Summer time!

Sammi is now 9 months old!  She is such a happy baby with a big personality.  She is babbling a ton, and as Dan likes to say, "you're just like your mother".  And I'm proud of it!  She is crawling like a pro, and pulling herself up like crazy!

Nicky is doing great with Sam these days.  If I walk away and Sammi starts to cry, Nicky is always trying to make her feel better by saying things like "Don't cry Sammi, Mommy will be right back!...see, here's mommy!"  and honestly, no matter what word is uttered from Nicky's mouth, Sammi could never be happier - her big brother is talking to her!!  They love to do things together, and Nicky is always kind enough to share his toys:

Nicky is obsessed with baseball these days.  When he watches a game, he calls out "home run!" whenever the bat hits the ball, or "foul ball!" when the player swings and misses.  He'll figure it all out soon.  We went to a baseball game last weekend and what was he looking forward to the most? Eating peanuts!  For days before the game he'd randomly tell people "I'm going to the Diamondbacks game and eat peanuts!" with a fist pump in the air.  He brought his Mickey Mouse backpack, inside it was his glove, a ball, and a 1 lb. bag of peanuts.  As soon as we got to the game, he said "I want my peanuts" so I had to crack each one of them open while he sat there and watched the game...the glove didn't even make it out of his backpack!

His two favorite things: Baseball and Mickey Mouse

Both kids looking away from the camera..I have a feeling family photos will be like this for a while.

We are potty training Nicky and he has been doing a great job...well, at night.  He hasn't wet his bed in over two weeks, but is still prone to accidents at school.  One day in school he had two accidents within 10 minutes and his teacher said "should we put you in a pull up?" he responded with "Good idea."
We no longer are carrying around the potty in the car when we are away from the house, but I still love this picture:

He is starting to understand that if he wets his underwear, then he has to get a new pair. So when I put on a new pair, he'll say "Don't wet Supergrover?"  Me: "Yep, don't wet Supergrover."  Nick: "Okay."

His new response to whenever we ask him "why", is always "because i did".  Earlier today:

Nicky:  "My tummy hurts".
Me:  "Why?"
Nicky:  "I ate two hammaburgers at school."
Me:"  "Why did you do that?"
Nicky:  "Because I did."

Sammi had her 9 month check up this week and is growing like a champ!  She weighs 20 lbs 4 oz. (73% percentile) and is 28 3/4 inches long (83% percentile).  One thing I did mention to her doctor was the fact that she doesn't hold her bottle.  The doctor's immediate response was "that's her thing".   Sammi kicks if you take that bottle out of her mouth, but once she starts drinking her milk, her arms just lay to the side, and I'm sure she's thinking "this is the life".  I have a high maintenance girl on my hands!

Sammi's first visit to the beach!

The kids are growing up so fast.  Lolo and Lola will be visiting in the next couple of weeks, and then Nick and Sam are starting at a new school mid-September.  I'm excited yet nervous..but I know it will be the best for the kids!

The Nick-tionary

I can't believe my babycakes is going to be 2 years old next week!  For his first birthday, a girlfriend of mine got me a journal where I could start keeping track of all the funny things he says.  He has been talking like crazy, and of course, I haven't written one word down in the book!  So here is a summary of his favorite words and phrases (along with translation) he says so far..and I promise to be better at writing down funny things he says when he turns 2! :)

"Hold you" - He looks up at you, holds his arms up, and says this when he wants you to hold HIM.  Grandma started this by asking him every time  "can Grandma hold you?" of which he always said yes! So now it's "Mommy hold you...Daddy hold you.."  One of these days he'll be better at his pronouns.

"What happened?", "What's this?" - He asks a lot of questions..we are patient with him by answering him, even though he may ask the same question 4 times in a row.  One time he did ask me "What happened?" so I probably spent about 15 seconds explaining it to him, and he was really engaged and paying attention...and as I thought he was about to have a real conversation with me, he says "What happened?"

"I see garbage trucks!", "big trucks!", "motorcycle!", "big bus!"...anything transportation related.  Now that he is forward facing in the car, he is especially attentive looking for them on our car rides.

"Filipino!" or "Polock!"  - We are now talking to Nicky about his ethnic background and he proudly says each of these, even screams it with a fist in the air, ha!

With a yawn, he says "I'm tired" (he usually says this on our way home from daycare).  - Not sure if he got this from me or Dan.  But if I do yawn, he'll say "Mommy tired."

"Monster poop!" - Every time he does have a poopie diaper, and as you change him, he proudly says "monster poop!"  Then he says "I see monster poop".  Not sure where he learned this from?

"No".  - No is one his favorite words these days.  Instead of just saying "no", he does try to give you a complete phrase..  Nicky, let's put your pants on..."no pants".  Nicky, let's give you a bath..."no bath".  Nicky, you need a haircut..."no haircut".  Nicky, let's brush your teeth.."no brush teeth"...or my favorite, Nicky, A, B,C,...."no mommy!"  Shall I go on?

He is also getting bossy these days.  Whenever we sit him down for dinner at the table, he will point and say "mommy, sit there.  daddy, sit there."  Or when we he has his cheerios and milk in the morning and sits on our bed, he'll say "daddy, sit there".  or if he is done holding his milk, he will tell us and point "milk there."  Mr. bossypants!!

Although he can be bossy, he is a really nice kid.  As an adult, we usually say bless you for the first one and assume that covers all future sneezes for the day.  I appreciate that Nicky hasn't figured that out yet and is kind enough to say bless you every time he hears someone sneeze (which I love, considering during my allergy attacks I get 5 "bless yous" from him!).   He says "excuse me bebe" (excuse me Bentley) if he is trying to get past Bentley when he lays there like a log.  He always ends a question with please when he wants something (especially when he asks for his milk).  And Nicky is the king of thank yous. He will thank you for everything and anything, even if it is him being released from a time out!

I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.  I am looking forward to my baby learning more and more everyday!  And hopefully it will be his ABCs, 123s, and less asking to look at monster poops.

My little man.

Nick and Sam

So Sam has been in our lives now for 2 months and Nicky is getting used to having a little sister and being mommy's helper.  Every morning he comes in saying "hi baby!" when she is sound asleep.  That's always fun for me, ha!  During the day Nicky normally does his own thing but still has a little jealousy when it's time to feed Sammi (he'll say "my turn!"), or if he sees one of us holding her, in which he'll say "mommy/daddy hold you...-which means "hold me").  I'm starting to master the art of having Nicky on one hip and cradling Sammi in the opposite arm, or carrying the car seat - which tends to happen when I pick Nicky up from school - refuses to walk out of daycare so I have to carry them both!

In the evening, Dan helps Nicky get ready for bed, brush his teeth, while I am winding down with Sammi getting her ready for bed (we've been able to get them to go to bed at the same time, which is fabulous!).  I always hear Nick in the hallway saying "where mommy go?  where sammi go?", so he will come in and give both me and Sammi kisses before he goes to bed.  It's the sweetest thing.

Me and my babies.

And Daddy and his babies!

Nick helping Mommy put Sammi to bed

Samantha is 2 months old!

Well another month has flown by.  Sam turned 2 months old yesterday, and here are a few milestones:

• She's a rock star at tummy time
• Able to sleep at 5 hour stretches during the night (good for mommy and daddy!)
• Starting to smile
• Took the GRE (but scored very poorly)

She got some shots today, and I probably shouldn't have taken her to music class afterwards because she was not having it!  Otherwise, she really does love music class. And when I say she loves it, I mean she doesn't cry (unlike her big brother!)

Looking at the colorful parachute above their heads

The Herrons and Grandma came to visit us this weekend, taking Charlie (their RV - using our boy name  would we have had one) on their maiden voyage.  Nicky loves seeing and playing with his cousins. And he FINALLY said Grandma!!  It only took a year.

Sam and Grandma

Sam's godparents:  Aunt Sandy and Uncle Steve

Sam and Maya

Nicky's new thing - watching YouTube videos of garbage trucks.  I'm not kidding.

Sam and Sarah

 

I need my space!!

Tess and Uncle Dan

Christmas 2011

We hosted Christmas at our house this year.  Lolo and Lola came all the way from Austin to spend two weeks with Nicky and Sam!  It was a lot of fun having my parents here, and especially because I didn't have to cook for 2 weeks!  Nicky easily warms up to my parents even though he doesn't see them as often.  Nicky spent a lot of time playing with Lolo, and accompanied him on his trip to the PGA Golf store, something that Lolo likes to do every time he visits Arizona.  We'd love to enroll Nicky in golf lessons when he turns 3!  It just means a better chance for him to get a scholarship to Stanford (oh, that's where we've decided he is going to college...Harvard of the west!)

My brother-in-law Venu (Uncle Vinny) dressed up as Santa this year - on Christmas morning, we were all downstairs and in walks Santa..surprisingly Santa carries a cell phone and called Mrs. Claus to see if it was good to walk in now, considering he was freezing outside!   Nicky's reaction wasn't what I had hoped for - he freaked out!!  He has been talking about Santa, and when he finally walks in the door, nothing.  He wouldn't even sit in Santa's lap for a picture!  Hopefully next year Nicky will have a different reaction!

At least Sam didn't cry in this picture!

Nicky did enjoy opening gifts - I think I went a little overboard because there are still some gifts that he unwrapped, but wasn't interested in taking them out of their boxes.  Guess this means these gifts will make a second appearance at his birthday in March!

Nicky spent a lot of time watching Lola cook - she made Dan's favorite, lumpia:

Nicky and Lolo hanging out at the Commissary while Lola does all the food shopping :

Nicky is mesmerized by the flying Santa in the freezer section

His favorite gift was his his bicycle:

Samantha is one month old!

Can't believe Sammi is already one month old!  We are getting used to having a newborn again, and it becomes challenging with a 21 month old also needing your attention!  Sam's one month checkup went really well, and so far the only major thing she has to deal with is gas and a little bit of acid reflux.  When I tell people about it, the response  I get is "um...that's normal".  Nicky didn't have those issues when he was a baby so he is my benchmark (which could be a bad thing!).  We also have to cradle her till she is almost asleep before we put her down (she has been in her crib since she was 4 days old), slowly but surely she is starting to fall asleep on her own.  I read Nicky's baby book and noticed that he started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks.  A couple of nights this week she was able to sleep for 6 hours at night, so hopefully it becomes a pattern!    Overall, Sam is a good baby!  

One month growth picture

Sammi rolling her eyes at her brother's cheesy smile, ha.

We are working on tummy time, and unlike her big brother, she loves it!  She has been holding her head up really well since she was about 10 days old.  She is becoming more alert and we are anxious to see her smile!  It is really fun having a little girl...I messed up washing some of her whites with her reds and now she has a ton of pink clothes.  So I guess it all doesn't go to waste, HA!