Is that a monkey?

So, Naison has found the art of climbing! I know it is normal for boys to climb but he is on everything. The kitchen table, coffee table, chairs, toilets, dog bins in the pantry, and so on. He loves to climb and does it every waking moment. I sure am going to have my hands full when this baby comes. Don't get me wrong...I am blessed to have a healthy child that can climb, I just needed to tell someone what I am going through!

Have to add to this post because this is what I found this morning....

...and he didn't even tip over! I love my little monkey!

Easter!

We went to my mom's on Easter morning for an egg hunt, breakfast, and then church. Naison got a really cool Easter basket at Grams and Papa's too! Of course he wanted to eat all the candy first! Sometimes I wish he never knew what candy was because he throws a fit for it.

There sure were a lot of egg hunts this year! You think Nais would get the hang of it, but no, he would get one egg and then open it and want to eat what was inside and not hunt anymore. So, we had to help him out a bit.

Thanks mom for having a great Easter!

Egg Hunt With The Sylvias

Kirsten and family came to our community egg hunt this year. I think this is the first year that the kids actually were able to participate. They had a lot of things to do...egg hunt, music, an Easter bunny, bounce houses, face painting, and food. They had it broken up into age groups, so it was nice all the little kids got to go first.

Hmm...wonder who let Naison have his own cotton candy (daddy) and wonder what Naison's favorite part of the day was? I guess we will never know. Thanks for coming and hanging with us Sylvia family.

Robyn and Family come to AZ

My friend Robyn, from college, and her family came to AZ for a visit last week. They do a family trip somewhere every year and this time it was AZ. It was very exciting because this is the 1st time Kirsten, Robyn, and I were together with our kids. We did a bunch of different things while they were here. Our first meet up was for a DBacks game.

We went swimming at Robyn and Paul's aunt's house and she traced them in chalk...they loved it! Nais also had his first otter pop!

One morning, we went to the zoo and met one of Robyn's friends, who also was in town with her kiddos, and saw all of the animals, played on the playground, and played in the splash pad.

We went swimming at The JW Marriott pool.

On the last night they were here we had a college reunion night and all came to my house and hung with the kids. We played outside at the water table, ate dinner, gave the kids baths, and tried to get some pictures of them together!

And, we went swimming in the Aviano community pool for one last playtime before they headed home. We had such an amazing time hanging with the Gentiles. I hope they can come back soon...we are missing them already.

MMR Easter Egg Hunt

The weekend before Easter, my mom's club had a spring party that involved an Easter egg hunt too. I invited Kirsten and KK to come and join the party. There was food, decorating Easter bags, decorating cookies, a bunny craft, and an Easter egg hunt!

One of the mom's in my group Kirsten went to high school with! Small world right?...and her name is Amanda. Here is her son Chase with Nais and KK. It was so hard to get good pictures of all the kids looking at the camera. After the egg hunt the kids happened to find the splash pad! So, we let them go in even though we had no swim stuff. They all had a blast. We love water in AZ!

Easter Playdate

A few friends of mine from Stroller Strides came over for an Easter playdate a couple of weeks ago. We had so much fun!!! We had food, drinks, decorating Easter buckets, egg hunting, eating candy, and playing! Thanks to Stephanie and Alaina for doing most of the planning!

Here are some group shots we got...Shelley got their attention by singing...Hey, whatever works. Best group shot of this many babies/toddlers I have seen in a while!

Mama Shahnaz comes to AZ

Vafa's mom, Shahnaz, came form TX a couple of weeks ago to visit. She stayed with us one night and watched Naison while I went to work. She stayed with Vafa's sister, Venous, the rest of the time but we got to see her a lot. Naison LOVED hanging with her. I am so glad she got to come out for a visit and see all the grandkids. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures.

These are from the mall play area and Mama's new hair do!

1st Diamondbacks Game

First of all...I am way behind on blogging, so I have a lot to catch up on. We went to an AZ Diamondbacks game a few weeks ago with our friends Ara and Iris. This was our first DBacks game as a family and Naison's first game too. We were in a club area so there weren't really any seats to sit in, so it was great for Nais. Naison had lots of fun running around and watching a little bit of the game. He loved the popcorn! Hopefully we get to go to some more games this season.

Celebrating the life of Nana!

My grandma, Nana, passed away on April 8th, 2011. We are so very sad to see her go, but happy that she is not suffering anymore. She had lung cancer that spread to her bone, liver, and spleen so she was having a lot of pain. Nais and I went to visit her about a month ago and I am so glad we did. I am happy that she got to see him walking around and saying some words. He even says "Nana"! I know that made her extra happy!

Here are some pictures from our last visit:

My Aunt Beba was her primary caretaker, and they lived together, and I know she is so sad to see her go. Hopefully Beba will find some peace knowing that her mommy isn't in pain anymore, but I know it will be hard and take a while.

Nana was my Dad's mom, my grandma, and Naison's great grandma! I have such great memories of visiting her every summer in Arkansas. We went camping, fishing, ate lots of yummy food that she made, picked plums off the trees in the backyard, learned to crochet, shelled peas, played in the backyard, played in pop's shop, picked up cans and turned them in for money to buy fireworks every 4th of July, and so much more. I will never forget all the fun stuff we did as kids growing up with Pop, Nana, and Beba! I am pretty sure I got my love of baking from her. She used to make cakes, cookies, candies, pies...you name it, she could make it...and it was delicious. Thank you Nana for everything you have ever taught me and all the love you gave me over the years! I will miss you always and I love you so much!

Here are some other pictures from our visits with Nana:

Hawaii Trip Part 2

Our friends Matt and Lorien, their daughter, and parents also came to the conference. Naison and Elle had a lot of fun playing together. She is a little bit older than he is but they got along great. Lorien's parents were so wonderful with the kids...they even watched them a night so we could all go to dinner.

We woke up early one morning so we could go feed the fish on the beach with Elle. Here is a picture of the boys and their kiddos too! Matt and Vafa were resident together.

We went to a luau one night. Oh My Gosh...Naison loved the show so much. It started to rain a little bit and this nice lady that worked there that Naison made friends with let us go under the covered seating so he could still enjoy the show. We also managed to get some pretty good pictures with nice backgrounds.

Here are some random pictures from the trip that I like.

Here is our best family picture.

And here is my favorite picture of the trip! I love that little face!!!!

So, as you can see, we had a fabulous trip! We did manage to get sick, but we didn't let it ruin the trip. Naison was vomiting one day, then I was the next , and then Vafa the day after that. The good thing was it didn't last very long. And on a sad note...my Nana passed away on Friday. It was sort of expected but still very sad. I love you so much Nana. We will miss you. That will be my next entry.

Hawaii Trip Part 1

Amazing...is all I can say about Hawaii. We had a wonderful time in Oahu last week. Vafa had a surgical conference to attend, but we managed to get lots of vacation time in as well. We played in the pool, in the sand, and in the ocean. I think Naison enjoyed to pool the most.

Naison learned to jump on the bed, he saw lots of fish outside the hotel in the ponds, and played a lot in the grassy areas outside. He also did some lounging in the cabanas.

We met up with a friend of mine, Melissa, that I went to nursing school with. It was so great to see her! It's been a long time! I think Naison really likes her because every time she took a picture of him he smiled instantly.

We also met up with another friend of mine and her daughter that I worked with a few years ago. She came to Hawaii on a travel assignment and stayed! We went to the zoo for the first playdate and then to the Dole Pineapple Plantation the second playdate. The kids are only 3 days apart do they loved playing together. It was so nice to see you Tiffany and Peyton!

Next up...Hawaii Part 2.

Spring Training

Shelli and I took Nais and met up with a few friends at a spring training game. Our friends from college Kat and Graham and kids were in town visiting so we got to see them too. This was Naison's first spring training game and I guess mine too. It was kind of hot but there were lots of snacks so Nais was fine. He can do anything if it involves snacks. We sat in the lawn so the kids could run around.

Here is Kat, Kirst, and me...

...and Kirst, me, Nais, and Shelli!

Despite the heat, Nais had a good time, so maybe will go to some games next year too. We will try a DBacks game this year too!

Children's Museum

We took a trip to the Children's museum, at the end of March, with a few friends from my mom's club because Elmo was going to be there. I should have known that there would be way too many people in line to see Elmo. We didn't end up meeting him, but we saw him! So, we just stayed in the museum and played. We visited some rooms we had never been in so Naison and his friends seemed to have a fabulous time!

As for other updates going on in our life, we have a few. Naison is getting 4 teeth at once right now...all up top. He seems to be doing fine with it...thank goodness. He has also been saying a lot more words. Some of his favorites are: uh-oh wawa, dada, mom, baby, Max, doggie, out, up, and wawa. He also repeats a lot of words and tries so hard to say some of the words we are saying but they just don't come out right. I will try to get some on video. That's all for now.