First Visit to the US - wedding & after

Saturday morning

Our beautiful sister Shana before the wedding

Malachi and his uncle Patrick and great-uncle Duane... receding hair...?

Malachi hanging out with his aunt and new uncle Tyler

What a stylin little guy

Three sisters

So excited to have Tyler in our family

Eric and his brother Kevin

Malachi sleeping through literally the whole reception

Jet lag

On Monday we had a little more time with family.

We took Malachi on a walk, and he met the puppies.

On Tuesday we headed to the Cities, got his 3-month pictures taken, did some shopping, and crashed before flying out Wednesday morning. When we got to the airport we saw that our flight to Chicago was canceled, but thankfully they were able to get us on an earlier one. We said a hasty good-bye to our moms and were able to quickly go through the first-class security line. The flights went well, and we made our way back home safely!

First Visit to the US - travels there & pre-wedding

A couple weeks ago Malachi made his first trip to the United States. We went back for my sister's wedding and had a really good time.

We had a heavy laden trip by taxi, train, and subway to the airport as we wanted to take advantage of our 5-bag allowance plus diaper bag, two carry ons and two personal items. (Thanks, MiQi, for helping and running through the train station to catch your train back!)

Malachi did pretty well on the flight and even did some sleeping in the bassinet.

We got in late to MSP, but our family was patiently waiting. They were all pretty excited to see Malachi. And maybe Eric and I too.

This trip was Malachi's first time in a car seat!

On Thursday I got my dress fitted, and we helped decorate for the reception. At night was the bachelorette party.

On Friday we got to have brunch at my grandparents' and Malachi had his first exposure to blood sausage. We also got to have down time with family.

In the evening was the rehearsal and dinner. The three of us dressed in the traditional clothes.

Baby Spa

Today Malachi got a special treat: time at the baby spa.

Well, it's not actually a spa, but it is a special place for babies to have a bath and go swimming. Not a lot of people have heat in the winter, so it's a lot better for them to bring their babies and small children here to have a bath. They provide the sinks/tubs, shampoo, soap, towels, etc. What we were interested in though was the swimming. It's popular for babies to "go swimming" as young as two days old here - even right at the hospital. Malachi loves his baths, so we thought it'd be fun to try it out!

Here's the special room. They're usually located on the second floor of baby stores.

They put a floatie gently around the baby's neck!

Malachi had a lot of fun kicking around his little pool.

After swimming it was bath time.

The woman with us did a great job.

(Eric just wished we had a nice high sink like this at home to give baths in.)

Then she put him on a big soft table and dried him off.

She dressed him and even trimmed his nails.

He was one happy baby!

The total cost of swimming and bathing was about $5, but you can get a punch card for less per time. I don't know if we'll get the card, but I think we'll take him again!