Opening Presents

This video makes me laugh. This is what opening presents is like with a 7 month old baby.

Alaina's First Christmas!

Family picture at Yiayia and Papou's house Christmas Day

Alaina playing with Uncle John and Theia Katina
Alaina says, "I'm so happy it's Christmas!"
Opening presents and eating wrapping paper...

Alaina's first Christmas was so much fun! We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house with my brother, sister, and brother-in-law. We had a big dinner and then opened presents. Alaina did not get too excited about opening presents, she's still too young. She got more excited about crinkling the wrapping paper with her hands and trying to eat the shiny paper. I'm sure she will understand more about Christmas next year. On Christmas Day, we spent the morning at our house. Alaina had a few more presents to open from Grandma and Grandpa Bruck. We enjoyed our Christmas morning together as a family. Even Zoe hung out with us as we unwrapped the last few presents and went through gifts from Christmas Eve. Alaina had fun following Zoe around the living room as Nate and I watched a movie. It was a laid back morning, but lots of fun- just the three of us. I imagine that Christmas morning will become a lot more exciting as Alaina gets older and is anxious to see what Santa brings. But for now, eating wrapping paper and chasing Zoe was fun too.

Theia Katina and Theo Yanni

My sister and her husband flew in from Greece last night. Their plane was supposed to arrive at 4:00PM, but did not get in until 9:30PM! There was a pretty bad snow storm going through Chicago today, hence the delay. Kathryn and Yanni spent 5 1/2 hours waiting at the airport in Madrid! Needless to say they are very happy to finally be home in Rockford. The original plan was to have dinner with Kathryn and Yanni last night, but since they got in to town so late we decided to meet them for breakfast this morning instead. Kathryn and Yanni had not yet met Alaina. They were very excited to finally meet her. Alaina was also very happy to meet her Theia and Theo (Aunt and Uncle). Below is a picture from the first time Kathryn held Alaina. Alaina is wearing a special Santa hat that Kathryn made for her. Too cute.

Christmas Caroling

Today the preschoolers went Christmas caroling at Alma Nelson nursing home. My grandma spent some time in the rehabilitation unit at Alma Nelson before she died. Since she passed passed away, I have taken the preschoolers to sing Christmas carols at Alma Nelson every year. The staff at Alma Nelson was so kind to my grandma and our family. Taking the preschoolers there to sing is just a little way to say thank you each year. We have been practicing our Christmas carols at school for a few weeks now. They really did a great job. We had a great turnout, probably half of our students came to sing!

Nate and Alaina came to watch the caroling. My mom and dad showed up too. Below is a really cute picture of Alaina watching the preschoolers sing.

Snow Day!

View from our front window

Picture of our backyard. Our lilac bush got squashed by the heavy snow.

As you can see from the pictures above, we got hit with a huge snow storm today! Schools were cancelled so I got to spend the day at home with Alaina. The snow started last night around 4:00PM and it's still coming down almost 24 hours later. Eventhough I hate snow, I have to say that it makes everything look so pretty. Plus, the day off from work is nice. It was great hanging out with Alaina today. We read stories and played with some of her new toys. Nate and I gave Alaina an early Christmas present the other day. It's a new bouncer that she can stand up in. She's become too mobile for her old bouncer, she tries to climb out of it! It was time to upgrade to something bigger and better! Today was the perfect opportunity for Alaina to spend some time in her new bouncer. She absolutely loves it! There's all kinds of toys built in to it to keep her entertained. Just look at that happy face!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas around our house. I finally got around to putting up my Christmas decorations this weekend. Nate and I put the tree up together while Alaina watched from her bouncer. She seemed amused by the twinkle lights and shiny ornaments. We are looking forward to when Alaina will be able to help us decorate the tree... maybe next year! We still need to get a stocking for Alaina. We better do it soon, Santa will be here before we know it!

Alaina's First Thanksgiving

Cousin Alysa holding Alaina

Alaina giving Aunt Sarah Thanksgiving kisses

Alaina's first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Iowa. We went to Des Moines to spend Thanksgiving weekend with Nate's family. We enjoyed spending time together. Nate's parents had not seen Alaina since Labor Day so they had fun watching Alaina show off her new tricks (rolling, grabbing, babbling).

We also made a trip to Iowa State while we were in Iowa. We took Nate's niece, Brianna, with us. I have not been to Iowa State for a very long time so I was happy we made time to go visit. It was an especially special trip because we went on November 27th. Nate proposed to me five years ago on November 27th. We took Brianna to the exact spot on campus where Nate proposed- the armory. Of course we forgot to take our camera with us when we went inside the armory. It would have been a perfect picture moment. Instead, we have a picture of both of us in front of the campanile.

I was a little nervous about how Alaina would handle the 4 1/2 hour car ride. She had a rough ride on the way to Des Moines. We had to stop three times for feeding, diaper changes, and a meltdown. However, she surprised us on the ride back home and slept the entire time! I don't think we're ready for an overseas trip yet, but she's a fairly good car traveler.

Ready for Winter

It's getting colder outside. Since Alaina loves to kick her blankets off, we decided we needed something else to keep her warm in her carseat. We found this really neat carseat cover at Babies R Us. It's really warm inside! It zips up the front so it's very easy to get Alaina in and out of her seat. We're offcially ready for cold weather.

Nate and I are taking Alaina to Iowa tomorrow morning to celebrate Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to seeing Nate's family. Alaina has grown so much since the last time they saw her. This morning I made chocolate chip pumpkin bread to take to our Thanksgiving dinner. Alaina sat in her bouncer on the kitchen floor and kept me company. She is able to amuse herself with her toys for longer periods of time. She really enjoys her musical caterpillar. She was just so cute that I had to take a video and share it. Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

My Two Ladybugs

Happy Halloween! We went to my parents' house, ordered pizza, and passed out candy. I loved watching all the trick-or-treaters, there were some really great costumes. Maybe next year Alaina will be old enough to go trick-or-treating too. We dressed Alaina and Zoe as ladybugs this year! Alaina didn't seem to mind wearing her costume, but Zoe kept trying to eat her costume. Zoe's costume had to be taken off well before the night was over. Below are a few more pictures from tonight. Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

At the end of the night, both Alaina and Zoe were asleep on Grandpa's lap.

Congratulations Cari and Dan!

Last weekend Nate and I went to Iowa for my friend Cari's wedding. Cari and I were both Early Childhood majors at Iowa State. The wedding was in Dayton Iowa, a small town northwest of Ames. Nate and I spent the night in Iowa and drove back on Sunday afternoon. My parents watched Alaina while we were away. This was our first overnight trip without Alaina. It felt strange not having her around. I kept waking up throughout the night thinking that I was hearing her cry. I wonder if I'll ever be able to sleep through the night again. I'm so used to getting up with Alaina. We had a great weekend, but it's great to be back home!

Four Great Years

Our Wedding

October 1, 2005

Thanks, Nate, for the best four years of my life. I love you. Take a listen to our first dance song, still one of my favorites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMNKh0Zp4pw.

Alaina's Best Friend

As Alaina gets older she is becoming more and more interested in Zoe. She is able to lift her head and watch Zoe run by. Today Alaina was enjoying some tummy time while Nate was playing fetch with Zoe. Alaina watched Zoe catch her ball and run down the hallway. As you can see from the video, she thought this was hilarious. Her little laugh is so adoarble. I can already tell that Alaina and Zoe are destined to be best friends.

Alaina's 4 Month Stats

Alaina had her four month check-up this week. She weighs 13.5 pounds and is 26 inches long. She has more than doubled her birth weight! The doctor told us that Alaina is ready to start eating rice cereal. The video above shows the first time we gave her some! It wasn't a huge hit, but we're hopeful that Alaina will learn to like it after a few more feedings. She wasn't too sure how to take food from a spoon. As you can see in the video slip, she spit out most of her cereal. After Alaina gets the hang of eating cereal, we will move on to fruits and veggies. We're so excited to watch Alaina try new foods. :)

Our friends Dana and Keven came from Phoenix a few weekends ago. Their son, Sanjai, is 8 months old. We had so much fun watching Alaina and Sanjai play together. It was intersting to see what Alaina will be able to do at 8 months. What a difference 6 months makes! Below are some pictures from our Alaina and Sanjai's play date.

Friends.

Nate and I met up with some friends in Chicago this afternoon. Eric and Aaron were in town to run the half marathon. We wanted to be there as they crossed the finish line, but got to the city a little too late. Instead, we went out to lunch together and hung out at Millenium Park. It was such a gorgeous day to walk around outside.. and it's always nice spending time with great friends!

Walking through the water at Millenium Park

Waiting for the faces to squirt water...
Lunch downtown

Friends. Jill, Aaron, Eric, Dan, Renee, Nate, Kalli

Alaina spent the day with my parents. We wanted to take her with, but decided traveling around the city would be too difficult with a baby. My parents were thrilled to babysit and Alaina always loves spending time with her yiayia and papou!

Labor Day Weekend

Nate's parents came to visit last weekend for Labor Day. We had a great weekend just hanging out at home together. Of course Nate's parents loved spending time with Alaina. I absolutely love the picture above of Grandma Jan holding Alaina. Nate's parents bought us the rose bush when Alaina was born. We planted it in our backyard and have been watching it grow as Alaina grows up. Alaina has had more control of her arms lately. She is starting to intentionally grab at objects. As you can see in the picture, she was trying to grab the rose. How cute! We'll have to take many more pictures of Alaina and her special rose bush in the future.

Alaina Will Be Crawling Soon...

Alaina is really moving around these days! She is a pro at rolling over. She constantly rolls back and forth when we lay her down, even when changing her diaper! Alaina loves to lay on her stomach, despite the doctor's suggestion for her to sleep on her back. Every morning when I go to get her out of her crib, she is sleeping on her stomach with her little butt straight up in the air. She's so cute. Recently she has discovered how to keep her head up as she plays on her stomach. At the same time she kicks her legs. It really won't be long before she's crawling. I love this video of her moving around. She is able to support her head for a long time! I also love her huge belch in the middle of the video. What a lady!

More Visitors!

Alaina met some more family members yesterday afternoon. My godmother came from Indiana with two of her children, Nick and Maria. It was so cute watching Nick and Maria hold Alaina. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was holding them as infants. Now they're all grown up and holding my own daughter.

Popi, Kalli, Maria, Nick

Nick holding Alaina

Maria was so good with the baby. Alaina fell asleep in her lap.

Please, summer, never go away!

Today was a beautiful summer day. I couldn't help but dress Alaina in her cute little swimsuit for a summer photo shoot. No, we didn't go swimming. We don't even have a kitty pool. I just felt like dressing her in a swimsuit and talking to her about the beach. She was just too cute. Later on, we took advantage of the nice day and went for a long walk. I absolutely love being at home with Alaina. We wish that summer would last forever, but unfortunately it will soon be over. I go back to work in only two more weeks! But until then, I'm taking advantage of each day with Alaina. :)

Greek Fest!

Last weekend was our church's Greek Festival. Once again, the food was amazing. Nate and I especially appreciated all the Greek food this year since we were not able to go to Greece. I think I gained five pounds just in the two days I worked at the festival. Nate and I worked at the ticket booth on Saturday. I sold tickets again on Sunday with my brother and also worked at the kid's tent. I really enjoyed working at the kid's tent. I've been away from my preschoolers for so long, I really do miss them. It was nice to be around kids again and just have fun. I was in charge of face painting. I am hardly an artist, but none of the kids complained about my paintings. I would offer to paint a heart or a sun, something easy, but in the end the kids would decide on SpongeBob or a dragon. Kids are so sweet, they all said that my paintings were beautiful, even though most were unrecognizable. Some of the kids enjoyed the painting so much that they wanted to paint me! Before long, my arms and legs were covered with kids' artwork! I miss preschool. I don't want to go back to work, but working with kids this weekend made me miss preschool.

Selling ticketsMy best customer at the kid's tent, Katie.

Then Katie started painting me!

Alaina wore a Greek dress that my parents bought for her. It's hard to see when she's sitting in her carseat, but it was really cute!

Ruby met Alaina at the Greek Fest
The Greek dancers from our church

Family picture at the festival