Update

It seems like we've had a busy couple of weeks. To fill you in, here is an update of our lives recently.

My brother and his wife have an exciting new arrival in their family! They welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world last Friday. She was a good girl and waited for her dad to graduate with his Bachelors, and finish tax season before she made her debut. She's just perfect. Her big sister is so proud of her "baby sisto", and Alaina is a little startled that someone besides her is allowed to cry. She's not quite sure what to make of that little pink bundle yet, but I'm sure all three of them will be good friends/cousins in the years to come.

Alaina has a few new tricks. She has given up jabbering in her cute little voice, and has decided it's much more fun to grunt and growl. We were sitting in our Stake Conference meeting yesterday, and Alaina had everyone behind us cracking up. She looked all dainty and cute when she would look at them, then she'd smile and let out a big growl. I don't think they expected that from a baby girl. Frankly, I didn't either, but it's sure funny.

Alaina's other trick is blowing a whistle. I found a little red whistle in our house and I gave it to Alaina to play with. I thought she'd just kind of chew on it, but the next thing I knew she was blowing it! I know it's not extremely exciting, but it's kind of cute. Here's a little video of her:


Our last update is somewhate gross. My justification for posting it is that we promised to treat this blog as a family journal, and this is pretty momentous for us. (If you don't want to hear anything about baby bowel movements, then stop reading here.) We think we've figured out how to help Alaina with her constipation. (Yes, she's been having problems since our last post on the subject). The prunes and warm baths have not worked their magic, so we've ended up giving her suppositories about every week because she'd get so plugged up. It's been so sad to watch her struggle. Last Monday we found that she had a hemorhoid from pushing so hard! We took her straight to the doctor to figure out what we could do to solve this problem. He gave us some good advice, and it seems to be working. She's been much more regular for the past week. Hooray! I never thought I'd be so excited to change poopy diapers. Hopefully it keeps working!

Well, there are our updates this week! See you soon!

Mama!

Alaina has spoken her first word, and guess what it is-- Mama! Yay! She says it "Mmmah-mmmah" really emphasizing the "mm" sound. I don't think she really knows what it means, she just knows that I react to it. Why do I react to it? Becuase she only says it when she's upset, frustrated, or sad. She puts on her best pouty face and says "Mmmah-mmah," and I just can't ignore it. I have to scoop her up, squeeze her little body, and plant a big smooch on her cheek.We've been trying to get Alaina to say "Dada" too. The other day we were trying to get her to say it, and she looked right at her dad and said "Bob" and grinned. It was pretty funny. Brad's not sure how he feels about being called Bob, so we're working with her. For now she just smiles really big whenever we say "Dada".

This has led me to remember listening to a conversation my sisters-in-law had about their kids saying "Mama" when they're sad, and "Dada" when they're happy. At the time I thought it was really funny. Now I'm not really laughing because I want Alaina to say "Mama" when she's happy too. Maybe that will come later. For now, I'm happy she loves her Daddy so much, but knows she can call her "Mmmah-mmah" when she's sad.

Welcome New, Farewell Old

We took the plunge last week and bought a car. We needed something really reliable that would last us through Medical School, and one we could trust to drive home for visits. We did our research and settled on a Subaru. Brad has been looking for a good deal for a couple of months, and last week we found what we were looking for. It's a 2004 Subaru Outback in great condition. We’re really excited! It’s going to be a great car for us.
We decided to give our old car back to Brad’s parents (it was a wedding gift) so Brad’s brother would have a car to drive. We were so excited about our new car, we didn’t think about saying good-bye to our old one. It’s funny how you can get so attached to things like homes and cars. When it came right down to handing over the keys, we both got a little sentimental. After all, we’ve had a lot of memories in that car. It’s the car I’d watch for in the parking lot of my apartment complex when we were dating. It’s the car we drove home from Utah when we got engaged. We tied our first Christmas tree to the top of that car. It’s the car we drove to the hospital when I started having contractions, and the car we took home from the hospital with a brand new baby in the backseat. Ah the memories. . .
It’s time to start a new chapter of our lives. I guess this new car is just the beginning of the changes coming. Still, I can’t help but say to our old car: Good-bye old friend! Thanks for the memories!

Two Bottom Teeth!

They had a long, hard time coming, but they've finally poked through: Alaina now has two bottom teeth! Her smile looks so cute now with two little scraggly teeth poking up. We're excited they're here, and are pretty sure she has two top teeth coming soon. Yay for cute little baby teeth! Here are a couple of pictures. Hopefully you can see her little teeth okay.

(Sorry she looks a little homeless in the picture above. She'd just woken up, had crazy hair, and was really excited to have her picture taken for some reason.)