What a crack up!!

Last night Alyssa said to me “Mom I was learning to skate the other day like Chaz Michael Michael!” That cracked me up!! I never knew Alyssa had seen the movie Blades of Glory. Brian and I have it on TIVO but I never thought she paid attention to the movie while she was playing with her toys in the room. I guess we have to be more careful about what we watch around her.
Gabby is becoming more of a chatterbox. Here are the new words she has said in the past week:

Ball
Erika
Dora
Walk
Num Nums
Kitty
Meow
Baby - Nigh Nigh... she sings this before bed
Peeety baby - Pretty Baby
OW!! - When I brush her hair... she got that one from Alyssa!!
She is also pretend playing - she will tell us BYEEEE and give us kisses like she is leaving.

Walking Weekend!!

First and foremost the most important thing that happened this weekend is... Gabby is walking more!! Here is a glimpse of video that I took of her walking. She is very cautious while walking but she is finally doing it more and taking more than four steps at a time! I am so happy because if she didn't start walking by her 18 month appointment (May 16th) her pediatrician wanted her to start going to physical therapy!



Okay so on to our weekend. Friday I watched Jade. Corina and Kaile came over at around 11 and they stayed until 1. Kaile was pulling some WWE wrestling moves on Gabby while they were playing. I guess that is her way of saying HEY YOU PLAY WITH ME! Brian got home at around 4 and he took the girls outside to play. While they were playing Alyssa saw the neighbor who is 6 watching her. So they started playing. Then I saw Alyssa and the girl go into her house. Brian was outside with the girls mom. I was like OMG does she have a neighbor friend??? The Mom was laughing at me because seriously I was teary eyed. Alyssa has played with this girl before and she came to her party because the party was happening right in front of her house... but this is the first time they played together by themselves. So we invited the girl over for dinner and she stayed and we watched the Bee Movie together... and yes I was cheesy enough to take a picture of the girls when they weren't looking. This is the first time Alyssa has had a neighbor friend over!

Gabby giving Kaile her drink Friday... later Kaile put the smack down on her:


Saturday we went to Mariya's 10th birthday party at an ice skating rink. I went out with Alyssa while Brian looked on. We went out on the ice with Stacy and Amber. It was not easy teaching Alyssa how to skate. I don't even think that she wanted to learn. She just tried to beat Stacy and Amber by getting back to the entrance of the rink first. She is so crazy!! She would just move her feet all crazy and try to go fast. I thought I remembered how to skate but it was not easy. Finally after 30 minutes and three times around the rink Alyssa was done. I wanted to try and skate a little more so I took Amber out! That girl will be the next ice princess!! She was pretty good we almost fell a few times but we did pretty good. My ankle was killing me after that so we stopped. I asked Alyssa if she liked skating and she said "NO!" So I doubt we will be doing that any time soon again!!

Mariya the big 10 year old!!! I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. Where has 10 years gone???


Me and Stacy trying to skate with Amber... Sorry for the poor quality. Brian should not be a photographer!


Me and Alyssa trying to skate... Alyssa not listening to a word I am saying!!

Gabby chillin' at the ice rink. OJ (my godson) hooked her up with an Ipod and she was texting with Daddy's phone. She is so tech savy ;o)

Sunday we had church and afterwards Brian and I went out to Outback with Pastor who is also Brian's boss while Gabby and Alyssa went swimming at Papa and Grandma Tammi's house. We got back from dinner and Auntie Lety was there swimming with Gabby. I so wish I had a camera because Gabby LOVED the water and she looked SO cute in her bathing suit!! Next time I will take pictures. Next weekend we don't have plans but that always changes. We are thinking about going to the zoo... we will see. I am burnt out!
Oh I also wanted to share this picture of Gabby just because it's so funny. I love her hair do and she is trying to paint her toe nails with crayons!! She is so fascinated with painted nails. If I have my toe nails painted she always has to touch them!

Gabby loves to slide!

Gabby loves the slide out back. She likes to slide ALL BY HERSELF!

Bittersweet

On Wednesday I registered Alyssa for Kindergarten. Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday I was taking care of this newborn that would not sleep and now my baby is going to go to school in August. I just want my baby to stay my baby forever! I want her to always want to snuggle with me and give me kisses. I don't want her to drive or go to dances. Why do they have to grow up???

Spring Cleaning Weekend

Friday started off with a text from America saying that she had to work all day so Jade spent the day with her Dad. So I went to the dentist to get Alyssa's Kindergarten paperwork filled out in the morning. Then Brian said he was getting off at around two so I said let's go to the mall because Alyssa put a hole in her jeans and she has no jeans to wear next week. So off we went (to the good mall Stoneridge!!) Alyssa does NOT care about clothes whatsoever she was more interested in fighting with Gabby on who got to sit in the stroller. All she wanted was flip flops... which of course I couldn't find in her size. She has small feet like me. So she got some jeans and shirts. I am pretty sure she will just need shoes for school because that girl is set!! I also bought a few things for myself since Express had a coupon out.
After shopping we ate at Val's Burger in Hayward for dinner. I swear those are the best burgers EVER!! The shakes are good too. There were some Hayward police officers eating there and I said Alyssa why don't you go say hi since you always ask about the police. She is fascinated because she sees their guns and their cop cars. She said "No Mom they will arrest me!!" So they pass by us as they leave and I am trying to get her to say hi... so finally she does and the cops give her and Gabby hi five. So we leave after them and they are in the parking lot and the cop says "Come here little girl so I can put handcuffs on you and arrest you!" She starts laughing and they give her and Gabby Hayward PD stickers. Oh she loved that.
Saturday I woke up and I had a cup of coffee and cleaned like a crazy woman. Coffee is like crack to me... I don't drink it that often but when I do... Watch out!! I am like a crack head cleaning!! I started at 10 and didnt stop until 10 pm. I wanted to get stuff together because the people that collect donations were coming on Monday. I ended up with four trash bags full of stuff that I gave to them. Which is nice because you don't realize how much junk you have. I also organized Gabby's room because even though she has been in that room for a year we still stick our crap in there. So that took awhile. Plus I got out Gabby's old clothes that would fit her and then bagged up her stuff to give away to my friend Ana and Corina. I put Brian to work too... he put together Gabby's toy organizer and cleaned out the storage closet and washed both cars inside and out. Then he went to his Dad's to play poker and didnt come home until 2 am... did I care?? NO... because he came home with 180 dollars that he won!! WOOT WOOT!!
Here is a pic with Gabby and her new toy organizer. She finally can get to all of her toys! We still have a LOT of work to do in her room but this was a good start.

Sunday Brian's brother Daniel came down from Redding to visit. We probably won't be seeing him for awhile after this visit... So right after church we went to Aaron and Abi's house for dinner. I made Apple Dumplings and they were BOMB. I will post the recipe in my recipe blog. Gabby had fun with their dog Sammy... I KNOW I am going to have to get a dog... maybe when the kids are older but Gabby's obsession right now is doggies. She says Doggie WOOF WOOF. Here are some pics from today:

Brian bought the kids ice cream from the ice cream truck and he was going to share his ice cream cookie sandwich with Gabby until she took things into her own hands.... I don't think she knows how to share yet ;o

Brian (starting on the left) with his brother Aaron, his Dad and his brother Daniel.

Gabby and the doggie Sammy:

I just made a new blog!!

Check it out... http://twotiarasrecipebook.blogspot.com/
While I was looking for my meatloaf recipe to make for dinner tonight I had an idea to blog all of our family's favorite recipes along with pictures. If you see my blog roll I love to read about recipes and cooking. It's nothing fancy but I am hoping to print these out and make a recipe book out of it since I have no recipe book at the moment and all of my recipes are scattered everywhere in a red folder. It's pathetic actually and I am really hoping to get it all organized. All of these recipes are tried and true you will not see anything that my family hates to eat on there. Feel free to steal recipes and if you have any good recipes let me know!

Ever just have one of those days??

Well I am having one of those nights and I have only been home for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Gabby first off would not let me cook. She just held my legs wiggled around and cried for my attention the whole time I was trying to cook.


So I gave her some of her favorite cheese crackers to hold her off for awhile. Silly Mommy didn't realize that she would dump the crumbs ALL over the couch.


So I give her a bath... then she poops in it... I will spare you the picture of me gagging and picking poop out of the bath. I think it's time for bed for everyone! Brian has been working double shifts for the past month and it's killing me!! I have to give it up to the single Mom's out there... It's hard doing it all by yourself!

Alyssa’s New Obsessions

The first one is actually pretty funny. Alyssa and I EVERY Monday without fail watch the new episode of Jon & Kate plus 8. So lately she has been patting my stomach and telling me that there is a baby in my tummy. I said Oh no there isn’t!! She says well can there be a baby in your tummy?? How about EIGHT babies in your tummy? She told me she wanted to have eight brothers and sisters just like Jon & Kate plus 8. I told her that will never ever happen…. Sorry. But still she asks every Monday if she can have eight brothers and sisters!
Alyssa’s second obsession is with homeless people. Months ago the girls and I had finished shopping at Costco and I was loading the kids and the stuff in the car. This guy approaches me and asks if he can help with my groceries. I say no I pretty much have a handle on it and I knew he wanted money for it which I didn’t have. So he asks the question if I have any money because he is hungry. I say no but I do have leftover pizza that the kids didn’t finish that we ate at the food court. I figured he wouldn’t be so picky if he was THAT hungry. So he is like okay that’s great! So he thanks me and goes on his way. Alyssa was like Mom why did you give him my pizza??? I said because some people don’t have homes and they need food to eat and we are going to go to a home that has food in it. That man doesn’t have a home with food in it. So she says Oh and tells Brian about the guy that has no home and how I gave away the pizza.
Two weeks ago the girls and I were at Food Maxx and I was unloading the groceries into the car again and this guy approaches me for money. I say I don’t have any and this guy wasn’t so nice and walks away in a huff. So Alyssa ALWAYS mentions this guy. Ever other day she says “Mom remember the guy that had no home asked you for money and you said no and he got mad” or “Remember when you gave the man with no home our pizza?” Then sometimes she tells me “Mom we have a home and some people don’t” It’s weird what sticks in their little brain but I am glad that she knows that she has it good because she has a roof over her head and food in the cabinets.

First Sentence....

Gabby is becoming more of a chatter box lately. Grandma Marge this weekend caught on some words that she was saying that I haven't caught onto yet... so Miss Thangs first sentence on Saturday was.....

******drum roll please******

NO GO AWAY!!!


Yes you heard it right... her first sentence was telling her sister to get the heck away from her. Oh boy!

12 pound baby... at birth.

Ever hear of someone having a BIG baby? My friend Jessica had her daughter Skylar in 1999 who was 10lbs 11oz at birth. I NEVER EVER EVER thought someone I knew would top that. Well my friend and Alyssa's godmother Dolores did on March 30th, 2008. Baby Josiah was 12lbs EXACTLY at birth. Crazy huh!?!?! Here is Alyssa and the little football player aka her new god brother:

Alyssa and Josiah's brother Abel. Her other god brother... or they call each other Jesus brother and sister. It's funny....

This is what it looks like when you are pregnant with a 12lb baby a month before you have him!!

Hot weekend!!

This weekend was a hot one!! We had fun though despite the heat. Friday I watched Jade and after that I dropped Jade off at America's work so I could take Alyssa to the doctors at 2:15 for her 5 year check up for kindergarten. This was one of the worse appointments EVER!!! The doctor says she is doing well and her stats are 42 lbs (50th percentile) and 44 1/2 inches (75 percentile). Alyssa LOVES her doctor so she did good while she was examining her and the doctor gave her two stickers. Then I tell her it's time for shots. She had to get three shots, draw blood AND get a TB test. So we go to the lab and she gets her blood drawn... she does good until she looks at the needle and starts screaming her head off. Then we have to go BACK to the waiting room to wait for her to get her shots. By this time she was like I don't want to go back. I promise her a trip to Target to get a Miley Cyrus doll and a Jamba Juice if she is good. Then the lab tech calls for this little boy and he starts running away and screaming I DONT WANT SHOTS!! Alyssa gets even more scared because there are three people holding this little boy and dragging him into the lab. So then she gets called and was freaking out. She gets the three shots and the TB test which was the worst!! She starts crying really hard which is not like Alyssa she usually could take shots like a champ if I promise her McDonalds. Luckily after this appointment we had a good weekend.
Grandma Marge came down on Friday afternoon from the North Bay and was at our house by the time we came home from Jamba Juice and Target. She made a really good Barefoot Contessa Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken on Friday night which was really yummy. After that we played the Wii... I took pictures with my Mom's camera and forgot to download them. It was pretty funny watching Grandma Marge trying to dance along to Hannah Montana!!
Saturday we woke up to the heat. Zenaida asked if I could watch Erika while Melinda played baseball because there would be no one to watch her since my Dad coaches and Zenaida had snack bar duty. So I said yes. Erika and Melinda played while Grandma Marge had some bonding time with Gabby:
Then Brian came home. He had to take our nephew Coleson to his baseball game since my brother and sister in law both had to work. Coleson had a great game and got a RBI. I was making a sheet cake (click for recipe) and Coleson asked what I making the cake for and I told Coleson that it was because he got an RBI at his game ;o) He beamed with pride. It was really cute. The cake was soooo good and hit the chocolate spot I was craving. The kids ate cake while my Mom read them Amelia Bedelia (she bought the book for Alyssa) then Brian took the kids outside to play since it was so nice out.


Daddy bonding with his girls:


Gabby drinking and driving!!

Later that night my Mom and I went out shopping at Target for some bonding time away from kids and to just into an air conditioned store. Her car read 88 degrees at 5pm. Unusual spring weather!! We went there because my Mom needed shorts badly. I batted my eyes at her and she bought Alyssa a cute summer outfit. Thanks Mom!! I also bought some shirts for myself. Target has some cute clothes and the shirts were 7 bucks!! So all in all it was a good relaxing hot weekend!!
I may not be blogging as much because we are getting a NEW COMPUTER!!! WOO WOO!! Finally!! My computer is older than Alyssa. Dell had a great deal that I could not pass up on. I love to blog with pictures so I will be more motivated to post. I am pretty much at my limit with memory with this computer I can't even download video anymore. This week has also just been a busy one. Hopefully I can update more often after we get the new computer sometime next week.

Bottle Detox Day 3

Have you ever seen the movie Train Spotting where the main character is coming off of heroin? This is my daughter coming off the bottle. She is actually throwing herself into convulsions crying and screaming for her BABA. Of course this is just her way of throwing a fit because she just wants what she can’t have.
All in all it’s going well… Night one I found out that Gabby was being quiet because Brian being the enabler that he is gave her a sippy cup. Which isn’t going to work because then all she will want is the sippy. So I had to break that habit and at nap time the next day she was MAD and screamed her head off for around 10 minutes when she didn’t get anything to drink. I went to check in on her an hour and a half later and listened at the door to her crying her mad cry again like she was ticked… then the crying stopped and she said BABA? I had to laugh!!! Then at nighttime I put her down to sleep and said okay good night and waited at the door to see how long she would scream but I heard….. NOTHING… then two minutes later I heard her say something like she was yelling at us and that was it! So I went in to check on her and I saw that she took of her socks and threw them onto the floor. I guess it was her way of rebelling against us as if to say “If you aren’t giving me my baba I am taking my socks off… SO THERE!”
Today at Zenaida’s house Gabby thought she was going to get her way and Zenaida laid her down and she gave her this look like “Okay I will take my Baba now” and when my step mom left the room she was mad and cried for awhile.
Slowly but surely we are detoxing… I say in another week we will forget ALL about this baba business. If not then I am going to have to send Gabby to rehab!

Cold Turkey

This is it... this is the end of the BaBa era for Gabby. She has been way to attached to her bottles and I had to end it today. She is a total crab unless she has a bottle. Brian and I both admittedly support her habit. I had to stage an intervention today and threw away all of the nipples so Brian and I could not give into her bottle habit anymore. Gabby isn't taking it to well.... Brian came home and she started crying so he picked her up and she said "BABA??" As to say "Daddy, Mommy has been holding out on me ALL DAY LONG GIVE ME MY DANG BABA!!!" So he gives her a sippy and she starts crying but drinks it anyways. So when it's time for bed she says again "BABA???" He says no and she has a cow. She did pretty good falling asleep tonight without her bottle but I think that it's going to be a hard road ahead. I know this is good because her whole personality is formed around if she has her bottle or not. If she has her bottle she is happy... if she doesn't have her bottle she is the most whiny crying baby. So I am hoping this will make her a little happier and she will know that life is not all about the BABA. I know for a few days she will have withdrawals but she will get over it.

What a week!!

And the week isn't even over yet!!! Well it all started on Friday when Gabby was super cranky and had a fever. She would not even let me put her down and would cry a lot. So she was sick until Sunday. Then I started feeling sick Saturday with a sore throat... then all of a sudden I started getting indigestion really bad! The reunion that I was supposed to go to on Saturday was luckily cancelled due to the weather being crappy and sick kids. My "indigestion"got so bad that on Sunday night my step mom took the kids to her house to spend the night just in case I had to go to emergency. I was doubled over in pain for 2 days!! I went to the doctor Monday and she told me it could either be really bad indegestion or an ulcer. (GREAT!!!) So I have to go back in two weeks to find out what it was. So to top it all off I had heartburn last night and my throat felt like it was on fire. I am so over being sick!!!!