September Fun!

September was a busy month with birthday parties and a trip to Virginia to visit Maitoni. It was very nice to get away and Mike got to relax a bit before he started his new job. Virginia is so beautiful - so green and certainly didn't seem as crowded as California. I love the homes in the East Coast. Alyssa fell in love with Flora - Maitoni's dog. She was the first and last thing Alyssa spoke about each morning and night. Flora is a great dog, incredibly mellow and PATIENT. Alyssa was harassing her during the whole trip and she was so good about it. I'm sure she was glad when the crazy toddler who took her toys, who followed her, hugged her, etc had gone home.

Maitoni shares our love for wine. So not even minutes after Maitoni came home the day we arrived, I had to break the news that I will not be consuming any alcohol during this trip. She guessed right away that I was pregnant. While in Virginia, we took Alyssa to the zoo, went to the mall, spent some time in DC, and last but certainly not least we hit Georgetown for some yummy crabcakes that Mike had been dreaming about. Tina and Russ drove up from Delaware and stayed overnight one Saturday evening. We celebrated Tina's birthday and Tina and Chiara met Alyssa for the first time. Chiara and Alyssa hit it off instantly. They played so well together. Alyssa did great while we traveled until the last evening when she fell ill with diarrhea and some sort of stomach bug. We had a rough last night there as she couldn't sleep well and as a result we didn't either. We were there for 5 days and as with all vacations, it seemed too short.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Tall blocks!

Alyssa has always been into building with her blocks but lately she has been challenging herself with tall towers of blocks! When I mean tall, it means she has to stand to put another on the top. Mike and I were really impressed today when she built this:

Who knows how in the world she got it that tall when the base was so crooked and it appears to be leaning! LOL!

Silly faces

Have I mentioned how much I love this age? Alyssa was being a silly goose today and I asked her to give me some funny faces...I was laughing pretty hard when she delivered. Here's what I got!

Ready? GO!

Poor Mike got his workout tonight. Alyssa was being bossy and making him give her piggy back rides up and down our hallway. Here's a clip from it.

Mmmm...salmon

So Mike and I were having salmon a couple of nights ago and I decided to make Alyssa some "safe" salmon and see if she will eat it. What is "safe" you ask? Well, as you are aware she's allergic to dairy so she couldn't have any yummy butter on it. I didn't think she would like all the herbs and capers either so I made hers plain with just some olive oil, lemon, garlic powder, pepper and salt and baked it. Ours however, was smothered in butter, dill, capers, garlic, lemon, salt and pepper. YUM!!!

And well, that's exactly what Alyssa thought of hers too! Surprisingly she liked the salmon! She IS part Asian. And not only that, she is Pacific Rim asian. We like fish. I had a back-up plan for Alyssa's dinner as I honestly didn't think she would eat the salmon. But to my delight, she did. YAY! I hope this wasn't a fluke. It would be nice to be able to feed her more of a variety of foods since her allergies make it hard. Here are some pics capturing the event. :)

SOCKS AND SHOES

I know that almost all kids go through the phase of putting on mommy and daddy's shoes and wearing them around the house. This is where Alyssa has been for the last month or so...it's hilarious when she puts on her daddy's shoes because size 11 just look like a giants shoes on her. At one point she even put on daddy's socks all by herself! She's getting to be such a big girl...

Woof woofs and Meows

Just about every week I do some errands at the Coleman shopping center where conveniently our bank is, Chili's is, Target, Trader Joe's, PetSmart, L & L Barbecue, Una Mas, and Michael's. There's also a Starbucks there if I ever need a pick me up! ;) When we meet daddy for lunch, we usually meet at one of the eateries there.

Sadly, Alyssa knows this shopping center so well that the minute I turn into the parking lot she asks to see the "woof woofs" and the "meows". In this particular PetSmart, there's a doggie daycare where we can see them play from a clear glass window. One should see Alyssa's delight when she sees them. She is such a dog lover...certainly took after her daddy! In another area of the store are the cats (Alyssa calls them meows). The last couple of times we have been there Alyssa started by picking up a cat teaser toy and running towards the cats that are waiting to be adopted. I feel like the poor kitties are being harassed by this almost 2 year old but perhaps they are also having fun while Alyssa waves the teaser up and down, left and right. She laughs so hard when she does this...it really is funny to watch. Here are some pictures from our last trip to PetSmart.