The End of Summer

Time has flown by so quickly. It seems like yesterday that it was just starting to get a little warmer and Summer was starting. Now tomorrow is Labor Day, which pretty much marks the end of summer. Keira and I have been spending quite a bit of time at the beach taking advantage of the warmer weather and a great little cabana that I got at Walmart! I think that it was only $15, but it's a little beach tent that pops up pretty quickly and comfortably fits about 3 people. It packs up pretty small, so I can carry it very easily in her stroller. It gives great shade and has made it so much funner to stay at the beach without being under the blazing sun. As you can see from the pictures below, Keira thinks it was a pretty good investment :)

Here she is loading rocks into her Crocs that Auntie Gigi and Max got her

What to do with your foot when your shoes are full of rocks

We spent the beginning of the weekend down in South Bay at the Military Beach by Coronado for Robin Sese's birthday. Uncle Omi and Auntie Lulu brought their dog. Keira loves dogs so much! She was petting the dog and gave him lots of kisses...unfortunately, she doesn't usually distinguish where those kisses land, so they pretty much landed on his behind! lol Maybe one day a few years from now, we can get a dog for her to grow up with. I'm not going to be ready for a dog for a while after losing both Jackson and Lucy so recently. We'll see...

Anyway, we had a great time getting to see the Bernardo Clan that day---all 5,000 of them! lol Just kidding. They are a very big family though and have been like a family to us as well since I can remember.

Date Night

Dan and I missed the Summer Movies this year. Although, we have lots of friends and family that would love to watch Keira if we wanted to go out...all of you parents know how it is. You do sometimes need time to yourselves, but the best times are times as a family which Keira is-our family.

Lorraine has watched Keira in the past and Mom so graciously volunteered to watch Keira while Dan and I had a date night. It's the end of summer---would any of the big summer movies still be on the screen? Now, I HAVE seen a couple of the summer movies, but they were with Keira, so of course they were movies like Surfs Up and Shrek 3. What to see...what to see...Dan offered a couple of suggestions, but there was no WAY we were going to use up a precious date night on a stinker of a movie. The decision was made- The Bourne Ultimatum it was!

I can't even tell you the last time that we saw a movie on a Saturday Night! Wow! To all of you Saturday Date Night veterans, is it ALWAYS that packed at the movie theatre??? Yikes! We got there kind of early because we're freaks like that, but wow! I think this movie has been out for a while now and the theatre was still completely packed. So packed that unfortunately I got stuck sitting next to a man that was wearing a shirt that smelled like sour moldy rags. Everytime I would get used to the smell, he would shift in his seat, bringing the smell back. Wow--powerful...

To those that have not had a chance to see The Bourne Ultimatum- GO SEE IT! It was really good! I think that I even liked it better than the first two Bourne movies, although, you will be lost in the movie seeing the third one if you haven't seen the first two.

Date nights are great, but you know for a fact that the second I was walking out of the theatre, I was on the phone calling to see how Keira was doing... I really am a parent now.

By the way...wanted to make sure that we said a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Keira's Auntie Bee! Hope it was a good one! :)

Saying Goodbye and Shamu

Well, the time came for Keira to have to say goodbye to Auntie Gigi and Cousin Max. We weren't sure how she was going to take it since she had grown so close to them. We waited until it was time for her to take her morning nap and she got to say a quick goodbye to them and they were gone when she woke up. She seemed unphased since it happened sometimes that they would go to the beach or somewhere when she was napping. She has adjusted pretty well and will sometimes show me their pictures, so she knows they are gone now and is ok. Mom will be staying with us until November and I'm going to be going back to work in September. Man has time flown by! I'm going to be going back to work a little earlier than planned, so Mom is sticking around to help with the transition before we start Keira at a daycare. I have to do a little more shopping around to find the right one. I also wanted to make sure that we have all attachment issues worked out as much as possible before I'm gone from her for longer periods of time during the day. I think that I'm going to see if I can work it out to where I'll do one weekend day a week so that she will only be away from me 2 days a week. We'll see...

Before Gi and Max left though, the day before, we had a great day "Dining with Shamu"! We had wonderful seats as you can see from the pictures where we were right next to the whales when they would jump up on the platform. We had a great time and the food was fantastic! If any of you haven't had the chance to do this, try it when you can! It's fun!

Here comes Shamu! I missed the great shot when he lifted his tail and was THIIIIIIIS close!

Eating lunch and listening to the trainer talk about Shamu

Finally, I've included a couple more pictures of the Frenemies playing in the fountain! Gi and Max will be back possibly in the Spring. I'll have to make sure to take my vitamins to keep up with those crazies! :)

The Best of "Frenemies"

This has really been a jam packed fun week. All of the activities have included trips to the beach, Sea World, Legoland (of course) and 2 days at Disneyland---yes, you read that right. ALL of that in one week! Keira and Max absolutely adore each other, yet use every possible opportunity to antagonize each other. Thus the name "frenemies". One second, it's a love fest, the next they are slyly hitting each other when they think that no one is looking. They really are acting just like a couple of crazy siblings and it's so funny to watch! For example.....

One example of the Love Fest. Love Love Love...

Oh no!!! What usually happens next. Don't worry, they are friends again 2 seconds later.

As many of you know, Keira is an old veteran of Legoland as well as Sea World, but this was her first experience with Disneyland. Wow! She LOVED Small World as well as the Disneyland Parade. The way her eyes just lit up was a sight to behold. She was clapping, singing and dancing. It was pretty hot (about 93-95 degrees), but it was worth every second in the heat seeing her face. She was also able to ride so many of the rides, which was a bonus. She was actually shooting the gun on the Buzz Lightyear ride and got a pretty good score considering that she's a baby lol.

The main characters that she recognized were the Monsters Inc. characters... go figure, considering that she looks so much like Boo!

One thing that she wasn't too crazy about was posing for pictures with the Disney characters. Poor Pluto almost got his eardrums shattered with how loud she screamed when we took the picture with him. I think you can also get the picture of how loud it was by the look on my face. I guess she liked him as much as she liked Oprah in Vegas. She did a little better with Minnie Mouse as long as she was a little further away from her. That's ok...in a couple of years, she'll probably get it :)

Something really great that happened was that they were giving away prizes. We won these things called "Dream Fast Passes". Basically it was a fast pass that you could use on most of the major rides at both the Magic Kingdom and California Adventure whenever you wanted that day. How incredibly COOL is that?!?!?!?!

Here is Max with Pluto. Pluto is wearing Max's Pluto cap in case you can't tell.

Here is Keira with Pluto. At the moment that this picture was taken, Pluto and I both lost our eardrums.

Minnie and the Familia

Max breaking free from the pound.

Ahhh......hotel beds are so comfortable!

On Monday, Mike Lagman will be taking pictures of Max and Keira together in their Chinese Outfits that we brought back from China! I'll make sure to try and post some pictures.

Vegas BABY!

Boy! Has it been an adventure the past few days! My sister Gigi, Mom and my nephew Max drove cross country from Chicago to come out and visit San Diego for the annual family trip. Mom being the savvy gambler that she is got 5 days free at Paris and The Venetian, so they stayed in Vegas for those days- just in time for Gigi's birthday! Lorraine, Keira and I decided to drive out to stay with them for a few days and we had such a great time! We drove out and Keira got pretty fussy on the way there. Can you blame her? Even though she had DVDs to watch, you just can't help getting antsy after sitting for 4-5 hours. We arrived in Vegas finally and wow! You should have seen her face light up when she finally got to meet her cousin Max. She's seen pictures of all of her cousins and is finally starting to tie people in pictures with people that she sees in person. She gave him big hugs and ran around chasing him and antagonizing the poor boy right away.

Birthday Girl Gigi got tickets for us to see the Blue Man Group- if any of you haven't had the opportunity to see this show DEFINITELY make it a point to do it! It is very interactive and an absolute BLAST! Dan and I saw this show about 5 years ago and it is still just as fun as the first time we got to experience it. Max LOVED it and Lola (Mom) got to watch Keira and spend baby and grandma time together bonding while we saw the show. They did laps up and down the hallway of the hotel until she got tired enough to finally go to sleep. Part of the deal with the Blue Man Group tickets was that we also got free tickets to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. We had a blast taking pictures as you can see from here:

Here are Mom, Keira and I interviewing with Oprah. As you can tell from the picture, Keira was thrilled.

Here is Lorraine just hanging out with Hef

Keira, Tiger and I giving Max some golfing pointers.

Lorraine, Max and Mom cheering Andre Agassi on at a tennis match

Mom and Max waving the flags at the finish line

Mom and James Brown- He isn't looking too good, huh?

Keira and I singing a duet with Stevie

Max and Keira trying out for American Idol

Mom and the Kennedys- in her Disney Animal Kingdom shirt. Looks very appropriate for a meeting with the President- even if he isn't around anymore.

Mom, Max and Abe talking strategy

While doing a little sightseeing and monorail riding around town, we stopped for Max's picture with a showgirl. A couple seconds later, some poor old lady collapsed in front of us from heat stroke. It was the most bizarre situation that you can imagine! The guy with her almost seemed angry with her and was screaming for her to stop it and get up. We jumped in trying to help and he didn't want our help saying that she was just fine. Uh...I think NOT. People were giving her water and we were helping her get up. Gigi called 911 and the guy kept saying that he didn't want the paramedics. We decided that we didn't want to listen to him. Man! He was acting like this poor lady (who by the way had a huge bruise on her face now from falling face down on the sidewalk) was ruining his day. What a weirdo... Boy! It's a good thing that none of us were so inconsiderate to do that and pass out from heat stroke on the sidewalk and ruin Gigi's birthday. That selfish lady! Can you imagine???? I'm just kidding by the way...Just in complete amazement at the guys very odd response to what happened.

Flying baby

Max at the Las Vegas Hilton. Notice anything a little off? Yes...it was a Star Trek Convention going on there lol

After that, we did the usual tourist thing of heading to Stateline. We rode some of the rides at Buffalo Bills including the water ride. Keira did great! She got a little scared, but mostly had fun! As we were coming around at the end of the ride, we were getting squirted with a ton of water. We then realized that there were people on the bridge shooting at us! What on earth has the happened in this world when people would shoot at an unarmed baby??? lol

When we finished and decided to start heading home, we went out to the car only to find that someone had broken into my car window and stole Keira's little DVD player along with Keira's Veggie Tales DVD. Weird! Nothing else was stolen. Funny thing is that they didn't take the remote control for the player and didn't take the car adapter, so they wouldn't be able to get it to play since the battery doesn't work without it for some reason. eGAD. That was a mess. While I got things straightened out with the paperwork and security, Keira had a great time with the Aunties and Max sitting in Mom's truck watching the Blue Man Group DVD. She was doing the headbob and everything. She was definitely upset with me when I had to put her back in my car away from Max and cried quite a bit after that. We got to head home looking like a bunch of refugees in a plastic taped up window with a Shamu blanket covering it.

All in all, we had a blast and it was definitely an adventure! Aside from my car window getting smashed, the selfish fainting lady ruining the dude's day and such...fun was had by all! :)

The Beach Baby

Well, it was bound to happen. Keira FINALLY got it. She finally realized when we go to the beach that "Hey! That stuff that's wet is the same stuff that I love playing with in the bathtub!" She used to freak out in the sand and in the beach water, but she is finally getting it now and really loving it.

Auntie Kat and Uncle Matt came down to visit and meet the little one from L.A. and it was alot of fun! She had a ton of fun running around with them and singing Veggie Tales songs for them in the car on the way to the beach. After that, we stripped her down to her diaper and let her play in the sand. She had a blast! As a matter of fact, there were a few times that Dan had to pull her out of the water for fear that she would run to a spot that was too deep. He was with her the whole time, but she kept trying to run further into the water. Crazy girl!

Here are some pics of Keira with Auntie Kat and Uncle Matt as well as some random pics that I didn't have the chance to post from a while back. A couple of them were from Auntie Lorraine holding her at the fountain that she loves to play with at the Carlsbad Outlet Mall. The others were from the Playtown in Temecula.

The 19 Month 18 Month Checkup

It was very hard getting Keira scheduled for her 18 month checkup, so we had to settle for the 18 month checkup a few days ago...even though she is 19 months old now. Hey...at least it wasn't an 18 month checkup when she is 4 years old, so I shouldn't complain, right? :) She's doing great although she hasn't really gained any weight since her last check up at 15 months.

Here are her stats:

Height 33 inches

Weight 21 pounds 8 oz.

Head Circ. 17 3/4 inches

She is in the 75% for her height, but only about 5-10% for weight and 10-25% for head circ.

I guess that means that she's going to be tall and skinny-very UNLIKE her mommy :).

I am a little concerned with the weight thing, but the Dr. said not to worry since she obviously is not malnourished. It's just part of her genetic makeup to be a small framed little girl. She's doing great and is pretty much right on track with her development! She says about 10-20 words, she can throw a ball, she can point to body parts and name them, she can stack anywhere from 6-9 blocks, she can go up and down stairs. She really is doing fantastically. She did end up getting 4 shots, but stickers apparently make things all better :)

I didn't get any pictures of her at the Dr's office, but here is a picture of her that I may have posted before. It's an older picture that I just LOVE of her being a ham and copying me when I sleep and snore. She's so funny!