Aloha!

We had our first family vacation to Hawaii when Skye was just 3 months old. We were in Maui from July 5 -15 for my sister Cora's wedding. She is now Mrs. Matsikas (other half is Ted). The weather was hot the whole time and it was a beautiful wedding!

We had a lot of fun. Skye loved being outside - even if it was mostly in the shade. The beach was too complicated with her, so we hung out at the pool which was easier. She loved her first swim! And she grew so much while we were gone. The 4 hour time difference didn't even phase her at all either - UNTIL we got home!

Our happy, sleep mostly through the night baby had disappeared (I was sure we brought home the wrong baby) and in her place was a jet lagged, miserable, crying baby who reverted back to awakening 3-4 times a night. It took a whole week of frustration and exhaustion to get back to normal. But thank goodness she got there. She is much happier again :-)

Note to self: never travel with a baby when there is more than 1 hour time difference.

There are a lot of pictures - but it was 10 days of photo ops! :-) if you click on the first pic it should turn it into slideshow mode.

Wow!!

I knew life would be busy with a little one, but I guess I just didn't realize what that all entailed! So I've managed to fall a wee bit behind on keeping the blog updated - oops. (It's been over 2 weeks since I started this particular post...)

It's been a crazy 4 months - FOUR months already! From day one I've hated the saying you get from EVERYONE who has kids "Enjoy them - they grow so fast!!". Whenever I heard it I would get really anxious and felt like I needed to grab hold of her tight and that time would be snatched away from me at any second and everything would disappear. On top of everything else new thrown at you, this too. It is extremely overwhelming. And it is, of course, totally true, which is why I think I dislike hearing it all the time.

But I (we) were so SO fortunate for the first few months to just be able to stay home and cuddle our baby as much as we wanted. Special thanks to my mom who stayed with us and took care of all the regular house and laundry chores, so that we were able to do so. I don't know how we would have done it without her :-)

And now 4 months later, life is just as busy, but I think it is just a wee bit more manageable ;-) There are days that are crazier than others - less sleep, more fussiness, complete frustration and exhaustion - questioning if you can do this whole parenting gig. But the rewards are so much greater - that you can't even put into words. The smiles, the giggles that are starting, each new day when you realize that your baby has learnt something new and it's amazing, the way they look at you with such wonder and touch your face and cuddle into you...I could go on and on...

Obviously we love being mommy & daddy and also know that we are extremely blessed to have this little creature in our lives!

Here are a bunch of photos (have to catch up from past 4 months) to show how our "little Skye" isn't so little anymore :-(