OmaClou

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Grandma Visits- July 2015

Grandma came Friday afternoon and left just this morning, and the kids miss her so much they can't handle it. Friday was low-key and we went to the park and had some Thai takeout. Saturday we all went to the local Centennial Gardens & Bird Sanctuary, for some froyo at TCBY.

James and Grandma at the bird sanctuary on Saturday

Miranda's naughty face

Caught!

Smooches

Love.

Kevin with his two little monsters (see the claws?)

More love.

That's the cotton candy flavor again. J reports green poop.

Teething so much she passed up on froyo (All her molars came out at once!)

Peekaboo!

On Sunday Grandma took the kiddies to the park, and in the evening Kevin, Grandma and James went out for some German food, while I taught Miranda restaurant manner at home. Monday grandma babysat while Kevin and I ran some errands. I very nice visit but everyone is trying to schedule Grandma's return in August already.

Park on Sunday with Grandma

Friday, July 24, 2015

Janice and Ash Visit- July 2015

Janice and Ash came to visit recently. Fun times were had, catching up, playing with the kids, eating sushi, and drinking wine. Love you guys!

Refreshments!

Playing with Duplo Legos

Ash snuggling with her new God-daughter

Janice getting kisses from her God-son

They get each other.

James making Miranda smile for the photo. Good try.

Headstand-training.

Yay group pictures! Kids clearly watching television.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Miranda is 15 Months 2015

Miranda waiting for her 15-month appointment

Miranda is tall. At least for now-- I didn't hit my short stride until I was in 6th grade, and I wasn't officially a short girl until 8th. But I was never a tall kid. Miranda is currently rocking the 95 percentile at 32.5 inches! As a result, she's out-grown almost all of her baby clothes and she's wearing 2T now. She's 75th percentile in weight at 24 pounds and 15 ounces though that part is more surprising because she looks pleasantly chubby to us. She's got 7-working-on-8 teeth.

Earlier this month...

Almost. got. it.

She says: mama, dada, James (pronounced jshyames), tickle-tickle-tickle, yes, go!, caca, and miku (milk). She understands our commands to get this book or to bring something to Dada. She sometimes answers my yes or no questions yes (when the answer is yes) but never no (when the answer is no). Perhaps she has a block on the word no, since she ignores it when I say it to her.

She dances. Oh she dances any time there's music. She still waves one arm in the air, and now sometimes she tries to sing along. She sings cucarahhh (cucaracha) or the bah bah refrain of bah-bah black sheep, but if she doesn't know the words, she just makes up some sounds to go with it.

Playground joy!

She get up at 7:30 am or 8 am. She takes one nap a day around 11 am, except the days she either gets up too early or takes a really short first nap, and then there's a second nap around 2:30-3 pm.

Just because it's a nap, doesn't mean you shouldn't look fab.

Feeling refreshed, post-nap.

She insists on eating with a spoon or fork now, or at least having one to use to move the food around. She is a lady.

Eating.

Watching James and Miranda play together is amazing. They totally love each other. James is very patient with her, except for when he's not. It's funny to see how different it is than I imagined it would be. They play a lot of a sort of Simon Says, where he chases her around imitating her. This role suits her and she's become an evil ring leader. Of course, she also provides a convenient excuse to do all the things he wants to do. He says it was the "bad baby." There are no clean hands here.

Miranda combing James hair

Jumping! This was her idea.

Love!

Investigating her new toy. He's a little mad it says "Mir-ahn-da" but not "James"

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

NYC for Aria's 1st Birthday- July 2015

Aria is 1!

James and I went on a mom-son adventure into the city to go to Aria's 1st Birthday party. It's so fun that he's old enough to do this stuff now. I am not the kind of mom that likes lugging a diaper bag and stroller on trains and subways, but now he's an independent little walker. Still, we left at 11 am, and got there at 12:40 pm, so it was a long ride for the little guy. There were a lot of are-we-there-yets. The good part is that he's also funny now-- on purpose, like adults-- so he entertained both of us on the way there and cracked me up. I love him like crazy.

Excited about the LIRR; conductor punched a smiley face; Brooklyn subway love.

At last, we got to Washington Market Park, site of Aria's birthday party. First of all, this park is beautiful. The party's home base was the gazebo and Christina's pink-gold-and-white decorations were so pretty. They also had a ton of food and drinks with big and little eaters in mind. Yum.

Gazebo in the city.

Christina and her 1-year-old girl, Aria.

The park also had a very fun playground complete with a splash area. Could James have happily lived out the rest of his childhood there? Definitely would have prefered it.

James and Hudson queuing up for the slide.

Wee!

Splash!!

Stomping joy!

There were two types of cupcakes, and a baby cake smash. Your parents threw you the best birthday party, Aria. Learn to say, "thank you." Haha.

Cake time!

I wish for another party.

Gentle cake smash with grandma

Triple the cute. Aria scored some cupcake right after this.

James and Hudson are very pleased.

Friday, July 17, 2015

Owen Cancer-free for 1 Year! 2015

The cutest. The best.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

"The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" Marie Kondo- Talks at Google

I just love this. Marie Kondo highlights some of her techniques, and answers the questions everyone asks all the time.

My favorite quotes:

"My method is completely based on if you get inspired by the object. It depends on the person... how much stuff you want to keep around you."

"My clients never go back to the mess, because they've been transformed into the organized person."

"It's not about tidying up, it's about how you want to spend the rest of your life."

"I know every one of us has so many items in our life. But examining the items in our life is examining how we want to live right now."

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Movie Date: Inside Out 2015

I went to my first movie with James! I went to my first movie, Bambi, when I was three and apparently I started crying and screaming in horror when Bambi's mom was um, taken out of the picture. And James is already prone to nightmares and whatnot, so I've been careful about not taking him to anything that might be scary too soon. For that reason he didn't see Frozen in the theaters. He was just 2.5 and I really didn't want him having issues with the big scary snowman in the previews (the one that is not Olaf).

Also, he only likes cartoons. I tried to let him watch the nutcracker on TV and he wasn't having it because it wasn't a cartoon. Anyway, Inside Out didn't look scary and it had great reviews, so off we went!

Outside a local movie theater

Inside Out was a lot of fun. Reminded me of the Disney ride with the kid's brain's control center or whatever. I don't remember it too clearly. He liked the movie and the popcorn and snacks, and he only asked for one bathroom break - which for him is good.

Inside Out!

He also took a big interest in the Minions movie poster. He noted the date said July 11, and when he came home he asked a lot of questions about the calendar and carefully kept track of the date. When we got to the 11th, he claimed it was time to take him to Minions. I explained how movies are a treat, etc. The next day he expressed sadness that the movie (Minions) was over. So then I explained how movies are in the movie theater every day, several times a day for a while, and Minions was not over. He is still busy waging a campaign to see the movie by mentioning it periodically, and when he found a quarter yesterday he said he wanted to use it to buy the movie. Well played, James.

James and huge bag of popcorn (the small)

The first movie I actually remember going to was E.T. and I was already 6 years old by then (they did a re-release in movie theaters in 1985). So I wonder if he'll even remember any of this anyway. I guess I'll remember it for us.