Auntie Lolo's House

Our summer vacation this year was hosted by my sister, Laurel, who lives in lovely Pleasanton. We went for a little less than a week, and benefited from: proximity to downtown Pleasanton (very pleasant), swimming pools, Shadow Cliffs mini-lake, awesome public playgrounds, yummy restaurants, the Alameda County Fair, and the added bonus of an obliging babysitter, my own dear sis. The girls loved it, thanks to fun times with their beloved aunt, loads of cartoons and Laurel's super patient cat, Joey. It was nice and warm (okay, it was stinking hot), peaceful and easy and very, very relaxing. Thank you, Laurel (and Brittany, her roommate who was housesitting somewhere else and gave up her room!)


Swimming (just to state the obvious).


Shadow Cliffs' beachfront. Shortly after this picture was taken, I hurt Eliana's arm while swing/dragging her through the water. Bummer. While X-rays and casts danced through our heads, we took her to the doctor and her dislocated elbow was popped back in to place. Thank goodness!!


A super cool, public, neighborhood park.



Pony Rides at the Fair. Adessa was enamored and could have pony-rode all day.

Eliana lasted about 45 seconds.


Adding to our magical time at the fair was this: A 4-H teen was looking for a kid to help her feed the baby goats.


Taking a little break.


Sharing some refreshment.


A more successful pony ride.



Snuggling with Joey and Auntie Lolo.


What a great trip! The girls are asking to go back.

Adessa's Fourth Birthday

Adessa's Fourth Birthday was a big hit, back at our favorite party place, Sky Park.

Opening Presents.


Friends.


Family.


The Cake. Yummy but lumpy.


The party was Saturday morning, and on her actual birthday, we celebrated again with Baskin Robins and Cotton Candy ice cream cones, which the girls wore well.

Happy Fourth, Adessa!


Eliana sporting a Cotton Candy Little Richard.


Here's what she's up to now that she's four:

Chewing Gum

How We Are Doing

We are doing well. All is fine and flowing right along and I just feel like I haven't been writing enough to adequately RECORD these moments of precious amazingness. Which they are. These girls are growing like kudzo and talking up blue streaks and say and do cute things all day long. (Interspersed with incredible tantrums and catfights, of course.)

Adessa is almost done with Preschool, and has absolutely loved it. The teacher assures me that she is a pleasure to have the whole three hours, which means she waits until she gets home (or on the way home, or halfway out the preschool door) to melt down. I got to see her in action at her beloved school, myself, on the day that they celebrated her birthday. Since she has a summer birthday, she got "crowned" and sang to and celebrated on May 10th. While I was there she: followed directions, showed she knew the procedures, played well with others, rode tricycles, ate her snack, (passed things and poured her own water!) happily ran around like a dinosaur and a butterfly when asked. It was great to see her in this part of her life that I have basically no connection to, it's just hers. Very fun.

Adessa in her Birthday crown at Preschool.


Adessa and Anders (It was so cute to watch, he sidled up as close to her as he could.)


Adessa and Eliana have been interacting more and more in play together. Adessa loves to direct their play, and sometimes Eliana is okay with following along. Adessa also enjoys repeating what I say to both of them in a loud, mommy-like voice, to Eliana. "Eliana, Mommy doesn't want you to wear your shoes in the house, okay?" It's sort of cute and about to be irritating, but so far I've put up with it since Eliana doesn't mind. Many times Adessa repeats to Eliana verbatim the little lectures I give her. At least I know she's listening!

I tried to catch Adessa mid-lecture, and got the tail end of her admonishments to Eliana. And it ends with a bang!

Adessa is helpful and cheerful and flexible MUCH more often, though she still is sensitive to blood sugar levels. Something I don't understand about her development is that she does not want to do many things for herself. The most confounding one is that she wants us to dress her (and put her socks on in the right order! And before the shirt. Then come the pants. Or we have to take everything off and start over!) I thought kids wanted to be independent and do things for themselves, buzz off mom kind of thing. Not so with Adessa. We've talked a lot about how four year olds get themselves dressed, get their arms in the car seat straps (or strap themselves in!), etc. She has until June 12 to be babied, and that's it.

Right before we need to go somewhere or when it's after bed time, these girls play beautifully together. I felt like Jane Goodall, watching them take care of their dollies: wrapping them up, patting their backs, kissing them, and shhhing in their ears.


Eliana is doing some serious two year old fit throwing and elaborate, dramatic pouting. But, she's easier to redirect than Adessa was, and I don't take it all so seriously this time around. Eliana has also started chiming in on happenings and daily life, she likes to commentate and ruminate on all our doings. Fun! She loves to be tickled and wrestled, which is my favorite part of the day. She also says: "Stay here, mommy, I'll be right back. Wait for one minute." in her lispy baby voice. So cute.

I came home from work the other day to this:

She woke up too early from her nap, so Grandma rocked her for 45 minutes. Sweeeeet.

Eliana's birthday was spread out over the first half of May. She cried the first two times Happy Birthday was sung to her, but by her birthday party she was only mildly sheepish, no tears! We finally had her party May 15th, and with inclement weather, we had an indoor/outdoor plan at the rec field. It was fun! Yay. It did precipitate this observation: It would be lot's easier to throw my kids a birthday party if I didn't have kids.

May 5th, Actual Birthday.


Eliana and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCake, courtesy of Auntie Lolo.


Eliana's Birthday party cupcakes. Also technicolor. I was excited to use for the first time my decorating pens with edible ink! (Just on the white cupcake--can you see it?)

Now can you see it?


Party peoples, trying out the cupcakes at Eliana's 2nd birthday party.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Eliana!

The Birthday Girl's thoughts on her big day:

The Clash

Clash is the word that comes to mind when I see Adessa after she's dressed most mornings. Once she's put an outfit together--based on... what? We will never know, except that it has nothing to do with color or pattern--she will thenceforth only wear the chosen pieces together. Adessa remains strong in the face of coercion or persuasion and will not be moved to consider any other pairing, or any outfits that I put together. Since I am a laundry fanatic, and love having clean clothes in drawers, she often wears her bizarre ensembles twice a week or more. All that to say, we haven't seen the last of the clash: there's a whole lot more clashing to come.

Please enjoy the range of emotion, the small bits of action, and the hideous clothing combinations in this sequence of the girls.

Big events!

Big events for our house, anyway.

On March 25th, sometime during the early morning, the Binky Fairy visited our house! She left Adessa with a few treasures and took away alllll the Binkies from our house. Poor Eliana was deprived of her binkies, too, but received no treasures, as we are just not going to go through THAT again. (Adessa actually gave her binkies up relatively easily, only 2 days of deep distress at nap- and bed-time. Which made me think that I should have invited the Binky Fairy a LONG time ago.)

On the very same day, Adessa slept through the night without a diaper on or wetting the bed, verrrrry exciting in the growing up department.

And the final big event: During my spring break (April 5th, specifically), with minor coaching and coaxing, Eliana became potty trained! This is truly huge, as she seems so much more like a kid now, not a baby. She has been watching Adessa and trying out the potty for months, it finally occurred to me that I'd better not miss "the window." And she was ready: it took two days with many undie changes, and that was it.

The Potty Trainer (trainee?) on her throne.

One more thing, not a big event: It is unbelievable to me to think that when Adessa was the age that Eliana is now, Eliana was born. Mind boggling. We do want one more child, and I am happy to wait a bit before embarking. That said, I do see the advantages of having older kids, it is so much easier!

The girls collecting duck eggs at cousin Henry's house. The faces are what happens when you say: "Smile!". Oh dear.