Celebrating 3 (again and again and again)

Xaris turned 3 in May, and we celebrated lots of times!  Since her birthday was a Wednesday (one of my long work days), she got cupcakes and balloons with her preschool class.   Her birthday party was a few weeks later, and we also squeezed a little celebration in while we were in California for Mother's day.

Pink cupcakes were what she chose for preschool.  Homemade treats are not allowed (state laws), so I had to order them.  I was not expecting HOT pink frosting (I had just requested pink).  This frosting stained--so all the little toddlers had pink fingers and faces for the rest of the day...and into the next.  Ooops. 

This is Xaris's friend Estella.  Without knowing, their mama's bought them the same t-shirt.  They were thrilled!  Estella is about 2 months older than Xaris--so they moved up to the "big kid" class at the preschool together!

Xari got a bike!  Which she helped put together.  

It took her awhile to get the hang of it.  She really isn't heavy enough to use weight to push the pedals, so it requires more strength from her, but she's doing better at it!

Swings after bike riding!

Her birthday party was a rainbow themed party.  We had a rainbow pool for the kids to play in, this is her and her friend Jack.  

Rainbow cake :)

Aunt Alisha made the girls rainbow shirts and tutus!

8 months and soooo big!

Went into her room and found her pulled up on her knees.... Went to get her papa to see it, and when we came back:



Guess it's time to lower the crib!


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California Mother's day

The girls and I flew to California to celebrate Mother's day with my grandma, and my mom and sisters also flew in--it was a fun weekend!
I didn't bring a camera (traveling solo with both girls meant I didn't want the extra stuff to carry--I already had enough!) so all these photos are from the various iPhones/iPads present at our weekend. I think my uncle did take a picture of all of us with his camera, so I'll try to post that one when I get a copy of it.



Grand-grandma, Gramama, Xari, iXy and Mama




First glimpse of the beach!!



We need to get sand toys!



Yes. The beach is for this girl. And this girl is for the beach.
















There was also lots of playtime...yay tias!!



We also met up with some college friends who live there, and have a little boy who's 20 months. We met at a kid's gym that had some open play, and it was pretty fun! Xaris even rode the zip line, which shocked me--she's usually not quite THAT bold.




Snail races....I don't think they have snails in Dallas--at least not the big California ones. (everything's bigger in Texas?? I guess not). Xaris spent a few minutes every morning looking out the window to count all the snails on the bushes.



We had a birthday party for the May birthdays--just Xaris and my uncle since,y aunt couldn't be there. Complete with cake, ice cream, funny glasses and a piñata :)


And a giant Raggedy Andy as a gift for Xaris from GreatUncle Chef Bill!



Lots of love and snuggles with grand grandma



Another trip to the beach on a sunny afternoon--and sand castle lessons with great-aunt Jeannette!





What IS this stuff??





Sigh, ocean breeze, sand, sun, salty air, I was born for this! (it was really hard to get her off the beach...she wasn't ready to be done).
















We loved it!!

On a slightly sadder note--X is sick and we're trying to figure out what's wrong, so prayers would be appreciated. She had strep and an ear infection about 10 days ago (just finished antibiotics last night), but she has not improved much, and has had a fever since Monday. Yesterday's visit to Dr confirmed that strep was now negative, but since everything (ears, nose, throat, etc) was visibly ok, we ended up having to do bloodwork and stuff to try to figure out why she still isn't well.
On top of this, she's not really eating, and not sleeping well, so it's been a miserable few days. Poor baby.


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Location:Santa Cruz, CA

seven

 Our baby is getting so big!  At 7 months she's really getting good at scooching around (not crawling yet, she has yet to master the lifting of the tummy off the ground).

She has zero teeth, but likes food and will lunge for whatever is in our hands/on our plates, etc.  

She eats apple, pear, avocado, peas (not her favorite yet) and rice/oatmeal rusks/biscuits.  

Was relatively easy to sleep train.  She now sleeps in the same room as Xaris and they typically go to bed around the same time (iXy first while Xaris reads in bed) and she'll sleep a majority of the night.  She'll wake up but often put herself back to sleep with her pacifier.  It gets dodgy about 5 or 6 am, when I think she's getting a little too hungry for the pacifier to work.  So I will feed her, but there have been a few times when she's decided to be awake from then on--BLUH!  This mama definitely prefers it when she goes back to sleep and doesn't wake up until after 7am.  

Still has separation/stranger anxiety.  If I'm in the room, she will keep an eye on me all the time, and quite often that turns into looks and noises that seem to mean "Why aren't YOU holding me?"  Fortunately, most of the time she is tolerant of others, and not impossible to pass off for snuggles from other people, or for playing with her papa. 

She is also very fond of her big sister and the feeling is mutual.  It is wonderful that they can entertain each other for a little bit at this point.  

Dallas Zoo

My parents came up to visit and we gave them an "adventure" as an anniversary gift.  We ended up going to the Dallas Zoo.  We have been to the Ft. Worth zoo a few times, and it's great, but it is a lot farther away.  The Dallas zoo is maybe only 15 minutes or so?  And we ended up purchasing a membership so we could go again and again this year without paying anymore--it was a surprisingly nice zoo and great experience.  It was funny because all the reviews I had read the last time we chose to go to a zoo said that the Dallas one wasn't that great at all, (so we chose Ft. Worth that time).  They have put a lot of money into it and expanded a lot, plus they have some great opportunities for the kids to interact and have hands-on experiences.  

(Oh, and yes, the girls are wearing the same outfits as the butterfly exhibit post...different week, different adventure, but I probably should have planned for the pictures not looking all the same!)

 Xaris getting a better viewpoint to study the tortoises

 There were a lot of them.  And they were huge and hissing.  

 Albino Alligator.  Or was it a crocodile??  I'm thinking gator, but I might not remember correctly.  

 Kids' play area (also with a water channel to play in and a petting zoo, and who knows what else we haven't visited yet!)

 A giant and beautiful baboon!

 I didn't zoom in for this picture.  Part of the giraffe area is sunken, so when the giraffes are standing there, they are at eye level for spectators!  They have a LOT of giraffes.  One of the extra things visitors can do is pay $5 for a few leaves and feed the giraffes!  We might just do that. Once.  

 They also have a Merry-Go-Round.  Xaris saw it when we first walked in and talked about riding the animals during the whole visit.  So, we paid for a ride for her at the end of our trip :)  (you can also pay to ride camels at this zoo.  Lots of fun extras, but they all cost!)  She chose an Okapi.  She hasn't stopped talking about okapis either!  She was waving at the camera in this picture.  So serious the whole time on the ride, it's hard to tell if she enjoys it.  But she doesn't want to get off at the end of her turn, so I suppose it was a success!

Oh, and ilane slept in the stroller for most of the zoo.  That's why she is not really featured in this post!

flutterbies

 Fridays are typically my day off (along with Saturdays).  Ricardo had foot surgery right before spring break, and there were a few weeks during his recovery where Xaris would really want to play with papa like always, but his foot was just in too much pain to allow for much active play time.  So, while he was home recovering, it was a little easier to get the girls out of the house for part of the time, rather then have Xaris face repeated disappointment that papa's "Super-booboo" was still present and an obstacle in their usual rowdy play. Most days our out-of-house time was just going out to the church and going to work like normal. But Fridays have been fun because we got to choose adventures!   One friday we went to the children's aquarium at fair park, which is less than 3 miles from where we live.  It was a lot of fun!  I don't think I managed to take any pictures there though.  Another week we went to the butterfly house at the same location, and I did manage to come away with some photos.  

 The butterflies were fun and beautiful.  X loved to watch them and would get somewhat close to look at them if they were still.  She was wary of them flying though, and I suppose I don't blame her.  They flutter by kind of fast and unpredictable sometimes, and a few of them have wingspans close to the size of her face!  She was thrilled when one landed on my shoulder though, and then walked/fluttered it's way across my torso to my other arm.  She still talks about it occasionally.  

While we waited for the "release" time, where they were going to be bringing in new butterflies, we played outside in the park, and did a wacky impromptu photo shoot in their new matching outfits from Gramama.  I love these pictures.  They have so much character in their various expressions, but sometimes not in the same shot!  

This last one is my favorite :)