another Scianna Baby!

From Baby Boy Ultrasound

I'm now 18 weeks pregnant, due in March, and we found out last week that it's a boy! That makes Aubrina and her little brother 17 months apart. We'll definitely have our hands full, but we're so excited!

Mark has been away on business all this week, Monday through Friday, so it's just me and Aubrina. I usually don't like it when Mark goes out of town, but for some reason this time I'm not minding it as much. Maybe because Aubrina and I are staying busy this week. It also helps that I'm able to get a lot more housework done, and I can watch whatever TV show I want :) hehe

But we really do miss him. Last night Mark called to say Hi and I put it on speaker phone so that Aubrina could hear him, and she started to cry and was looking for him in the phone. I can tell she misses him too.

A couple weeks ago, the three of us took our first big family vacation to Hawaii. We stayed on the big island since none of us had been there before, and it was totally different than what we expected. We had heard that it was very different from the other islands, but we didn't realize how big the difference was.

We stayed in the Waikoloa Beach area, a few miles north of Kona, on the half of the island that feels like a desert. There is lava and grasslands as far as you can see. All of the resorts are on the Kona side of the island, since they have the best beaches (although they are teeny). Although at times it seemed desolate, it was still paradise.

From Hawaii Big Island 2009

We did take a road trip around the island for a few days to see all the sites beyond the resorts. This was my favorite part of the trip. Just a few miles south of Kona the terrain starts to feel more like the Hawaii I knew before - jungle. We wanted to check out the active volcano Kilauea and Hilo, and then a few other stops along the way.

First we drove to South Point, the southernmost point in the United States, and then stopped at a black sand beach.

From Hawaii Big Island 2009

From Hawaii Big Island 2009

Kilauea was amazing! It's not the typical volcano that you would expect, and when we got there I didn't even realize that we were on a mountain... it's a short mountain :) The history of this volcano is amazing, and I can go on and on with reasons why, but I'll just say that it's said to be the most active volcano on earth and leave you with the Wikipedia article to read if you want to, and of course a few pictures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilauea). />

From Hawaii Big Island 2009

From Hawaii Big Island 2009

From Hawaii Big Island 2009

Hilo was a cool town for two reasons: the waterfalls, and because it's the hometown of BJ Penn. We tried to hunt him down to get a picture with him, but the closest we got was a picture of the outside of his gym.

From Hawaii Big Island 2009

From Hawaii Big Island 2009

After that we drove through the cowboy town of Waimea and back to our hotel to relax. The big island might not by 'typical' Hawaii, but there are definitely some really cool things to do there.

From Hawaii Big Island 2009

Last weekend we took advantage of the hot weather and played in the kiddie pool in the backyard. Aubrina loves anything to do with water - pools, baths, faucets, sprinklers, puddles, cups filled with water.... so she had fun. We also got to spend time with my brother and his girlfriend Lara, who we don't get to see very often. It was a nice Sunday afternoon!

From Swimming with Uncle Gordon

From Swimming with Uncle Gordon

From Swimming with Uncle Gordon

Aubrina has been changing so much over the past couple months, it's totally amazing to me. Just in the past 2 months she's learned to sit on her own, crawl, pull herself up, get herself back down, and walk along the furniture. She LOVES crawling through tunnels, whether it's the blue tunnel at school, underneath the coffee table, underneath the dining room chairs, or even through people's legs. She also loves being upside down.

From Aubrina 9mo Pictures

Besides that, her fine motor skills have been improving too! She's perfecting picking up food with her thumb and forefinger to feed herself, she gives 'Hi Fives' and she's learning how to clap. She can open a box and put toys in it, and she's getting better at turning the pages of her books. I think the cutest thing now is that she's starting to cuddle with her blankies and stuffed animals. A few weeks ago we sent Mark off on a business trip, and she waved bye-bye for the first time.

From Aubrina 9mo Pictures

Now she's beginning to understand cause and effect. Now when she's in her high chair and she drops her toy on purpose, she winces knowing it's going to make a noise. She's also starting to understand things when we talk to her. You tell her 'Give me a high five!' and she does it with a smile :) I tell her 'Go get your pink bunny' and she crawls right to it. She's still testing the waters on some things, like when she reaches for the plug in the wall and I tell her 'No,' she cracks up and then reaches for it again. But at least she's not saying 'No' back to me yet!

From Aubrina 9mo Pictures

I was about 4 months pregnant when Mark dropped a bomb on me... He wanted to do cloth diapers for the baby. What?!?! Cloth diapers?? Even our parents who used cloth diapers on us because disposables were so new and unreliable tried to steer Mark away from this crazy idea. I kept telling myself that he would move on and forget about it eventually.

But he didn't. He did hours of research on which diapers were the best, which ones were easiest to clean, and how much they cost. He also did research on the impact disposable diapers have on the environment.

Ok, I'm on board with reducing trash. But unless you get a diaper service, you have to wash the diapers... which means you have to touch poop... and poop gets in the washing machine. And what are you supposed to do when you're not at home? You have to walk around with a poopy diaper in your bag? Aren't cloth diapers expensive? Won't we have to keep buying bigger sizes as the baby grows?

Just before Aubrina was born, and after months of discussion, I finally gave in. I decided to give them a try, even if it was only to make Mark happy. We 'invested' in 30 bumGenius 3.0 diapers. They were the latest and greatest. They come in one size, but they're adjustable - you use the same diapers until the baby is potty trained. Even I have to admit - that's pretty cool and I knew that if they worked out it would save us a LOT of money. So I was starting to crack. Maybe these really were the perfect diapers. Now we just had to see them in action.

Well, Aubrina is 8 months old now, and we've been using the same great bumGenius diapers since she was born. They're really easy to wash, and I rarely have to touch poop! They fit Aubrina perfectly, no matter what size diaper she's wearing. When we're out I carry a wetbag with me which contains the wetness AND the smell. They're soft, they're clean, they're easy, we have no leaks, they don't take up space in the landfills ... I LOVE THESE DIAPERS!! Although they come in so many fun colors (I really wanted blossom, clementine, and zinnia) we decided to get white. This turned out to be a good decision since we'll definitely use them for the next baby.

So, Mark was right. I'm totally convinced now that cloth diapers are the way to go, especially these ones! Way to go, Mark!

Last weekend we took a mini-vacation to Las Vegas. We met up with a bunch of my cousins and Aunt Annette and Uncle Larry from Michigan, and Aunt Bobby and Uncle Ted from San Jose, along with my dad, to celebrate Annette and Larry's 50th wedding anniversary. It was a great trip! It was the first time the family from Michigan met Aubrina, and of course she loved all the attention she got. It was also her first time on an airplane (she did great! not a peep out of her!) and in the swimming pool.

It was great to see everyone - hopefully we can get together again soon!!

First plane ride

From Las Vegas 2009

The fam outside of the Venetian

From Las Vegas 2009

Dad and Aunt Annette

From Las Vegas 2009

From Homemade Baby Food

Last weekend I finally got around to making my own baby food. It's something that I really wanted to do, and then after starting work I kept putting it off thinking it would be more effort than it was worth. I'm happy to report that it really is not as much work as I thought it would be!

In just a couple hours on Sunday I was able to make green beans, squash, apples, and pears from start to finish (washing the fruits/veggies, chopping/peeling, steaming, pureeing, and then freezing). As an added confidence boost, Mark wasn't home to help me watch Aubrina so I did it all while taking care of her at the same time!

From Homemade Baby Food

Considering how little time it takes and how many meals you get out of it, I'm now a believer that home made baby food is the way to go. I put each batch in ice cube trays to make it easier to store and then later prepare only what I'll need. Each cube is about the right serving size right now anyway, so it works out perfectly. I was able to get between 24 and 48 servings of each type of fruit or veggie, so it's definitely time well spent.

From Homemade Baby Food

The best part is that Aubrina likes it!

From Homemade Baby Food

From Homemade Baby Food

When Mark posted the last video of Aubrina to YouTube, he found some more videos on his phone from when she was only a couple weeks old. It's weird to see how much she's changed since then - it's almost like I've forgotten what she was like just a few months ago, and that makes me sad. I'm sure I'll be feeling that way her whole life.

We'll have to post some better videos soon, especially now that she's rolling over and grabbing at everything :)

This one is when Aubrina was 6 days old:

And in this one she's 10 days old:

Here's a cute video we took a couple weekends ago. Aubrina was cracking up at the dog, Annabelle, who she was watching through the window. Anabelle was so excited to see us at the door that she started jumping up and down, which Aubrina thought was funny.

The quality isn't very good because we didn't have the video cam handy, so Mark took it on his phone.