It's so hard to believe that we are almost half way finished with 2012!  Seanna's 4th birthday is rapidly approaching and she is planning her party already.  It's been a busy spring for all of us and no exception with Seanna.  She took a trip to see her Grandmother Kathryn a few weeks back in Tucson and played with her cousins and her sister for a few days.  She LOVES airplane rides too and is an amazing traveller.  A few weeks later, she and mommy were able to spend just some mommy /daughter time together as she accompanied me back to Ohio for Baby B's 1st bday party.  We spent several days in Ohio visiting friends and family.  It was wonderful and a very special bonding time for us both.  We returned and we began her swimming lessons again (same Coach as last year) but this year she was the "leader" of her group and did amazingly well with her pulls and is able to do breast stroke and breath an entire length of the pool.  She is passionate about swimming and tennis and I honestly believe one of these sports may be in her future.  She has also signed up for soccer league this year and we are excited to see how she does.  The two weeks of swim lessons are over and she passed with flying colors.  She even got to hold Coach Mike's Gold Medal that he won for the 1500 m freestyle back when he was a freshman in college!  Pretty cool.  Last person to see the medal was Sir Paul McCartney!!  Awesome if I do say so myself.

School year is winding down and she is ready to be out for the summer.  We are working on her letters and numbers and it was pretty cool to watch her write her very own name a few months back.  She is smart as a whip and loves to read and is equally a jokester like her sister (who is only 17 months now but tries to keep up with her every move)!

2012 and moving quickly

Oh boy!! We are all SOOO happy to see 2011 end as it was quite a year filled with too many challenges for us.  We welcomed 2012 in style and embracing our new goals for the upcoming year.  To wrap up 2011, the flood in our home ended up being about a 4 month process.  We lived on concrete and without furniture right up until the week before Xmas.  We lived at home during the entire process as it was too hard for the girls to live in a hotel and so we braved out the dust and grime!  Everything is back in place now and we are having alot of fun.

Halloween the girls dressed as matching pirates (thanks to a friend of mine that made their costumes) and they looked so cute they made the local paper!!  Matching outfits has become a very important thing to Seanna so we have to whittle it down to similar styles and perhaps similar colors :).  

She is doing really well in school and loving all of  her teachers and classmates.  Sunshine's sister celebrated her one year bday and mommy turned another year older right around the Thanksgiving holiday.  We went back to Ohio for Thanksgiving so little sis could meet alot of the extended family that are unable to travel.  We were hoping upon our return that the home would be complete with flooring, but unfortunately that did not happen!

The Christmas holiday was wonderful too as we stayed home as Wes was on call for the Xmas weekend so we had a very low key morning followed by alot of friends opening their homes to share the date with us since we weren't able to travel to our familes homes.  

We had a huge party on New Years Day to celebrate our home being back together and start 2012 on the right foot.  We had 40+ folks here and tons of kids, jump house and lots and lots of food.  Everyone stayed until late into the evening and want it now to be an annual tradition.  :)  (I haven't broken it to them yet that next year someone else will have to host).  

Sunshine is getting so incredibly tall and her feet are growing along with it.  We've cut her hair in super cute bob and thinking that she might start to play tennis in a group setting here very soon (her sister is DYING to play with her and that's going to be a whole different challenge ).  We've made up her class V-day flowers (instead of cards) and looking forward to her party at school.  

Hope all is well with all of you!!

Us 

Falling into Fall!

Life (as many mommies warned me) continues to get busier and busier with each day. No matter how prepared I am for the week, I can never quite catch up!!  Seanna started back to school again and is loving it.  She is doing even better this year now that she has the routine down and even has a little pack of friends (I've been told by the teacher that she is the ring leader).  It's quite funny to see these four little girls all together.  The kids all get super excited when I come in to pick her up with her baby sister...  Even though she loves hanging out with these little girls, sometimes I pick her up and she is hanging by herself as well.  Not only that, but she normally makes me wait anywhere from 20-40 minutes until she feels that she is done playing.  

We are all getting ready around here too for Halloween.  She decided that she wanted to be a pirate this year so she and her sister have matching tutu's being made right now.  Can't wait to see how they turn out.  We are going to trick or treat again with the same crew as last year.  Should be fun for all!!!!!!  


We unfortunately had ANOTHER flood in our house and are going to lose all of the hardwood floors downstairs and have a huge project ahead of us to get the house back on track.  We've been in and out of the house due to construction stuff and have been put on hold for a few days while they order some supplies.  

She is still absolutely in love with her sister and still loves to mess with her whenever she can.  They have a ritual each night of playing outside after dinner and love to play in the toy cars (Seanna drives and Nola tries to chase after her on foot).  It's very fun to watch.  Seanna has an extremely STRONG personality which is sometimes a challenge to manage but it's also extremely charming when she wants to be.  She is definitely one of the smartest three year olds I've met (of course I'm a bit biased).  


Happy Halloween and Fall to you all!

Summer 2011 almost coming to an end!

It has been such a wonderful summer hanging out with the girls all summer long.  We did lots of fun things together as a family.  We were invited a few weeks ago with some friends to their cabin in Crestline and Seanna had her very first experience with the mountains and also staying in the same room as a friend (her version of a sleepover at age 3).  She had a blast and was so sad to head back home again.

Right now, Seanna and Wes are in Arizona visiting his mom (Grandmother).  I'm sure they are having a great time.  Little Blu and I stayed back to take care of Axel and hold the fort down. It's so quiet around here and no one is asking a million questions of me about "How does that work, or Why did I do that??"  etc. I really miss them both terribly.  They will be back before the weekend comes.

Seanna's has become an amazing swimmer over the summer as well.  She now loves to leap off of things into the water, can dive down to the bottom of the pool to retrieve things and can do summersaults in the water all by herself.  It's really amazing to watch.  She is teaching herself how to breath above water while she is using her big arms too.  I have to say swimming might be in that little girl's future--she sometimes wants to swim twice a day!  She and Axel have spent many summer days out in the pool and she throws the ball in for him and then jumps in the water so she can see his legs swimming under the water with her pink goggles.  We even had to put a portable potty outside because she could not be bothered with coming inside if she actually needs to use the rest room!  :)))  Crazy girl!

School is starting up again next week.  Not sure we will start her until the following week since traveling takes so much out of her.

A few weeks ago we had a mommy and Seanna day and we went to her very first movie theater.  She did great--it was the dollar theater so I wasn't sure about the movie that we went too and learned alot about even though it's a "G" rated movie it can still be scary.  She saw Astro Boy and I have to say she did wonderfully well for her first flick.  She got a booster seat and everything--we only needed one small break but she was determined to see the whole show.

Finally, I have to say how proud I am of her for what a fantastic big sister she has become.  She really loves her little sister and even though she loves to control her toys and when little Blu gets to play with them, she takes great pride in being a big sister.  It's one of my favorite things to do is watch the two of them interact in the play room together.  Their laughs are amazing and when we had an impromptu dance party in the family room the other night--they both were laughing uncontrollably and begging to dance more-mommy, more!!

Hope you all are having a great summer too!

The world is spinning by this year!

It's hard to believe that our little Sunshine is already 3 years old as of yesterday!  She is absolutely an amazing little girl and is so happy to have a new little sister.  We finished school at the beginning of the month and have been hanging out together alot these last few weeks.  We've been going to lots of parks, the library, swimming a ton and making lots of new friends.  Her vocabulary is almost at a scary level as sometimes I actually have to stop and remind myself that she is only 3 years old.

We had a great Father's Day and were planning on enjoying a bbq with friends (although due to an unexpected leak in our kitchen it ended up being quite a big ordeal.  Although the day ended up being a super fun day with lots of friends food and swimming!

The following weekend was daddy's bday and we celebrated with cooking some steaks on the grill and celebrating with some family and friends.  The next day we had Sunshine's bday party a week early so that she could have some fun with all of her friends since we were going to be out of town with other friends on her actual bday.  We hosted a zoo cupcake decorating party complete with aprons to decorate, and zoo hats too.  The kids swam in the pool and decorated lots of cupcakes to end the day with some pizza and a sugar high :)!

For the actual bday, we were in Carlsbad at the Hyatt and could not believe how much fun they made it for the entire family.  Sunshine swam every day with her friends and jumped in the free jump house, colored flags and made sun visor hats for her dad.  She ran around with friends at night during our in prompt too pizza party on the lawn and she got to see her first firework show this year as she could stay up late enough to see them.  Although she liked them, she was very happy when the loud noises were finished!  Hope you all had a great 4th and are having a wonderful summer!

Happy Belated Easter and Early Mother's Day!

We are so blessed by these two little ones and they make us laugh daily!  We had a wonderful Easter together and did the annual Easter Egg Hunt at the club (had a new hunter though this year :) and it was better than ever!  (By the way, Seanna ONLY picked up pink ones during the egg hunt.  All other colors were ignored which is very out of character for her and one of her best friends did EXACTLY the same thing!!  Too funny  :) We celebrated with two other families and enjoyed a day of food, festivities and fun all around. The kids had a blast playing on the golf course and the dad's even stumbled on a second easter egg hunt and took them to that one as well.  Looks like we might have an annual tradition beginning!!  


I was invited to Seanna's school today for a Mommy and Me tea that was the most amazing thing I have ever seen.  I walked out onto the playground and could not believe my eyes.  It had been transformed into a beautiful garden for all mommies to enjoy.  Seanna chose my outfit and also made special placemat where I was seated.  


We talk about her tummy mommy every day as well and want you to know that you and all the grandmas and mothers are celebrated on this day as well.  We found a poem (and changed it a bit) to tell you how grateful we are to you for choosing us to raise her.  You have truly given us a gift we can not repay.  
So please allow us to send you this note to know how special you and your family are to us as well on this special day.




We have a bond, dear birthmother and I,
It’s the love of a child, we can't deny.
You are a blessing from afar,
To send to us your bright, shining star.
Her journey to us would not have occurred, if your love for her had ever swerved.
I thank you this day from the bottom of my heart, a sacrifice to one, to another a fresh start. 
This start includes honor to you, as you are the birthmother, twill always be true.
I will treasure my blessing every day, and pray you'll be there, so I may thank you again.


Love to all,


Us

Starting to actually like her new sister

Well, it's been almost 5 months since the new baby came home and Seanna is finally realizing that she is here to stay.  The baby is beginning to motor around now and smile as well as laugh out loud.  Finally Seanna realizes that she's not just a ton of work but can actually be fun too!  Seanna is asking to "hold" the baby and help feed her--we have somewhat moved past the whole baby does that so I will too phase (hopefully).  Seanna thinks that she is a really big girl now --which in reality she is becoming.  She has gone through a few growth spurts recently and is now more than half my size.  She is wearing a size 7 shoe and wearing 4T clothes already.

She will be finishing up school soon for the summer and has been in swim lessons again for this year. These are more refresher lessons in an attempt to get her ready for some (she actually forgot how to swim over the winter and was a bit paranoid of the water).

She has made alot of friends lately and gets funnier by the day.  You never know what incredible statement will come out of her mouth at any given moment. Her memory is almost scary as she very rarely forgets anything.

Hope all is well with all of you!

Crazy Girl!

 

Crazy girl!

[Image]Seanna's personality is coming out in full force now.  She is LOVING her new preschool classroom and I'm pretty sure the teachers on on their heels with her because she is giving them a run for their money daily.  She is OBSESSED with reading books and does it for hours--at night she sings and reads herself to sleep. Her newest thing is telling us that there are 7 days in the week.  She can count to 20, knows her ABCs and several, several songs and recites tons of fairy tale poems by heart.  She has an extremely strong personality and will test you to the limits if she knows she can take an inch --she will take 10 more.

[Image]She is a really good, good girl and loves her new sister.  She helps with baths in the evening and if she spits up or is crying she is the first one to tell us about it.

This weekend we went to a party where the Lizard Wizard was the main attraction and Seanna held several snakes and also brushed a pet turtle.  I'm not even sure her dad wanted to hold the snakes :)

She LOVES the bear that you gave her and we really appreciated it.

[Image]Love to all...

Growing up soooo fast!

The last few weeks have been an absolute blur with Seanna's progress.  We had a number of visitors to our house (Wes' parents for one week, followed the next day with a visit from my dad--aka Grandpa Nick).  Immediately following my dad's visit,  Seanna and Nola both got sick--Seanna with a double ear infection and Nola with a bad cold.  Seanna decided that week that she was going to start sleeping in her "blue room" which is her big girl bedroom and hasn't looked back since.  She loves everything about it and actually asks to go to sleep now!  We have transitioned Nola into the crib!  This past week, Seanna decided that she was going to start going poop on the potty (a few weeks ago I pulled her diapers and she has been wearing big girl underwear since then).  She is completely potty trained except for #2 which over the past few days we have had some success with!!  She is also been attending actual Pre-School this past week as she has outgrown her other classroom and is soooo excited to go into this new one.  She is growing up soo fast it's almost scary.  We unfortunately also learned some very sad news this past week as Wes' dad passed away suddenly after his visit to our house.  We are all suffering a great loss for a super wonderful man.  He will be greatly missed by all of us.  :(  We know he is in a better place now watching out for us all...

Survived the Holidays!

We now have a new addition to the family and she is already 8 weeks old.  She was born right before Thanksgiving so needless to say we ended up having a take-out turkey dinner this year.  Seanna had her homemade applesauce and a few other wonderful items that she loved (although her very favorite was the pumpkin pie which with her gluten allergy she should not really have but it was the holidays and she needed some extra attention)!  She also had her very first Holiday show with school where she performed "We wish you a Merry Xmas" in front of a very large audience.  Although she knew the song well and sang in the car almost daily she decided to "sit this one out"when it came to the actual performance --but she did sit with her class during it and looked super cute up there on that big stage!

We also enjoyed a lovely Xmas this year too as we stayed home on the actual day but celebrated Xmas Eve with friends and an Italian Meatball Dinner.  The kids all made Santa Cookies for when he came to their homes later that evening and we all stayed out way too late.  Christmas day was lovely too as we made a big beautiful ham dinner with lots of trimmings and opened presents slowing for most of the day (in between bottle feedings, naps and diaper changes).  :)  New Years was also very quite and Seanna, Wes and I celebrated New York New Year and she thought it was the greatest thing ever that there was a party on TV!  New Years Day we had friends over to watch football and eat rueben pizza and other traditional dishes.  The house was a mess afterwards but we sure had a great day!  Seanna woke up and went to her play room the next day and said "someone needs to clean this up!"  Yes, our little one likes things in their places and do not mess up her areas :!

Seanna is getting used to having a new sister although I think she realized the other day that she is here to stay and was not so excited about it.  When I changed the photos in the hallway to reflect the new Holiday photos she told me "I don't like them!"  Oh boy, here we goooo!  She is an absolute doll though and her personality is as sweet as they come.  Her teachers all love her and she seems to be a class favorite.  Her vocabulary is such that the teachers are now telling me that they want to move her up to preschool already at 2.5!  So we will be working on potty training over the next few weeks.  We have some additional family members coming into town so I will be asking them for some assistance as well.  She has not moved into her big girl room yet, but that is right around the corner as well.  

Hope everyone is doing well and we love and miss all of you!

Happy Thanksgiving and Several Celebrations

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to update the blog.  I feel like I apologize in each posting, but we think of all of you often and it's getting more and more difficult to have time to do sit and write.  Seanna had a wonderful time "trick or treating" this year at some friends homes a few minutes away.  She was a bumble bee that evening and could not believe that you could go door to door and get candy!  She was hillarious--I actually tried to make sure she was saying thank you at one home, but when I asked her what does she say, she answered "more candy at the next house"!  :0  She is doing amazing well in school and has learned to count 1-20 and knows her ABCs!  She is singing songs on a regular basis and has regressed in her eating and only likes a few items now that she is well into her two year old stage.

She also is having a wonderful Thanksgiving and learning all about being a new big sister!  Her new sister arrived last Thursday and is keeping all of us very, very busy.   Seanna is an amazing sister and we did prepare her very well for her sister's arrival.  She likes getting the big sister presents and likes sharing her TV programs (yo gabba, gabba) etc with her sister.

She is napping now but earlier we all went to the park and will be having Thanksgiving dinner when she wakes from her nap.  We wish all of you a wonderful Turkey Day and hope you are celebrating with family, friends and football!

Love to all,

H

First Day of School (again)

We just returned from Ohio yesterday afternoon (Seanna and I) and went to visit my side of the family.  It was a crazy trip as always trying to see everyone in a short period of time and still attempt to keep Seanna on some type of schedule.  It was a wonderful visit and Seanna enjoyed every minute of the trip (including the plane rides as she thinks that is one of the best parts of traveling).  We were both exhausted yesterday and even though she woke up at 330am we decided to still try her first day of school today.  Taking a step back, we did enroll her in a different school a few weeks back and after a few visits I decided that it was not the right place for her.  Today, I absolutely, 100% felt that we made the right choice in changing schools.  She was sooo tired by the start of the school day I wasn't sure how she was going to do--she stopped crying and when I picked her up at 11am she FLEW into my arms and said "MOMMY I HAD FUN!!"  That might be my second proudest mommy moment with her!!  So needless to say she is doing great.  She will be going 3 days a week, part time and I think she is going to LOVE it.  She is already counting to 10 by herself, knows colors and her talking is beyond advanced for her age.  Her memory is amazing as I told her that I was going to the grocery store while she was at school today and when I picked her up she asked "All done grocery store?"  :)  Thank goodness I actually went as she asked to see the groceries when we arrived home.

Her eczema has really made some progress as she was diagnosed with a gluten allergy by the alternative medicine doctor and she is doing AMAZING!  We still have flair ups but we treat them quickly and we've pulled out most (she still sneaks cookies here and there) out of her diet.

She is growing like a weed and wearing close to size 4 clothes, she is almost in a size 6 shoe and growing by the day.

Hope all of you are well and enjoy some of these photos!  PS  I have located the button that allows readers to make comments and enabled it so I'm sure that Seanna would love to hear from her family and friends!!

xoxo

Summer Fun

Seanna has been swimming at least once a day and sometimes twice.  She ABSOLUTELY LOVES swimming.  It's amazing to see her amazing progress and as a matter of fact tonight she actually dove head first into the pool and swam to Wes.  We have been working on also clearing up her eczema issues that have been absolutely horrible. She had such severe breakouts that she looked as though she had chicken pox from her head to her toes.  We finally decided to take her to an Eastern Medicine doctor who was performing accupressure on her as well as some accupuncture.  He diagnosed her with a gluten allergy and we have pulled all of that from her diet as well.  She is doing FABULOUSLY and seems to have even MORE energy than she normally does.  Her talking has exploded and she is stringing words together and we have full conversations all the time.  She asks to read books nightly and is actually going to be starting her first day of Pre-Preschool tomorrow.  She is also able to sing Twinkle Twinkle on her own, Birthday Songs etc.  She is learning her colors and learning to count as well.  Today we went on the Watermelon Tour at Tanaka Farms even though it was extremely hot she had a blast!  This is a photo of her taking a dance class that my friend teaches down the street from our home (not sure dancing class is her thing but she enjoyed trying it).

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

Happy Birthday #2!

Soo many things have been happening since our last post.  Seanna has almost graduated from her swimming classes (she is an AMAZING swimmer now and begs us to swim almost daily).  We unfortunately had to take her for her 1st trip to the ER (swimming caused her to exert so much energy and water that she needed an enema to clear her out).  She is talking a million miles a minute and using so many phrases that Wes and I can barely keep up.  Her eczema has been giving us fits as it appears and comes on horribly strong.  We are back on some strong medication to clear it up right now.  She had an attack while we were on family vacation with all of my family so she was able to spend her birthday with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc.  We also celebrated Wes' 40th birthday and spent.  We finally returned and will spend this weekend with Wes' family celebrating the life of his grandmother that passed back in January.  Next week, she will take her test to possibly pass the swimming classes that she has been taking so that she will be considered "water safe" for her age.  She really is doing wonderfully and still loves harassing Axel every night.  Those two are best friends!  She throws the ball for him for hours and he loves every minute of it.

Hope all is well with all of you and you're enjoying your summer!

XOXO

Long over Due-So Sorry! :)

I finally have a few minutes to sit down and write an update.  So much has been going on it's amazing!  Wes and I went away for a few days (locally) and Wes' parents and Grandad Henry watched Seanna at our home.  She had a BLAST with all of them and played her little heart out.  I think she even surprised them with how much she is talking these days.  She is beginning to link 2, 3 and 64 words together at a time. She understands everything and really could be a stand up comedian.  We have been going to alot of Gymboree (music classes are over for the time being--Seanna did not enjoy them as much this time around) and have been doing Disneyland, various parks and Pretend City quite a bit.  Seanna loves swinging on the swings, going down the big girl slide (the faster the better) she is a really fast runner, starting to throw balls and learning to swing a bat on a t-ball.  She can dribble a soccer ball and her favorite game is "go-go" which is a Gymboree thing where we sing "go go go--red light, or green light or yellow light".  To see Seanna walk to the yellow light (which means go slowly) is hilarious.  She takes big giant steps and then yells "GO" before the instructor does!  She is a born leader for sure!  

We also started swimming lessons today (those were definitely interesting) and will be going 4 days a week, 20 minutes a day for 8 weeks.  Hopefully by the end, Seanna should be able to swim and float to the edge of a pool and get herself out of the water.  She DID not have so much fun today as she got SUPER angry with the lady and asked her for the full 20 minutes in a loud screaming voice that she was "ALL DONE" and wanted mommy (even though I was sitting on the edge of the pool 2 feet away).  We are having alot of trouble with her skin lately as her eczema has gone crazy and she has been on medication for about 10 days as of last week. It seems to have cleared up except for her face area.  I'm working on her diets since we've had her tested for food and outdoor allergies and nothing has come up positive yet.  Hope all is well with everyone--love to all!

Happy Easter

As always, it 's been hectic around here.  Seanna's 2 year molars are FINALLY coming in and giving her (us) less trouble. We had a really fun St Patrick's Day and party with some of our local friends and their kids.  Seanna dressed in her "little monster" shirt that Wes brought back from Boston and we put her hair in pigtails.  She enjoyed running around with all the other kids and eating alot of green candy and cupcakes that she isn't normally allowed to eat.  The following morning we took off for Pismo Beach to see Wes' grandpa John that has been in the hospital.  As usual, Pismo is such a wonderful spot and we all enjoyed ourselves (except for Seanna's waking habits at 2am and 4am and not going back to bed).  The best evening of all was one that we spent swinging on swings that were located right on the sand and then we dressed and went upstairs to enjoy a sunset meal with some musicians.  Seanna clapped LOUDLY and cheered after each song and the performers could not have been happier!  What a lovely day we had together.  


Lately, she is beginning to do a little better on her eating and is starting to actually play with other kids vs doing the parallel play.  ELMO has surpassed Yo Gabba Gabba as her new favorite character and she is really into anything that is transportation related these days-trucks, cars, trains etc.  She loves them all...  

We are looking forward to a fun Easter with some friends locally. Friday we have a picnic to attend, Saturday we have an Easter Egg Hunt planned with some other little bunnies and then we will cook up a big meal on Sunday and attend sunrise service.  Happy Easter to all!!!


PS  On the right is a shot of Seanna after she opened my mascara and attempted to put it on (all without me seeing).  She is telling me she did nothing wrong here....  :)

Sickness Sickness go away!

Rough, rough week around here!!  Seanna is being tested for various allergies, and has her i teeth coming in and has a HORRIBLE sinus infection.  Her wake up time has been 4am the last several days and is having a terrible time deciding what she wants to eat these days as it seems as though her taste buds are changing hourly.  

On the flip side, her vocabulary is exploding again and there are many funny stories with regard to this. Her newest words are "cop car, happy, down, oatmeal, diaper, pancake, water, nanas (bananas), heart, and bummer (this is the word where the funny story comes into play).  She has also figured out how to "unlock" all the baby proof latches for all the doors and drawers-errrr!!!!!  

So the funny story, is that we were in the allergist office and we had been to Disneyland earlier all day.  She played in the office for a few minutes and told the doctor "All done"  and I laughed and explained that we would be leaving in a few minutes.  We had a few more of these and finally we were out the door.  I allowed her to have one sucker since she was so wonderful during the visit.  She felll down while she was eating it and yelled out "DUMMER" , "DUMMER"  I said , I don't know what you're saying, but are you ok? A little girl in the waiting room said "I think she is saying BUMMER".  I laughed so hard and Seanna has been saying it non-stop ever since...  She is growing bigger by the day and we can finally put her hair in pig tails.  She looks so cute and if she holds still long enough I will try to get a photo.  

Love to all...

Vday

Happy belated Vday and hope you had a special one with you loved ones.  Seanna was invited to her very first Vday Party with some of her little friends so here are some photos from the party.  They all exchanged cards and treats and decorated their own bags. The photo of her on the slide is one where she had just demolished a homemade cupcake and still had the remnants on her face.   Seanna is growing like a weed still and her vocabulary is exploding. She is not bath or shower obsessed anymore and seems to be on strike with taking one these days.  It's a fight to get her to take one, but she loves to linger in the shower (after we have turned off the water) and acts as though she is washing herself with the soap and washcloth.  She is really, really into coloring these days as we turned the downstairs guest bedroom into her playroom and I can hardly get her out of the house in the mornings now.  The little girl that had to be out of the house by 8am is disappearing and has been replaced by "the player".  She is actually starting to sleep in a little bit and is seeming to be sleeping in until about 6am these days.  Her bed time has been pushed back to about 7pm as well as her naps which now take place around 11 or 12 and she sleeps til almost 3pm.  We decided to go to Disneyland this week and she had an absolute blast.  Her favorite ride is still Small World so we saved that one until last this time.  We went with her friends Preston and Cornell and she and "P" had a blast.  The next day when they saw each other at Gymboree they gave each other a hug and managed to chase each other full sprint for an entire hour while laughing the entire time.  She is such a little clown and loves to play chase these days.

Sorry the posts are far and few between these days as it's hard to get time to sit and write these days as well and take photos since she doesn't really sit still very long!!

Hugs!

Happy New Year 2010!

This update is looonnggg overdue--when I just logged in and saw my last post was Xmas I couldn't believe how quickly time has passed.  Seanna's vocabulary has exploded lately and she is talking non-stop and stringing words together recently.  She is making friends now and is excited when she gets to see them.  One little girl especially, whose name is Preston, we have nicknamed her "P" so when Seanna is around or sees her she yells "PEEEEEEEEEEEE"  It's so stinkin cute.  She also thinks that all dogs are named Axel so she calls them ALL "Ax" which unfortunately comes out as ASS :(...  try explaining that one in public!!!  She has been getting more teeth recently too so hopefully very, very soon she might be finished teething--that will be a WONDERFUL day.  We've signed back up for Music Class on Friday's and will start that this week.  We're still going to Gymboree several times a week and take her regularly to the park. She is a daredevil when it comes to the slides and can become very obsessive about going up and down the slide many, many times.  She is also very concerned if things "aren't quite so" such as dirt on the floor, or if she drops something--uh ohh is a regular word in her vocabulary.  She is still completely obsessed with rocks (only grey ones) and loves to transfer them from one plastic cup to another.  She also LOVES her baths as night and will sit in them for 45 minutes drinking water from tea cups that are in the bathtub.

Recently, when my mom and James were visiting, we all went to Pretend City in Irvine and I was approached by a woman there and asked if she could film Seanna for a promotional video they were doing for the museum.  They had Seanna finger paint and filmed her doing so (she loved it by the way) and so hopefully sometime soon you might see her on some promotional material for Pretend City or possibly on Cox Cable show as well...  I'll make sure to let you know when I hear something.

Love to all...

Merry Christmas

It's a few days late, but hopefully it was a wonderful celebration for all.  Seanna really enjoyed the holidays this year and I think she is going to be very disappointed when everyone's Christmas lights displays have been taken down and all the decorations put away--the only person she won't miss --SANTA.  She is NOT a big fan of his this year, so we will have to begin working on promoting him a little earlier next year.  She has really begun talking the last two weeks and has even started putting small sentences together--"where's Daddy" and "Bye Bye Jess".  She has even added several words to her vocabulary over the last week-apple (we walked into the grocery store on Saturday and she shouted "APPLE" at the top of her lungs when she saw the apple bin),  Up, Moon (she is obsessed with the moon), mammaw and grama and pappa.  She is really doing great!

Her favorite show on television is Yo Gabba Gabba--she gets to watch a small amount of TV every morning when we're trying to get breakfast ready and get daddy off to work.

Her favorite food--now that is tricky since it seems to be changing from day to day.  She loves to eat our oatmeal in the morning (she now gets her own bowl as she almost eats the entire bowl), she still loves fruit, especially frozen blueberries which are a chocolate mess to serve her, and finally whatever mom and dad are eating is what she wants for dinner.

She is able to run and is extremely coordinated these days.  She is starting to throw a ball and we bought her a tee and bat for Xmas to work on her hand eye coordination.  She is a great climber and problem solver as she has already learned how to scale a ladder at Gymboree and is also able to open the diswasher and climb on the sofas.

Hope everyone is well and had a safe and lovely holiday season.  We would love to hear how you are all doing...