Quiet Weekend

We've been having a quiet few days around here, Mike has been sick (possible food poisoning from McD's) since Thursday. We were supposed to have a couple visitors this weekend, but instead I am taking Maddy out to Culver City tomorrow, to go visit them instead. Hopefully Mike feels better soon, Maddy misses her Daddy time.

It is Hot!

The weather has been hot and sweaty here in CA! We decided we needed a family walk down by the beach to cool off in the nice ocean breeze, and to soak up some sun. Maddy slept the whole time in her bassinet, oh how I love our stroller. While we were on the pier in Hermosa Beach, we saw a cute, little seal swimming around looking for fish. The beach was very inviting, but we'll wait until next summer to give Maddy her first dip in the cool, salty ocean waves.

Maddy Smiles

Maddy has been smiling in response to people for about 2 weeks now, I got a good picture of the smile Grandma Judy got out of her at dinner at the Rexon's last Friday. Also, a picture of Grandma, the 2 new moms and their daughters. This was on Bella's due date, 7/10/09.

(I still haven't figured out how to rearrange/move photos once they are posted.)

Grandma Judy's Two Arms

While we (Laurel and I) were pregnant people would always tell my mom she would soon have a grandbaby for each arm, and now she does! 

Cats & Baby-Part 2

Maddy once again sharing her nap pillow with 2 of our kitties, Lula (grey) and Lina (black). The 2 cats were sleeping together and I saw a cute photo op, and placed Maddy beside them. Doesn't it look like Maddy is playing peek-a-boo with Lina?

Maddy's Hair & Mommy Soap Box

Maddy got her mom's crazy hair for sure, it is starting to show signs of having some waves. I found some cute bows at Target the other day, and have been trying to "tame" her hair with them. All the strangers that ask how old she is, are shocked, her hair makes her look older than she is. I always get "How many months is she?" and they sometimes gasp when I answer in the number of WEEKS!

In the top photo, Maddy is by my new baby book, the authors Dr. Sears and his family are advocates for "attachment parenting", which seems to be the way we are raising her so far. It's amazing how out spoken people can get about their opinions on raising children, it is good to find an author that validates OUR (Amanda & Mike's) beliefs, and what we have found to work for US.  Yes, we are co-sleepers (no we will not have a "family bed" and she will be in a crib as soon as she doesn't need to nurse every 2 hours in the middle of the night and yes, we have taken all precautions to make sure we are doing this safely), baby wearers, feed on demand (she is hungry, I feed her, even if I just fed her an hour ago), and I breast feed in public (modestly covered up). Oh, and we use cloth diapers when we are going to be at home. I can hear all the disapproving gasps :)  And now I will step off my soap box...how did a post on hair turn into my venting ground?

Visiting Baby Bella

Maddy and I stopped in for a quick visit with Baby Bella last Tuesday. I wanted to get their picture together side by side before they got much older. Maddy was 6 weeks and 2 days old and Bella was 5 days old here. Bella is still a spitting image of her daddy, Josh!

Maddy Helping Mom

Maddy helping me fold her laundry, she has a lot of clothes for a little girl!

Dim Sum

Maddy got to experience her first trip to watch Mommy, Daddy, Grandma & Grandpa Kitano eat Dim Sum in China Town in Downtown LA. I am a huge fan of Dim Sum, and could live off their chili sauce, it's that good. Last time we were here was the day before Maddy was born, maybe it helped me go into labor!

Birth Announcement

If you are just visiting us for the first time, then you found the little label on the back of your birth announcement! Mike didn't think people would notice it, I think that those who will take the time to check in on our page every once in while are the type of people who will notice it :)

You can blame Fed Ex for the delay in the birth announcements, they were shipped to be delivered on June 24th, but the delivery person didn't take the time to try to get into our complex, and I just got a notice to come pick them up myself on Wednesday. So Maddy and I woke up and got ready in record time to pick them up in the 2 hour window of time in the morning that they allow customer pick up. I stuffed the envelopes when we got home (they were labeled and stamped back in May!) and sent them off with Mike Friday morning to be mailed. I am hearing that many people got them on Saturday, so it seems safe to post it here without ruining the surprise of opening it for anyone. The announcements were designed by my best friend Christy, she saved us a lot of money and got them to look just how I wanted them!

I got the idea of the dictionary definition from something my mom had made for my sister when she was born, using the definition of the Laurel tree. I thought it worked for the madeline cookie too, and hopefully helped to point out that we pronounce it as mad e line, with a long i, and not like the more popular mad e lynn with a short i. 

I should warn you, I usually update this with a sleeping baby on my lap, so please excuse any errors or mistakes in spelling, punctuation or grammar. I also often forget to spellcheck, and I use exclamation marks and smiley faces way too much!  :)