Welcome!

Elijah James Backlund
May 31st, 4:19am
8 pounds 7 ounces
20 inches
eyes: blue
hair: red

So, our little boy is here. As you can see he came early Wednesday morning...and, much like Alia, we made it to the hospital just in time. In fact...the thing that took the longest was having to wait for the Dr to arrive before I could begin pushing. Then, three pushes, and 7 minutes later-out came Elijah James! And our lives are forever changed, again.
We came home Thursday and have been trying to readjust ourselves. He's a big sleeper right now...and eater...and pooper. Jason and I have already been pee-ed on...and Alia loves to talk about baby brother.
That's all I have time for now. I will keep you updated as I can...

Enjoy the pictures.

Capturing moments...

40 weeks, 4 days

Some action!
Yep...we've had a bit of action around here. I'll spare you the details (to which you would respond, "too much information, Trish") but a baby is on the way. We happen to have a Dr appt this morning too. The heart rate is good/amniotic fluid is good and there are some regular SMALL contractions. I did wake up about 2am with contractions that were 6 min apart for about 2 hours. But, lo and behold...they subsided.
Anyways...I am now 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced...and am officially in early labor. We are hoping to take a walk this afternoon to try to help things along. But, the Dr is hopeful for a baby either today or tomorrow.
We'll see...as we all know, you never know what might happen.
Keep praying!

40 weeks, 3 days

Still waiting.
Enough said.

40 weeks, day2

Still waiting....

So, I guess yesterday would have actually been 40 weeks-day 1. I think.
Anyways...we walked a few blocks this morning to breakfast, then down to the beach. Walked along the beach a ways...then I decided I had had enough, so we turned around.

And still, we wait....

Day 0 = 40 weeks prego

So much for being early...40 weeks is now here. I figured that I'd include a picture for all of you interested in seeing how hippo-like I am. *sigh* Keep checking back cause once he comes...we'll let you know. As you can tell...things are getting a bit tight. This kiddo needs to come out because pretty soon nothing is going to fit me!

-4 days

Went to the doctor today for my weekly checkup. Everything looks good. She did an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid level-there's plenty of that stuff in there. She also wanted to monitor his heart rate and that looks good too. According to her, I am officially 1cm dilated and 30% effaced. So, for whatever that's worth, that's where I'm at right now.

Is baby brother here YET?

Well...the answer to this question is, no, he's not. We're still awaiting baby brother Backlund. We technically have until the 27th but the DRs have told me week after week he'd probably come early. So, it looks like the Backlund children have minds of their own (Alia was a week late). Each day I wake up I think to myself "Shoot! Another night went by and nothing!". Someday SOMETHING will happen. But for now, here's a picture of Alia in their new stroller, wishing her baby brother were here. But for now, Elmo will have to do.

Lemonade comes from Lemons!

My parents have some lemons trees in their backyard so one day we all decided to go out and pick them. Grandma would pick them, and Alia would carry them to the big bucket. Then, what else does one do with lemons other than make lemonade!? So, Jason got out the juicer and he and Alia juiced the lemons. Alia had a blast. :) We were juicing lemons for days but we're finally finished.

Grow flowers, grow!

We've has some pretty nice days here, so we decided to plant some flowers. Alia helped rake the dirt and put the seeds in. We planted some real colorful Zinnia flowers. Every time we walk by them Alia squats down and says to the dirt, "Grow flowers, grow!" We noticed yesterday that they are starting to come up...little green sprouts are coming. Alia can't wait to see the flowers.

Future Cubbies fan

Some friends of mine threw a little baby shower for our soon to come baby boy. Jason's grandmother had this little outfit sent for him. Needless to say, Jason can't wait until he can wear it! Even though we're not in Chicago, he'll still be born a Cubs fan.

Happy Easter

The day before Easter we had a little Easter egg hunt with Alia, her cousin Avery, and her buddy (boyfriend) Jacob. They had lots of fun looking for the colorful eggs. Alia's favorite part was opening up the eggs to see what she could find in them...would it be stickers, cookies, parachute men, whistles, or play-dough molds? She loved them all.

Our little trooper

So, Alia was the biggest and bravest little girl anyone has ever seen! She did wonderful today at the hospital. It all started late last night-about 11:30pm. Since she couldn't eat anything after midnight, we woke her up to feed her a little yogurt and bagel. She looked at us like we were crazy, but she gobbled her food down. We arrived at the outpatient center about 7:30 (for a 9:30 surgery). We waited a while and then she was called in to get changed and have all her vitals take. She was amazing! She didn't cry or fuss once ounce! As they took her blood pressure, weighed and measured her, and did a few other things Alia just sat and watched. She looked around while I tried to remind her of the things that Curious George did in her book. We then went back out into the waiting room until they came and got her again to go in. Jason took her back (they wouldn't let me go since I'm prego) and held her hand as they strapped her to the table and put on the laughing gas mask. Still, no crying or fussing!! She then fell asleep...for only about 20 minutes-because the surgery was over almost before it even started. I went back after she woke up and sat with her for about an hour while she came out of the "fog".

So, my little trooper didn't seem to be scared at all, and didn't cry at all! It was such a blessing to me. To top it all off, after she took her nap this afternoon she was completely back to normal-running around at 50mph.

Thanks for your prayers...and enjoy these pictures.

Pictures...

Here are some pictures of Alia's moments today at the hospital. Here is a nurse taking Alia's blood pressure-is she not the cutest thing? (Alia, of course) :) :) Daddy and Alia after she changed into her "special jammies"...AKA hospital gown.


Mommy and Alia upon our arrival at the "Outpatient Surgery Center".

Tubes Tuesday

So, it's finally come. Alia's first trip to the hospital is Tuesday-she will get tubes in both ears. We took her Friday to pre-register her, so now it will look somewhat familiar to her. We've made the necessary preparations-bought the Curious George goes to the Hospital and have been reading it to her, told her she's going to the hopsital Tuesday to "have her ears fixed" and bought her a little post surgery gift. Since I'm prego I don't get to go with her to do the surgery prep...thank the good Lord Jason doesn't have to work-he'll go with her.
So, if you are reading this, please say a little prayer for my sweatpea...and for me. :) I'll let you know how it goes, and maybe I'll have a picture for you. We'll see.

It's a....

BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well...you can't see it too well because of how I scanned it...but it's true, Alia is going to have a baby brother. Pretty fun news for us. We had an ultrasound done a few weeks ago and I decided I wanted to know what our baby was. After all, so much of our life is unsure...it's nice to have something that you know is for sure. :) At least it is for me. So, Alia has been talking about her baby brother, and she greets him with a kiss in the morning and another one before she goes to bed. It's pretty cute.
I am now 32 weeks along-with only 8 weeks to go. Hard to believe that in 2 months we'll have another child. I am counting the days though, as things get more uncomfortable for me. It will all come soon enough. :)

27 weeks

Here it is...the first picture taken (and published) of second time prego me. We took this today...at 27.5 weeks. Not too much longer now. It's hard to believe we're going to have another bundle of joy (and energy!).

Curious George

So, today Alia had a real treat. Her daddy and I took her to see the movie Curious George. This was her first real movie she's ever watched (you can't count the mom's movies I went to when she was real little). She loves monkeys so we were hopeful that she'd watch it. As you can see in the picture she was pretty entranced by the big screen. She brought along her big monkey with her. She did real well-just got a bit squirmy a few times...but she watched the whole thing. And even laughed a few times.

A mom worries...

So, we took Alia to the DR for a check up on fluid filled ears. The DR told me that her ears are still filled with fluid (it's been about 2.5 months) and that we need to take her to an ENT. With her learning language she needs to be able to hear 100%, otherwise her speak could be delayed. So, I'll call tomorrow and make an appointment. If the fluid is not gone, ear tubes are probably in her near future. Jason and I both had ear tubes (Jason 3 times!!) and the DR said that it is hereditary. So, my cute little Alia may have her first trip to the hospital soon. *sigh* I can't stop thinking about it...the sign of a true mom, I suppose.

Valentines Day

On Valentines Day we had a nice evening at home with my parents and some family friends. Here are two pictures of Alia-one in the cute outfit she wore all day, the other is of her in her jammies...all ready for bed.

Putting together words

In the past three days Alia has discovered the art of putting words together! It seems like I've been waiting forever for her to do this...and now she is. It's really cute. Today we were driving in the car and she said to me, "Mommy, Elmo book." Some other phrases she's said are: stinky diaper (I wonder why!), animal crackers, grammas car, daddy please, more please. It's amazing how fast she's putting things together!

I'm a little fishie!

It's been pretty warm here-in the 80's! We decided to take Alia in my parents jacuzzi in the backyard. She loves it. She is getting more and more confident in seeing how far she can go without falling. We have dunked her under a number of times also, I wouldn't say she loves that...but she doesn't cry. :) We are hoping to get her in some swim classes soon-to get her more used to the water. Here are some pictures for you.

Counting!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...I can officially say that Alia can count from 1 to 5. We've been working on it a while now, and all of the sudden this week she can do it. We have some counting books and when we ask her how many bugs/flowers/etc she sees she points to them and says, "one-two-three-door (four)-five". It's pretty cute. You can tell that she's real proud of herself. I'm proud of her too.
She is learning her colors...if she pays attention she can get her colors, but sometimes she just says all the colors hoping to get it right. Her favorite colors right now are brown and blue. Oh, and orange. It's amazing how fast she's learning. We work on things every day...and all of the sudden everything clicks. It's crazy.

"Matching"

A few weeks ago I bought Alia the game called "Memory". It's the old game where you have a bunch of cards and you try to find the match to the one you pick. Usually the game is played with the cards turned upside down...so you have to remember where each card is. Well, I decided to try it with the cards face up with Alia. She loves it! I tell her to find the doggies, or pizzas, or horsies and she looks for the two cards with that on it! She gets real excited when she finds a match. Now, whenever she wants to play the game she points to the box and says, "Matching". Some days I feel like we've created a "matching" monster.

The new house!

Grandma Barb got this fun little playhouse for the grandkids and we put it up in the back yard. Alia and her cousin, Avery have both enjoyed playing in it. These are a few pictures that I think are especially cute. I wonder where Alia learned to talk on the phone like that!?!? It couldn't be from her mommy talking to her Auntie Mary so much. :) Teeheehee

He loves me, he loves me not

In honor of Valentines Day coming soon...Alia is pondering her little love life with a flower.

My Best Friends...

Last week we went to Shoreline Village in Long Beach and walked around. We found this adorable little car with Alia's best friends in it! She ran up to it yelling "Burt! Ernie!!" Once she was sitting in the car, she had a great time taking a ride with Burt and Ernie.

Some of my favorite things...

Alia's favorite...
Food: quesadilla ("dilla")/pizza/apples
Drink: milk
Book: anything with Elmo...but at dinnertime it's her Bible
Song: If You're Happy and You Know it (clap your hands)
Bathtime Toy: box of bugs (little plastic bugs.she loves them)She even makes the "hopper" hop!
Bedtime Pal: her fishy-it's a multicolored clown fish
Bedtime Routine: Singing Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus loves you, then saying her prayers
Playtime Place: Gymboree! Gymbo the clown goes up and down...
Toys: right now it's two things 1) a bucket of zoo animals and, 2) her tea set (she always wants to play "tea")
Exericse: dancing around. Any time music comes on-she moves and grooves

I'm living in the LBC, baby!

Alia's cousin left some sunglasses at our place, and Alia found them and has made good use of them. Here she is with her Cubs visor and her USCB sweatshirt...ready for college!

Mommy and me

Just a little picture of mommy and Alia.

Cookies

I was making cookies one day and Alia was "helping". While they were cooking, she came and sat right in front of the oven and watched the cookies baking. Eventually she pointed to the cookies and said "cookie!". It was pretty funny. So I took a picture.

Baby Jesus

One of the ways we've tried to help Alia understand about Jesus and Christmas is to get her own nativity scenes-ones that she can play with. This is a fisher price little people nativity scene. She loved playing with it. When you push the angel on the top it plays the music for "Away In A Manger".

Surprise!

Oh boy...just what I always wanted! We spent Christmas morning with my brothers family in Phoenix...what a time it was! Here's Alia, obviously excited about something. :)

Christmas Time

Here's Alia checking out the Christmas tree and presents.

Here comes Santa Claus...

So, yes, Alia saw Santa Claus this weekend. The only reason she got to see him was because he came right next door! Yes, THE Santa Claus was at the house next door to us! :)
My parents' neighbors put together a toy drive every year and they bring in Santa on an old fashioned Fire Trick (seen in the background). It is quite an event-with crafts, 2 bouncy houses, refreshments and SANTA! :)
Alia liked Santa but from a distance. She blew kisses at him and watched him from afar-always wanting to know where he was. When we went to take the picture with Santa alia would have
nothing to do with being close to him...in fact she
cried when I tried to stand her on the fire truck.
She is still talking about Santa. Every time we go
out to get in the car and she sees the neighbors
house she says, "Santa. Bye-bye".

Food

Food, yummy food.
Alia is eating her yummy pasta dinner. You can tell from her face that she is enjoying each bite.

Tea Time!

Here is Alia playing "tea time" with her froggie, or, as she says "roggie"...and her "unkin".

Surprise!

Surprise! Here's the latest news from the Backlund household! Yep, this picture says it all...Alia is going to be a BIG sister! Can you believe it?!! Most days Jason and I can't. :)
I am currently 12 weeks along (through the 1st trimester) and due in late May. I haven't been feeling the best, well, let's face it, I've been feeling crummy! But we are hoping that that phase will be over soon. We are sure Alia will be a perfect big sister...she can already say "sister". It's pretty cute.
We'd covet your continued prayers for our future...a job, and now a new baby!

Our Little Monkey

One of the first animal motions/sounds Alia could make was a monkey. Because of that, I thought it would be fitting to have her be a little monkey for Halloween. The weekend before Halloween we drove to Arizona and spent the weekend with my brother and his family. Alia wore her "monkey suit" for the first time at a party we went to with her cousin. On Halloween night we stayed home and passed out candy. Alia wore her "monkey suit" the whole time. At first she wasn't sure what was going on, as people came up to us. She got real scared at one costume/mask this guy was wearing. After a while she figured things out and even wanted to give people candy! All in all she had a great night.

Alia's favorite past-time last night was playing in the bucket of candy. Here she is digging deep in it.

Here is Alia in full suit-hood and all. It was much more challenging trying to get her to keep her hood on...but she actually kept it on last night for a good stretch of 30 minutes or so. She liked pulling it off. There were also little feet pieces that went over her shoes-they looked like monkey feet.

In Daddy's shoes

Alia thought it would be fun one day to "put on" her daddy's shoes. She got them on, but sure didn't get very far!

Turtles

Yesterday Alia and I went to Long Beach's Aquarium of the Pacific.
I got an annual membership for myself and it has already payed for itself! We go on Monday mornings when it's not as crowded and stay for about 2.5 hours. Just enough time to walk around and have lunch. They have facinating jelly fish (jellies), beautiful fish (fishies), shark (shrk), otters (otters), and, of course turtles (turtles). Yesterday Alia made friends with a diver in one of the aquariums. He was cleaning the glass from the inside and Alia waved and him. He waved back, so Alia blew him a kiss. He blew her a kiss back. This went on for a few minutes. Then they waved bye-bye to each other. Another social moment of Alia.

Cutie Pie

Alia was playing and climbing on this diaper box...having a grand time. I shot a few pictures just for the heck of it.

Carousel Ride

Jason took us out one afternoon to "have some fun". He drove us to downtown Long Beach where we ate lunch, and "some fun". Alia took her first carousel ride! She had a lot of fun. and so did daddy. :)

Time in Oregon

At the end of August we spent some time in Oregon with my family. Grandma had some toys for Alia and her cousin to play with...this is one of them. Alia liked getting into it, but had a little trouble getting out.

Our adorable daughter...

...to see some amazing pictures of her, visit:
http://public.fotki.com/mkirk/alia_backlund/
Our friend from Santa Barbara took these pictures.
Jason and I are SOOO fond of then.