Welcome to the world, Ayla Mae !

March 6, 2011

7:01AM

7lbs, 8 & 1/2 oz.

20 & 1/2 inches

And a nice dark set of hair!

I woke up this morning to Jonathan telling me that Alex had the baby and it was a girl. My first reaction: HUH?!

Alex wasn't due until the 10th so I didn't expect any big news this weekend. That combined with that being the first thing I heard when I woke up was definitely something. I remember just sitting there and thinking "How could she have had the baby?" It was so surreal! My mom had contacted Jonathan's sister and asked her to call the house to wake me up. Well, it worked! LOL. I went to my parents' house around 10 and we left for the hospital shortly after to meet the newest addition to the family.

Ayla is the sweetest thing. Those pictures don't do her justice. She is a tiny thing now but there is one thing I've learned since knowing Johnny: babies grow FAST. So, I want to be around the house more to enjoy her growing up. Between work, school and my new baby cousin, things are going to be nuts for awhile!

We got a real kick out of this. (My mom's name is Jackie.)

This was taken while trying to find the room - my mom was clearly very excited!

Aw, Oma! She started crying before she went in.

<3

I am feeling like a lazy blogger lately. So much stuff is happening...that seems to be when I have the least motivation to keep track of what's going on.

Last weekend was a busy one. Saturday night, we (my sister, Tiffany, Keiko, her boyfriend and myself) went out with Natali. Her boys took care of us and we had a great night...that is, until we left the club. My sister, who can barely handle one drink, had had probably 4 or 5. So needless to say she was gone. I had been drinking myself, though I wasn't very drunk, but tired and tipsy and in short, I just wanted to go home. Not to mention, it was freezing out! So I started to hail a cab but Robyn refused to get in. I had to keep letting the cabs go. Finally, I was so fed up, I got the nearest cab, Tiffany and I hopping in...without Robyn. I thought maybe if she saw us in there, she would finally get in. We kept calling my sister's name to no avail. Even the taxi driver started yelling her name but Robyn still didn't get in! So we sped off to the train station (I sound like such a horrible sister I know) and waited for her to stumble our way. After awhile, we realized she wasn't coming and the worst part is her phone was dead.

We made up our minds to go home anyway and I said a quick prayer Robyn would make it home okay. I knew she could take care of herself...but I couldn't help but worry. It was 3 o'clock in the morning after all!

I did eventually hear from Robyn, even though she was locked in her hallway until 6am when her roommate let her in (but that's another story) so I felt relieved. The loon had walked all the way to Times Square and caught the 7 train from there! No wonder we didn't see her at the train station we were at. Also, because she was locked out, I got a flurry of (laugh-out-loud-'til-you-cry-funny) pictures of her in the hallway. Tiffany and I parted ways at a train stop since I had to transfer and she stayed on. Jonathan had been out for Billy's birthday with my brother and had just dropped him off, so he decided to pick me up halfway home. When we had just pulled into the driveway, I got a call from Tiffany saying she suspected someone was following her. She wanted me to keep her company on the phone - no problem.

Only, there was a problem. This guy really WAS following her. All of a sudden, I hear shouting which grows louder and louder. Tiffany was yelling something like "Stop! Stop!" over and over. It was just....horrific. Since she wasn't responding, I got very scared and thought maybe this guy was doing something terrible to her. Jonathan grabbed the phone and started yelling her name too. We kept repeating "Tiffany, where are you, just tell us and we'll come get you!" What we didn't realize was that when she was fighting off this creep (who unfortunately ended up touching her very inappropriately) she didn't have the phone up to her ear. But she did have it in her hands and thank God the line didn't disconnect! We eventually found her in a not so safe part of Flushing (well it was dark so nothing looked safe). Not one of us mentioned going to the police. I think if it hadn't been so late and we hadn't been shaken up and maybe thinking more clearly, we would have gone to the police station. But as it was, we took her home. I regret letting her go off by herself at that hour. I guess I thought we were invincible - in our teens, we stayed out even later and got into even crazier situations - without any trouble! Go figure.

But the next afternoon, Tiff did go to the police and the search for this guy has been going very successfully I like to think. The detectives found the video in which the guy was approaching her! Thank God for heightened security in NYC. It's just a shame no officers were patrolling the neighborhood. Maybe now they'll have one or two cars going around.

Waking up that morning was rough. I think all of us who had gone out that night got a total of 3 hours of sleep. Jonathan and I had our 2 year anniversary that day (27th) so we exchanged gifts.

He did pretty good, huh?!

He also added a little extra stuff too. I really lucked out - because he puts thought into everything.

And I like to think I did ok too! ;-)

The next day, my sister turned 24. I met up with her early in the afternoon for a belated breakfast at IHOP. Ever since she moved, she's been hooked on that place! (She lives within walking distance of one.)

Later that night, we had a cake for her.

Jonathan and (a just-pulled-out-of-bed) Oma joined too.

A very pregnant Alex was there as well!

I will end this blog here - but more to post soon - with a very silly group shot!

birthday boy!

Guess which adorable little boy turns 2 today?

THIS GUY!

My 25th Birthday

I thought I was going to have a quiet little birthday celebration...

...boy was I wrong!

Last Monday, the 8th, I turned 25. Quarter of a century, if you may. One step closer to growing old. It was a good day. I woke up to birthday streamers and lots of love. I had lunch with my sister and Jonathan at a local bagel place (yeah, Robyn couldn't believe I had chosen that either LOL) and she gave me a very generous gift. My mom came shortly after to shop around a bit and she bought me a beautiful red jacket from Eddie Bauer. I was feeling the love that afternoon. That evening, Jonathan and I had dinner at Sea in Brooklyn, followed by cake at my parents' house. Alex, my glowing pregnant aunt who is almost 6 months now, joined in the festivities and that added to the fun. The cake (strawberry banana) was from Martha's Bakery and it was an instant pleaser. Anything from Martha's is, really.

Yay, baby!

Family shot <3

Jonathan's gift to me this year! I didn't know how he would top last year's Coach bag...but he did :D

That Wednesday, I had two tickets to see Elf the Musical, as mentioned in the last post. It was wonderful in every way -- set, acting, choreography, music, etc. It just had a feeling good vibe about it. A little bit of Christmas in my birthday week? Yes please!

Here is Jonathan and I with Sebastian Arcelus, who played Buddy the Elf.

That Friday started off ordinary enough. I don't remember a thing except that it involved coffee but I do remember the main event that day was Jonathan and I would be having dinner with Anthony and Gina. We did this last year because Gina's is two days before mine so it's the perfect joint birthday celebration. Small, cozy...just the way I like it.

We get to Danny Boy's, a local pub with a great restaurant in the back. It offers typical pub food but their burgers were SO good. This was my first time there so walking in, I didn't know just how good it was, of course. Anyway, the four of us walk through the pub to get to the back. Anthony shows me a few pictures on his camera of a beautiful butterfly or something like that. I'm completely into it but I look up as I enter the room, to see a sea of faces looking at me.

Faces: "SURPRISE!!!!"

Me: *looks from left to right* OH MY GOD!

Oh my dear God is right. Roughly 40 people were gathered there to celebrate with me. 40! I was so shocked that all night...literally all night...I was in a state of disbelief. I had missed all the signs over the past few months (even though, ahem, I swore Jonathan and my mother not to throw a surprise party for me). In the end though, after all was said and done, it was one of the best nights of my life.

One of the best gifts I received for my birthday though, besides the wonderful material gifts (Tiffany gave me the "Accidental Billionaires" book about the founding of Facebook that I had been wanting PLUS Marc Jacobs' Daisy perfume, only my second favorite perfume I would ever wear) and gift cards...was Jonathan taking off from work on my actual birthday to spend the day with me. He treated it like a real celebration and that is perhaps one of my favorite things about him, that all of life is a celebration. That attitude has certainly rubbed off on me. I should also mentioned my aunt Chrissy's gift to me, this book that I highly highly recommend, a journal with bible verses on each page and other odds and ends that I adored. Her card made me teary and touched me in a way that reminds me how blessed I am to have her in my life.

I didn't have my camera that night because well, I wasn't expecting that big of an event! I also wasn't even dressed up that much! I still rib Jonathan about that. He should have lied and said it was a fancy restaurant haha. Here is a phone photo a friend of mine took that night.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=596141171590&comments&ref=mf

That above link is the video of the surprise via Jonathan's posting on Facebook. I never tire of watching this!

A memorable day, week and now hopefully, year :D

old fart.

November is off to a beautiful start...

I turned 24 on the 8th and received this gorgeous Yankees bomber jacket from the parents! They definitely went all out this year. This gift was just one of many.


Jonathan and his parents surprised me with a cake at the end of the day! You can NEVER go wrong with ice cream cake.

This beauty (Coach) is my gift from Jonathan. He just earned major brownie points with this gift choice! (not that he needed it) It is a lot more purple in person. I'm afraid to get finger prints on it LOL.

He took my sister and I out to dinner at Jade. It's this fantastic Asian restaurant in Forest Hills. Highly recommended.

Robyn & I.

This really was one of the most memorable birthdays I've had in a good long while! It was just a great day from start to finish. JD & his family were nothing but good to me and the same goes to mine, as well as my close friends and all the birthday wishes I received.