Preschool "Graduates"

I have always laughed at the term preschool graduates because there really is no such thing in my book.  One either graduates from high school or from college.  End of story.  However, now that I finally have a child old enough to participate in such end-of-the-school-year festivities, it's sure fun to pretend that such a thing really exists.  Although our little co-op shrunk half way through the year, the remaining moms and kiddos hung in there and made it til the end of May.  We covered the alphabet from A to Z and counted to the number 20!  Our children had endless fun coloring, cutting, gluing, painting, and crafting and creating to their little hearts content.  It was a good year, but I am ready for a break.  No more ballet, no more swim lessons, no more preschool.  It's time for summer.  Can anyone say Disneyland?! :-) 

Lia with her buddies, Kaylee and Lilly, with their preschool certificates and balloons!

Meeting Logan

Two of my good friends flew into Seattle this week to visit their families and, as a result, I was able to see both of them for a quick visit and introduce them to baby Logan.  It is always a joy to see Kristina and Sarah and I am so grateful that they still have parents in the area to bring them "home" once in awhile!

Kristina flew in from Colorado with her hubby and managed to slip away for a few hours on Sunday to see my parents, Logan, and me at my parents' house in Issy.

Sarah is in town from glamorous New York City and drove down to my home today for lunch with my children and me. 

Love you girls!  So good to see both of you!

My Little Man

As I put Logan down the other day on the couch, it really just struck me how he's looking like such a boy these days.  Even if I put him in a pink, frilly dress with a bow on top, I don't think that he could be mistaken much for a girl anymore.  My little man in the making...

Just Monkeying Around

Last night when I came upstairs, I found Logan in his crib hugging his stuffed monkey (placed there by Ron) for the first time.  Since he was wearing his monkey shirt, I just thought it was the cutest thing.  All my little monkeys monkeying around in Logie's bed.

Lia's 4 and 1/4 Years Report!

Lia has made it through the first quarter of her fourth year of life.  Goodness.  The time just keeps on flying by.  I took this picture of her today on our front step and I can't get over how grown up she looks in it...like I could ship her off to kindergarten tomorrow and no one would even bat an eye if they saw her walking down the halls of her future school!  I must say that it's been an interesting three months as Lia "adjusted" to be an older sister and not an only child.  We sure have had some ups and downs with this transition, but hopefully we have made it through the worst of it.  So here is an update of what's been going on in the life of Lia these past three months.

1.  As a I just mentioned, there were some rough times with Lia since Logan arrived into our family.  Normally an extremely well behaved, obedient, and kind child, Lia's behavior took a turn for the worst when Logan was around six weeks old.  She started throwing massive tantrums, disobeying us, and physically being very rough with her brother.  This overall behavior continued for about six weeks and luckily started to subside around Logan's three month mark.  I know that this was all a reaction to the monumental change in her life, but I am grateful that it seems like I have my "old girl" back.

2. With the arrival of Logan, Lia finally seemed to find her independence in our home.  She has always been my shadow and preferred to be in the same room as me (and her father when he was home).  However, after Logan's birth, she discovered her bedroom for the first time and now happily spends a lot of time playing alone up there.  I consider this a good change.

3.  One of Lia's favorite activities while in her bedroom is to crawl into her bed with her trusty blanket and "play games."  This usually consists of pretending that she is someone else and having conversations while being this pretend person.  She goes on all sorts of adventures and does all sorts of things (in her mind) while assuming this other identity.  Such a silly girl.

4.  Lia has gotten extremely particular about what clothes she will agree to wear and most of this is based on the texture of the clothing.  She only likes soft clothing now.  So she can either be found wearing her pajamas all day long or cotton pants and leggings with simple cotton shirts.  Basically half of her wardrobe never gets touched any more.  Yes, this is frustrating to me, but a battle that I have learned not to fight.

5.  Lia has become an expert at coloring in the lines of any picture that she is working on.  She picked this up from her older cousins during a trip to Montana in March and has not looked back since.  I love that she no longer just scribbles all over a picture in a matter of seconds.  Instead she will spend many, many minutes carefully coloring every detail of the picture with exactness.

6.  She has also gotten really good at writing letters (and not just the ones in her name) and constantly can be found writing them on pieces of paper or drawing them in the air with her fingers.

7.  Overall Lia has also gotten a lot sillier and enjoys making funny faces or noises or moves with her body.  She loves to giggle with her friends and make them laugh.

8.  Lia is a jumping and leaping maniac and is constantly using the couches in our family room as the platform for all of her aeriel tricks!  She especially enjoys doing this while watching any of her movies as she now will always choose a character to copy (from Simba to Wendy to Snow White) and will mimic their every move and quote every one of their lines throughout the entire movie.  At least she is getting some exercise while watching television.

9.  Although Lia has been a huge fan of the Disney princesses for two years now, she is currently in love with Ariel.  She thinks that she is the little mermaid and that Ron is Prince Eric.  She insists that I call her Ariel on a regular basis and loves to point out "her face" on cups, books, stickers, clothing, etc.  She knows she is kidding, but sure likes to play this game with me.

10.  Lia has wrapped up her first session of swim lessons and second session of ballet lessons and finishes up her year of preschool next week.  We are taking a break from all of this over the summer and will start back up with everything in the fall (swapping out the ballet for gymnastics).  With the exception of having to wear tights for ballet, Lia has seemed to really enjoy all of these "extracurricular" activities and is excited for them to resume in the fall. 

And there you go...

A Baby and His Bassinet

Since Logan has slept through the night consistently for the past three weeks, the time has come to move him from his bassinet next to my side of the bed to his nursery down the hallway.  Sniff.  I never thought it would be, but this "step" in my children's lives is actually a bit emotional for me.  Silly, I know, but it's the truth.  Due to the fact that the bassinet is going to be taken apart and packed up soon, I thought that I should get a few pictures of my baby boy in it since it's a sentimental piece of furniture in my family.  This bassinet is actually 73 years old and was first purchased by my grandparents in New York City when my dad came into the world.  Since then, it has been the first bed for many babies in my family from my aunt and uncle to one of my cousins to my brothers and me to some of my nieces and nephews and now to my own children.  I love that Lia and Logan slept their first few months of their lives in their grandpa's bassinet.  It's just a special thing to me that the legacy and love in this bassinet goes back three generations.

Lia and Her Letters

This year in Lia's preschool co-op, we have been focusing on a letter and a number every week and last week we finished up the alphabet!  Since there are a few weeks left in the school year, we decided to just start back over again with the letter A.  A little repetition never hurt a few four-year olds, right?  Anyways, one of the activities I had the children do today while they were at our house was to go out onto the driveway and color in a giant A that I had drawn for each of them.  Of course, Lia was all over this and even insisted on finishing up the other girls' letters once they had gone home.  However, this was not good enough for my aspiring artist as she still wanted more. So after lunch and putting Logan down for his afternoon nap, we headed back outside and that is how a giant pair of Bs, Cs, Ds, Es, Fs, and Gs ended up on our driveway today. 
 

Lia coloring in the blue, "water" background on her fish-themed E.

Lia and her masterpiece!

The Only Thing She Can Do...

Today I took the kiddos to the grocery store to pick up a few items.  While I was trying to choose a bookshelf for Logan's room in the home decor section, Lia patiently waited for me and began rolling the grocery cart back and forth...and promptly rolled it right over her big toe!  Owweee!  As one can imagine, there were some tears while we tried to work through the pain.  However, the pain never fully left her foot while we were in the store, or in the car, or back at home.  It got "so bad" after we arrived at our house that Lia made her way to the couch and collapsed announcing that it was never going to get better!  After I told her that it would get better, she quickly disagreed with me and informed me that she could no longer walk.  This went back and forth for a minute or two until Lia finally announced, "The only thing that I can do is make a zigzag on my nose!"
Really?
Well, thank heavens for that!

Lia's Spring Ballet Recital

Tonight we wrapped up Lia's spring session of ballet classes with another recital.  As always, it was an adorable affair with little girls running around in tutus not knowing which way to twirl or which direction to prance.  Although it's been a good run for Lia these past five months, I think we will be hanging up the ballet slippers for awhile to pursue gymnastics for two main reasons.  Since starting ballet lessons, Lia has become a leaping and jumping maniac AND she has developed an absolute abhorrence towards tights.   I think that gymnastics will be the perfect fit for her.  We shall see come this fall.  Until then, enjoy some precious pictures of these little ballerinas...

Lia and her fellow dancers lining up before starting their dance.

The class beginning with a basic plie.

The girls moving into position.

Pointing their toes!

Picking up their scarves.

Parading their scarves around the room!

Twirling in place (Lia's a little behind on this one).

And finishing up their dance.

My sweet Lia Ballerina watching the older girls perform from the sidelines.

A final, group picture at the end of the recital. 

A Week of Celebrating!

Yesterday wrapped up a week of celebrating both my birthday and Mother's Day.  I enjoyed some wonderful time with my family and felt spoiled more than once.  Thank you everyone for making "my days" special. 

Since beautiful weather was predicted for the day before my birthday, my mom suggested that she pack a lunch and come down to my neck of the woods to go on a picnic with my kiddos and me.  We took her to a park that Ron and I recently discovered in Tacoma that overlooks Puget Sound.  It was so much fun to share the day with her!

My mom even packed a little dessert complete with a candle.  Here is Lia helping me blow it out!

Lia enjoyed exploring the new playground at the the park.

Lia and Logan with their beloved grandma.

A close-up of my darling boy snuggling into grandma's shoulder. 

Since Lia had her weekly ballet lesson on my birthday, Ron suggested that we hit our favorite Greek restaurant afterwards.  As always, it was delicious and just a treat not having to wash dishes!

My dear friend, Stephanie, made me an incredible strawberry and lemon shortcake for my birthday dessert.  Here is Lia getting ready to help me blow out my one and only candle!

On Saturday, Ron and I went on our first date post-Logan to celebrate my birthday again.  We got a babysitter for Lia and took our little boy with us. 

After Ron slipped away from the restaurant for a few minutes to take Logan for a little drive to help him fall asleep, our food was served! 

On Mother's Day morning, Lia and Ron surprised me with a card and gift!

After church, we drove up to my parents' house to celebrate Mother's Day.  We were blessed with 80 degree weather and had a fabulous time eating and playing outdoors.

In addition to celebrating Mother's Day together, we were able to meet the newest addition to our family--baby Trenton who was born three weeks ago.  I am so excited that Logan with have a boy cousin to grow up with in the year to come.  I couldn't get over the difference in size between these two cousins who are only 10 weeks apart!

After dinner, the kids enjoyed some time playing outdoors with my brothers.

Callie, Lia, and Vivi somehow ended up decorated stuffed animals with various leaves from my mom's flowerbeds.  Oh, the the activities the girls come up with!

We celebrated both Natalee's and my birthday while we were there.  I'm always looking for any excuse to eat a good dessert! 

We gathered for gift opening after dessert.  Here is my mom opening up one of her gifts.  I just love this lady!

Reading a card and laughing with my chubby boy's assistance.

Laughing with the family while opening a gift from my parents!

The Verdict is In!

Ron and I have been waiting with bated breath these past three months to see if Logan's eye color would end up being brown or blue.  I think it is now safe to say that he's got himself a pair of baby blues!  Here's to our second child with fair skin, dark hair, and blue eyes.  The perfect Filipino/German combination!

Backyard Picnic

While we were grocery shopping this morning, Lia came up with the brilliant idea of having a picnic.  Since the weather is absolutely stunning today, I suggested that we have one in our backyard after we got home.  As simple as this may seem, we have never done it before.  Why?  I have no idea.  So after getting home and unloading all the groceries, I whipped up a quick lunch and out we went into our backyard.  It felt sooo good to have the sun on our faces while we ate our peanut butter and jam sandwiches on the lawn.  We even play two rounds of "Pretty Pretty Princess" after finishing up our lunch while Logie faithfully bounced by our side.  Here's to many more backyard picnics this summer!

My kiddos basking in the sun and in the shade.

Since it was "sunny" out, Lia insisted on wearing her swimsuit and flip flops for the picnic.  After walking outside, she realized it was still a little too chilly for such summer wear and put her jacket on.  Here is my girl dressed for the summer/winter and striking quite a pose.  Can anyone say future swimsuit model?

Our ever faithful Logie bouncing away in the bouncy chair.  Love this kid.

3 Months Old Today!

Logan hit his three-month mark today!  He has really turned into such an easier and happy baby the last month.  Oh, how I love this age!  He coos and smiles all the time if we interact with him.  It is so adorable.  He is also sleeping like a champ!  To date, he has slept through the night nine of the past eleven nights.  I put him down around 10 pm and he will sleep until 7 or 8 am.  It is absolute heaven.  Logan still is a wonderful eater and is just putting on the weight like a champ.  People comment all the time on his chubby cheeks and chunky physique!  He is wearing entirely 3-6 months or 6 months clothing at this point.  In addition, Logan will usually relax for 10, 20, or even 30 minutes at time when he is in one of his "spots" (couch, bouncy chair, bed, or swing) without making a peep which allows me to get things done in peace.  He has also discovered his hand and loves to suck on it or chew on his thumb and he now kicks his legs and flaps his arms when he gets excited.  Three cheers for three months!  I love all of these cute changes and how much easier life has gotten!

There are some cute things in this world...

and this boy after his bath is definitely one of them!

Our Smiling Boy

For the past two to three weeks, Logan has really started to smile and "talk" to us when we interact with him.  It is just so fun to finally have a baby with a little personality instead of a blank face all of the time.  Here is a shot of a chubby smile he gave us this morning!