Wow, what a crazy, insane and upside-down week-and-a-half. There was no update last weekend because of how much stuff was going on…like birthdays, Easter, babies eating real food for the first time, surprise visits from in-laws, etc.

It all started with Jina’s birthday, which was a lot more low key than usual. Her birthday was Thursday, but I had to work and ended up taking Friday off instead. We did a birthday dinner at Joe’s Farm Grill on Thursday night, and just enjoyed a fun day out and about on Friday. We hooked up with Dave and Josie (in town from Austin, TX) plus kids to have lunch, which was a great time.

That Saturday was absolutely beautiful outside, cool temperatures and breezy conditions…so we hit the mall for awhile, then  spent some time sitting outside by Starbucks enjoying the weathers. My mission this past weekend (and today) has been to soak up the chilly temps, because 90+ is coming in a few days.

Two other huge events happened this past weekend. The first was Jina’s parents coming in town.

I’d known about it for weeks and she had no idea. I got my homework done on Friday night, did yardwork on Friday afternoon to get it out of the way, and secretly cleaned the guest bathroom Saturday night. Heck, I woke up early on Sunday, mumbled things about our house needing to be cleaned, and vacuumed, dusted and cleaned up the kitchen all before church.

And all the while, doing it without her suspecting a thing. It was seriously one of the best things I’ve ever done. I’m horrible at keeping surprises a secret.

The plan was for them to come in Sunday night and appear at the door when she was expecting someone else, but her parents couldn’t make that flight. This forced some quick thinking on my part to somehow get her to NOT go to work without suspecting her parents were in town.

I had already gotten her the days off, told the sitter Lyla wouldn’t be there this week, so on Monday morning, with about 15 minutes before she had to leave for work, I told her she wasn’t going in today and I would tell her what was up in a little bit.

Her parents landed at 6:20am, and would be here shortly. So I pretended that I was finishing up some things at work on the computer while I prayed and prayed that they’d get to our house quickly.

With Jina borderline irritated with me for not telling her what was up, they arrived, knocked on the door, she answered and was blown away. Tears streaming, hugs and kisses…it was awesome. She was so excited to spend two days with her folks…they hadn’t been in town since Lyla was born.

The SECOND big event was Lyla herself. We finally decided to give the rice cereal a chance on Friday night. She sat in her little Bumbo, Jina got the stuff all mixed up and I grabbed the video camera.

The result is in the video below…needless to say, she loved it.

She’s getting better and better at it every time. Now she’s actually listening to me when I say “Lyla” and hold the spoon in front of her. She actually stops looking around, focuses on the spoon and I sort of guide it into her mouth.

Of course, sometimes she just lunges for it which is absolutely hilarious.

There have been new vocals coming out of her the last few days, like this weird little “aahhhhh” sound which I of course repeat right back at her. She’s doing better at tummy time, pushing herself up a lot more with her arms, even coming close to rolling over…even if we’re not quite there yet.

Her 0-3 months clothes have finally gotten too small and the bigger stuff is fitting nicely.

This weekend we’re meeting my mom, step-dad, aunt and uncle at the Botanical Gardens for the Chihuly: Nature of Glass exhibit, which should be a lot of fun.

I have a massive, 1400 word paper due on Monday, so that will be taking up a large portion of my weekend…not to mention the start of the NBA playoffs (sans Suns).

On a side note, thank you to Adrian and Nicky for allowing us to “crash” their family’s Easter get-together on Sunday…it was so nice to be able to share the day with good friends.

Also, in even bigger news…my brother got married a week ago and he and his wife Jennifer are expecting a child in around eight months. He’s so excited to be a dad and I’m proud of him and happy for them. Congrats little brother!