More family fun

Lots going on lately, so I've been too busy to blog. Last Thursday morning, John's mom, 7-year old niece, Emily, and 10-year old nephew, Shaun, arrived to help Leah celebrate her first birthday. They spent two full days on the train, coming all the way from Louisiana, to see Leah in the flesh! They were so excited to meet her and have had so much fun playing together every day. I still don't think I have any decent pictures of all three of them together since none of them ever stop moving for a second! But I'll keep trying.

Leah's birthday is on Wednesday, but since John is travelling this week, we'll be celebrating it this weekend with John's family and my family at my sister's place. Now that she's been home almost four months, her birthday will be a nice occasion to finally introduce Leah to some more family members who have been anxious to meet her.

Girls' day out

Yesterday, my sister-in-law, Wendy, and her two daughters stopped by from out of town on their way to visiting family in Ohio. So Leah got to meet her two of her cousins, Tori & Zoe. Unfortunately, my brother, Chris & oldest son Connor had their own things going on this weekend. The girls had fun getting to know each other and playing together and Wendy took some great pictures with her Digital SLR camera, which I can't wait to get. Sure wish I could get shots like that.

Wendy thought it would be a great opportunity to try Korean food and introduce the girls to something completely new, so we headed off to the Korean restaurant for a culinary adventure. The girls were pretty nervous about the whole thing and it got mixed reviews, so I wouldn't doubt if they had to stop off for some McDonalds or something else later! Anyway, it was great for Leah to meet some more family members, and after they left, she was so wound up for the rest of the day from the excitement.

First visitor

Our very first visitor, my sister Holly, came to visit this week for 3 days and we had a great time. Leah was a little shy and wary at first, but that only lasted about 10 minutes and then she approached Holly and let her hold her. Leah was soon being her funny, entertaining self, especially now that she had a captive audience.

She danced to her favorite music, showed off her impressive walking skills, made her silly face where she squeezes her eyes shut and purses her lips, and tried to steal Holly's camera whenever she was holding it. I think Holly now knows what I mean about how hard it is to get good pictures of Leah since she is always on the move.

As a mother of four-plus, and a grandmother of three, Holly's been there and done that. So she helped me brainstorm about some of our sleeping and eating issues, and I learned a much more efficient technique of changing a poopy diaper (which I immediately put to good use).

It was also really awesome not to have to worry about cooking and cleaning up the kitchen for a few days, since Holly really helped out with that. She cooked us a really nice steak dinner the first night and we had takeout the rest of the time.

I think the timing of this visit was just right. Leah has just started feeling much more secure and less anxious the past few weeks, and so we think our self-imposed isolation policy, although it's been really hard on us, has been a really good idea.