Best Ever

Here are a few things in my life right now that I think are the Best Ever:

Amelia is dressing herself these days.

Shirt is backwards, both legs through one leg of her skort. She's a crack up. Her most common words are "I do too" or "Me do, me do" as in, Back off mom.

Fels-Naptha.

This stuff is for real. I read about it on my friend Landen's blog, and I was skeptical because the stains I deal with are blowouts, chocolate, spaghetti, kid stuff. And I haven't found luck with anything. Until now. Fels-Naptha, it works every time! Disclaimer: it did not work on old stains that had already gone through the washer and dryer, bummer.

Maya's rolling.

Amelia and I were playing 3 little pigs and we heard Maya's babbles getting further and further away. So we went looking for her and we found her in the bedroom under our bed! She had to turn 3 corners to get there! She thinks she is so sneaky.

The perfect chocolate chip cookies.

This recipe is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe right now. I love to try new recipes, and this one is chewy and delicious. I add a bit more salt, not quite 2 tsp of vanilla, and I always use Milk chocolate chips. This cooking blog is also my favorite right now, especially for desserts.

Amelia wanting to show off her cuteness.

 I get Amelia dressed and she says, "Daddy show" and runs to show daddy. I put her hair in this ponytail bun today and she had to show daddy, which meant we took a picture and sent it to him at work. 

Maya driving the shopping cart.

 I love this picture. Maya taking charge with the wheel, Amelia being a big sister and making sure she doesn't fall. Maya is sitting up great in the cart now and is obsessed with the wheel. She was so tiny hanging onto the wheel with her little bum right at the edge of the seat.

The Olympics

Loving the Olympics this year. This is the first year I am really into it since I was a kid watching with my family. Who knew there was so much drama in watching sports! I love the emotional highs and lows. 

Maya is 6 Months

This post is 2 weeks late. Mostly because I can't believe my baby is 6 months old already!

• Maya weighs in at 16 lbs 9 oz and is 27 inches tall.
• She is full of smiles ALL THE TIME.
• She has started eating baby food, and likes to clamp her mouth shut pretty good when she sees the spoon approaching. I am less stressed this time because little by little it did get better with Amelia.
• She has recently taken a liking to Squash mixed with rice cereal. The only food she willingly opens her mouth for.
• She is a chatterbox, and likes to be heard loud and clear. She does complain with a very loud screech when she wants attention, which is just delightful (not really).
• She is a momma's girl. She will be hangin' with Juan, but if she hears me come into the room, she will whip around and just watch my every move, and smile any second that I look back at her. I love it.
• That said, she can fuss when she's with other people sometimes, but has done great with babysitters this past month so that's a relief.

•  She sleeps great. But does cry herself to sleep so we have to put her down to bed before we sneak Amelia in a couple minutes later each night.
• Her eyelashes have grown in thick and long. And her big eyes are to die for.
• Her cheeks are irresistible, and she gives me a very confused look when I blow raspberries on them.
• She is sitting up! She can entertain herself for much longer now that she's up and able to look around. 
• She loves to go swimming and just lounges in the pool like it is the most relaxing place in the world. She even took her evening nap the other day in her hippo tube!

Peace out.

Look-a-likes

Now that I have our childhood pictures scanned, you can bet you'll see a few nostalgic photos posted here on my blog. This particular post is where I show how Amelia looks like Juan and Maya looks like me.

Juan and Amelia:

 Exactly the Same. Especially the eyes.

Cami and Maya:

I'm the baby in the pic with Ginger, there are those irresistible baby cheeks. Pretty close to Maya's. And the nose and mouth and baldness, haha. She's one-upping me with her gorgeous big, dark eyes.

It was hard to find a non-smiling picture of Maya, she's such a happy baby!

Speaking of looking alike, want to see Maya with a wig?

Amelia at 6 months old

For real, here it is with the hair cropped out:

Looks like Maya to me! I say this to Amelia every day as I'm brushing out her hair and she's crying in agony, "One day Maya will get hair too, one day."

And I do have some current pictures to show off:

 Maya rolled her way into this corner, which took a lot of finagling on her part, and she played like a big girl for a good 20 minutes.

 Our days still look like this.

 My heart melts when I see these little set ups of Amelia's.

We enjoyed a fun night at the park last evening. The weather was breezy and beautiful.

Potty Training 101 plus a full update

I figure I'm an expert now, since I've put in a 4 hour block of potty training this morning. Ha! We came out of it with 2 successes, and 1 accident. And then I quit while I was ahead-when she looked at me just before lunch and said, Diaper Please, I was ready for the break too! I guess I'm not the potty train in one day kind of mom. My goal is to have her potty trained by 2 1/2 years old, that's still 2 months away! And along the way we'll be cutting down slowly on diapers, today we are -1, and if we do another 4 hour block tonight, we'll be -2 on diapers. Sounds good to me.

We did have fun. And for the record, the first time she asked for her diaper back, I said no, and it paid off. So I am not giving in every time. Amelia amazes me every day. She is so adamant in her refusals, but she always plays along when we make it fun. We used the doll and she would be so excited to put her doll on the potty. And then she got a treat and got to call daddy when she finally went. 

As for Maya, she wants to be a big girl so badly. She wants to eat real food, she wants to run around, or at the very least scoot. And sometimes I try to rush her too! She is close to sitting up, and getting too big to be carried in the carseat, so I am constantly trying to force her to sit up like a big girl in shopping carts and high chairs.

As you can tell by the second pic, she's not a fan. Of course I don't want to speed up her growth, but I also can't wait for the day that she and Amelia can run around together and she can keep up. I dream of those days! But I also love my baby. She is falling asleep more often in our arms now. Juan always calms her to sleep during church, one of his many dad skills. So with that comes more snuggling, she wasn't as cuddly as Amelia was/is, but she's getting better. And her smiles are the absolute best in the world! I will be stern with Amelia, sending her to timeout, then I'll look down and see little Maya grinning up at me and I can't help but break my disciplinarian mode and melt into a smile too.

And me and Juan. Our new favorite game is Dominion. Our friends Andrea and Matt introduced it to us and we played many nights in a row with them. Then they decided to move on us (boo) and so we bought it and Juan and I have played every night this week! We are losing another couple friend of ours in August, so sad. Our friends here have just saved us when it came to moving away from family, and Steph and Cameron moved in right at the same time as us. The upside is they will be back in one year, but we'll sure miss them.

We have been watching The Bachelorette every Monday with our friends. I am loving Jef with one f. He is my favorite, but I think she'll pick Arie. Sean is a little on the boring side for me. I am on the last book in the Shopaholic series, they are the funniest book I've every read. Ok I realize my update is making me sound very shallow, but hey, I am having fun! I am working on getting back into the more serious things like my scripture reading and exercise schedule. I know I am happiest when I do those things each day.

And Juan, he works so hard and has good and bad days at work. I love that he puts in so much work for our family and I also love that home is his favorite place to be. Juan is the best father, I can't say it enough! We were apart for Father's Day, and I sat in church with Amelia and Maya. Amelia was so excited to see the kids get up and sing their Father's Day songs. Then she listened to the words and got sad, she looked around and then looked down and softly said to herself, Daddy work. It was the saddest thing I'd seen. But also made me happy to know she loves her daddy so much and truly misses him when he's not around. 

 Pictures from our early Father's Day celebration.

We had the best 4th of July week. It is not quite in the 100s here, which for Texas means it's not too bad yet! We are still getting to the park and on walks and the heat is bearable, I just don't leave the house between 1 and 6 pm, it's nap time and dinner for us anyway. I feel like the summer is only just beginning!

At the parade

Juan's Birthday

Juan turned 28 this weekend.

It was SO fun to celebrate Juan's birthday with Amelia this year. 

We went shopping in the morning, and every time she got bored in the stroller, I just had to remind her we were shopping for daddy. 

And she had to help me wrap the presents.

I put her down for nap and told her when she woke up, we'd celebrate daddy's birthday.

Well she woke up and immediately was squealing with delight and took a lap around the kitchen.

And then she really woke up and realized why she went to the kitchen, and ran back in to show daddy his cake in the fridge. 

She was thrilled every step of the way, loved celebrating her dad.

Juan got new basketball shoes, a pair of grown up shorts, a grill pan, and our new favorite game-Dominion.

We went to dinner to Texas Roadhouse. 

I love going out with our little family.

I got Juan a Tres Leches cake.

Our grocery store makes the best.

And out friends Cam and Steph stopped by to help us eat the cake.

I'd say it was his best birthday yet.

Bonus treat, a video of Amelia making Maya laugh.