Things to ponder

Wow Alyssa will be 3 months old on Tuesday! I can't believe how time goes by so fast. It's been so much fun watching her change and looking forward to the changes ahead. I was just thinking back to Feb 19 when Cory and I got home from the doctors appointment and realized that tomorrow we were going to be parents ready or not. Although we new it was coming there just isn't anything that can really prepare you for the reality of it all. The unconditional love you have for this little human that depends on YOU for EVERYTHING is just amazing. I sit there and watch her and wonder what she will be like when shes an adult, a teenager, a small child and a toddler. What will her interests be? Will she like to bake/cook with her mom as I did? Will she want to fish and go ride atvs with her dad? Will she enjoy being a girlie girl but still like sports? Will she attend college and which one? Obviously WSU, if she decides to attend UW it will be funded solely by her or her Great Uncle Dick which he is not aware of yet. What will she look like? Will she be over 6'0 like her parents?

All these things I wonder about and look forward to each and every moment. She's an amazing girl and I can't wait to see her grow! Her favorite things to do is drool, play with her tongue and mimic you when you play with yours, the "car" game, get kisses from Harley, and obviously eat, pooh, and sleep!

We were pretty excited the other day. Alyssa received some new clothing items and toys from our friend Katie. She gave us some toys that her son Ian had outgrew. The one pictured above is a dog that barks and squeaks and she loves it! Katie's sister Jane, who had a little girl approx. a year ago, sent some VERY cute shoes, hats, and other items for Alyssa. It was so very kind of her. One of the hats is a khaki fishing hat with bananas on it which is very good since it keeps the sun off of her face. I know, sun in Washington, yes we have been having a very warm week!

We have been working on things around the house and doing lots of yard work. We got our patio enlarged and patio furniture out there. Harley did manage to leave his mark on the patio, his footprints! It was kind of a funny story. Cory came home after working off duty and Harley needed to go pottie. I had been taking him out all day on his leash to go. The guy who did the work said not to let him on it until the next day but we could walk on it. Which didn't make a whole lot of since but anyways. So Cory gets home and decides to let him go out because he wont walk on it. Yeah right. So what does Harley do, he does what any dog would do and runs across it. He had a ton of energy from being cooped up all day inside on a beautiful day. So he got some paw prints into the cement! Cory was upset after spending the money on it and than that happening but I was on Harleys side on this, Cory should have used the leash. Lesson two learned by the Simmons: Don't assume your pet is as smart as you!

What a busy week......

What a busy week we had. It started out last Sunday on May 4th the day after Opening Day for boaters. It was beautiful out. So Cory and I decided to gather the family up and head out, our destination was The Locks in Seattle. We LOVE going there and watching people bring their boats on thru. Especially on a busy day it can get pretty intense and the love people have for one another def. comes out. After awhile we decided to leave and head up to the "apartment" to feed Alyssa. We got back to the car and realized that the set of keys we had brought were the wrong ones and we could not get the club off of the car. So we thought "OK, no biggie, we call Grammy she comes down picks us up and Cory would take her car back up to Marysville and get the keys and presto all solved!" Nope that's not what happened at all. Grammy wasn't home and didn't answer her cell. We tried calling several people which no one answered. Finally Nicole came to save the day! THANKS NICOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So what started off to be a beautiful day in the sun ended up being a day running up and down I-5. Now I don't use my club all that often and the one time we do this happens but I do have to give some props to the criminals out there who can get those off! Now it probably doesn't sound all that bad but I did leave out some details and just imagine being out on a nice day with a cranky 9wk old who is hungry and a dog who loves people with no water and in the warm sun. Lesson one learned by the Simmons' family. I'm sure many to come......

Monday was a big day, family portraits! Now Alyssa is smiling like crazy so obviously I was thrilled to be getting pictures done because I thought "these will turn out great!" She only smiled for one! They turned out great and Babies R Us did a wonderful job and it was nice we had the pictures back that day, which was great since they were mother's day gifts.

Alyssa and I than had a shopping and lunch date that was a lot of fun! We went to this store in the mall that's called The Pumpkin Patch. They have the cutest clothes and of course once again I bought Alyssa the cutest outfit for Mother's Day. I think that I am going to have to go back to work some time soon because I can't stand not buying Alyssa stuff and they have the cutest little girl stuff out there!!!!!!!!!!

For Mother's Day we made the journey down to Longview to see the family. We had a great time although chaotic it was great to see everyone and have the family together. We actually were able to get all of Alyssa's Grandparents together and her Great Grammy. Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Grandpa Simmons with Alyssa
All the grandparents and Great Grammy Aunt Amanda and Alyssa
Auntie RobinCousin NolanHarley and his Heineken bottle.

OWIE!!!!!!!!!

Well if finally happened Alyssa received her first owie and it came from Harley our dog. Although not major it still was very traumatic for her! Now let me back up and explain some things for those who do not know Harley. Harley was our first baby. We have had him from the time he was 8wks old, he is now 3. From that time he has been the center of our attention. He sleeps with us, gets to go bye-bye pretty much whenever we go somewhere, gets to eat rib eye steaks, so we pretty much created a monster but a lovable one. So when Alyssa came along we were very interested to see his reaction. When we brought her home he smelled her and was on his way. With all the friends and family coming by I think he thought she too soon would be leaving. Obviously that never happened. So he accepted her as part of the family. He gives her kisses on her feet, hands and face, sleeps next to her crib and even comforts her when she cries by kissing her. So I was pretty nervous with him walking around her at first because I was not sure how he would act, especially considering he believes he is only 5lbs which he is not he is 38lbs. They were laying on the couch together and he must have heard something when all of a sudden he jumped up and off the couch his paw scratching Alyssa's ankle. At first I thought she must have been startled but that's happened before and she never had turned that shade of red. So I got to looking at her and saw she had a few scratches that were red, no blood tho. Her face was so red and she was screaming something terrible. If I remember right I don't think she screamed like that when she got her shots! After a few minutes of me consoling her she fell back to sleep and Harley had returned and curled back next to her.

I had to take some pictures even tho it wasn't major, thank goodness, but it was her first. It's on her right ankle if you can see it. The other pics were a little blurry.

The Tulip Festival

Hanging out at Greenlake

Today Alyssa and I met Nicole at Greenlake and enjoyed the sun and people watching. We then headed over to Gasworks Park and had lunch. Here are some of the pics we took of Alyssa hamming it up for us.

Shots

Well Alyssa got her second dose of shots on Monday. She was not happy with these at all! After the nurse stabbed the needle into her tiny little legs not once but 4 times Alyssa's face turned red and out came a horrific scream. She calmed down after a few minutes and amazingly slept for the rest of the day and night! I did have to wake her up to feed her and change her but she went right back to sleep and was not fussy at all like the doctor said she would be. The doctor gave her a clean bill of health and she is weighing in at 10 lbs 1 ounce and 22 inches. She seems HUGE to me but when you hear the numbers she seems so small. I am sure I will look back and wish for these days!
Cory and I took off to Vancouver BC for the night and Grandma took care of Alyssa. The trip was good. The weather was wonderful compared too the last time time we went up with friends and it was snowing. We got lots of sushi and walked around and enjoyed the sun. We went up to celebrate our 3 yr anniversary which isn't until April 30th.

Leading up to the big day.........

Well its been so very long since I last wrote anything and so much has happened. First off let me tell you about my pregnancy.

What a great experience! I had absolutely no complaints until the last week. I never got sick, didn't gain a lot of weight, and wasn't overly moody. Then came February. My feet and ankles started to swell and for the first time I missed my little chicken ankles. They were becoming almost unbearable to walk on. My weekly appointments started and everything was coming along quite nicely. My doctor at this point wasn't worried about the swelling because the tests came out normal. Well on February 19 Cory and I got a surprise that I don't think either of us was ready for. We went in for a "normal" check up and found I was 4cm dilated, blood pressure was high and there was protein in my urine. Now before this appointment I was thinking "Gosh how nice would it be to go in and have her say 'your going to have this baby today' and that would be it." So when she asked if I wanted her to break my water and Cory and I looked at her and each other and said "WHAT!?" She then explained to me that there was no reason for me to go on feeling the way I was and with the blood pressure where it was she was getting a little concerned. So we decided to come back the following morning and I was induced at around 0830am. Finally around 1030 I asked for my epidural. Which let me tell you was WONDERFUL! After approx. 9hrs of labor on February 20, 2008 at 1745hrs our baby girl was born!

It's a girl!

Well it's been a while since we have posted anything here, but in the mean time we have found out we are having a girl. During the ultrasound the baby wasn't being very cooperative in moving her legs but the tech gave us a 80% chance of a girl and is going to give us another ultrasound at our next appointment. For me everything has been going well I have no complaints about being pregnant other than the fact that my face has been breaking out more than normal and I do miss my glass of wine with dinner but the end result is much better I think.
Now C and I have the big decision of a name. Its amazing to me how many people like to give their input on naming someone's child. I mean I have told people some names I have thought of and you would have thought I said "rainbow" or "apple" or something and I think the names I like are pretty "normal" common names. Well I guess you cant make everyone happy and the main concern is that C and I like the name and that's all that matters.