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DISNEY DISNEY DISNEY!!!!

THE LONG AWAITED TRIP!

We held off on going to Disneyworld for 7 months. Partially, because we always go in September, since crowds are low, partially because we wanted Lexi to somewhat enjoy the experience. So when we got into our car and made that 3.5 hour drive, we were bursting with excitement and anticipation.

The big mystery and question was how Lexi would take to being away from home for 5 nights and dealing with the parks’ heat, people and stimulation. Based on her behavior prior to that day, I expected good things from this trip and it didn’t disappoint.

Day 1: Sunday.

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I will keep this post short but full of pictures, because I would like to be able to look back and see what we did for our birthdays the year Alexis was born.

We are both August babies, Leos, so we celebrate our birthdays the same month which has always been pretty awesome. I had big plans originally. I was going to throw a huge party but what I failed to realize is that everyone who would normally be at that party would be gone for the summer ( the sucky part of having a summer birthday), including the location where I was going to throw that party in. Oopsie!

And out of the people that did stay in the area for the summer, a family of 4 caught a stomach virus, one had a Galapagos trip and another a business trip to NYC and so on and so forth. So basically out of  35 people who originally planned, only a handful were actually in town at that point. Story of my life. No biggie, though. Like one of the friends who couldn’t be there pointed out “Every day is your birthday, Elena!“

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I wrote a little bit about our trip to Orlando a few weeks ago, but today I’d love to share with you the beauty that is Gaylord Palms Resort.

We woke up the next morning and set off to explore the humongous indoor “jungle”. It was time to get some breakfast and since our favorite Villa De Flora was closed, we settled for a really nice decaf tea and pastry in the courtyard.

In case you’re wondering, Andrew is using the non-toxic natural hand sanitizing Cleanwell wipes to disinfect the table and Lexi’s hands.

It’s really hard to describe the hotel. It’s like a mixture of Disney intricasies, whimsical decorations, country swamp decor, twinkling lights, tuscan architechture, wet green jungle and the grandeur of a glass domed greenhouse.

 Where else would you find balconies overlooking the depth of the jungle? Or  a moss covered tree in the middle of a wooden swamp restaurant?

Or an ancient vine covered castle inside a resort?

Countless waterfalls and exotic plants?

And then you walk outside through the “swampland” area of the resort, past the tranquil looking spa, down the a few steps and through the glass doors, you walk out into the clean looking Arizona style pool oasis.

We didn’t spent much time at the pool, we didn’t have our swim suit with us, but Lexi started bouncing in Andrew’s arms at the sight of these little fountains covering the shallow walk-in edges of the pool. So we tried them out.

She was so hilariously focused on grabbing one of them. Fountains are fun :)

Besides the big kid friendly pool with slides and water features, Gaylord’s had an adult only area with cabanas, lounges and a rectangular pool. That’s the area you would usually see us hanging out at, sipping drinks and laughing at each other’s jokes. Not this time though. We looked at what 1 year ago would be “our spot” and happily took our beautiful and tired daughter back to the room.

I know we will continue visiting Gaylord Palms whenever we are in the area, whether it’s to have dinner, go to the yearly ICE exhibit with Lexi, or just show off this gem to friends out of state. I don’t know if we’d stay there again. Not because it wasn’t fabulous, but because I just can’t pass up staying on Disney campus whenever in Orlando.

Hope you enjoyed the photo journey through Gaylord’s as much as we enjoyed visiting.

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If you watched and enjoyed our Gender Reveal from exactly a year ago, you might just as well have fun watching this.

I almost dropped this project for lack of time, but when I was cleaning out my video folders, I just couldn’t bring myself to delete the blooper shots, so I made a GAG REEL out of them.

It’s a good reminder of how much fun we had shooting the Gender Reveal video.

And it so happens that I made it in time for the  anniversary of finding out the sex of our baby!

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We are back from Alexis’ first trip to Disneyworld!

It was definitely SOMETHING!

Different from our other trips but still so much fun.

I am cannot wait to share! It’ll have to be in several posts, though. I’ll also share some tips and things that worked for us, aside from the basic stuff that can be googled.

I’ll leave you with this adorable picture of Lexi watching the parade!

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I am so excited to be writing this post. To see the post about Feeding Gear we use, click here.

Baby Led Weaning ( BLW) has been one of the most fun, relatively stress-free experiences so far, if I can say so, being only over a month into it. But I feel like it’s only going to get better from now on.

{high chair is by Boon Inc}

First of all, for those who are unfamiliar with the term Baby Led Weaning, it has nothing to do with stopping breastfeeding the way the word “weaning” is in American English. I believe the name took roots in Britain where weaning simply means “introduction of solids”. However, introduction of solids does spell out an EVENTUAL weaning from the breast, hence the name.

{Just fyi, as of right now I am planning on breastfeeding for as long as Alexis wants it and I can manage, with two years being the goal on my part}

I first learned about BLW on one of the blogs I used to read when I was pregnant ( can’t remember which one, otherwise I’d give a huge shoutout to it for introducing the concept into my world). The idea seemed… well… unconventional, interesting and the arguments FOR it made sense to me immediately.

Instead of giving purees, you basically let your child explore, play with and eat real whole foods or finger foods so that small hands could easily pick it up. According to the book, 6 months old babies ( as long as they are truly ready for solids, which is a good guide to go by, even for pureeing  parents) are perfectly capable of and very interested in feeding themselves. They want to copy you, they want to explore new tastes and textures and they can do it pretty sufficiently.

My first reaction was “Won’t she choke?” Other than that, it seemed like a really cool concept. I held off making a decision until closer to 5 months. At that point, I was still intrigued by the idea, but I figured in order to do it right, I had to get all the information. So I bought the BLW book on my nook and started reading while rocking Lexi to sleep. When I was done reading, I COULD NOT WAIT to get started. At 5.5 months, Alexis has completed the checklist of “readiness”, but I was waiting till 6 months anyways.

That was until one morning when she was a week or two short of 6 months, while sitting in my lap, she reached out, TORE a peach out of my hands and bit into it. She had been interested in our food for a while, and reaching out to try and grab it, but this whole “I’m gonna take your peach and bite into it, and then chew it” made me realize it might be time to start slowly sharing food with her. Every time we’d let her eat, she’d go for it with so much gusto, it was contageous!

At first it was all done while sitting in one of our laps, which was pretty difficult. One of us had to be holding her and catching food, while the other eats. It was not the family affair in the way I had hoped it would be. A lot of food ended up on the floor because we just couldn’t catch it with our one free hand.

Then the high chair arrived, which made our life 10 times easier and a whole lot of fun.

Before her teeth popped out, it was pretty stress free. All she’d do is gum on both hard and soft foods, getting the juice or the soft parts of fruits and vegetables out. She enjoyed it quite a lot too.

Then the teeth came out and the biting started. This is where I started doubting the whole “let her eat grown up food” bit under the pressure of my husband ( who didn’t read the book, therefore was freaked out by the idea of her choking). She would bite off bigger pieces that she couldn’t manage so well yet and then start coughing. This would send Andrew into panic mode, telling me to grab food out of her mouth and “never give to her again”. It’s not that I wasn’t a bit freaked either, but the book covers this specific topic of choking and gagging and coughing very well and I was prepared for it a little more.

To quickly explain, according to the book, coughing and gagging is a completely normal natural response to simply having food in their mouths at that age. In adults the trigger for “choking”, and hence coughing from it, is in the back of a person’s throat. For infants of 6 months, though, that trigger is in the middle of their tongue. So when they bite a piece that is a little too big, they start coughing as if they are choking before they even had a chance to move the piece back into the actual “danger zone”. During these beginning months, they learn to bite proper size pieces, not stuff their mouths, chew, swallow, move the food around in their mouth, which, apparently, are all very complex movements. By the time that the coughing trigger moves back where it belongs ( nine months if I am not mistaken), an infant who has been fed non-pureed foods has learned to handle foods safely enough to be able to chew them up, or spit them out if the bite is too big. This way, most babies who were BLW’ed don’t ever need their food cut up in small pieces for them (except for choking hazards like grapes, cherries etc), and they enjoy family meals from an early age, because you feed them what you are eating ( with some modifications in the very beginning).

So while I know the rationalizations for why it’s completely normal for babies to cough/gag, it’s still scary at times.

Luckily in the last week or so, she seems to have gotten the hang of manipulating food  and she hasn’t coughed or gagged once. At the same time, we also try to avoid foods that could be hard to deal with. A few things that didn’t work out  in the beginning were baked potato strips, because they were too hard on the edges and she kept biting pieces off. I’ve stayed away from bread or crackers for the same reason. Anything that seem like it could get stuck in her throat, I am very careful with regardless.

As far as other foods, we won’t be doing meat or dairy, since we don’t eat that ourselves. I am not keen on introducing her to soy yet. We aren’t holding off on anything out of fears of allergy ( no family history, pedi told to go full steam ahead), though. Out of animal products, I think we will do eggs and fish, though I am waiting a little bit since there are still plenty of fruits and vegetables to introduce.  Obviously, no salt (except for in very small amounts in restaurant food- I check their sodium content online), no honey.  We are holding off on tomatoes and onions because they seem to give her reflux through my milk when I eat them ( and then also gave me heartburn when I was pregnant). We’ve made soups: split pea, spicy chickpea and squash, letting her grab the spoon and attempt to put it in her mouth herself. It took a few days of utter mess but she finally got the hang of it and will put a pre-loaded spoon into her mouth the right side up and in.

I have to say that Alexis was REALLY good at handling food from the very beginning. From the day I realized she was ready, she’s been grabbing and picking up foods like a pro, very surprisingly so. And she is getting better at it, the more she does it. She mimics us and makes the chewing motion. Or squashes the softer foods in her hand and then puts them into her mouth.

The following are the stages that she’s gone through while doing BLW:

{these are not official stages, just the ones I’ve noticed her go through}

Week 1: Eager to grab food and put it in her mouth. Eats with pleasure and interest

Week 2: Lots of gagging as she learns not to bite off more than she can chew (literally)

Week 3-4: The appearance of object permanence. She would pick up her food,  bring her hand outside of the highchair, and release the food. Then she would lean over to see where it went. Rinse and repeat. At that point very little ended up in her mouth, if any.

Week 5: Shake, shake, shake, shake it! Arms flying everywhere, plates and food follows. She picks up her food, starts shaking it and then drops. Or windshield-wipes everything off of the tray in an excited motion.

Week 6: Squishing stage. Everything we put on her tray goes through the “squish test“. She tries to squish the food as hard as she can, then eats what’s left in her palm. Strawberries crumble, cucumbers don’t, which causes her to try and squash them even more. {see below: 2nd row, 1st pic on the left )

{From top left: Damage after a strawberry fight, drinking out of a glass in a restaurant, eating split pea soup at CPK, having more strawberry fun, eating veggies at Bonefish Grill, Guacomole Hummus make up}

Week 7: Eating again using the “squish”, pincer grasp or conventional methods. No gagging, lots of chewing and spitting large pieces out. She’s really gotten the hang of it. Not well enough to let her eat anything, but good enough that most soft and hard finger sized foods are completely manageable.

We don’t give her juice or water on regular basis since she is breastfed, though she loves drinking out of a cup and adores water. I let her drink out of my cup whenever she sees me drinking but it’s usually once or twice a week, no more.

The following are the foods she’s tried and she loves everything, partially because she determines what to eat or not and how much, but the stared items are the her favorites:

Cucumber*, zuccinni*, squash*, sweet potatoes, strawberries*, peaches*, plums*, apples, kiwi*, bananas, pears, avocado*, potatoes, mushrooms,  raddish*, eggplant,chickpeas (mashed), split pea soup*, brocolli soup*, brocolli, red* and green pepper, avocado hummus*, mango, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, cherries ( cut in small pieces), grapes (cut in small pieces), carrots, and more.

We also tried this amazing recipe for Avocado Pear Popsicle from Pinterest. I loooooved the taste of it, but Lexi was completely freaked by the cold. She didn’t get the concept of holding it by the stick and kept trying to grab it with her hands. I think I’ll give it a few weeks and try it again. But it was still a lot of fun watching her reaction.

Things I love about  BLW:

• No stressing over intake. She eats- great, she doesn’t – that’s fine, too.
• Letting the baby control the portion and size
• No pureeing, minimal work
• Eating together as a family
• 
• Letting her explore and have fun
• Being able to eat almost anything at a restaurant
• 
• Very laid back in approach and attitude to solids.

Things that I don’t like:

• Choking fear
• Lack of studies/research ( the biggest issue I had with the book is the use of the words “anecdotal evidence suggests…”. I would have liked to see studies, but I realize this is more of a lifestyle choice than a “BLW vs puree battle” that would necessitate studies and proof)

I was always intrigued by BLW, but it wasn’t until I saw that Alexis was ready that the decision to go the BLW route  solidified. It really helped reading the book. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone about to introduce solids, regardless of whether you want to feed purees or go the BLW route. It has a lot of great ideas on how babies should be fed, how to avoid food struggles & unhealthy relationship with food, etc. Like I said, the book lacked backing by studies, but it made so much sense that it was almost negligible ( aside from the annoying “anectodal evidence suggests…”).  I think it’s more of a lifestyle choice, like I said previously. BLW might appeal to some people and others might totally freak at the idea. It IS messy, no doubt about it, and there’s food waste. I know the book tried to downplay that aspect, but the truth  is that’s just how BLW is. And depending on how good your baby with manipulating food, it can make your uneasy sometimes. If those two things don’t bother you, then it’s an awesome way of introducing food to your baby. Really a lot of fun for both baby and mama. At this point, I can’t even imagine having to puree something ( I do puree soups, but that’s it).

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When we were first invited to Andrew’s mom’s wedding reception in Orlando 3 months ago, our first thought was “Oh, we’d love to, but there is no way we can drive all the way to Orlando with Lexi”. That was a bummer, but it beat the prospect of a screaming baby in the car for 4 hours. As the time went on, though, and Lexi was getting more and more manageable at 4 months on, I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, we’d be able to make that trip. We knew her problem was the carseat and we put all our hopes into the new roomy convertible car seat from Maxi Cosi. As I wrote before, the car seat worked out fabulously. The screaming fits ended as soon as we swapped our infant seat for this new cool (as in temperature-wise) and big Pria 70. So we tentatively told my MIL that it was looking like we could actually make it.

We were both super super super excited. Before Lexi, we’d take frequent trips to Orlando to just have dinner or walk around the parks, or see friends, as well as drive to Miami and other cities of interest in Florida. It’s what we did for fun. With Alexis being a very particular baby, especially in the first 4 months, and hating the car seat, we’ve put it all on hold, but we both couldn’t wait until we would go these places with our daughter.

Each one of us had our own concerns having never traveled with an infant. I was concerned about how she’d do in the car, how she’d fall asleep there, whether I’d be able to keep her entertained for the whole 4 hours. Andrew was really worried about what we’d do in the hotel, considering that at that time Alexis would only fall asleep while being rocked. But we went for it, figuring we’d play things by ear and do what we had to do.

With it being our first overnight trip and hotel stay, we packed everything imaginable, and his mom promised us a portable foldable rocker (which worked out FABULOUSLY, btw).

So after a pretty uneventful and totally manageable drive to Orlando where I completely went through my whole repertoire of songs, books and games, we checked into the hotel and brought in a million of our bags. It was time to put Lexi down for a nap, if we had any prayer of her surviving the reception that started at 6-7pm.

After doing her nap routine and some nursing, I handed her over to Andrew to rock, while I prepared our clothes for the reception. Of course, like expected, she was more interested in the room and all the new fun things to look at, rather than sleep which is what she desperately needed. The blackout blinds didn’t help, because they still left a bit of light for her to stare at.  He had to go into the bathroom to completely block out the light for our curious little baby girl.

In the meantime, I discovered the biggest fail of the trip ( cuz there’s always gotta be one): out of all the *crap* we brought with us, Andrew somehow left the bag with MY clothes at home. I am talking: all my clothes, reception dress and shoes – everything! The only thing I had was what I was wearing, which was yoga leggings and an organic Whole Foods tee. LOL.

I was at a loss. We didn’t have time to drive to the mall or a store, I didn’t have much hope for the hotel’s touristy shops, but I figured I’d go check them out, anyways. As I was walking through the expansive and magnificent Gaylord Palms, I suddenly remembered grabbing my new Hollister dress out of the dryer and throwing it in the trunk of the car, thinking  I might  get a chance to wear it the next day.

OMG! I couldn’t believe my luck! I ran to the car and sure enough, the dress was there! Granted, it wasn’t the dress I expected to wear, but it still worked for a laid back reception better than yoga pants.

{I have to admit that I have really enjoyed the challenges that having a new baby has thrown into our life, because we were way too used to being relaxed and laid back, never rushing anywhere, just the two of us for many years. This, the excitement, the lack of time, is so much more interesting to deal with. We were getting really boring there for a while before Lexi came along and flipped our lives upside down.  Now, I cannot help it but smile thinking about all the little “screw ups” we’ve had at every turn, as we learn to deal with our “new situation” }

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A month ago we took Alexis on her very first cruise around the Bay and into the Gulf. Again, with the heat and the sun, it’s very difficult to do anything outdoors with a small baby, but we decided that if we make it an early outing, it should be fine.

I had no clue as to how Alexis would react to the heat or the boat or the speed. It was a total shot in the dark.

We used out favorite Lavanila Baby Block and wore a UPF50+ swimsuit that my friend Elena bought as a present for Lexi.

We went slowly at first, wading through the bay to get to the open Gulf. She was fine as long as she was in the shade and then when we turned to face the morning sun, Andrew opened our super convenient Mutsy parasol that we brought along. She was starting to fuss and then we picked up some speed and Yeehaaawww! Lexi LOVED it! As soon as we were moving and the wind was blowing, she was a happy girl. She wasn’t crazy for having to hear a lifevest, and because of the size of the boat, she technically didn’t have to. But we felt more comfortable if she did, at least while we were moving fast.

We spent the rest of the time alternating between cruising and going really fast. She even had her first taste of beer. Just kidding, of course, but she definitely tried to, pretty forcefully. I had to get her attention with one of the boat gadgets, before she stuck her finger into the opening of the bottle.

The picture below on the left is her face when we sped up a little bit – she was loving it and making cute happy noises :)

So the picture below:

If you remember, the first time Lexi met J, she freaked out and cried for 30 minutes after he attempted to take her into his arms. We figured it was the beard. So this time, he purposefully let her touch his beard to show her that it was all cool. And while there were no tears, you can judge her reaction by the two photos at the bottom. haha!

Oh and here’s some EYE CANDY for car lovers, which I once was, until I got pregnant and decided that my life is now too important to race around in fast vehicles. I still love beautiful cars, but just looking at them is enough nowadays :)

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{It’s amazing to see how Alexis has changed in just 1 month}

{I initially wanted to wear this awesome red headband from Ruffles&Fringe , but after clipping my bangs up, I realized it wouldn’t work and had to take it off.}

Our first 4th of July as a family.

Hmmm. I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen this year. Up until recently we couldn’t even take Alexis anywhere since she wouldn’t fall asleep in the car, let alone a PARTY with lots of music, noise and people, 50 minutes away, that starts at 7 pm. This really spelled disaster, but encouraged by a few recent outings that were actually successful, coupled with our own desire to do something adult-like, we decided to go for it.

The plan was to keep her napping as much as she would all day and be sure that EVERYTHING was in the car and ready by the time she wakes up from her last nap. At which point we would whisk her away into the car and drive to the party to be there right at the start.

{the photo above was taken by the photographer at the party}

Oh those well laid plans of “a type of rodents and a few representatives of human species”. First of all, who were we kidding? We are NOTORIOUSLY late to everything. We always were before Alexis and we’re late now. It was all going well until the last nap. We gave Lexi a bath, I rocked her to sleep and went to get stuff done. Twenty or thirty minutes later she was up and as usual I swooped her in and started rocking again. She wouldn’t have it. Kept looking around and arching her back. Finally after some boob and more rocking she was asleep, I laid her in bed and went to a different bathroom to do my hair. Hubby stayed back to make sure she was good and asleep. 5 minutes later he comes out with Lexi in his arms. She was up, about 40 minutes before we had to leave, before we COULD leave.

I continued doing my hair while Andrew strapped her into our Nordic carrier and attempted to get the last few things done. I had all her toys packed, her cloth books, her bedtime books, her blankets, her lovey, a Sunny stroll arch, a diaper bag, her outfit ironed and ready, my camera ready. He was supposed to take it all to the car while I finished my hair. Then I quickly got dressed and that’s where it started breaking down. I find out Andrew has to shave (what?), he didn’t catch that the stuff downstairs needed to be put in the car as well (what?). I put Alexis into her adorable outfit and as we walked to show daddy how pretty his girls were , she sneak-spits up ALL OVER her dress. (Lexi has this tendency to spit up without us noticing)

{BTW, I’d like to thank everyone who weighed in on the 4th of July outfit ideas for Alexis on my Facebook page. I loved all the suggestions and had actually ordered the Jack and Janie dress for Alexis but it had just fit her which meant that it would probably be uncomfotably small for her in 2 weeks which is when the party was supposed to happen. So I had to return it and ended up ordering a cute RL dress.}

Agh! Disaster! {ok, maybe not so much} I clean up her dress and fortunately it all comes right off. Whew! Bullet dodged! {ha! Naive first time mom!}

Eventually we get out the door and then I remember the first rule of successful event photography: take a picture before getting in the car because it might be the only chance you get to do it all dressed up and pretty. I still hadn’t put make up on (I was going to do that in the car), but I figured it’s no biggie. We take a few family pictures, on most of which Alexis is squinting from the bright light or trying to chew on her daddy’s shirt.

Then we are off to the party. Planned time: 6:20pm Actual Time: 7:16pm

To my surprise Alexis did pretty well in the car going back and forth from playing with my nursing necklace I hung up above her, to chewing and screaming at her Sophie. A few times she strained and I figured we’d change her once we get there. Half way down ( at that point it’s been 1.5 hrs since she slept) she started getting really upset. I figured it was time to eat and we pulled over to feed her. I laid her across my lap preparing “the meal” and that’s when I FELT IT. My dear girl had had a MASSIVE POOP EXPLOSION that leaked all over her Ralph Lauren dress. AGH!

{the photo above on the left was taken by the photographer at the party}

Well, so much for a cute outfit. We had to change her into a spare onesie we brought which just happened to have red white and blue colors ( I sort of subconsciously packed it), and while it was one of my favorite onesies, it wasn’t the special 4th of July dress mommy agonized over, asked opinions, ironed and hoped to see on more than one picture. Oh well, that’s babyhood for you.

Once we got to the beachside area, the traffic was INSANE because everyone goes to the beach to see the fireworks around here, so we probably arrived at the party at 8:30pm (nice huh?) It’d been 2 hours since Alexis slept and this was the point where I usually put her down. She was getting really fussy being stuck in a seat.

We finally arrived, valet’ed our car and went in. There were about 100 people at the party, I overheard the valets say in awe. One of the reasons I was really looking forward to this particular event, besides the fabulous food, entertainment, host and his house and awesome people, was my friend Elena who I hadn’t hung out with since Alexis was born. She hadn’t met Alexis yet and we were both just really looking forward to seeing each other.

{the photo above was taken by the photographer at the party}

Alexis was getting so much attention and after some time she was really loving it.

There were 3 bands at the party. THREE! All pretty awesome, but this charismatic guy was the bomb!

At that point it had been 4 hours since she slept and while she was NOT fussing at all with all the sights and music and people, I could see how very tired she was getting.

So I took her into the house and walked upstairs into a nursery ( J has a few sons with small kids who sometimes visit) to try to nurse her to sleep. I was very fortunate to have a rocker there since Alexis doesn’t do well without one. But no matter what I did: fed her, rocked her, sang to her- she just wouldn’t go to sleep. I laid her on the bed thinking maybe that nursing position would be more conducive to sleep but instead she wiggled her body and pumped her legs, ready to play.

The photo above just cracks me up. Elena feeding me while I am feeding Alexis :)

After a while we decided it was really time to go. So after changing Lexi, we went out and were waiting for the valet to get our car (Yeah, this house party had valet parking, crazy huh?). I was nursing Alexis while rocking her as we stood there talking to our friends. When our car arrived, I noticed that Alexis was starting to fall asleep at the breast, so I held off a little longer. Then, while very drowsy, we put her in the car, and after a bit of fussing on her part, she fell asleep as soon as the car started moving. We both let out a sigh of relief and drove home.

{At 11 pm, all happy and ready to play}

It was our first big success in getting out with a baby, especially that late and we expected it to not go so well, so it felt really great to have had a good time and include Alexis in it, as well.

I wrote a post about the few things I learned from this late night outing that worked for Alexis, so feel free to check it out here.

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AT 5.5 MONTHS

My BFF Leeka drove to visit us on Father’s Day, which was largely responsible for the amount of pictures taken that day. Because when Leeka visits, all bets are off.

{Sidenote: If you’re in Cincinnati area and you need an amazing photog, check her out}

We didn’t have any plans to celebrate Father’s Day this year, just like we didn’t celebrate Mother’s Day. I guess both of us didn’t feel like the holidays belonged to us yet. We didn’t feel like we were something to celebrate yet. I still see Mother’s Day as a day for my mom, not me.

So it worked out perfectly with Leeka visiting, so that we weren’t the “lame-o-s” that we are and actually got out of the house that day. It was Leeka’s first time seeing Lexi and it was amazing. Even though we were in the stanger anxiety stage, she knew exactly what to do for Lexi to call her one of “our own”. She even chewed on her fingers. lol

So if you know anything about us two, we take EXORBITANT AMOUNT OF PICTURES when we are together. These two posts are just the tip of an iceberg: here and here

And while Andrew isn’t exactly a fan of picture taking (though he IS used to it by now), he does love having fun with us.

So we all basically spent the day lounging at the pool, splashing, talking, eating- the usual.

Leeka was kind enough to take a few pictures of the three of us, even though we weren’t exactly picture ready, wet and with runny make up.

There are a lot of words that I could say about Andrew as a dad and as a husband and as a person. It would probably be a very long post if I started it, but all I want to say publicly is that the 11 years that we’ve spent together (both dating and married) have been the best years of my life. I cannot imagine being with a person for so long, unless that person is Shmimkin. I look back and it seems like I’ve known him forever and yet I cannot believe it’s been 11 years. He is truly my best friend and the best father to Alexis. I hope that we continue adjusting our roles as Alexis grows and mold them into something even more perfect.

{He requested that I do not waste my time writing a sappy Father’s Day post , and instead say it directly to him and spend that time having fun together. So that’s all the sappiness you will get :P}

 {Photos in this post were taken by me, Andrew and Leeka}