Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas, albeit a long-drawn-out one.

We had Christmas with my parents the 18th of December while they were up visiting us. Then we had our own Christmas on Christmas Eve morning, because I would be working the next morning and straight from work we were leaving for Mexico. 2 days of driving later, we had Christmas with Ricardo's family!

X had a Christmas party with her preschool friends

And we also had a santa come to preschool to take pictures with the kids! It was a trial run for our visit with santa and the professional photographer a week later.

This is just an iphone picture of the printed picture, but I was so happy with the results. Even if santa did call iX a "him". :) Doesn't the bow on the head give a little clue??

de Mexico con amor 2

I can't upload photos to the blog from my phone, so I couldn't post anything in Mexico. I didn't get any great photos, but here are a few iPhone pictures from our week in Mexico with all the cousins! We didn't see them all, but saw quite a few, and had a lot of fun playing!

Different time zone and different schedules meant that we were all awake 3 or so hours before the rest of the family. We tried to [quietly] entertain ourselves in our room, which turned into lots of climbing on papa.

Playing play-doh with Leila and Febe. Febe is only 5 or 6 months older than Xaris, but what a size difference! She's very tall!!

Leila, Febe, and Xaris

Movie time (lots of Expresso Polar!) these are the youngest cousins: Nagay, Xaris, Oliver, Leila, Febe. (minus Ilane)

Xaris cleaning up!

de Mexico con amor

Just a quick post, since I'm in another country and haven't figured out to load photos from my phone yet :). Those will come soon in another post. We've been in Mexico since Monday, celebrating and spending time with Ricardo's family. Xaris has loved playing with all her cousins, but has not done a good job of remembering to speak to them in Spanish. She has learned some new words though, and proven that she understands others and CAN speak to them in Spanish, I think she just forgets, or does not understand that there are people who don't speak English (since she has grown up with the experience of mama and papa speak both, and most of the rest of her world speaks English).

tres

iX is three months old today!

It's a crazy busy time of year for my job, and trying to balance that with an infant and a toddler seems to have left me much less time than I would like...I almost forgot to make cupcakes! But I'm glad I did, I pulled it off in 30 minutes, making up a recipe that turned out to be my new favorite! (Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips and a candy cane hershey kiss instead of frosting--I'm not a huge frosting fan anyway).

Our sweet girl is getting big! I love having a chubby baby--her cheeks and legs are deliciously kissable. She is probably tired of mama always munching on her cheeks. She has recently found her hands and on occasion enjoys her left thumb. She still sleeps A LOT (day and night), which I don't remember X doing. For some reason in my memory, Xaris was at two naps or so during the day by this age, while Ilane is maybe awake twice during the day. I'm probably exaggerating, but that is the way it feels, this baby is so different in her sleeping! And I will not complain!

During her awake hours, she is very alert, loves to watch her mama, her big sister and the big kids at church. We had her first giggle about a week ago when I tickled her, but a few days later papa got her to continuously shriek with laughter while he ripped up pieces of paper. She is extremely generous with her smiles still--eye contact will win you one, complete with dimples. She does not show much interest in toys yet, but has an owl in her crib that she has started talking to. She also talks quite often with mama, usually interrupting her nursing to say a few "ooo's" (in Chewbacca style, with a growly-throat noise), before returning to her meal.

She's a doll, and I can't wait for her to know how many people love her!

Here's the video of her laughing. She gets serious once she sees the camera, but...I guess that's just a baby thing.

Turkey Trot 2011

This year we did the Dallas Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I was glad since the Ft Worth one (last year) had a lot of hills, and I was going to be pushing a beast of a stroller (even more beastly since ix is still in the car seat in the stroller). Plus, it's much much closer so we wouldn't have to try to get sleeping girls into the car at 5am to get to the start in time.

We actually took the train this year! There's a DART station 30 seconds from our front door, and it goes through downtown so we were able to get to the start really early (a little too early) and without the hassle of parking. Plus, a fun adventure for the kids! Xaris was really excited to ride on the train.

Waiting for the start...not even a large mass of people here yet.

Family picture before Ric left us to go to his race. He did the 8 mile, and ran it. I just walked/jogged the 5k. We finished about the same time :)

It was cold that morning, really nice...Ric's wearing Xaris' hat. He didn't run in it. You can see some turkeys behind us--there were actually Guinness officials there--this race set the world record for most people dressed as turkeys in any one place!

Penguin kisses after the race

Feeding the pigeons at the train stop, waiting for our ride home to come!

Happy baby on her first train ride!

Arboretum visit with Gramama and Tayta

My parents (gramama and tayta) came to visit the 2nd weekend of November. We ended up having nice (meaning not too hot!) weather and went to the Arboretum on Saturday afternoon. Having extra hands around meant we had a better chance of getting some good pictures of the girls! This will be a very photo-heavy post...

Our beautiful X.

Such a little thing, but with her papa's ears! SO CUTE!

A siblings picture!

Baby in the pumpkins

The girls in Cinderella's pumpkin carriage

Running underneath the fountains. I barely need to duck under most of them, but Xaris is certain that she has to double over.

Playing peek-a-boo

Family photo! I would like to use this as our Christmas photo if we don't get a better one!

Darling girls with their grandparents

I have no clue what this game is...

Learning about weird pumpkins with papa

We found some benches to relax on for awhile, including one child-size bench that Xaris decided was absolutely perfect in every way. These photos were just too cute to neglect sharing with others.

And a gramama-tayta size bench as well...we sure do love these folks!

two

Our sweet mellow girl is 2 months old! She is actually now 2.5 months old, but this picture was taken on the correct day. We had internet issues for a few weeks, but Ricardo fixed it a few days ago so now I have many many blogs to post and photos to upload!

Here's ix's two month picture (I'm still searching for her one month...I know we took it because I remember what kind of cupcakes I made for her one monthiversary). She is almost smiling, despite running a fever after her first round of immunizations earlier that day.

She has been a fairly easy and happy baby. She seems slightly more readily available with smiles than X was as an infant...Xaris was very happy and she smiled a lot, but it seemed we had to work to get the smiles...or earn them by doing a lot of goofy stuff (faces, sounds, etc). With IX all you have to do is make eye contact. Or talk with her. Or smile at her.

She loves (or tolerates?) her big sister who showers her with overabundant and overenergetic love and attention. She'll patiently wait her turn and watch when I'm reading to Xaris at night, or when I need to "help" Xaris go to sleep. She even tolerates a mama and big sister who like matching pj's and outfits: 2 girls is fun! Usually Xaris will grab both sets of pajamas when she chooses hers, so they are matching nearly every night.

We love having two girls!

two part two

IX's two month well-check went just fine. We really like our pediatrician.

ilane measured 22.75 inches (65th %)

weighed in at 10.145 lbs (25th %)

head circumference: 15 in. (25th %)

She is growing well and possibly a bit bigger than her sister was at this age! She definitely seems a little chunkier :)

Chilling out waiting for her shots...

Xaris was holding her hand--but I like this picture because it looks like Xaris is pulling her off the table!

CHINS! Look at this beautiful chunk!

(although I doubt she has anything on yours Keren!)

a compliment?

In X-language these days, everything is a comparison.

Something is "volando como pajarito" (flying like a bird), or "llorando como ilane" (crying like ilane) or "grande como un arbol" (big like a tree).

A few days ago she found a plastic penguin (I think it was a Happy Meal toy??) that she hadn't seen in a long time got really excited about it. The wings (flippers?) are pressed together in the front of the body. I asked her about it and she said "Penguino esta orando como mama!" (penguin is praying like mama!)

Training her in the way she should go? I guess I was pretty pleased she thought a penguin and I resemble each other.

x and ix

Xaris loves her sister.

Sometimes a little too much--she gets so excited and squeezes a little too hard. But with a baby sister this cute, how can you help from getting a little squeezy-happy?

Ilane is doing well, as far as I remember, just about everything a new baby is supposed to do. Although she is quite different from Xaris.

Could be just me, but it seems X was more active and awake at 3 weeks than IX is at 6 weeks...even the pictures seem to demonstrate it! But I really don't mind--IX is a sleeper. I like it. X is not a horrible sleeper--I've never been at a point of feeling desperately sleep deprived, just tired. But she's definitely not a great sleeper, and we're still working on it (she doesn't consistently sleep through the night yet, and many evenings I have to rock her to sleep, she won't go to sleep on her own). This was just a few nights ago--I was up nursing Ilane and heard breathing from the other side of the room...it wasn't Ricardo and wasn't coming from the monitor for Xaris' room, so I got up and looked--Xaris had apparently come into our room sometime in the night, but instead of climbing into bed with us, or waking me up, she went around the far side and curled up on the floor...?? I carried her back to her bed, she didn't even wake up. But I got a picture first.

IX--so far, is a GOOD sleeper. In fact, I have to set alarms every night so I wake up to wake her up to feed her. She won't wake up to eat, and the pediatrician said for the first several weeks we need to make sure she eats every 3-4 hours (I stretched it sometimes...4.5 or more). I hope it lasts--so that when I DON'T have to set an alarm and wake her up to eat, she'll sleep the whole night through?? Wouldn't that be incredible? (I'm in awe because I've not had that experience yet!) The only problem is that she is difficult to wake up. I have to be mean, rubbing and patting and kisses turn into poking and prodding her feet, changing her diaper (cold wipes on a warm bum should do it, right? nope....so a cold wipe on her neck? nope....) and sometimes after all that effort to wake her up, she'll think it's time to be up for awhile, and doesn't go right back to sleep after nursing.

Sometimes I see a little bit of X in IX--but not often. People say that she favors her big sister, but I just don't agree--I don't see it! However, I don't argue with them (much).

Ilane newborn picture

Xaris newborn picture

Xaris got a wonderful big-sister gift from my 3rd and 4th grade teacher--a ceramic tea set in a darling wicker picnic basket! This is her playing pretend "tea" right after she opened it up...but we've had many real tea parties since!!

California

We had a great trip!

We went to Long Beach October 6th-10th, and celebrated my mom's birthday, took X to Disneyland, and cheered Ricardo, my sisters, and my mom on in the Long Beach Half Marathon. We brought the video camera instead of our regular camera, so we ended up with very few pictures. Maybe my sisters got some good ones to share :)

Here are some iphone shots from the trip.

happiest place on earth!

you wouldn't know it from our girl though...she cried on the few rides we took her on. She did like playing in the tree houses and playground areas though. And seeing the characters. And getting super spoiled by her aunts and uncles and gramama!

Train ride with gramama. It wasn't too traumatic--until they hit the tunnels.

She didn't really adapt to the time change well--and we didn't do a great job at getting good, regular naps in. So on half marathon day she was up at 5:30am and cranky as could be! We filled the time by ripping apart cereal boxes to make cardboard signs to hold for our runners.

AND...Xaris got this beautiful quilt made for her by her great-aunt Karyn! She loves it!! It's absolutely stunning!

ilane did just fine too--lots of sleeping and eating and her first diaper blowout (for her papa--I was in the store!) and lots of snuggles from family. We miss them!

one

Here is iX's one month cupcake shot. For some reason it didn't end up on my computer so I had to search for it.

Sweetness!

a whole lotta pumpkin (pictures)

We spent some time yesterday at the Arboretum--they do such a remarkable job with their pumpkin patch. I'm sure we'll try for more successful pictures again, maybe on a weekday when it's less crowded. As it is, we took over 300 pictures (Ricardo kept the camera on rapid-succession) in hopes to get one or two good shots of both girls.

We definitely got some good ones...of papa and ix :)

Papa and both his girls...admiring sister baby's shoes

Such a doll

Mama and a squishy (sleepy!) baby

It was probably just slightly too warm for their outfits. But it's still odd to me taking fall (pumpkin) pictures in summer clothes.

Ricardo being paparazzi, sneaking in photos of us

Mama and her pumpkin heads

X finding a new use for her pumpkin hat

Baby snuggles

2 girls! We got one....

So serious. We gotta work on the "smile for the camera" habit.

A little better...

Where's baby sister?

Couldn't get them to both face/look the same way. Ever.

x gives ix a kiss

ix interferes...

x is bigger and more stubborn...

kiss!

Running in the hay maze

She played a game where she would run and run and then come give me a kiss when she got close and I asked her for one. Great shot, minus the (RUDE) kid who came up and said "MOVE" right at that moment.

Hanging out with a (still sleepy) baby

Fun day...Lots of pictures in this post, and we'll probably try again to get some good sister shots at a later date.