Season's Greetings!

Claudia and I worked on the gingerbread house this weekend. I tried a new way to decorate - instead of icing the roof I sprinkled powdered sugar on it. It worked well, and it simplified the process! Juliet wasn't around to help. Claudia is messy enough, I can't imagine what kind of mess Juliet would have made! In fact, after I took the picture, I turned my back and Juliet tried to pick off something from the roof. When I turned around she was smearing powdered sugar all over the table. I guess that's what happens when you put a toddler 6 inches away from a gingerbread house!!

To infinity and BEYOND!!

Toy Story has been ever present since Claudia started watching the movies about 6 months ago. She wanted to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween and thought Juliet would make a cute alien. I started working on the costumes about 6 weeks ago, but the bulk of the work was done in the last week. It didn't help that I was in Vegas for 5 days leading up to Halloween. I got help from Peter's mom on Claudia's hood and Juliet's hat. I think both costumes turned out pretty good.

Juliet wouldn't let us put on the hat before we went out. She's also supposed to have a purple collar that she kept tugging off. But as soon as we stepped outside and headed down the sidewalk, I slipped it on and she barely noticed. That was good since I think the hat makes the costume, and Peter's mom and I had spent a few hours trying to figure out the best way to make the hat, including the ears, and be something that she could wear without too many problems.

Trick or treating was really fun this year. Last year Juliet wasn't walking so this year it was fun to see her trailing behind Claudia, on a mission. She carried her own bag and even when it seemed like she was about to start dragging it, she wouldn't let anyone take it away from her! And while I forgot to teach her to say "The Claw", she was really good at saying "thank you".

With my trip to Vegas, I didn't get to do anything for Peter and me. I bought some material for us to go as Woody and Jesse, but didn't find extra time. We did go out with our cowboy hats though.

Space Ranger Buzz was very excited to go trick or treating!

The little Alien spent the entire time holding her bag on her shoulder, her arm way up in the air so it wouldn't fall off. Too funny!

Smoooooooooches!

This would have been funnier if it had been in video mode to watch these 2 sit down and hug and kiss each other while Peter was trying to get a photo. For some reason, Claudia is into the headlock hug. Juliet doesn't seem to mind too much.

Primer día entero de escuela

(First full day of school)

The first day of school was yesterday, but it was short (1.5 hours) and the parents attended. It was a little overwhelming with the rush of people on campus. Claudia got upset at one point, saying that she missed her friends. We knew that no one from her preschool would be in her class, though one of her friends is in another classroom. I think the swarm of people surprised her. Today, the first full day of school, was a lot better: she made some friends quickly and was quick to tell Peter goodbye. Tonight she talked about what a great day she had; that she had fun. She also sang and gestured a new song she learned. It's all in Spanish but I was able to decipher what she was singing and Peter verified. She wasn't nearly as exhausted as I expected her to be, but I'm sure that will come soon enough.

Juliet was wondering where her sister was when she and I got in the car this morning as well as when I picked her up. In the car she pointed at Claudia's carseat and threw her hands out saying her version of "where's sister". She did the same when I picked her up today, and was looking around the play yard for her. Too sweet. It's a big adjustment for all of us, but fun times lay ahead!

Summer fun!

We headed to the lake to spend a few days with my sister and her fam. Claudia had a chance to kneeboard. She had lots of fun. I kneeboarded as well. It's hard to sit that way for very long, but I had fun trying. I also gave water skiing a shot, though I couldn't even pull myself out of the water. Maybe next time. Peter hadn't skied for many years, but he got up on his second try. Not bad! He did slip on a banana a couple times though!

We left Juliet with my folks; I didn't think she would enjoy being in the water too much. Good thing. On the second day (the only full day we were there) Claudia was in the water from 10am to 5pm with just a few breaks for lunch and snacks. She enjoyed jumping off the dock and this picture is of Peter throwing her off the dock. That only happened once. She ended up landing on her face. :-/

This is the rare picture of the four of us, and definitely a rare picture of the two of them where Claudia's not making a goofy face!! We had brunch with all the Spains at Alvamar on Sunday and were able to have our own private room which proved to be a great thing. We closed off both doors and let the girls run around. Juliet tried to make a break for it every time the door opened. Whew! She keeps us on our toes!

Who left me to eat yogurt by myself?

This is what we get.... Usually we're there to supervise and make sure that what doesn't make it into her mouth gets wiped away or scooped back up. We were both busy doing stuff around the house. She showed us...

It's as if she's saying "I'm a mess! Hurray for me!"

I took Claudia to see Toy Story 3 on Friday. She liked it though some parts were pretty intense for her. She would ask me "what's going to happen next?" She'll like it better the next time she see's it since she knows what's coming. Later that night she watched Toy Story 2 with her Toy Story friends. I'm not sure I can explain the pirate hat though.

The flower girl

This summer, Claudia is a flower girl in her cousin Rachael's wedding. Rachael sent a dress and wanted pix to see how it looked on Miss Bean. Too cute, I have to say.

And not to be out done in the cuteness category, here's Juliet being a cheeze ball for the camera. Look at all those choppers!

Randoms

Some random pictures, I wanted to share...

A friend at work had a 3rd wheel and infant helmet, so we're all set for ridin' around town. Peter has both girls, while I bring up the rear. The girls love it. Peter says it's a pretty good workout for him. I'm just glad that we can all ride together. I can't wait for the day we can all hike a decent distance together!

Claudia was painting and Juliet came in and grabbed one of the paint brushes with paint on it. She and I wrestled; I won. I love this look on her face! It's sort of like "Really? Did you really just wrestle that out of my hand AND paint my nose in the process?"

Actually, maybe she won, since it looks like she still has it in her hand. But I got the last laugh! :-)

Claudia has been taking a dance class each week at preK. They had a performance last week to Rockin' Robin. I'll get it up here soon. It's too large a file, unless I go with youtube. It was pretty cute to watch. She is a prancer and dancer but sometimes if she realizes she's being watched she gets really shy - even with us, at home. But she did great. All the girls were really cute.

'Cuz if you can't squeeze the stuffin' out of your sister, who can you squeeze the stuffin' out of?

Here's Claudia improvising her scuba gear. She typically has a bendy straw that she slips thru one side of her goggles. This time, as we were getting ready for a hike, she used her camelback. What a nut!

And finally, I snapped a few pictures of Juliet the other morning. Even though she has her eyes closed, she's got the scrunched nose. She still scrunches her nose!

Silent movie

I tried to video Juliet saying "agua" but I've now learned that if my memory stick is nearly full, it just doesn't record the audio. I'll try to capture it again. Anyway, it was really funny at the time, but without any sound it's still pretty funny. I stopped recording a little too soon; Juliet continued to try to pinch Claudia's nose while Claudia cracked up and tried to defend herself.


That is a big scrape on Juliet's head. She's still a little top heavy and she tripped outside at school.

Tight squeeze!

Claudia loves to tackle or wrestle or pick up Juliet. Luckily Juliet seems to like it most of the time. We still call Julilet "Trouble", and she is still pretty rotten about getting into things or doing things we don't want her to do. Tonight, I got her out of the tub and walked back toward their room, but she didn't follow me. After getting out pjs I headed back that way and heard her as she started whining. She was naked and had crawled up onto her activity table. It doesn't have a flat surface so I'm sure it was not comfortable for her. She was on all fours, and couldn't figure out how to get down. Poor thing! I would have taken her picture if not for the naked part. I did wait long enough to get Peter so he could see where she was. TROUBLE!

I want candy!

For Claudia's 5th birthday, we threw her a big party with 19 of her closest friends. Last summer at my parents' house she saw a picture in a magazine of a Candyland cake. She asked if I could make that for her, so the theme was set. I had 9 months to think about it and spent about 4 weeks seriously planning and shopping for it. Gina flew in a few days before the party and stayed a week. She helped a lot with the planning and decorating. We put together a candy-related playlist that was pretty fun - Good ship lollipop, I want candy, Brown Sugar, Sugar, Sugar, the Candyman, Sugartown were some of the songs.

Here's the cake. I had Safeway bake it, ice it and airbrush the green. Gina, Claudia and I decorated it. It was pretty fun, probably took us an hour and half from start to finish, which also included me working on my letter piping skills. Though it appears I could practice more on that.

We got lots and lots of compliments on the cake. And it was pretty tasty too! Chocolate with banana filling and white with strawberry filling.

We stayed up late the night before making m&m bean bags for a bean bag toss game that we never ended up playing. But they made for good paper weights for the path and the kids played with them during the party, and the kids got to take one home with them. I found some miniature gumball machines, swirly suckers and thought I would throw in a toothbrush so the parents weren't completely mad at me for all the sugar!

Here's a shot of the path:

We played a game on the path. I was pretty amazed how patient the kids were. I didn't really think it thru, so the kids pretty much moved as a clump. But they seemed to have fun.

Juliet was being supervised by Peter's mom & dad. She sat here and colored for more than an hour. I think she liked sitting with the "big kid's" at the table. She's so serious!

And here's the whole fam damily, exhausted after a fun day. Now I need to start planning for Juliet's big 5th, in 4 more years!

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny showed up on the foggy Sunday morning. He left a note letting us know that the low eggs were Juliet's and the high eggs were Claudia's. Juliet spent most of the time with the first 2 eggs she found. They had coins in them so they were fun for her to shake. Claudia collected the rest for her, and later asked if there was anything else since all the eggs were filled with coins. She hasn't learned the value of a dollar, I guess.

Hell on wheels (and heels)

Last fall, Claudia hadn't shown much of an interest in taking the training wheels off. Then over the winter it was too cold and wet for many opportunities to give it a try. A couple weekends ago she asked if we could take the training wheels off, so we did. Apparently she's been riding a 2-wheeler at school, because she hopped right on and started cruising down the driveway.

And Juliet had to get in on the action. She's walking really well now, though in this video she's still a little bit wobbly. She's a climber too, so there's really no place she can't get to. You can't turn your back!

Hang on, little tomato!

The cool and wet California winter is finally behind us. We've been spending a lot of time in the backyard. Here are the 2 little monkeys swinging. The longer they were swinging the more Juliet started to slide off Claudia's lap. This was the last picture I could take before having to rescue Juliet!

Juliet is a full-fledged walker, almost a runner. Claudia is looking forward to her big 5 next month! Boy time flies!

This is the way we wash our clothes...

Juliet was trying to climb in the laundry basket so I plopped her in and Claudia hopped in behind her. They were watching their clothes in the washer. Claudia said, "See, our clothes go round and around. Hey! There's your sock! Hey! There's my underwear!"

All Juliet needs is the laundry basket, a bowl and a spoon and she can be entertained for a long time. And since she's in the basket, you can turn your back for a few seconds. At least until she tips it over and crawls out.

J-walking

I didn't realize I had the camera flipped when I was videoing Juliet walking. Oh, and something's wrong with the mic on our camera. ... She really just started taking multiple steps a couple days ago so she's still a little wobbly. I'll post another video soon so you're not cranking your neck!

"I'm gonna be a cowgirl."

Claudia (pointing at our wedding photo): Mommy do you remember that day; the day you guys got married?

Me: Yes, I do.

Claudia: I don't want to be married when I grow up.

Me: You don't? Why not?

Claudia: Cuz I'm gonna be a cowgirl.

Then she did a cute little lasso dance.

Right now I'm listening to Claudia and my mom look at an atlas with landmarks and animals all around the world. As they flipped to Europe she said "This is the Ei-ful-ful tower in Paris, France." She's been pronouncing it that way for about 6 months and I'm finally getting it down. She was picking out all of her favorite animals and one of them is the scarlet macaw, but she says "scawlah macaw". That's one of my favorites!

Happy Birthday, Juliet!

We celebrated Juliet's 1st birthday tonight. Mom & Dad made it here just in time. We let Juliet make a mess eating spaghetti. Her making a mess is not unusual, just this time we let her go crazy. I had a cake made with Woodstock, but her cake was a yellow cupcake that we let her tear into. Here's a few money shots:

Here's one with Claudia laughing at Juliet squishing the cake. Claudia was happy to celebrate her 1st anniversary as a big sister.

Trouble, trouble, trouble

I'll add pix from Christmas & the snow soon....

Tonight I asked Claudia to watch Juliet in one part of the living room while I was in the other part, but busy. All the little pieces were out of the way, so I thought it was safe. The lego instructions were out and Juliet went straight for those and started crumpling and tearing. Claudia gave out a big sigh and said "Juliet, you're just trouble. Your first name is trouble, your 2nd name is trouble and your last name is trouble." Claudia is quite a sport when Juliet gets into her stuff (though she of course sometimes gets mad), and I assured her we could just tape the instructions back together. But we agree; Juliet is just trouble! ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our little turkeys....