1st day of school

No, she's not really starting school yet...Thank God! But we got her a Dora backpack for our upcoming trip to Boston and she LOVES wearing it around the house and putting things inside. She actually posed for me yesterday and these pictures truly bring tears to my eyes...she looks soo grown up and she's not even 2. I am going to be a WRECK on the day she actually starts school. Thankfully there's still quite some time until that day comes and until then, I am going to try my hardest to treasure every one of her smiles, laughs, funny comments, tears and tantrums that comes my way.

3 Months!

My sweet baby girl is 3 months old today,

and the time has flown by.

I feel like she was an actual "newborn" for all of about 2 seconds,

and now she is a real person who is growing, smiling, and reaching milestones.

She is smiling all the time, and very close to giggling. 

We haven't heard a full giggle quite yet but we are waiting for it!

When she is on her playmat, she scoots backward with her feet 

and will be across the room in within a few minutes.

When you lay her on her back, if she isn't scooting, she is whipping herself to the side and trying her darndest to roll over. She has gone front to back and few times but not the other way around just yet.

She swats and grabs onto her toys on her play mat, and holds Sophie and other toys when we give them to her and she most often brings them straight to her mouth.

She is on a 3 hour schedule (for the most part) of eat, play, sleep, 

and is getting good at going down for naps on her own with very little to no crying.

She goes down at 7:00, but her nights are still rather inconsistent. She has slept straight through until 5:00 once, but most often is up between 2:45-3:45 and then again between 5-6, and then will sleep until 7-8.  Like last night, we get the occasional wake up around 11 or so. Sometimes I will let her cry herself back to sleep (because I know she doesn't need to eat), but other times I just feed her really quick just to settle her and she goes right back down.  

She naps on her tummy in her crib (unswaddled) but at night she sleeps in the rock n play in our closet (swaddled). We have tried transitioning her to her crib for nighttime, but she doesn't like to sleep flat on her back so it hasn't worked quite yet. We are not comfortable letting her sleep on her tummy through the night until she can roll over on her own. Hopefully that will happen soon and then she can sleep however she wants in her crib at night. 

She still takes a pacifier at times but has also found her fist to suck on.  She doesn't get just her thumb quite yet but usually jams her whole fist in her mouth which results in a loud sucking sound! 

We haven't really given her a bottle since a few times when she was tiny, 

but I need to start doing that so I know she will take one if and when it's necessary.

 She is at the tail end of wearing 3 month sleepers and we've started putting her in 6 month ones. She can wear 3 and 6 month clothes, depending on what the outfit is. She will transition into size 2 diapers this week as soon as I finish up the size 1s that I have.

Laila continues to be a great big sister and a big help to mama. She is ALWAYS aware if Juliet spits up and she will say "Juju spit up!" and run to find me a burp cloth.  Anytime I change a diaper, she will run over, pick it up without being asked, and say "diaper genie!" and take it to the trash.  She is big into pretending with her dollies too...they are either poopy and need to be changed, need to be burped, or have a "tempy" and need some medicine. 

(But more on Laila soon as my other little one is turning TWO in a few weeks!)

 

We love our girls so very much and feel so honored that God blessed us to be their parents. We are doing our best to raise them in a home where they know they are loved not only by us, but by Jesus.

Doheny Beach

This morning we got up and decided to venture out to breakfast and the beach.  We have not gone to the beach since we moved to Ladera (except for San Clemente, but it wasn't really a beach day where we brought all our stuff to stay a while...).  We gathered up the girls and all of our belongings (it seemed) and headed out to a new breakfast place we found called Stacks Pancakes.  It was delish and we will certainly be returning there soon. They had Oreo Cookie pancakes on the menu...while I wasn't feeling like trying them today, I will definitely do so upon our return! After breakfast we headed to Doheny State Beach - the closest beach to us from our new home. We were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was and how easy it was to get there (we are pretty spoiled by Huntington Beach, which is amazing).

All in all we had a great day! Juju took a good nap in the tent while Collin and I actually got some sun and played with Laila.

I have to admit I didn't think by 3 months in to having 2 kiddos we would be venturing to the beach...but it was so fun and we plan to do it again soon!

OC Fair

Last weekend we hit up the OC Fair with our friends, the Annetts.  It was blazing hot and the kiddos were too young and too short to go on any of the rides except for the carousel, but we had a great time anyway.  Hopefully Laila will be able to do some of the rides next summer...fingers crossed!  Jennie and I ate the obligatory gigantic turkey legs (although sadly we did not get a picture), and we ate snow cones and lemonade and ice cream...all the typical fair food.

Blaine was sooo kind to allow Laila to bring home the donkey that he won. We were beyond thrilled because it's huge!!  (hope you're picking up on my sarcasm) Laila has since named him Dodo the Donkey.

hurrah! a picture with mom. it so rarely happens since i'm always behind the camera. 

these days...

went to our first "concert in the park" in ladera,

which happen every friday night in july and august

fun with color apps

after a very busy work week, collin fell asleep while listening to the sermon at church

we discovered we have a banana tree in our backyard!

jujee sleeps on her tummy in her crib for naps during the day - sometimes swaddled, sometimes not

jujee loves her sophie giraffe. she is grabbing toys and bringing them to her mouth now

laila is a goofball in her tub

trader joes has almond croissants. amazing.

sisters. after juju pushed her way all the way off her playmat.

juju spends a lot of time on her playmat. well, she starts off there but ends up across the room!

scenario at the pool the other day...laila just sat with me. later to find out she had a 103.5 fever :(

laila's bestie adam became a big brother! welcome lindsay nicole!

sick girl. highest fever she's every had, but she was a trouper!

developing her own sense of style. usually there is a blue headband and a necklace as well.

jujee can sit in the bumbo now!

snuggle buddies.

awesome weather!

already starting with the midriff baring tops!

facetime with nana and auntie coco during dinner

Watermelon Picking

It was 8:30am yesterday and Laila had just woken up, and Juliet was still sleeping soundly. I went to get Laila out of her crib and brought her into bed with me to snuggle. Just before 9:00 Juliet woke up, and as I was nursing her I was checking Facebook on my phone and I saw that my HB Stroller Strides group was heading to Tanaka Farms for a Watermelon tour and they were meeting at 10:00. At the same time, my friend Katy texted me to see if we were up for hanging out.  I called her real quick and said, "Hey, wanna be crazy and leave here in 15 minutes to go Watermelon picking?" She agreed, so I quickly got myself and both girls ready in 15 minutes (not an easy task!) and we headed to Irvine to Tanaka Farms.

hadley and laila holding hands

about to leave on the tractor ride

katy, me, and a sleeping juliet

eating corn and a carrot

yummy watermelon

laila saying something goofy as usual

a view of the farm

hadley and miss katy

hadley hamming it up for the camera

going to pick out her watermelon

cute girls with heavy watermelons

her "this is too heavy mom!!" face

(many photos thanks to Katy!)