Same Room at the Condo

We let the girls put themselves/each other to bed tonight at the condo in the same room, then we listened on the monitor. 

Sabrina: "Kali, do you want a bite of my pillow? Do you want a bite of a light bulb? Do you want to eat my toe?"
Kali: "Night Night."
Sabrina: "Kali, do you want to eat yourself? I'll tell you how. You go shopping and then you cook you up."

we cracked up for ten minutes and then they miraculously fell asleep and slept all night.  Amazing.

Snuggly weekend with the fam

Tree is up! Christmas cookies were baked and quickly eaten. Great snuggly holiday weekend with the fam.

(uh oh honey, I think we made a tree hugger)

Shhh...don't jinx it

4:30 Sunday afternoon. Dinner is in the oven. Brent doing home improvement projects. Girls playing quietly by themselves. Don't blink! It could all come crumbling down.

Go Fairview Knights!

Thanks to Brent (for taking Kali home after she got sick on the way to the game...ugh), Sabrina and I were able to have so much fun at a Fairview HS football game at Recht Field. Talk about a blast from the past!! Followed by a bus trip home. That's a happy, worn out kiddo (and mama!)

Boulder Montessori School

Sabrina started Boulder Montessori School today!  After over 3 years at The Cottage School, we felt that it was time for Sabrina to try a new school.  The more we learned about Montessori, the more we liked it and felt it would be a good fit for Sabrina.  We liked the focus on individual learning, the multi-age classroom (2 1/2-6) and the idea that children are anxious to learn, they just need the tools to do so. Already today we could see her thriving in this classroom setting. She was very focused when learning a new "lesson" and listened to the teachers really well. Our only concern was her desire to try and do everything! Hopefully she will actually stay interested in the activities for a bit longer once she is more relaxed. There was just so much that was new and exciting; it was great to see her so curious.  We also like that she takes ownership of her own day much more at this school. She serves herself snack when she's ready, she cleans her dishes, she can go inside or outside during several open periods during the day, and the "work sessions", as they are called, are very self-governed - art, math, language, maps, books.

Also, Boulder Montessori School (BMS) has a toddler program where we hope we can send Kalira once she's over 18 months (and they have a spot for her, which they don't currently have).  Right now we will deal with separate schools for the girls but hopefully that won't be for long. And we still love The Cottage for Kali's age.

Here are some photos from her first day today.  She was such a big girl during the transition. We are so proud of her.

Jill & Bryan Beary's Wedding

Jill & Bryan got married in Boulder on July 28, 2013 at the Flagstaff Amphitheater.  Jill was in town for two weeks prior to the wedding and we got amazing quality time with her.  Sabrina even stopped asking where Bryan was every time she saw Jill, which she had been doing for several months prior to that.  I think they bonded over baking and berry picking.  When it came to the wedding, Sabrina was very dialed in.  More so than we even thought.  Sabrina was a flower girl just over a year ago in Cynthia and Jason's wedding.  We still read the Very Fairy Princess Flower Girl book (by Julie Andrews) from time to time that they gave her, but other than that, it really hasn't been mentioned much.  But WOW were we ever wrong to think that it didn't mean a lot to her.  She started talking about being the flower girl in Jill's wedding about 3 weeks prior to the wedding.  I had to teach her that you don't get to be the flower girl in every wedding, that's just a very special thing...and then I was proven wrong by her, as is becoming a habit!  She talked about it so much for about a week that I finally broke down and asked Jill if they already had a flower girl.  They didn't, so Sabrina was in if she wanted it.  She was thrilled and she jumped at the chance!  She started picking out her outfit weeks before the wedding, including new shoes and hair bows and her fancy gold dress.

The day of the wedding was rainy which added to the normal stress of getting two small girls ready for a wedding, and was further complicated by the very sudden and very shocking death of our wonderful family friend, Joan Owen, just the day before.  It was a day of very conflicting emotions.  Brent and I were scrambling around the house trying to feed everybody some lunch, do both girls' hair (me), paint Sabrina's nails (Brent!  Way to go, daddy of two girls), and get ourselves ready.  We made it downtown in time to catch the wedding party bus to Chatauqua and all was going very well with the photo session, the girls were being cooperative and adorable, and the weather was even clearing up!..but then I picked up Sabrina and felt some very cute, but VERY bare buns!  WHOOPS!  I looked at Brent, he looked at me...yep, I had gotten the girls dressed and completely forgotten underwear for Sabrina.  What to do?  Scrounge the diaper bag...nothing...then I remembered that our friends, Lee and Cara, were coming to the wedding and they should have some 3T underwear for Casey that Sabrina could borrow.  I caught them just before they were leaving the house and they showed up just in time to slip the underwear onto Sabrina before her big walk down the aisle.  Friends are so key when you have kids!  Sabrina did a great job at the wedding, except for one very cute diversion down row three where she started throwing petals, instead of on the aisle.  She had to be re-routed, but then did a wonderful job.  And by the time we were all walking down the aisle, the weather had cleared up completely and turned absolutely gorgeous.  We couldn't have gotten luckier.

The reception followed at The Rembrandt Yard in Boulder with a live band, great food, and wonderful dancing.  Poppy was a tremendous help with the girls and even took them home to put them to bed at our house, despite Nana's unfortunate absence (she flew to CA early Sunday morning to be with Larry).  They gave him a run for his money, but he hung in there (and very nicely lied to us so we got to stay out late and dance with friends, which was rare and fabulous).  The next morning came with some cute surprises, including Kali in the crib with no PJs (Poppy apologized profusely for that one) and a backwards diaper, but happy as can be.  Then Sabrina woke up with this line: "Mommy, when Poppy put me to bed last night, I was bursting with tears, but then I just went to bed, and he did the dishes."  Aww.  Thanks Poppy!

Here is a sampling of some of the professional photographs from the day.  We still have yet to organize ours, but these are definitely the highlights.

Jill's Wedding

Kalira is 1, Sabrina is 3 1/3

We had a wonderful birthday weekend for Kali with Nana, Poppy, Grandma Gail, Grandpa Rich, Aunt Nat, Uncle Kurt, Celia and Della.  We had brunch over at Nana & Poppy's house on a beautiful spring day.  I have to admit that, so far, the Spring birthday for Kali is a lot easier to plan than the Winter birthday for Sabrina!  Open door, nice weather = play!  The girls played in the wagon, the zipline, the water/sand table, and with the spray bottles all morning.  Kali loved her chocolate cupcake, and all of the big girls (S, C & D) were very sweet to "Baby Kali" and didn't steal her cupcake or presents (until later...Sabrina thinks some of her presents are great and Kali isn't aware enough to care...yet...).



April has been a very busy month for us with the trip to Cabo earlier, Gail and Rich's visit this weekend and a trip to Santa Fe this coming weekend, so sleep and eating have been in "survival" mode...I'll nurse her when she needs it, feed her whatever she'll eat, even if that means sticking with the food packets for awhile longer, despite the doctor's guidance that she should be eating mostly table food by now.  Unfortunately, that usually means Kali still wakes up 1x per night, but it could be worse because she eats quickly and goes right back to sleep.  She's a happy baby otherwise, as long as she gets what she wants.  She definitely knows how to push us with her constant walking, climbing (on top of EVERYTHING), and curiosity.  She gets frustrated when she doesn't have something to do, so that generally means that our travel mugs and tuperware get taken out of the cupboards about 15 times/day - it keeps her busy. She can DESTROY a room in no time these days, just checking everything out.  Toys, legos, crayons, napkins, the dishwasher, toys, toys, toys.  She'll make an absolute beeline for any open door or staircase and she will let you know that's she NOT ok with you blocking it off.  This is becoming more and more of an issue with our back deck!  She'll fling herself onto the ground, despondent, if you close the sliding glass door in front of her.  She'll run to the bottom of the stairs if she sees an opening (often I am not quick enough to grab the gate, stop her and click the gate in a short enough time and she'll sneak up a few steps...she's a quick little bugger!)  But as soon as you catch her eye, she always breaks into a huge smile.  If you catch her heading toward the stairs, she'll crack up and go faster.  She has a hilarious arm motion when you try to run after her (which completely slows her down...so it's even funnier to watch) with one arm high the other out to the side, in and out, in and out.  She's recently discovered the stairs at Nana and Poppy's house and she'll run across the living room (laughing, usually) until somebody discovers her and runs after her.
We've caught a few "mamamamama"s and "dadadadada"s but not very consistently.  She's certainly finding her lungs though.  She's got a pretty loud "GAA" and "DAAA" while pointing to things and she can shriek loudly when she wants some attention.
She thinks Pongo is funny and tries to play with him, although we have to watch carefully because she's not always very gentle.  He continues to be a great dog with the kids, albeit rambunctious, so I think they'll all get along better when the girls are older.  When they play around the house, he thinks it's the best thing ever, but he can quickly end the game by running and "playing" which usually means knocking them over or kissing them too excitedly.  It's pretty sad to watch, really!

Sabrina has matured so much recently.  She's sweet, but realistic about Kalira.  She finds her cute, but Kali is so mobile and so curious that she gets into ALL of Sabrina's toys and activities and it gets on her nerves, as it would with anybody.  She's not mean to her, but she's not blindly tolerant either.  Unfortunately, Kali also has a terrible habit of grabbing Sabrina's hair - it's as if she knows that Sabrina's LEAST favorite thing in the world is somebody touching her hair!  Already acting like sisters, I guess.
They've recently started sharing the "tower" in the kitchen and it's been good for them.  Sabrina can see that Kali eats some real food now and they each get a water cup and a plate of snacks, but it's also close quarters and leads to some squabbles.  It's interesting to see them starting to interact more and more like two girls instead of a girl and a baby.  It's been good, though, and I think the next phase, once Kali starts to understand and communicate more is going to be better than the past 6-8 months since Kali has been moving.  It's been tough, but I'm hoping that they are just getting some of the sibling frustration out early!
Sabrina is really absorbing letters and reading lately.  She certainly can't "read" but she can spell a host of words (Sabrina Day, Kalira Teal, Molly, Brent, Halsey, Nana, Poppy, dog, cat, Pongo, zoo...) and she regularly asks us how to spell certain words.  And we're pretty much done being able to spell anything in front of her because she immediately asks "Mommy, what did you just spell?"  Kind of defeats the purpose of spelling in the first place!  She's starting to write letters well also.  She made Poppy a great birthday card a few weeks ago and can write her name fairly well (despite a few backward "S"s now and then).
Another new development lately is that she's suddenly started coloring inside the lines.  I remember noticing a few months ago that she colors all over the page, regardless of what is on it.  Now, she'll pay special attention to the picture she's coloring, choose colors, and try to stay within the lines.
She pays very special attention to people's likes and dislikes these days.  She knows that Poppy doesn't like mustard, Nana likes tomatoes but doesn't like ketchup, I don't like spiders, Daddy likes everything spicy ("but just a little bit spicy"), and cow's milk tastes "a little bit funky" to her.  I told her once that Poppy doesn't like it when kids whine and complain and it made a huge impact on her.  For weeks after that, she would tell Poppy if she was a little bit grumpy before he saw her that day ("Poppy, I was a little bit grumpy earlier today.  You don't like it when kids are whiney, do you?") and she would try not to cry or complain in front of him.  Had I known she was going to listen to that so well, I would have made it universal and not just Poppy!  It's funny what sticks with her.  She'll often comment on something several days after we say it, especially when you think she isn't listening or paying attention because she won't comment at the time you say it, but a few days later, it'll pop out of her mouth at the strangest times.  It's always a good reminder to us that she hears everything and understands much more than I believe.

Walking girl

Kali started walking this week!  One day before her 10-month birthday (on 2/27/13) she walked across the room several times at Nana and Poppy's.  I put her on the floor to show Nana how she can take a few steps (she's been doing 2-3 steps recently) and instead of doing that, she just walked across the kitchen.  She did it so many times that we were able to get out the video camera and take several videos.  Honestly, she's been a stinker about it for the past two days so maybe Wednesday was a fluke, but they said she's been walking at school too so it's definitely beginning!  

She's still only barely sleeping through the night which has been rough.  We tried the "cry it out" method for about a day or two but we were so worried that she was going to wake up Sabrina, that we weren't very good at it.  We've found that if we supplement her with an extra bottle before bed, or if I feed her before I go to bed (a few hours after she's fallen asleep) that we have the best shot at her sleeping through until we're ready to get up.  Similar to Sabrina, Kali's been battling one cold/sniffle/cough after another for months.  Really, since she started daycare, if you think of it that way.  hmmm.  It's rough, but thankfully they've never been too bad so we just have to roll through them and hope that her second year will be healthier than her first, as Sabrina's was.  We're just glad that she's avoided the flu and ear infections, so far (knocking on wood).  

She's also been very cute playing peek-a-boo these days, which she'll play whenever you give her a cloth or napkin and ask her to play.  She definitely knows the words and plays often at the dinner table.