An afternoon with the Fish!

Yesterday afternoon Chad and I decided to take the kids to the Long Beach Aquarium. It was such a nice afternoon. Olivia had been there once before but was really too little to enjoy last year... this time we met up with our good friend Kevin and his older daughter Gracie who is just 2 months older than Olivia. We all had a great time....after the aquarium we stayed in Long Beach a little longer to enjoy some dinner and a walk along the water where Olivia LOVED looking at the boats in the harbor. It was a fabulous afternoon.



She really enjoyed feeding the LoriKeet birds some nectar!

Gracie and Olivia really looked hard for the Sea Lions... it was hilarious to watch them try to figure out where they were!





The girls really liked to press their little hands up against the glass and just stare at the fish!

It was a great day!

Our Big Girl

So yesterday was the day that we weren't quite prepared for..... it was the day that Olivia moved into her new big girl bed. It was lovingly passed down to her from her cousin Hadley and fits perfectly into the nursery. It is so strange that now there is a twin bed in there directly across from the crib where Finn will start to sleep in a few months.

Anyway, we put the bed in there and expected for there to be tears and frustrations over leaving her crib. Not one tear was shed and to our suprise she bounded into her new bed and laughed , then proceeded to take a 2 1/2 hour nap. Crazy. I love the way she just rolls with the punches...when we told her that Finn would soon be sleeping in her old crib she got very excited and screeched a loud "Hurray!". She never ceases to amaze...

Here is a great pic that pretty much captures her emotion over getting a new big girl bed complete with a polka-dot comforter.

xoxoxo

Finn Month 1

Ok, so Finn is actually almost 7 weeks at this point but we have been out of town and sooooo busy. Here are some highlights from his first month at home.

Finn can:

1.Lay on his back and look real cute.

2. Cry when he is hungry.

3. Sleep a lot.

4. Look real cute... ( oh, I already mentioned that one. )

5. Spit up and still look cute doing it... :-)

I'm afraid the Month 1 achievements are pretty dull. Stay tuned for Month 2 when more exciting things will be coming your way!

xoxoxoxoo

Another Baby Barber!!

Today ( at officially 1:07 pm ) I become an Auntie for the 3rd time!!! Keenan and Jen ( Chad's brother and his wife) gave birth to a beautiful baby boy! His name is Micah Thomas Barber... he weighed 7 lbs 10 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches tall. Mom and baby are doing great and big sister Hadley and big brother KC are so excited to have a new brother. He is only 3 weeks younger than his cousin Finn so it should make for some interesting holidays and family BBQ's.... !!

xoxoxo

Signs of the Times

So we are getting thru each day with a sigh.....(deep breath in, deep breath out...), and some tears, and some laughter. Each day brings new challenges and joys. Olivia continues to amaze us with her beautiful acceptance of her new brother and Finn continues to grow fatter and happier with each passing moment....I know that some day we will look back at these days with tears in our eyes and warmth in our hearts....

...right now.. I would love a beer ( that's out cuz of nursing...hahahaha!) .. and a giant dark chocolate candy bar. ( which is also out cuz Finn seems to be very sensitive chocolate...cue the projectile vomiting! )

Here are some pics from passing moments in the last couple of weeks....the one thing I hadn't really planned on was the the increase in laundry....WOW!! Good thing we have a great clothesline and the wonderful California sunshine to save on energy costs.:-)

xoxoxo

Twinkle, Twinkle...

Olivia completely blew us away a couple of weeks ago by singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star all the way through!!! I have been trying to get it on video for weeks and finally was able to get it all except for one little part at the end when she decides it's time to perform her "fake" cough. Anyway, it's pretty cute.. .enjoy!! ( just pause the music on our blog on the right hand column so you can hear her perform.. :-)

xoxo

Happy 4th of July!

Happy "belated" Fourth of July! Olivia was soooo not into having her new brother sit next to her... I totally had to bribe her with a cookie. hahahahaha! We stayed home and BBQ'd with my mom and James... then our neighbors down the street put on their annual fireworks show from 9-11pm... the dog hated it.. she hid in the bathtub for 3 hours.. poor thing...

by-the-way this occurred to me today....

Holy crap! I have 2 kids!!

Aghhhhh!

A Birth Story

So many of you know that my first birth with Olivia was "challenging" to say the least. She was posterior, meaning she was coming out face up instead of face down which allowed for 4 hours of pushing... ai, yi, yi! That was only the topper to a labor that was about 4 days long... :-( I was really hoping and praying that this birth would be different.

This birth was sooooo different.

I started having contractions around 4pm on Friday afternoon... by 8 pm they were every 4 minutes apart. At 10pm I decided to try and get some sleep ( I was putting off going to the hospital until I absolutely had to)..by 11:30 my contractions varied from 2 minutes apart to 5 min apart....It was then that I decided I needed drugs. :-)

After we got to the hospital, they checked me and I was about 2 cent. dilated... not great , but something. The midwife said that I could have my epidural when I reached 3 cent. .... Whoppee! I decided to get up and walk the halls to get things going...I did that for about 1 hour or so.. came back and I had progressed to 3 cent. They took me right into an labor and delivery room and gave me my epidural....ahhhhhh...relief. That was around 4 am. I was so relaxed I took about a 4-5 hour nap.. on and off. They checked me at 11 am and I was 6 cent. dilated but the midwife noticed that not all of my water was broken so they did that for me ... :-) By 12:30 pm I was ready to push.... 45 minutes later , Finn was born at 1:16 pm.

It was so nice to have a "non" dramatic delivery. My mom and mother-in-law were able to be present for the birth this time and that made it all the more special too..

So there it is... :-)

Introducing...

On Saturday , June 28th at 1:16 pm our son ... Finn David Barber was born! He is perfect in every way... he weighed 8lbs 12 ounces and is 19 3/4 inches long... :-) We are so blessed to have him in our lives. More to come later about his birth story... Here are some pics!!

xoxo
Chad, Melissa, and big sister Olivia

Take cover, she's going to blow!!

Ok, it's pretty ridiculous how big my belly is... I have no idea how there is any room in there for the little one to move around but last night he/she was doing a pretty good jig in there...

Here is a good Olivia quote for the day:

me: " Olivia , would you like to hold the new baby?"

Olivia: " Yes, but baby need bath first".

There you have it.

xoxoxo

Time for guesses...

Ok..so as I am going thru false labor , etc..etc.. all you Barber blog readers need to step-up and make some guesses about this new little one....

Will it be a boy or girl?
What day will he/she be born?
How much will he/she weigh?

MOST IMPORTANTLY.... How long will my labor be? Hahahahaha!

I'm just curious about what ya'll think!

xoxoxo

False Labor is no fun...

So after suffering last night for about 3 hours with pretty intense contractions, I fell asleep and slept pretty well until Olivia woke us up at 5:30 am ( very early for her...her usual wake up time is 6:30). This morning it is like nothing ever happened.

Very frustrating.....

Oh well... it will all happen when it is supposed to... it's actually very nice to be home and playing with Olivia.

On another note....Chad started teaching this morning! He is teaching a 6 week Developmental Biology summer class at UCLA. Today is his first day so actually it is a VERY good thing that I did not go into labor last night... :-) I know that he is going to do really well..

xoxoxoxo

Labor Pains!

So, I'm not "officially" in labor yet , but I'm definitely having contractions that "hurt" , they just aren't consistent ... after my first labor experience with Olivia, I will definitely NOT be going to the hospital until they are regular or my water breaks...

It's very exciting that pretty soon we will have new little "barber" in the house..

We'll keep ya posted...

xoxox

Chad's Big Day!

So I'm finally posting about Chad's graduation and the party we had to celebrate!! He was involved in two separate graduation ceremonies... the first one was his Doctoral Hooding Ceremony and the second was his departmental graduation. Both of the ceremonies were awesome. I really enjoyed the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony because it was held in Royce Hall at UCLA which is really beautiful. ( I think that they usually hold music or theatre type events there). They called each student up on stage and "hooded" them with the correct color hood ( in his case, Navy Blue and Gold). Very cool.... The ceremony for his department was also very nice and much more informal. The coolest part was that because he had already participated in the hooding ceremony he sat on the the stage with the other professors and when his name was called they personally read his Dissertation Topic , etc..etc... It was also nice because Olivia ( along with 10 other family members) was able to attend and see her daddy graduate.

Later that day, after the departmental graduation, we held a HUGE party in our backyard to celebrate. I think we ended up with about 70 people or so... !!!! It was a luau theme and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves...

(pause)... I'm having a contraction as I write... ai, yi, yi.

Anyway, I was REALLY happy that we made it through all the festivities without me going into labor or having a newborn around. It was a great celebration for my loving husband who worked for so long on a HUGE accomplishment.

He now has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology... what a stud!!

xoxox

38 weeks

The baby is now the size of a leek and about 6 1/2 pounds..(according to babycenter.com). The baby "feels" like it is about the size of a pumpkin and weighs about 9 pounds...but who knows. :-) It's hard to believe I am almost to the end of this journey...it has gone by in a flash.

Today is my last day of work until November.. Hurray! It will be nice to be home full time with Olivia and the new baby..

Here is a picture of a "leek". Doesn't seem quite big enough to me ...ha!

xoxo

Say "Cheese"!

Here are some pics for free...she tries to say "cheese" for the camera and always squints up her eyes in the process.. pretty funny. The pic of her holding the cucumber and lemon is special cuz we grew both of those in our garden... she was pretty proud to be holding them....

xoxoxo

Ahhhh...toddlerhood.

Last night Chad and I decided to head to the mall near our house because on Wednesday evenings they have a Farmer's Market and live music.. very fun. I also had to pick a little something up in the mall. Olivia was in a great mood and was immediately thrilled by the bit fountain outside the mall entrance. We let her throw a penny into and she could not have been happier.....Then the evening proceeded something like this:

5:30 Walk throught the mall to the store..Olivia first wants to walk, then be held, then walk, then be held, etc.etc....

6:00 Go to a restaurant for dinner...Olivia colors her picture ( crayons graciously provided by the restaurant) in about 5.2 seconds, then she stands up in the booth and tries to touch the man's head who is sitting behind us. ( Have a quick chat about privacy and personal space). Bread arrives....quiet for about 2 minutes. Then meal arrives...she proceeds to try and then spit out the trout we ordered ( well at least she tried it). Eats broccoli and mashed potatoes instead...after eating for 5 minutes decides it's time to let everyone know how loud she can be...( this is "new" for her )..Chad is mortified..(Have a quick chat about "inside" voices),then we quickly finish dinner and pay the bill. Olivia waves bye-bye to everybody around us and people look very relieved that we are leaving.

6:45 Walk thru the farmer's market..buy some honey.. Olivia decides the honey bear is now her best friend...let's "him" sit next to her while she proceeds to dance precociously to the live music that is playing.

7:15 head home... Olivia is busy chatting in the back seat about her evening.. apparently she is quite content with what she has experienced. We are pooped.

The crazy thing is.... We are about to start the process all over again with a new one!!! Aghhh...are we nuts?

xoxoxo

My shower!

On May 17th, my mom and sister threw me a great shower at a little tea room in Pasadena, CA. It was wonderful... or I should say AWESOME! The food was unbelievable and the company was even better. Thank-you to all who came and shared in my special day...we got some much needed items for the new baby including a really cool new stroller that allows Olivia to hop on and off the back easily... it is made by a company called Joovy. The color "orange" seemed to be the theme of the day as the baby got an orange teddy bear, we got a new orange and black diaper bag, and the stroller is orange and black... super cool!!!

xoxo

Breakfast Companion

Olivia has a new friend she likes to eat breakfast with... his name is Henry. He really likes blueberry belgium waffles.

xoxoxo