Fun Times

So much catching up to do! We've been so busy over here with swimming, mom group meet-ups, play classes, and some art and music classes (all for Elena, not me). And lately it's been really hot . . . ugh, summer is coming. But it's been going so well, and Elena's having a blast lately. She's so used to going places and having a good time that when we get home she doesn't want to get out of the car. Sometimes that part isn't so fun for me, but usually there's something I can use to lure her out of there.

Mother's Day was nice. We went to the park and flew a kite and blew bubbles. It was super hot that day, too.

 

 

 

Then we went to visit my mother-in-law and have dinner. Elena had so much fun.

 

 

 

 
It was a nice, relaxing day with a lot of quality time.


Elena is using so many words now, I can't keep up. Sometimes she uses a new word that I don't know she can say yet, but I know it's not babble because she says the same thing repeatedly, so I sit with her and try to figure out what she's saying, and usually I can. It's fun because I can have conversations with her now. She usually says just one word and makes gestures, but we can go back and forth like that for awhile.


She's so helpful. Whenever I'm cooking dinner and using the oven, she gets the oven mitt out of the cupboard for me because she knows I'll need it. And the other day I told her that I was going to wash my face, and she went in my drawer, got out my make-up bags, and set them on the living room floor, where I always put my make-up on.


Today she was playing in bed with me and Jorge (lately she wants to get on the bed a lot and play, and she does this every night before bedtime, too) and she put her hand over her mouth because she was going to sneeze. Then the sneeze went away . . . and she was a little confused. So she sat there a couple of seconds with her hand over her mouth. Then she said "ah-choo!" I think she thought it might come if she did that because she still looked a little confused. Jorge and I were cracking up. 

Whenever she hears a baby whine or cry she says "Oooooooohhhhh" . . . . and it sounds kind of like a cross between "awe" and "oh." Sometimes she'll drop her doll and say "Oooohhh," then pick her up, kiss her, and rock her. So last week at the grocery store there was a very young baby that cried pretty much the entire time he was in there, and no matter what I did I could not distract Elena. She kept saying "Oooooooohhhhhhh" and looking at him. Then she reached out to him like she wanted to pick him up and hold him. I kept telling her that he was with his mommy and that she would help him feel all better, but she wanted to comfort him so bad. 

A couple nights ago Jorge was saying goodnight to her and she took out her pacifier and said "kiss" and leaned forward to kiss him. Then she wrapped her arms around him and gave a huge hug. I thought it was the cutest thing in the world and I told her that she was so sweet, so she said "kiss" again, kissed me, then hugged me. Who said that parenting is not a rewarding job? She does things everyday that make all of the work seem worthwhile and rewarding, and it leaves me very grateful.

Our House

Here are some pictures of our house before. 

We had the whole front redone. The only thing that remained from what was there before is the address numbers, which we sanded and painted. There's a new window (we're thankful that we can't feel a breeze coming through the side of this one!) and a new door (the old one was pretty warped and stuck out at the top, also causing a draft; the temperature of the front room was always different from the rest of the house).

Ta-daaaaaa!!!!!!

We're going to take the bushes out and put some new plants in, and we just had a fence put up to separate our yard from the neighbor's (our lawns just ran into each other before), so there's plenty of landscaping work left!

Disneyland

We went to Disneyland for the first time as a family. We were there for 2 days, and we had a really good time.  

Here are Jorge and Elena in their Disneyland hats

She liked the Dumbo ride

She wasn't so much a fan of It's a Small World, but she was also tired and it's pretty loud and busy in there.

It worked out nicely because our hotel was close to the entrance, so we just walked back at naptime and we all rested

 She loves trains. She kept saying "choo-choo." We went on several train rides over the 2 days.

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She's breaking out!

 

Elena saw Minnie Mouse from afar, and was excited to meet Mickey. We waited for awhile, and the whole time she kept repeating "Mouse!" She was very eager.

 

 

But then we actually got to meet him, she said "No . . . no . . . no . . . go . . . go! So we kept a little distance. 

She did like his house, though.

Elena was excited for the parade.

 I was happy to see that they still include Mary Poppins, even though most kids don't know who she is.

  We got Elena Mickey and Minnie Mouse stuffed animals, and she loves them. When she wakes up in the morning she says "mouse," and she takes them to bed with her.

We were all very tired by the time we got home.

Photo Fun

Here are some fun shots of the last few days

 

 

 

 

We went to see the ducks today. Elena loves them.

 I got tired so I sat down after awhile.

 

She makes this gesture whenever she's looking for something.

 

 

Poor thing didn't want to leave . . .

 

But she got over it and was fine on the drive home.

She can make the sounds of a cow, horse, duck, sheep, owl, cat, dog, and bee if you ask her to. Every night she asks me to open her window to see if the crickets are chirping outside. She is so sweet.

March for Babies 2012

Last weekend was the March for Babies. It was me, Mandy, Matt, Amy, and Philip. Our team raised over $1,500. I was running pretty late, and we were the last team to start walking; literally, nobody was around except the people on their way back. But we had a good pace and we caught up to the group. Amy held Elena Rose after I was tired from holding her. I'm out of breath pretty quickly these days.

 She's such a big girl. Now she says "Cheese" when I'm taking pictures of her.

 She loves her daddy. Every morning when she wakes up, and when she wakes from her naps she says "Daddy," and she looks around for him.

 I'm in the second trimester now! And showing.