Obsessions

Amelia Learning

She has been so good at coloring and drawing lately. And she is obsessed with letters. She will come running in and say, Mommy I found the letter for Daddy's name, a big hook! And I said, yeah which letter? and reminded her it is J. And she said, yeah J for Daddy! Almost... It is so fun to have her showing interest and saying, what's that letter? when we are out and about. She was not interested for a while. And still has no interest whatsoever with numbers, but we are learning a lot of letters!

These girls playing together
They are so good with each other. If I have the playroom semi-tidy, they will play up there together for long amounts of time! And if Maya isn't following Amelia, she gets really upset and tries to force Maya to play. There are screams here and there, but mostly they are best friends.

Craigslist
This is my obsession people. And I have to ban myself from it. When I am on the search for something, I literally cannot sleep. I am just thinking about if the people will email me back or maybe it already sold. It is not healthy. But I have sure got some pretty good deals.

 All this for $25. The scooter and the bike are basically brand new, for $10 a piece! And Amelia is getting really good at the scooter and just figured out how to (slowly) pedal her big bike! I am so proud.

And this table? Got it at a garage sale with 6 chairs, for $50! The only garage sale I've been to in months. It was meant for us :) I really love it. It is gigantic, with the leaf we could easily fit 10 around it. It was so nice to trade in our tiny table with mismatched chairs/folding chairs.

Maya is growing up

She is growing up too fast! She kicked the binky last week, poor girl had some pretty intense sob sessions where I almost gave in. And she has gone peepee on the potty a few times! I really don't want to potty train her this early, but she has shown signs of asking to get her diaper changed even in the middle of the night, and I thought I'd just let her know she has other options if she so chooses. She has asked for the potty by herself, once after a bath. And it was awesome. But that was it. So I'll just let her take the lead on that one, the girl is only 18 months.

  

Amelia's sleep
Amelia naps every day and is very obedient at night. She stays upstairs after we put her down and she doesn't get into anything. But she has been in the habit of falling asleep in the hallway right outside her door. She will move herself back to her bed about 10 pm or whenever she realizes a bed is much more comfy.

 Maya saying I Yuv Ooo
Maya melts our hearts by saying I love you now. It is the cutest thing you will ever hear, so I captured it on video!

Summer Fun!

As much as our family isn't really a sun-lovin' family, we are really really enjoying our Texas summer. I am just in love with Texas and I'll go ahead and say I do love the winters more than the 100 degree summers, but this summer thing isn't so bad! With our pool right across the street, and splash pads all over the place, we sure have a lot of fun. 

 The girls really surprised me and got soaked!

 They are usually dainty little ladies, getting their toes wet and one corner of their swimsuit, but they loved this particular park!

 Maya did whatever the big kids did.

 And Amelia, she surprised me the most! There was a bucket that filled up and dropped, and she would stand right under that bucket, waiting to get soaked!

 Amelia is motivated by friends and is more daring when she sees them. We've been seeing some friends more and more and she is loving it!

 We also took our annual visit to the Teddy Bear Surgery that my friend Kasee does for work each year.

 We saw some friends there.

 Maya brought Minnie Mouse and Amelia brought her purple monkey Kiki.

 Isn't this the most adorable event ever?

 Maya giving Minnie Mouse kisses on her stitches.

And then we spend a lot of lazy days inside which I love:

 And don't forget free slurpees on 7/11! Amelia thought hers tasted like licorice, which she has shortened to call licor. So it was my favorite when she'd come asking for her slurpee and say, "Mommy where's my liquor?" Love it.

Last night we went to the library and then took a walk down main street and got Kawaii Ice. It was the best evening out as a family and I told Juan I wanted to do it once a week!

Visiting Grandma Rose

On Juan's birthday, we received news that his mom was very sick in the hospital. So a couple days later we packed up and headed out to Wisconsin to see her. 18 hour drive, Juan drove all the way through. And I was a very reliable passenger who only snoozed off a few times. Of course the girls did great, they are born road trippers. 

 Amelia showing she is a true Texas girl by "freezing" in the 61 degrees.

 I don't love these shots of me, but Juan is so cute.

We spent a lot of time at the hospital. Rose was so happy to see the girls and they were so excited to see her. Amelia hadn't seen Grandma Rose for a long while, and she was constantly talking about how she had 2 grandmas! Amelia sang her songs and showed her drawings and told her about her days. Maya blew kisses constantly, any time we'd leave the room. And she talked a little bit for her also. Rose is still in the hospital with pneumonia but she is stable and just waiting out the sickness. It was a very special visit and I'm so happy we went. I'm so impressed with the girls and how quickly they warmed up to Grandma Rose and also how well-behaved they were in the hospital! We spent up to 6 hour blocks in that hospital and they were just the best.

We also fit in some other Wisconsin things. We drove past Juan's childhood homes, we visited Juan's dad's grave on his birthday, we ate delicious burgers and frozen custard. We even watched multiple fireworks shows from the hospital room on the 8th floor. Beautiful. We also spent a lot of time with my dear friend Julaine and her family. Thank you Julaine for letting us barge in on your life for a few days, we had the best time. 

 Julaine's boy Felix, always ready for the camera.

See Felix back there, ha!

Silly girls.

Amelia taking a snooze in the hospital, isn't she the most beautiful sleeper?

Taking a break in the hospital garden. I love this picture of us, even if I was out of eye liner that day.

This book was Maya's comfort on the trip. Wheels on the Bus. She will look through it for long periods of time. And whenever she'd get frustrated with being in the car, I would just hand her this book. (Thanks Steph!)

Sleeping angels.

And me at 22 weeks along today. Time is going SO fast.

Maya's mullet at its finest. Oh man Maya, please just get that hair growing on top cute girl.

Tomorrow Maya is 18 Months.

• She is talking up a storm. Today I said to her, where'd you leave your banana? and she yells to me, ON THE COUCH! We often catch her in stream of conscious where she just says anything she can think of: Daddy go away. Daddy work. Daddy go car. Outside. Hot hot hot. Buggies outside. No no buggies inside. Daddy go *whack* (she didn't say whack, she made the motion of daddy swatting the flies). 
• She identifies all her body parts that I have thought to teach her. 
• She is back and forth on knowing and not knowing animal sounds. Her favorite is owl.
• She is obsessed with Amelia. She loves to just go and sit beside her and is thrilled to be included in anything Amelia is doing, if Amelia will allow.
• She holds her own. She gives a real good scream and yank when Amelia tries to take something.
• She loves books. As mentioned before Wheels on the Bus, Old McDonald, and The Little Mouse The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear. No joke, she has that book memorized, both girls do. 
• She loves when I sing to her and scratch her back. And I can actually get her to snuggle me if I do those things.
• She loves bubbles, playing in dirt, and watering the plants. 
• She listens for the garage and greets daddy with a big hug every day. 
• She loves us so much. Seriously how can we not be the happiest people alive when we have a girl like her that loves us so much?

G&G visit!

My parents came into town and the girls were spoiled with attention and playtime and lots of love! They warmed up so quickly to them. We ate, we played games, we went swimming, went to the children's museum, it was a great time!

 We love how cool Amelia thinks she is in this picture.

 Maya saying "cheese".

 Group shot. 

 The children's museum was so much fun! And Amelia's favorite part was the kitchen, she was pretty cute.

 Maya and Juan checking out the train.

 The wind tunnel was also a big hit.

 Maya loved crawling down the baby slide.

 Cheese!

Pretty cute family shot.

And a quick update on each girlie:

"I being mean mommy" after she took this picture.

Amelia is our little negotiator. Each night she comes down for bad dreams-we say a prayer, owies on her legs-we put lotion on her bites. This is her new one, mommy I wanna talk. She recently even faked a fall down the stairs to avoid getting yelled at for coming out of her room once again. She said, "I OK, I rolled." Ha! So it takes about an hour for her to actually go to bed. We've gone through this phase before and I know it's only a phase, but my patience is growing very thin. She is starting to really listen to what we are saying and when I recently told Juan how impressed I was that Maya is saying Grandma when I know Amelia didn't even attempt that word until 2 1/2 Amelia piped in and said, what you talking bout mommy? She is a sweetheart. She is really appreciating Maya and having her as a playmate. She loves to give the new baby huggies, and she always prays for him. 

We really love our sweet 3 year old.

And Miss Maya.

Isn't she the cutest thing? Her speech has really taken off. I am amazed at how much she talks every day. Her most common phrases are: "I coming." "Here go," and "go away". She says 'go away' to everything. Daddy leaves for work, "daddy go away". A bubble blows away in the wind, "bubble go away". She means it as all gone or where did it go? But she says go away, it took me a while to realize it wasn't in a mean way, she's not telling any of us to go away. She repeats everything we ask her to and does a great job! She says strawberry, cheerios, yogurt pretty clearly. Those are tough words! She will rotate what she calls Amelia. She was doing Mimi for a while, and then she'll do Mee-yah. A lot of times she calls her daddy because that is the easiest thing to say. 

And the boy.

I have a 3rd child to do an update on now! I am currently 20 weeks along and have been feeling this little guy move for a few weeks now. I have my 20 week ultrasound tomorrow. I have been buying a few clothes here and there, I still only have about 5 outfits total. I need to get some shopping in! We have been discussing names and have a pretty clear front-runner that I get more and more excited about each day. 

And that is us. Juan turns 29 on Saturday, the 29th!