6 months old and as beautiful as can be

I can't believe it.  Today is January 29, 2012 and my beautiful little girl is officially 6 months old.  We went out last night with Casey and Matt and were actually out past midnight.  I had had a couple of cosmos so right when I checked my watch and saw that it was officially the 29th I teared up (although I don't have to drink anything to cry these days; all I have to do is watch her sleeping peacefully or hold her little hand).  They say it goes by too fast and that is of course true.  But the reason it goes by so fast is that you're constantly trying to hold on to every moment, taking visual snapshots of everything that happens.  So then when you stop for a moment to reflect on how old she is or what day it is, naturally you remember everything like it was yesterday because you were so careful to pay attention to it in the first place.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.  I remember the first time I held her like it was one second ago and I know I will remember exactly how she looked when we made eye contact for the first time.  She knew I was her Mommy and we were in love instantly :)

To commemorate this joyous day, here are a couple of photos showing a few recent milestones.  Here is the first time she sat up with just a few pillows propping her up:

Here she is about to go to sleep for the first time in her big-girl crib.  I decided it would be fitting to squeeze her into her newborn pj's for what might very well be the last time.  On this night when she was almost asleep, she quickly turned to me and opened her eyes.  I thought she was wide awake, but she just smiled at me, turned her head, and went right to sleep.  Magical.

 First day at the park on the swings!  I met a few mom friends there and they helped me get her in the swing, padding the back with all of their blankets so she would be comfy. Too cute.

 Just when I thought she'd gotten a hold of the whole sitting up thing, she surprised me by falling all the way forward onto her hands and knees.  I'm not sure who was more scared or proud -- her or me!

 And the very next day, the same moment of terror follwed immediately by curiosity and surprise.  I'm so proud of her but part of me also wants her to slow down with the milestones already.  Soon she'll be crawling all over the place!

 Unfortunately one of the less-than-awesome milestones is stranger anxiety.  I don't think she's quite there yet but she definitely searches for me or Tory when someone else is holding her.  Here she is with her "great-aunt" Karen looking a little unsure of things.  I tried to reason with her by telling her that "Karen has known Mommy her whole life!"  Pretty cool fact, and she's a pretty cool lady.

And then finally, a little photo shoot to mark this special day.  She is wearing one of my favorite outfits from her Auntie Erin, which thank God still fits because it is so cute.  She is also wearing a hat that was hand-made by the mother of one of my advisees from Leadership -- how cool is that?  Don't mind her as she attempts to eat the sign we made to mark the occasion; that's what she does with everything we put in front of her.  The real victory comes at the end when her Daddy figured out how to get just the perfect shot (and succeeded in making her Mommy laugh out loud):

Skyla Belle, the past six months with you have easily been the best of my entire life.  You make me smile and laugh every day, and you move me to tears almost as often.  You are the sweetest, most beautiful gift I could have ever hoped for and I want nothing more than to be the best Mommy for you, because that's what you deserve.  I love you more than ice cream, more than baseball, more than my favorite book, more than anyone I've ever known.

New Year's Eve

So I know I'm a little late posting this but we had such a special last day of 2011 that I couldn't not post something.  We started with a beautiful morning run on the beach and it was amazing!  We ran right on the sand close to the water and saw a family of dolphins swimming right alongside us.  We could not believe it.  We were right next to them for a pretty long time and it made both of us think about our little family of three and how happy we are.  2011 was a monumental year for us and it was great to be able to reflect on it in such a gorgeous setting.  We lost our beloved Aunt Jane, but just a month later we welcomed our amazing daughter.  As we ran, we talked about the year that was coming to a close and the one that was about to start.  We batted around a few ideas for New Years resolutions and realized that most of them had to do with improving our home and home life; we want to make our home as comfortable and beautiful as possible while also doing things like cooking healthy meals, growing our own vegetables, and eating dinner together as a family as often as possible. 

That night, Tory made a reservation at an awesome restaurant in Santa Cruz and my Dad watched the baby.  Before we left we took some spectacular pictures of the sunset from our deck:

We drove over to Santa Cruz and I snapped a few more shots of the sunset along the way:

I knew we would love the place because it's called Cellar Door; one of our all-time favorite movies is Donnie Darko, and there's a scene in which his English teacher tells him that a famous linguist once said the phrase "cellar door" is the most beautiful in the English language.  (That's debatable.  We all know the most beautiful two-word combo in the world is Skyla Belle).  When we got there we were blown away by the atmosphere and decor.  The restaurant is connected to Bonneydoon Winery and the whole place was decorated with artwork made from wine accessories and old wine barrels.  Even the seating was one of a kind: they had a few booths up front that were carved out of massive old wine barrels that went almost all the way up to the ceiling.  I got a few shots but they don't really do it justice!

We had one of those dates like you see in the movies -- we were totally that couple you want to be in the restaurant.  We were talking, laughing, and even feeding each other (I know, yuck, but we don't get out much without the baby!)  The waiter was very patient with us and helped us pick out food to share plus wine pairings for each course.  The food was so good that I couldn't resist taking pictures.

If you look closely at the bowl on the left you can see that we actually ordered brussel sprouts.  We figured we needed to be adventurous and the waiter told us we would not be sorry.  Still, I was a little apprehensive.  But I was pleasantly surprised with how delicious they were!

We finished off the evening with one of our favorite desserts that we used to get all the time in Boston: profiteroles!

We went home and put our beautiful girl to bed.  Then we actually stayed up to midnight on the West Coast!  That is definitely the latest we've stayed up since she was born and it was worth it.  We popped some champagne and counted down.  Of course I was blubbering like a baby, saying the year she was born was over, and Tory just laughed as usual.  We nibbled on some leftover carrot cake from Gayle's and wondered aloud once again how we got such a gosh-darn beautiful, sweet daughter.  It was a perfect evening and a perfect end to 2011.

Aptos Family Vacation

My parents rented a house in Aptos (just a few miles south of Santa Cruz) for the week after Christmas this year.  We had a great time driving down Highway 1 from our house.  It was a beautiful day and just perfect for a road trip.  We stopped at the Half Moon Bay Brewery for lunch, and it was awesome!  We hoped Skyla would sleep through dinner like she did the ride there, but our little Chowdahead just sat attentively watching us eat our yummy food and drink the locally brewed beer.

We were really excited when we arrived at the house.  It was a great place: one block away from the beach, cute neighborhood, and two separate units, so Tory, Skyla and I had our own little spot!  We had two bedrooms (good for when one of us needed sleep while the baby was up), a kitchen and living room, a little deck, and a hot tub!  It turned out that we really needed our own space because Skyla didn't adjust to the new environment very well and didn't sleep much the first few nights.  Eventually she settled in and we had a wonderful time.  The best part was getting to spend so much time with our family (and having babysitters so close by!)  While Skyla hung out with her grandparents, Tory and I got to do lots of things we don't normally get to.  We ran on the beach a couple of times, once at sunset, which was breathtaking, and once in the mid-morning while a family of dolphins swam right next to us!  We went to two late-night movies as well.  The first one was The Descendants, and ironically after going through a whole routine with my parents about what to do with Skyla if she woke up, and making sure everything was perfect before we left her there, the theater was empty!  (We thought about bringing her with us but didn't want to disturb anyone.  Incidentally, I recently went to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -- the definition of a not-for-children movie, and this couple actually brought a baby with them! Unbelievable!)  Anyway, we also got to see the new Mission Impossible movie, which was great except for this ridiculous lady behind us who kept talking the whole time, pointing out things like, "He's climbing the building!"  Yeah no shit lady, shut up! 

One of the most fun days/nighs was when Melissa and Stella came to visit for some girl time.  Melissa met the baby and me on the beach then we hung out at our place for a while. They had lots of fun getting to know each other, especially since last time they met Skyla just slept in her carseat.

 We went out that night for my first girls' night out since having the baby!  We had dinner in Capitola then went to the bar I had gone to a few years before with Erin & Paul and Simon & Melissa for karaoke.  The place was dead so we went to another local joint and had a good time.  I only got one picture of the night but it's a keeper:

Our one big adventure was going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It was quite a production getting the entire gang there (and we had some typical Smith family drama, which I won't describe here out of respect for the victims...)  We snapped a few pics right after we got there of the awesome view from the cool outdoor hangout spot:

It was ridiculously crowded, even though we were there on a Thursday.  (We realized after we got there that everyone else was still on vacation too!)  We had lots of fun looking at the exhibits, but I will definitely not go there again with a baby unless I know ahead of time that it won't be so crazy.  I had to feed her twice (twice!) in the bathroom, although I do have to say that they had nice comfy rocking chairs and semi-private areas for feedings within the bathrooms, which I really appreciated!  We only took a few pictures because a camera can't really capture how amazing everything was.  Here a couple of the ones we did get, including me in front of a display showing the "tide" coming in, and some cool shots of the beautiful jellyfish:

One of our other big family fun times was going to one of our favorite restaurants, Shadowbrook in Capitola.  That is where we had our rehearsal dinner and we just love it -- awesome food, cool ambience, and great service.  We took the cool "hillavator" down, which brought us right back to our rehearsal dinner when we waited for it with our family and friends.  We sat at a big corner table and enjoyed a fun-filled game of "Pass the Baby."  This game was necessary because she did not like the spot we'd staked out for her in the corner of the restaurant and fussed if we put her down for even a second!  I'm afraid the days of taking her with us everywhere and knowing she will sleep through anything are over :(  Still, a good time was had by all.

All in all, it was a great week and we hope to do it again next year!

Christmas Dinner with family and friends

After our fun-filled Christmas brunch, we took a little break, then headed down to San Jose for Geordie and Jolene's Christmas Dinner.  We had a great time!  Skyla wore her beautiful new red dress and we enjoyed tons of good food.  Many of Geordie and Jolene's friends were there and everyone had a great time.  I got a little silly with my girl and took some pics somehow using my phone (I managed to make it face us so I could still see what I was taking a picture of kind of like a mirror -- wish I knew what I did so I could take some more like these!)  As you can see she loved the effect!

During dinner I was telling Jolene and Roma that I think Skyla is getting big enough to eat solid foods.  I told them the doctor said it would probably happen before six months and that night she was really exhibiting some of the signs: reaching for my food, bringing her hand to her mouth, and drooling up a storm!  I think Roma took this all to mean that she was ready for big people food and she actually ran over and put a piece of rice in her mouth!  I managed to get it out of her mouth and explained to Roma that Skyla isn't ready just yet!  I actually started crying at the dinner table thinking about how big she's gotten and how fast it has all gone by, just like everybody said it would.  I felt like such a loser but I just can't help it sometimes.  Here's me holding onto my big girl, who's getting bigger all the time:

My Dad managed to get a couple of cute ones of the fam as well.  Here's a rare shot of the three of us (because I'm always the one taking pictures!) as well as another keeper of me and the babe

The fun didn't end there!  We actually went to my parents' house afterwards and picked up a mattress and box spring for our bed, then Tory and Geordie someone got them to stay on top of our Prius.  We drove very slowly all the way back to San Francisco, constantly looking to make sure they both were still on top of the car, and got home safely.  I thought for sure that was gonna be our National Lampoon's moment, but it actually turned out to be an uneventful, perfect first Christmas for our girl.  I wouldn't have it any other way.