Some Fun Moments

Samuel's been mesmerized by his feet the last couple of days.

 

Elena in the new ball pit. 

I had just blown up the ball pit and both kids had some major static electricity going on.

Elena's so much fun to play with. And she plays on her own a lot now. During her "rest time" (that's what I've called it since she stopped napping) she sits in her bed and reads her books to her baby. She does that every day, and she looks forward to it.

 

Elena loves being pulled around by Daddy.

Samuel still wants to be with me a lot. Don't worry, I picked him up right after I took this.

Samuel's First Birthday Party

We had a lot of fun with family on Samuel's birthday.

Elena enjoys playing with her cousins. 

We tried playing Duck, Duck, Goose, but the little ones didn't quite get it.

We had a pinata.

 

Singing "Happy Birthday" to my not-so-little-baby.

Elena only eats frosting; she has no interest in even tasting the cake. Mercedes is very timid, this is how she always smiles in pictures I take of her. Elena is drawn to her and thinks about her a lot after visits.

 

Time with grandpa; I love how Samuel's looking at Amy in this picture.

Then in the afternoon we went trunk-or-treating at our church event. Elena wanted to be a doctor, and when she saw the Doc Mcstuffins costume that's all she wanted to be. She wasn't interested in looking at anything else. Here's my little Doc.

Makayla was a cheerleader, Caleb was Spiderman, and Destiny was Little Red Riding Hood.

It was such a fun day, and the Halloween event was fun, too. It was a blast taking the kids trick-or-treating since I don't see my sisters very often, let alone at the same time, and with something fun for all the kids.

And I still can't believe that Samuel's one year old. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was walking nonstop to try to move my labor along, and I remember most of that day so clearly.

To see the post about Samuel's birth, click here

I'm One Year Old!

I'm one year old now!

I'm 29.5" tall and 19 pounds, 9.5 ounces. I'm a happy baby, and I'm a good sleeper. I like to sleep cuddling with my teddy bear.

I walk all over the place and am really good at catching myself when I fall.

I can say "Daddy" and "Ginger."

I point at things I want or that I'm interested in.

I cry when I'm told not to do something (like suck on shoes).

I learned how to make a "mwaaaahhhhhh" sound to make bubbles.

I'm a big explorer, always trying to figure out how things work.

I love my mama, and still love to be in her arms.

Preschool, High Chairs, and Duckies

Elena started preschool, and she loves it. Her favorite part of it is the playground. She walks in and doesn't even say goodbye to me, and she didn't cry at all on her first day. She's going twice a week in the afternoons. And since she started we've been reenacting her days there. Sometimes she wants me to play the teacher, other times she's the teacher guiding her students, etc. It's really adorable. The other day she knelt down to an imaginary child and said something like, "You hit Jayden. We don't hit. God wants us to be nice."

She hasn't seen many Disney movies. She's only seen Finding Nemo and Wall-E. Sometimes I think that she would really like the others, but then I also think that she's just not old enough for them. She's such a sponge, and she learns really quickly. Yesterday I picked her up from preschool and the teacher had put a list outside the classroom of what all the kids said they want to be for Halloween. There are 6 girls in the glass; 4 of them want to be Cinderella, 1 wants to be Ariel, and Elena wants to be a doctor. Reading that list made me glad that she hasn't seen the movies. I've tried to avoid all princess stuff for 3 years, and I'm going to hold out as long as I can. It seems like that's all little girls want to play and dress up as. Anyway, just one more random thing on the subject . . . in my pilates class the other day a woman was talking about when her girls were little. They were 3 and 6 when Beauty and the Beast came out and they all went to watch it at the theater. As they walked out, the 6-year-old explained to her younger sister, "No, that's not what it was about. It's that even if he's mean, if you love him enough, he'll change!" The woman told her daughter "We need to talk." I thought that was pretty funny.

For some reason, every time Samuel's eating in his high chair, his foot ends up on the table.

Daddy time

We went to a rubber ducky festival at the park. Samuel liked the duck character (someone in costume), and Elena wasn't too sure about it. Then when the lady in the costume took off the duck head to cool off and take a break, Elena went over to see her. Jorge explained that the duck was just a costume, but Elena didn't get it; she kept asking for the "duck that walks," "the silly duck."

Samuel, walking around

Samuel tried to climb in the pool for the duck race.

 Playtime

 

 This is Samuel's "complaining face"

 And this pretty much sums up life as a parent