We are Landlords!

When we first found out about our move this summer, our first thought was, "What should we do with our house?" One of us wanted to sell and one of us wanted to rent. Can you guess who wanted to sell the house? So, we decided to put the house on the market last month for both sale and rent. Our house has been on the market for 6 weeks and until this week we have had only one phone call and zero showings. We were beginning to get a little stressed since we close on our new house next week and leave for Colorado in less than 3 weeks.

Last weekend we decided to list our house with MilitarybyOwner.com. What a difference that has made! We have has a few interested people in less than one week's time! Thursday night a new family at Pope came to look at our house. They came back again last night and signed a leasing contract. We are so excited, relieved, and nervous. It was nice to be able to meet them before we moved. They seem like a nice family. We aren't really sure what we are getting ourselves into since we do not have a property manager, however we are relieved to not have two mortgages to cover.

We will miss our North Carolina house. It was a great first home for us and we have a lot of great memories here. We hope that our renters enjoy the home as much as we have.

The Rubber Spatula

The other day Lily grabbed a rubber spatula. What do you know? It's her new favorite toy! She has abandoned her links and keys for the orange spatula. As soon as she sees it, she kicks her legs and squeals with excitement!

Oatmeal and 4 Month Stats

For the past few weeks, Liliana has been eyeballing everything we eat. She plays in her highchair during our meals so she can be at the table with us. Recently she has started to stare at us while eating and now she reaches out and grabs things on the kitchen table. Just last week while we were on vacation we went out to lunch at a local restaurant. Liliana reached out and grabbed my lunch basket and tried to get it into her mouth. So, we decided that we would give solids a try when we got back home from our vacation. Our first day back at home, we decided to let Lily play with her spoon. She put it straight into her mouth as soon as I gave it to her! We wanted her to get used to it before we started feeding her. The next afternoon, we were ready to give solids a try. We decided to skip the rice cereal and started with whole grain oatmeal as Lily's first food.

Before:

During:

After:

Liliana had her 4 month appointment today. After her appointment we got to hang out with Varun at work. We had lunch on base for one of Varun's friend's going away party. We had a great time and Liliana was so playful with everyone, despite having 3 shots earlier in the day. Here are her 4 month stats:

Weight: 13.1 pounds (25th %)

Height: 23.6 inches (25th %)

Head Circumference: 15.6 inches (15th %)

OBX

We spent the last week vacationing at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Christina's parents rented a house for the week in Nags Head. The house was located 150 feet from the ocean and had great ocean views. The house was also dog friendly, so were also able to bring Finnegan with us as well. We had an awesome time relaxing and spending time with family.

We're not sure who was more popular on the beach, Finnegan or Lily. Both of them seemed to attract so many people! Although Finnegan was terrified of the waves, he met a few doggie friends in the neighborhood and had a blast running in the sand. Lily was looking good in her hot pink swimming suit. She LOVED the waves and the ocean breeze.

We took Liliana to see the Wright Brothers Memorial and the Cape Hatteras Light House. She earned her first souvenior patch and pin from the National Park Service as we toured the exhibits, even though she fell asleep during the Wright Brothers presentation and tour. We also had a chance to get out and do things without Liliana. Grandma and Grandpa Kapust were thrilled to babysit, so we were able to go out to eat, play golf, and play on the beach without worrying about her.

We were so sad to leave the beach yesterday. It was definitely a vacation we will always remember. We hope to make it back to the Outer Banks next summer!

Our first day at the beach. Lily was a little unsure of the water at first.

Of course we had to visit the Wright Brothers Memorial. Lily slept through the entire visit.

We took a drive down the coast to Cape Hattaras to check out the famous lighthouse.

We enjoyed our lunch date with Margaritas on the deck of the restaurant.

Lily and Uncle Tommy playing at the beach.

Grandma and Grandpa Kapust taking Lily for a walk.

Aunt Amanda and Lily relaxing in the sun.

Finnegan's first trip to the beach!

4 Months!

Liliana turned four months old yesterday while we were on vacation at the Outer Banks. Lily has now grown out of her 0-3 month clothes and is growing like a weed. She will have an appointment next week so we will have an update on height and weight. Unfortunately, Lily no longer sleeps through the night. She is up now at least once a night to eat again. We think she will be ready for solids in the near future.

Some of Liliana's Four Month Milestones:

* She discovered her ears and hair. She likes to fall asleep with one hand grabbing onto her hair.

* She is outgrowing the swaddle. She loves to have her hands free while sleeping.

* She stands up with support. She dances away when we hold her up.

* She tracks us with her eyes as we move around the room.

* She reaches out and grabs dinner plates, newspapers, toys, and even Finnegan's tail!

She loves sitting in her high chair!

Liliana went to her first baseball game this month. We took her to see the Durham Bulls.

She loves to stand up!

Baby Pictures

Almost everyone we meet says Liliana looks just like Varun. Sometimes we can see a little Christina in Liliana, but we both agree that she looks more like her daddy. We found a few baby pictures of us from our wedding slide show and thought it would be fun to post them along with pictures of Liliana to compare.

Varun

Christina

Liliana

A Future Swimmer

Last week we took Liliana to Fort Collins, Colorado to house hunt. She did awesome on the flights, sleeping through most of them. We were very lucky that she also slept through the two layovers we had :) Lily got so much sleep on the plane rides, she did not want to sleep at all when we got to town. Our first night in the hotel was horrible! Our wonderful baby who usually sleeps 10 + hours a night without waking, was up every hour from 9pm until 6am. We finally decided to ditch the hotel crib and we let her sleep in our bed. So much for us getting any sleep, but at least Lily was happy and slept well the rest of the trip.

Our hotel had continental breakfast and an indoor pool next to the breakfast room. After breakfast our first morning, we brought Lily to the pool. She loves taking a bath so we were hoping she would love the pool as well. We were right, she loved it! At first we put her legs in the water and then slowly dropped her lower and lower. She kicked and smiled as we swam with her. We kept her in the pool for about 15 minutes and she loved every minute of it.

Kicking non-stop

All wet after Daddy dunked her in the water