It’s October!

It’s my favorite month. It started out with General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was so spiritually uplifting and reassuring to know that we have a Heavenly Father who communicates with us today through living prophets and apostles. It was nice to be able to just stay home and be together as a family and relax the whole weekend too.

Julio was tired, not bored. The kids built another blanket fort.

Sylvia is making progress with potty training.

This month is also full of exciting things…birthdays, Halloween. We’ve got a big one coming up this Friday-the big 40! Mr. Julio is going to be celebrating his 40th this Friday. Ideally, we would like to get away, just the two of us to a nice secluded beach and just relax, but since we have 4 small children, that’s not going to happen. I’ll post more on his birthday, after it happens.

We are also celebrating Eden’s and my birthday this month. We look forward to Halloween, visiting pumpkin farms, haunted houses, etc. So far, Lucia is going to be Olivia the pig  and Sylvia wants to be a princess (easy enough to pull something out of the dress-up box for that). We just need to figure out what Marco and Tessa are going to be. Fun fun!

Tessa-4 months

I took Tessa to the doctor yesterday. (I’m so sad we don’t have Kaiser and our pediatrician anymore.). She weighs 11 lbs. 11 oz.  and is in the 11 percentile for weight.  She’s tiny! She is 24 1/2 inches long and in the 57th percentile for length. That seems weird to me because she isn’t long and skinny. Maybe they measured her wrong? I don’t know, but she did not like the shots. Otherwise, she was her normal, smiley self. Here are some things about Tessa at 4 months.

She has started blowing bubbles and raspberries.

She sleeps a good 8-9 hour stretch at night starting about 10:30 pm-an improvement from 11-1 am.

She can grab toys and stick them in her mouth.

She coos and gurgles and laughs.

She makes these weird cat sounds when she’s mad.

She tries to sit up when reclined.

She can stand up when you hold her on your lap.

She is very social and smiles at most people.

She has a very erratic if any nap schedule.

We love having her in our family!

Tummy time! Look at that crazy hair! She gets a ton of comments about her hair.

She likes to stick out her tongue when she smiles.

Mommy kisses.

Marco’s birthday celebrations

This post is a long time coming. Marco had his birthday over a month ago, and we had his “friend party” about 4 weeks ago. But, if I don’t document it, it will be forgotten. On his actual birthday,  he got his BIG present! He was in the living room and we told him to close his eyes while I wheeled in his bike. Lucia saw it first and blurted out, “But he wanted a skooter!” I was so mad! Marco started to cry-not sure why. It was a big misunderstanding and I started wheeling it back to the garage and saying I would return it if he didn’t want it. He did want it and was excited about it, but Lucia definitely ruined the whole thing.

That evening, we went to Chuck E. Cheese

Here’s his present from Uncle B. It’s hillarious!

 

Deer in the headlights

That is a scary looking rat!

Then he got his friend party. The first one ever! He didn’t invite a whole lot of friends, but it was still fun. It was so easy! We went to McDonald’s, had tables reserved in the play area and ordered Happy Meals for the kids. We brought cupcakes and party bags. No entertaining, clean up or preparing food and it was fairly inexpensive. It was fabulous! When we asked Marco what his favorite part of the party was, he said, “Handing out the party bags and opening presents.”

It’s been a week already?

I’m  still a little bit back logged on my blogging-I still need to do Tessa’s blessing and Marco’s birthday. We lost the SIM card, then found it and need to download the pictures. Just some random things:

I made refrigerator pickles for the first time last week. They were way too salty, but otherwise good.

I’m eating fresh tomatoes from our garden and they are good!

Potty training Sylvie is an ongoing process. Yesterday, I put her in the bathroom with her potty and she threw a huge tantrum, peed on the counter and then sat inside the toilet bowl. Her most favorite sayings these days are, “I’m not coming!” and “I won’t!” When you ask her to come or do something.  We also started a nursery school group today. I got to do some shopping without her! Yay!

We didn’t do much for Labor day. Sylvie did gymnastics, Julio worked on the yard, and we went swimming at Grandma’s house and had a BBQ.

Marco is on the early schedule for reading which means he needs extra help. I knew he would, but it still doesn’t make you feel confidant in your parenting skills when your kid is in the bottom half of the class.  It works out better for us anyway so Julio can take him to school.

I will catch up on those other posts one of these days. That’s all for now.

Sylvie’s 3rd birthday

When we ask Sylvie how old she is, she says, “August 29th!” and then holds us 3 fingers.

Good Morning Sylvie, it’s your birthday!  The kids wanted her to open a present before they went to school, but she wasn’t in the best mood. She kept saying, “NO! it’s not my birthday!”

She got to open her new porcelain tea set. She is obsessed with this stuff, so I got her her very own to do whatever she pleases! She loved it!

Now that she is 3, she can do gymnastics all by herself. So, she had her first class on her birthday! As soon as we entered the gym, she ran in and took off her shoes and joined the class without a look back. She was all over the place, she was so excited. That poor teacher!

Look Mom, I got a stamp on my tummy!

After dinner, we met all the family at Leatherby’s for ice cream.

Lucia lost a tooth!

Mmmm, bubblegum ice cream, her favorite!

And more ice cream! Blowing out the candle after everyone in the shoppe sang to her.

 

Opening her gift from Grandma and Grandpa.

She likes to draw on walls, so maybe a chalk board will help her get out of that habit.

This was the only thing she actually asked for, a Dora Ballerina doll! She was happy!

The dolly from Tia Yesenia and the shopping cart from Uncle B were a big hit!

Her bestest bud Eden.

I can’t believe she is 3 already! To think that 3 years ago, I gave birth to her without an epidural and then left the hospital 12 hours later.  She was tiny when she was born and she’s still very small for her age. We hope that this year she: will learn to sit at the dinner table like a proper little lady, learn to go potty, learn to dress herself, start pre-preschool, enter Primary at church, spend lots of time with her cousins, and start to play with her little sister.

What’s new?

So this week has been an adjustment with our new schedule and not having Lucia and Marco around to entertain Sylvie.  Tessa is not phased by the change in schedule and is continuing on her late nights. It’s hard on me getting up at 6:45 to get the kids up and ready for school. Thankfully, Julio is able to take them and I don’t have to get myself ready that early. But, I try to go back to bed and Sylvie wakes up. I’m so tired! I have been trying to potty train Sylvie this week and it’s not working (again.) She just doesn’t want to do it. I don’t let her watch tv unless she is sitting on her potty, so she’ll sit there and watch tv for two hours and not pee! How is that possible? I give her juice and milk and she’ll hold it until I have to put a diaper on her! I have offered her treats and even bought a new toy, but nothing seems to motivate her. It might just come down to force. She’ll be 3 on Monday and I’m tired of changing them diapers!  Another issue with our schedule: Marco gets out at 1:35 and Lucia at 2:15. So, since the parking is INSANE around the school, I have to leave early so as not to park 10 blocks away and sit and wait not once, but twice. I have to get Sylvie and Tessa out of the car and into the stroller and go wait for Marco, then we go down to the playground and sit in the heat. Finally, Lucia comes and we head back to the car and home. I’m gone about an hour. I’m hoping to work out a carpool after next week when we know if Marco will be an early or late reader. I’m guessing early although late would work better for him. We had a major battle with getting him up one day this week and had to threaten to cancel his birthday party on Saturday and Julio had to sit with him for 1/2 an hour before he would go to class. Ay ay ay as Julio would say.

Anyway, on another note: Julio really likes his new job at Liberty Mutual. He’s been able to do real lawyer stuff. He has depositions almost every day and he has an actual trial coming up! He’s learning a lot and staying super busy which makes him happy. He’s not nearly as stressed (well, he is but a good stress) and I see a real difference in him. It’s amazing what a job can do!  He’s going to LA this weekend (after Marco’s party) for his mom’s 70th birthday party. Unfortunately, we couldn’t all go. Oh well. I guess that’s all for now!

First Day of School

It’s too quiet in the house! Last night we got the backpacks ready, set out their clothes and went to bed early. We got up at 6:50  this morning (much too early) and got dressed and ready for our first day at Trajan School. Marco seemed excited, but Lucia told me she was nervous.  Julio and I both took them so we could each accompany one of the kids to their new class. The neighborhood around the school was a zoo since every parent was doing the same thing. I took Marco to his class. There are 31 kids in his kindergarten class-thank you budget cuts! The classroom was very chaotic with parents and kids pushing through the small space. But, we found Marco’s name tag and his desk. I tried to hug him and reassure him that everything would be okay. He just shook his head and smiled when I asked him if he was going to be a good boy and if he was going to miss me. What else could I do or say? I started to get teary eyed, so I decided to make a break for it before I started to bawl. I can’t believe my baby boy is in school. I’m going to miss having him around the house making his motor noises and monster noises and alternately playing with or bugging Sylvie.  I’m a little worried he’ll get lost in the shuffle with that huge class because he is quiet and doesn’t call attention to himself. I hope he does well. I’m not worried about him making friends. He’s got one little friend in his class already.   Now for Lucia-Julio dropped her off in her 2nd grade class. She’s got two boys from church in her class, but doesn’t know any girls. I worry about her making friends. I know she won’t be overlooked because she is so smart and I know the teacher will recognize that. Her teacher seems amazing. She is really, really nice! So here’s to another school year and hoping it’s a good one.