It's been a great few months.

With my favorite time of year fall comes a much busier life. Sorry for the lack of posts...

Izzie was a witch for halloween and did not understand one minute of it, but was generally well behaved, especially for someone who had been sick with a stomach bug the 3 days prior. She as of today has two teeth with one more coming very very soon. She has moved from baby food and formula to regular food and milk. We have yet to get her to accept a sippy cup. She pushes them away and screams. She sleeps through the night and still takes a long nap everyday. Church is often hard because it falls right at nap time. She went to her first daycare experience in November and these last few days has been learning about staying with babysitters.

It was a good idea to move closer to family after our second angelita arrived because I don't know what we would have done these last few days without the help of cousins, tias, and abuelos.

Olivia is talking up a storm. Most days she copies everything I say. She is speaking pretty much equal parts english and espanol. She is very infatuated with Dora right now and remarks about all the Christmas things she sees. She was a flapper for Halloween and we cut her hair to complete the costume so she got he first professional haircut. She goes to school with Abuela about twice a week and the other days Papa takes her to the playground. We are planning on starting her in a sport or class of some sort after the New Year.

We are all very excited to see the Clarks for Christmas. We even bought a dinner to bring and are planning for cookie decorating. We paid for our rental car so it is a done deal barring any more health issues this year, but we are being very optimistic that all will work out.

What does everyone in AZ want for Christmas? Here is our list:

Mama: Nada
Papa: Nada
Olivia: duplo blocks, toddler size bath towel with hoodie.
Izzadora: duplo blocks, toddler size bath towel with hoodie.
Gus: Nada
Weirdo: Nada
Bruce (fish): Nada

Fall!

October is here! This is my favorite time of year. The kick off is Halloween and finally I have people to enjoy dressing up with. Albert has never really liked to dress up and sometimes knocks the wind out of my sails. This year Izadora is a little good witch and Olivia will be a flapper. She is hopefully going to get a hair cut this week. We are going to the Base because we had such a good time last year.

Izadora is on the verge of walking. She pulls herself up and takes a few steps holding on to things. She is getting her first teeth also. Two on the bottom and in front. She loves playing in her room with her big sister and has been having a blast with the Dora tent. She has been enjoying strolls at the College with Mama in the evenings and cooking in the kitchen. We started potty training Izzie too. She has had several potties in the potty. Olivia even tells her, "Izzie no peepee en pisuo (piso)" when she goes in her diaper. She sleeps all through the night now and is no longer nursing. This has made her a little grouchy at times.

Olivia loves riding bikes, "wunning", and the trampolin at Abuelas. She flew her first plane today. It was amazing as soon as pilot Roger showed her the controls she said, "coz a door." and was off! It helped that one of the planes was amarrillo her favorite color. She has been taking really good care of her sister. They play so nice together. Olivia and Izadora both love bath time and Olivia tells Izzie what the toys are in the bath.

We are so excited about the up-coming events this season. I hope we can make a trip to a pumpkin patch this year and we want to take some more photos of Izzie. We are going to Phoenix for Christmas and every time I think about it I am so excited because it has been a long time since we spent Christmas there. Then we have fun filled things happening every month until March. It's going to be a good, expensive, happy next five months.

Love and miss you all,
Mama

It is the beginning of the end.

IZZIE IS CRAWLING NOW! What are we to do? No more babies for us :( She has been working on it for a couple of weeks now by getting on all fours and rocking back and forth and taking a few steps with just her hands and then plopping onto her belly but now she is actually hands and knees crawling across the room!


She also likes to scream and get Ollie and I to scream back at her. They are playing so nice together lately and Ollie can really get Izzie laughing. They love bath time together. Ollie likes to put the wash cloth on Izzie's back and scoot her all around the tub. 


Ollie is talking up a storm and is going to start school this week. She is learning a lot of English from watching GO DIEGO GO. I kept yelling at Albert because I assumed he was talking to her in English when I'm not home but he kept swearing it wasn't him. Then it dawned on me that it was from the TV. She also mimics words you say by repeating them right after you. 


The girls got their first pet a beta that is yet to be named. We are busy getting ready for the camping trip next month and really settling into our routine. The girls suddenly started staying up much later at night so Albert and I are adjusting. I'm sure he likes to sleep in later now though. 

Well, we'll keep you posted on Izzie's first words and other news. 

Izzie is such a personality now.

Izzie can sit on her own and will be crawling any day now. This afternoon I placed her in the middle of her room and then went in the kitchen to start baking. When I came back she was halfway across the room in the corner. I am fairly certain that it was a combination of scoots and rolls that got her there but I know she will be crawling all over very very soon. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth a lot. She has even moved one hand in front of the other just not all four appendages yet.

Both girls seem to really like our new apartment. Ollie is picking up new words every day. She says Verde, cuarto, apple juice and more. I think maybe with less people doing the talking she feels like filling the silence. She gets to stay home with Papa and her sister and he says they play real cute all day. We did have her in a big girl bed but had to put the rail back up. I was finding her sleeping in different places every morning and was afraid that she would actually start getting into things instead of just sleeping in strange locations.

Izzie is such a little princess. She wants everything HER way. I can not make phone calls when she is awake because she wants my undivided attention (unless of coarse Abuela is around and then she will do). I have cut down on the nursing so she is a little fiendish about it right now. She wouldn't take a bottle from me the other day and kept head butting my chest. She is eating very well other than that. We are moving along trying all the fruits and vegetables.

They are such a joy. I can't believe we lucked out with these two sweeties. The other day we went to a get together around the girls bed time and I was really worried about how they would act. Well, there was another 2 year old there and she was the one that threw a fit. It was funny too because Izzie and Ollie just stared at her when she was screaming. I honestly think Izzie was thinking, "what is going on here? This kinda thing never happens at my house."

Ollie is 2!!!!!

It's hard to believe but it has been 2 whole years. These two years have taught us alot. I have learned patience from Olivia like no one else in this world had been able to teach me. Albert and I have changed alot since becoming parents also. Our relationship is evolving more now than ever before. I feel more like a team with Albert than our previous eight years. Little Izzie has added hugely to the mix and we are all still adjusting but I see lots of fun adventures to come for the "Portland Palmas" 

Albert and I celebrated being parents for 2 years by going out on the weekend for a Mommy Daddy date. We also baked Ollie a cake on the weekend. She is going to have a fiesta with her amigos and primos later in the month so we kept her actual b-day low key. 

On the 8th Ollie went to McDonald's with Papa for breakfast and then we all went to lunch at Peter Piper's Pizza. Ollie and Jonathan had a good time with 60 freakin tokens and Jonathan even donated his tickets so Ollie could get a cooler prize. 

Now Tia Cindy and Primo Kenshin are here visiting and I am sure we will have lots more photos and stories to tell. They have only been here one day and We already had a cooking event were we made our own pizzas and fresh lemonade. I have had to explain to the boys that Ollie is not "that baby" and that they are all friends a little crew and they need to play TOGETHER not boys against girls. However, when the chicas are older I may just let them have the gender divide and see who prevails ;)

Well I think that is all for now. I am going to have Albert upload Ollie's birthday question video because it needs converting and I don't know how to do it. Also I'll let him pick the photos of Izzie to add. Lots of love.

Camping, school, developement and stuff.

First of all I'll let you know about Izzie's new developements, being a growing baby and all. She can roll every which way now and doesn't hate tummy time as much. She can lift her entire upper body and even hold herself up on her hands. We have been working all month on giving her cereal but she still has very little interest in it. She has a really strong tongue-thrust-action going on and I need to figure out how to change that. She is getting stronger at sitting on her own but isn't quite there yet. The extent of her talking is angry sounding shouts or haulting giggles so far. She absolutely lights up when Ollie plays with her it is so Adorable!

We went camping! We drove 3 hours out of El Paso where they have a natural spring swimming pool. After we set up our tents it was time to swim, the city Balmorhea is hotter than El Paso, it was 103. The girls had to adjust to the water a little but within an hour they were having a good time. Someone even lent Ollie a floaty to play with. This pool is huge we didn't get a photo to show it's enormity but it is used for scuba instruction because some parts are 30-50 feet deep. One thing that really creeped me out is that the pool is full of fish since it's from a spring. THEY KEPT FOLLOWING ME!

After the first day of swimming we cooked an awesome dinner while Ollie pushed Izzie around in the stroller. The girls did much better than I sleeping in the tent. Ollie whimpered a few times because she likes to sleep up against the wall of her crib and the wall of the tent kept moving but Izzie slept just like she does anywhere else. The next day the girls had zero interest in the pool. Izzie slept while we tried to get Ollie into it but eventually we had to let her sit with her sister while Papa and I swam for a little bit.

We had a few firsts this month, camping and Ollie had her first day of school. She went with Abuela one day. I had hoped she could go all week but it didn't work out that way. She was so cute when I woke her up I told her she was going to school with Abuela and half way through breakfast she kept saying "Afueda, Abuela, Afueda, Abuela" and getting really urgent about it (Afueda means outside).

I have to cut this post short because Ollie and Izzie are demanding some play time right now since their naps are over. Here is a short video of the ladies yesterday.

Easter Fun

Easter weekend started out with lots of festivities on Saturday. There was a free celebration at the park with bouncy houses, pony rides, face painting, pictures with the easter bunny, and hamburgers. Ollie road the pony and liked it even though the whole time she had quite the serious face. She got a butterfly painted on her face and took a picture with the Bunny. Since everything was free the lines were pretty long. Abuela waited in the line for hamburgers and we finally gave up and went to Whataburger because it took to long. 

After lunch we went to a birthday party for a little girl turning 1. Ollie had lots of fun with the pinata and playing with all the kiddos. She made a complete mess with the cupcakes too. The next day for Easter we had lots of fun too. Ollie got a Bubble Gun from Abuela and sidewalk chalk from Mama & Papa. We played with those outside before trying to go to church. We were late (shocker) and there was standing room only so we went to a buffet for lunch. Afterwards, we had an easter egg hunt  just for Ollie and then they all hunted the cascarones to smash on each others heads. We had a good time painting the cascarones earlier in the week but, putting the confetti was quite a mess.

Izzie is busy becoming a little girl. She can roll from her tummy to back. She holds herself up really well now and makes lots of babbling noises. This week was her first time in the bouncy contraption from Grandma and Grandma, she seems to like it. We are also going to start giving her cereal too. She just had a check up and the doctor said she looks great.

Ollie is also changing. She learns new words every day. Last week she said Josh and JJ when I showed her their picture and she called Grandma & Grandpa Abuelo and Abuela. She is almost officially potty trained. She does ALL her pee  in the potty and we are now working on the poop. She wears panties now so we are able to use all the diapers for Izzie.

We are going to Portland this week and are super excited. We can see all of our friends and take a much needed break from this living situation. We also get to see Grandma and Grandpa and cousin Hayden for and hour or so!

Big changes are happening.

 

Izzie is becoming very active. She is awake a huge portion of the day and spends some time just babbling and wiggling around. She can roll from side to side. She plays with her feet and hands. She reaches for things with purpose like the vibrating frog on the car seat, she pulls it's legs now. She still makes the sputtering noise but now also little babbles. She giggles. I'm working on helping her sit up but she still falls over right away. She recognizes people and gets super excited for Mama, Papa, y hermana. She pulls hair.

Ollie is developing alot right now too. She is gaining new words everyday and is coming along really well with potty training. We bought panties for her and tried the 3 day focus on training that my mom told us about. She didn't master it in 3 days but when we are at home she is 80% potty trained. She doesn't like using public potties so that still poses a challenge but I am determined that she can be done by the end of  the month. She wakes up in the morning and from naps with dry diapers and goes in the toilet right away.  

We went to the zoo yesterday and Olivia was really excited. She looked at all the animals and followed their movements and talked to them. The sea lions were her favorite. It was so cute because every time the kids put there hands up to the glass the sea lion would open his mouth and nod his head. She can make the sound of 8 animals. She can show you 9 of her body parts and likes to point them out on her sister too. We have been able to get her to say the animal noises for awhile but the other night while driving home she was drinking milk and she goes, "blah blah blah baca mooooo." For you gringos Vaca is cow :) Ollie also knows all the names of her pets, her sister's name, leche, juice, ball, agua, afueda, zapatos, peepee, popo, push, go, ven, and Abuelos. I won't be able to list anymore since her vocabulary is sky rocketing but you all get the point, she is becoming quite a talker.

 

Well, I guess that is all for now. We are getting ready for our trip. This will be Izzie's first flight! Wish us well, and hopefully we will visit Phoenix again soon too!