October 2011-1st Half w Photos

(In a tree, making snicker doodles with me, painting, and awwww-she's -so-cute)

*Amaia's first imaginary friend is (wait for it...................) Malificent! Yup, from Sleeping Beauty. Don't be too worried though, Amaia turned Malificent nice and so it's not all doom and gloom.

*Amaia's always talking about how "That's how Heavenly Father made me/it"

*Amaia got Rapunzel for her birthday, and ever since she watched it she is completely obsessed. She got a set of Rapunzel toys from another Daddy/Amaia night, which came with a poster that she made me hang on the wall, it's the only movie she wants to watch on movie days, and she always wants the soundtrack on so she can dance to it

*Amaia has started to pick up some larger adjectives and it's so fun to hear her randomly say things like "fantastic", "wonderful", or "exciting" in every day conversation

*Every once in a while Justin will say "I'm so glad I left my tower!" and Amaia will say "No! We don't have a tower we have a house and we are still here!"

 

(Our science experiments-What's That Smell? and Will it Sink or Float?)

(Solia's Hand and Foot Print Flowers, Amaia's (the big one) Flowers, and some finger painting)

(Justin bought Amaia a Rapunzel dress and a wig for thier Daddy/Amaia night)

(I love these girls!)

*We did the conference candy treats for Amaia again this year but she was too busy playing with Solia to sit and listen, so it didn't really work out too well

*Justin and I tried to take the girls to see the parade they had downtown in Hyde Park for the induction of Rapunzel into the official Disney Princesses. We drove, and then scootered, and about 100 yards away from the 'road' we hear all sorts of cheering-by the time we got up there it had passed. BUT, we never told Amaia exactly what we were doing and she was just super excited to see all the little girls dressed up in their princess dresses.

*When the girls play together, 90% of the time it is happy and loving and hugs and laughing-they hardly ever fight or hurt or yell.

(Climbing onto the TV stand, food all over, here's a leaf, running, and pink cheeks from the sun)

*Solia finally calls me 'mama' instead of 'dada'! Every time she sees me she says 'mama' then runs over for hugs and cuddles

*When Solis gives hugs, she likes to pat or rub you on the back

*She will shake her head for 'no'

*Solia 'signs' the word 'food' by pointing to her mouth and saying 'bbbbfffff"

*Solia thinks all birds are ducks (pronounced 'duh!) beucase we would always say "come look at the ducks Solia" even if there were other kinds of birds out back

*Solia has been kind of grumpy lately.

*Solia starts to hypervenilae and freak out if she sees Amaia touching her Blankey or Roosky

*No matter what she is doing, if you play the "Something That I Want" from the end credits of Tangled, she will immediately start dancing

*If you ask Solia for a kiss, and she doesn't want one, she'll shake her head 'no' and cover up your mouth with her hands

*Solia is quite the daredevil. She often falls or jumps off of things like stair, or tables she's climbed on, or anything like that. And she doesn't always wait for you to come catch her either-sometimes it requires a mad football dive to catch her.

*Solia is just as obsessed with Rapunzel as Amaia is

*If Amaia gets sad or hurt, and is crying, Solia will run over all on her own and hug and kiss her better

*Solia can sign 'food', 'flower', 'cold', 'daddy', 'sad/tired' and 'bath'

*If Solia gets hurt, she'll grab her Roosky and Blankey, run over, sit on my lap, and shove the hurt part in my face for me to kiss it. As soon as I do, she gets up and takes off like nothing even happened.

*Solia says 'yes' by going "UH" like she just got punched in the stomach

*All you have to do to get a kiss from Solia (and Amaia for that matter) is lay down on the floor and say "I died" or "I'm dead" and she'll run over to give you 'true love's kiss' to wake you up

*Solia can say 'mama', 'dada', 'ba' (ball), 'ba' (book), 'duh' (ducks), 'boof' (food), and 'Ama' (Amaia)

*She has figured out how to make 'stairs' so she can climb up onto things that are too tall for her to reach from the floor

*Solia has been waking up at like 5:30/6am every day. I go lay on the couch and turn on Baby Signing Time for her while I go back to sleep

*Solia is still super obsessed with that little baby doll that makes noises (from the Sept video)

(Our Plan of Salvation Chalk Painting-Thanks Jordan and Erin for the idea!)

(Soy Sauce Taste Test)

So the Sushi taste test. We have this one recipe, Sweet and Sour chicken (which is not like any other sweet and sour chicken that I've ever had) that I MUST use the La Choy brand soy sauce. Well, they obviously don't have this in London and we ran out of our reserve that we smuggled brought with us. So, we bought every brand at the store, made up like a half/quarter batch of each, and tasted them all. That plate up there in the picture is Justin's, btw.  Mine was just little blobs of crap haphazardly arranged on my plate. He had his all organized with perfect little pineapple sections in the middle.

Kids Say the Darndest Things {15}

*Amaia (showing me some play dough snakes she made): Look Mommy!
Me: Argh!!! (Fake screaming in terror)
Amaia: It's just play dough.....

*Justin and I were discussing how he never changes diapers and Amaia says "When you used to be a girl, you used to wipe bums"

*Justin and I were talking about whether or not it was OK for babysitters or grandparents to spank your kids. Justin starts to say "I never spanked when I baby sat" and Amaia interrupts and says "You WILL-when I do something bad"

*Solia was crying, so I go to pick her up consoling her with a "Oh Solia, my sweet..." and Amaia yells "No! She's MY sweetheart!"

*(So, if you didn't see the first September pics, we melted a giant nasty orange slug in our backyard with some salt. It was gross. So I see a snail on a leaf, and it was huge, so I say to Amaia)
Me: I want to go get him
Amaia: Why
Me: So I can put him in a jar for you guys to look at
Amaia: NO! You need to melt him with the salt like Daddy did! Go get the salt!!!!!!

*So in the mail one day we got a club card statement from our Tesco (grocery store). We also got some other piece of junk mail or a bill, or something. Amaia says "This one says 'Welcome to Tesco' and this one says 'Welcome to your credit card'"

*Amaia wanted her "present" (which was a new pair of headphones) so I told her
Me: You can only have your present if you let me plug your iPod into the computer for a few minutes (she didn't want to give it up)
Amaia: Why, so you can download my present?

*So I had made Amaia some clothes for her teddy bear, and among them was a skirt, complete with a tail hole.
Amaia: Mommy, why is there a hole in this?
Me: For Teddy
Amaia (who's really mad now): WHY?
Me: Because Teddy has a tail and it needs to go through the hole
Amaia (really softly now): Thank you for putting a hole for Teddy

*The girls are in the bath, and Solia sneezes. She'd been kind of sick and boogery so I ask Amaia
Me: Amaia, does Solia have a booger on her face?
Amaia:It's ok, the water will just was it down
Me: I know, but does she have a booger right now?
Amaia: No, the booger is just laying down because it's tired

*After the girls got immunizations, Amaia was showing Justin that "This is where the doctor gave Solia a 'kill' (shot)"

*Amaia (after buckling up her booster seat): I buckled-say 'thank you for buckling' Mommy
Me: Thank you for buckling
Amaia (super sweet voice now): Thank you for saying thank you!

September 2011-2nd Half w Video Link

(Amaia's candy land ritual circle, a funny gang sign, bow on her head, listening to new headphones, and "don't take a picture of me!')

(New hair cut, reading in the pack and play for 'quite time' since she quit naps, on the trampoline, and a pose from their freeze dancing)

*Every time Amaia has to go to the potty, she asks everyone to come watch her

*Amaia is always telling us about how Rapunzel, Eugene and Mother (Gothel) are all coming to our house in "a couple while" or in "a long weeks" to have dinner with us

*Amaia's favorite song is the "I See the Light" song, from the movie Tangled, and she sings it every time it comes on

*Amaia is always mentioning that "that's the color that Heavenly fah-der made it-wasn't that nice of him?"

*If we ask Amaia to help us clean something, (like picking up toys), she will say "I'm too tired of picking up toys" and won't help

*On Sept 25th, Amaia gave herself her first self hair cut. It was an accident. I've been doing her hair with my flat iron a lot, so her hair just hangs down, and she loves to cut paper. I always make her do it over the trash can so she doesn't make a mess, and her hair fell in the way while she was cutting. It wasn't bad, and after we fixed it, she's got some nice bangs (see the picture up there!)

*If we say a word that Amaia doesn't know, she'll say "Don't say (that word)-that's not a very nice thing to say"

*Sometimes Amaia says things wrong, so I try to help her sound it out. If she's not in the mood, she'll say "No-that's not very funny-I don't want to say that"

*Amaia and I had a nice heart to heart about her making good choices so that she could be a good example for Solia, instead of a bad example. Now, every time I say "good job" for anything, Amaia will say "I be a good zample!"

*Amaia will say "beseft" instead of "except". Beseft, she'll use it in random places of her sentences, even when "except" isn't really necessary or make any sense (she still does this, almost a year later as I'm writing this super super late)

*Amaia's thing is, "Amaia goes with Daddy, Solia goes with Mommy". I don't know where we are going though.....

*This conversation happens a lot:

Amaia: Hey mommy, come look at this (fill in the blank)

Me (I look and say): Oh wow, Amaia, that's awesome/crazy/weird/etc

Amaia: What?

(like she thought I was talking about something completely unrelated and wanted to know what I thought was so cool)

*Every once in a while, when Amaia says something awesome, I write it in my phone to post in those "kids say the darndest things" blog posts. Well, it's gotten to the point that every time she says something that she or I think is funny, she'll ask "are you going to write that down?"

*If Amaia even hears the word "prayer" or "Heavenly Father" she thinks we are saying prayers and folds her hands as fast as she can

(free painting, and TP tube printing)

(awww, they so cute!)

*The girls like to hold hands and dance while Amaia sings the songs

*Solia gets really upset when Amaia leaves the room, like she's afraid she'll never see her again

(Shhh, Daddy's sleeping; a self-family portrait attempt, watching TV, a 'big Rapunzel kiss', and our pet snail)

(cuteness, jam painting, saying a prayer, in the stroller, and cup hog)

*If you ask Solia to do a summer sault, she'll flop over and slam her head on the ground, and then sit and wait for someone to push her butt up over. She finally managed to do her first real summer sault on her own by the end of the month, though.

*Solia will find any minuscule piece of fuzz or trash or food (or nothing) and hand it to you

*As soon as Amaia says "I gotta go potty" Solia takes off for the closest bathroom as fast as she can

*Solia didn't used to be ticklish ( you had to actually gnaw on her rib cage to get any laughs), but now she'll actually laugh if you tickle her

*Solia calls herself (and daddy) Dada

*Solia's starting to understand and follow more commands, like: close the door/drawer; put that back; let's change your diaper; bring me your blankey; spit it out; can I have it?; etc

 

Link to September's Video (YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jz9G2P8yqk

Kids Say the Darndest Things {14}

*While Justin was on his trip to Kazakhstan, I accidentally said 'stupid'. This is what Amaia had to say:
"You don't say stupid! I'm gunna wait until Daddy gets home and I'm going to tell him you said stupid all the time-when Daddy gets home from Kaza Stahn."

*I was playing Fruit Ninja on the Xbox, and I got to the part at the end where you go crazy trying to slice that pomegranate like a million times, but I only got like 10.
Amaia: Why didn't you do it a lot?
Me: I tried!
Amaia: Is it because you were fat?
:(

*Amaia: If all my skin falls off, I would DIE. Just like that boy in the app store-the zombie boy.

*Amaia: I have to go potty!!
Justin: Again? Do you have a UTI? Or any other STDs?
Amaia: NO! I'm still 3!! (like she knew what the heck that meant anyways)

*I was laying on the floor, and Solia was sitting on my stomach bouncing. I was grunting from the impacts-
Amaia: Mommy, are you dying?
Me: Yes!
Amaia: Ok, well, I'm not going to come save you because I'm doing my puzzles

*Justin: I hate cats
Amaia: Don't say that! That's the same thing as saying 'stupid' or 'freaking'-we don't say that!

*So one day Amaia and I made one of those glitter jars that we found on Pinterest. You shake it up, and then the kid sits and watches the glitter settle so they can have a little time out. We used it one time that day. The next day, Amaia got mad at Solia, knocked her over, and then says to me: Can I have the jar? I need it to calm down"

September 2011-1st Half

(Our funky palm tree, my self inflicted hair cut, hot Justin, and a gross slug)

 

*Amaia is is SUPER copy cat mode. If you say something (new-ish) it will come out of her mouth in ten seconds or less

*Amaia will pick up anything long-ish (a tube, a ruler, a broom, a fork, etc) and use it as a gun. She'll 'bang' you and say "die!"

*Amaia will constantly say "GOOOOOOOoooood, good job" when you are doing something, even if it is something mundane like changing Solia's diaper, or reading a book.

*Amaia's been making up adjectives: sliney, flimpy, bonky, flompy, cutty, etc.

*Amaia likes to recount past conversations: "If I say (blank), then you say (blank)..." exactly as the conversation happened last time.

*Amaia is getting a little obsessed with death. She's always saying "If this happens" or "if I do this, then I would DIE."

*Amaia has started calling all kangaroos a "roosky" because that's what we call Solia's toy kangaroo.

*Every morning when the girls wake up, Amaia gives Solia a big hug and says "I LOVE Solia"

*Amaia has some strange names for candy: M&Ms are "nen a mems"; Candy Canes are "candy cans", and marshmallows are "marsh a lows"

*Amaia's gotten into this bad habit of repeating "what?" over and over, even when I'm in the middle of trying to tell her "what".

*Amaia says 'avagot' instead of forgot. For example, "I avagot my blankie"

*According to Amaia, she never actually goes to sleep at night. She just is taking a 'big breath' or a 'big break"

This is how we keep Amaia's burritos from unraveling on burrito night.

Yes, we tortured a slug. Yes we are horrible people. :)

Daddy and Solia. She has really warmed up to him!

*Solia gives kisses! Well, she'll at least slobber on your mouth.

*When I do my makeup in the morning, Solia either stands there 'begging' for me to put some on her, or she stands in between me and the wall and tries to push me away from it.

*Solia loves hats. Everything is a hat as long as it stays on her head.

*Solia likes to pull/yank/grab everything! Hair, arms, (boobs!), clothing, faces....

*Solia is constantly climbing onto our giant (yet highly cheap and unstable) TV stand

*Solia has learned to take off her diaper....

*Solia has moved on past the crying like a baby when she is upset. She's moved on to full out tantrums, and screeching and growling when she doesn't get her way

*Solia is finally getting attached to her Roosky and Blankie-she is always hugging them when I go get her from her naps

*Solia likes to help wash Amaia in the bath tub

*Every time Solia sees herself in the mirror, she gives herself kisses

*After she is done eating, Solia will stack her cup and spoon inside her bowl

*Solia (finally) got her first tooth on September 14th! It just barely broke the skin, but you can feel tooth, darn it!

*Solia is crazy obsessed with all the birds out back in the river. Ducks, cormorants, geese, swans, seagulls and pigeons all take their turns in our river and she loves to watch them, calling them "duh!" (ducks)

*Solia can follow basic commands, like "come here", "bring me that", "Can I have kisses?"

Look at how cute they are!

Kids Say the Darndest Things {13}

*Amaia: If a zombie comes, and a zombie eats my brains, I would DIE.

*(Amaia was asking for make up and I said no).
Amaia: But Mom! You have makeup on YOUR chin...
Me: I have a funny looking chin.
Amaia: My chin is funny looking, too.
Me: No, your chin is so pretty
Amaia: But Mommy, I'm scary!!
(she really wanted that make up!)

*We were watching a video of a howling wolf and Amaia says "Mommy, is that wolf a strawberry man?"     What??

*Solia was crying and Amaia walks over and starts to comfort her: "Oh sweetheart, it's ok sweetheart..."

*Amaia: Where did we go a long weeks ago?
Me: I don't know, where did we go?
Amaia: We went to.....I don't know what I'm talking about.


*Justin and I were saying something about cookies...
Amaia: Mommy's irrational
Me: Did she just call me irrational?  What the....
Amaia: BEEP!



*Amaia had gotten an owie, and was sitting on the floor yelling at it to "just get better owie, just get better!"

Kid's Apron from Reusable Grocery Bag

Ok, as per request, here's how I made this apron. The only reason I'm posting this now, as opposed to, oh I don't know, REAL blog stuff, is I have these pics all on my phone. That's right, you get crappy iPhone pictures. I took some of the finished product on my actual camera, but I usually use my PC for all my photo editing/deleting/organizing/etc. So there.

Anyways, let's give credit where credit is due. I used this reversible toddler/child apron tutorial from Naptime Crafters. I used all the same measurements as she did. The main difference is I used a REUSABLE GROCERY BAG from the Disney store instead of fabric. The main reason for that is I'm hoping it will help repel paint/water/glue, etc from seeping into the apron and getting her clothes underneath. It won't be machine washable, but since it's just plastic (well, mine was, if your reusable bag is fabric you should be able to machine wash it) it just wipes right off.

Some things I did different:

I used two of the four pieces I cut from the top of the apron (you know, to make the 'arm holes'? The pieces that you cut out to make the top skinnier than the sides? Very technical, I know). Anyhoo, I used two of those pieces to make pockets-one on each side. Taking each side separate, I sewed on the pocket, then sewed on some 1/2" ric arc around the edge (melting the ends with a lighter sort of like you would for ribbons so it doesn't fray). I did this to both sides. I had to position the pockets around the big pictures of Minnie and Mickey, so they ended up on different sides (one on the left, one on the right, but right on top of each other when placed back to back). If you just use fabric or a plain/patterned bag, you won't have that problem. Also, make sure to put it at least an inch away from the edge of your fabric, so that when you sew it and then top stitch it, your top stitching doesn't go over the super cute ric rac like mine did :(

Make sure you follow the tutorial all the way up until you sew the two sides together. Don't be like me and forget to add the straps and neck loop on until after and then have to turn it back inside out to finish it.

So I cut the whole thing like the tutorial says, but then when it came time to sew, I added some ric rac in between the seams. Like this:

Here you see I have the right sides of the 'fabric' together, with the ric rac in between. When I sewed this, I put the presser foot right up against the edge of the fabric:

Not sure what kind of seam allowance that is...3/8"? Anyways, close enough for me. You want to place your ric rac as much as you can so that the middle of the ric rac goes right under the needle:

See how it's not right up against the edge? Then just sew it up like anything else. When you get to the hard corners, cut off the ric rac, and turn it so it's now going in the new direction. The raw edges of the ric rac will end up inside so it won't matter. Make sure to leave like a 4" gap to turn this whole apron right side out. Make sure you leave a trail of ric rac the same length of your hole, so you can have it when you go to finish the seam. You don't want to have 4 inches of your apron with no ric rac. Trust me on the size of the hole-reusable bags are thicker and take more space to turn around.

Here is the ric rac from the outside. You notice how the stuff in the middle is 'bigger' than the edges of my strip? That's because when I sewed, the places where you don't see as much ric rac sticking out is where I placed the ric rac too close to the edge of the fabric. Be careful you don't put it too far away from the edge of the fabric, though, or you'll be able to see holes in your ric rac.

After you've turned it right side out, pull on your ric rac to sort of 'iron' it flat. I wouldn't suggest actually ironing it since it's plastic. Then, to close up your hole and finish it, turn the edges of the hole to the inside, making sure to sandwich the tail of ric rac in between the fabric. Top stitch all the way around with like a 1/8" seam allowance to finish. (Don't mind my not-so-straight stitching. This wasn't the actual apron, but a scrap. And I was in a hurry).

And then place on a super cute (and very excited, even if she hates getting pictures taken) model:

Yay! Have fun!