Off to Cali

In early November we took Angelina on her second plane journey - a trip to visit her California cousins. Since Fredo was already there, I had to fly with her by myself. That was, um, interesting.... it wasn't horrible, but sitting surrounded by men trying to nurse a screaming child while not trying to totally flash them all was eventful. Fortunately she managed ok. Not as great as when we went to Switzerland, but she can't always be perfect!



With little Miss Hannah Banana


With Nanny

She loves her Opa!

With Aunt Debbie, her Rohr cousins and a neighborhood friend

Visiting at Nanny's house

In her pretty new dress from Louise in Ireland!

Our little Tiger

Nearly 4 months old now

Amazing Angelina Allegrini (sometimes known as Angelini Tortellini) is still amazing. We saw a developmental pediatrician at 3.5 months, just for a bit of followup from her hospital stay to make sure she had no issues with lack of oxygen or from being heavily sedated for awhile. Well, no issues! Not only was she doing everything a 3 month old should do she was doing lots of things a 4 month old should do! And just to show off, from that day on she started a whole bag of new tricks (ok, maybe thanks to Nanny spending so much time with her). She grabs onto our fingers and pulls herself in little crunches (perhaps she learned that from sitting on mommy's belly while trying to work off the pregnancy flab). She doesn't fully roll over but she sure tries to. She can scoot all over the place. She of course puts everything in her mouth and she's just found her toes! At this point, she shows all signs of being a perfectly healthy and happy almost 4 month old.

And she's growing like a weed. As of October 25 she was 61cm (~25 inches) long and 11 lbs, 11 oz. However I think she's had another growth spurt since then. None of the 3-6 month one piece outfits with feet fit her. She has her Papa's long legs.

(more recent pictures to come...the one night I finally have a bit of time to post them, the dang program isn't letting me!)

More Pictures

I just love her silly face on this one!



Hanging out with Garth. He's a natural at this stuff! Garth was the first person to get her to drink from a bottle, if only a little bit.


Sleeping on the flight home from Geneva....



With her Allegrini Cousins



A family photo


Some views from Switzerland

What no one tells you....

Sure, everyone told us life as we know it would end. They told us about the all night feeding sessions. They told us about the zillions of dirty nappies. They told us about the crying and the colic and the lack of sleep. They told us our lives would never be the same, and that usually wasn't said with a smile but with an 'oh you're in for it' smirk.

What no one told us... they didn't REALLY tell us how our lives would never be the same. They didn't tell us how utterly and completely we'd fall in love with this little creature. They didn't tell us how that smile she gives us in the morning makes any memory of a night of screaming fade away. They didn't tell us how changing dirty diapers would be so much fun. How she would pick up her legs and wiggle her little bum and laugh away as soon as we put her on the changing table. They didn't tell us how our hearts would melt at the very sight of her sparkling blue eyes and silly grin. They didn't tell us how sleeping next to her, the sound of her soft breathing would give us all a sense of peace as we drifted off to sleep. How she reaches our her hands to us while she sleeps. How her little hands would grab us and hold onto us like a little monkey as she's carried against our chests. How when she reaches up and touches our faces it would bring tears of joy. How when she starts waking up in the morning she stretches her arms and legs like a cat. How when she finishes nursing she purses her lips in the cutest way and pulls her head away.

They didn't tell us about the joy that each day would bring with her in our lives.

No one told us how much our hearts could expand with love. How a heart can feel it's bursting with so much love.

No, our life is not the same. It is better than we ever thought imaginable.

And yes, I am saving this to remind myself of these thoughts when she's 16.....

My Cutie Patootie

We've had 2 weeks of daycare now and she likes it more than I do! On Monday she looks at me with these puppy dog eyes like "where are you going mommy?" But by Friday she barely notices me leave. There are a few other kids there (it's an inhome daycare), and her babysitter says the only time she fusses in when the kids leave the room to take a nap or eat. It's like she loses her audience. She's definitely a social kid!

Her babysitter has also gotten her to take a bottle! Not well, she takes 1-2 oz then stops. She knows I'm coming at lunch, so she seems to take just enough to get the edge off til I arrive. The downside is that she's now reverse cycling. She was sleeping through the night (more or less), but now she's eating more at night to make up for the daytime.So our evenings are spent nursing non-stop, and she's up a few times a night to eat. Since she sleeps with us, that's not as bad as it sounds. She doesn't cry, she just starts smacking her lips. At least she's not starving.




I think she's a monkey. She likes to grab onto our shirts and hold us.

Look at those long arms!

She's still not to sure about this bath thing. At first she cried like crazy. Now she likes it well enough but Papa better not take too long or she starts screaming!

In one of her Irish outfits, this one from Grace's mom and dad, Breandan and Jacintha. Grace was due about 10 days before Angelina, but came 2 days after. She's a cutie too!

Chakapu....

Switzerland and home again!

Every Swiss kid needs a cow!



10 weeks old



Helping mommy study French





Back home, almost 12 weeks old!

Our two little girls

We've had Chakapu for a year now and she's very much at home. Like Angelina, she likes a lot of human contact and she always wants to be where we are in the house. At first she was a little wary of this new creature making lots of noise in the house, now they're great friends (well, that is until Angelina starts pulling Chakapu's tail). Really mostly Chakapu ignores Angelina, she just stays close by.


and playing with Daddy

Angelina takes her first international trip!

She has her US passport, but not the CH one yet. It's valid for 5 yrs, which is good as we don't have to pay again but funny because her picture in 5 yrs will look nothing like her now. She was AMAZING on the flights, both ways. She slept almost the whole 13+hrs, much to the relief of everyone on the plane. She's a born traveller.

We introduced her to her Swiss family and friends and of course she was always the star. Perhaps her favourite was her cousin Megane who, when she was with us, never left Angelina's side. I was wishing we could bring Megane back to the US with us!


But she also made sure her grandpapa remembered her when she left by leaving a huge poop while he was holding her. :)

I just love how she always has her hands over her face when sleeping, like she's saying "leave me alone I want to sleep!"

We went to CH because Frederic had a conference in Grindelwald. This is the view from our hotel room terrace.



And visiting with her new friend Coline, Fredo's god daughter.

And back home!

There are tons more pictures to load up, so check back soon!