Baby in the belly

Today we were sitting together on the couch and I told the girls that there is a baby in my belly. They both proceeded to lift my shirt up and tried looking into my belly button to see if they could see the baby. It was so adorable. Maja looked especially intrigued by it and couldn't quite get why she couldn't see a baby... "I don't see it Mommy"

Then I asked if it's a boy or a girl and she said "Hmm... let me think... I think it's a girl"

My twirly girl

This is all she wants to do now... put on pretty dresses and dance around. She even has her ballerina moves down putting her hands up. She is turning into such a girly girl

Getting closer

to getting Maja feeling better.

She has been having some health issues for a while and we finally got an appointment with a specialist at the Children's Hospital in Spokane. We don't have any final answers yet but things are looking better. She will have to stay on a mostly dairy free diet but at least it's ok for her to have some of it occasionally. Jeff is pretty happy we can have pizza again and both her and Isla love the rice milk and soy cheese :)

She loved her pretty "dress" and was pretty excited after they took her picture AKA X-rays. I couldn't go in with her for that part because I'm pregnant but Babcia said she did really good

and then we went shopping... I couldn't resist these shoes :)

Isla is a whole different story

Maja loves putting on dresses... Isla figured out how to get naked... I'm not impressed either

"I'm a princess"

this is how Maja came out of her room... she found a dress and was convinced she was a princess. Who told her about princesses is beyond me :). Then she danced around the living room

Baby Matteo

Baby flutters are the best... it's super early (about 13 wks) but I can already feel them. This little one very active :)

Baby Matteo update

I got to see our little bean flickering and jumping around today

It looks like the due date is 11/03/11

Happy 17 months Isla

1. you nursed for the last time this morning :(
2. you love rice milk in your bottles and will take if from Daddy in the evening and at night
3. you have taken so well to your toddler bed and sometimes after I put you to bed you get up and try to open the other and when you can't you just crawl back into bed, cuddle up with your "friends" and go to sleep. Much better then what Maja used to do which was fall asleep by the door on the wood floor :)

4. you've had your first popsicle... yum. Yes... we gave you the lime one that nobody likes but you seemed to be ok with that :)

5. you are still much of a destructive tornado
6. your vocabulary is amazing and I've lost count of the many words you know now
7. I love how you say no and you stick out your pointer finger at people to make it clear :)
8. you started singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"
9. every time you get even a little hurt you have to get your "awie awie" kissed, even though you are still a tough kid and don't really get hurt
10. you take such good care of your "babies". You nurse them and cuddle them and make sure they get have their blankies with them
11. you love books just as much as your sister

Not good

When you have little children, ALWAYS use furniture straps.

One morning I woke up to a huge noise and at first I thought it was Isla who pushed out the gate out of her room but when I rushed into Maja's room and I saw this and heard her crying I almost had a heart attack. Luckily she must have noticed it falling over and she moved out of the way to the other side.

The sun is out and the girls are out

The weather here has actually been pretty sunny and warm for a while however, the wind... the wind is so terrible that you can't even leave your FULL garbage can out the night before because it will likely be all over the street in the morning.
I'm pretty sure the girls would just fly away if I let them out there

But finally we got a few great non windy days so we decided to break in the sandbox. They loved it, including the mandatory bath afterwords. Isla of course had to taste it... and then wash her face in the water table!

Our little Picasso has done it again

OK, I am biased but this time you gotta give it to me... isn't this an awesome looking plane for a 2.5 year old???

Granted the little blop in the top corner is supposed to be her PJs and that's a helicopter in the bottom corner but hey... she obviously has a great imagination :)

ABCs and 123s

Maja has been watching this show on Netflix called Word World and it's all about letters and their sounds. Maybe it's just a coincidence but not only can she now sing her ABCs but she can tell some letters by the sounds they make. We've also been playing a lot with her bath letters so that helps too.

And she can almost make it counting all the way through 10

It makes me feel just a little better. Since she was born in August we have a choice of keeping her home for an extra year but we won't so she will start kindergarten just a few days after turning 5 and many of her classmates will be almost a full year older.
Sometimes I wonder if making her go in so young will make her struggle later on but given she enjoys learning, is super excited about starting preschool this Fall (I expect lots of tears though!) and overall she seems to keep up pretty well playing with older children I think she will do just fine.

Big girl

Isla started climbing out of her crib! that little stinker... I should have known she would figure it out soon enough. Maja never even showed interest in trying. She felt safe and happy in the crib. Isla however, lives for new challenges.

One day we were all taking a nap and I woke up to Maja sitting quietly by her door and Isla screaming in her room. I went in to get her and I found her on the floor stuck between the crib and the chair. At first I thought maybe Maja had helped her but the next day I caught her in the middle of escaping.

So toddler bed it is for the little monkey. I was planning on switching her anyway but I wish I had the backup of the crib.

She has been in it for almost a week and so far she's doing really well. She falls asleep on her own after I nurse her and except a couple of random nights she seems to be down to being up just once per night.

Next step is weaning her of the breast :)

Good things come in threes

I better come out of the closet....

Funny story about it... I had taken a test but looked at it right way to find a very clear single line (negative). I meant to throw it away but got sidetracked so after putting it back in the box I left it on the counter and went about my day. The next day I noticed the box sitting in the bathroom so I looked inside and lo and behold there were two lines!! very faint but definitely there and as they say "a line is a line".
It was late already and I was half convinced it was just an evap line (I mean, there is a reason they say the results are not correct after 30 mins or so, right?) so I waited until the next morning and run out to get a digital test. I didn't want to deal with wondering whether or not another line is clear enough.

Well this one seemed pretty clear :)... and those that came after it... you know, for good measure!

Haven't seen my Dr yet but it looks like baby Matteo and Isla's birthdays will be just a few days apart

I am officially "that" parent

The one that stands in line for 3 hours outside in super cold and windy weather just to get her kid a spot in a preschool... that's right.... A PRESCHOOL!!!! but it's a good school and their pre-k program is great so it's definitely worth it. She will be one of the youngest going into Kindergarten at only 4 years old (since she was born in August) and I'm really hoping this preschool will make that step easier for her since I don't want to hold her back.

She is already super excited. On of the shows she watches is "Cid, the science kid" and she got so wide eyed when I told her I got her signed up for school like Cid!

She starts in September and I really hope she likes it there :)

Home Sweet Home!

We finally got the keys to our new house and can't wait for the truck to get here on Tuesday!!

Can't wait to have it all set up and finally be done!

A few cell phone pictures:

Isla at 15 months

Isla finally learned to say "No" and she likes to practice it A LOT!! I have to say it's pretty darn cute, especially when she pretends like she will give you something and when you reach out for it, she will pull it back, say "No, no, no" and run away.

I'm sure it won't be this cute much longer :)

She is doing great with not having to nurse to sleep and she will actually let me put her in her bed and leave before she falls asleep. We have a cute routine of her blowing kisses for everyone, saying "nigh, night" and cuddling with her baby and froggy.

She has a mind of her own and will definitely let you know when she disagrees... very loudly!

She adds new words to her vocabulary daily and has a pretty extensive animal sounds repertoire. She can now go like a duck, dog, cow, sheep, elephant, tiger, monkey and horse

She loves to imitate Maja in everything and wants to do everything her big sister does.

She can "shush" you but instead of putting her finger to her lips, she puts it to her nose!!

Pretty sure she will potty train at the same time Maja does. She can already tell me she needs to poop before she does and definitely once her diaper is dirty

She LOVES Kosmo. She spends her days chasing him around, holding his tail while he tries to walk away, sitting on him and giving him hugs.

When she wants to read a book she will wiggle her tushie right in your lap or in front of you when you are laying down.

She loves blowing rassberries on my belly and thinks she is being hilarious

And so it begins...

We have started looking for Maja's first school... a preschool of course :). Registrations for Fall begin now around here and given we have been out of town since the first of the year, we haven't done all the research we would have liked but so far we have one candidate that seems like a great option. It's the ONLY one I could find in the area that is non-religious and one of my friend's son goes there. She has nothing but great things to say about it but she did mention it's really hard to get a spot. I hope we do if we go ahead with it. 

They are having an open house next week so we will check it out. 

I can't believe we are going to sign her up for school!!! I even drove by what will be her Elementary school yesterday... she will be in Kindergarten in two years!! 

Back to square one

I don't know how much I've shared about Maja's health issues but we have been dismissed time and again by her old pediatrician and when she finally took us seriously and decided to refer us to a specialist it was time to move away.
We got her back in to see the new Dr here and she didn't waste time in getting tests and referrals going. That feels good... at least something is being done.

I took Maja to the hospital the other day to get poked :(. She was obviously not happy about that but the bag of M&Ms definitely helped her feel better

Let's go swim in the river

that's what Isla thought I guess... about 2 seconds after this picture was taken she walked right into the water. Didn't even stop when she got wet... just kept on going. I had to grab her by her hood and pull her out. She is a fearless

They both enjoyed throwing rocks in the water

I can't wait until this summer when they can actually go in the river and splash around :)