Tok's visit

Here are some pictures from when my mom came to visit us back in February. Well actually she arrived in late January before I gave birth to Sarah. She stayed for over a month and we really enjoyed her company, especially after not seeing each other for nearly two years. These pictures were actually lost when my hard drive decided to stop working but Daniel managed to salvage some of them. 

Feb 23 2012 - I love this picture because it seems like Sarah was looking straight at the camera.

Feb 24 2012 - Despite the smiles, the boys were all pretty much in a grumpy mood. Farhan spilled some ice cream on his shirt which explains that big spot, in which I did not think would appear too obvious in the photo but it did! And our little bean was all squirmy and making all sorts of faces. 

Sarah with Tok, the night before Tok left for Malaysia. Thank you Aunt Barbara for Sarah's cute outfit!

We took Tok out for dinner on her last night here. Unfortunately the food wasn't that great. 

 Sarah slept the whole time we were there.

 What Ezzat wrote in his planner.

Feb 25 2012 -  Sarah at 3 weeks (+1 day) old

Baby Pictures Overload

Sarah is 5 weeks old today. She has almost outgrown her newborn outfit although to me, she still looks like a tiny little bean. Her sleep cycle is getting better. She begins to sleep for shorter periods during the day and and wakes up twice at night to feed. Her neck muscles are getting stronger. She can hold her head for quite some time while laying on her tummy, turning it from side to side. And she loves to look around when we hold her up right. She does smiles and makes cooing sound from time to time. I'm not sure if those are real just yet but I can't wait for the true deal to happen!

Sarah at 16 days old. She just came back from an appointment with an audiologist.

At exactly 3 weeks

 With her daddy

With her big brothers before they went off to school

 Her 0-3 month pj is getting too small

Sarah at 4 weeks ( and 1 day) old, with brother Ezzat before her bath time.

Ezzat : "Can I pet her?"

For now it is so much easier to bathe her in the sink

The boys are getting used to having a little sister

Totally sound asleep after her warm bath

She loves to be held upright

Beautiful March Morning!

Woke up to this view. Apparently the seasons get a little bit confused around here. It snowed for 2 days in a row last week too. I love how crisp  and cool the air was this morning and it was absolutely pretty.

Water droplet with reflection of one of the houses on the street

Grammy's Visit - Day 3: Dec 23 , 2011

I had this post on hold for a long time since I was concentrating on other projects I ambitiously wanted to get done before the baby arrived. Procrastinating is never ever a good idea. I ended up losing all the pictures I took when Grammy was here since (if you've read my previous post, you might know this already) - our hard drive crashed two weeks ago. Fortunately I did upload a few pictures beforehand so even if it's outdated, for my memory's sake, I'm just going to put it up here.

We took a trip to Seattle on the third day Grammy was here. This picture was taken on our way to ferry terminal in Bainbridge Island.  

Views from the ferry

View of Bainbridge Island from the ferry with Olympic range in sight.

Nearing Seattle ferry terminal. The last picture shows container cranes at the Port of Seattle marine facilities, where several container ships are loading or unloading. 

Various view around the ferry terminal

Passing Ivar's, a seafood restaurant. Would like to go there one day since it got some good reviews.

Mother and son sharing some moments together

It was a beautiful day in Seattle considering it was in the middle of winter.

Farhan is in awe of the ceiling 

 Grammy is picking up some smoked salmon from Pike Place Market to bring back home

I am a happy person in the midst of these colorful fruit and vegies

 The Pike Place Fish Co. They got famous for their fish- tossing antics.

Pictures of Sarah

I lost all of the digital pictures I took of Sarah since she was born when the external hard drive went kaput. Luckily I have some hard copies that I've printed out. The scanned version is not that great but here are some for your view.

Sarah at 10 days old

Thank you G.Grandma Louise for this really pretty blanket and super cute hat that you made for Sarah!

Updates

I've been meaning to post this entry weeks ago but never got around to actually finishing it. There has been quite a lot going on in the Bonnin's family which I don't even know where to start. There's one particular thing that happened last night that makes me feel like I wanted to scream on top of my lung out of frustration. One of the external hard drives where I kept all the pictures that I took from June 2011 until yesterday, has crashed. The night before I accidentally deleted all family pictures from my camera SD card, the ones Daniel and I took before my mom left for Malaysia. Luckily Daniel was able to recover some of them using a software that he had to purchase online. And this morning our bathroom got flooded by overflow water from our toilet and the water managed to seep through the ceiling to another bathroom downstairs and flooded it as well. Even our garage got affected. Certainly not a fun way to start our week!

The happy news is we have a new addition to our family. Sarah Nabila Bonnin was born on Feb 3, 2012 at 8.21am, only 2 days shy from Maulidur Rasul. She was 1.5oz short of 7lb and 19.5" long. Daniel has been snorgling her ever since. She's certainly going to be her daddy's little girl. As expected, there are physical and emotional exhaustion involved, and my very productive milk glands are running my life nowadays. Sarah can be pretty demanding when it comes to feeding. She wants to nurse almost every hour. But this is not as hard as feeling bleary eyed and groggy all day long due to sleep deprivation, which is again - already anticipated. Thankfully, her brothers are old enough to be independent and do not need so much supervision. They've been helping me with  housework long before Sarah was born; cleaning their dirty dishes, vacuuming, emptying the trash, folding their clothes, making their bed, and cleaning their room and their bathroom. Daniel has been such a great helper too. He takes care of a few house chores for me and he certainly does not have any problems with changing dirty diapers especially in the middle of the night.

Sarah on her birth day - Feb 3 2012. The labor went very quick that there was not enough time for an epidural despite the fact I was planning to have one. Although it took me 40 minutes from the start of contractions to delivery, it felt like eternity. Once my water bag was broken, I went from having almost nonexistent contractions to having full blown contractions right on top of each other. Despite having had 3 previous vaginal births, I still wasn't prepared mentally. It was nerve wrecking especially when I started to feel my body started to push involuntarily and there was nothing I could do to slow down the process.

 Sleeping peacefully after being cleaned by some excellent nurses.

The boys were thrilled to finally meet their sister that evening. Ezzat especially has been asking to hold his little sister every time he sees an opportunity. 

  The boys with their Tok. Emir and Farhan were busy watching TV.

Feeling much better the next morning.

 We were so ready to go home after being in the hospital for 2 days.