Coping With A Parent Who Travels

I just tucked Delilah in for her afternoon nap, she is so sweet.
She likes to fall asleep with her pink stuffed giraffe, I wind it up and it plays Rockabye Baby... she just lays down listening to it until she drifts to sleep. Sometimes I will crack the door open and just watch her, she's so innocent watching laying there listening to the lullaby. I love her so much.

This week Ryan is in Australia, he toured Sydney over the weekend...

When he is away, we try to do Google Hangouts to keep in touch. Ryan can so silly sometimes on them to make Delilah laugh...

The Hangout sessions really help her cope with having a parent who travels. When she was an infant, she didn't show many signs of missing him, as she probably didn't understand he was gone. I believe she was 18 months old when she first showed us that she knew he was leaving, we were driving to the airport, Delilah was strapped in car seat looking out the window... when we got off the 405 freeway at the LAX exit, she quietly said "bye bye Dada". It was pretty significant, and somewhat heartbreaking, to hear the instincts of such a young child. The older she gets, the more she understands that Daddy is away. This week she has been clingy to me, she would rather fall asleep with me by her side. Usually I will turn on a movie and sit with her on the couch, she will lay there until she falls asleep. It's a little out of our routine, but I think making adjustments to help her is the best thing I could do for her.
Ryan travels nearly once a month, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. He has been all over the world, and is flying to Tasmania on Saturday, marking his 25th country visit! I'm so happy for him for getting to travel and explore the world, it is truly a luxury, and he absolutely deserves it. He is a hard-working man, and is such a good person (and Daddy!).

Cookies & Ponies at the Irvine Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to the Irvine Railroad Pumpkin Patch in Orange County!
It was just us girls, since Ryan was in Utah for a company trip.

We really love going to this pumpkin patch, it was the first pumpkin patch Delilah ever went to... so it's pretty sentimental to me (emotional Mommy moment, sorry!).

This year Delilah was much older, and was able to do much more than be strapped onto my chest in a baby carrier. Here's a photo of her first visit compared to our recent visit...

How cute is that itty bitty 3-month-old face?!

She's grown so much, and still won't look at the camera when she's playing 'train conductor' lol.

This year she watched horses...

played in the pumpkin patch...

I made her candy corn tutu, but she's the one who made it look cute:)

decorated her own cookie...

...and even rode a pony!

She has so much fun when we go to events like this, I love it so much. 

Here's one for the record!

 27 months old

Catching Up! ...plus an Alaskan adventure!

It has been way too long since I've updated this!
I could go back and try to update each month, and I may do that at some point... but that seems like such an overwhelming task to do just to update to present time...
so I'll just start from now.:)

Miss Delilah is 27 months old today! 

She is talking and communicating and progressing perfectly.

There was a good 3 or 4 months around her 2nd birthday when I was worrying about her speech, but I quickly realized that Delilah is her own person, she moves at her own pace, and is doing so flawlessly. So I let it go, I quit stressing and dropped the constant attempts at speech lessons and just let her be... and she amazed me with her speech in no time.

Some of her favorite phrases are:

• ohhh noo!
• uh-oh!
• I see, I go.
• Where's Dada?
• Let's go byebye, get shoes.
• Let's go outside.

Her favorite foods are:

• apples
• Cheerios
• baby corn
• oatmeal
• seaweed
• string cheese
• and apple juice!

She likes to dance, play outside, draw, help Mommy sweep, feed her fish, swing, and seeing dogs.

Delilah just went on her very first road trip!

We flew from LAX to Seattle, then to to Anchorage, Alaska! We stayed the night in Anchorage, drove to Fairbanks, stayed the nights, and drove back down to Anchorage.
We had the best time, everything went perfectly... and considering this was a last minute sporadic trip across Alaska, that is pretty awesome!
Here are a few pictures from our adventures!

 Day 1, Delilah finds a 'wishing flower' and gets up close and personal with the Alaskan Rail

 Mommy & Delilah at Mt. McKinley... the tallest mountain in North America!!

Mommy, Daddy, & Miss DK about to walk a trail at Mt. McKinley

Delilah giving Mommy leaves and rocks she found 

 Delilah exploring in the woods 

Delilah and Ryan climbed over the boulders to the rapids of the river! Pretty brave!

We stopped every so often to get out and explore, this particular stop was a really super experience! We climbed down the hills to the river, drank fresh Alaskan water, and collected rocks to throw off the bridge (Delilah's favorite part!)

Delilah and her Daddy! 

The Alaska Airline wing pendant on top was given to Delilah by am Alaskan Airlines flight attendant... she must have been a VIP flyer!

There's a good bit more pictures and some video footage of our trip, I just wanted to add some of the highlights. This was the smoothest most memorable trip I've ever been on, we had a wonderful time and will always look back on it and smile!

 I do believe Delilah proved to us she is a good traveler... more opportunities to come her way, I'm sure of it!

I suppose that is all for now. I will try to get back into the habit of updating this, until then!