August 2011-1st Half

I know it's been almost a month since I updated this blog. I've been trying to catch up, but ever since Justin got home from Texas and brought back the Elder Scrolls: Skyrim game, I've been doing nothing but playing after the girls go to bed.....yikes. So it's December, and I'm just now doing the first August post. Maybe I'll get caught up one day and then I'll be able to stay caught up? One can hope, anyways.

Solia:

*She can point to what she wants now or where she wants to go, and grunts as she points

*Solia can sign: wash hands

*She's actually gotten attached to her Roosky (her Kanga doll that we are NOT going to call Kanga) and Blankey-one day for her nap, I laid her in her bed and placed her Roosky and Blankey next to her, but a couple inches away. She sat up and grabbed them and then laid down hugging them.

*She tries to say food but isn't quite there yet

*She says Yes by grunting

*When Justin and Solia do the whole 'neeeerom bonk' thing that Justin used to do with Amaia, Solia will lean her head in and go "aaaaah ba!"

*Solia loves combing/brushing her hair, and brushes it from the back of her head up over the top

*Solia gets really excited when Justin comes home from work, or when he comes back from another room-she giggles and squeals but still won't let him hold her

*Solia LOVES birds. Have I mentioned that? Every time we go to the harbor, she loves to chase the flock of pigeons around, but as soon as she sees someone who is not Mom, she freaks out and runs away.

*She likes to help clean up if she sees you putting something away

*Solia can make a fish kiss face

*She'll always try to call you on the phone and starts grunting like crazy if you don't start talking back to her

Here are some photos of the girls together-really not as many now that we aren't doing the 365 project. I'm glad it's over though-it was a lot of work.


So right at the end of this 'post' (fortnight? haha) we had some visitors, Frederic and Estelle Kaiser. They came to visit us from Switzerland. Justin met him when they were assistants to the Mission President on their missions in Buenos Aires. You can see them in a goofy self photo in the bottom right below (sorry! That's the best pic I have of you guys....if you ever read this...):

I had to post that cool guard pic twice for Justin. He spent a lot of time taking this photo at Buckingham Palace and then post processing that photo to make it awesome. And it is awesome. But I digress.

Ok, I guess here is another photo of Kaiser (as we all called him), but we were really using him as a 'cover' to sneak this photo of the cops in the background while we had a picnic at Greens Park

Here are some photos of Amaia:

Amaia:

*Whenever Amaia runs around humming or singing random sounds, it's always to the tune of "Book of Mormon Stories"

*Amaia likes to have Justin crank the music up loud when they drive in the car

*Amaia is officially no longer napping. For now it's been pretty bad, since she's still waking up early and going to bed at the same time. Hopefully she'll adjust.

*So, it turns out that Amaia really likes Salmon Sashimi (raw sushi). Justin and Amaia went to the mall for their second Daddy Amaia night and had some and I guess she really likes it....

*Whenever Amaia sees a picture of anything, she always points and goes "That's where we went!"....it all started with a picture of the Eiffle Tower (that we really did visit with Justin's parents) and it just kind of evolved

*If Amaia is talking about yesterday, or sometime previous, she always says "a long weeks ago"

*Apparently, Justin is Eugene and all 3 of us girls are Rapunzel. And Amaia calls us all by 'name' all the time

*Amaia's started telling us that "that's really annoying".

*Amaia apologizes for everything "sorry sorry I'm so sorry sorry"

*She likes to take the toy shopping cart and goes to "moo" the lawn.

*The different scenes in a movie are called "pages" to Amaia, but the title page of a book is called the "menu"

*Solia still calls every one dada, and it makes Amaia mad. When Solia calls her dada Amaia will yell "it's UH MY UH!"

*Amaia is officially in her first full fledged Disney Princess Craze. Something I swore I was never going to do was let my girls get into all the princess crap. Oops. She's got the DVD, a whole set of Tangled character figurines that Justin bought at the mall for her, which came with a huge Tangled poster (currently hanging on the wall, along with the 3-D card from the DVD box) and she calls us all by our "Tangled" names all the time...

Here are some crafts that Amaia made-bubble printing, leaf printing, and her hand that she traced all by herself.

Kids Say the Darndest Things {11}

*I LOVE Daddy-he think he so funny!

*We had some friends over and while we were eating, we were discussing which Disney Princess/Prince was the 'hottest'. Amaia all of a sudden gets all mad and says "Hey! Why are you talking about my movies?"

*I'm so sick of you talking to me about that!

*How.Many.Times.Do.I.Have.To.Tell.You.Don't.Talk.With.Food.In.Your.Mouth? (to Justin during dinner)

*So one day, I was ironing some of Justin's work shirts, and Amaia asked why I had to iron them. So I started explaining about laundry, and how things get wrinkled in the basket and I have to iron them to make them look nice for when Justin goes to work. I asked if she'd like to watch me iron one to watch the wrinkles disappear and she says:
Amaia: NO! I'm really pissed off!
Me: Why are you pissed off?
Amaia: Because I just sat here and listened to you talk for a long time about the iron thing, and NOW I'm pissed off!
Me: (laughing my head off, running to go write down what she said)
Amaia: What are you doing?
Me: I'm writing what you said because it was hilarious
So, she went and pretended to be pissed off, and we acted out that entire conversation again (for pretend). When we finished, she ran and grabbed the pen and paper so I could write it all down again.

*Amaia takes some chapstick, and smears it all over her mouth.
Amaia: Now I need to look in the mirror to see my chapstick. To see how cute I am. I'm so cute and precious.....Am I cute Mommy?

i heart faces-Let Them Be Little

It's been a while since I did one of these, but the theme was so perfect-I have like the two cutest kids ever.

Ok, well Blogger won't let me add a hyper link to the 'button' (or my IE) so, HERE is the link to iheart faces.

July 2011-2nd Half w Video

So, this post is a little late. Darn movie held me up. Anyways.
Amaia turned 3 on th 19th. We got the kitchen all decorated, I made a cake from a box mix with not-enough-butter-buttercream-frosting (looked gross, didn't taste too bad). Definitely the worst cake so far I've made for her, but since it was just the 4 of us it's not like I had to impress to many people. (except you are all seeing it now..hmmm.....) I made her shirt and turned a 2 pound dry erase board into a chalkboard thing (you can see it on the wall there).
Amaia was super excited for her birthday and cake. I don't know what it is about her and cake. It's not like she eats tons of it.

So we sing happy birthday, and she's like biting right into the side of the cake. It was awesome. Check out the video for some candle lighting fun :)

The weekend after her birthday we drove down to Brighton. It wasn't too far away, but we didn't really plan this trip well. We ended up spending a lot of our time on the Brighton Pier, which has a little amusement park/carnival thing on it (that we hadn't even known about when we left). We went to the aquarium:



And, like I said, spent most of the time at the pier. The top right pic is one I took from our hotel room window a half hour or so after sunset. You see that one ride on the right that's like super tall? Yea, I went on that. Justin and I each went on one ride, while the other watched the girls. That was the ride I picked. I don't know why. We all know I'm afraid of heights. I was a nervous wreck sitting waiting for every one to get loaded up (after about a 45 minute wait in line while justin had the girls, poor thing). After we got going though, it was fun. I would have totally gone again but the line was insane. And it was getting cold.


These bottom right pics are me before (left) and after (right) the ride. Not sure if you can tell the difference between my I'm-going-to-die-holy-crap-I'm-nervous-but-still-laughing-at-justin-taking-pics or my holy-crap-that-was-awesome! faces :)

We had another birthday-Solia! duh.

She turned 1! This was also with just the 4 of us (a stark difference between the huge pool side bonanza we threw for Amaia's first in Houston. The downside of having no friends).

Anyways, I wanted to do a cute moster theme. So my monster dude didn't turn out so bad (nevermind the oreo eyes and chocolate chip nose. The antennaes? Fruit snack strings). The little monster cupcakes were just awful. My poor frosting had huge chunks of butter in it. So I was either pouring liquid frosting on, or it was coming out super uneven because I would really have to squeeze through the chunks of butter. Marshmallows halved with a sliver of chocolate chips for eyes, same antennae as the big dude. Tasted good though :)



At first, Solia was totally freaked by the cake dude. Then she warmed up to it, and eventually had him smashed all over. Oh yea, and my little monster shirt I made her (bottom right). That was the best pic we could get (post cake smashing, btw) of it. Sorry.

So here's the first half of 365 pictures:



And the second. I wish I could have put these in better order. The beachy one down there is from Brighton one day and the caracature is from the second day in Brighton. Then the rest of them are 'replicas' of Dr. Suess's The Foot Book. Justin would like me to tell you to open this image up large (or follow the link in my sidebar to the Facebook album for the 365 Project day 201-365) and really look at the details in these suckers. I took all the pictures, but Justin edited them all the put them all together. We took a final 366th picture on Solia's birthday again just to sort of come full circle with the 1st day when she was born last year.

And now some random pics of the girls we took:

Solia:

*Solia can wave good-bye

*She's started to clap her hands together when she's happy (as opposed to just for pat-a-cake)

*When we say that it's time for prayer, Solia will clasp her little hands together in front of her chest

*If I tell her that her food is hot, she'll 'blow' on her food by buzzing her lips at it.

*Her entire vocabulary consists of 'dada'. We are all dada, unless she's crying, then I'm actually mama.

*She's started pointing to where she wants to go

*If I ask "Solia, what are you eating?" she'll spit whatever it is right out and hand it to me

Amaia:

See her here at Brighton, and with her new "Rapunzel hair" (that she salvaged from a bed skirt after I chopped it off the flat part of the sheet).

*Amaia likes to say 'realize': I didn't realize that (fill in the blank)

*She likes to clear her throat and say 'heh hem' before saying things

*Amaia's become the bad word police. I'm no longer allowed to say stupid, shut up, and freakin'. I mean, she's got a point, I shouldn't say those things, but it's like every time I slip she'll get all up on me "we don't say freakin'!"

*When Solia starts screaming, she'll dramatically clamp her hands over her ears or plug them up.

*She likes to assign our family to movies. For example, Finding Nemo. Justin is Marlin, I am Coral (who gets eaten by a shark, but she doesn't seem to care), she is Dory, and Solia is Nemo. She does this to all sorts of things-movies, pictures, stuff she sees outside.

*She likes to have Justin blare the music in the car

*If I ask Amaia to please stop (whatever), she'll say "I'm sorry, but I have to (hit Solia)". But she says it in the same tone that a parent would say "I'm sorry, but it's time to go home now". Like she doesn't care what I have to say, she's gunna do it anyways

*Justin took Amaia on her first "Daddy Amaia Night". They went to the mall, Amaia had sushi for the first time and loved it (yuck) and they got ice cream.

Here is the link to YouTube for this month's (somewhat longer) movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq1y6nG6A-g

Kids Say the Darndest Things {10}

Amaia: You not a good Mommy
Me: WHAT?!
Amaia: You dropped some lotion on the floor. That means you not a good Mommy

"You need to get out of this chair because I don't know. who. you think. you are!"

"I'm sorry I'm being a mean person today Mommy"

So this is more of a short story. One day, I woke Amaia up from a deep sleep after naptime. She threw a fit because she was not ready to be awake. She was a terror for like the next 2 hours just throwing a fit. I tried everything: juice, chocolate milk, cookies, her new Rapunzel toys (that she just got), everything. We go to eat dinner, she is still freaking out. (Side note-we watch Family Guy. We used to let Amaia watch it with us, you know, because she was too young to understand the inappropriate-ness of it all, etc. We had to cut her off when she started repeating stuff from it, and she kept asking to watch it. We say no, every time). So Justin leans over to her, and says "Amaia, do you want to watch Family Guy after dinner?" And she goes "OKAY!" and immediately is happy, and eats her entire dinner happy and nice.

Justin is getting ready to leave one day for work. Justin asks: Amaia, can I have a kiss goobye?
Amaia: No, you can leave now Daddy.

(Another side note-'crap' is significantly stronger here than it is in the US). So we're at the grocery store, and I"m looking for some PJs for Solia (ok, it's more like a small Wal Mart than a 'grocery store') and I can't find the right size, so I say out loud "whyyyy?" in a very whiny voice. Amaia says "You're not supposed to say 'why' you are supposed to say 'oooooooooh CRAP!'"

"I'm sorry I'm yelling about these buttons. I'm screaming like I"m trying to talk crazy."

"I don't love you, because I'm sad and little girls don't love people"

We were reading about elephants, and it was talking about their tusks.
Amaia: What are tusks for?
Me: They're for....You know? I dont' really know what tusks are for.
Amaia: They so they don't fall over when they walking with their babies.

July 2011-1st Half

Some 365 Pictures:

And more (with another 'reflections week' at the end):

Here are some outtakes of the girls 365 shoots, plus a few extra:

So I 'made' these jerseys for them. I took cheap matching t shirts from Tesco, sliced up an old white t shirt, and sewed the stripes on them. The front has a little logo to match the "Colby Institute for the Vertically Challenged" crest on the Spirit Week sign, with the little girl/arrow and the initials CIVC on the banner under neath. I'm not sure if I got a good picture of the crest in all this or not.

The backs have their names and #s: Amaia's says A. Colby with a 1, and Solia's says S. Colby with a 2. I love how they turned out!

So since we finally got our new camera back (in a way) we decided to head over to Hampton Court Palace. We didn't really take a lot of pictures of the inside of the rooms-pretty much the same as any other 'old' building around here: lots of really really old faded tapestries, huge 4 poster need-a-ladder-just-to-get-in-bed-at-night beds, paintings, and a huge dining hall.

Although, that scene with the King in the beginning of Pirates: On Stranger Tides is all filmed here, so I guess that's cool. We did take a few pictures of the outside:

And of this awesome room. I don't even remember how many different pieces there are on these walls (I swear the guy said in the thousands), but they take it ALL down every 25 years to clean it all. Apparently they would show guests through this room first, to let every one know who was boss. Click to enlarge it, if you can't see-it's tons of guns, swords, javelins, pistols, etc.

And one random shot of some money on the corner of a card table. Oops.

After walking around for a while, we went out to the lawn out back and hung out for a while:

First thing Amaia does when we let her out of the stroller when we get there, is to lay on the ground and pose for us (left top and bottom photos):

Here's some of Amaia in her jersey-you can see the back of hers here:

And kind of the front (on that bottom right one...)

Amaia:

*Justin calls his mom on FaceTime every once in a while. And every time (without fail) (within the first 2 minutes of chatting) Amaia says "I want you to eat beans". We still don't know exactly what kind of beans she wants her to eat, or why she wants her to eat them so bad.

*If we ask Amaia a yes or no question, she usually answers with "probly yes" or "probly no", or "probly I want that", or "probly Solia wants...". You get the picture.

*She's given up on all the sleep rituals we used to do, like letters and kisses and laying with her before she goes to bed

*Amaia's figured out buttons-in fact, she won't let me button up these certain PJs that have buttons up the front-she has to do it herself.

*When Solia cries, Amaia goes "Alright alright, ok, ok".

*Amaia is more like me than she is like Justin (so far): she's got dark hair/eyes/skin; she gets angry really easy; she loves cheese; she thinks every thing is friggin' hilarious and is super ticklish

That's Amaia's marble painting, and the swan family hanging out in our 'river.

Top right, you can see Solia posing at Hampton Court Palace, just like Amaia did.

Here she is in her jersey:

Solia:

*Is more like Justin (so far): super light hair/eyes/skin; hates cheese; can roll her Rs (Amaia can't), thinks nothing is funny (except Amaia) and definately is not ticklish.

*Solia can get to standing without using anything to pull up on

*If I hold out my hands or a container, and ask Solia for what she has, she'll come put it away

*Solia took her first steps at the end of June, and by mid-July, she's walking around more often than crawling (although still with plenty of falls!)
She likes to play in our window :) She loves going outside but I can't take her out all the time and this is the next best thing. The only bummer is when she throws stuff out-there is a little gap in between the grate and the ledge. Oh well, as long as she's entertained!

Justin and Amaia went on their first "Daddy Amaia Night". He asks where she wants to go, and they go. This time they went to the mall. When they came back, Amaia told me all about the sushi that they ate, and Justin had bought her a whole set of Rapunzel figurine toys. She loves them and they had so much fun. Hopefully he'll be able to keep doing that, she couldn't stop talking about how 'she had sushi and it was so yummy!'

Kids Say the Darndest Things {9}

(At Hampton Court Palace, sitting on the lawn-Amaia has been 'playing' with this poor girl for a while and comes back to tell us): I put grass in that girls hair but it's ok because it was so funny.

(After Amaia let one rip)
Justin: Amaia, girls don't fart.
Amaia: Honey...all peoples fart!

"If we don't get dressed, people say "aaahhh! you naked!" and I say "I so sorry""

"I didn't fart, I just made a dark noise"

Me: Solia, stop choking on your fingers!
Amaia: Yea, Solia, we only choke on food!

Justin: Amaia, you're a booger.
Amaia: I not a booger
Justin: Oh ya, what are you then?
Amaia: I a cute little girl

We're at a restaurant.
The waiter brings menus.
Amaia opens hers up, immediately says "I want noodles" and put the menu down.

"That was the cool thing I ever seen"

Me: Amaia, you look a little stuck
Amaia: I not a little stuck, I'm a big stuck!

June 2011 2nd Half w Video Link

Well, guess what? We got a new awesome camera!

I know, right? We weren't going to have one until November. BUT, Justin's boss from Houston was coming to London on a business trip. The Kearns (across the street buddies from our ward in Texas) bought the camera, somehow got Justin's boss to have it, and when his boss flew out to London for a meeting, he brought it with him. It was an awesome surprise. (Sorry if I totally botched that story, guys. I tried to get Justin to re-tell it to me so I could get it right, but he never got around it so I decided to make it up as best I knew).

Well, the pictures from this post are mostly still from my point and shoot camera. As awesome as I claim my memory is, I honestly don't know what exact date it was that I was surprised with a new camera. But, according to the "date taken" info for pictures I have, I can tell it was either the 27th or 28th. Meaning that there are like 4 pictures with the new camera. Well probably more, since I fire that thing off like a machine gun. But point being, most of this month is with the crappy camera.

Anyways, Amaia this month:

*As you will see in the video, Amaia likes to give "hard kisses". But she often gives super soft and sweet ones too, which just melt your heart. Check out the picture down there of her giving "hard kisses" to one of our friends from the ward :)

*So, since I try not to get into power struggles with Amaia, I've taken to giving her two choices, up front. Like, you can choose to clean up your toys, or you can let Mommy clean them up and they might not be available next time she wants to play. So I'll always make sure I say "Here are your two choices". Well, lately, she's started telling me what MY two choices are, like "You can give me some chocolate, OR, you can give me a piece of gum". And she always makes sure to tick off the choices on her fingers as she lists them

*When Amaia gets upset, she'll talk and yell at us through her teeth. It's pretty funny, because she also leans over quite dramatically. Too bad I don't have a picture....

*Amaia loves to dance around like crazy, mostly with out actualy music, but accompanied by her own singing-mostly made up jibberish with random phrases of 'real words' thrown in every once in a while

*If one of us does something she doesn't like, she'll get all huffy and say "How dare you?" just like Jasmine does in the movie 'Aladdin'

*When Amaia gets mad (I feel like I've said that a lot this post....) she does this really funny exasperated sigh+growl thing. You'll have to watch the video for a reenactment. She usually does this when she's upset with Solia for messing something up, or taking away something.

*I asked Amaia a few random questions about her favorite stuff. Here are the results:
-Favorite Color: Pink
-Favorite Fruit: Grapes
-Favorite Animal: Lion
-Favorite Movie: Emperor's New Groove
-Favorite Game: Soccer
-Favorite Toy: A brush
-Favorite Bug: Ladybug
-Favorite Drink: Apple Juice

So, one day, I'm laying on the floor, playing with the girls. I was by the couch, and Amaia was on the couch. Amaia jumps. Right. On. My. Face. No kidding. Look at these pictures. Just her bottom (she had soft stretchy pants on-nothing metal like on jeans) and it was her butt that hit my face. Yet after just a few minutes it was already bruising up (bottom right middle pic).

After an hour or so, you can see what it looked like in the top left. It was there for at least a week. Also in those pictures you can see the Sonic Flag and the Sega thing from Justin's office-He works in the Sega Building. If you look in the second 365 collage down there, you can see a picture of the girls in front of a huge Sonic mural on one of the floors of Justin's building.

Solia (yay I have pictures!):

*Solia can walk! She usually gets between 4-6 steps before flopping down on her butt.

*Solia loves playing peek a boo, wether with her blanket, the curtains, or even her own shirt lifted up over her face.

*Solia loves to talk on the phone, using anything from a real phone, a TV remote, an ipod, etc. She'll pick it up, put it up to her ear, and grunt at me until I find something (or use my hands) as a phone and talk to her on my 'phone'

*When Solia says Mom, Dad, or Amaia it all sounds the same-Dada. Nice.

*Solia can roll her tongue, and she'll just walk around rolling it while she plays. It sounds just like the low purr of a large cat.

*Solia is terrified of balloons. In particular, latex gloves that have been blown up into balloons.

Some 365 Pics (with the rest of Spirit Week! I really liked how those turned out....we still have the spirit week sign on our wall heehee)

More 365 Pics

Here is the link to the video for this month (on YouTube):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vfysfzEbDM

Kids Say the Darndest Things {8}

Yay I'm so excited about the reinstallment of Kids Say the Darndest Things. I of course was able to restart my running list after my last one got deleted, so I' have plenty of super 'darn' cute stuff to share!

One day I was complaining how Solia has no teeth yet.
Amaia: I took my teeth out Mommy (holding her hands out to show me her teeth)
Me: Oh No! Hurry, put them back in!
Amaia: (putting her hands on Solia's face) I giving them to Solia so she can bite her cereal!


Ok, so call me a bad mother, but I was sooo sick of watching the same Disney movies every 3 days, so I put on Shrek for Amaia. Well after like a week straight of watching that every day, I tried to put on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ones for some change in scenery. One day Amaia decided she wanted to watch the 4th one when I wanted to go make banana bread...
Amaia: I wanna watch the new Shrek with the lots of angry ogres
Me: Ok, let's go make the bread and we'll watch it while it's cooking
Amaia: OK! That sounds faaaan-tas-kik to me!

We try to get her to pray, but it usually ends up pretty short. Why? Because "I did a short prayer because I'm short"

After I told her that it wasn't OK for her to color on herself with her markers, she says to me "We really don't color on people and we really don't kill people and we only kill bad guys and we really eat food and we really don't need to hit Solia..."

Um, Ok? :) love that kid

June 2011-1st Half

Well, since we still have no camera (Justin will probably get one in November when he goes out to TX-it's like a 1000 bucks cheaper to buy it there than to buy it here) all the pictures are few and crappy.


Well, all those have captions. Hope you can figure it out :)

As for Amaia:


Here she is glueing fabric, painting, and shaking up chicken for dinner :) What a cutie pie.

*Amaia likes to exclaim "Whoa Holey Moley" and "Holy Nelly"

*When Amaia is 'in trouble' or I catch her doing something she's not supposed to, she'll start going "Sorry, sorry, I'm sorry, sorry sorry sorry" like over and over again. Even sometimes if it's something as minor as dropping her spoon on the floor.

*Amaia's started running around the house saying things from the Disney movies she watches. Lately, it's been Emperor's New Groove, so I"ve been hearing a lot of "I snatched you right out of the air!"

*When Amaia gets mad, she say "Dosh Dangit!"

*Amaia's started turning into a little mommy: she'll find her little stuffed animals and toy baby dolls, she'll nurse them, change thier diapers, burp them, and even put them in 'time out' for hitting her.

*When Amaia puts on her shoes, she'll say she can wear sandals if she has 'regular feet'-as opposed to feet with socks on.

365 Pics



More 365 Pics (with the first half of Spirit Week! Didn't plan that very well did I...?)

Some not-365 pictures...mostly outtakes :)

And once again I didn't get any good pictures of just Solia. I know, I know, I'm a terrible person. But this darn point-and-shoot camera does not take pictures of moving babies-at least Amaia will pose for me every once and a while.

Solia:

*Solia can sign Daddy and say Dada at the same time. Still no mama (signs or words) unless she's super sad and needs me to hold her.

*Solia has sworn off baby food-I pretty much don't even bother anymore and just give her what we eat for dinner.
*Solia is trying to sign 'more' but isn't very 'fluent' at it yet. She signs it by stabbing one thumb into the palm of the other hand. (What's interesting is when Amaia was learning signs, she signed 'more' by stabbing her forefinger into the palm of the other hand)

*Solia is getting to the point where she gets pretty darn upset when you either take toys away from her, or don't share what you are playing with. Before, she'd just go find something else, but not anymore....

*Every day before her 2nd nap (since I don't nurse her before that one) I read the Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb book. Every day as I turn the last page, she starts crying before I even get anywhere near her bed

*Solia's 'calming' song this month-Scooping Up My Baby Bumble Bee

*Solia took her first steps! Not quite walking by any means but she has officially taken steps! So Exciting!

May 2011-2nd Half w Video Link

Well, to finish off the story from last month:

We had been paying for the insurance with our cell phone plan, just in case something happened. Like the phone getting stolen. You know. Routine stuff, right.

They won't cover it.

Why? Because Justin took out the carrier's sim card and replaced it with his work one. LAME. I can see how it makes sense, but still.

On a better note, we got reimbursed by our car insurance company. We got a check for more than we paid for the car in the first place. In that was 150 pounds reimbursement for personal items stolen in the car. We also got two 100 pound vouchers to replace the carseats, but still ended up paying like 30 pounds out of pocket for those. What's nice is we pretty much have the same ones we got before. The only bummer, is that in the UK the Graco brand seats only hook into the car via the seatbelt-they don't come with any of the anchor systems. We didn't figure that out until it was too late though.

We are going to wait to replace our camera until Justin goes to the states in November-it will save us almost a thousand bucks as opposed to buying (the exact same thing) over here. So for now, all our 365 pics (and others of course) are taken with our point and shoot. Which is sad, but oh well.

Solia this month:

*Solia is into games lately-she'll cover her face with her blanket for Peek a Boo and she likes to play tug of war with her blanket (she thinks it's hilarious when I let her win)

*Solia is NOT ticklish. I'm not sure if we mentioned this before, but she will NOT laugh when tickled. Unless it's Amaia tickling her. I'm not sure how that makes her laugh, seeing as Amaia goes in like the kalima-heart-ripper-out-guy from Indiana Jones, but she does. She also laughs if I chew on her ribs.

*Holy-Solia FINALLY sleeps through the night. I thought Amaia was bad, not sleeping through the night until like 5 or 6 months. But this was ridiculous. I would try the sleep training, but then things just kept getting in the way and I kept having to start over. But we did it!

*Solia is obsessed with trash cans and toilets. The two grossest things in the house, and if she can, she'll play with them. All of our trash cans are up high and we have to keep the bathroom doors shut.

*Solia LOVES the bath and playing in the bath, but she HATES getting rinsed off after I wash her.

*Solia says Dada and can sign Daddy

*When Solia wants to give hugs, she lays her head on your chest. If she is giving kisses, she'll lay her face on yours.

*She likes to stright up drop food onto the floor from her high chair. Apparently, it's totally funny.

*She can't sign food yet or say it, so when she's hungry she'll just scream. Then I'll ask her if she wants food, and she immediately stops screaming and just stares at me until I take her to get food.

*Solia waves good by and says 'ba ba' while waving

*Solia can roll her Rs and likes to go "ah! ah! ah!"

*Solia has hit the "I don't like baby food" stage. She refuses to eat unless she's putting it in her own mouth.

*Solia can go backwards down the stairs now

*Solia is very possesive of Mommy-if I go pick up Amaia for anything, Solia will come running and screaming from all the way across the room.



Solia had her first little trim (not a hair cut).

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Amaia this month:

*We've discovered that Amaia doesn't like jam or honey on her toast or on PB sandwiches.

*When Amaia gets mad she likes to say "I'm so pissed off" (yikes!)

*Amaia calls everything 'stupid' (yikes again!)

*When she prays, she closes the prayer like this "In the name of Jesus-Amen!"

*When she's surprised, or whatever, she likes to exclaim random things, like "WHAT the HECK!", or "WHAT on EARTH!" (with the caps words super emphasized)

*Amaia has turned sort of bossy. She'll always call us out for talking with food in our mouths, or for yelling in the house, etc

*Amaia always helps me with everything, but especially with cooking dinner. She loves to sit up on the counter and help me dump the ingredients in the bowl or pan, and help me stir it up. She gets really upset if I say she can't help or if I do it without her.

*Justin will ask "Who do I need to spank?" Amaia will say "ME!" so Justin will give a few 'spanks' (pats) on the bum. Then he'll say "Why did I need to spank you?" and she'll say "Just in case I do stuffin' bad" (see the video for a reenactment)

*Amaia says thank you for every single little thing I do for her (and she says it super sweet like it was the most important thing in the entire world that I got her a tissue for her boogers, or whatever it was), but she still demands things from us without using a pleasant voice or saying 'please'

*Since I didn't have a "Kids Say" installment lately, here are some things I have written down that were 'the darndest things':

-I want to drink apple juice cuz I need to have lots of en-der-gy

-Mommy: I'm cold!
Amaia (with her arms out for a hug): I know it's cold Mommy, come 'ere Mommy, come 'ere....



Here is Amaia doing some crafts: shaving cream marbling, and the rubber band snap painting. The crazy picture bottom left is her 'earrings'-these little koosh type worms we got at a souvenier shop with these loops on the end. Don't worry, they are attached around her whole ear, not the earring itself. Or at least, that's where I put them. It may have slipped while I was trying to take a photo with my crappy camera.

Here are some pictures of the girls that didn't quite make the cut, but are still cute.

Amaia's art, clockwise from top left: rubber band painting, shaving cream, potato stamping, shaving cream again, and pipe cleaner & bead catterpillars.

Lastly, the link to YouTube for the video. Like I've mentioned, the quality is just terrible when I upload them to the actual blog, hence the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJuyRr4r334

Enjoy!