6 Months!

I hit the 6 month mark last Wednesday. I cannot believe how quickly the time is going. We are wanting to buy a new car before the baby comes since my lease is up in October and I don't want to have to go through the hassle with a newborn. I was talking to my friend Mandy today about how much time we have before we have to start actively looking and I said we will start in August. Then I realized that's only 2 months away!

We still have done absolutely nothing to prepare for this little one. We are going to be moving rooms around, the current office will move to the extra bedroom and Emery's big girl room will be in the current office. We finally have appointments for phone lines and cable lines to be installed in the new office, but that's it. We need to clean out the room, paint Emery's new room and buy her big girl furniture. We better get on it.

I am still feeling pretty good. I have been dealing with some pretty bad acid reflux, but I learned that plain, raw almonds right before bed can soak up the acid. So I have a large bag of almonds and a large box of Tums on my nightstand. I am having lower back pains as well. By the end of the day I am waddling pretty bad and it's entertaining. Luckily, the next day I am back to normal and walking without waddling.

Everyone tells me how huge I am, so we will see if I continue to post these pictures and updates. I took pictures monthly when I was pregnant with Emery and I think it's nice to document the pregnancy. But, at times, I want to lie to people about my due date. I actually avoid the conversation and giving my due date whenever possible. I have gained less in this pregnancy, but it is 100% belly. I can still fit into my regular jeans which is nice.

Make Up 101

While I was showering this morning, Emery helped herself to some of my eye shadow. It was put all over her cheeks and she was so proud of her masterpiece when she showed it to me. She said "I done getting ready Mama". What a little cutie!

Crib Talk

This is the one sided conversation that Emery had with herself this morning after waking up:

"Mama"
"Mama"
"Papa at school"
"Mama"
"Mama"
"Mama no hear you"
"Papa at school"
"Mama"
"Mama"
"Papa go to work"
"Papa go to school on the school bus"
"Mama"
"Mama"

Yes, I finally went in to get her up for the day. Ivan and I were in bed cracking up after hearing her conversation with herself. She is too funny and entertaining!

Starfall.com

I came across this website, well, while blog stalking a friend of a friend and I'm so glad I did. Emery loves it and it is really helping her learn her ABC's and pronunciation of her letters.

She goes through spurts on which letter is her favorite. It's been: D for the dancing doll, S for the skateboarders (the open skateboard is for Emery, she just needs her helmet) and her current favorite letter is W.

Emery has even learned how to use the mouse from playing on the website. I'm still amazed everyday at how much Emery is learning and how she is so independent.

Mama? Grandma?

Emery is in this phase where she thinks every female is either a Mama or Grandma. Cute, right? Well, it is, until you are in store and she decides that someone is a Grandma.

We were in Target yesterday and Emery started calling the lady in front of us Grandma. The lady seemed to be of Grandma age, but it was a little iffy. And even if it is, it's still uncomfortable for Emery to just start calling someone a Grandma because, well, she thinks they look like one. So after every time Emery said "Grandma" I followed up with "yes, we are going to see Grandma because Mama has to go to work".

I hope she grows out of this before we completely offend some woman that maybe isn't quite old enough to be a Grandma but looks older than her age.

20 Weeks - Halfway There!

I can't believe I am already halfway done with this pregnancy. Time sure does go by quicker with your 2nd. We found out two weeks ago that we are having another girl and Ivan and I are both thrilled. I think everyone else wanted us to have a boy, but we are perfectly happy to have another little girl running around the house.

We haven't done one single thing to prepare for this baby. Name? No. Cute baby stuff? No. Moved Emery into a big girl bed so this baby can have somewhere to sleep? No. Nope, nothing, nada! I have looked a little bit for big girl beds and furniture for Emery and a double stroller, but that's about it. I'm still surprised at how much less time I have to focus on this pregnancy than I had when I was pregnant with Emery.

Pro's of this pregnancy:

• Knowing I have a little baby growing inside me
• Laying in bed at 5a listening to the birds chirp and feeling the baby move all around (yes, I did this on Sunday morning and it was wonderful!)
• Having Emery kiss and hug my growing belly
  

Con's of this pregnancy:

• Acid reflux - there have been plenty of nights that Ivan has come to bed and I'm sitting up, half asleep munching on Tums. Yuck!
• Back pains - Emery now says "my back hurts" because she hears it from me so much
  

Emery's BFF's

Emery has two best friends right now. One is Max. He is well, a little bit of an imaginary friend. He is from the kids show Max & Ruby. Have you seen it? If not, you're one of the lucky parents out there. I really don't like the show, but Emery loves it. For the past few weeks, she has been talking to and about Max daily. Today, she was playing with her guitar, telling Max he wasn't allowed to play with it. It's so fun to see that Emery is able to use her imagination and make up activities and friends.

Emery's second best friend is Carter, or "Dashu" as Emery calls him. She's always called him "Dashu" and we hear it so much that Ivan and I find ourselves calling Carter "Dashu". I've been correcting Emery with his name and hopefully soon, she will call him by Carter. Emery loves to play with Carter all day long. He takes the playing, or abuse sometimes, really well. I think it's because he gets all of the food that Emery doesn't eat, which is a lot.

I had to add in this picture of Emery. It's not the best picture to use as an example, but when Emery gets mad, she says "I'm mad!" and makes this crunched up face. She totally has her Mom's facial expressions! When she's done being mad, her face lights up and she says "I"m happy!". Too cute!

California Trip - Disneyland & California Adventure

Wow! I can't believe how long it has taken me to post about our trip to California. Finally, this is the last one, with a million pictures.

Before heading to California, Ivan thought Emery was too young to really enjoy Disneyland. I was convinced that she was the perfect age and would love it. I was praying that I would be right because if I wasn't, I would have never lived it down. But, like we all know, a mother's instinct is right and Emery loved Disneyland and California Adventure!

The first day we were heading to Disneyland. The plan was to meet there at 9a. Ivan got up to go to the gym and when he got back, the girls were still sleeping and I was getting ready. He filled me in on the fact that it was pouring outside. We had great weather the entire time we were in California, except for our first day at Disneyland. We decided to wait a few hours and got to Disneyland around noon. It was disappointing that we lost a few hours of play time, but the weather ended up being perfect and there was hardly anyone at Disneyland. Most lines were only 15-20 minutes and we had a blast.

Day 1 - Disneyland



This was towards the end of the day. I just love how Emery is so relaxed and chillin in her stroller.

Emery loved the Michael Jackson 3-D show. She kept reaching her arms out trying to catch the animals that were in 3-D.
Day 2 - California Adventure
Emery was totally mesmerized by Snow White. She couldn't take her eyes off of her and was in shock that she was that close to a real princess. She did lean over to give Snow White a kiss - it was the most adorable thing ever.
Ivan and Makayla were on bumper cars that Emery was too little for, so my mom took Emery on this ride that goes in constant circles. Neither one of us knew how she would do, but she loved it.

California Adventure had a huge kids "playground" type thing. I think this was Emery's favorite part of the entire trip. She had Ivan running through the playground for hours - literally. She wasn't scared of anything and was running across wobbly bridges that older kids were scared of. Both Emery and Ivan got a good workout in the playground.

Emery is my little Ms. Independent. Why would she want to ride in the stroller when she can stand behind it and push it??

We had a great trip to California and can't wait to go again next year.

Heavy Sleepers

Tuesday morning started out like any other morning. I was up around 4:30a getting ready for work. An hour later, I'm ready to leave the house. Usually Carter gets up to go outside, but he was still asleep. I was happy that I had saved 2 minutes and could just leave for work. (Yes, 2 minutes does add up when it's extra time).

I walked over to the front door and realized it was unlocked. I was annoyed with Ivan instantly, Danny had come over the night before for the Jazz game and left at 10p and obviously Ivan didn't bother to lock the door. So my mind is racing with being annoyed with Ivan and all of the things I needed to get done at work that day.

I open the door - the ALARM we installed two months ago starts blaring and going off. Crap! My first reaction was to hurry and close the front door. Duh, that didn't make it stop. So, I run over to deactivate the alarm and it says "communication canceled". Whew, I don't have to deal with the alarm company or police department at 5:30 in the morning.

At this point, I'm stressing that I've woken everyone up so early in the morning. I quickly walk back to our bedroom, flick on the light and say "I'm so sorry" expecting Ivan to be up and annoyed with me. Nope, he's dead asleep. He doesn't even move when I turn the bedroom light on. Ok, whatever. I walk back to the kitchen to listen to see if Emery woke up. Nope, she's still dead asleep too.

Moral of the story:

1. Turn off the alarm before opening the door
2. Be aware that my husband and daughter will sleep through anything and I'm on my own if there really is an emergency and the home alarm goes off
   

California Trip - Easter Celebrations

We are lucky enough to be able to celebrate Easter for two days when we head out to California. The first day, we celebrated with my Mom's family.

Everyone dying Easter eggs. Notice that there are more adults that kids doing the dying?
These were the Easter baskets that my Mom did. Keep in mind, these are for a total of 3 kids, all 2 1/2 and under. I couldn't tell if it was Christmas or Easter. Thanks to my Mom for always making holiday's a big deal and going all out for the kids!
The whole family who came together to celebrate Easter this year.
Emery definitely remembered the idea of hunting for Easter eggs from last year.
Makayla digging into her Easter basket and all of the loot inside ..
The next day, we spent Easter day with my Dad's side of the family. Emery got candy jewelry in some of the eggs that she found and she was in love with them.
Of course she needed a sucker bigger than her own head ..
Emery loves all types of animals. She really wanted to ride the horse but freaked out when she was put on it alone. So, I made one quick trip on the horse just to make Emery happy.

California Trip - Beach Day!

We made our annual trip to California over Easter weekend and we had a great time. The first day there, we headed out to Newport Beach. The weather was cool and windy, but it didn't stop Ivan and the girls from having a wonderful time. I'm not so much of a beach person, I can do without the sand and salt water, but I did hang out on the beach to be the photographer.


Emery had such a good time in the water, we stripped her clothes off one by one as they got soaked. Eventually, she was the naked baby at the beach and that was our time to leave.

On the way home we stopped for a bite of Del Taco and Emery took over my coke. She loves coke as much as I do!
More pictures and stories to come ...

Family of Four Coming Soon!

We are happy to announce that we will be adding another baby to our family in September. Ivan and I are both really excited. Emery doesn't really understand it yet, but when we ask her if she wants a puppy or a baby, she asks for a baby which is a good sign.

I am 13 weeks along, due September 22nd and starting to feel better. This pregnancy has already been much different than when I was pregnant with Emery. With Emery, I was never sick, until I had some crazy stomach issues around 4 months pregnant. So far with this pregnancy, I was sick from 6-12 weeks and totally exhausted. If I wasn't at work, I was laying my lazy butt on the couch or in bed. I don't think Emery has ever watch as much TV as she did during those few weeks.

It's nice to get my energy back and feel good most of the time. I do usually have one spell of not feeling well per day but it's manageable. Ivan has been wonderful and has really been picking up the slack around the house. Well, the truth of the matter was that he didn't have a choice because he knew there was no way in hell I was doing it. I guess that's not the point though right.

Chuck E Cheese Please...

We took Emery to Chuck E Cheese for the first time last Saturday. It was quite the experience for us all. Ivan and I haven't been there in 10+ years, and we decided to go on a Saturday afternoon. I'm still not sure what we were thinking. We got there to learn there was a 20 min wait to get in. After waiting for about 10 min, Ivan finally realized that there was only a wait if you wanted to eat. We were only there for the games, no Chuck E Cheese pizza for me, thanks.

I think Emery had fun, but she did have the most fun just putting the money in the machines. She would walk around with her hand out saying "money? money?". We were able to get her a purple ring and some Pop Rocks with the tickets she won. A week later, the ring is lost and Pop Rocks were never eaten. Oh well, she had about an hour and a half worth of fun for $10 - who can beat that?

Lazy Day

We usually have lazy day's on Friday's since I'm off work. Last Friday, we just hung around the house in our jammies and looked pretty rugged. Of course, the perfect time for mommy to whip out the camera. Here is Emery in all of her beautiful glory, jam on her face, hair pulled back with mommy's clip and still in her jammies.
We then made up a game where we laid out some of her books and walked along them while counting the number of books. Emery is learning so many things these days. She can count and recognize her numbers, 1-10 and loves to sing her ABC's. She doesn't know her ABC's 100% but it is hilarious when she gets to L,M,N,O,P because she kind of mumbles through it.

Who is the potographer?

It's been forever since I've posted on the blog, or downloaded pictures for that matter. I haven't taken many pictures for the last few months so I was surprised when I had 70 pictures on my camera to be downloaded. Once I looked at them, I figured out why there were so many pictures.

Can you guess who the photographer was?



Here's our little princess. She loves to dress up in her princess gear. It's really funny when she wears the princess outfit and then plays with her hammer and screwdriver tool set.Like father like daughter. Apparently, Emery wants to be just like Ivan and read a magazine while she goes potty.

Potty Training - For Real this Time!

I know, I know .. I've posted about potty training several times. Well, this time it is for real. We got up Friday morning and Ivan decided he wanted to give it a shot. So, I said ok, let's go for it.

We put Emery in her big girl undies and she didn't have any accidents for the first 3 hours. We ended up going through 5 pairs of undies that day but only one real accident. The other 4 times she started to pee, realized it and stopped and went in the potty.

Saturday and Sunday - no accidents at all and the same pair of undies all day!

We are still putting diapers on her during her naps and at night but otherwise, she's diaper free. I took her to Del Taco today (who would have guessed??) and I was nervous that she would pee in the car. Nope, dry the whole way there and back.

We are rewarding her with M&M's for every time she goes potty. I ask her every 30 minutes or so if she has to go potty and she always says no. She just let's us know when she has to go and then it's a mad rush to the bathroom.

I am so proud of Emery. She is such a big girl and has made all of the transitions from baby to big girl so easy for Ivan and I. We are so grateful for our little girl!

Christmas Day Festivities

We were up late last night so we all slept in today. We got up and started opening presents around 11a and started round 2 of Christmas Celebrations. Emery really liked opening her gifts, she would open one, look at it for a minute, toss the gift to the side and say, "mas" (more in Spanish). She got spoiled with all kinds of fun gifts including a Princess Dress Up Kit, a tool set, lots of books and clothes. She's one lucky girl!

Cute Makayla with the Christmas tree


Halfway through opening gifts, Emery decided she needed a break and laid down with her new Elmo B (she calls blankets "b's")
Ivan helping her put on her princess shoesYes, Emery has this crazy hair every single morning :)

Makayla got a ton of cool gifts too. She got a magic set, a zhu zhu and a ton of clothes. After dinner, she tried out her Magician skills. We had a good time, lots of laughing, but, let's just say, she shouldn't give up her day job. Makayla mixed up a few of the tricks but we all had a good time.As we were putting Emery down to bed, she wanted Maya (that's what she calls Makayla) to lay in her crib with her. So, of course, Makayla jumped right in and cuddled with her. Then Emery wanted me to get in the crib - ya right!