More Presents

Yesterday we asked Sofia what she'd like for dinner and without hesitating she announced "Papa John's Pizza!" Sofia loves their cheese pizza and Olivia, CK and I really like it too, so it's a very easy dinner. After eating our pizza on our back patio, we went into the living room where Sofia opened her gifts. She actually received quite a few gifts from family and friends and she was very excited to see what she was sent.


While she played downstairs, I snuck upstairs with a ladder and her gift from her Aunt Becky, which was glow-in-the-dark stars and planets. I figured it would be a lot more fun for her to see them on the ceiling at bedtime rather than opening them up as a regular gift. I considered putting them into the correct constellations (it came with a chart), but after I was balanced on the ladder I decided that wasn't going to happen and instead placed them in a random pattern.

Once downstairs, we got all the gifts together for her to open. The first gift she opened was from her Grandma and Grandpa and included an adorable insulated lunch bag, a camera and case (!!), a Magic Tree House book ("Night on the Titanic" which she's always wanted), dinosaur flash cards, a coloring book and Altoids! She was so excited and wanted batteries in the camera right away as she opened her flash cards and flipped through her Magic Tree House book. Next she opened her gift from Uncle Rob and Aunt Margie, who just returned from a cruise in Alaska. They got her a Denali Park Ranger vest which is adorable on her! Then she went for the biggest gift she had which was from Aunt and Uncle. It came in a big blue Amazon bag and she soon found that it had a container of dinosaurs! Of course she loved it and started playing with them. Next she decided to open the gift from Olivia and Buddy. It was a Pet Hospital that she played with at her cousins' house in Atlanta and figured it would be a good gift for both her and Olivia to play. She opened her gift from Grandpa Joe which included "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", "Tortoise and Hare", and "The Lion and Mouse." We actually don't have any of those books, so she started reading them. Next she wanted to open the gift from Sian and her girls. It included "Stegy" the toy stegosaurs that she left at their house, so she was super excited. They also gave her a toy killer whale, Black Beauty movie and the fossils we made when we were together. She also opened her gift from her Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Jay and her cousins which included a great dinosaur carrying case that opens up to a play mat (great for travel) and a moveable Apatosaurus. Finally, all the gifts were open and CK went into the attic to get our gift to Sofia - a new bike that has pedals and training wheels. She received a balance bike for her birthday last year and has become comfortable on it and balances well, except that it doesn't roll for long stretches, so she ends up using her feet to kick a lot more than she should. So, we figured she should upgrade to a "real" bike that we can remove the training wheels from. I'm hoping she gets comfortable on it enough to ride it to school while I ride next to her pulling Olivia in the trailer. CK snuck it in behind her and then we had her turn around. She wasn't super excited, but we convinced her to take a quick spin on it outside. Unfortunately, I never thought to remind her where the brakes are and once she got going she ended up panicking and ran into the curb which made her fall forward and she got hurt and scared. She immediately named it "Scary Bike" and is very reluctant to get back on it.....Otherwise, it was a fun and very happy birthday for our six year old! I still can't believe she's six!

Sofia and her gifts

Her brand new camera from Grandpa and Grandma!

Her cool Denali Park Ranger vest from Uncle Rob and Aunt Margie

Opening her gift from Aunt Shirl and Uncle Steve

Dinosaurs!

Opening her gift from Olivia and Buddy

While Olivia tests out Sofia's new dinosaurs

Sofia's Pet Hospital from Olivia and Buddy

Sofia's new bike! Quickly named "Scary Bike" thanks to the 'crash'

Sofia's 6th Birthday Party

Yesterday was Sofia's birthday and her birthday party! The past few years we've had a pool party at our house in the morning to celebrate her birthday and this year we gave her the option of having another pool party and inviting whoever she wants or holding it at a trampoline park or Ride with Pride or somewhere else but with the understanding that it would be a limited guest list. Sofia decided on having a pool party once again and asked that her friends Thomas, Isabella, Gigi, Milani, Lily, and Chloe attend, all eight of the girls from her soccer team, as well as her friends from school Allen, Annabella, Caroline, and Jack and a few of her friends who she's met at horse camp, Ainsley and Camila. All said, we were looking at inviting over 20 kids which meant that we would likely have around 40-50 people in our house! Instead, we decided to cut the soccer team and invite the rest of her friends and our neighbor/friend 2-year old Antonio. Instead of gifts, we asked that those who attend bring a book and we would have a book swap during the party since we would rather Sofia focus on the fun of the day and the fact that she received gifts from family and didn't need a bunch of other toys. She wasn't happy with it, but she understood our reasoning. After all the agonizing over her guest list, only six of her friends were able to make it. It really turned out to be a very fun party though, I think because we weren't running around crazy the whole time!

Amazingly on the day of the party, it was 78 degrees and a high of 85! It's never been below 104 on her birthday in the past five years and yesterday was one of the best weather days of the year! It was amazing out. The party was from 10am until noon and CK picked up the cake and balloons just before Sofia's friends arrived. Before our trip to California, we stopped by Market Street and Sofia flipped through the cake book and decided on her favorite birthday cake - dinosaurs! The cake looked great and we later found that it tasted as good as it looked. I made peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, a fruit and cheese tray, and a veggie and dip tray. We had small bottled water, juice boxes and ice tea.

Sofia's friends started arriving and they all went straight for the pool. The girls had so much fun swimming, making up stories, going down the slide and it really was such a great size party. Antonio, Olivia, Stacy and I hung out in the hot tub for the most part so the little ones could play and swim without being bombarded by the big girls. It was such fun and everyone got along well.

All the girls enjoyed getting at least one dinosaur tattoo, and Sofia decided to get six, since she's now six. The girls got out of the pool after about two hours and ate sandwiches and snacks before we sang happy birthday to Sofia and all enjoyed cake and ice cream. I nearly forgot about the book swap and the girls decided on books they wanted, said their goodbyes and our party was over. Sofia enjoyed playing with her new books and enjoying the pool a bit more.

Sofia with her 6th birthday cake!

A close up of her dinosaur cake

The birthday food

Girls on the slide

Sofia, Lily and Ainsley

Playing in the sandbox

Isabella, Ainsley, Sofia, Lily, and Chloe all set to sing Happy Birthday

CK lights the birthday candles

Sofia makes a wish

Enjoying her first cake as a six year old

Sofia with her favorite dinosaur birthday balloon

Sofia and Isabella

Sofia with Lily and Chloe

Sofia giving Ainsley a tattoo

Her horse camp buddy, Ainsley

Sofia and Milani

The four of us after Sofia's birthday dinner

Olivia at 23 Months

Our little girl is four short weeks away from being two! She's such a fun, sweet girl and is more laid back than Sofia was at this age (although we're more relaxed parents too). She's easy to giggle and goes with the flow of whatever we are doing. She's still working on the words we can actually understand, although she loves to babble on and on as if we can understand everything she's saying. She is 31.5 lbs and is now 35 inches tall. She wears 2T clothes and still loves shoes. She wears mostly Sofia's hand-me-downs and I love her in them. She also has Sofia's shoes, although she has several of her own pairs and seems to prefer them. Sofia has a pair of sandals that she absolutely lived in and are still my favorites, however, Olivia has never wanted to wear them. After getting dressed, she must pick out her own shoes.

She still loves her food and will eat just about anything in front of her, which I'm sure will change at some point. She is hit or miss with meat, but will at least try it. She loves to snack and cheese sticks, crackers, and grapes (or strawberries, peaches, bananas) are her favorites. She's also become unnaturally addicted to chewing gum and miniature Altoids. In the middle of playing, she'll stop and find me to say "I wanna piece" which means "a piece of gum." She's good about spitting out her gum and putting it in the trash when she's done with it, usually.

She adores her big sister and loves any and all attention from Sofia. Last week, we drove Sofia to meet her friend Grady and go to a movie with him and his mom, Mya. I left Olivia in the car while I let Sofia out of the car and chatted for a bit. After a few minutes, I jumped in the car and drove off. Olivia started crying and saying "Sissy! I want sissy!" She was so sad and missed her sister for the entire drive home. Back to school for Sofia might be a sad affair for Olivia.

Olivia loves to swim. She will often go into her room, find her swimsuit, find me and say "I need my suit." If I tell her we will go swimming in the afternoon, she carries her swimsuit around with her for the rest of the day, even taking it with her in her crib during her nap. She loves the water and could easily spend hours in the water. She's become quite a good swimmer for a little one who isn't quite two years old. She jumps in, holds her breath and kicks to the surface. She has very good breath control after so many afternoons in the pool and can "swim" a good amount before having to come up for air. She still needs a little assistance getting her mouth out of the water to take a breath, but will immediately take another big gulp of air and put her face back in the water and try to propel herself across the pool.

Similar to Sofia, she enjoys time to herself and will usually go into her room by herself to "read" books and play. It's a nice break for me and I think she enjoys her time alone as much as I do. She remains a great sleeper, taking a nice 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon and sleeping at least 11 quiet hours at night. She still prefers to go to bed around 7:30pm but we can stretch her a little later when necessary. She still doesn't have a lovey, like Sofia had at that age but loves puppies and has a bunch of stuffed animals and dolls in her crib with her every night.

Although different than Sofia, Olivia also reminds us of Sofia in many ways. She's very outgoing and social, she loves reading and trains, loves food and sleep, and she's a little girl who knows exactly what she wants. We look forward to watching her grow and change.

Olivia and her friend and neighbor, Antonio. She's another little fish.

Olivia and me in the pool

Sisters!

Our sweet 23 month old

Not yet ready to smile

Playing with her stuffed animals

Her cute little feet with the shoes she picked it.

Sofia at 6 years old!!

Six! Our sweet girl is six and I can't believe it! I had a hard enough time with five, since that's the age when she started school but now I think I'm in denial because her fifth year flew by and I'm think they all will until she'll be out of the house before we know it!

Sofia is 44 1/2 inches tall and weights 50.4 lbs! She's tall and slender and she wears a size 7/8 already because she prefers dresses and skirts and for her height the size 6s are just too short. Some of the 7/8s are too short too. She still wears a size 13 shoe although I think she's close to making the jump to size 1 and has already in tennis shoes.

Sofia's two loves right now are the pool and dinosaurs! The last two weeks of school she was home sick and so I asked her what she wanted to watch while laying on the couch and she said something with dinosaurs. We don't watch a lot of tv and only allow Sofia to watch something on Thursdays usually, although with summer I've let her relax and watch a show while Olivia naps. I got onto Netflix and found some really good BBC and Discovery documentaries about dinosaurs. The three that she ended up really enjoying are called "Walking with Monsters", "Walking with Beasts", and "Walking with Dinosaurs" and they are all fascinating. Each offers 20 minute segments focused on a particular animal starting 450 million years ago and going through 200 million years ago. Since that day on the couch, she's become very interested in all things dinosaur and has several books that she loves reading about them.

Generally every afternoon before I start dinner, the three of us jump in the pool. If we are lucky, CK is able to make it home a bit early and swims with the girls while I get out and make dinner. Then we get out and eat. Sometimes, Sofia will swim for several hours before getting out and then want to get back in after dinner! She can't get enough of the water!

She's also become quite a good reader and wants to read everything she gets her hands on. She's enjoying the Magic Tree House series and loves to read them in any order, with special focus on a few of them that are her favorites. She has read those several times. Often, she'll run up to her room, grab one of her Magic Tree House books and return to the couch to read in the afternoon, which we both love!

She still loves make believe and making up stories, although now it's with her many plastic dinosaur figures. She still incorporates horses and other animals into her stories, at times, but usually she's just interested in the dinosaurs. She can still spend hours playing on the floor, making up stories and crawling around to move her dinosaurs to their proper locations.

She's a great big sister who is generally kind and loving to Olivia and most mornings this summer have started with a "Hey Olivia, come on!" and they race up to Sofia's room where they both play for an hour or more. Or, she'll sneak into Olivia's room in the morning and crawl into her crib and read her stories and play. Sofia loves to play hide-and-seek with Olivia too and both girls giggle as they run around and hide. Needless to say, Olivia adores Sofia.

With summer, Sofia has stayed up later than usual, close to 9:30 and even 10:00 some nights, which means she will finally sleep in until 9:00 am or later. She loves her sleep even if she fusses as night that she's "all alone" upstairs. She rarely takes naps anymore, although when she does she'll sleep for hours and then not want to go to bed until 11pm! She still sucks her thump, plays with her belly button and sleeps with Green Beup Beup. In fact, Green Beup Beup seems to be a trigger for the thumb, so we know when she wants to bring him with her in the car that she'll want to suck her thumb.

Sofia's food preferences have changed too. Where she once lived off of grilled cheese sandwiches, she now turns her nose up at cheese in general! She's good about trying something new and will generally have an open mind about something she's never tried before. She loves shrimp (especially fried) and salmon and most fish and is finally pretty good about eating chicken. She still doesn't eat hamburgers or steak, although she will eat steak at times. She also will try salad and loves most veggies, especially carrots.

We can't believe how quickly our girl is growing up and are so proud of what a fun, happy, interesting and interested little girl we have.

Our sweet six year old

Such a big girl in her chair

With the balloon elephant she got at Rainforest Cafe

Sweet girl

Our pool-loving girl

Playing with her dinosaur

She's happiest in the water

Our sweet girls!

Lazy Last Day in California (Day 11 in California)

Our last day in California and I must confess that I am looking forward to hanging around the house and relaxing. We actually slept in until 9am, which was surprising but all three of us needed it. Then to make the day even better, we went downstairs to find Grandpa Joe had bought donuts! We all enjoyed a donut while we woke up and the girls fed the koi and Hottie the turtle, and played in the their pjs. There were several family and friends I hadn't seen yet and I felt bad that we weren't able to see everyone during our time in California, but I was also exhausted from our constant driving, unpacking and packing. We hung out with Grandpa Joe and then decided to visit my parent's grave. I think about and miss my parents, especially my Mom every day, but it's knowing that neither of them had the opportunity to get watch our girls grow up and that my girls won't know and have an opportunity to spend time with them that is the worst injustice.

Once we returned to the house, two of my Mom's best friends, Kris and Nina, came over to catch up. It was great to see them both and hear what they are up to and how everything is going with them, but it was also clear that a void existed where my Mom's friendship was. They both said that Mom was the glue that held their joint friendships together and was the one who initiated get togethers, so they hadn't seen each other in a while. As much as I enjoyed seeing them, it was just as great to see them be together again.

Both ladies headed home after a fun visit and Ben, Rebecca, and Gavin came over as well as Joseph's friend Dick and lady friend Bonnie. Joseph ordered pizzas and salad and we had fun just relaxing and hanging out. Dick plans on entering a nursing home soon and I love how close he and Joseph have become. He's a fascinating man whose led an interesting life. Dick introduced Joseph and Bonnie and they seem like a great match. She's a vivacious and kind woman who seems very easy to be around. She brought the girls gifts - a small stuffed Hello Kitty for Olivia and a small sock monkey for Sofia. Olivia immediately fell in love and carried her kitty everywhere she went.

Gavin and Sofia ended up playing and having a great time running around outside together. Sofia loved having someone to follow her and Gavin loved following Sofia around, so it was a perfect set up. Olivia sort of did her own thing which meant she walked around on the inside ledge of the hot tub or tried to walk on the rocks, two things that drew me away from being with the group to talk. When we ate I as finally able to catch up a little with Ben and Rebecca and see how they are doing. Ben, Rebecca and Gavin also brought the girls "Planes" books which Sofia was immediately taken with and had to read right away.

After saying our goodbyes, I gave the girls their last bath together (from me, hopefully) and was excited to be sleeping our final night in another bed. The trip has been a lot of fun and the girls have both behaved better than I anticipated, but I am ready to be home and sleep in my own bed and excited to have CK put Olivia to bed as he regularly does. I put Olivia in her pack-n-play in Joseph's office and put Sofia in the guest bed, where I joined her later.

The next morning, I packed up all of our stuff, loaded our rental minivan and said our goodbyes to Grandpa Joe. We dropped off our van and were driven to John Wayne Airport, where we bought CK a box of See's Candy and ate breakfast before getting on they plane and flying home. Sofia and I talked about our trip and all of the fun things we did and the people we saw and her favorites were the three visits to the beach and the water park with Aunt Becky. I know she enjoyed the rest of our trip and spending time with everyone, but she's still a 5 year old driven by fun. I'm hoping the next time we get to travel to California that we rest a place near the ocean and use that as our base camp to explore and visit. This was a great trip and the girls were such troopers!


Olivia and Grandpa Joe

Feeding Hootie

Sofia and Hootie - Love this picture!

Such a happy girl!

Sofia watching the koi

Hanging out with the koi

Olivia with the koi

Our sweet girls

With Grandpa Joe

Grandpa Joe and the girls

On the elephant

Sofia's silly face

Ready to swim with the koi

Splash!

She was a bit surprised by the temperature!

Nina, Kris and me

Joseph, Nina, and Kris with Sofia

Sofia on the swing

With Rebecca

Sofia, Gavin and Olivia

Grandpa Joe and his grandkids

THe girls with Max