The Start of Summer Fun

Its that time of year... the time where the hint of summer is right around the corner, and its time to start planning for all the fun summer stuff... and you get all excited just thinking about it all!

Monday we are taking the day off to take Aurora to Disneyland for her birthday. We are excited to see the joy of the park through her eyes. She has never been before, so it will be a really special treat. We are also taking away the pacifier - Disneyland is supposed to be the consolation prize. Upon the suggestion of my dear friend (who is also the manager of a dental office) it was time to give up the paci, and the perfect story to go with it: The paci fairy is coming to take all the pacifiers from you to bring them to all the other little babies who dont have any at all. Venissa also got Aurora a soft Ariel doll for her birthday that she has really taken to and so we are hoping she can stand in to settle her when she is inconsolable. So when she goes to bed on Sunday night, we are going to help her get all her pacifiers together for the fairy then when she wakes up on Monday we go to Disneyland! Abby is teething (getting THREE top teeth all at once and they are coming in SLOWLY) so I hope she is not too fussy for our trip. And Ryan is already mapping out the bathrooms in the park since Aurora has been in panties during the day for a while now, and only gets diapers or pull ups at naptime and at night.

First off we have memorial day extended weekend with favorite friends and family (especially the Schott's), then of course we have Abby's 1st birthday party, which we are having at Chuck and Carol's. We got a jumpy house, and are going to set up a do it yourself face painting station. We keep going back and forth on doing a taco cart caterer vs. getting local taco shop fare and setting it up ourselves buffet style. The price difference is going to be several hundred dollars, which is significant!

After that we have a shorter camping trip planned with the Landis's (who we regrettably see little of now days due to them living in Fallbrook, and Jennifer's crazy pharmacist schedule), and our BIG camping trip planned with Nathan & Melinda to the Grand Canyon and Zion in August.

New Lease On Life

I feel like my old self (pre kids) again. Its incredible what this diet and getting back to running has done for my spirit, attitude, and outlook. It’s a beautiful, challenging and interesting run, and every time I get out I think how blessed I am to be able to do that on my lunch break. Who else can just step outside their office and within minutes be on the beaches of La Jolla with the cool wind at their back urging them on??? The running has really catapulted my weight loss too. I had hit a plateau of about 135 with diet alone, and now with the running I’ve actually been able to loosen up on the diet a little and have still been losing weight – today’s weigh in was my lowest yet, at 132.8. (Although I did donate blood on Tuesday; how much does a pint of blood weigh? Lol. Maybe it just burns a lot of calories to make it back up?) And I can tell my body is toning up again; its not a soft 133, it’s a firmer, stronger 133. I actually put on my “skinny” jeans (you know the expensive nice ones from years back that you have not fit in forever but you will never get rid of no matter what) and they actually fit me! Now I couldn’t wear them with a snug fitting tank top, but I could wear them with a flowy top. Improvement! Especially since the last time I put them on I looked like a blimp. Ill do a later posting with before and after pics.

Our Jeep finally has an ETA: Friday the 13^th. LOL. Fitting, right? I swear it will never be here. Its been just “two weeks” away for so long I feel like I don’t really believe that its actually going to be in our household!

Abby is continuing to progress, and now says mama. Now while this was her first sound, it does seem that she associates it with me. Being such a mama’s girl its no surprise. She also is starting to try to imitate us with other sounds. Shes for sure a chunkier monkey than Aurora was, and is in solid 6 month old stuff, although she can fit in some smaller stuff and some larger stuff. She is still a great eater, although she really wants to be eating with us and feeding herself. She is a food gourmet. Although she is not picky about much, if it tastes like crap, she wont eat it. We tried a bunch of baby food on our camping trip last weekend and she wouldn’t eat any of the savory flavors. I cant blame her, they are nasty. She is nursing well still too. I leave my pump at work now, and just pump twice a day at work, and otherwise nurse her at home and that’s it.

She has been teething like crazy too, and many nights needs Tylenol around 3pm. Its so sad to hear her whimpering and whining in pain. It sounds so pitiful since normally her crying is so loud, demanding and pissed off sounding. But I cant tell which teeth are bothering her, since you cant really see any that are really close to breaking the surface. She just has her father’s tolerance for pain, poor thing. While she is behind where Aurora was at this age (she will be 9 months old next week) for some milestones like clapping, waving, etc. she is totally blowing us away with her physical milestones. She has been standing unassisted for a few seconds at a time for a week or two now, even though she is unsure when she does it and slowly lowers herself back to the ground as if she was scared of falling and standing on a small rock at 100 feet up. Aurora was walking about a month after she started standing unassisted, so we will see how long it takes Abby! She’s a total joy though and laughs like crazy when you play with her or tickle her. Aurora absolutely adores her and dotes on her as much as an almost 3 year old could have patience for.

Aurora’s potty training is going well now that Ryan and I are on the same page. It wasn’t going well while we disagreed on how ready she was and whether to put her in diapers, pull ups, or panties and in what situations. But now we are both committed to getting her there, and she goes to the sitter in panties, stays dry all day (pull up at naptime) and then stays in them until bed when we put her size 4 diapers on. As long as we have her try every hour or so she doesn’t have accidents, but has yet to poop in the potty, so that will have to come in its own time. She continues to crack us up with her sense of humor. She jokes around all the time with us, and she is great at playing pretend. Her favorite color is definitely pink. Dora the Explorer has a larger place in her heart than Spongebob. She’s become a picky eater who will eat a boatload of something one day then not want it at all the next. If you don’t find the one thing she is in the mood for, she just wont eat. But she does have some staples that she normally wont turn down; olives, prunes, cheese, yogurt, French fries with ketchup (much to my disgust), and peanut butter. She is in size 6 shoes, and 2T most everything (3T shirts though).

With the turn of spring we have to get a plan together for the girls’ birthdays. After talking to Aurora about what she wanted to do, and taking everything else into consideration, we decided that we are going to take a day off and take Aurora to Disneyland for her birthday, then throw a huge party for Abby’s 1^st. We didn’t want to do two big parties just two months apart (too overwhelming), and Aurora really wanted to go to Disneyland. She has never been, and we feel she is old enough to actually enjoy the trip. She’s still free (big bonus) and my Aunt can get Ryan and I free tickets (double bonus), so to have a low key enjoyable birthday celebration for Aurora that is practically free, and that she will appreciate as much or more than a big party is awesome! And since we will be throwing the typical huge 1^st birthday party for Abby, she and we will still get to see all of our friends and family there.