Robby's Rollover

Robby rolled over for the first time last night! And I just happened to get it on video :)

Here it is:

Daddy's Coming Home!

Mark will be home one week from today! We are all so excited! It's hard to believe that three months has gone by since he left. It's been difficult for all of us - Aubrina didn't understand where Daddy went, Mark was homesick and missing his babies, and I had a toddler and a newborn to look after.

Luckily we've all had a lot of support. Aubrina, Robby and I had lots of family and friends around to help out and keep us company, and Mark set up webcams in both locations so that we could all keep in touch.

At first, Aubrina didn't know what was going on when we would skype with Daddy. She knew that she was seeing and hearing Daddy, but she didn't understand where he was, why he was gone, or if he would be back. When Mark came home for Robby's birth, she quickly bonded with him again, and when he left again she understood better what was happening - most importantly that he would come back.

We try to skype every few days or so, and now Aubrina tells me when she misses Daddy by getting the mouse and pointing to the TV (Our webcam is set up on the computer that's connected to our TV), and she says "Daddy." She understands that for now, we can see Daddy on the TV.

The time difference between here and there is 11.5 hours, so it's not always convenient to skype whenever we want. On days when Aubrina wants to see Daddy but it's the middle of the night for him, I will pull up some pictures on the TV instead. As soon as she sees his picture she says "Hi!" and if I go to a picture that doesn't include Mark she says "Uh-oh".

We're all glad to be getting Daddy back! Thanks to everyone for your support!

Aubrina Dances!

Aubrina has discovered a love for music - all types of music. Any time she hears music or singing she bobs her head or dances to the beat. Here's a cute video from last week where she was dancing to the music, but also copying some of the dance moves:

New Portraits

When Robby was two weeks old I took him to have portraits taken. I wanted to capture the time when he was still teeny tiny. Since Aubrina was close to 18 months old, I also had her portraits taken, and also got some shots of them together.

I thought I'd scheduled it for a time of day when Aubrina would be happy - after she woke up from her nap. As toddlers usually do, she surprised me when she put up a fight over everything. She did not want to be there! Most of her pictures include her paci, her blankey, or some sort of snack. Although they're not the typical perfect looking portraits, I still love them because they show her personality.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

From Robby 2wk & Aubrina 18mo

From Robby 2wk & Aubrina 18mo

From Robby 2wk & Aubrina 18mo

From Robby 2wk & Aubrina 18mo

From Robby 2wk & Aubrina 18mo

Robert Anthony Scianna

On March 17th at 12:16pm, Mark and I were blessed with our second child, Robert Anthony Scianna. He was the perfect little St. Patrick's day baby! Weighing in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 20 inches long, his measurements were EXACTLY the same as big sister Aubrina's when she was born! We thought that was pretty amazing.

Robby has been a wonderful baby. By his one week appointment he was already up to 8 pounds, and at two weeks he weighed in at 9 pounds. He is mild mannered unless he's hungry, and he's very strong for a newborn. Immediately after he was born he was turning his head, and at four days old during his first tummy time session he lifted and turned his head in both direction.

Now that he's four weeks old he's starting to coo and he's awake and alert for longer periods. He's such a joy!

Big sister Aubrina is doing great. She loves Robby and gets really excited any time he's around. Every morning she peeks into his bassinet and squeals with delight! When I lay him on the floor she gets right down there to lay next to him and cuddle.

The past several weeks have flown by and I usually feel like I'm running a madhouse, but we're so excited to have two beautiful little angels now!

Fun with Auntie Chrissy

Auntie Chrissy came to visit last Sunday. We went for a walk to the park and Aubrina had sooo much fun on the swings! Here's a video:

It's a big one

Good thing Mark was here for this one. It might be hard to tell from the picture, but this was the biggest spider I've ever seen that was not a pet. It's body was about the size of a quarter... no joke! I've been getting better about my fear of spiders and bugs since Aubrina was born (I have to protect my baby!), but there was no way I was going to handle this one!

From Mark Leaves for the big trip 2-4-10

Scianna Family Pics

On Christmas Eve the whole Scianna clan got together to take family pictures. Here are a few of our favorites:

From Scianna Family Pictures

From Scianna Family Pictures

From Scianna Family Pictures

First CSA Delivery

I'd heard about CSAs awhile ago (Community Supported Agriculture) and had always been interested in trying it out. It's basically fresh, organic produce from a local farm that they either deliver or you pick up each week. The past few weeks I've been trying to simplify as much as possible, and what could be simpler than a weekly delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables?

I've been researching, and a lot of the CSAs around here require a year-long membership that you can only join when someone else drops out, or only have produce in the summer, or have a designated place where you have to pick up your order. I also found one that will ship it to you through UPS. But my friend recommended one that she said was awesome, and they will deliver it to your door. I checked it out, and it's the best one that I've found in the area! It's called farmfreshtoyou.com. The farm is located a few hours north of Sacramento, yet they still deliver it by hand to my house in Campbell.

The produce is amazing, and it had to have been picked that day - the cuts on the broccoli and greens were fresh. I signed up for deliveries every other week to start out, just to see how we like it. Since right now it's only me and Aubrina, it's plenty for the two of us, and I even had enough to share. Can't wait to see what we get in our next delivery!

The Jungle

Today we went to the Jungle with Grandma and Auntie Amy. Aubrina LOVED it! She spent hours going up and down, through the obstacles, down slides, in the ball pit, riding on the kiddie rides... it was a good thing Grandma and Auntie Amy were there because I couldn't keep up! Here are a couple videos from today:

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is the beautiful bouquet of three dozen roses Mark sent me for Valentine's Day. He's so thoughtful - I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

Here's Aubrina saying her new favorite word over and over again on Valentine's Day :)

Aubrina the Weightlifter

Everyday Aubrina tries something new. Tonight she decided to test her strength by lifting a stool and then carrying it back and forth across the room. She was very determined!

A few cute pictures

Here are a few pictures of Aubrina from the past few weeks that I thought were super cute.

This is at school, scooting along on the scooter.

From Aubrina

This is one of Aubrina's new favorite activities - standing on her head. She's also learning to do somersaults, and she surprised herself when she did it for the first time by herself.

From Aubrina

She's also climbing onto and into everything now! She climbs onto the tables every chance she gets.

From Aubrina

I survived!

I survived my first weekend as a "single mom!"

Being 8 months pregnant, I was really nervous about my first weekend taking care of Aubrina all by myself. Who would I complain to about my pregnancy pains? Who would reassure me that I'm doing the right thing in the middle of a toddler tantrum? Who would take care of Aubrina while I pass out on the couch from exhaustion at 2pm? I usually rely on Mark for all of those things.

Of course I could always call my mom or Mark's mom for help, but I also really wanted to see if I could do it without help. Saturday went by in a flash - Aubrina was a big helper as I rearranged her room to make room for Robby's things. Nana and Papa came over for a bit and Papa helped me babyproof the bathrooms! We even made it out to Babies R Us to get the last few things I needed for the baby. Sunday was great too. We went to a friend's house to watch the Superbowl, and Aubrina got to play with her friends Matthew and Madison.

The only trouble spot during the whole weekend was making dinner on Saturday night. She's going through a phase where she wants to do EVERYTHING that Mommy does, especially in the kitchen. It was very exhausting trying to keep her happy while preparing the food and making sure she didn't get burned. It was a test in patience, but I learned a lot from that experience too, and now I'll try to prepare dinners after she goes to bed for the next day.

Overall Aubrina and I had a great weekend together, and now I'm confident that we're going to do well even if Daddy isn't here.

3D Ultrasound

A few weeks ago we went to have a 3D ultrasound done. We did this with Aubrina and it was a cool experience - they projected everything on a big screen and we were able to invite all the grandparents. We also got a DVD with a movie of the ultrasound, which convinced me that we should do the same thing for this baby.

We always swore that we wouldn't be those parents who take less pictures of the second baby just because we're busier, but the baby isn't even born yet and we're already slacking. With Aubrina, I took a picture of my growing belly every week, and this time I've taken about 6 pictures total! Yikes!

But anyway, I'm getting off track :) We decided to have a 3D ultrasound done for Robby, but this time it was just me, Mark and Aubrina. It was interesting because Aubrina acted really concerned, which I've never seen before. She was very protective of Mommy and didn't want the technician to touch my tummy.

The pictures came out great. His nose looks funny in some pictures because it was squished against my belly.

From Robby's 3D Ultrasound

From Robby's 3D Ultrasound

From Robby's 3D Ultrasound

I was amazed at how much he and Aubrina look alike. Here's one of her 3D pictures:

From 3D Ultrasound 8-12-08

We also confirmed that he's a boy. :) I can't wait to see him in person!

Baby Names

Today I'm 33 weeks along, and have 6 weeks left. The scheduled C-section date (March 17th) is one week before my actual due date (March 24th). I'm getting really excited to see this little baby! He's been kicking the heck out of me... I love it!

And after careful consideration, we decided on a name a few weeks ago. We will name him Robert Anthony Scianna. Robert is my dad's name, and Anthony is Mark's middle name. We'll call him Robby for short.