Books, Cars, and Toddlers

The last few weeks have been nice. We've had some beautiful weather (sure it's mid-January, but luckily southern California gives us winter days in the 70s and 80s). I prefer our warm winter days to our ridiculously hot summer days. It's been perfect for playing outside and getting frozen yogurt.

Elena loves to go in her room and shut the door so she can play without Samuel messing up things she's set up. Sometimes, though, she actually wants him to go in there. He usually just empties the bookcase and takes each book onto her bed to "read" for a few seconds.

They even read together. Love these moments.

Her room's usually a disaster by the end of the day, but I really like that she enjoys playing in there.

Here's Elena playing with her figures (she carries around Little People figures, Little Mermaid figures, and a bunch of toy fish every day and plays with them nonstop).

She looks so different than she did when she was a baby, it's hard to believe how big she is now. 

 

She loves to go to "Daddy's bed." I don't know why it's called that since I sleep there, too.

 

And Samuel doesn't look so much like a baby anymore, either. He looks like a toddler. Where did my baby go?! And I love, love, love his chin! Both kids got Jorge's chin.

 

Getting ready to go out for frozen yogurt.

One of my favorite things to watch him do is play with cars.

 
And he's always trying to tell me something. He's going through the phase where I hear "EH, EH, EH!!!!" all day long.
 

And he's so lovable.
 

Elena is in a club at a nearby church. This is from their Crazy Hair Night. Although I have to say that her hair looked crazier after I took out the twists.

Most days I put makeup on when Samuel takes his first nap (on the days I actually put it on. Since having kids some days I just think it's not worth the trouble . . . ). Samuel's nap is getting later, though, so on this day I put it on while he was up. Most of the time he won't stay in one place, but he was totally amused by taking out all of Elena's hair ties and playing with them on the floor. And I was fine with that because I was able to get ready. It was kind of a pain to pick up all of the clear ones after . . . still worth it, though. And Elena joined in, too.

It's amazing to me how children can resemble their parents at different stages. Elena looked just like Jorge as a baby, and she's looking more like me now, even though she still looks like him. Samuel still looks just like his daddy to me, especially in Jorge's baby pictures.

So far, we've had a good start to the year. I can't believe the last year went by so fast, but I think every year will be like that with young children.

Kids Keeping Busy at Home

We've been at home a lot. Elena's preschool is on break right now and there's been so much going on with the holidays.

The kids dress up.

Samuel likes to play with his little vacuum, especially when he hears our vacuum going. 

Elena likes this little train set.

Here Samuel's trying to figure out how to make a little toy light up while Elena's setting up her "microphone" in the background.

Samuel likes playing with the toy kitchen now.

A lot of the time Samuel has a teddy bear in his arms, sometimes two. He sleeps and cuddles with them, and plays with them in the crib when he wakes up. He has the biggest eyes, I love this picture.

A lot of the time I'm just following Samuel from room to room. He's all over the place and doesn't like to be kept in one room. Elena plays a lot in her room now with all her little characters and blocks, and she doesn't like Samuel to mess up what she's playing with, so that's a little difficult to manage. Here are some pictures I've taken of her little people toys from her nativity set (her "Jesus toys").

 

Jorge dragged me outside at almost midnight one night to see this awesome halo around the moon. He knew I would love it, and I did.

 

Being a stay-at-home mom has many challenges, but I'm trying my best to meet them. Mostly I'm working on building my patience and managing to have enough quality time with Elena when I have to be so much more hands-on with Samuel. Luckily Samuel still takes 2 naps and goes to bed earlier than her, so we have some one-on-one time.

Christmas 2013

This holiday season passed by so quickly.

Decorating the gingerbread house

I baked chocolate cookies for a cookie exchange party. Elena was very excited. She's a great little helper.

For the third year in a row we went to Wakefield Court to see the lights and decorations. (Luckily, it was not very cold this night.) All of the houses decorate. This house, with the gingerbread house and carousel, was my favorite; it's a new owner in the area.

I did the handprint Christmas tree craft with Elena and I love it. I wish we could've done one with Samuel's little hands, but it would just be a huge mess. Maybe next year . . .

 Samuel smelling Nana's Christmas tree

Here Elena is opening her Christmas Eve gift, a Doc Mcstuffins book. She was very happy with it.

Their Santa gifts, an Ariel for Elena and a car for Samuel.

 Elena was all about playing with her mermaids Christmas day.

At my mother-in-law's. My two handsome boys.

It was a nice day, so Jorge played with the kids outside.  

Yes, that's Samuel being swung around. He's hanging on to his teddy bear pretty tight.

 

In the evening, Amy stopped by on her way home. We're kind of in the middle of her drive from Santa Maria to Joshua Tree, so we were able to have a short visit.

 Elena was so excited to see her.

Christmas seems to get more exciting every year, as Elena's anticipation grows. I'm so thankful for my kids and love to see the excitement in their eyes.