Adria, you're being awfully quiet...

What are you doing in here?

Did you make a mess?

You need to clean it up.

Then she runs away.

Swimming

The top two pictures are Adria, the bottom two are Julia. The girls love having a pool right outside. I love that it's close enough to walk, but not so close that I worry about them drowning. We swim almost every day. The girls have arm floaties and they just swim and swim without much help from me. If there are other people at the pool they are always alarmed the first time they see Julia and Adria just jump right in to the deep end. I can't blame them, I still feel a little alarmed. As a mother, the sight of your baby walking into 5 feet of water is unsettling, not matter how good she swims. But the girls jump over and over and swim to the stairs and climb out mostly without my help. Adria needs a little push to the stairs now and again, but Julia is an amazing little swimmer.

Pictures

Today I was getting bored of blowing bubbles after 30 minutes of it, so I decided to take some pictures. Adria blowing bubbles.

Baby curls...I hope these last!

Julia waiting her turn.

Julia not getting to blow bubbles.

Finding something else to do.

Adria got bored of bubbles because Julia was doing something else.

What you get when babies say "cheese"!!

"Don't push me, Adria!"

Swinging in the swing.

Sliding down the slide.

Snack time. Do you want cottage cheese? Nope.

Hmm....maybe....

Yummy!

Potty Training

*Warning: This post may be traumatic to any mother who has a child to potty train.* Every mother knows the horrors of potty training. It consumes your life, it ruins your carpet and it stresses everyone out. All these things considered, I was not in any rush to potty train Julia. Most of her friends are potty trained, but she wasn't showing much interest...in fact, basically there was no interest, at all. Then, two weeks ago something changed. We came back from swimming and in the midst of changing the girls out of their swimsuits, Julia ran to the bathroom and went potty. I was stunned. The next day the exact same thing happened. Alright, fine, maybe she is ready for potty training I thought to myself. Rachelle gave me a book that worked wonders for Tori. I read it over the weekend and Ben and I decided we'd give it a go. We got toys, treats, juice and panties for both Julia and Adria. (I'm telling you, there is no way I could train only Julia, Adria had just as many signs of readiness, or more, and she wouldn't be left out of something that looked so rewarding). So today was D-Day. The plan was to be diaper free by nap time. Then, last night at 10pm I started throwing up...again and again. I have the flu. But we had prepped Julia, talked it up, shown her the toys and treats, and she woke up excited for the day. So, with love for my daughters, I sat Julia on the little pink potty and sat Adria on the big potty (they picked it, not me) and then I threw up in the sink. Still, the girls did well. They got stickers when they practiced running to the potty, candy or juice when they practiced sitting on the potty and toys when they actually went potty. Julia was first, she went pee-pee twice. Then Adria left a gift for me too. I threw up again. This was all before 9am. Then something went wrong....Adria peed all over the floor and Julia stopped going all together. Finally it was 1pm and nap time. We had spent basically all morning in the bathroom so as not to stain the other carpet. I was so tired and ready for naps, but Julia hadn't gone since early in the morning and I was really concerned she was going to go in her sleep. I think she knew it too because she planted herself on the potty and wouldn't move. She ate her lunch there, read books, sang songs, played with toys. Finally, at 2:30 I peeled her off, screaming and crying, and put her to bed. I put a diaper on Adria for her nap because I know she goes in her sleep, but I thought Julia would do okay if I was right there when she woke up to put her on the potty. I slept on the couch for 20 minutes only to be woken up to Adria's screams. I went in to find that she had taken off her diaper and wet the bed. As I finished changing the sheets and her clothes, Julia woke up crying after only an hour of sleep. I ran in to put her on the potty, but I was too late. The bed was wet, but surprisingly not very. She had drank close to 30 ounces of juice. (the book told me to!) I ran her to the bathroom, sure that there was more to come....and there was. Julia started coughing and then she gagged and then as I picked her up to put her over the sink, she puked all over the carpet, the hard floor, herself, the potty, the rug, and my face. 30 ounces of juice, 10 mini candy bars, lunch and breakfast....everywhere. Luckily, Ben was home to work on a project and he took the girls while I cleaned up the bathroom. Potty training is now on hold until a future date when the smell of throw up is no longer in my bathroom. Maybe a year from now?

My Adria

I've been meaning to blog for a couple months now about some of the stuff Adria is doing. She is at a really fun age where she demands all of my time and attention because she is learning so many new things. Her talking is improving at an amazing rate. She can say so many words that I can't remember them all, but her most common ones are phone, juice, more, all done, Mommy, Daddy, wake up, Dora, oh man, and here (which she says at the top of her lungs until you take whatever she is offering, usually something she chewed on.) She loves shoes and whenever we're going out she will bring each of us our shoes to hurry up the leaving. She is also a master at making messes. I may have blocked out a lot of the messes Julia made at this age, but I swear Adria is a messier mess maker. I mention this because right now, I can hear her pulling out the garbage can in the kitchen...just a second...ok, it was just a bag of straws. So, anyway, Adria also loves to get ready in the morning, afternoon or evening. She loves to shower with whomever is showering, brush her hair a million times a day, and do her make up, and brush my hair and help with my make up. She is also the cuddliest, kissiest kid you've ever met. I get 30 or 40 hugs and kisses every day. She is a very passionate little girl with a lot of love to give. When she gets really excited about something, she can't sit still and if it gets too exciting, she'll start biting everyone and everything she can. She also hates watching TV. I know this is healthy, but there are some days where I would give her a million dollars to sit for 30 minutes and watch something...anything! She likes animals, especially dogs. The park closest to our house is in the middle of the greenbelt so people are always walking their dogs past and Adria chases every one of them yelling "dog" until I bring her back. I think the one thing she really loves more than anything else is her big sister. No nap can ever start without a kiss between sisters. If Julia is sad, Adria is the first one to hug her. Whatever Julia does, Adria wants to do too, no matter how crazy or boring. We love our little Adria.

I am not a pet person

To all of you who love your pets, I don't know how you do it. When we moved in we...ok, I decided, Ben thinks it was a little silly...to get the girls a fish. Ben wanted a dog or a rat. Yeah right, honey. So, I went to Petsmart and told the guy that I was looking for a very low maintance fish that wouldn't die very easily. I do not have a good track record for keeping things alive. Just ask Ben's orange tree. The guy pointed me to the beta fish. Julia spent 10 minutes looking through all the beta fish and finally picked out the biggest, purplest fish she could find. That kid loves purple. We got the food, tank and a Dora "toy" because all fish need Dora toys. Since the fish was purple and there was a Dora, Julia quickly dubbed him Tico (in honor of Dora's purple squirrel friend). We got to the checkout counter and the lady started giving me instructions on how to care for this 2 inch, slimy little fish. Apparently my idea of low maintance was too optimistic. The lady told me that I have to feed it twice a day and change 30% of the water every 3 or 4 days. With the orange tree, I only had to water it once every 2 weeks and put fertalizer in occasionally and I still killed it. Now, I realize that dogs, cats and other pets are more loving than a fish named Tico. But every time I have to put my hand in the water to clean the sides of the tank, I feel queasy. I have to scrub slime off the Dora toy and clean out the gravel at the bottom of the tank. YUCK! The thought of cleaning up after the dog or rat than Ben wants is just too much for me. I clean up after my kids because I love them and we'll be together forever. The fish, I feel no such love for. But, Julia does. She will show him toys or tell him a story and she loves feeding him. Adria doesn't care as much, but she will make fish noises and babble at him. I may complain, but I do hope that Tico lives for many happy fish years. Welcome to the family, Tico.

Sea World

My family came down the week after we moved in to help us unpack. We also went to Sea World while they were down. Julia just loves Sea World. She talked about it for days. Since there were more people, we went to see the Shamu show and sat right in front. Both girls thought it was great until we got seriously splashed and then Adria was very unhappy with me. Julia wanted to do it again. My brothers and sister we all buy souviners and Julia wanted something too. Of course Adria needed one as well so this is what we ended up with: Two giant lollypops and one big, sticky mess! They loved it though and it did help reduce the whining while we walked around and waited in lines. This is us on a ride in the kiddie section of the park. Grandma took Julia and Adria to pet the starfish while I went on a big ride with my siblings. We got the all-you-can-eat passes and Julia's favorite thing to eat was the whipped cream on top of all the desserts. This is Heather and the girls playing at the beach club. On a side note, Julia asked me this morning if she could go in the TV and play with Dora and Diego on their pirate ship. I told her that there isn't actually anything in the TV, it's just pictures and she very sternly told me, "No, its a movie!" Sorry kiddo, you still can't go in it.

Finally an update

Well, life has been pretty busy around here lately. Most of you know that we moved (yes, again) back to our old ward in Rancho Santa Margarita. Thanks to the many people who helped us! I guess we just can't stay in one place for more than 12 months. We are planning to stay in this apartment longer though!! We really miss our friends in San Clemente, but we are so happy to be back in RSM. We love being by more stores than 1/2 a Ralphs and a tiny Walmart. I could live at Target, seriously. We also love having warm days every day! Our complex has 2 swimming pools and we live by the RSM beach club (the beach club is basically giant swimming pool that has a very gradual slope and sand so it's like playing at a beach with no waves and nice clean water.) The girls get to swim 4 or 5 days a week now and they love it. We live within a 5 minute walk of 3 parks and there are even more within a 5 minute drive. If we hadn't left behind people we love (we miss you Rachelle!!) there would be no downside to this move. We rarely went to the beach and so we didn't really appreciate living just steps from the ocean. We are also much closer to Ben's work and school so we get to see him a lot more.

I'm proud to be an American

I know it's been forever since I have posted anything. We finally have internet working at our new apartment so I will start sharing our exciting stories again. I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Independance Day! I love our country and I'm so grateful for people who have fought, will fight and are currently fighting for our freedom. God Bless America! Also, for those of you who love the Muppets as well as America, here's a little song for you.