Alyss - Months 4 and 5

Well, got pretty busy and didn't find the time to write in here but here's a little update on sweet Alyss. At her 4 months appointment she weighted 13 lb and was 24.5 in long. She was in the 50th percentile in all her measurements and the doc was pretty happy with how she looked. He suggested that I start feeding her cereal and fruits and veggie purées and even to let her drink from a sippy cup. I gave her cereal when she turned 5 months but haven't tried anything else yet. She still drinks breast milk and is happy with it. We'll continue with it as long as I can provide it. I think it's the best food an infant can have. At the doctors she also got her shots (two again, one in each leg) and a $80 check for being in the shots study. She's already earning her keep. Hahaha! After the shots she got a bit fussy and her right leg hurt a bit and even got a red hard bump that didn't go away for a month. In August will have the last round of shots in the study and after that just the regular shot schedule.
At 5 months Alyss is such a good and happy baby. She cries when is left alone (I think she might be getting separation anxiety) and when she is tired or hungry but otherwise she just plays, talks (she says "ba ba" and "ma ma", she gargles and blows and says the sounds 'p' and 'f') and smiles a lot all the time. She rolls over on both sides, holds her bottle and puts her binky in her mouth and is very curious and alert. I LOVE it when she looks at me straight in the eye and grabs either my face or my neck or even my arm if I'm feeding her. She likes to play with everything Jane plays with and loves to put everything in her mouth. She sleeps well but cries a few times every night to ask for a bottle. She drinks at least 10 oz per night and another 15 oz during the day. She's gotten pretty chubby and even cuter than she was before. Up until July 11th bunica took care of Alyss a lot and even had her sleep in the same bed with her a few times but since bunica left we've been sleeping her on the mattress that Jane used to sleep on and gave Jane the twin bed that bunica used to sleep on. Jane loves her new bed and Alyss loves hers. We all sleep in the master bedroom like a big happy family. :)
Jane's gotten more used to having Alyss around even though she still gets jealous and upset when I hold Alyss or tend to her. That's being a toddler for you. She's happy and tickles or plays with Alyss one minute and scratches her or pokes her in the eye the next. She does help me change Alyss' diaper or feed her and sometimes out of the blue she just comes and kisses Alyss on the head. I love watching them interact and play with each other. You can already tell that Alyss adores Jane. She looks at her a lot all the time, smiles and even laughs and squeals when Jane talks to her. She wants to play with everything that Jane touches. This annoys Jane sometimes, especially when she doesn't wanna be touched, but they manage to get along with some help from me. I hope they'll be good friends.
At the beginning of July we went to California and visited Disneyland and it was the first time for Alyss to go on a big trip, to meet great-grandma and great-grandpa Barlow and great-grandma Johansen, to go to the beach and in the ocean and to go to Disneyland. She enjoyed it all and was very good and only cried when she was really tired. She was also really good during the car ride there and back.
Great grandmas Barlow and Johansen and grandma and grandpa Jo when they came by to visit were very happy to meet Alyss this summer and loved to hold her and take care of her. They all marveled at how good of a baby she is.
Forgot to mention that Alyss won the Springville baby photo contest for "best eyes" in the 0 to 6 months category and a $10 Walmart gift card. She sure has beautiful, sparkly eyes.
We love you so much little Alyss and are so happy to have you in our family.

My first 4th

Huntington Beach - First time at the beach

Holding my bottle

Bunica and Alyss

Romanian BBQ and Baby Shower Fun

At the beginning of August a few of us got together and had a little Romanian BBQ. The Geambasu's brought delicious mici, and we also had other really good food. It was fun to see Irina, Fred and their baby Ashley, Maria, Tayler and bebe Luca who is not a bebe anymore but a cute toddler, and some of the friends who still live around in Utah but we don't get to meet too often. Ever since they found out that I was pregnant, Cristina and Eni decided to organize a baby shower for me. After weeks of preparation Cristina was able to come to Utah from DC and together with Eni they put together the shower. It took place in Pleasant Grove, at Lia's apartment and it was tons of fun. So, who came to the shower? Here's the list: Cristina Boey, Eni Hawkins with her kids Aren and Adam, my sister-in-law Charity and cousin Sara, Claudine Hatch, sora Miron Zenovia from Brasov, Lia Nielson, Eve Jaynes, Ioana Goodwin, Karina Clement, Summer Kaufman, Holly Moore and Mariana Palade. Unfortunately Irina and her sister Ioana couldn't be there but they had shown their support before the shower and I know that their hearts were there with me. We played games, had yummy treats, took pictures and of course I got to open lots of cool gifts. Thank you so much to the organizers and to everyone who came. I was really happy to have you all there.

4th of July

So, life is been interesting since we graduated. I'm working for a company called Western Standard, doing Romanian<>English translation and David still works at BYU because they let him work on campus. It's pretty complicated but it worked out for him and we're not complaining. Not too long ago we found out that David got accepted into the Ethnochoreology Graduate Program at the University of Limerick, Ireland and we've been getting ready to go there at the end of August. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll be able to go. Why I say that? Well, it's been quite an adventure trying to get student loans. Not only is it hard to obtain loans if one goes to school in the States but it's even harder if one wants to study abroad. So, right now we're in the process of applying to Stafford Loans and other loans to help pay for out plane tickets and at least the first month's rent. I will be looking for a job once we get there but for now we have to rely on loans.

What else happened since the end of April... Well, we graduated and walked on the 24th of April, went to California at the end of May for Aunt Sheri's funeral, celebrated my birthday in California, worked a lot, got some dental work done and my wisdom teeth out (which cost almost $2,000 - yeah, that's where my salary went!) and had fun at the Highland Games at Thanksgiving Point and celebrating 4th of July in Provo watching the Stadium of Fire and in Midway having hamburgers and corn on the cob. So... a pretty busy summer so far. I only got to go to the pool twice this summer and I really want to go, but I went to the gym more and actually lost 10 lbs. since February. I'm pretty proud of this particular accomplishment. A couple other things we did were spending time with our friends Carl and Karina, going to baby Adam's blessing in Payson (Eni and Aric's baby boy), celebrating Romanian and Catholic Easter with Romanian friends and having a cool Romanian barbecue in the Rock Canyon Park in Provo. Oh, one other thing I'm happy about is my green bell pepper plants that I've been taking care since they were little babies and who are now all grown and are producing very tasty green peppers. :)

I'll give you a little more details on some of the stuff that we did. I told you that we went to aunt Sheri's funeral. Aunt Sheri is David's aunt and his mom's sister. She was very young and has three kids. She was engaged to be married and died in a car crash in California. Charity, David's sister was in the car when it happened but she was very lucky to only break her arm and get some scratches and bruises. Of course that is not lucky but it's better than dying... So, we went to the funeral and it was really sad but it was good to meet and see family that we only get to see once every couple of years.

The Barbecue with the Romanian and friends was really cool though. We had a wonderful time with Cristina and Brandon, Amy and Jeanene, Viorica, familia Geambasu, Maria-Taylor and bebe Luca, Eni-Aric-baby Adam and Aren, Eni's parents si Gaby creata. Fratele Geambasu cooked mici and sora Viorica brought branza si rosii, while Eni and het family brought some very tasty chicken drumsticks and cake. It was real fun especially watching the boys playing Bocci and enjoying each others company.

This is our summer so far. I'll try to post more in the future, once we get to Ireland. I'll also post a few pictures of the events I talked about above. Love and hugs to everyone!