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

11 Months

I'm 11 months old! (Late again on posting this . . . oops)

I take lots of steps at a time now, and I have awesome balance.

 

I smile and laugh a lot, and I think it's funny when I do something silly and someone mimics me.

I love a bedtime story.
              

I want to eat everything I see on my parents' plates . . . and I eat a lot.

I have 5 teeth.

Finding Peace Amidst the Chaos

I've been busy, just taking care of the kids . . . so I haven't been able to keep up with the blog. Things are good, though.

Samuel's getting so big. He's really a cutie. He likes being held. I'm hoping he'll get used to other people taking care of him because he still has a hard time in the childcare at church and when my mother-in-law stays with him. And he's learning to walk already! He'll take as many as 5 steps at a time, and he's really good at squatting back down to the ground when he wants to crawl instead. He likes his bath time and he likes to dance whenever music comes on. He likes stuffed animals a lot right now, and he cuddles with his blankets. He's super expressive and he likes to climb.

 

And Elena is getting more social, wanting to play with her peers rather than just do parallel play. I took the kids to Gymboree to play tonight and when a little girl jumped onto a mat Elena said to her, "Good job, give me a high five!" She learned that from the sports class she does there. She's a real sweetheart. She likes to sing songs, dance around, look at books, play catch, and cuddle. The other night as I was hugging her at bedtime she said to me, "Thanks for having fun with me today. You're a special gift." Love my little girl.

I've been doing pilates classes a couples times per week and I'm really liking it. Last week, though, around 3:30 in the morning something fell in Samuel's closet and I thought he had fallen out of his crib. I woke up, yelled out, and ran to his room like a maniac within a couple seconds, but when I got to his door I fell . . . hard. I landed on the side of my thigh. It was bad, and the bruise is still pretty nasty, about 6 inches in diameter and it swelled up pretty bad. Even though I didn't land on my tailbone, it's been sore for over a week. I went to the chiropractor after it happened and that helped my lower back, but I still have some soreness in my back muscles. So I took the week off of exercise, but I'm started up again. Then I do the mom's group at church, I take the kids to their Gymboree classes, storytime started up again at the library, and the rest of the time we're at home or visiting people. So we stay busy, but busy is good. And the kids get so excited when Jorge gets home. Samuel starts whining to be picked up by him, and Elena squeals with excitement. It's funny when I think about how quiet our house was before having kids. It was a totally different life . . . so peaceful, but I guess when you become a parent the trick is to find peace in the midst of chaos. I'm hoping to become a master at that.