Elia-isms

Oh that Boomy. She just gets to me every time! I wanted to write down a few things so I don't forget her cuteness in 10 years. Whenever she (or someone else in the the family;) burps, she says "I toot in my neck!" and then giggles uncontrollably for a few minutes.

Yesterday she was looking at our wedding picture, and after really studying it, she pointed to me in the pic and said "that's mama!" She then looked closer and said "a princess!!"

How could you not love her?

And lately she has become obsessed with dancing- she holds onto a chair or counter, puts one leg up in the air and says "I'm a ballarine!!" (hasn't quite gotten that its ballerina.

Perhaps more to come later...

Elia's "Fishing" Lessons

The 2 weeks before we left for StL, Elia took swim lessons. But she called them fishing lessons. She has a funny obsession with the word fish- if something is broken or not working (I think she is actually trying to say fix it), she says it is fishing, if she is thirsty she says fishy, swimsuit is fish suit, and then when she actually sees a fish, she calls it shoe. How hilarious is that?

Anyways, she was amazing in the water. She had 8 lessons total, and the first 7 lessons I was not allowed to be there with her, since there would be too much mama-drama, as her teacher explained to me. So the big day was that 8th lesson, when we got to watch all her hard work. That girl brought me to tears, I tell you! She is amazing in the water. Check it out!

Monkey crawling:

Swimming with just a noodle!

She learned to put her head underwater by grabbing for a pool weight:

I had a great little video of her swimming but can't upload it right now- darn you blogger!

Elia's Birthday

My baby is 2! I just can't believe it. She is sleeping in a big girl bed now and her sentences are really coming together. My current favorite is I sityourwap which means can I sit in your lap? Love it. Right now she is obsessed with puzzles and gets really excited when one of us does it with her. Her hair is getting so long and she gets really cute little curls in the back.

We made cupcakes the night before her birthday so she could bring some to daycare. I made cupcake picks out of some Minnie stickers Aunt Col sent. Thanks Col!

For her birthday she got some good stuff!

She opened some when we got home from work (my last day! yippee!) and then we headed out to dinner. The restaurant we went to is right across a tiny airport, and as we were leaving there was a plane taxi-ing. That was really cool to see.

Then we headed over to Petsmart to get the best present ever- fish.

They were so stinking excited. The fish are now in a little bowl at home. Gianna named hers Sienna and Elia named hers Fishy. More birthday updates are coming up- big plans for G on Tuesday and our big bash next weekend! Take a peek at my timeline from last year. Here are a few more from this year!

Just turned 1 year!

15 months. Killer ponytail.

18 months. Waiting on Christmas cookies.

21 months: obsessed with drawing! She calls it jaw.

The Birthday girl!

Happy birthday sweetie!

Minnie Minnie Mow

I want to post about Elia's new words before she comes up with a few hundred more. The best so far in my opinion, is saying her sister's name. About 2 weeks ago, she started saying just "G." She would run around after her and say geeeee geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Hilarious. Then about a week ago I caught her saying Geee-ana a few times. Now finally this past weekend she started saying Gianna. If she says it too fast it sounds like john-a. SO cute. G likes it too.

Another word is "mon." It means come on. I am constantly saying this to Gianna at the grocery store or when we are out walking and she is lagging. I always say come on Gianna! When we are about to go outside, she always turns to G and says 'mon!!

She was (and still is) obsessed with Elmo, partly because I think it was so fun for her to say. But she has semi-moved on to Minnie and Mickey mouse. I have a stuffed animal of each that she loves to carry around. Whenever she see one of them, or sees one on her diaper(huggies), or even better, if a friend has a minnie or mickey item, she can't stop saying minnie minnie mow. Especially when a friend has a minnie or mickey related item, she goes crazy and says minnie minnie minnie mow. So cute.

Sneaky Peek

This weekend, we did a little bit of this:

New easel from Grandma. Love it! Elia finally learned how to say Gianna. So sweet!

But mostly, we sanded and vacuumed all weekend. We can see the end of the tunnel to our bedroom/bathroom remodel. The goal is to put tile in over Chris' 3 day weekend coming up. That means we need to paint the bathroom ceiling, walls and stain the vanities.

So why all the sanding and vacuuming you ask? Well, remember we scraped all that wallpaper off to leave quite gross ragged walls. Instead of spraying texture, we decided to go with flat texture. Which means Chris mudded and sanded and mudded and sanded numerous times. This weekend was all about sanding it all down. And since we decided to stain our bathroom cabinetry, that means even more sanding. All this sanding has left the bathroom very dusty, which then blows over into our bedroom. My job today was to vacuum both rooms twice. So I thought I would snap a few of the rooms.

View from the hallway. Look how delicious those floors are! Oh, and thats our new KING bed!!!

Both views from the bathroom door. I don't want to put our ugly mirrored doors back on, I'm thinking maybe a large curtain?

Dusty dusty but its going to be beautiful!

Wibble Wobble

Elia's favorite word has been any form of mom (mama, mommy, mom momomomomomommom, etc.) for a while now. She calls Gianna and Chris mama as well. At one point when Dad would come home from work she would run to the door saying dada but lately its just mama. And even though she is still calling them mama, she is finally expanding her vocabulary! She has learned hot, up, hi, apple, ball, dog, and moo. Chris and I's favorite is wibble wobble. We were at Walmart a few weekends ago and Chris was steering the cart with Elia in it. He was moving the cart through the aisle in a zigzag, all the while saying wibble wobble. So she started saying it too! Whenever I make a sharp turn in the car, she sings those words. So cute. And today as she was playing in her crib before she fell asleep for her nap, I heard her singing wibble wobble. I wonder what she is doing in there?

Top 10 of our California Trip

Ah, California. So beautiful and amazing. Can't wait to go back in November! In no particualr order, here is my top 10 of our trip!

1. Camping outside of Yosemite.

This was probably the highlight of our trip. It deserves its own post with lots of pictures. Stay tuned for that!

2. The Giants Game

The Giants played the Dodgers, so it was a pretty exciting game. We seriously almost died of the cold though. San Francisco is frigid in the summer!

3. Fresno

Visiting Fresno to see Nichole and Max. So good to meet him and let the little ones play!

4. Wine tasting.

It is quite possibly the perfect date. Lots to see and talk about and the wine is so good! Quite possibly the most expensive date ever though!

5. Aunties.

G and E are so lucky to have them to play with and dote on them all the time. We miss them already!

6. DOG

Elia called everything dog. And since there were at least 2 dogs with us at all times, she said dog a whole heck of a lot. So cute. She would sometimes walk behind one of the dogs and just say dogdogdogdogdog! She is learning a few other words but dog is just so stinking cute.

7. Getting my baby fix.

Chris' uncle Eric has a 4 week old and his aunt Erin has a 6 month old. Add to that Phoebe who is 8 months and Chris has a cousin who is pregnant. I could never have a baby again and still get enough baby in my life! (don't worry people, I'm sure there are more McHugh-Rowles babies down the line)

8. Poker and Potluck

These are always fun events- never a dull moment and it is so great to catch up with Chris' extended family. Aunt Erin, Jenny, and Mary made the most amazing cupcakes too.

9. Babysitters

Chris and I went out quite a bit. We celebrated his birthday at a bar, and went to lunch quite a few times. Sans babies. It was awesome. It is so great to get out!

10. Phoebe

She is the cutest little asian version of Jenny ever. She took to Uncle Chris more than Aunt Moe, but thats ok. I still like her. Gianna is obsessed. Loved to giver her kisses. Here she is driving the car.

There is much much more, but I have stuff to do. Stay tuned for that camping post! Love and miss you all!

Dooooooog

Elia's latest and greatest word is DOG. About a week before we left for California, we saw a very big dog at the pool. G and I repeated DOG to her a few times. And then the pool entrance actually has a stuffed dog that "guards" the cash register. So I kept repeating DOG to her. Well, here in Napa, Chris' family has 2 dogs running around at home AND while we were camping, Jenny and Vince had their 2 dogs. So we have been in dog heaven these past 2 weeks. And every time Elia sees one of them, I mean EVERY TIME, she says dooooog. At one point while we were camping the dogs were running around with their frisbee and she just said dogdogdogdogdogdog. It really is so cute. But now she is calling everything DOG. Cousin Phoebe was a dog, any animal she sees in a book or outside is a dog, etc. I will have pictures maybe a video to post soonly.

Words, what are they worth?

If a picture is a worth a 1000 words, what's a word worth? And what would be the value of a video in respect to words? I am of the opinion that some words are priceless, and timeless. That being said can a picture have value if a word is priceless? We have great speeches, and lines from important people that will continue on long after their legacy, but first words are even more important, and even more valuable to the ones who speak them.

G's vocabulary expands on a daily basis and yet it doesn't seem to be enough. This is when it gets tough. She loves to talk, loves learning new words and yet it still is hard for her to communicate, she just doesn't know enough, poor thing. I just wanted to share some of her favorite words and songs...
Colors-she knows almost all the standards ones red, blue, green, orange, yellow,pink, purple, black,
Numbers-she loves 2 4 and five...has problems with 3 and 1 is just boring...who wants just one anyway.
Body parts- only a couple she doesn't know....and that's okay she can wait on those.
More yes and no are standards and she uses them well, hello goodbye blow kisses are all favorites as well.
Songs are by far one of her favorite things to do. Her new favorite is "IF all the raindrops were.." she loves the "ahhh ahh" part. Twinkle twinkle is another of her faves she puts her hands in the air and gives some twinkle fingers. Wheels on the bus has been a staple for a long time and never gets old, she knows all the little hand parts. Hokey Pokey, this one is hilarious she now has it down pat, every part of the dance, and always wants "more". Her "more" is hilarious she puts 1 finger up in front of her mouth and says "more" and moves her hand up and down. Usually she means she just wants another song. We probably need to get some Barney, Raffi/ other children's song cd's cause I'm a little rusty on them and getting a little tired of the ones i know. We'll get a video of the song cycle up soon.