Our Perfect Valentine

Wow. Laura turned 2 today (and if you ask her how old she is, she will tell you "2" - she also finishes the sentence, "I..." with an emphatic "LOVE YOU! - how sweet is she?!). Anyway, I digress. Watching her blossom over the past few weeks has been an amazing experience. You would think that watching the 2nd child achieve milestones (and minor achievements) wouldn't be nearly as interesting, but it really is. First, the VERY good news. After absolute dedication on Luzma's part, Laura is potty trained! She does #1 and #2 now on the potty. Hooray! We are not out of diapers completely (pull-ups are still very important for a while yet), but this is really terrific. Had it been left up to Mark and me, Laura would still be toddling around in diapers for a long while still. Have we mentioned Luzma rocks! Other Laura developments: she heard Kayla go down the wooden stairs tonight and said, "that's Kayla going downstairs." While that may not seem like rocket science, to her credit I was rocking her in her room with the door shut and lights off. The fact that she can put isolated sounds into context is pretty cool. She is also totally grooving on the pool and bathtub - going under with no fear (Claire has been taking swim lessons and I finally took Laura into the pool last weekend). She and Claire play in the tub, pretending to swim for 20 minutes or so. Speaking of which, the girls are getting along really well. They really do love to play with each other (when Laura is not hitting Claire - we're working on that) which is great. I hope they will be super close sisters for their lifetimes.
Laura is also doing great with her Spanish and English. I tease and say that Laura speaks Spanglish, "I want leche" or "I found azul (crayon)." But, if you ask her the meaning in English or Spanish she will translate words for you. Me: "Laura, how do you say apple in Spanish?" Laura: "manzana", etc. Have I mentioned how great Luzma is? :) Laura also really enjoys singing. I sing to her every night and she often sings along. I've been working on the railroad, ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle are currently in the rotation from her repertoire.
I feel so very blessed that Laura is our daughter. She is a strong, sweet, loving child who brings us sunshine everyday.
We love you, Laura - our best, never to be exceeded, valentine.

PS Pics from Laura's birthday celebration week can be found here.

What else do you do, Daddy?

Lynn is still out of town and I had a hockey game last night (we lost 3-2). So the girls had a sleepover at Luzma's. They were really excited. I sure missed them. Admittedly, I didn't miss being awaken at 6am by Claire asking how to spell "PBSKids.org"; nor did I miss changing Laura's diapers at 7am. I slept in this morning. Ok, Lynn woke me up at 7am via Skype. But by 7:10am I was back asleep. When I awoke, the first thing I saw was that it was light outside. I had no idea what time it was. I did have an 11am meeting at work, so I was sure I was safe time wise. It was 9:30am. A quick shower and I was at work by 10:30am.

Ok, back to the girls. So while I enjoy an evening to myself, I missed the girls. I made sure I got home today by 4:45pm so I could meet the girls as Luzma dropped them off. She said they were great and slept well last night. Now it was my turn to spend time with them. We played soccer in the driveway, they rode their bikes, and we all sat in one rocking chair on the front porch and talked. At 6:15 just before the girls got in their jammies, they played the bumbee dance (they run around naked in Laura's room and practice somersaults). Then into their matching jammies. Next came the Barnyard Dance, which we all did and Laura finished each sentence. At the end she wanted to "do one more promenade". Wow, promenade to me, was an adjective which described a deck on the Love Boat (my favorite scene is at 1:08 into the video).

Claire went down at 7:30pm. We read a Curious George story and then we talked for about 45 minutes about stuff. "Daddy, what else do you do besides make maps?" How long is the flight to Spain? Will I go there when I am older? Is Samantha (Nick and Kristi's daughter) my friend or Laura's? Will I always be 2 years older than Laura? If mommy is in Spain for work, why is Auntie Kim there too? (good question kid). On and on she went, asking many questions that were beyond her age. It reminded me of our friend PJ (we met in Italy, Taylor and Will's dad, weekend in the Blue Mountains, apple picking, etc.) who told me (with a beer in his hand), "I just had a debate with Claire and I think I lost."

Anyway, I had a most enjoyable evening with my angels. Mom comes home in 5 days.

Don't act surprised...

Yeah, it's been nearly 2 months since the last posting. I wonder if there are any readers out there anymore. Let's see if I can remember what's been going on since January 1, 2012. Man, I haven't even posted any new photos! I wonder if I have taken any this year? Nope, a quick check of picasa reveals I haven't. Ok, so what's new?

Well, I started going back to the gym. I am not as dedicated as Lynn is (5am 4-5 mornings at week). Nope, I like to ease into my mornings. I get Claire to play with Laura when Laura wakes up, which buys me about 20 more minutes of sleep. I found this great app called myfitnesspal. While it doesn't exercise for you, it does keep me honest regarding my eating. Do you really need a peanut butter sandwich just before bed? Lynn looks phenomenal and has lost weight and my brother has lost at 25 pounds, so I need to keep up.

Laura is Laura. Some days are good, some are ok. It's a good thing she is so dimplicious or I would have given her away. We thought we cured her of hitting Claire, but it has returned. I suspect because Lynn is away in Spain this week (Lynn (to Mark): you're not coming, I'm going with Kim) and she misses her mom. Thank god for Luzma and Magen.

Claire started swimming lessons at the Y and we go every Saturday. A parent has to watch his/her kid. So Laura watches the iPad with me and I watch Claire, and Lynn works out. We also found a pre-K program for Claire starting in August. It is conveniently located near Luzma's house. Claire is excited to start school. I hope she won't be too bored when the teacher is working on colors with Claire's classmates and Claire asks "How do you spell fuchsia?"

Anyway, it's getting late and I promise to continue this update before Lynn comes home next weekend.

Mom's away

Almost 2 years ago to the day, Lynn was in Seattle and I had to take 21 month old Claire to go see Santa. I brought Nick our neighbor along with me to take photos. If you have forgotten about that adventure you can read about it here.

Fast forward two years and Lynn is in Seattle again this weekend and I am taking 45 month old Claire and 22 month old Laura to visit Santa. This time I brought Magen, whom Mrs. Claus mistook for my wife (I am old enough to be Magen's dad, a young dad albeit). Let's back up 5 hours.

I put the girls to bed for an early nap (11:30am), thinking I would give them a bath after they woke up, rather than prior to nap time. A good decision on my part, because when I got Laura from her crib (2:30pm), she had pooped on just about everything in the crib. Everything went into the washer and Laura and Claire went into the tub. Just as I was finishing up their baths, Magen came by and helped dry and dress them. Ok, she dried and dressed them while I got ready myself. Now, here is the part in which I really needed Magen - the girls' hair. She made up their hair while I continued to get ready to go. A few photos in front of our tree and off we went to visit Santa at the local YMCA.

Claire's visit was great, but Laura's was predictable and she initially wanted nothing to do with Santa. Claire told Santa she wanted a camera for Christmas and Santa looked at me and asked if she was 4 years old. Nope, only 3. Anyway, as Claire was wrapping up her visit, Laura said she was hungry and we gave her some goldfish crackers. Then we told her to share with Santa. Laura walked over to Santa and gave him some goldfish and before you knew it, they were best friends. Indeed, it is better to give than receive.

Photos from today's adventure can be seen here. Thanks Magen, you rock!

Ok, maybe I'm biased...

a little, but we have to the two cutest, sweetest kids. Here they are at the children's museum of Atlanta at Taylor Docka's birthday party. You will recall the Dockas are our friends we met while we were in Italy. The girls had a blast at the museum, getting to try a bunch of things like milking a "cow", fishing, watching a play, eating pizza and cupcakes. It's amazing to sit back and watch their young minds at work.

I've already accepted that unless there is no another adult present, Laura wants nothing to do with me. I am sure this will change. When it's just the two of us she wants me to color with her, or read books to her. Unlike her sister, she has not taken to watching movies on mom's iPad. Her favorite app on her iPod is Tom the talking cat. Maybe it is because they both love milk.

Lynn commented at dinner tonight that Laura is truly bilingual as she uses both English and Spanish words when speaking, without realizing it. For example, "I want leche". But she knows that both milk and leche are the same thing. Maybe that's why Laura is so tall for her age, because of all the milk she drinks. Too bad she barely weighs 20 lbs. She will still be in a car seat when she is 13.

And there is no doubt that she is right handed as evident in one of these videos.





Claire continues on her own, without any pressure or prompting from us, to prepare for the first grade. She loves to write and spell. "How do you spell 'croutons'?". She's recently started to distinguish between upper and lower case letters. Tonight she wrote out the grocery list for us.

Claire's soccer season ended last Saturday. I am going to start working with her so that she gets in the midddle of things instead of watching from a distance. She says she wants to play again next season, so hopefully her cleats will still fit.

Halloween has come and gone and so has the candy. Grammy and Grampy minded the candy dish at home (there were a lot of candy wrappers lying around our front porch), while Lynn, Magen and I took the girls out. Fortunately, they have forgotten about the candy. Grammy and Grampy visited for a week on their annual mirgration southward to Florida. Knowing the value of having time with grandkids, Lynn and I made sure they had plenty of that. I think they were more tired when they were leaving, than when they arrived. Lynn and the kids are going to visit them in December before the Christmas break.

Well, I can't think of anything else that's happened, but I am sure Lynn will add to this posting or create her own after she reads this one. Hasta la proxima vez!

HALLOWEEN!

More details to come, but here are some more pictures for now.

Fun with Magen

My children are so lucky. They have amazing people in their lives who love them so much. Magen, one of our amazing ones, came by tonight to watch the girls. They were having so much fun with her. We know Claire already loves Magen (they are best friends, you know) and now Laura just adores her, too. They read lots of books and made funny faces with each other. Anyway, I was able to capture some special moments of Laura with Magen tonight. Of course, Claire wanted in on the action, too so you will see some sweet silly time between Claire and Laura. Sisters. So sweet.

Magen also shot some adorable video of Claire talking about her boyfriend, Christopher. Christopher is the son of good friends of ours in Canada. Claire was quite taken with him this summer during our trip to Kamloops. She remembers him quite well. See the video as she tells Magen all about it. Even though we know Christopher and his family well, I don't think Mark is going to relax his "no dating before 30" rule.