The Feeling's Mutual

I am always writing about how much Mikaela adores Naomi, how Naomi has a way of getting her to calm down when she’s upset, or how excited MIkaela gets whenever she sees Naomi. This is still true. Mikaela calls Naomi “Nay Nay” now. At school, her teachers say she’s always crawling around asking for her Nay Nay, and when you ask her If she wants to go find Naomi, she’ll nod her head enthusiastically and say, “ Nay Nay” over and over again. It’s really cute. What I haven’t really mentioned is how much Naomi loves MIkaela. She’s a really good big sister. When Mikaela is upset, Naomi will go to her and try and make her laugh, or give her a hug and comfort her. She insists on giving her a hug and kiss everynight before we put Mikaela to bed. To a point, she’ll share her toys and try and play with her. Mikaela is the only person Naomi will give her mi-mi to (her lambie comfort blanket), although it is on rare occasion that mi-mi is released from Naomi’s clutches. I didn’t realize how Naomi relies on Mikaela for comfort just as Mikaela does Naomi. Yesterday, Naomi had a rough day at school. She got into a couple of temper tantrums at school, got into a fight with her best friend, and just as I was walking in had finished up getting upset at some friends who weren’t “sharing” with her. (sometimes Naomi’s definition of “sharing” is quite suspect). As I walked into Naomi’s classroom, with Mikaela in my arms, I could see her face was all splotchy, and she was holding her teacher’s hand, asking her if she could go visit her baby Mikaela. When she saw us, she immediately ran to us and gave Mikaela a hug. Later that night when I asked her why she wanted to see Mikaela, she told me it was because she was having a hard day and seeing Mikaela would cheer her up.

Little Mozart

A few weekends ago, we took Naomi to a music school so she could take a trial "Little Mozart" class. It's a music class geared towards getting kids ready for piano. Her class would be specially catered for 3-4 year olds. There was only one other girl in the trial class, so Naomi got a lot of one on one time. She really enjoyed it and kept talking about all the things she learned, (proper positioning of her fingers on the keys, high and low notes, etc). For a week straight she asked for us to sign her up, so I we decided we'd give it a shot. It's only for 10 wks, so if after the 10 wks we think it's too much, we can always stop and wait awhile. But now she's going to be a busy bee with ballet at 9:30 and Music class at 11 on Saturdays. Plus she has a music and movement class and a dance class while she's at daycare. You'd think we were trying to raise a prima donna here. (maybe we are!)

Almost walking.

Mikaela is ALMOST walking. On Saturday, she took two steps without holding on to anything. I was right next to her, and of course didn't see it.
But she can go from a sitting position to a standing position without holding on to anything. The first time she did that was in the morning with Austin and Naomi. They were so excited, and she started clapping and smiling. Then she sat back down and did it again just for kicks, the whole time with a huge smile on her face.
Now, she can easily walk if she's holding on to something or someone's hand. She doesn't really use it for support, but more of a security/comfort thing. As soon as you take your hand away, she'll squat back down and start crawling.
But seriously folks. Any day now and she'll be walking on her own.

Happy Easter!!

Easter Bunny

After good friday service, we stopped by the mall to have dinner at Rosa Mexicano's. (very Good Friday appropriate, i know). Anyway, there was no line for the easter bunny, so we decided to try and get a shot of the easter bunny with the girls. We've never done photos with any of the crazy characters at the mall...mainly cause Naomi has been deathly afraid of them, and let's face it. Who's to blame her. A Giant Bunny? That's freaky. But after our successful Disney trip where we were able to take ton's of pictures with Disney princesses, we figured we'd give it a shot.
Upon being given to the bunny, Mikaela freaked out and started crying. We decided to boot her out of the picture. Sorry kid, there's always next year. lol seriously though, it was bad. Some people get really cute, funny crying baby pictures with easter bunny's or santa etc...this would have just been plain mean. she would have been beyond crying and cute. Tortured is a better word. Anyway, Naomi, on the other hand, had no problem hopped right on next to the easter bunny and posed. When we were done she gave him a high five and a big hug. We then went off and celebrated an excellent photoshoot (and Good Friday) with some Mexican. Ariba!!

Catching Up

This post is way overdue!! The day before Mikaela's 1 yr birthday, Friday the 13th, we had sent some cupcakes into her daycare class so she could have a little party with her class. The teachers decorated the room with Happy Birthday banners, and set up a little table for them to have a party. They sang Happy Birthday to Mikaela, she danced, and pretended to blow out a candle. With her ginormous sweet tooth, she dug in wholeheartedly into her mini cupcake. Soon enough though, she realized she was wearing a birthday hat. She hates hats. So with both hands, she tried to remove the hat. Unfortunately, with both hands, she had been digging into her cupcake. You can see the mess that was created for yourself...

Palm Sunday

For Palm Sunday our friend's the Sang's invited us over for some delicious food and a chance to catch up while the kiddies hung out. It was nice to have the kids off playing on their own while we actually enjoyed a meal sitting down at a table, with adult conversation. The kids had lunch and then played (aka destroyed the Sang's house) and then piled up on the couch to watch some cartoons. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Too bad tomorrow's monday and we all have to go back to work!

Oh My Goodness!!!

This is what Mikaela does if you say "oh my goodness" she throws one of her hands on her head.

Date Night

Gotta take advantage of having the parents around!!

Horsing Around

Naomi and Mikaela both love riding on the princess cars and trikes in our house. It was only a matter of time before they made the trike a two person ride. Mikaela turned the trunk of the trike into a second seat.

Sisterly love

Memory

Naomi has incredible memory. Last year, Austin picked up this little memory game for her. She easily schooled all of us in it, and after awhile had all the cards memorized, so it wasn't really much of a challenge since she knew exactly which pieces to pick up without even looking at the card. Now she's moved into bigger sets with 72 cards and can still beat most of her opponents. This past weekend she challenged both her Nai Nai and Yeh Yeh...lets just say, youth reigned victorious.

Nay Nay and Cee Cee

Naomi's has a best friend at school. They are seriously the silliest kids, calling each other Nay Nay and Cee Cee.

"Mommy"

Mikaela’s really good at saying the word, “Mommy”. Of course she has no idea what it means. Or maybe she does.
Every time she wants something, especially when it’s more food, she yells out, “mommy!” Over and over again until she gets what she wants.
My theory is that she’s so used to hearing Naomi say, “mommy, can I have”, or “Mommy, I need, “ or “Mommy I want” etc, so of course, she’s learned that “mommy” is simply the term to use when she needs something.

She also knows the word, “Apple” which we got really excited about last week because she pointed to an apple and said it. But then later this weekend she was holding a ball and said, “apple” as well. Oh well.
Other words she’s picked up: “Uh-Oh” whenever something drops, “Whoa” when she’s excited, “up” when she wants to be picked up.

Growing up and learning to let go

The weather is quickly turning to spring, although, did we ever really have a winter this year? Not that I’m complaining. We enjoyed the warmer weather this weekend and spent some time outdoors. Austin’s mom and dad have been visiting us this past week, so the girls got to spend some extra quality time with them as well. On Saturday, we all went out for a walk for lunch, and stopped by the local bike store. At a playdate last week, Naomi had a chance to ride her friend Emily’s “big girl bike”. She could barely reach the pedals, and had a hard time getting the bike to move at all. I spent a lot of the afternoon pushing her around the block while Emily zoomed around us. That experience definitely wet Naomi’s appetite for getting her own big girl bike, and after watching how well Emily could ride, I realized we definitely should be spending more time outdoors just playing with all of the outdoor toys we have. Sometimes we get so tired and busy from work, it’s just easier to let the girls play indoors in a contained environment. Anyway, at the bike shop, they had two bikes which Naomi could fit, she picked the pink one, surprise!
After lunch she spent the afternoon practicing, I’m so impressed at how good she’s gotten. She practiced more on Sunday afternoon as well, and can confidently pedal all by herself now, in fact if I try to grab the handle bars she’ll usually knock my hands off. She can turn on her own (with only one small spill so far), break, and is starting to get more confident with braking.
Watching her bike around, I couldn’t help by get a little anxious. Ok, a lot anxious. When she goes down hill, it took a lot for me to not yell out for her to slow down, or to simply grab the bike and slow her down myself. I kept having to brush off thoughts of her falling and getting all scraped up. When she did fall down yesterday, it took a lot for me to not rush to her and baby her immediately. Instead, knowing it was a small spill, I stood back and let her pick herself up, and watched with pride as she jumped back on her bike, instead of wimping out and declaring she was done.
I guess we’re all growing up in a way.

A Visit from the denist

At the daycare, a pediatric dentist paid Naomi's class a visit a few weeks ago. She's seen the dentist several times, and has had a dentist visit the school in the past as well, but this time, the visit really caught her attention. Apparently the dentist talked about how sugar was bad for your teeth, and that there was lots of sugar in juice and candy.

Not exactly sure what she said, but Naomi is now incredibly scared of eating candy and refuses to drink any kind of juice and just prefers water. Fine by me!!

One thing that made us laugh, and worry at the same time, was that it was a female dentist that went to visit the school. When Naomi saw me she said, "Mommy, the FAKE dentist came to visit us today!" When I asked her why she was fake, she said it was because she was a girl. Since then I've been trying to explain to her that girls can be dentists, doctors, etc. Didn't realize I'd have to teach my 3 year old about women's rights!

The funny thing is that a week after the dentist paid a visit to the school, we had our own appointment with the pediatric dentist, which happens to be the same practice as the visiting dentist. Naomi's regular dentist must have been out, because she ended up getting Dr. Choi, who was the female dentist that visited her school. I think that helped reinforce the message that she wasn't a fake dentist =)

First Words

Mikaela is pretty good at imitating some of our sounds, but I'm never really sure if she understands any of the words she's saying. Last week when I went to pick her up from daycare, she reached up to me and said, "Up!" And today I asked her if she wanted more cheerios and she said, "No" and vehemently shook her head, then she burst into giggles at the realization that she had said a word. Or maybe it was cause Naomi and I were both shouting in excitement, "SHE SAID NO!!!"

I know in a few months I'll wish she still couldn't say "no", but for now it's all very exciting.

Naomi-ism's

I'm obsessed with Downton Abbey. I finished both seasons in less than a week. Thankfully, both Mikaela and Naomi, for some odd reason, like watching the show as well. Watching with Naomi definitely requires patience though as she likes to ask questions throughout the entire show. She does say the funniest things though. Here are two of her quotes:

Naomi: "Why is Matthew with the wrong girl!! What a mix up!!"

After a scene where one of the maid's enters into one of the many grand rooms in the mansion -
Naomi: "mommy, that looks like our house"

Diaper Free and only Three

LOL that is my attempt at rhyming. So clever I am.

So after months of Naomi waking up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, having to deal with her sleep diaper, taking it off, putting it back on, we decided it was time for her to be in undies, 24/7. No more diapers! We tried awhile back when she seemed to be sleeping the entire night and waking up with dry diapers, but on the first day she soaked the bed. She was distraught at having to wear diapers again, but seriously, it was not fun changing all her sheets in the middle of the night.

But now she can get out of bed and go to the bathroom on her own, but she couldn't while wearing a diaper, so why not just put her in underwear and tell her to go on her own if she has to!? Seemed like a good plan at first.

Except the first day I told her to do that, she "HAD" to go pee 50 times before 9pm. Every 2 minutes I'd hear her feet landing on the floor as she jumped out of bed, tromped over to the bathroom, and did the whole routine.

Thankfully the excitement and freedom of being able to leave her room on her own at night has worn off, so she's only going when she needs to go.

But here's knocking on wood for no accidents in the near future.

Cutest Pats fans ever