Little Guppy

We signed Liliana up for the Guppy swim class at the local recreation department. Our friends also singed their twin daughters up for the class, so every Monday and Wednesday evening we all go to one of the city pools for the class. We are hoping that the class will make the girls more comfortbale in the water before the neighborhood pools open up in May.
Last night was Liliana's fourth class. She wasn't a fan of the pool or the class on the first day, but now she seems to really enjoy it. Usually we both go in the water with her and take turns with the activities, but last night just Varun went in so Christina could take some pictures. Each class is only half an hour long, but we try to get there a little early to just play in the water before it starts. Some of the things we do with Lily in the class are jumps from the pool edge, dunking, back floats, kicks, and reaching for toys under water in the shallow end. Here are some pictures of her class last night.

Getting ready to go! She loves her new flip flops!

Standing in the shallow end on her own.

Back Floats!

She is pretty good at moving along the side of the pool with her hands.

Hanging out with friends after class.

Feb/March Travels

Over the last few weeks we have been traveling quite a bit. At the end of February we went to Las Vegas to celebrate Christina's 30th and birthday and deployment homecomings. A few of our friends from Fort Collins flew out as well. We stayed with Varun's friend in North Las Vegas. It was really nice to get a little break from the craziness of the strip (especially with Liliana) since we were staying at their place. We spend most of our time there sightseeing and trying new restaurants. On Saturday night (Christina's birthday) we went to Emeril's Fish House at teh MGM Grand for dinner and saw Cirque du Suleil Love at the Mirage. Dinner and the show were both awesome! We also had a chance to try our luck at some of the casinos while we were there. We came out up 25 cents at the end of the weekend. Here are some pics of our trip.

Red Rock Canyon

The entire group after brunch at the Bellagio (definitely the best meal of the trip!)

A few days after we got back from Vegas, we took a trip to the east coast to visit Varun's family. We spend the week realxing and catching up with Varun's family friends. While we were there, Christina's parents and brother came up for the weekend to visit as well. We also took a trip to NYC with Vinay one day. We took Liliana to the Central Park Zoo. We had a chance to meet up with Christina's cousin and his family in the city for dinner. We took a little road trip to central New York to visit our friend Kim from North Carolina. She recently got married and is now pregnant with her first so we had a chance to catch up and meet her husband. We had a very busy week catching up and visiting with people we have not seen in a while.

Photos from Connecticut

Celebrating Vinay's 21st with Tequila shots

A few NYC pictures

Fun Filled Weekend

Last weekend was a three day weekend for Varun so we thought we would take advantage of the long weekend by taking some small day trips. On Saturday we went snowshoeing with some friends at Rocky Mountain National Park. It was 50 degrees and sunny in Fort Collins, without a trace of snow. Just under an hour away, there was quite a bit of snow for us to hike through. We walked for 3.6 miles through the snow while Liliana relaxed in her carrier. We stopped for 2 breaks so we could eat a snack and let Lily play in the snow for a while.






On Sunday we took a trip to Denver with some friends who have twin girls close to Lily's age. We went to lunch at Casa Bonita which was a strange, but entertaining restaurant geared towards kids. We sat near a waterfall where divers were doing back flips and somersaults into the water below during our meal. There was also a short play while we were there. In addition to the "main stage" there were all sorts of amusements and activities in the restaurant. After lunch we headed downtown to the Denver Aquarium. Although it was not nearly as exciting as the National Aquarium in Baltimore, we all still had a good time. Lily LOVED the fish. She even got to touch a starfish and a hermit crab's shell while we were there.

Casa Bonita



Denver Aquarium

Liliana's Birthday Party

We invited some friends over for dinner on Saturday and had a birthday party for Lily. We made some of our favorite asian dishes for the dinner. We had fresh spring rolls, asian meatballs, indonesian chicken, rice, and roasted vegetables. The asian meatballs were a new recipe we tried and everyone loved them! For desert Christina made strawberry cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting. Christina also made a few decorations for the party to go with Lily's ladybug theme. Lily was pretty clueless that the event was for her, but we think she had a good time.

Happy Birthday Liliana!!!

Yesterday was Liliana's first birthday! We can't believe that she has been with us for one year now. She has brought so much joy and laughter to our home. She amazes us everyday and has quite the sense of humor. This is what our Liliana is up to at 12 Months:

* She is still a little peanut! Yesterday she weighed 16 pounds, 6 ounces. She is in the 50th percentile for height and head circumference, but is below the 3rd for weight. The doctor does not seem too concerned with her weight, but we are hoping she will gain a little more after starting whole milk.

* We are not sure why she is so small because this girl eats a ton! Some of her favorites are blueberries, sweet potatoes, yogurt, cheese, and oatmeal. She eats most foods we give her. She still is not crazy about banana, but she will eat banana flavored things.

* She is a walker! She still prefers to crawl, but every now and then she will walk to her destination instead of crawl.

* She has become very vocal. She loves to babble and even scream (we need to work on that one). She now says daddy, dog, mama, ball, and hi.

* At 12 months Lily is now sleeping 12 hours a night. She is usually in bed around 7 and is up around 7. Yay!

With the exception of her 12 month well baby visit, she had a wonderful and busy day! We started off the morning taking a few photos of her in her last picky sticky. Then we headed to the doctor for her appointment. She was in such a good mood during the appointment up until she had to get her shots and a blood test. After her appointment she slurped down a peach-banana smoothie and Christina took her to the mall. Lily got a few things from Gymboree (which we usually don't buy since it's so expensive) with a coupon we got in the mail the other day. After a brief shopping trip we met up with our friend Beth in Old Town. Lily loved her birthday lunch out with the girls. She gobbled up a big bowl of Parmesan pasta and a fruit salad. She even sat in the booth like a big girl since the restaurant did not have any high chairs available. Varun came home from work a little early and we took Liliana out for dinner at Zquila followed by a trip to Babies R Us to pick up her birthday toy! When we got home Lily got to open some gifts she got in the mail and she listened to her new hallmark story book Grandma and Grandpa Kapust sent her for her birthday.

She had fun playing with her balloon while we got ready for dinner.



Varun picked out this tunnel/tent set for Lily's birthday. It is huge! This is just a part of it set up in the living room. We'll move it to the playroom after her party tomorrow.

Diaper Dash and First Steps

Last weekend Lily participated in the Huggies Diaper Dash at the Babies R Us in Fort Collins. The Diaper Dash was a crawling race in which the winner would get a 3 month supply of Huggies diapers. There were 5 races held in the morning and a championship race held at noon. After we signed Lily up for the event we were given a packet of rules for the race. The babies couldn't leave the race mat, stand up, or walk during the race or they would be disqualified. Parents were allowed to use snacks and toys at the finish line to get their child to race. So, Saturday morning before the race we practiced at home using some of Lily's snacks and toys. She did awesome at home, crawling as fast as she could to us. We thought Lily had a pretty good chance at winning! We ended up taking her Penn State Football (one of her favorite toys) and a Strawberry-Banana squeezable smoothie with us to Babies R Us for the race. When it was Lily's turn to race, she took off crawling fast leaving all of her competitors behind. She stopped crawling about 3 inches from the finish line and sat still on her hands and knees as she stared at the parents in front of her. We tried everything we could to get her attention so she could finish the last few inches of the race. Meanwhile, the other babies slowly began to catch up to her. Lily just sat. A little boy caught up to her and decided to sit with her. Both babies within inches of the finish line. After about 30 seconds, the little boy crawled ahead of Lily and crosssed the finish line. Although she didn't win, it was fun to see Lily out there with the other babies. We took her out for frozen yogurt at Spooners after the race. Here are some pictures of the race.

Getting Ready to Race!

She's Moving Fast!

Stopped as the other babies catch up!



On another note, Lily began to walk last week! She shocked us one night after dinner when she decided to walk from the recliner to the TV stand. Since then, it has been hard to get a good video of walking. This is the best one we have so far.

Breckenridge

Last week we took a short trip to Breckenridge, Colorado. Breckenridge is a popular ski resort town about two and half hours away from Fort Collins. We loved the town and hope to get back there before ski season is over. While we were there, the town got over 36 inches of snow in 48 hours. Our hotel was within walking distance of the Main Street Historic District, so we were able to walk around and do things without driving in the snow storm. In our two days there, we checked out a few restaurants, went cross country skiing with Liliana, went on a sleigh ride up the ski slope, and even spent some time at the Breckenridge Medical Center. Liliana came down with a fever while we were away, so we took her to the medical center in town and found out she had her first ear infection. With the exception of Lily not feeling well towards the end of the trip, it was nice to get away as a family for a few days and relax.

The beginning of the green trail we started off on at the Breckenridge Nordic Center.

Varun got quite the workout tugging Lily along in the Pulk Sled. She stayed very warm and cozy in there with her blankets and toys.

Liliana took a very long nap after spending the morning on the trails.

Getting ready for our sleigh ride. Lily loved the horses but kept calling them dogs!