Romy's First Haircut!!!

The famous Romy mullet has been laid to rest. No more curly tendrils covering her eyes or being mistaken for a little boy from the early 90's. I'm not quite sure why, but I was the only one who wanted her hair cut. Everyone else tried to talk me out of it.  I was so sick of her hair covering up her cute little face that I had to sit Ray down and have a long talk about the pro's of cutting her hair and FINALLY he caved. Next up? YaYa. She was a tough one to break but luckily she did. I promised to only cut her bangs so that she could finally see a world free of hair strands. However, the stylist did talk me into trimming her "free form rat tail"- her words not  mine. So she ended up getting an inch or so off the bottom as well. Sorry YaYa, I promise to not cut any more length off for a while.

Anyway, we took her to a kiddy salon that specializes in little rugrats that don't want their hair cut. It started off rough, Romy didn't want to sit in the cute little airplane seat so Ray plopped down and Romy sat in his lap instead. Then came the tears. By the way Romy was screaming you would think that the stylist was spraying her head with acid and not water and that she was ripping Romy's hair out instead of cutting it. That lasted a few minutes until the stylist handed her a cup full of cookies. She immediately calmed down. Is there anything kids won't do for cookies?

It didn't last long and it turned out super duper adorable. Romy got a certificate and a picture and we saved a few locks of her hair. It kind of makes me sad that the hair she was born with is no longer attached to her head but it had to be done.

Here's before and after shots:

Before:

During:

After:

Also, here's a few videos of Romy's little adventure-

Also, Happy Memorial Day everyone! Please remember the true meaning of today and that it isn't just a day off of work to BBQ and veg out. Remember the fallen, those who gave their lives so that we can enjoy ours!

Go Lakers!

Since I was born in Los Angeles (Hollywood to be exact!), it is in my nature to be a Lakers fan. This means Romy is too- no matter how much Ray hates it.

Gosh she's beautiful, huh?

Funny Nugget

What Would You Do?

She's a Flavor to the World.

I realized today that Romy is not much of a baby anymore. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks as she  gingerly took my cherry flavored icee out of my hands and sat there holding this massive cup and taking sweet little sips from the foot long straw as if it was an everyday occurrence to drink out of big people's cups. As Ray and I admired her 'big girlness' she then proceeded to dump the entire contents of said icee over her head and dress. We were in the middle of Target at the time so I didn't get a picture but it was pretty funny.

Here are some pics from today at the beach. Isn't she so GROWN??

She's so limb-y.

I love her little funky feet. I can't get enough!

Romy and her famous angry smile.

Sweet Pea

Luscious little lashes.

Sick of being photographed!

Sweet

Music, Mother's Day and Genetics

I just realized that I never blogged about how Romy's music therapy has been going. She's been in it for about a month and a half now and it's been really wonderful.  She works one on one with her therapist and it mainly consists of singing songs, playing instruments and stuff like that. It doesn't sound like much but it works! They use techniques that I can't really explain clearly but it just has this beautiful effect on Romy. She strums away on ukulele's and "sings" along to her own music. Her favorite by far is the piano. She'll bang away and giggle and talk. Lately she's been saying "Play? Me play? You play?" or "Look" to bring your attention to her piano playing.  She has even begun to sing along with the actual words (other than coo's and babbles) in one particular song. Oddly enough, it wasn't her therapist that pulled it out of her, it was none other than Justin Bieber.  Romy goes absolutely crazy for his song "Baby" and will sing the word 'baby' over and over when it's on. It's so adorable. Oh and just so you know, I don't listen to Justin Bieber- I have a 10 year old obsessed niece.  Just sayin.

Anyway, Mother's day has come and gone and it was spent relaxing at home. Honestly, I was still beat from our Maui vacation that I just didn't feel up to doing much. Ray and Romy got me a few books and let me take a delicious 2 hour nap. Ray also did the dishes unprompted (completely unheard of!) and that was all it took to make me have a wonderful Mother's day.

I also never blogged about Romy's genetics evaluation. As most of you know there has been some concern about some of Romy's puzzling symptoms for some time now. Back in Texas they were thinking she possibly had a certain syndrome but that has now been ruled out. While that was a huge relief, they still aren't 100% sold on ruling out any kind of genetic malformation. They are definitely leaning towards ruling it out but we're still kind of stuck in genetic limbo. They think that there's a huge possibility that  Romy's CP, size and delays are completely explained by her extreme prematurity but because there is no concrete reason for my troubled pregnancy and Romy's ridiculous eyebrows they want to do another blood test to see if anything pops up. She's already had 3 and they've been normal thus far so we're pretty positive. Back to her funky eyebrows, Ray and myself could not think of one person in our families that had eyebrows like she does. Then one day my biological father's face popped in my head. I remember he had super thick unruly brows but the memory was still a bit fuzzy. So I emailed him my concern and he looked over her pictures and is completely sold on her having his and my aunt's (his sister) eyebrows. I'm trying to get a hold of some pictures so I can bring it by the genetics office. Hopefully it will match up and we can get one step closer to ruling everything out completely. Fingers are crossed.

This is Romy's new face. She does it whenever she doesn't get her way. Such a funny girl.

This is how I found her this morning. Although she's been able to push herself into the sitting position for months, she's never done so in her crib. I think it's time to lower it all the way. Once we can teach her to safely get down off of furniture, we'll make it a toddler bed! Also, you see that hair? Say goodbye to it, Daddy finally caved and gave the green light to cut it!

A Very Maui Anniversary!

Ray and I just got back from a quick 4 days anniversary vacation in Maui. Trips alone are very few and far between so it was really nice especially since Ray will be deploying soon. My sister was kind enough to watch Romy and the dog the entire time. Thanks Lisa! I really enjoyed sharing a place that I love with Ray. We packed in as much sightseeing as we possibly could and he loved it. We both did. While I was working on a cruise ship back in 2005-2006 we docked in Maui for two days a week. I explored it as much as I could but it was never for more than a few hours at a time. I vowed to come back and really soak it up. Having Ray come along was a lovely bonus.

We stayed in Lahaina at the Aina Nalu. This place was stunning! We booked a studio and they upgraded us to a swanky 2 bedroom suite for free! I forgot to get pictures of the salt water infinity pool and jacuzzi but those were ridiculously fantastic as well. Our favorite part of the hotel? The bathroom. Lol. The shower had a rainfall shower head and was made completely of stone. It wasn't uncommon for us to take multiple showers a day because it was that awesome.

We don't need no stinkin' shower curtains.

We went on hikes just about everyday and searched for little treasures everywhere. Maui is the home to some intense beauty. It was everywhere we looked. Don't get me wrong, I love it here on Oahu but there is something almost magical about Maui. The day we got there we came across these little gems:

Ray 

They call those "Dragon's Teeth." They're some weird rock formation made by lava, wind and surf.

Dozens of little sea urchins. 

Later that day we spent the rest of the evening eating dinner and having drinks at one of the many ocean front restaurants on Front Street in Lahaina Town. We slept in a bit and headed off to find the Nakalele blowhole. We have heard that sometimes the blowhole really goes off and geysers can stream over 50 feet into the air. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite that active but really awesome nonetheless.

 

Don't be fooled, those little pools can hold at least half a dozen swimmers.

Ray

That night we had our anniversary dinner at Mama's Fish House. Their seafood is out of this world tasty. We had vanilla bean buttered prawns, super duper fresh mahi and some lilikoi (passion fruit)  creme brulee that Ray said was so delicious that he couldn't stop smiling....and he doesn't even like sweet stuff! 

They should just change their name to "Yum."

After dinner that night we walked around for a bit and went to bed early. We had to be up early to catch our tour bus at 2:30 the next morning. We took a tour to watch the sunrise over Haleakala which is a massive dormant volcano. It was SO worth the early wake up. I can honestly say it was akin to a religious experience. The word "amazing" doesn't even begin to describe the it. We were sleepy and freezing but as soon as the sun began to peek out we were completely mesmerized. The pictures don't do it much justice, I think every single one of you should experience this in person at least once in your lifetime. Seriously! Do it! 

It begins!

Almost....

There's the sun!

So surreal!

It's so awesome to watch the sunrise ABOVE the clouds.

On top of the world!

The following day we did the famed "Road to Hana." It's a 40 mile long and winding (over 600 turns!) road to a gorgeous little town called Hana on the far east side of Maui. There are so many wonderful sights along the way. There were also little fruit stands with fresh tropical fruit and a little metal box for money as they almost all used the honor system method.  I found a stand selling apple banana's which I'd never heard of and they taste just like the name. I also got my hands on the biggest avocado I've ever seen it's literally the size of Romy's head. They also sell a lot of banana bread a long the way too. We also found waterfalls galore, a couple of black sand beaches and even a cave.

That waterfall is 200 feet high!

Unbelievable!

Looks photoshopped, huh?

This waterfall literally took my breath away.

A volcanic black sand beach!

Yes, I am aware that it looks like he's holding poop but I wanted a close up of the sand.

Yet another picture of Ray in paradise. (Someone's gotta be behind the camera!)

A shot from the inside of a cave!

We spent our last night back in Lahaina just relaxing and soaking in all of the awesomeness.

A cruise ship and a half sunken sailboat in Lahaina Town

Front Street

Our last Maui sunset.

And that, my friends, was our fabulous mini Maui vacation. Although we both missed Romy terribly and found our conversations drifting towards her and all of her cuteness, it was really nice be alone together in such a beautiful place. We're having a total love affair with the islands and are making plans to visit the other one's soon. With that I will leave you with much Aloha!