Babies & Beans

The purpose of this trip to New York was for me to meet James's and my new godchild, who was due late January/early February. With some of the usual Space A travel craziness (namely our C-5 turning around midair and waiting a few days for it to be cleared for takeoff again), we thought I wouldn't make it in time to greet the new little miss or mister, but it turned out that we arrived with a few days to spare! This was the second time that I have been blessed to witness the miracle of birth, and what an amazing and overwhelming thing it is. Mama did amazing, and their delivery surprise turned out to be a sweet baby boy! AJ was able to meet him the next morning and was so intrigued by this tiny little person. He wanted to hold him and kiss him, and kept showing me that the baby had a hat on just like his hat. It was so heartwarming to see him treat this little baby with such kindness and gentleness.

Walking the halls to get labor moving.

Three quarters of one of the most incredible families we know!

Sweet little Marcus Andrew!

Big brother Victor holding his little brother for the first time the next morning.

That sweet little face breaks my heart. I love that boy so much already!

On a (very) different note, our kind and gentle boy is also such a goober. Because do you know what he asked to have for breakfast this morning? Beans. Black beans. Not the waffle I made him. Not cereal. Beans. And do you know what he wanted to follow it up with? Sour cream. Yep, sour cream with a spoon right out of the little cup. And then, when the spoon didn't cut it, he cut to the chase and just slurped it right up. Oh, my boy... You do keep life interesting!

Italy Recap: Siracusa

While many of our photos are still floating around somewhere in cyberspace (or are totally gone, but cyberspace sounds much less sad), my amazing friend Nikki sent me most of the photos we lost all the way from Italy. What a relief! And so, our recap of our Italian adventure begins. First stop, Siracusa.

Here are the photographic highlights:

The Tempio di Apollo in the middle of the city.

In front of the Fontana di Diana, which was built in 1906.

The beautiful little birdie girl, Miss Chloe Sicilia. Isn't our goddaughter the sweetest?

We passed this man playing the accordion in the street. Such fun!

AJ eating lunch with Uncle Joshua - and his mustache.

Pizza eaters. Please forgive my boy's hair. Yes, we should be more careful when we put his hat on.

Daddies walking their kiddos down the streets of Siracusa.

It was amazing how narrow and windy the streets were. I could never drive here!

Beautiful architecture; it was hard not to walk around looking up the whole time.

Carlee, AJ, and Kiera in the middle of one of the Siracusa streets. (Don't worry, three out of four adults were acting as lookouts during this photography session.)

And then, AJ must be the goofball. He's so silly, huh Carlee?

Have you ever seen such a beautiful girl? Lovely, this Kiera girl is.

Kiera and AJ sniffing leaves. These two are perfect friends for each other.

At some point in the afternoon, we stopped in a little gelateria to get a treat. James and I decided to let AJ have a little taste of strawberry gelato - we were in Italy after all. His reaction?

Then? He actually tasted the freezing stuff he was eating. This was his response when we asked him to smile for the camera if he wanted more:

I'd say he's a fan!

More walking = another beautiful sight to see.

This place is just stunning...

With my boy on a bridge between the rocks on the shore.

The beautiful family we had the privilege of traveling with. We love you, Laguesse Family!

And We're Off!

After an awesome visit with my parents a couple of weeks ago, it's time for us to take off on an adventure of our own... Italy, here we come!

We've spent the last few days preparing for our big trip, and thankfully almost everything's taken care of at this point. We're taking military flights as far as we can (can't beat free), so that makes planning a little tougher, but we're trying to stay flexible. Our tentative plan is to leave for Dover AFB in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow!

Last night we hurried to get everything together in case there was a flight out today. We wanted to pack light since there'd be so much traveling involved with this trip; more stuff definitely isn't worth the extra hassle to us. For a three-ish week journey, I think we did pretty good:

Especially since all of the above packs into this:

Of course, changes have been made since we snapped this shot last night. Instead of the packing cube of bumGenius diapers, we got two Grovia diapers today and a package of disposable inserts (they decompose in about six weeks as opposed to the 500+ years experts think regular disposable diapers might take to break down). We'll still take a couple of BG's for overnight use and for when we have easy access to a washing machine. Since we're taking fewer diapers, we're also bringing a much smaller wet bag instead of our large one. The Grovias came highly recommended by a fellow shopper, whose rave reviews really made the decision much easier. Can't wait to see how we like them!

We also forgot to include AJ's little bag of goodies for the plane in the first photo. This was fun to put together, because we wanted the boy to have a bunch of new (or new-to-him) little things and activities to keep him occupied and happy on so many long flights. A bag of pipe cleaners (how have I never introduced AJ to the fun of pipe cleaners before?), a little macaroni-on-a-string activity that I was reminded of on Pinterest, a little felt strawberry Daddy made, a couple of sticker books, a little toy calf, and mini Iron Man and Silver Surfer guys. Hope they're a hit!

We kept busy in the kitchen last night, too, baking some more graham crackers for the boy and I to snack on during our travels. I have to say, these are so easy to make and are really delicious! (Even our neighbors love them!) Here's the recipe, if you're interested. I cut them into little Cheese-It size squares to make them easy for AJ to handle (and keep him and our surroundings slightly less crumb-y), and that seems to work out pretty wonderfully.

We've also been busy scrubbing down the house before we leave. My mama made sure to tell me the other day, "Don't forget to clean the toilets before you go," and as much as I wanted to (and perhaps did) roll my eyes, she's right. And Mama, they're all done! As much as scrubbing the inside of our soon-to-be-empty refrigerator or vacuuming the upstairs isn't exactly what I'd most love to be doing this evening, it'll be so worth it to come home to an incredibly clean house. (And, taking so little clothing means we'll only be doing a load or two of laundry when we return. Win!) Nothing like coming back from a big (or little) trip to a clean, relaxing space.

Alright, T-minus nine hours and counting... Time to cross the rest of the to-dos off of our list. Card making, toothbrush finding - we bought AJ a new one just yesterday and can't seem to find it anywhere - and packing, teepee sewing, puzzle making... And the list goes on!

Hope to posting from somewhere other than the island soon!