California Vacation, May 2013

We had a fantastic vacation to California to visit Matt's side of the family. Matt's brother Mike and Mike's wife Amber were visiting from Florida, and Matt's sister Natalie was visiting from Utah, so the whole Asay clan was there at Matt's parents' house. We were grateful to get to visit with Matt's Aunt Ann and to see his Uncle George and Aunt Rachel and their boys. Family reunion!

First we did some visiting.

Elise enjoyed dressing up Grandpa and Daddy. Here she is coming to give me a lei too.

Grandpa having too much fun

Ann read and read and read to Elise. Thanks for all the new books, Ann!

Elise loved this little princess cot that she got to sleep on.

Mike playing with the cat, Toby, by getting him to chase a stream of water

Amber and Patti chatting

 New, matching bathing suits from Grandma! The girls loved this pool so much, Grandma and Grandpa sent it home with us.

Mike, Natalie, and Matt

Craig, Mike, Natalie, Patti, and 

Mike and Amber

our little family

 Elise adores Ann.

Charlotte and Natalie

On Friday, we went to California Adventure and Disneyland! It was the girls' first trip and my second. So much fun!

Grandma and Elise when we first got there

 The new Cars Land was so well done.

Luigi's Flying Tires ride

Elise got to ride once with them and once with us, right in a row, since Charlotte couldn't wait in line and we had a baby swap pass.

Then we rode the Little Mermaid ride.

 Elise really wanted to go on Mickey's Fun Wheel, so some of us went on that while the rest rode California Screamin'.

Charlotte kept sticking out her tongue to taste the wind when we were at the top.

My little daredevil loves heights.

After lunch, Elise fell asleep as we were heading over to Disneyland.

And then we saw two princesses. While Elise was sleeping. I almost took her picture with her in the stroller asleep next to Snow White, but I decided against it.

Snow White
(who had the most obnoxious voice ever, even though it was supposed to be in character)

Belle

the castle

 Then my camera died. So that was all the pictures that I got of Disneyland. We met up with Matt's Aunt Rachel. We ran off while the girls were sleeping and rode Indiana Jones, which I hadn't ridden before since it was out of service when I went last. Then I came back and went through Tarzan's Treehouse with Elise.  Then we all went on the Jungle Cruise. (Charlotte didn't like the boat much. I think she may have issues with motion sickness.) We split up after that, and Elise, Charlotte, Patti, Ann, and I all went to Fantasyland while the rest of the group did the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. The Fantasyland group rode the carousel first. Then Patti and Elise rode the Casey Junior Circus Train while Ann and Charlotte hung out and I waited in line for the Dumbo ride. If Elise says she rode on the pumpkin, she means the Dumbo ride. I went to take care of Charlotte (I love the Baby Care Center at Disneyland, great for nursing moms), and the rest of the group got together and saw the parade. Then we all had dinner, complete with glow sticks thanks to Ann, and Elise, Charlotte, Matt, Ann, and I all headed home. Mike, Amber, Natalie, Patti, and Craig stayed a little longer.


Saturday we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was great. Elise is really into pandas right now, so that was perfect.

Mike and Amber consulting the map

cute Natalie

lots of turtles

my little monkey, hanging with the monkeys

swinging with Grandma and Grandpa

10-month-old panda cub

panda mother

enthralled

me and Charlotte with the flamingos

checking out the pelicans

egret

zebra ends

polar bears

They don't have these at the Phoenix Zoo. Wonder why.

koala sleeping

After the zoo, we went to Coronado Island. This was Charlotte's first time seeing the ocean and Elise's second time. Elise was a couple months older than Charlotte when she saw the ocean last.

loved the sand

tried to eat the sand

Aunt Natalie took the girls out to wade in the waves.

Craig and Patti staked out a bench for me to nurse on, and Patti helped make it possible for me to stay modest.

Sunday we took it easy and visited together. Mike and Amber parted ways with us after Coronado on Saturday, and Natalie had to leave in the middle of church on Sunday to catch her flight.

Elise swinging with Grandpa

somersaults!

Grandpa shared the few ripe boysenberries with Elise.

Monday we had to say goodbye.

The girls we tired. We all were.

Such a great trip and a fun time with family!

Peaks of Cuteness

I have a theory that about every three months for the first year, babies hit peaks of cuteness. Let's face it: few babies are truly adorable looking at birth. Around three months or so, though, oh man do they start to get really cute. Then again at about six months, when they get really chubby and start sitting up, they peak again. At about nine months is my favorite age, when they're mobile but not walking yet and still have plenty of chub but also plenty of personality. And then who can deny that the first-steps phase of an about-one-year-old new walker is seriously cute? But still, nine months is my favorite.

Charlotte is seven months old, just past her six month peak and headed into my favorite peak. Six months to a year is such a fun time. When Elise was about six months old, I finally started to feel like myself again (I know, that's really late). At about six months was also when Matt really started bonding with Elise. With Charlotte, both of us have come around a lot faster, but this is still such a fun age. We are enjoying her so much.

Charlotte has started some serious babbling lately, and I can't get enough. Can you blame me?

She has also recently started clapping. Like, when you sing "If You're Happy and You Know It," she claps. Or if you just say, "Yay!" or mention the word clap, or clap for her. I haven't gotten a great video of her clapping yet, but here's something to give you an idea. So cute.

A few of her favorite positions:

tummy time

happy face!

She can sit indefinitely these days.

explore/relax mode

on the go

Charlotte is not crawling yet, but she is starting to learn that she can move to get to what she wants. She stretches, rolls, and even pushes herself along with her toes sometimes to get to things. She gets her knees or her toes under her quite often, but she doesn't push up and put her hands under her, so she mostly just faceplants, then rolls with her bum high in the air. This video of her inching forward was taken on April 19th, the day Charlotte turned seven months old.

Charlotte's first tooth broke through on May 5th (bottom left central incisor), and the one beside it is due to pop through any minute.

Holy Hannah, I don't know what could be much cuter. Maybe Charlotte at nine months? Only time will tell.

P.S. I know this is absolutely a "my kid is so cute" blog post. And I'm not even sorry. :)