Low Key Weekend

Toofers!!!


G is going strong with potty training! No accidents in 48 hours!


This week we are going to work on the letter 'G"- so we filled a letter G with grapes and then got to eat them! She loved this activity.


A craft we did from our swap- tissue paper butterfly.

Papa started reading (paraphrasing) Narnia.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Elia is crawling! (w/ G helping)

School-time

I was completely inspired by my friend, "Jo Shabo" and so after reading her blog, I decided to do a few activities with Gianna. I just gathered a few things I had around the house:

I had a packet of arts and crafts pom puffs in 2 different sizes. So first, she sorted them into 2 different piles- little puffs and big puffs:

Then she sorted them by color into some little tupperware containers I had:

Then she used a melon baller (I don't have a little tongs) and put one puff in each cube.



I was amazed at how focused she was on these little tasks. She had more interest than some of my 3rd graders used to! I told her that this is "school" and that sometimes we will do activities like this. She is really excited about it! We will probably do a couple crafts next week that we got from our activity swap. Thanks Jo Shabo!

Busy week!

We have not sat down all week! On Sunday, we did the usual- church and football, and of course the uncles came over. That is always a special treat for Gianna and Elia, because they get so much extra love! Monday I whisked the girls off early morning to Gianna's pta playgroup. We did an activity swap- similar to this idea. Every mom came up with a craft to do with a 2 year old, made 20 of the same sets in a bag, and brought them to play group. Then we all passed ours out and presto- I have 20 different fun activities to do with G! I pulled one out tonight to do with her but everything requires glue and we dont have any-bummer.
On Tuesday we hung out with G's BFF "Lynn". We saw Lynn in December, and she had no interest in potty training. Well, she is potty trained now! So that sort of inspired me to take it back up again- uggg. So far its going ok- I have realized that you have to be ok with the messes or she won't be trained until she is 20! Lynn and Gianna played nicely and we enjoyed lunch together as well.
Wednesday I hosted my church's play group, and that was a ton of fun too! G's other BFF Soph, joined us and it was just a big party! I love getting together with my friends from church- hanging out with mom's that have the same faith as I is VERY refreshing! We are hoping to expand our little playgroup, so if there are any mamas out there that want to pray the rosary while the kiddos play in the North Texas Area (Carrollton Farmers Branch more specifically)- let me know!
Thursday we went to Elia's pta playgroup, which was hosted at the indoor playground at the mall. Gianna loves coming here and climbing all over the plastic structures. This was Elia's first time since she has learned to scoot- so she had a blast too. Then home and straight into the bath- I get nervous that those sort of indoor places are teeming w swine flu and chicken pox, etc. I have started doing baths with the girls during the day- it is something really fun for them to do and perfect when we can't go outside/get out of the house due to weather! Also, I feel like bath time wastes precious daddy time at night, so mornings work for us! Bath time lasted quite a while today! We made it to the mall and back with no accidents- this is awesome for me to report!
Friday we spent the morning with Gianna's friends, "Adam" and "Eve." Adam loves to be the boss and show Gianna what to do, and for the most part, G follows ;). Back home for lunch and nap- this week was full! I made Gianna a potty chart to motivate her for the potty- she puts a sticker up everytime she goes, and when she gets to the star, she gets to go get ice cream with daddy- which is an EXTRA special treat for her. The potty training process is a bit tedious. I have to constantly remind her and actually put her on the potty, and it seems when I get the tiniest bit distracted, thats when we have an accident!




Elia is scooting everywhere, much to Gianna's dismay. Gianna is always "making a gate"- putting a rolled up blanket or a pillow in her way so that she can't get to her toys. And just today she started going from her belly to sitting up on her own, so that means this weekend we have to lower the crib! My baby just won't stop growing up! Its going to be a cold weekend, so we are going to do lots of family time indoors.

G's Dance

Locked Out

Friday was our bi-monthly trip to costco. Gianna loves to go to costco to get the free samples. I love that Costco's carts have 2 children sized seats at the front. Anyway, we got through the store without any problems and both girls were in exceptional moods. Elia sat quietly, flirting with other customers as they walked by. As I was checking out, I noticed that my keys were not in my purse! Sure enough, when I pulled the cart up to our car, I saw that the keys were in my ignition. This is the only key we own for this car, and a new key costs $200, so I am usually very er, uptight, about making sure the key stays with me. So after calling Chris and freaking out a bit, a very nice Costco employee tried to help me. But her very measly piece of twine did not help. Meanwhile, Gianna keeps asking if she can get out of the cart, and Elia is starting to fuss because she hasn't eaten anything for 4 hours- a long time for her! I bribed Gianna with Gogurt and fruit snacks, but I was not about to go lug both girls back into Costco to find a private spot to nurse. So I did the only thing I could- I fed her a gogurt, and she loved it, thank goodness! Then, a man walking by noticed we were trying to get in the locked car and offered to help. He went back to his car and brought back the perfect tool for getting into our Honda, (hmmmmm, I wonder what he does for a living??) and the crisis was averted. Whew!

New Developments- and no camera!

Elia started crawling last night! My angel baby can move forward! Its a very funny thing to watch. She gets up on all fours and kind of rocks back and forth, and then pushes her knees and feet off the ground to propel her forward. So I guess its more like scooting. Gianna's new favorite game is making her "race." We get a toy that she really likes and put it at one end of the hallway and Elia at the other end and have her scoot towards it. Gianna's encouragement for her little sis is sooo cute! "You can do it baby" and "come on I know you can!" are just a few. And of course, I don't have our awesome new flip camera to document this! Hopefully we will get it back before Elia is full-on crawling.

For Christmas, Gianna got a magnet set where you can match animals and they make their animal sounds. You can also mix the animals, so you can create a pig horse or a duck sheep, etc. Gianna thinks this is way more fun. It has a song that sings to the tune of "A pig horse? You put the pig in front, you put the horse behind. Put them together and what do you find? A pig horse? That's silly!" Every time this little ditty plays (which happens every other minute while she is in the kitchen with me) she waves her arms in the air and sways her hips at the same time. This is why I need a camera- because its way cuter to watch than to read about. I will try my durndest to get that footage up soon!

Back in the swing of things

Coming home from a vacation takes a lot of adjustment. There is the laundry, the putting of things away and then for us, the time adjustment. Finally G and E are sleeping on a semi-normal Dallas time schedule. But then there is also getting used to the idea that you are not on vacay anymore. No more going out and having a great time without the kids, no more sleeping in because grandma took the babies in the morning, and no more watching Gianna run around happy as a clam with her aunties. And so normal life takes over here at home with grocery shopping and nap times and trips to the library instead of the glamorous life you lead when its all play and no work. Today after nap, while we waited for daddy to come home, we got out the double stroller to go on our daily walk, and darn, it was raining. So instead, I pulled the car out of the garage, put the g door down, and let Gianna ride her new bike around.

Elia got a kick out of being in the front of the stroller this time (and being able to see her sis ride around)- stationary of course!


Our trip to California was such a whirlwind of fun, it might seem that life here can be sort of dull compared to it. And yet I still cherish these quiet moments when the girls are happy being at home and just want to play. Makes coming home a lot easier!

Top 15 list of our California Trip

I could bore everyone with the wonderful, gory details of our trip, but decided to construct a top 1o list instead. It quickly turned into 15! In no particular order- enjoy, dear readers!


1) Sledding in Tahoe. Watching Gianna enjoy something I loved as a child was especially cool!


2) Gianna and Elia were Ana's show and tell for a day. All the kids were excited to meet them, and they were all so sweet!


3) Playing games each night we were in our cabin in Tahoe. Highlight- We were playing Cranium and I was trying to get my team to guess "temporary tattoo" by drawing it on a piece of paper for them. Everyone could guess the tattoo part of it, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to represent the word temporary with my drawings. Time ran out before I could get them to guess. When I told my team it was temporary tattoo, Mary looked at me (with a straight face) and said, "Moe, you should have drawn a picture of Ryan from The Office! Then we all would have known- he is a temp- temporary tattoo!" It took everyone forever to stop laughing over that one!


4) Taco Tuesday at Compadres. Highlight- taking a tequila shot with Vince and Becky!


5) Leaving the babies at home and going to see Avatar with Vince and Jenny. It is a beautiful movie! (yes, I know there was a political agenda, and some people hate it for that reason, but I took it for what it was- a night out, and a cool action movie!)


6) Meeting little Phoebe- it was so cute to see G dote on her! What a gorgeous baby!


7) Gianna and Marley's beautiful friendship: "Hi Marley, its me, Gianna! Do you remember me?" and "Marley is my best friend." and "Look mom, I'm sharing," as she shared part of her mozzarella stick with her.


8) Going to the KOC Crab Feed- yum yum. Highlight- watching Vince's face as a stranger smelled Phoebe to see if she had a stinky diaper-heehee.


9) Watching Gianna run around with her Aunties Ana and Beth. Chris and I hardly saw Gianna! She got to sleep in their room and there were quite a few nights we had to go in there and tell them to stop giggling and get to bed! Beth is determined to be Elia's favorite auntie, since we all know G's is Auntie Ana!




10) Elia getting her 5th tooth (3rd on top) and finally sleeping better afterwards. She has also learned to say mamamamamama and I am pretty sure she uses it in context!

11) Opening presents from Santa/Grandma. Spoiled spoiled is what we are! We got a cool hd flip video camcorder and G and E got lots of fun toys, puzzles and clothes. Highlight- Aunt Jenny made the cutest little apron/chef hat/oven mitt set for G.

12) Poker night- Chris and I both lost fairly early, but I love playing and talking with all the family and eating yummy snacks from Trader Joe's. Why are there Trader Joe's everywhere but here in Dallas??

13) Mary's fabulous cooking- enough said!

14) Catching up with my dear friend Annie the day before I left- for 3 whole hours at Starbucks!

15) Elia falling sleep on Mikey- too cute!

See you Rowles soon!

Tahoe!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a quick moment before it gets crazy here, but we just got to Tahoe a few hours ago. Gianna has been out in the snow in her snow pants and having a great time! We have a cozy 4 bedroom house rental that all the Napa Rowles, Dallas Rowles, and Albas (a total of 16) have squashed into. Little cousin Phoebe and Elia are passed around by all the aunts and uncles. Gianna is in hog heaven getting so much attention from auntie Anna and auntie Beth. We are about to sit down to dinner and afterwards we will all play some crazy, competitive family games!

I am writing the next day now. This morning we went sledding and even Elia got in on it! The above video is of Gianna sledding down the hill. Last night we played Cranium, which is hilarious to play when there are Rowles and alcohol present. We might go out sledding again soon, Gianna is having a ball!!!! During breakfast she couldn't stop waving her arms around in excitement and talking about the snow. I think the plan is to have a snow man building competition- more on that later!