Julia and Xaris

Julia came to play! Julia is the daughter of Fernando and Brisa, and Fernando is one of Ricardo's dearest friends (from high school days). They live in Michigan, so visits are rare. Xaris and Julia have met once before, but they were both under 1 year old, so I doubt it left a lasting impression on either.

Julia is 5 days older than Xaris (but about double her size), and Fernando is 5 days older than Ricardo (and about double his size...just kidding. Almost, but not quite).

After an evening of some shyness and warming to each other, they were fast friends the next day!

Running through the Arboretum with Fernando

Koi ponds

Making Fernando work harder--they got tired of taking turns being swung--they wanted to swing at the same time!

Tickles from Brisa

iXy was eating mama, so mama decided to eat the sweet baby

Xaris and papa

Still no teeth. So surprising, since she's been super chompy/drooly for weeks now!

Girls entertained while parents enjoyed coffee and conversation after lunch.

Julia loved holding the baby sister. She wants one now :)

gymnastics

Xaris LOVES her gymnastics class.

It's just a small company that sends teachers out to do tumbling programs in preschools and the like, but it's one of Xaris' favorite half-hours of the week. In fact, she likes it so much, we enrolled her in gymnastics in the Y...just in time for her to take 2 classes before the teacher got fired. We're waiting for them to find another teacher, and if they do, we'll pick it back up. Maybe in the fall though, swimming lessons are right around the corner!

ALSO: Breaking news...XARIS CAN JUMP!! We attribute this newfound skill to her gym classes. She can stand with both feet together, and actually jump several times! Glad she learned that one before she was three :)

loves bubble time at the end if they all listen to the teacher during class.

Of course the drawback to gymnastics classes is figuring out how to explain "do not try this at home" or "do not try without an adult supervising"....so I walked into the family room and saw this:

Wonderful! But fleece blanket on a tile floor. That blanket was due to slip anytime, and the resultant knock to the head would be a rough one! We moved the blanket and let her "practice" right on the floor.

happy valenbabies

Feb. 14th was an adventure :)

The preschool director and I set up a makeshift "photo booth" at church, to take valentine's pictures of all the kids. Of course, my kids were the test pilots, and so we have a few shots of them from the day we set up, and then another few when we were actually taking all the classrooms' photos. Many of them turned out pretty cute, but we really struggled with the poor lighting inside the church buildings.

Here are some of the best of X and iX---I have hundreds of pictures of this one event, and there are only 30 or so kids enrolled in the preschool. It was really hit or miss, and some of them we could NOT get to smile. At all.

It was also Ilane's 5 month-iversary! By the time we got the cupcakes made and ready, it was a bit late and she was tired. We did manage to make her smile and laugh enough to get photos, and I can't figure out what Xaris is doing in that one photo, but it sure makes me like it!

Yep, those are mini cupcakes all helter-skelter on top of the regular size cupcakes. X got a mini-cupcake set, and she loves to use it!

brinka brinka and other updates

Lots of updates, I've found myself taking lots of photos with my phone the past couple of weeks, probably because these girls just keep getting cuter!

And I had a nearly migraine-free week this past week (unheard of), so feeling better helps when it comes to extra-curricular activities, such as actually taking pictures, and actually getting them in a blog entry.

ilane LOVES jumping.

this is how I found her when I picked her up from the church nursery.

X "helping" me to clean out the girl's closet and sort through the next size of clothes...for her it meant putting on one of her last year's dresses over her pj's and then finding complementary hat and mittens to complete the ensemble.

iX's first staff meeting. I usually leave her over in the church's preschool for the 1.5 hours of staff meeting each week, except there were confirmed RSV cases the previous week so I kept her with me for the past two weeks. Maybe next week if they're all healthy :) She sat and made noise during the whole meeting (she has discovered her voice and how LOUD she can be)

Cutie.

Xaris loves ilane...nearly too much. She climbs on her every chance she gets, and isn't always careful about keeping the entirety of her weight (which isn't much, but still) OFF of her baby sister. Today I actually made Xaris lay down and I [gently] laid on top of her, being just heavy enough for her to not be able to wriggle out from under me, and then we had a conversation about how I'm too heavy to lay on her....just like X is too heavy to lay on iXy. We'll see if that lesson sticks, or if I have to squish her [gently] again. :)

ugh. Can't they both be asleep at the same time?

X loves Tangled. She has a Rapunzel doll and matching dress (her Christmas gift), but now when she watches it, she pulls out her frying pan from her kitchen!

After-nap snack watching the rain

Sleepy baby.

She woke up...ate a little...and right back to sleep!

Not a very clear photo, but this is X in her new favorite activity--wearing Mama's bathrobe. We have to roll the sleeves up several times, and tie the thing in folds around her, but when it's finished, she's pretty happy!

And if she isn't wearing mama's clothes, she's wearing sister baby's clothes! This is a 6 month size romper of iXy's. Of course it's extremely short in the arms and legs, but other than that it fit X (we were even able to snap it shut in the legs).

I had to go downtown to court to get a ticket (a dumb one--speed trap a block after the speed limit had reduced and I missed it) dismissed, so we took the train. The station is 1/2 a block from our house, and so really convenient when we actually need to go somewhere it takes us. Unfortunately, it doesn't go to Ricardo's work or mine.

X loves her gymnastics classes. She has a 1/2 hour lesson at preschool once a week, and enjoys it so much, so we put her in the Y gymnastics class this month, and she's had a lot of fun. Yesterday, we got a call from the Y saying they're canceling the class until further notice :(

ilane with one of our interns: Zach. I just thought it was a cute photo :)

This was fun--not very clear photos, but the top one is Xaris at 4 months, and the bottom one is Ilane at 4 months. Sweet girls!

That's all the update for now! A very photo-heavy post, but the photos are probably the best part about the blog! I'm ready for February to be over, because it's way too busy. However, March doesn't promise to be any better, and it might start getting hot, so I guess I'll stick with February as long as I can.

1/2 of 10 on 10

SO...girls got up wayyy too early on the 10th, and I happened to remember that it was the 10th, so I figured I would be able to do 10 on 10. Well...I guess I forgot halfway through the day! But here's the first half.

6-something:

two awake girls in bed with mama...

7-something:

ironing numbers on tie dye shirts for youth basketball league

8-something:

sewing valentines for X's preschool

9-something:

snack

10-something:

not quite naptime...but playing in bed.

4

ilane xochitl is 4 months old!

At 4 months she is wearing 6-9 month clothing pretty consistently.

We have already had to adjust her cloth diapers up a size.

At her 4 month well-check today, she weighed in at 13 lbs, 3 oz (50th percentile).

Xaris (fully clothed and shod)

was almost but not quite 10 lbs heavier, weighing in today at 23 lbs.

iX is growing like a weed: height is 25, which was 75th percentile, and head is 15.5 at 10th percentile. Her sister was a little more top-heavy.

I took a look at Xaris' 4 month stats... (here's the post) because I wanted to compare. I don't think ilane is that big, but everyone keeps commenting on how much bigger she was than X. Take a look...if you want. It's surprising!

ilane...

Is strong enough to play in X's "brinkabrinka" (jumper) and loves it.

Has recently become VERY vocal in mostly happy and delighted ways.

Still has confusing hair and eye colors (as if they can't decide what they will be)

LOVES watching her big sister do anything and everything.

Adores her mama.

Enjoys her bath with X every night.

Has stopped sleeping through the night (rats) after all our travels over the holidays.

Occasionally finds her left thumb to be quite comforting.

Has the BEST sad face in the world! Her lip can do amazing things.

Is discovering her hands can play with things and pull hair.

Is a good eater and a bad burper.

Is quite often called iX in text, which translates to iXa or iXy in spoken word

cupcakes! that X helped with!

taken on her 4 monthiversary

in the brinkabrinka

up to something...

X

With all the hype about iX's 4 month well check, it's only fair to do a post about Xaris too :)

At 32 months old, she weighs roughly 22 lbs.

Has not needed a diaper since July, however, she and papa were playing tonight and she stripped down and put one on. It was a size that ilane has outgrown so they are now X's for playing with dolls. It was a size 1 diaper--it didn't fit her well, but it did fit around her (velcro-ed, and stayed on).

Speaks in full sentences, in Spanish or English, but she seems to favor English and we have to now ask her or tell her to speak in Spanish when we are at home. She can count to 20, but usually misses at least number 15, sometimes more.

Can pray by herself, without prompts, for the meal or before bed.

Knows more about my iphone than I do, and can maneuver an ipad like a pro.

Still cannot do a standing jump (two feet off the group). Her jump is more of a gallop.

Likes wearing her hair in different styles, but she calls them by character names instead of style names. Eg: braids are "Jessies" or a "Rapunzel", and a side ponytail is a "Dora"....etc. Sometimes mama has a hard time guessing what style she wants when she refers to a certain character.

Knows her colors, a variety of shapes, several letters (she knows the alphabet by song, but is still working on recognizing and writing letters.) She can write X, O, and F. She loves books and "estudios" which are the workbooks we do for homeschooling.

Struggles mightily with falling asleep.

Loves pistachios, cheese, yogurt, any fruit, and cereal.

Tends to use her right hand more. But she has not consistently excluded her left hand for coloring or eating yet.

She draws boxy looking people, and "feliz" (smiley face) that consist of two dots (eyes) and a straight line (the smiley??)

Knows her full name, her sister's full name, mama and papa's full names, and her birthday by heart.

Prefers to be rather silly most of the time.

Is worringly OBSESSED with puzzles and can do surprisingly difficult ones all by herself.

Loves her princess dress and would choose to wear it all the time if possible.

LOVES gymnastics and dancing. I'll post a gymnastics blog entry soon--the preschool gymnastics class will have their first exhibition in a week or two I think. She also likes to play with balls, still balancing on her tummy on them.

Her other favorite game with papa is getting dragged around the house--slippy Christmas pants are good for certain things:

We love our sweet girl!