{2010} The Best Year Ever

It is new years eve, the house is quiet and I am all to myself. Luella is asleep and the husband is down the street to bring in the new year with friends. As I have often stressed I have a love hate relationship with blogging. Love - that I am on my computer being some waht creative, which relieves a great amount of stress. Love - that I am recording memories that I think that I will remember, but know I won't. Love- get to share these memories with friends and family. Hate - my grammar. Hate - my typos. Hate - that this this I say in my head, when the computer is not by me, are so much more clever then what ends up on the screen. My high school history teacher told me, "Cora, a sentence has a subject and verb". I laughed, he said, "It's not funny." And so, I have a complex, but one that is well deserved. I am not quite sure how I made it out of college with a masters, or how I can be a teacher. I have students who write and spell better then I do. The point I was going with this, I am not sure, I just know that I going to let it go.

I am not one who is big on New Year's Resolution. If you need to change something, do it now (well I realize in saying this that now it would be the new year, so pretend it is August or something), don't wait. Take charge, take the challenge, make it part of your life. So today, because I am pretending it is August I am letting go of my writing embarrassment. There done!

Here are a few of this years highlights. I tried to find some pictures of Luella with other people to record a memory, as well as use pictures that haven't already been on this blog! "New August Resolution" - take more family pictures! (Thanks Jeanette for laughing!)

Looking back on this year, I feel like I am finally content. It is in motherhood I have found a certain calmness, even with it's challenges, I am complete. This year for me has been free of void. 

"Today is good. Today is fun. Tomorrow is another one."  ~ Dr. Suess

new years eve {breakfast}

All I want for Christmas {fill in the blank}

Disclaimer: Oh how I had grander ideas of what this blog would look like. It is Christmas after all. With amazing pictures and clever commentary. Oh how I wish I wrote well. But life got in in the way. We will chalk it up to "maybe next year". But now, for the this year's reality.

This Christmas as been the mostly challenging two weeks of Motherhood so far. I am going to get out of few of the frustrations first and then I will keep it positive (I hope). What is all boils down to in everyone being sick. A round of ear infections for Lu, couple with a vomiting/diarrhea stomach virus for Aaron and Lu, tripled with a (doctor says 14 day long) head cold and cough for Aaron, Luella and Me. There it's out and it's done, I am sure all of you out there get my point.
Here is how the week began. Friends Jason, Vale and their daughter Olivia visited from Chile to start of the break. The rain and by rain I mean it poured non-stop for the four days they were here. We all, with Charla and Brooklyn attempted to go see Santa at Irvine Park. Let's just say it wasn't crowded and we were wet!

We asked Luella if she wanted to sit on Santa's Lap...She said "no, no, no" very passively. She was a bit confused and we didn't push the issue...thanks to these helpful hints.

Here are our friends. Jason used to be Aaron's roommate at UC Davis.

Overall, it was short, it was fun and it was memorable. This is the gang on the train to so see Santa.

Getting pictures these day, or I should say getting good pictures these days is hard. Luella is always on the move. Nonetheless, we tried to capture a few of the dads and the girls. Here is was we got!

You can tell Aaron is starting not to feel so great!

 Luella's classic "Brooklyn-Tickle" to Oli! Nice face Lu!

Cute little Olivia at 7 months.

The guests left and a few hours later Lu and Aaron got sick (they seriously threw-up within 10 minutes of each other...and by the way my anxiety of throw-up in now gone) and then a little better, which allowed us to make a mad dash to get ready for Christmas. Everything we thought we get done in 4 days, we did in one. I am sure this is pretty typical.

Luella is helping us wrap the "silly presents" for my side of the family. Everyone gets things like crown, pencils, tissues and this years highlight, a Backstreet Boy's coffee table book.

In the end, the presents were wrapped and the house was disastrous.

Christmas Eve we ate at Tantalum. We wanted to start a new tradition and go to Disneyland, but we were not feeling up to it. So instead we went to dinner and surprised my mom by celebrating her birthday (a day early) and then went to go look at the lights in Naples.

There was live music at the restaurant and Luella couldn't get enough. She danced, and danced and asked and signed for "more, please" when the music stopped.

 She loved the lights, was finally happy and eat her first whole mini candy cane! 

All was well, we were ready for Christmas morning! I was a little disappointed we did not have cute pajamas as I had hoped, but we were ready. Luella was just about a sleep and then it happened again, more throw-up, all over me and what would have been the cute matching pajamas!

We finally got everything cleaned up and all went to sleep. The morning came and it was amazing (even if we didn't feel well). Luella loved delivering present to her papa and watching me open hers.

 Santa did good. He got her a Buckle monkey and Toothpaste (her fav!).

 Aaron was also pleased with his gifts!

And it wouldn't Be Christmas without a little Gabba Gabba!

Oh wait I almost forgot....I loved this view every Christmas morning.

 

The day continued and we went to Aaron's family's and then to my moms.

Each year I buy something for my sisters (usually themed) from etsy.com. I like to help people who are usually working moms with a stay at home biz. This year it was Fedoras!

After all the hustle and bustle, we ended up back home sick and ready to get well. The rest of Christmas break has been long and exhausted. We have been at home recovering. 

Luella has been happy coloring on her new table! Coloring is one of her new favs!

And last night we saw an ounce of relief in her. Here silly self was coming back and she decided to make a skittles wrapper hat! The pictures are awful, but she was so cute I had to share.

Ahhh, and we are done. The break is almost over. I am looking forward to getting back on a routine and being healthy. I am ready to have my little girl back that kisses me when she wakes up, who wants to jumpy jump, and is obsessed with her little ouchies on her hand and foot. I love my talker who tells everyone Hi and Merry Christmas; my determined little girl who knows when she is ready to leave by telling everyone goodbye and going to door (regardless if it is really time to leave yet). My little one who eyes light up when she sees her papa and wants me and him to notice when she is eating using her spoon right, or just put the duplo block in the right spot, or colored Brobee green. 

This Christmas was one to remember....through the vomit, the poop, the tears (mostly mine) and the snot I am happy to have my family and most of all, such an amazing husband, sicker then me, who took care of his two girls.

In The Car {elmo}

Sometimes she just rather stay in the car and relax then go inside. Fine by me, I get a little facebook time.

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My Little Helper {+more}

In the spirit of Christmas I have a little elf. I have recently started mowing the lawn. Since I never had to as a kid, I actually really like mowing the lawn. It is one of the few things you can do that is productive and you get instant results (I am a results kinda person). Luella, I guess, is a result kinda person too, since now she is mowing the lawn with me. She hangs onto the bag and walks with me. This makes "our" productivity a little bit slower, but I guess it is ok, I mean we are in our pajamas (not to mention it is like 3pm here!)

I can't believe that I almost forgot this in our Thanksgiving week update blog. We went to see "Yo Gabba Gabba" Live. It was so much fun. It was way more meaningful then I would have ever thought. Here's why...we could not have made it through this first year without this show. Whenever Luella is feeling sick and/or up all night long Gabbais the only thing that will settle her. This show has had such a significant part of our life, it make me wonder about our parenting skills a little bit, but what can I say...Aaron and I are a little bit weird. The remote control is called Gabba and so is the iPad. Luella loves the show and especially liked it live. When we were there, she would move her arms up and down and say "dance," then look at me and say "mama dance", and then to papa "papa dance." Gabba has totally taught her to love music and dancing, as well as taught her the word "Awesome"...awesome! I also think that Yo Gabba Gabba has taught her how to be very friendly to a diverse group of people. She is mostly like to "hi" when we are out and about to those who could look like a character from this show. People missing legs, others with big growths on their face. It has kind of taught me a lesson though. These are the people that are usually ignored. Not by Luella, and boy does their face light up when she says hi to them, it is kind of refreshing.

Right now little Lu is sick. She is getting 6 teeth and has ear infections in both ears. She has always struggled with congestion and today was the worse. She coughed and gagged so much that she threw up in the car on her way home from daycare (Lisa's). I immediately turned back around and had Lisa help me with the turkey, chunky, mucous mess. I know, gross. Hopefully, she will be feeling better soon. I have been so spoiled as a mother because Luella did not spit up as a baby and this was her first time growing up. I felt like I got my first "Mom Scouts" badge today. The Throw-Up Badge...oh the possibilities of the graphics of this one.

Luella, is definitely approaching her two's a little quicker then the rest. She is talking up a storm and starting with the tantrums. She likes to close her eyes at you when you are talking about something she does not agree (I think she thinks it make you go away) and she rolls around the floor and cries face down when she doesn't get her way (not too much kicking yet!). She got her first time-out at daycare this week.  She wasn't feeling good and she took it out on everyone else, especially the little 5 month old baby. Usually, at daycare she takes a lot of pride in taking care of the baby. If the baby is crying she will bring the baby every one of her toys and pile then on her lap and make sure that she has her pacifier. This day was opposite. She stole all her toys and threw them on the ground and kept taking the pacifier out of the babies mouth. When she was told no, she got made and hit the baby's leg. This = a time. I worry about this little one. The memories are flooding back at how frustrated I got with, well pretty much, everything, and I think that she is following my path. I will need to give her some good outlets and lots to do.

Finally, some fun little eye candy, you can barely see them, but I lover her sock. We don't get to go on stroller walks very often anymore...I spy a crunchies in this picture, pure bribery. She would much rather be pushing the stroller then me pushing her (I am sure this is very normal). She is very independent these days, but still loves a good cuddle. She usually checks in with a "hi mama", "love you" and a few kisses. She sits on my lap to read books and watch tv. She sings and dance and is turning into a very goofy little girl (just what her parents ordered). She likes to practice saying her ABC's, well kinda. It goes like this..."ABBB long pause, bladabladablada (tongue rolls), long pause, Q, long pause, double (for W) short pause, ABBB." Her and her papa practice talking everyday; things like Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, See You, Love You, etc. But my favorite is still when she tells us "no, no, no" and her raspy giggle which means yes. She is a happy girl (unless she has 6 teeth coming in and ear infections) and she shows us so much love everyday.

Today We Held Hands {all three of us}

Today, Aaron, Luella and I held hands and walked out of Soup Plantation together. It was such a simple act, but what a big moment. She is a little girl. She wake up each morning with new words, new faces, and more love for us then the day before. I am not quite sure how she does this because she doesn't get that much sleep. She still wakes up bout 2-3 times a night. We are starting to night wean and let's just say we have some tired parents. But you can't get mad at her when she wakes up and says "Hi Mamma, Hi Papa, Love You"...immediately followed by "outside, play".  Oh,  how I love it.

Ok, so I have a lot to catch up on {deep breath} here we go!

{Saturday 11/26}

 We got our Chirstmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I always like having the Christmas decorations up as long as possible. I decorated the tree when Lu was asleep so she did not see the tree in the house until the next morning. It was priceless to see her walk out into the den and see the tree with all the "balls". I plugged in the lights and she loudly said "whoaaa". I wasn't sure she would be into Christmas this year, but I guess if you put a big tree in your house and hang a bunch a balls on it and then light it up, it has got to be cool!

It is pretty much impossible these days to get a good picture of Luella, because she is either running towards the camera or running away! Here is our attempts. I spy two head in the top right picture (ha!)

That same night day Ava, Aaron, Luella and I celebrated my dad's 70th birthday with Japanese Tepan. Luella kept telling us that it was "hot!" She is pretty much awesome here, because she is eating with just one chop stick...genius baby!

{Friday 12/3}

A week later, I had a 2nd annual "impromptu" gingerbread house decorating party. Here is a picture with Lu and "auntie Georgie" {Georgina} in the backyard. Georgina is funny because she never thinks that Luella has on enough clothes and this night tried to put clothes on Luella so she would like the little boy in "A Christmas Story!'

Fun a great picture that Charla captured of me and the little one. I was hoping she could help a little this year in the decorating, but who was I kidding, she just tried to eat everything. Maybe next year!

This is my house in the process of decorating! It was the grand price winner of the contest that we didn't have. (My sense of humor is really coming out tonight..watch out people, it is usually hard to understand and not that funny!). side note...you can soo tell that Charla took the last three pictures, as they are sooo much better then mine.

{Saturday 11/4}

The next morning, Lu and I had some play time while Papa was at a track meet all day. Someone please tell Lu that the end table is not a seat. This is her classic "take it baby" pose. All morning long, she would pick up things and bring the to me and ask me to "take it baby!"

That night we went to the Christmas Parade in Belmont Shore. Although her face does not show it, Luella did really enjoy the night. This is before the parade and she is in the backpack (which didn't last long). Luella loves to explore. Once we were settled in our spot for the parade she went exploring the crowd, mad dogging everyone or saying "hi" loudly and waving. She is funny, depending on her feel of the person she runs up to them and wither, stands there and stairs awkwardly, or smiles, waves and say "Hi". Both can get a little uncomfortable at times, but either way make me smile.

This is Becky and Jon. We always go to the parade with Becky's family as well as go to a "pre-parade" celebration at her aunt Linda's House. This year Jake was is the pardade!

Can you say "Parade?"

This is Luella's "band face". She absolutely loved the drums. The minute she heard them her arm started going. I think she is going to be a drum major. All she needs is a big baton and we are good to go.

 We are happy here, we just don't look it! {It was the only half way decent picture of the two of us!...we need to work on this)

 Jon, Jon's funny face and one of Luella's favorite friends. They love to kiss!

 Jake is in here somewhere!

{Sunday 11/5}

The busy weekend continues. Sunday night we had Megan's 4th birthday party. It was at a gymnastics center and Luella was in heaven. She pretty much had free reign of the entire place. She ran and jumped (well tried to jump, she thinks she is jumpimg but she gets no air!) and climbed and slid and went non-stop. Since she was the only kid who was too young to join the group I had to chase her around all night...it is kind of sad that I am sore from this (a true reminder that my triathlon days are far from me!).

 Here is Brooklyn and Lu is "jail". Brooklyn could climb out, but Luella is in another classic pose "Uppa".

 "I'm gonna get you!"

I am sure this is jarbled and typoed, and might not make much sense, but it is done, it is recorded and one day will make it into a printed book! I love having a little one and recording her and our life, especially during the holiday season!