leenaok

This weekend we went to Port St. Lucie to celebrate (Sam & Sonya’s daughter) Jasmine’s first birthday party. It was a good weekend to be out and about. The weather was perfect for outdoor water play, not a cloud in sight! Alisha was concerned that only babies would be at the party. Fortunately she had nothing to worry about; Alisha made friends with another 7 year old girl and they had lots of fun together. Jacob, the social butterfly, ran around, ate plenty, and slept well. What more could you ask from a 15 month old?

We are BACK from our weekend in New York! Didn’t know we were going? That’s kind of the point. We flew up to celebrate my dad’s 60th birthday with a SURPRISE party at the Cotillion.

Was he surprised?

Well, he knew he was having a party on Saturday, he just thought it was going to be Saturday evening. Hey, I’ll take what I can get. Jim & Tami flew up on Wednesday night and we flew up on Friday night. Sanjay’s parents even flew up from Tampa, on Saturday morning, just for the party! Everything went well but I am glad it’s over. I am done with "surprise" parties! Fortunately we have 2 years to prepare for my mom’s big day, but thankfully she wants to go on a cruise, easy enough!

As part of this surprise, we had to rent a car from JFK and stay at a hotel on Friday night. We stayed at the Melville Marriott which was barely a Marriott by my standards. The WORST part was that the hotel was laid out in such a way that if you had a room at the end of the hallway (which we did, our dumb luck) you had to walk like, a half-mile to get there. I would even opt for a hotel with exterior corridors over that, at least you can get in and out of your room in one shot.

Guess what Jacob mastered while we were in New York? He learned how to crawl down the staircase. So now he’s sporting his newly acquired skills on our stairs at home!

The birthday weekend is OVER and the house is quiet at last. Dirty, but quiet. Alisha & Jacob enjoyed the company of both sets of grandparents this weekend (yes, my dad surprised us on Friday).

Alisha’s party was Saturday afternoon and I wasn’t sure how many kids would show up, being summer vacation and all. However, seven friends from school came (plus 2 siblings) so Alisha was thrilled! The weather was hot and sunny, perfect for playing outdoors, so we inflated the pool and slip ‘n slide and had parents in charge of filling up the water balloons. I turned on Alisha’s bubble machine and handed out water guns while the kids ran around and had a grand ol’ time. Sanjay manned the grill and cooked up hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken.


Even Jacob joined in the outdoor fun (for about 15 minutes)!


For her birthday cake, Alisha picked Barbie Ballerina. 
 

I thought was perfect because of all the dancing she did this year. Alisha got tons of presents, everything she could have hoped for and MORE: Barbie dolls, Littlest Pet Shop toys, books, costume jewelry and arts and craft projects. However, we waited until all of her friends left before she opened our present, a Wii! Alisha had been asking for one for months (you know, since “everyone else has one”), but we kept ignoring her requests. Finally we figured, why not? At least it’s something we all can enjoy. It took Alisha all of 10 seconds to set up her Mii and start bowling! She’s an expert Wii-er from all the times she’s played on Jim & Tami’s Wii. Speaking of Jim & Tami, they started her game collection with “Boogie, Superstar”, a dancing and singing game, and “Cranium Kabooki”, a brain teaser game.

Alisha with Josefina (her American Girl doll)


Unfortunately for Alisha, she left all of her fabulous presents on Sunday to go to Tampa with her grandparents. It’s just for a week though, we’ll be picking her up next weekend. And I suppose absence makes the heart grow fonder :) As for Jacob, he’s too much work for his grandparents so I get to spend even more quality time with him while Alisha is gone. Yay, I tell you. YAY. *me pulling out my hair*

Wish someone would leave the easy kid with me and take the other one for once!!! I can’t even watch TV in peace! Jacob is either stepping on the DVD player (which changes the input to DVD), turning the TV power switch off and on, playing with the remotes, or (this is the best) flipping off the power on the surge protector so I have to flip it back on and watch the cable box boot up all over again. Joy, I tell you. I suppose one way to solve this would be to get a TV console with glass doors, so all the equipment and wires would be out of our face. However, we’ve got a long list of things to buy, and right now a console doesn’t fall under the category of immediate need (of course, this could change depending on Jacob!).

In the meantime, I’ll continue to bang my head against this chair.

Speaking of Jacob, we celebrated his first birthday on Saturday evening with a mini cake that Sanjay bought for him. 


Jacob gets his very own 1st birthday cake! Yum...

Granted, his first birthday is 2 weeks away, but what the heck, might as well do it while all the grandparents are in the same place! Alisha was adamant that she didn't want to share her birthday with him this year, but I think starting next year we'll be celebrating the June birthdays together.  

And in BIG news, as of today Jacob is officially walking! I mean, he’s been taking steps here and there since he turned 11 months, but these past few days he’s been walking more and more. Today he went from the back couches to practically the TV! Unfortunately, every time I go to grab the camera he’s back on the floor.

Alisha’s final swimming lesson was on Saturday morning.

Hooray, Alisha can swim!

She’s still got a lot to learn, in terms of refining her stroke, but at least she’s not afraid of the water, and she can do some of the basic moves. I am so proud of her. I am hoping to register her for summer group lessons, but if that doesn’t pan out (due to our out of town schedule) then I’ll see about re-enrolling her for private lessons in the fall.

Has it really been 7 years since my baby girl was born?! Every year I think about how we’re all getting older. At one point I thought 20 was old, then it was 30, and now I’m thinking 80! Will I ever consider myself old? I don’t think so!


Alisha = the luckiest 7 year old ever (at least for today)!

Alisha enjoyed her ice cream cake and we even let her open up some of her presents. I’d gone to Justice (which is a cheaper version of Limited Too) over the weekend and secretly bought her a few things with my 40% off coupon: earrings, necklace and shirts. I wouldn’t have bought anything at all had I not had the coupon; those tweeny-bopper stores are expensive! For Alisha the best present of all was the American Girl doll my parents bought for her. She told me a long time ago that she would love to have a Josefina doll, and that’s what she got. My parents would have NEVER spent that kind of dinero on a doll for me! I never even had a Cabbage Patch Kid!

Happy birthday to Sanjay – today he turned 31! Unfortunately Alisha and I are not able to celebrate with him, but I guess it’s okay this year since he has to go out of town for work anyway. But I’m sure we’ll be having cake this weekend when we go to Tampa. Alisha is all about ice-cream cake. I wonder where she got that idea, because it’s not like I love eating ice cream cake or anything... ;)