5 and 3

They are getting big. O tried to curl up in my lap last week and his legs were all over the place. His head no longer clears the counter between the living room and kitchen so I have started to put a stool in the awkward place so he will take the turn wider and miss the head bonk. Last night he red a book to me and counted to 100.

Fifi is determined and mischievous as ever. testing boundaries and patience, yet making us crack up laughing always. She can command a room and is really good at getting every single eye in the room on her when she wants it. She loves to paint, play with dough, help me in the kitchen, eat chocolate and is the best mama to her babies and ponies, ever.

I adore how different these two are from one another, and yet that they are both from me and of me. Each teaching me differently on this path of mamahood.

Happy Birthday O and Fifi. I love you beyond words.

11 months

She turned 11 months on Monday.

I am running late on her photo because she has been full of piss and vinegar lately.

I couldn't get her to sit still long enough or without snot and tears until last night.
This month has been all about mobility.

Fifi took her first steps on the 22nd of July and continues to test the waters with adding more and mores steps each day.
It's really more about bravery than anything at this point.
I also think it's about speed, she can get to her target a lot faster by crawling.

She loves to climb, climb, climb. 

One afternoon I stepped away and hear shrieking coming from the play room to find her scaling the bookcase. Yes, Fifi is my wild child. Is it part of being the second child, or just who she is? Hard to say.

Other milestones including pointing and I swear this morning she pointed at the dog and said, "daw". She also sings this funny little song, "ling-aling-aling" and will dance her little booty off when you turn on music.

She doesn't blow kisses in the traditional way, but will smack her lips when you blow them at her.

She remains to be one of the happiest, smiliest kids you will ever come across. But don't tick her off or she will totally tell you off in her baby gibberish and possibly pinch you harder than a lobster. She is also a fighter when it comes to sleep, she doesn't want to miss a minute of action. I have to question what it is that she thinks is going down at 1-3am on some nights. It's been a blessing to not have to go into work lately with the newborn like sleep schedule she has been following.

She and O are so silly and fun to watch lately. He loves to pull her around in the wagon or push her in the little tike's car. One of our favorite afternoon things to do these days is to get O's balance bike out and Fifi on the tricycle and ride up and down the street.

It's been a wonderful month and I can't believe that we are coming quickly upon her first birthday!!

Hangin' Ten

Ten months, that means she has been out longer than she was in and

we only have two months left until she is a year.
I just can't quite wrap my brain around how fast this is all going.

This month there has been lots and lots of babbling. She is definitely saying, "ma ma ma ma" and "da da da" and every now and then pointing at things. She loves to clap, clap, clap her hands and it seems to be a way she can communicate with us, she uses the clapping as a way to show how happy she is or when she is super frustrated ,she will clap her hands together extra hard along with a screech to let us know that she doesn't approve. One of the cutest things she is doing lately is to get a blankie and lay down on it and say, "ni-ni", then sit up and giggle at us.

Fifi is fast, she can crawl or bear crawl (sort of a moving down dog) across the house faster than fast. She is cruising around the furniture and doing so one handed more often than not. She has mastered going UP the stairs, but not so much the coming back down them.



She is even doing a few seconds here and there of, "look ma, no hands". I feel like this month she will figure out walking- you can tell she REALLY wants to and it is making her crazy. She loves to hold your fingers and tour you around the yard or the house, giggling the entire trip.

She and O are so silly together. He often plays pretty rowdy with her, but she usually comes up laughing and more often than not he is the one crying after she hits a little too hardly or pulls some hair. We really need to work on the gently hands with her.

We are still nursing, but she really loves solid foods. Beans are some of her favorites, pinto or black. She also likes eggs a whole lot too. My little protein girl.



As she falls asleep in my arms at night she often plays with my hair and I have found that twinkle-twinkle is one of the only songs I can sing to get her to calm down when she is in a totally hissy.
She is a total Daddy's girl. If he doesn't come to her right away when he gets off from work, she let's him know about it. I love watching her be in love with him.

This girl is still full of sunshine and mischief- and a ton of love.
xo Fifi! Happy 10 months.

Nine in, Nine out

It's official, she has been out as long as she was in...
and man do we have our hands full with this little girl.

Last night I announced we were headed upstairs to do Fifi's chair pictures and O said, "Oh wait, let me get my camera! I want to help."
and off he went to get his Fisher Price digital.

As with most things in our family dynamic, O is
the organizer and the one calling the shots.
I think he might have a future as creative director, no?

But this little sister of his, she might just give him the biggest run for his money he has ever seen.
If there is anything that I remember from this month,
it is the fact that Fifi likes to test the boundaries and push things to the limit.



She is a flirt and a joker.
If you tell her no, she is going to head right back to the forbidden fruit,
with a "Tommy gun" laugh just to touch, taste or destroy (or should I say, "srcumble"?) whatever you just asked her not to.

May was a month of new adventures. We went camping and Fifi put her feet in the ocean for the first time. She helped us celebrate Jojo's birthday, our 8th anniversary and I got to not only be recognized as a mother, but as a mother of two. (It's official since displayed on the mantel is a dried clay hand print from O and a foot print from Fifi).



We hung out with friends and family at home and away. We went on a girl's weekend to the Bay Area and listened to a LOT of Katy Perry and Miley on the way. We also took her to her first Ace-ball  game. She loved all the clapping (and the hot dog bun we fed her for dinner).
Other adventures, of the more domestic kind include pulling up on things to come to a standing position AND wandering around (sometimes one handed). She uses the couch, the ottoman, the dog's back, the wall, mama or daddy's legs or what ever is handy in order to get where she wants to go.



She has mastered the stairs (so scary for me) and can hardly be left alone for a second. She loves the water and if you set her down in the bedroom she is instantly in the bathroom pulling up on the side of the tub, squealing in delight at the running water.



Fifi got her first ear infection this month and we are all trying to shake "the cold" right now. There might be two more teeth popping through on the bottom very soon , but for now she is happy to chomp away with just the two she has. Ears and teeth could explain why she has gone from drinking almost 20oz of milk a day to just 8 or 10oz and takes on average, only one nap for about 2hours each day.
Night time sleep is hit or miss as well. Last night I was in her room for most of the night trying to get her to fall asleep. Let's just say the chair in these photos has seen a lot of use lately. Despite the small amounts of food and rest, this girl is full of smiles and giggles and silly.



Sometimes I have to stop and catch my breath at the fact that I have not one,
but two,
 amazing, wonderful kids.



Fifi, you have fit into our world so well.
We love you to bits and pieces.


A look back, this is why I love this tradition. look at the change!

eight is great

 Oh my goodness... I have been working on this post for a few weeks now and never did I think that I would get such a wild set of photos to mark the day.
Fifi, you were in RARE form yesterday as I snapped these shots. You wouldn't hold still for a minute and I was so worried you were going to arch and wiggle your way out of the chair as I snapped each frame. Most of the photos are hopelessly blurry, but I think I am okay with that because it captures who you are this month SO much. You are a firecracker and a goofball and you make us ALL smile so very much.

The weekend after turning 7 months old you started to simultaneously sit up on your own and crawl. It has been hysterical watching you navigate the linoleum and not so hysterical to watch you come around the corner into a room and not quite take it as wide as you need to- ouch! your little head has been bumped more times this month than in the previous 7 months combined.

One of my favorite moments was a couple of Sundays ago.  I sat you down between the couch and the ottoman. You heard your brother, peaked your little head out from behind the ottoman, giggled like a crazy person and DARTED towards him... oh boy, let the fun begin!

You are all up in your brother's business and he loves it and hates it all at once. But mostly, he is really good at making sure you don't get into anything you aren't supposed to- like little chokeable items, plastic zippy bags, bubble wrap (no matter how fun) or crayons. Who knew our house was so full of tempting and dangerous things. There have been a few moments where I watched O get a little more rowdy than he should have been and instead of tears, there you were, giggling your head off at him.

The dog water! oh, the dog water. How I forgot the excitement that the little silver dish brings to a new crawler. It's like an instinct, a magnetic force field drawing your chubby little hands to it...you found the dish in the laundry room without ever seeing the dog actually drinking water in there and came out smiling and soaking wet.

This past week you have been all about the hand clapping (clap your hands everybody, everybody clap your hands!) and I can hear you in the car seat as we drive home, pat-pat-pat-giggle. You are working on waving bye-bye, though right now it is more of a double hand deal. Sometimes the clapping and waving are one in the same and it is super duper sweet.

You and your daddy melt my heart. He is smitten beyond words with his sweet, baby-girl and I can see a really wonderful bond happening there. He loves to put you in the backpack while doing the evening chores in the back yard. When he is playing soccer on the PlayStation, the first place you go is to the controller cord-shake it and put it in your mouth. All with a big grin knowing that he is going to say, "No, no baby. Not in the mouth." It's a game that is beyond funny to watch. The other day while the boys rough housed, you crawled over to them and gave Daddy-O a nice big pat on the hands, as if to say, "Play with me too, Daddy!"

Since you are sitting up so nicely, I have started giving you a bath with your brother more often. It's pretty funny to see you two in there. The other day your brother dumped an entire bottle of NEW bubble bath in the tub when I wasn't looking. Let's just say things were squeaky clean after that...

You have really gotten into eating solids. So far we have been pretty easy going about feeding you- if you seem interested I will give it a try... bananas, pears, apples, mango, green beans, pinto beans, squash, sweet potatoes, pretzels, pizza crust, the celery from auntie kiki's bloody Mary- you know, the usual. tee hee... You aren't really sure about avocados or scrambled eggs yet, but you gave it the old college try. It's rumored at school that you will only take the bottle from one of the teachers, Ms. Mary. She is the sweetest abuelita and spoils you as if you were her own granddaughter. I love that.

Sleep has been hit or miss. I savored every minute of the two hour nap you took in my arms on Easter Sunday. It was so sweet to just sit there with you snoring away. At night you will sleep for about 5-6hrs then wake up to feed, toot and then fall back asleep. On occasion though I have been up for more than hour in the middle of the night trying to get you to go back to sleep. I think there are a lot of reasons for the multiple wake ups at night... I know this will pass, but at the same time, there is nothing like snuggling up in the glider chair with a baby in your lap, even if my neck is totally crinked the next day.

One of the main reasons for your night time waking has had to be the two little teeth coming in on the bottom. They popped through on the first of May and grow bigger and bigger each day- much like the goodies in our spring garden. I am sad to see the toothless grin go away, something about that gummy little grin is so special. I am savoring each of these milestones so much...

You aren't nearly as noisy as your brother was or is, but wipe your snotty nose and LOOK OUT! you make a sound as if I were pulling out all of your hair and toenails. Other fun sounds included, Da-da-da-da an occasional mamamama, as well as squeals and squawks of delight while you play on the floor in the playroom, crawl around underfoot in the kitchen or when you first wake up in the morning.

You tap out beats against the high chair tray and laugh really hard at your brother while we eat dinner or breakfast together. One of my favorite things you do is while you are dozing off to sleepy land, you sing/hum a little tune. I love that and wonder what in the world you could be singing about.

We love you fluffy haired girl. You are our little dandelion, spreading your sunshine with every smile. Happy 8 months. 

Lucky Seven

On Friday Feefers turned seven months. What a month it has been too. Lots of things happening for this little girl right now.

A list of seven things to mark the month:

1. Went camping for the first time and loved it

2. Went swimming for the first time and splashed she scared herself.

3. Started eating more and more solids and hasn't met a food she doesn't like yet. She is particularly found of the stick pretzel stogies, and anything that I put in the net-pacifier-deal-bop-thing-a-majiggy. We brought the high chair back in from the garage and she loves sitting with all of us at meal time and while I cook. 

4. She stopped sleeping very well at night, as in, waking up every couple of hours to eat. Much to this sleep deprived mama's dismay, but has seemed to be getting back on track the last couple of days. Much to this mama's delight.

5. Started sitting up with out help of another human, a bumbo or the boppy. This has made bath time easier and much more fun since that means she can be in there with her big brother, who by the way is still the funniest person that ever lived according to her.

6. Has found a deep love for eating anything made of paper. Nothing is sacred or safe, she might have a mean spitball talent forming.

7. Is "unofficially" crawling. Meaning she can no longer be left on the bed or the couch (ahem) alone with out a large possibility of falling off. She scoots herself all over the room, backwards and by rolling. Unless, there is something so incredibly tempting in front of her, then it is necessary to 'hop' forward and worm her way to it until her chubby little hands can reach out and grab what ever it is she needed/wanted.
(Update: as of Sunday afternoon, April 11, we have an officaial crawler on our hands. She is getting faster and more accurate by the minute. It really is awesome to watch it all unfold.)

I think this might be one of my favorite stages that she is in/headed into right now. She is more and more awake and alert than ever. She is totally interested in what is happening all over the room- will unlatch mid-feeding if she hears her daddy or brother walk in the room and is even starting to mimic sounds and motions, like waving and head nodding (which is hysterical and needs to be caught on video). It is always so amazing to watch as they take so much information in and process it all. She is still such a happy, smiley little girl and her smile and eyes will light up a room when she enters it. I hope that sparkle never leaves- it is such a gift.

We love you Feefer-fifer-foo, yes we do!

Half

We visited the pediatrician yesterday for Fifi's 6 month well check. She had the paper on the exam table totally crumpled and destroyed by the end of the visit. The doctor said she would have been concerned if she hadn't done so.
Six months, it is amazing to me to watch my big girl (16lbs 9oz and 27inches long) and realize that she is half way thru her first year. The doctor checked her and asked me a few questions and said Fifers looked great and seemed to be right on track with development and growth.

Baby girl is doing things that crack us up these days. She likes to blow raspberries and hold her toes while you change her diaper. She hates to have her nose or face cleaned, but doesn't really mind the brush running through her wispy hair. She loves to be on her tummy and will actually roll onto it if you place her down on her back. I walked away for two seconds the other day with her like that and when I came back she had flipped over and scooted her self 90 degrees to the side. 


Fifi has also been scooting herself backwards and is often getting herself stuck up against a wall or under a chair.The daycare also told us that she got 'lost' yesterday- scooting herself backwards and into a corner. (I totally trust this place and know that the kid is faster than you would think at this reverse mode thing...)

She is getting up on all fours and rocking, smiling proudly at herself the whole time. Today she even did a little worm-belly flop thing and got herself moving forward. oh boy, we are all in for it. She is also sitting up for a few seconds at a time, until she forgets that she is sitting and topples over to her side. It's pretty funny actually.

She loves anything that crinkles and is quite fond of how plastic crinkles in her hands. It's funny how fast you forget to keep your glass full of water or other spillibles out of arms reach when there is a little one around. she literally picked up Daddy-O's glass the other night and set it gently back down on the table. We have talked with O about how some of his toys are off limits for Fifi and what a chokable is and why he needs to help us keep those away from her. I think he gets it, but this whole toy age gap thing makes me a little nervous.

We have started feeding her solid foods here and there. I'm not pushing this to hard yet, but we have tried cereal, sweet potatoes and butternut squash. She seems to really like the squash. I think we will maybe do bananas and avocados next. She is really interested in whatever we are doing while at the table so I feel pretty good about starting her slowly on foods other than breast milk.

Sleep has been on and off good. I could do with out the 4:15 wake up calls during the work week since going back to sleep for an hour seems to only leave me groggier than if I would have just stayed awake. These don't happen all the time though and she even does full night stretches on a regular basis. Overall, she is a much better sleeper that O was and I am grateful for that.

Fifi, you are such a light in our world, full of smiles and joy. We love you beyond words. Happy half birthday my girl!

39:365, high five!

She's five months old today.
Fifi is such a smiley baby. O smiled and giggled, but she really does smile with her entire body. Over the past week or so she has started squawking like crazy. In a way
really loud, screech. I am often not sure if they are joyful or angry. But when I look over she is happy as a clam.. I suppose she is finding her voice, and in the house, it better be loud and proud if she wants to be heard.
She turns into a complete giggle box any time her bro walks within sight. Not just a little giggle but a giggle with a snort sometimes even. He makes her moment and I love that. O has been really sweet to her lately. He has been sharing toys and asking to have her in the same room as him, "J wants to play basketball with me" or "J wants to play trains". He even gets upset if I come in the room and take her attention away from him. Last night I heard him singing to her and then patting her saying, "I love you". Gah!! make my heart melt into a puddle why don't you!

She has been trying really hard to master the back to bell roll. She can do it, but just not every time she wants, darn it those arms get in the way. She can however rotate herself around on her back. I put her facing one direction and look back to find her feet where her head was when I walked away. She has found her feet and I often see her laying on her back with at least one foot in her hand and if she is sitting in your lap and can see her toes she is all about grabbing and figuring them out.

She loves the bouncer and is even getting in a few bounce and swing movements. At dinner time, if she is still awake, she loves to sit in the bumbo (on the table, don't worry we never walk away from here while she is up there and usually have at least one hand on her at all times) while we eat dinner. She thinks it's hysterical. I am thinking about testing out some rice cereal soon. She is so interested in what we are doing when we eat or drink that I think she is ready.

Girl has a grip like no other. I might have to re-think my jewelry soon since hoop earrings are just asking to be pulled out and watch out if you have long hair because if she spots it your are in for a good tugging.

We are a little off track with sleep due to colds that have been flying around the house, but I am confident we will get back on the one to none wake ups like before. Such a different baby than her bro in this respect. I don't quite know how I was dealing last time around!

I love watching her figure out the world around her and how she is melting a spot right into this family, as if she has always been here (which really, she has).
gawd, I love her!