought for us at Hole Mole 5 hours prior and boy did it hit the spot! Turns out L was born on “Taco Tuesday” so my mom and Steve had to fight the crowds and wait an incredibly long time to get the food in the first place. Maybe L is destined to be a foodie just like her big sis (and mom)?? After a couple of hours Jessie took Sirena back to her place so that she could get some rest from the crazy evening she just had.

Vickie came back into the room to prep for L’s newborn tests. It was such a difference from the hospital experience–she laid a blanket out on the bed right next to me and performed everything (other than weighing her which was done on the scale just a couple of feet from the bed) right there with all of L’s family surrounding her. All of us were anxious to find out how much L weighed and Libby, one of the birth attendants, commented that she had to be at least 9 pounds. All of us were shocked and said there was no way! Libby was certain that she was at least 9 pounds and I had a hard time believing she knew what she was talking about because L seemed so itty bitty compared to my now big toddler! The moment of truth arrived and L weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds, 9 ounces!! She measured 21.75 inches long and her head circumference was 15 cm. (For comparison’s sake, S weighed 8 pounds and measured 21.5 pounds, not sure about head circumference). Libby commented that L’s head was the biggest she had witnessed yet and was amazed at how well I did (if you think about it, a woman’s cervix dilates to 10 cm). Up until L’s birth she said that the largest head she witnessed was 14.5cm which she says was a “doozy.” It was at this point that she told me that of all of the midwives I could have been paired with for L’s birth, Vickie was the best one for me. She said that Vickie was the best at coaching moms through the pushing stage so as to minimize tearing and I know now that with a baby’s head as large as L’s, if I had birthed in a hospital and not had a coach like Vickie working with me, I would not have had the healing birth that I had set my intentions on and I would have had a much longer and painful recovery. I am so grateful for Vickie, my birthing team, the birth center, and Kevin of course for supporting me in my decision to birth there. It was so nice to hear all of the positive feedback from our visitors, everyone commented about how different the experience was even for them as visitors from a hospital experience and it was so wonderful hearing those comments.

Three hours after she was born I started getting restless and exhaustion was starting to take over so I asked Kevin to ask Vickie if we could start wrapping things up. Our visitors began leaving so that I could get cleaned up and dressed and so that Vickie and the team could talk with me and K about what our next steps would be with a brand-spankin’-new baby at home. It took about an hour for all of that to be taken care of and at just 4 hours old we made our way out of the birth center and on our way home. My mom and Steve caravaned behind us so that they could help us get settled in the house and Steve commented about how amazing it was that I walked out of the birth center, into the car, and walked into my home just 4 hours after giving birth (with Sirena’s hospital birth I used the wheelchair to go anywhere those first 2 days). In every way imaginable, birthing at the birth center was a much more calm, pleasant, empowering experience than my previous hospital birth and I cannot say enough good things about it!

We greeted Lola (who had held down the fort for us since we left at 6pm) and she gave Lucia a good sniff and quickly returned to her bed (she loooves her sleep). Kevin, Lucia and I made our way to the bedroom as well and were able to sleep peacefully, without any interruptions from nurses/doctors or beeping machines or bright fluorescent lights like at the hospital, for a few hours.

The next morning Jessie brought Sirena home to get acquainted with her little sis. It was so emotional seeing the two of them together finally after imagining it for so long!

Her first Week

Lucia had three doctor appointments within her first two full days of life–it was somewhat overwhelming to get us all out of the house on time for three appointments with a 3 y/o and a 1-2 day old! But somehow (somehow!) we did it. We first saw her pediatrician when she was not yet 24 hours old and she wanted to see her again the following day as well. When the nurse practitioner came out to the lobby to get us and she asked us how old she was she couldn’t believe that she was less than 24 hours old! They don’t get many babies coming in who are born in a birth center so it was a new way of doing business for them, seeing a brand-new baby like that (babies born in the hospital are generally observed around the clock by nurses/doctors for the first 2-3 days of life). She had lost some weight those first 24 hours but it was a very minimal decrease so there was no concern there at all. By her second appointment she had gained the weight back and then some (she was born at 9 lbs, 9 oz and by day 3 she was 9 lbs, 13 oz!) Our pediatrician was super happy about her weight gain and she said she was an overall healthy looking newborn! The third appointment Lucia had was back at the birth center where they conducted the newborn screening. It was surreal being back in the room where she was born just days before.

That first week we stuck around close to home either at our house or at my mom’s and we welcomed a nice group of visitors to the house to meet the little nugget throughout the week. Here are a few photos from L’s first week:

Snuggles with Daddy

First time taking the new double stroller out for a ride! We walked the block at our annual neighborhood garage sale when L was 4 days old.

A very unhappy baby getting her first bath!

Another attempt at a siblings shot

Other Adventures

We were out and about a lot more after her first week which felt really nice.

We took a trip to the Long Beach Main Library (which Kevin and I hadn’t been to in years). Sirena had a blast in their huge children’s section and Lucia, well, she just slept through the whole excursion. 🙂

Sisters both passed out in the car

We surprised Sirena after preschool one day and took her and L to Rancho Los Alamitos for an afternoon visit.

Lead the way, big sis!

We also made a trip to Royal Palms beach in San Pedro–this is a really special place for my family because my mom grew up spending a ton of time at this beach with her family and she took me and my siblings there a bunch growing up as well. It was really special to take my girls there to continue the tradition. My mom, Steve, Jessie, Derek, and Steve’s grandson Christian joined us for a very nice (but super chilly!) afternoon.

Jess and I stayed on the rocks so I could feed L and keep her toasty while the rest of the gang went to the tide pools.

Auntie Jessie holding L

My First Mother’s Day With Lucia

My one Mother’s Day wish was to go to the Renaissance Faire with my family which I am so happy to report we were able to do!

That morning my mom invited us over for some coffee and pan dulce and it was a really nice, relaxing Mother’s Day morning. Then Kevin, Jessie, the girls, and I were on our way to the Ren Faire. It was Faery Day at the faire so Sirena was happy to dress for the part.

Sirena was a bit taken aback by the people in character who would approach us but she did agree to wave her magic wand for this lady 🙂

Jessie trying on some amazing masks!

Lucia’s first concert!

The one photo that was taken of me and both my girls–me changing a diaper and helping Sirena with her drink. Typical “mom” moment, right??

Sirena wanted Mama to ride the giant swing with her. I gotta be honest, it was a spooky ride! Those guys pushed us sooo high, I almost thought I’d slip out at one point but I had to keep my cool in front of Sirena to not freak her out, haha!

Queen Sirena at your service

My little munchkins

A Baby Story [Part II]: Weeks 36 + 37

Posted by Lisa On April 2nd, 2015

Week 36: Baby’s the size of a honeydew melon

We had our prenatal appointment this week and I’m soooo happy to report that Lucia’s in a heads-down position (woohoo!) The midwife wasn’t 100% certain just by touch so she busted out the ultrasound machine to verify that the hard bump she was feeling at the top of my uterus was her booty and not her head (lol!) Kevin got a good look at her round head but other than that, not much to report with the u/s itself. The midwife gave us our checklist of things to watch for in terms of signs of labor, when to call the office, what to bring with us, etc. and we made weekly appointments for the next 5 weeks (hopefully we won’t be needing all of those appointments!)

The past week I spent a long while making a master checklist and crossing items off one by one–things to take to the birth center, last minute baby items, postpartum recovery items–and I’m happy to report that just about everything has been purchased and put where it needs to be. One more week until we’re officially eligible to birth at the birth center but as of now at least we’re ready to go when the time comes!

The last big thing we did this week was take some maternity/family photos. I asked my sister Jessie to snap some shots of us and we used good ol’ Pinterest as inspiration for some of the shots and I am so so so happy with how they turned out. Here are my faves:

We can’t wait to meet you, baby girl!

Belly shot!

Week 37: Baby’s the size of a four grapefruits

This week started off with our 37 week prenatal appointment and Sirena and Grandma both came along–Sirena wanted to hear the baby’s heartbeat and Grandma wanted to check out the birth center before the big day! Midwife Alison asked Sirena if she wanted to help her listen to the heartbeat and Sirena enthusiastically said yes. She got to hold the handheld fetal heart doppler, turn it on, and hang onto it while the midwife searched for the heartbeat. She smiled so big when we finally heard it and she agreed that it sounded like a little helicopter in my belly. My belly is measuring slightly behind schedule but there’s no concern there. Everything is looking good (blood pressure, weight, baby’s heart rate, etc.) and I’m just so happy that we made it to this point so that we’re officially eligible to birth at the birth center!

My co-workers threw me a little baby shower which was so thoughtful and it was a nice little celebration in my second to last week of work. This week was also one of the more stressful weeks at work that I’ve had in a long time and I’m glad it’s now behind me. I’m training two people to take over for me while I’m on leave which is great but it was also overwhelming trying to think of everything I do and everything they need to know while also not being able to do the normal day-to-day work that was still needing my attention. I’m so looking forward to putting my out-of-office message on for the next 3ish months! 🙂

The big news this week is that Lucia has most definitely dropped! When I sit down it feels like she’s sitting right on top of my lap and it’s hard to bend straight over, I have to bend my knees outwards to make room for my belly. The pressure on my bladder is also super intense–not 30 minutes after I go to the bathroom I feel this intense urge to pee again because she’s pressing down directly on it. Sirena dropped one week before her birth. As I write this post it’s been a week since she dropped so we’ll see how long she’ll hang down low with her mama!

I read and reread the second half of Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth book three times the past few weeks which I cannot recommend enough to any pregnant woman (whether or not their goal is to have a natural, unmedicated birth). The second half of the book is filled with so much wisdom from “America’s leading midwife” Ina May and it has helped immensely in my ability to get me in the right head space while preparing for another natural birth. I am hopeful that with this knowledge, the affirmations I’ve written down from it and continue to read through, and with the support of the midwives at the birth center (such a vastly different environment than the hospital Sirena was born at) that not only will I be able to have another natural birth (I’m not too concerned about that) but that it will be a much more pleasant and rewarding experience and that my physical and emotional recovery from it will be a thousand times better. One affirmation that I continue to repeat to myself and I know will go through my head over and over again during labor is: This is my healing birth.

Belly shot!

This week she’s the size of 4 grapefruits…at 24 weeks she was the size of just one grapefruit. Check out the major difference in my belly from week 24!

Other pregnancy updates:

Total weight gained so far: 16 pounds
Fun baby developments: She is officially full-term! Her most crucial functions are developed and now she’s just getting stronger and chubbier (just the way we like ‘em!) She probably weighs 6.5 pounds and still measures around 20 inches long.
How I’m emotionally and physically feeling: I’m so tired all the darn time–sleep is hard to come by at night (at least long stretches of it without having to maneuver thisaway and thataway to get comfortable or having to get up to go to the bathroom) and I cannot stop my body from sweating like crazy all day long. I’ve felt like I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster lately too–some days I wake up super irritable and it’s hard to shake it off while other times I feel like I’m constantly on the verge of tears. Work has been beyond overwhelming and I’m hopeful that once I’m officially on maternity leave (see below) there will be some relief in the stress/emotional department.
Number of days left at work: One as of tonight!! Halle-freakin’-lujah.

A Baby Story [Part II]: Weeks 34 + 35

Posted by Lisa On March 17th, 2015

Week 34: Baby’s the size of a Butternut squash

Sirena has really stepped up into the big sister role this week. She bought Lucia her first birth day gift (a cute little stuffed zebra) and she can’t wait to give it to her when she’s born and they meet for the first time. <3

She told me, “I want to meet baby now,” this week and has been a bit impatient not knowing exactly when she gets to meet her. And this week Big Sister transitioned to a big girl bed! We would’ve kept her confined in a crib longer but we decided it’d be better for her to go through this major change now without the additional major life change of having a baby sister around.

Not much else this week in the baby department to be honest. A thought did cross my mind this week that I’m actually ready to not be pregnant anymore. With Sirena’s pregnancy I felt good through to the very end but this time around I just feel so much more physically strained and emotionally drained at times that I think I’m about ready for this chapter to be over (even knowing the craziness of life-with-a-newborn that is on the horizon!)

Belly shot!

No photo this week, oops!

Week 35: Baby’s the size of a coconut

This week was super busy for us, namely because we co-hosted a baby shower at our house and built a playhouse for Sirena (and Lucia) in preparation for the party! So many weeks of planning with my friend Brianne were rewarded with a really fun and enjoyable celebration with our family and friends.

The theme was “Little Miss Sunshine” (going off of the Italian translation of Lucia’s name which is “light”) and we mainly used yellow/pink/orange colors through all of our decorations.

Bri made Lucia’s name banner which will go over her changing table

Kevin’s beautiful three-layer ombre cake!

We had a little “photo booth” and some of the party goers took advantage…

Sophie’s message to Lucia: “I love Disneyland” (Gotta love the mind of an 8 year old!)

Cousins

We played some fun (and hopefully not too cheesy) shower games: people wrote their “wishes for Lucia” on notecards and I’ll be putting them in her baby book. We froze tiny baby figurines in ice cubes and gave one to each guest to watch in their drinks while we opened gifts and the first three people whose baby floated to the top of the water were supposed to yell out, “My water broke!” And lastly we had people write messages to me and Kevin on diapers to entertain us during those middle-of-the-night diaper changes. Here were the three I chose as winners!

More photos of the party…

Our original ray of sunshine

The play house! We’ve still got to paint it and put all the finishing touches on it but at least the floor, walls and roof were up in time. 🙂

My partner-in-crime, Bri. I can’t thank her enough and this party honestly would not have happened without her!

The party favors–citrus hand sanitizers and baggies of chocolate dipped Oreos. We also had a fun sun-themed craft and ribbon wands we made for the kiddos, I just forgot to take pictures of them!

And finally some family-of-three-on-the-brink-of-family-of-four photos…

Even though this week has been the most stressful with work (preparing for my maternity leave) and preparing our house for the party (and not to mention hottest week in March EVER!) and even though by the time the party was over I was so physically exhausted, this week my thoughts on being pregnant have changed a bit compared to last week. I realized that this may very well be the last time I am ever pregnant and the last time I ever get to experience growing a life and being so physically connected to a baby and with that thought I determined to do my best to enjoy every minute of it. <3

Belly shot!

Our non-furry daughter wanted to photo bomb this week’s belly shot!

Other pregnancy updates:

Total weight gained so far: 15 pounds. I’ve officially passed the total weight gained during Sirena’s entire pregnancy, which was 14 pounds total!
Fun baby developments: She measures around 20 inches now and weighs a little over 5 pounds. At this point she probably won’t grow much longer so all of her attention will be focused on packing on the pounds! Her kidneys and her sense of hearing are fully developed and at this point all she’s got left to do is allow her lungs to mature. She keeps her eyes open most of the time while she’s awake and only shuts them when she’s sleeping, and she can now determine the difference between sweet and sour tastes in the amniotic fluid surrounding her.
Random fact: It was at 35 weeks during Sirena’s pregnancy that I finished student teaching! I can’t even imagine having that crazy schedule working full-time, student teaching half-time, and going to school half-time this far into the pregnancy. I must’ve been on drugs! But I do fondly remember my time with those 6th and 7th grade knuckleheads (who are 9th and 10th graders now, ahhh!) and I remember how much they enjoyed “bonding” with Sirena as she grew in my belly while I was working in their classroom.
Number of weeks left at work: 3 (including this week!) Things are crazy right now as I prepare for a couple of people to take over my job duties and tying all of the loose ends up and I am so looking forward to signing off that last time for 3 months of maternity leave.
Days until our next prenatal appointment: 2! We may get an ultrasound if the midwife can’t determine by touch if she’s in a head down position or not. After this appointment we’ll be meeting with the midwives once a week. It’s really happening!

My graduation

Posted by Lisa On June 9th, 2014

In 2010 I started on a very part-time basis my Masters degree program through the university I work for, taking one class per term. When I started the program I thought that perhaps one day when I finished and attended my commencement ceremony I might have a child to share the celebration with and lo and behold the day arrived and Sirena was able to be there with me along with the rest of my family. She was a huge inspiration to me in the last year of the program to finish the degree and it meant the world to me that she was there to see her Mama walk across the stage and get handed her diploma.

Photos from the commencement ceremony…

Words cannot describe how much my mom’s support means to me, especially when it comes to earning this degree. <3

My favorite photo of the day

Proud of my Masters’ hood! (Because when else am I ever going to get a chance to wear it?!)

Photos from the grad party my mom hosted for me…

My Aunt Kathy came up with a fun “What Would Lisa Do?” questionnaire that all of the guests tried to answer.

The winners (tied) for who knows me the best! 🙂

Part of the gang

The look on their faces says it all!

Love my siblings

My family <3

Proud of her Mama 🙂

Christmas 2013

Posted by Lisa On December 28th, 2013

Sirena’s second Christmas was a total blast–it was so amazing to see how much she had grown from last Christmas (see photos at this link) and how much she started really understanding what was going on! The funniest thing was that every time she saw a picture, a toy, a lawn ornament, whatever of Santa she’d call him, “Ho, ho, ho.” 🙂

However, she was not the Jolly Man’s biggest fan in the slightest. Case in point…photos from out front of my mom’s house where a Santa on holiday was hanging out for the month…

Trimming the tree with Aunt TT…

We decorated reindeer sugar cookies before getting started on the ornaments.

Just like Mama, she couldn’t resist!

I’ll give you two guesses to choose which ones Sirena made…

Admiring her work

Making silly faces in the ornaments with Mama

Showing TT some ornaments

Hanging out with Dee too!

Breakfast with Santa at Rancho Los Alamitos…

The weather turned downright nasty the morning the Breakfast with Santa event at Rancho Los Alamitos was scheduled but we didn’t let it get us down and made a fun (albeit muddy) morning out of it.

You know you’re at a rancho when they decorate with farm animals, lol!

Sirena’s not looking too impressed…

But what did impress her?…

A horse, of course.

Isela, baby Luna, and Christian trying to keep dry

Mom and Steve dancing the rain away

Christmas Eve with the Delmar family…

She wasn’t quite sure what to do with all of these things wrapped in paper, but eventually she got the hang of it!

Tina’s looking less-than-excited that I got a pocket knife from my Mom, lol!

Christmas morning with Mom, Dad, and Auntie Jessie…

“Oooh!”

Christmas Day with the Edmonds family…

Loving her Hello Kitty piano book from Grandma and Grandpa

One of many new airplanes she inherited

Cuddling with Grandpa

Needless to say, all of the holiday festivities wiped this girl out!

Our 2013 Christmas card:

Sirena’s 1st birthday party!

Posted by Lisa On July 13th, 2013

Here is a collection of photos from Sirena’s first birthday bash! The days leading up to the party the weather was glorious…and then that morning we woke up to the gloomiest June day you could imagine! Super chilly winds, no sun to speak of. We kept the plans to host it at the park in the afternoon but it sure made for a different vibe than we had been expecting! But we all made the most of it, including the birthday girl (who had to cover up her special birthday dress which we bought when we were in Mexico over New Year’s…oh well!)

Nothing like last-minute cupcake decorating to get a party started on the right foot! We even had to defrost the frosting (which had just about frozen in our ice chest) on the car’s engine. Talk about a memorable experience, lol!

Me and Bri frantically rearranging the cupcakes as guests arrive.

The decorations for the day were mostly colorful streamers and ribbons.

The birthday girl’s special crown (made my Bri!) and her highchair all done up and ready for the cake smashing.

We made a fun display of some photos of Sirena over the course of her first year with little party hats. We also asked guests to guess what career path Sirena would choose during her doljanchi ceremony (a really neat Korean tradition for first birthdays that we borrowed for the special occasion!)

We had plenty of park games for the kids and big kids…water balloon toss, three-legged race, and some other fun games.

Of the 5 career paths Sirena could choose and crawl to she chose…education (just like her mama!) Her second choice was actually mechanical (just like her Daddy!)

Oh the presents!

CAKE SMASHING TIME!

Her royal highness ready to entertain her subjects.

She’s not so sure about it…

“Here, Daddy, YOU try it.”

Family photo

Delmar family

Edmonds family

The party invitation I created:

The thank you cards we sent out:

Last days in the Bay Area…

Posted by Lisa On February 8th, 2013

Words cannot quite describe what the Bay Area has meant to Kevin and me. Our relationship with each other grew deeply being on our own, fending for ourselves and making new friends, exploring an amazing group of communities, growing our family with adopting Lola and having Sirena…the list goes on and on. The decision to move back to Long Beach was one of the hardest things we’ve had to do. To be honest, if it weren’t for having Sirena, wanting her to know her family really well, and having the promise of HELP close at hand we probably would not have moved back at least so soon. There was still so much for us to do and experience up there! But reality won out and in the end we were very happy and at peace with our decision. It was just such a hard thing to decide on and work through until it was said and done.

We enjoyed one last “hurrah” with my sister Jessie–a day trip to Albany Bulb for a little hike and cuddles (Jessie and Sirena of course) on a blanket overlooking the bay.

Some final photos of our apartment before we completely tore it apart with packing for the big move!

Family photos on our air-mattress-turned-couch after we sold our couch a couple of weeks before the move. 😉

Kevin’s family (Dorothy, Judith, and Joshua) made the drive up to help us watch Sirena, pack the van, and caravan back down to Long Beach. What an amazing group of people!! Unfortunately I didn’t get one photo of them!

The joint all packed up…

Just looking at this photo makes me shudder!

All of our furniture lined up down the hallway of our apartment building.

Just before we drove off in the moving truck we took some photos of Auntie Jessie with her favorite girls: Sirena and Lola. The relationship that our girls have with Jessie is indescribable and irreplaceable.

Sirena’s 1st Christmas

Posted by Lisa On January 10th, 2013

We spent a week in Long Beach for the Christmas holiday, staying with my mom and Aunt Tina at their home. Lots of fun outings throughout the week and a wonderful Christmas Eve with the Delmar side of the family and a fun-filled Christmas Day with the Edmonds side of the family.

My fave: crinkle nose!

Enjoying a “meal” in the sunshine

Skyping with Aunt Sarah and Uncle Rob (who were in Detroit for Xmas), messing around with the silly faces app. Hilarious!

A week of firsts

Posted by Lisa On August 14th, 2012

Even though it seems that every one of the blog posts recently have been about “Sirena’s first [insert something cool here]”, we had one full week of pretty exciting “firsts” that deserves its own post…

First trip to the zoo

I’m sure the words “Oakland” and “Zoo” together don’t conjure up visions of really cool animals but, surprisingly, the Oakland Zoo is quite the zoo! We met up with my co-worker Debra and her 18 month old son Cruz for a visit to the park and we’re so glad we went!

Getting ready for her first safari

The gang ready to see some animals!

Sirena and Cruz, the little buddies

Happy mama, daddy and baby

Kevin, Debra and the kiddos walking through the park

We saw so many cool animals! Like a mama and baby giraffe…

Me and my baby with the mama and baby giraffes in the background (awww…)

And a lion! Apparently this guy never comes out into the open and we happened to be there in the 2 minutes he left his little enclosure…lucky us!

That zebra musta been real scared

Pumba was there

And so was this handsome fella

And this crazy monkey who was putting on a good show for us

We visited the fruit bat enclosure and got up-close-and-personal with some kinda cute/kinda creepy creatures.

Sirena wasn’t too impressed with the bats as you can see here

After all of the animals it was time for a break!

Is he not the cutest thing ever?

A tired and very full baby getting burped by daddy

Family photo outside of the flamingo enclosure

The Oakland Zoo is a gem in the middle of this big city and we would highly recommend it!

First college campus tour

We took Sirena on her very first college campus tour at UC Berkeley (it’s never too early to start, right??) I have been wanting to go for a long walk on Cal’s campus since before my maternity leave started and I was so glad we finally did it. Too bad the weather wasn’t spectacular that particular day but that didn’t keep us from having a good time.

It was chilly that day so we put on her going-home-from-the-hospital beanie and it made her look like a brand-speankin’-new baby again

Lola didn’t have to wear any sort of hat with that gorgeous fur coat of hers

Lola going for a stroll with good ol’ “Pappy” (Kevin and I are weird, what can we say?)

This face can only mean one thing…dirty diaper!

And what better place to change a dirty diaper? On the bench in front of some old building on the campus, of course!

I couldn’t resist taking this picture, it looks like the Invisible Baby or something (I know, I’m a dork)

One of my favorite things about this campus is The Campanile

Sirena with The Campanile in the background (if she ends up going to Cal I think it would be awesome to take a similar picture of her standing in this spot on her first day there. Gah, I’m such a mom.)

First concert

We made it back to Stern Grove for one of the free summer concerts and once again it did not disappoint! Jess and I went to a Stern Grove concert my first weekend living in San Francisco in 2009 (see post here) and Kevin, Lola and I went with some friends last year (see post here) and I had been looking forward to taking Sirena to see the band Ozomatli before she was born. We met up with Jessie who snagged a great spot right in front and hung out with some of her friends that afternoon.

As new parents we naively brought S to the concert without having thought through how to protect her tiny little ears and we were prepared to sit away from Jess and her group to keep S far from the speakers but luckily the Red Cross booth had ear plugs that we could use and they seemed to do the trick!

Happy baby getting ready for the concert to start!

Ma and Pa enjoying a baby-free moment while Aunt Jessie was dancing with S

Mama dancing with Sirena

Here are two short videos of Sirena dancing with me and dancing with Aunt Jessie (notice how deep asleep she is in both videos even with all the ruckus going on)!

Sirena’s first dip in the pool

Posted by Lisa On August 1st, 2012

My mom and Steve came up for a few days so that my mom could attend the Brave New Voices international spoken word competition that was being hosted here in the Bay Area (she works with a group of youth from Long Beach that were competing this year) and so they decided to make a trip out of it and come spend some time with us too. The competition was amazing (I attended one of the day’s events) and although the LB team didn’t win it was so inspiring being there and hearing their amazing work.

Here are some photos from their visit, including Sirena’s first time in a swimming pool!

We went to a car show in Danville where Steve’s nephew’s car was being shown and Sirena seemed to enjoy herself almost as much as her Daddy did!

Sirena’s first car show

Hot rods make her happy, apparently!

We then went to dinner at a yummy Italian restaurant…

Ma & Pa

Sirena with Steve

No meal is complete without a chocolate-dipped cone from Foster’s Freeze!

And now for the photos you’ve all been waiting for…when we found out that the pool at my mom’s hotel was heated we immediately went out to Babies R Us for some swimming diapers, strapped on her first bathing suit, and got the cameras ready!

Diaper duty before hitting the waves (the smallest waterproof diapers were for 16-26 pound babies and she was only around 12 pounds at the time so we just had to fold them over quite a bit and pray that there weren’t any accidents in the pool [luckily there weren’t!)

“Hey Daddy!”

Can’t forget the baby sunscreen! Getting a massage from Mom.

Suited up and ready to go!

I think she was a little nervous, just judging by this photo, haha.

Here we go!

My mom took a video of her first dip in the pool, check it out here!

She was totally at home in the water and we see swimming lessons in her future! She’s our little fish and we loooove how much she enjoyed herself in the pool. Here are more photos of the lady being passed around…