My little artist

Maja has been into coloring lately. It's pretty impressive how her creations actually resemble what they are supposed to be.

Here's a recent zebra she drew

and here is the sun

and Daddy

She also loves making a mess of herself :)

I thought I'd post about our road trip

Here's a little recap of our road trip from Green Bay, WI to Richland, WA. The girls and I drove the mini van and whatever I could fit in it in September. It took us 3 days and the girls did AWESOME! No meltdowns, no issues and they were champs in the car. Lots of snacks and toys was definitely a good idea :)

Leaving our house :( 

First stop Sparta, SD. We later made it to Soiux Falls where we spent the night and the next day my Mom (who drove with us from Green bay) picked up Jeff's car (he crashed into a deer when he drove through there and had to leave it behind for repairs) and she went back to WI while we kept going west

This was day #2 somewhere past Rapid City, SD... a few hours later I run out of gas in the middle of friggin' nowhere!!!!! PSA Wyoming has oodles of miles between gas stations... like 80+

                                            All pooped out by end of day #2 in Buffalo, WY

Day #3 chillaxing half way through Montana (beautiful State to drive through!)

6 hrs and one speeding ticket later we were still in Montana. Holy crap that State is HUGE

However, I pushed myself and we made it to Spokane, WA that evening. The girls were bouncing off the walls by then but that's cool... the hotel room was big enough :D

My family is finally together!! Daddy drove out of the Tri-Cities (about 160 miles) to see us that night :)

And if that wasn't enough, when we got "home" in the morning, we decided to go visit my In-Laws in Portland, OR and I took this one driving through The Gorge... what a gorgeous place to look at while driving

Darn Facebook! I update over there all the time and neglected this blog pretty badly :(.

So, lets start with an update on Isla

* at 13 months she is about 30 inches and 25lbs
* her nickname is "The Destructive Octopus" because she will find a say to destroy just about anything within her reach and somehow she manages to reach anything that she sets her eyes on. And if your'e talking to Daddy, she grows arms as needed :)
* still breastfeeding quite a bit and for now I'm not planning on fully weaning her any time soon. I love how she comes up to me and signs "nurse". As soon as I say "let's nurse" she races for the bed and lays down waiting for me
* she is very independent and loves doing everything on her own. That gets pretty annoying during meals because she prefers to feed herself which usually makes for a huge mess. She isn't as great of an eater as Maja but still doing pretty good. So far we haven't found much she doesn't like but sometimes she just doesn't want to eat at all.
* still waking up several times at night to nurse but getting better at falling asleep on her own
* she has tons of words that are clearly understandable and lots more of those that aren't as clear but we know she is trying. She loves the letter "B" apparently because most of the words start with that "block", "ball", "bye-bye", "bunny", "blankie". I love how water is "wa-wa" :).
* her animals sounds are getting pretty good too... elephant, sheep, cow, duck are some of her favorites
* she loves her baby dolls and kisses and snuggles them all the time. She even nurses too! lifts up her shirt and all. Melts my heart everytime.
* she has the most annoying, ear piercing, loud scream you've ever heard. I seriously expect glass around me to start shattering
* We neglegted signing with her but in the last few weeks, we picked it up and she'd been catching up quickly which is nice because she will try that before she screams (please, eat, more and nurse)
* she is still a pretty tough kid and not a whole lot fazes her
* she loves to help and bring diapers and wipes or put things away.
* she tries dressing herself although isn't very succesful
* her favorite song is "If you're happy..." She can clap her hands, stomp her feet and even say Hurray!
* she adores books. She will sit down and on her own go through a bunch of books (although she tears apart the pop-up ones!) or she likes to plop herself on your lap or Daddy's belly to listen to a story

                                                              "Isla go upside down"

                                                                      She loves Luna

                                                                  "Where is your nose?"

Happy New Year!!!

My resolution is to get back in the saddle for this blog... going to attempt one blog a day and maybe even one photo a day for the "365 Project"

I will not fail, I will not fail, I will not fail... maybe if I say it enough times it will stick?

2010 has been a fun year and hoping 2011 is even better. We are starting fresh in a new State (WA) and hopefully in January we get into our new house!

Happy New Year! be safe tonight!

This is it!

Tomorrow morning we move back to Washington State.

My Mom will drive with us to Sioux City, SD to pick up Jeff's car and then she will drive it back to Green Bay while the girls and I continue to WA on our own.

I've got the car fully packed, plenty of snacks and toys. I'm hoping the girls handle it well.

Can't wait to get the traveling part to be over with and we will miss all of our friends so much :(

A few cute pictures

Hand, foot & mouth disease

Both girls have it :(

Isla doesn't seem to be bothered but Maja has been complaining about pain in her mouth and on her feet. Hopefully the sores go away soon :(

Happy 10 months Isla!

1. She has pretty much mastered waking by now. Here's a quick video from a couple of weeks ago but she has since got so much better... she actually chooses to walk over crawling most of the time.

2. She is still a pretty tough kid. She can handle falls and bumps as if nothing happened. It's so funny to see how different the girls are... Maja cries when she 'thinks" she got hurt... Isla gets over things in seconds


3. The other day she when she woke up for one of her night nursing sessions, she cuddled right into me as I walked her over to my bed and said "Ma-ma". Likely a fluke but such an awesome moment.

4. She eats everything we eat at this point and does pretty well. I would actually say she doesn't know much about what to do with food on a spoon since she was never really fed with one. We also know she is not allergic to peanuts thanks to a handfull or peanut butter sandwich Maja so graciously shared with her when I wasn't looking

5. Still not great in the sleeping department... pretty bad actually. She wakes up quite a few times per night although I shouldn't complain because she does nap well. I'm seeing progress in putting herself to sleep... she managed it a few times. I'm still no really doing anything about sleep issues. With a big move just around the corner, everything will change and it's not worth my energy so we just get as much sleep as we can and call it a day even if it means she sleeps in my bed most of the time.

6. She will stand up to Maja if need be and win

7. Little monkey climbs on just about anything she can

8. She loves books and you can usually find her with one just sitting on the floor looking at the pictures. She isn't fond of being read to though.

9. She knows Maja gets the good snacks and will not rest until she gets a hold of her snack cup

10. She wave now :)

Nursing gymnastics

This is what Isla normally does when she breastfeeds

Little model in training

It's nice to have a child who will please her camera obsessed Mommy :). How do you like my new prop?

Maja @2 years old

I haven't done this about Maja yet so here it goes

* she loves to point out flies AKA mosquitos and have Babcia hunt them down. She has an amazing talent for spotting them out sitting on the walls

* lately I've been leaving her gate opened at night so she can come out in the morning instead of calling for me. She never wakes me up and just goes into Isla's room to play. Sometimes she gets just a tad creepy and comes into my room, takes things of my nightstand which I later find in random places.

* she has started working on her ABCs and can get up to D but will continue babbling in tune until the song is over :)

* she talks so much and I can understand almost everything she tries to say

* we've hit the naughty stage big time. She started hitting when she is told she can't do something, she takes things away from Isla and challenges me every time she can

* her bedtime routine has seen some changes too. Now I have to kiss each of her feet and leave the light on (dimmed)

Isla walking

She puts the baby in there herself and loves pushing the stroller around (sorry about the crappy cell phone pic)

Mickey in da house

A couple of weeks ago I started letting Maja watch some TV once a day. We browsed through different shows and as soon as Micky Mouse' clubhouse came on, she started dancing and singing to it. She LOVES it! and it's nice to have sometime to get the kitchen cleaned up or PJ's ready since she usually watches in the evening while taking her bottle before bedtime.


I have a video on my phone... I'll see if I can dig it out

Babies, babies and more babies

Remember our little Baby Boom playgroup?


Well, we had our last get together this months before Isla moves away and I took some pictures. All 8 babies made it and surprisingly we managed to snap a few without anyone falling over, crying or trying to crawl away

and then I took a fun shot of the Moms :)

And she is off...

Isla took 4 steps today!!!! unfortunately I couldn't catch it on video.

What's funny about it is that I had "just" spent about 30 mins trying to follow her with a camera in hand because I knew she was ready and I was trying to coax her with toys and snacks... she didn't fall for any of it! so I gave up, put away the camera and sat on the floor with her.
She was being all cute giggling at me, chewing on a toy and holding on to her bouncer and all of the sudden she let go and stood there on her own for a few seconds (which she has done before) and started waking towards me!!! took 4 whole steps before she thought she was close enough to me and just reached out and fell!!!

9.5 months!!!! crazy, isn't it?

and after that, I spent another 30 minutes trying to get her to repeat it for the camera but she had no interest at all. Watch, she will be like Maja who first roll from back to belly at 4 months and then didn't do it again for another 5 months.

All I know is her walking makes my life easier. She wants to be everywhere Maja goes and sometimes the floors of those places are just so gross and there's no way I want to let her crawl on them so this is going to be so much nicer. Now, if I could only find all of the small soft sole shoes we'd be golden... I think they are all packed away in storage and it will be a pain to find them in there :(

Isla @ 9 months

* we had her check up today and she is 21lbs and 12 oz and I forgot her height but I'll be back to update. Maja is only 25 lbs right now... Isla is def. going to catch up soon

* tooth #5 is in and #6 is peeking through

* she loves to dance... and wiggles her booty every time any kind of music plays. Sometimes she even throws in an "aaaaah" sound

* the other she tried dressing herself. I laid out clothes for them to wear and she grabbed her outfit and started trying to get her head through it

* she is still mostly breastfeeding. We do table foods every now and then when Maja and I happen to eat something that would for work for her but solids aren't my priority so some days she doesn't have any. She does great when she gets them though and we are way past the pureed stuff... she loves Mac/cheese shells, green beans, peas and this morning she really enjoyed banana chunks sprinkled with Rice Crispies cereal.

* she weaned herself from the paci in the last couple of weeks which kind of put her putting herself to sleep progress back to square one since now she wants to breast

* she is going through a fabulous (NOT) stage of "I hate being in my carseat/stroller/any-other-contraption-that-ties-me-down"... here's hoping she gets over it in time for our 2000 mile roadtrip to WA next month

* she is such a busy-body that I've had to switch her highchairs... she pretty much would dive out of the one we had (excuse the quality of the phone picture taken of facebook link)

Yumm!

Isla being a little monkey

She climbs everywhere and recently Maja's red chair has been her favorite jungle gym

And just a funny one

Playing with her gifts

Maja got tons of goodies for her bday and she is really excited about everything. I haven't gone through all the photos yet but here are a few from a couple of days ago

The tea set is definitely a favorite

Lining up her animals

So not happy with Isla stealing them

Isla milti-tasking... she always has a toy in her mouth, even when she crawls

Happy 2nd Birthday Maja!!!

It's been a really fun day. Maja started out by opening some of her presents and then we went out to get balloons and for a special milkshake treat at Sonics.
After nap it was time for her Little Gym party which was a huge hit... lots of little friends, yummy cake and more balloons :)

I haven't downloaded the pics yet but they will be up here soon.

Happy birthday my sweet, funny, smart, kind little girl! Mommy and Daddy love you lots!