Laina's big adventures

Laina had a great time at our community's pool grand opening today, as you can tell by the way she is sleeping. She is looking forward to visiting the pool a lot this summer and learning how to swim with Daddy. (Well, she might not be doing much swimming on her own this summer, but I'm sure she'll have fun being with Daddy while he swims).

Laina also is learning to like her swing. She has been happy in it a handful of times now and she's getting to the point where I can actually put her in it and walk away and do other things.

Next Laina is trying to get used to the front-pack carrier. I tried it one day and she cried and cried for what seemed like an eternity as I tried to walk around with her in it but she just didn't like it. Today Daddy tried her in it and she did cry for a minute, but soon dozed off to sleep! Yippee!

And no picture, but Laina came with me today to post-natal yoga. When she wasn't sleeping, she learned to lay on mommy's shins (as I laid on my back on the ground w/legs up but knees bent - it's difficult to describe) for some "tummy time" while being able to look at me. It was really a great position. And also she got to swing in a blanket held by me and the instructor and she loved that so much she fell asleep. She also made the biggest poo I've ever seen while we were there and I used up all the wipes in my diaper bag trying to clean her up! She really needed a bath after that one!

And after all that excitement, who wouldn't be as tuckered out as she is here...sleeping with her favorite stuffed bovine under Mommy's watchful eye (and camera lens).

(Ok, I just have to put a note on here that I tried and tried really hard to do some sort of nice layout on this post with the pictures alternating sides and the text in blocks to the side, but after about an hour of playing with the settings, I give up. That is the one area Blogger could improve on - the layout options, and giving you a bigger space to see what you're actually doing as you post!) Gripe and post officially over now...

Another assisted week

My parents came to town last week (Grandma and Grandpa Hoskinson), and we were really grateful for the help. We showed them more of the area, and they got to spend some quality time with their newest granddaughter. It was a good week in terms of us needing help, but not a great week in terms of me being able to spend time with my parents, since I'm closing in on a big deadline for a project at work... That's kind of how things go in architecture, its either slow or a mad rush. I usually don't mind the mad rushes too much, but it definitely sucks when you're trying to be home to hang out with your newborn baby and have visitors in town..

My dad took care of some business while in town, and they actually drove all the way to Grand Junction and back in a day for a meeting... Gorgeous drive (all the way through the Rockies), but 8 hours of driving is a lot in one day...

My dad helped me get in gear with getting the sprinklers started up (you have to blow all the water out in the winter and restart the whole system in the spring) and the fountain working. He also convinced us that we should get a whole house fan (which didn't take much convincing), and proceeded to spring for one! So we should have a nice cool house all summer (at least in the evenings) without having to use AC or a swamp cooler. Basically, the way a whole house fan works, is that you open up a window down low in the house after the sun goes down and the air starts to cool off, then you crank on this big fan up to the attic. It sucks all the hot air out of the upper floor, and at the same time pulls cool air through the open window, and also creates a cooling breeze in the house. Then the air blows through the attic and out attic vents. So you get natural cooling and fresh air through the whole house. Its way cheaper to run than A/C, the only downside is its less convenient since it takes more effort.

We'll do an update on how well it works once we get it installed

We're on our own for a while now, and Laina's still having some rough nights, so this week could be interesting..

I got to spend some good quality time with her this weekend. I took her out in the backyard this morning, and it was one of those moments where the weather is absolutely perfect. Not hot, not cold, in the shade, and just chillin' with my daughter. I'm hoping for a lot more of those moments. I started showing her all the different plants in the backyard, and started to really appreciate how much we get to teach her about the world over the next 18+ years. So there is some good stuff that comes with this parenthood thing.

My first mother's day

Well I don't have any pictures this time, but I did have my first mother's day yesterday. Jay bought me beautiful roses and also chocolates from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory - which I may have commented before is my favorite chocolates because Jay actually picks out the ones he knows I like and they put them in a box - much better than the "you never know what you're going to get" boxes from See's candy.

It's really weird being called "mom" and having a daughter. It's taking a lot of getting used to this whole motherhood thing. I know it's partially after-pregnancy hormones, but the range of emotions is pretty overwhelming. Everything from the most intense love to utter frustration take their turns wreaking havoc on my heart and mind. I have no idea if things will ever feel normal again or what normal will even be like anymore. But of course I'm very glad to have turned this huge corner in my life with Jay and I just have to keep praying that God grant us grace and wisdom in this journey of parenthood.

more pics

Just a few more pics from my parent's visit...

Bennetts BBQ - a taste of nostalgia for my family as we
discovered this restaurant many years ago on vacation in Denver.

The happy grandparents

The happy parents at Sushi Den

Wow, the delicious sashimi we ordered

Grandma and Grandpa at Sushi Den
(they hardly look old enough to be grandparents, do they?)

Paparazzi burnout

I think Laina might be getting tired of all the paparazzi constantly snapping photos of her...


But she has her moments...



We're home alone now - our family of 3. Jenna and I are still adjusting to the fact that our life now involves a very dependent baby. We're starting to develop a routine, and have done okay so far. I should hopefully be able to work a half day a couple days this week to help ease the transition for Jenna. Also awesome is that some people from church are bringing us meals this week to help us out, so one less thing to juggle.

We took Laina out on the town to the Sushi Den on Wednesday night with Jenna's parents. The Sushi Den is supposedly the best sushi in Denver - they actually fly the fish in fresh every day from the Tokyo fish markets. Since we hadn't eaten sushi since we'd been here, we were eager to check it out. It didn't disappoint. We had some chef's specials and some incredible tuna and unagi - tasted fresher than anything I'd had back when we lived by the ocean! We had heard that it was super trendy and loud, but were surprised that it wasn't that bad. It seemed like they sat us in the "kids section", because every table around us had kids and babies... Which was good, because it eased the fear of being "those people with the crying baby". Luckily she didn't make a peep the whole time.

Afterwards, since Laina was doing awesome (i.e. sleeping), we decided to go for a double header and head to the 27th floor of the Hyatt downtown for drinks and desert. My firm designed the Hyatt in Denver, which just opened a year or two ago, and one of my first projects was to work on a redesign of the lobby outside of the lounge on the 27th floor (although I don't know what ever happened with that). Its not a very well known spot, but it has amazing views of the Rockies and the city. So we like to take visitors there around sunset... Unfortunately Laina thought it was a little too much for one night, and it was pretty rough going. With all the changes and feedings and spit-ups, we ended up taking about 2 hours to have one drink and some desert... Oh well, now we know the extent of her patience...

My parents are here next week, so Laina gets to meet her other Grandparents (although she already met my dad when he came out for a few hours).

Grandpa's first visit

Grandpa (my dad) flew in on Saturday and he and Laina have been getting to know each other a bit this week. He and my mom fly back to CA on Friday - I am so grateful for their visit and so sad they are leaving already this week. This time went by really quickly! I really need to take everyone's advice about enjoying these first few months with Laina as the time goes by so fast.

In other news, Laina is a little piggy and eating a lot and now she is throwing up because she is eating too much! (at least that's what her pediatrician and myself are hoping). They suggested I pump a little bit off before she eats so she doesn't have to gulp so much to keep up with the milk (possibly taking in a lot of air) and so she won't eat as much. I'm just not sure how to do that when it takes time and when she is hungry she is hungry! I wish we had the camera handy the times she spewed forth fountains of milk, as it was quite impressive - I had no idea so much milk could be inside her (I guess that's the problem - she is eating more than will fit)! So in lieu of that picture, we have just another cuteness picture.