Alia is 29 Months old!

So let's see, where are we this month....
Well, first of all, Alia says some really funny things. The other evening she was attempting to make a bead necklace in the shape of a square on the floor, and as she pulled one corner, the opposite corner followed. We heard Alia say "Hold on, Tiger!". Seriously. Where does she get this stuff? She also told us this week to hold on, she has to go "wipe Froggy's butt". We can thank pre-school for that one, since we call her cute little bottom a bum-bum and have never even said butt in her presence!

So what else? Well I can't believe I didn't just dive right in with this news....Alia is pottytrained!!!!! For the most part. Still wearing pull-ups at night. And still terrified of poo-poo in the potty. We had 3 accidents but it finally seems to have stuck...We are now 4 for 4 on getting the stinky stuff in the potty. Woo hoo!

This month Alia's level of interaction and engagement has reached an all time high. She demands story after story, whether it's my nanny's story about when her dog climbed on the table and ate all the spaghetti or my sister's story of her dog Lyla's favorite toy, Chicken. My sister even sent a photo spread email of all of Chicken's adventures...when Chicken takes a nap in Lyla's bed, when Chicken sneaks out and plays in the snow...you get the idea...anything is a story...to be repeated and repeated! Based on my sister's story, I made my own photo shoot of Wee Wee Wah, one of Alia's frogs for whom we've adopted a very silly and sometimes naughty personality. Alia thinks is the best thing ever looking at Wee Wee Wah trying to climb the Christmas tree, trying to climb in the oven, sitting too close to the fireplace while there's a fire inside.

Speaking of Christmas, this year Alia was fully engaged. She left cookies for Santa and did her very best to be a good girl for Santa...of course, it was because she wanted toys and presents, but who cares!

Alia's vocabulary is growing tremendously. She told us "I decorated that" while pointing to the Christmas tree. I have to laugh considering no one in the family decorated it...finally my nanny took it into her own hands and knocked it out in an afternoon because we tend to collapse after the girls go to bed at 7PM!

Alia had a two week hiatus from school and Mommy became just like every other Mommy that Mommy previously judged and happily counted down the minutes for those school doors to reopen...you know, so she can keep learning stuff and stop shouting at me.

See, we've been rained in here in Laguna Beach...more rain than sunshine this month which had us insane with cabin fever but finally provided me with the opportunity to be consistent with her potty...situation. On the other hand, there are those days. You know,, the ones that make you feel like "I can't believe this...I actually don't like my kid". I love her. But there are days I don't like her very much. The funny thing is this whole Mommy job is much different than I imagined...the amount of love I have felt for Alia is a love I have never known before. But the 13th day in the house with two that are two and under, with colds that won't go away, bored because there is nothing but rain in sight....well, it's tough.

But all in all? I wouldn't trade her. She's my Alia. Testing. Pushing boundaries. Trying to find limits. And smiling and laughing and jumping and hugging her baby sister and and and...

Amelie is 13 months old

So where were we...oh, yes. We're at 13 months for my little bitty baby. Of course, she weighs more now, but in my heart, I'm holding on for dear life for her to remain her sweet baby-self. I still hold her in my arms  for her before-bed bottle every night. It's my favorite part of the day! Alia would have nothing to do with this feeding/cuddle session after about 6 months old...she was a big girl so fast.

Amelie has 9 teeth, including one big, bad molar that gives her endless pain. She "talks" constantly. When she's upset she will look you right in the face and cry and shout "baba-baba-baaaa! boka boga!" as if we're having a conversation.  Amelie loves to look at family photographs in frames. Every morning when I wake up and pick her up from her bed, we walk by a series of our framed wedding photos on the wall just outside her door. She insists we stop and she points to each and every face and I name the person. When we get to Daddy, she says Dha-Dha! and for Mommy, she says "Ma-Ma!". For everyone else, she just looks directly and intently at my mouth to get maximum understanding of what I'm saying and how to say it.

Amelie has a few new favorite things to do...the first is she zooms away after we get her dried off after her nightly bath. We have a happy streaker on our hands. And if you try to stop her? She goes completely limp and falls to the ground and cries. So best to leave her to streak for a few minutes and then basically work her into her clothes without disrupting whatever she's engaged with...which, after her bath, is usually the ball-popper in the hallway where the balls can't get to far away (we used to play with this in the play room but all the balls end up under the desk and result in head bumping and tears). Amelie also loves television. I know...I silently and unsilently judge myself for this fact. Alia wasn't even allowed TV until she was 15 months old when I decided to allow her to watch Baby Signing Time. But Amelie has been watching and signing for quite awhile. Amelie also loves my best home-made toy ever...I stuffed an old wallet with old and useless cards (grocery store club cards, etc.) and let her pull them all out. Every trip to the grocery store ended with her pining for my wallet, and once she had it she disassembled it....thus, the creation of her very own wallet. And the neat thing is? Once Amelie takes all the cards out? I can ask Alia to put them all back and it's just the right task to challenge her dexterity! A win win! And Mommy gets to keep her platinum card where it belongs!

Amelie is a lover. She hugs. She cuddles. She tilts her head to the side and rests it on the couch while looking up at me with her sweetest little Amelie smile.

And when she's tired? She likes to walk around and around and around while shouting aaaaaaaaaaah! aaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It's quite a sight.

Amelie transitioned away from formula last month and has a love of whole milk now. In fact, as of today, we're re-strategizing her feeding times and volumes because she would basically go without food entirely (except for her beloved Cheerios) in favor of milk. Which has had some issues, mainly of the tiny little constipated poop variety. But all in all, we're progressing. I know she's a toddler now. But not in my head. In my head she is Baby.

Alia is 28 months old!

Alia is busy. Alia sings her ABC's with certainty. Alia runs and hops and sings and shouts. All the time.

Alia is funny and quirky and lovely and silly. She says funny things like "Mommy got a haircut!" when I haven't changed my hair in, well, months! Alia tells me that she "loves Froggy soooo much. She loves Amelie soooo much! She's my little baby sister! Ahhhh, pooooor little baby Amelie! (pronounced Amony by Alia). Froggy loves his little baby sister too!" Froggy is her little diplomat to the world. He shares in all she does. When we're in the car, we point out the big orange auto-mall balloon to Alia, and she points it out to Froggy. We point out new Christmas lights on an evening drive? She points them out to Froggy. She catches a cold? Froggy sneezes. Really.

This week Alia got a new Froggy, which she promptly named Wee-Wee-Wa. She thinks the name is hilarious, but it is definitely a name that stuck from the moment she brought him home. I venture to say that he won't take the place of her original Froggy (of which there are currently 4 in rotation since they are washed twice a week), but he has added to her flock. Let's see...how many Froggies has my funny little girl collected in her 28 months? Well, there's Regular Froggy (this is what she calls him...also known as Gai Kai, her originally Froggy love). Then there's his invisible backups of which she knows nothing about. There's Baby Froggy (who's small), Easter Froggy (that came in from Aunty Carol in her Easter basket), Poo Poo Froggy (who's hands she holds when she has to go poo poo), Noni Froggy that her Grandma Noni bought her, and Pokey Dot Froggy (a gift from my Dad) who has a polka dot belly...a recent gift for Amelie which was taken over by Alia....my Dad had to buy a second one for Amelie.

I recently had Alia's very first parent-teacher conference at Montessori. Her teacher was very complimentary of the progress she has made since she began only a few months ago. She felt that Alia had transformed from a baby to a little girl before her eyes. Her social skills and awareness has also developed considerably...she is a good friend and sensitive to others. She has also recently began playing with other kids rather than around other kids. She's no longer on the periphery.

Alia has been very challenging for me from a discipline perspective. She can be very stubborn and it frustrates me beyond imagination at times. Sometimes I should be sending myself to time out but I tend to forget in the heat of the moment. As a parent, I am trying very hard. I guess we all are, huh? I have to remind myself that she challenges me (sometimes it seems constantly) because she is so bright and it's her job to try to manipulate her environment to her liking...but it's my job to steer her, keep her safe, and love her. But on those days? I'm doing good to get through the day.

This month, Alia has found a love of painting. Nearly every afternoon we paint together while Amelie naps. She also loves Play-Doh and recently discovered a love of Legos. In fact, a trip to Pottery Barn Kids is all it takes to take up a tough hour at the end of the day because they have a prominently displayed Lego Table right in the front of the store that captures her attention...she's even willing to share with the other kids!

So that's it in a nutshell. Alia is blowing us away all the time with what she's capable of doing, her newly found independence, and comfort of doing things "big girl self". She is transitioning before our eyes from a  toddler that was wobbly not too long ago to a little girl that loves to show off her morning fashion for the camera.

Amelie is 12 Months!

I have a new one year old! Amelie has left her infancy and babyhood and has now entered the world of toddler! So what's new with Amelie?

Amelie has a definite sense of humor. Among the funnier things she does (after refusing to lie down during diaper changes a couple of months back) is she demands that I sing to her while she has her bottle and gets her diaper changed...on my lap. Her little maestro finger bobs up and down while her little mouth forms a milky smile. Sing, Mommy, sing! And not that song!
Amelie plays keep away with whatever object she gets her hands on...be it Alia's beloved Froggy or a piece of fuzz off the floor.

Amelie signs for sleep, banana, stars, more, and says "Yeah, shoes, bow wow" of which bow wow is her first real word.

Amelie walks around like crazy...we have counted 50 little wobbley steps in a row. She enjoys being in the center of groups of people. She is truly a social little girl when surrounded by people she is comfortable with.

Amelie, too likes to be tossed in the air when daddy comes home, although is quickly and easily frightened when there is the slightest bit of air between her and daddy's hands...unlike her sister who isn't happy until she hits the rafters.

Amelie now eats on her own and hates to be fed; if we put something on a fork, she gets it in her mouth. Amelie loves eating anything from pouches...you know, the Ella's Kitchen pouches? We take the top off and she sucks away happily. Amelie also drinks from sippy cup now, and has transitioned off formula for most part; in the interest of using up the last bit of formula, she still has an a.m. and p.m. bottle. She loves to eat smoked turkey breast, cheese, avacado, goldfish crackers, and as said before, anything in a pouch.

Amelie is outgrowing clothes left and right and is in the 97th percentile of height and 80th percentile of weight, which is what she has always measured.

Amelie is still much more of a baby at one year than Alia was. She still loves to be held during her early morning bottle, and cuddles in to my chest and drifts back to sleep when she's done. I have to say, the second time around, I'm not in such a hurry for Amelie to hit milestones and grow out of this phase....although she is hitting all of her milestones ahead of time. I treasure her little body going heavy on my lap after her bottle. I drink in the way her little pudgy hands grasp things. I know our time in this little wonderful part of her life is going to be gone before I know it so I'm focused on filling my heart with her sweet baby-self.

Twins...not Froggies

Yesterday while waiting to get Alia's immunizations up to date, there was a tandom stroller in the pediatrician's office with two tiny new babies in it. It captured Alia's attentnion that there were two babies. 


I told her, "when people get two babies instead of one, they are called twins". She pondered that for a minute. 


Then she looked at me and said "they're twins....not froggies". 


It was all I could do to keep it together. I always try not to laugh when she says things like that because I remember feeling like people were laughing at me as a kid and I hated it. But anyway, I replied, "you're right Alia. Those are twins. Not froggies." And she said "Yeaaaah" while nodding knowingly.

This morning, I was putting Amelie down for her nap, so Kori took Alia to her room to play quietly. When I walked in, Alia (who has been refusing potty training) was on the potty with no pants, and Kori was painting her little toes. Pink. How cute is that?

Thoughts from a stay at home Mom (ages 1 and 2)

I recently received an email from a long time friend that expressed concern that my life has become out of balance. Now to be fair, I do mention being tired a lot, and it's true that up until last month, I rarely had so much as 5 minutes in the car by myself because we have a 1 year old and a 2 year old. That's just the way it is. 

Now, my concerned friend very cautiously presented a few ideas. She stated that, "you need to build more time into your day for you.  I mean, even me, a single, working mom gets a pedicure when I want one - I have to!  It's what keeps me balanced." She went on to assure me that ,"I'm totally expressing my opinions here and don't intend to be pushy or shove my ideas of motherhood on you.  Just some ideas.  I'm wondering if maybe you feel like, because you're stay at home, you're supposed to be "on" and in Mommy mode all day long every day.  Well, in my opinion, that just doesn't have to be the case."

She suggested putting my eldest daughter in school more days/times. She suggested using my nanny in different ways to free up my time (which, let me tell you, 1-2 hours alone with these little ones is a lot for me, and I'm their Mom!!) She suggested that I "go to a coffee shop nearby and getting a coffee and reading a book. One hour or two hours won't hurt anything." She went on to mention that she takes 3 hours on a Saturday once a month or so for herself. 

After reading her email, I thought I should do stuff for myself every day! And then I was thinking back to when I was working outside the home...and I realized, I didn't take pedicure breaks then. I didn't go to a coffee shop and read a book during my business day. Can you imagine telling your peers, "guys, I'm outta here for awhile...I need some me-time".  And then it occurred to me that no matter how far women have come at being liberated and being able to have a choice in their careers, no one, even my progressive contemporaries consider staying at home to be a job. 

For the decade-plus I was in the paid workforce, I chatted endlessly with my peers about the challenges of our industry, the limitations of the company I worked for, the shortcomings of certain products, and the general stresses of the day. But now I realize that  Mom's that stay at home aren't allowed to bitch about their days or stresses to their friends without being labeled as "out of balance". Perhaps it's because somewhere in there, we all have held the opinion that being a stay at home Mom is the "after working my career, I'll slow down a little and stay at home with the kids." God knows I thought that and I had a very rude awakening.

Now this is all being said as an intellectual assessment, a comment on perspectives (including my own!). This is an awakening in my own mind because for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why when I had a hard time at work, it was considered the norm and accepted. But when I talk about a lack of sleep and being busier than ever in the home setting, it must be that I'm over-doing it because home shouldn't be that hard...especially with all the help I have. But isn't it funny that we never think that and Executive shouldn't be busy because he has a secretary?  

Alia is 27 months old!

Where is the time going? Amelie just had her 1st birthday and I still haven't written about Alia's past month!

Well for starters, Montessori is going amazingly well. We decided to move Alia from 3 mornings a week to 5 because the structure suits her and the days she doesn't go, she asks to go. She gets along with her teacher very well, and loves to tell us about her day's activities when she gets home. She is still indifferent about the other kids there, but that's a HUGE step forward from where we started when Alia was openly frightened of the other kids and refused to enter the classroom.

Alia's language development is blowing us away monthly! She has gone from referring to herself in the third person to "I" this month. She counts to 20, and has a real grasp of the alphabet. She identifies "D-like Daddy!" and "M- like Mommy" and "O-like Dr. O" (her pediatrician).

Alia's terrible 2's have prompted me to reach out and talk to other Moms about how to steer kids at this age. I bought a parenting book that gives me a lot of hope called 1-2-3 Magic, and although I've only read 21 pages, the tools I've already picked up work well.

Alia's favorite thing is still Froggy, Daddy, her Olivia books, or anything her sister is playing with. She loves Elmo, talking about her day, hearing stories of things we've done together, and waiting for Daddy to come home.

Alia began eating turkey this month after about 10 months of refusing meat. We can thank Costco samples for that...you just never know what she'll eat while out and about.

As a Mom I'm focusing on following the guidelines of 1-2-3 Magic by consciously showering her in love and affection and praise for the good things she does. I try to start out our day positive by playing peek a boo with her with a stuffed animal when I get her up in the morning. I find if she starts the day laughing, her Diva alter ego is more likely to stay repressed, and my Angry Mom persona can have a break too!

Alia makes us laugh. Her smile melts our hearts. She has that affect on a lot of the people in her life, from family to teachers to Moms of her classmates. We are so fortunate to have this wonderful albeit boundary-pushing little person in our lives.

Amelie is 11 months old!

This month, Amelie turned 11 months old. Another cold came and went (and oddly, we found Benedryl hinders her sleep, unlike her drug addict sister, who wants nothing than to be sick so she can have "meh-cine"). She has 7 teeth...two more teeth came in and another is approaching. She is growing like crazy. Her hair is thickening, and she's started to scoot along the couch like a pro. Oh, and did I mention? At just 10.5 months old, she began signing for milk, thanks to Baby Signing Time. Yes, the same program that taught Alia to sign at 15 months? Has proven to be totally effective with much younger babies! And now she can say "more" and "ball" in sign language. Pretty impressive!

Amelie likes nothing more than to watch her sister. She thinks she's terrific. Amelie also feeds herself like a champ (cheerios and organic puffs) and no longer wants to be fed like a baby. Amelie is fast...she crawls across the room making an "ahhahhahh" noise matching the beat of her crawl. Amelie is the warm spot in my heart that makes me almost want to cry when I think of her. I love her more every day....if that's possible.

Amelie is still gentle and delicate. She hates when anyone takes something from her. She gets her feelings hurt very easily. In fact, when she was gnawing away on her crib today, I said "no, no, Mimi" in the softest voice possible and she still burst into tears. She doesn't like to be told what to do, apparently.

Amelie has also laid claim on people, too. Daddy now belongs to her, too, and she's not afraid to compete for his attention. She does this by shaking her head back and forth, back and forth while smiling and giggling while sitting on the floor. It's the best trick she has and she isn't afraid to use it to detract from Alia's attention.

Amelie no longer lets things stand in the way of what she wants. She has decided she wants in the tub with Alia every night at bath time, and will stop at nothing...she practically launches herself over the tub wall and into the tub fully clothed. The only problem? Sometimes she refuses to sit down, which makes it quite a slippery and dangerous event!

Amelie is pure sweetness. She still likes to jump like crazy in the Jumperoo. She loves the Leap Frog music table as well as pressing the keys on the keyboard. Amelie likes to pull the board books from the shelf one by one and then scoot them across the floor. In fact, scooting things across the floor is one of her favorite pastimes.

Amelie still drinks her share of formula, although next month we'll be switching over to milk. She has taken to a red monkey stuffed animal as well as a tan bear that she now sleeps with every night. I suppose we should name them, huh?

So that's it in a nutshell. As we approach her first birthday, I am so sad to realize my baby will be done being a baby so soon. I'm just fortunate enough to be here to be her Mommy.

here, Amelie sits happily with her favorite flashcard....

...until Alia notices Amelie is so happy

...and decides she too would like the flashcard....

...and takes it from her sister

...and Amelie strikes back with her best weapon....

...the saddest little face in the world....and Amelie wins!

Who, me?

I'm sitting here reviewing and correcting a few blog posts, and that's when it hit me. I haven't been mentioned in my blog in a looooooong time! Which is very parallel to my life, too, since it does seem that my life is all about my girls, but still! Don't I exist?

So what's new with me? Well, let's see. I hired a new nanny. She's fantastic. She's young and energetic and is great with the girls. I also worked out for the first time in --count them-- three years yesterday and today! That's right...three years went by since my last workout. I miscarried Alia's twin and that was the last of exercise for me. Oh, sure, after I had Alia, I worked out for maybe 3 or 4 weeks when she was around four months old, but that cycle was interrupted by a trip to Florida to visit my Dad and I never returned to it. See, I'm an all-or-nothing girl. I'm in the zone, or I am not even on the same planet as the zone. So yesterday? When Amelie was asleep and Ajay took Alia out for a little air? I popped in a video and tried my best to keep up with those fit and happy people on my tv. And I sweated. And I hurt. And I made it through it. And today? When Alia went down for a nap and Ajay mentioned he'd like to take Amelie for a little outing? I popped in the video again and enjoyed another sweat-filled 45 minutes.

And now? I'm so sore that I simply must sit here. And thus, the update on me. Sitting at my desk. Writing about my soreness as Amelie sleeps and Alia swims with Daddy on a 98 degree September day.