Gymbo #2

Gymboree Play & Music class #2! This family fun class was in the big Gym room with all kinds of stuff for the girls to play with! Tunnels, balls, bubbles, balance beams, anything you can think of that is fun, it is in this room. Very unstructured and chaotic class! But the girls had a good time!


I couldn't get Alana to crawl through anything fun, but she was all about playing with the balls. This girls loves bouncing balls of all sizes!


I twirled Kali around on this, I think it was her favorite part!


Tip, Tip toes to grab the balls at the bottom of the bucket!

You can't really tell, but Alana had the biggest smile while looking through this tunnel. She wouldn't go in it, but close enough!

Kali in Mid-air!

Who doesn't LOVE bubbles? These girls sure do!

This is "Gymbo" the clown. He is kind of the Gymboree mascot, if you will. At the end of the class they play a song and everyone claps their hands and one of the employee's attaches Gymbo to her feet and arms and walks around with Gymbo and gives all the kids a hug and a kiss. Kids were lined up for this. Cute clown? Or creepy?

You can't really tell, but Alana FREAKED out when they tried to get her to hug it. I tried to snap a picture of a cute hug with a clown and she pushed him away and screamed and came running to me crying... It was so funny and sad all at the same time.... If she is scarred for life and ends up hating clowns, it's gonna be Gymbo's fault. Not that anyone loves clowns, but for a 1 year old and the clown is bigger then her? ... not so much.

Beach Pics

I told you she likes to eat sand...

She also likes to boogy board apparently! Jen, she's ready!!!

Oldies but goodies!

Thanks Amy for the great pictures of Alana! You are a great photographer and UNLIKE your sister, you send them to me!! Thank you again!

Gymbo Music

Today I took the girls to a Gymboree Play and Music class! They had so much fun! We are going again on Friday to a different class. But today was a music class where the girls got to bang on drums, run through bubbles, dance around and just be goofy!

Alana wasn't 100% sure of the class.


But she loved the bubbles!


Kali sang a solo from "Mama Mia" for the class.


She loved that Microphone.

Alana liked banging the sticks together to the song.

They got to dance around with scarfts.

It was a great expierence for them and I really look forward to Friday where they will play in the jungle gym. I think we'll end up signing up for classes if they love it as much as I think they do! Pays to work for Gymboree!!

Peace, Love and Kamikaze shots?

Last Saturday was Crystal's 25th Birthday! But she was in Hawaii so we had to wait to celebrate, but it was worth the wait! For the last couple of years, Crystal has been saying she wanted a Woodstock themed 25th Birthday! So we made it happen! The house was decorated in Peace, Love and Happiness and full of Hippies! We had so much fun!

Here is the birthday girl with her Kamikaze shots! Peace!


It was so fun to dress up as a hippie! Victor and I definetly got into it!


*B Friends* Give Peace a chance!

Group shot! (only the peeps that dressed up)

Crystal's BOMB Tye died cupcakes! Yummy!

*Drop acid not bombs*

More Sangria? ok.

This is a familiar scene. *Right on man*

That's right, the Kamikaze shots had their own container with a pour spout!

Happy Birthday dork! I hope you had a great party with your family and real friends! We enjoyed putting it together for you!

Groovy

Make Love, Not War!

Duck

Alana is crazy smart. She amazes Victor and I all the time with things she knows or says. I'm sure all 1 year old kids are smart and cute, but when it's your own, it's EVEN cuter!! She says all kinds of words and repeats any words I tell her to. We are working on animal sounds. She knows that a tiger says rrrrahhhh! She's got that one down. This is a little video of her in the bath and she says duck. She always talks and talks in some language that I don't understand, but we carry on full conversations all the time. She tells me stories and points to things as she is telling me. She knows what she is talking about even if no one else understands it. She will pick up her shoe and try to put it on her foot, she picks up a brush and runs it through her hair... it's crazy how she knows how to do all of it! She is for sure going to be Mrs. Independent!! Enjoy the bath time video. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page and turn off the music first)

Fishy girl!

Alana LOVES the water so much and it makes me so happy! I grew up with a pool and swam like a fish and expect the same from Alana! We spent lots of time in the water this week, at the pool and the beach! This girl is so happy in the pool!


Swim lessons has been paying off! She thinks she can just let go and swim herself so we have to keep her close!


She is such a beach girl. I'm not so much... The water is dirty, I'm afraid of sharks ( I know..) and I HATE the sand. Alana has proved to be the complete opposite. She loves to sit and try to build stuff and use her toys.


She just loves the sun in general and loves to be outside by the water.

Cheese with mom!

For whatever reason she loves to take hand fulls of sand and eat it. BLAH! Not fun for me to clean her up after that!

Video games!

This week has been super busy and hectic. My niece Hailey came to spend a few days with us which was so great to hang out with her. Victor and Hailey were playing wii tennis (which is a video game for those of you who don't know). Alana had to get in the action to. She took Victor's PS3 controls and was tossing them around the room, throwing her hands back and fourth, trying to do the same thing Hailey was doing. It was so funny.


She took a break to cheese it up for the camera.


Then RIGHT back to serious game face! She is SOOO Victor's daughter! Big time! This is his face holding this control too!

Happy Birthday Auntie Crystal!

We love you and we miss you! Can't wait for you to get home from Hawaii so we can celebrate!

Heart Murmur

So my last post I was a bit freaked out by the Dr sending us to the cardiologist. The same day I came home to try and get some rest for me and Alana and the cardiologist's office called to tell us to come in that afternoon. Freaked me out a bit because I thought maybe they thought it was that important. Which scared me and made me feel good all at the same time.
We got to the appt and they asked me to dress Alana in a gown. It was a cute but sad sight. I thought about busting out my camera but I don't think you wanted to see my baby laying in a hospital bed with a gown on. Then the told me they were going to do an EKG on her, which I didn't know what it was. I'm stressed. It was a scene straight out of E.T. where Elliot was laying in the hospital bed with those stickers all over his chest and wires coming out of them. It was like that. Alana HATED the stickers being put all over her body. I think there were 18 of them. Then they hooked the wires on each of them that connected to a machine. With Alana laying on the bed, screaming because she has to stay laying down with all these wires connected to her, I still thought about busting out the camera... but again couldn't leave her crying to do it. It was very drama filled but over fast. They got their reading and ripped the stickers off her. Ouch! Sucks that I can't take any of the pain or crying from her. My poor baby! She is way to young to know what is going on and that no one is hurting her. She and I both had a hard day!

She still has a heart murmur, but the Dr assures me it's nothing to worry about right now. Again, it's something she should grow out of by the time she's 6... That's what they told me about 1 years old to. She doesn't need any medicine or anything but follow up visits to check her heart and make sure nothings getting worse. Basically her heart beats a little abnormal and a little louder then most. But nothing to worry about right now. Makes me feel a LOT better, but I'm still me and I'm gonna worry regardless. But at least I know the Dr thinks it's nothing to worry about. YEAH for a healthy heart!

I'm a Harry Potter Nerd!

Yeah so? I've been to opening day since the first movie came out. I didn't read any of the books but LOVE the movies! So tonight myself, Victor and his niece, Celia, headed out to see

We were there to buy the tickets at 5:30 and couldn't get in until a 7:30 showing which was still great! Of course there were lines to wait in, but we ate and did some shopping. It was nice to get to spend one on one time with Celia.

We took some goofy pictures while waiting in line, cause we are dorks... or nerds...

The movie was GREAT! I won't spoil it for anyone who didn't get to see it yet but I really was shocked! Like I said, I never read any of the books so I had no clue what was going to happen and it turned out to be sad. Brought a tear to my eye. Good movie, but sad... can't wait for the next!!!

Shots, blood, and tears... OH MY!

Fun morning? To say the least.

Alana is 22 pounds and 31 inches long. Pretty normal I think. I had to take her to get her 1 year shots and do the 1 year visit this morning. Not sure who takes it better, her or I. Lucky for me Victor meet us there from work. She had 4 shots today, one in each arm and one in each leg. Victor held her down for the shots as I cried watching it all happen. Why is it so easy for me to get shots and give blood? But watching my baby lay on the table held down crying... whewww... Not so easy. She was such a trooper though. I cried more then she did which is pretty normal with shots. But it's been a long time since she had shots so it was all new to her again.

When Alana was born the Dr. told us she had a heart murmur. We saw a cardiologist and she got an Echo gram done. The specialist basically told us that it was something she'd grow out of and it was nothing to worry about. But he wanted to make sure that we had it checked out again when she turned one to make sure it was gone. Well it's not. The new Dr. we saw this morning said she wants Alana to be checked out again, it should have been gone by now but it's not. Not to worry right? Me? Worry?? NEVER... I am the worst person in the world to worry about things. Thanks mom and grandma for that trait. So I'm going to make an appt with another cardiologist to have some more tests ran to see what the deal is. I'm going to try not to worry about it. Try.

In the mean time the Dr. sent us down to the lab for some blood work. For a 1 year old?? So I told Victor he could go back to work, I'm sure they were just going to prick her finger take a little blood and we'd be fine. HOLY MOLY was I WRONG! I had to sit her on my lap and put her arm up on the table JUST like when I give blood. They wrapped the blue band around her tiny little arm to find a vain... (how about I just pass out now?) I had to hold her on my lap with one hand and then hold her little hand down so they could stick the needle in and take 2, yes 2, viles of blood out of her! OH MAN! She wasn't happy and I balled..... I really think I cried more then she did. But I had to watch it and make sure she didn't move. Crazy shit being a mom, having to watch all this happen!

We were able to get out of there with 2 viles of blood drawn, 4 shots and a referral to the cardiologist. What a morning! I'm anxious to get her to the cardiologist to find out what is going on with her little heart. She walked out of the office and we hung out at the fountain for a few minutes to get her (my) mind off of what had just happened.

No, I didn't bring the camera, not sure she (I) wants to remember shots and blood drawn. But I did snap this picture of her with my phone while she was playing in the fountain. She had a big cotton ball on her arm wrapped in tape from the blood being taken. Having kids is the most amazing rewarding job EVER, but man, mornings like this suck!

Date Night!

Over the last few months Victor and I have found it important to have a date night every week or two. Either Auntie Crystal or Grandma Lupe will watch Alana for the night while Victor and I get some dinner and maybe catch a movie. It's been really nice to have my nights out with my hubby. Makes for happier parents for sure! We always sit and talk about Alana and come home early so tonight we decided to take her out for our date night. We went to one of my favorite places in Long Beach called the Crab Pot.

Alana tried to eat crab...


This was our dinner. All kinds of sea food to eat! YUMMY!


Then we ordered Ice Cream for Alana and she was so funny. This is her "cold" face.


But of course she was happy with her ice cream!

We walked down the Marina as the sun was setting, it was so beautiful in LB tonight. There was this old couple who stopped us to talk to Alana and she kept looking at the old man and giving him weird faces. He was pretty weird.

The sunset was so pretty.

Some of my favorite pictures are shadow pictures. My baby, kissing my baby...

I can't wait for next week. Beach week! We have friends and family both in Newport with beach houses so we plan on spending most of the week trying to get as much sun in as possible!! I gotta get tan before Crystal comes back from Hawaii!!