Abrisa is 2 1/2 and Daxton is 4 1/2 months. How and why does time go so fast, especially when you have babies or kids!! I want it to slow down. How will I do it, when they are all 'growed' up. I will miss them. I miss Abrisa. I miss her babyness, if that makes sense. She is such a sweet girl. She is a girl who loves to have fun. She loves to play outside. If we stayed outside all day, she would be happy. She loves preschool. She is so funny to watch going into school...but it makes me realize she is growing up. She isn't a baby anymore. She is a toddler and is turning into a 'little girl'. She loves her little brother....who she calls 'baby dax' ...i love hearing her say it. She will kiss him and talk to him! He loves watching her. He will watch her and laugh and smile. If he is in a fussy mood all I have to do is put Abrisa in front of him and he is entertained. He is in love. He is a big boy. He weighs almost 17 pounds at 4 months. I've really chunked him up!! He still doesn't want to sleep through the night. He may wake up 2 or 3 times...I think he just misses me and wants to see me. He is always smiling and happy, unless he is hungry or tired. He is such a joy to my life. I was so worried what it would be like with 2 kids. I didn't think I could do it. The first week I had him home I would cry uncontrollably because I was overwhelmed. But I now cannot even remember life without him. I am in love with him !!

It was Bound to Happen

well...it was gonna happen. I've been terrible about writing anything. So....I'm thinking that I'll take a leave of absence during the summer or maybe just write a couple times a month, because we are just so busy during the summer.

What's New:
-Abrisa dances non-stop! It must be something that babies just know how to do. They must be born with the will to dance or the want to bust a move. I used to sing or listen to music and dance with her when she was a tiny little thing, but it would mostly be soft swaying, so they have to be born with it. We have a radio that goes throughout our house (in each room) and right when you turn it on she starts dancing. She has several moves. One is kind of like the sprinkler. She will move one arm from side to side as she is holding it straight out in front of her and also shaking her head (like she is saying no) at the same time. This one is my favorite. She will also just bend her knees and bounce to the music. Another dance move she will do is just a simple tap of the foot. She is a great dancer. When Shaff's phone rings she starts dancing immediately. It must be her favorite song.
-When my mom comes over and then leaves Abrisa will cry her eyes out. I'm like HELLO, I birthed you!!! She loves her gramama.
-She likes to throw a good temper tantrum several times a day. Just out of the blue, she'll just throw her body back and start crying. If I take something away from her or she runs out of milk or snacks ....or whatever. She'll look at me and throw her body on the ground, blind and backwards. I feel like she is thinking, "here you go mom, you chose this. i didn't want to get upset, but i'll hurt my own self because of what you did. i'll show you. i'll hurt myself and then you'll feel terrible for what you've done". Surely she's not thinking this.
-She wants to be outside at all times. When we come inside, she cries like a crazy!

Are You Joking?

Abrisa and I had to take her da-da (Shaff) lunch the other day because he was so busy and wasn't going to get to eat if we didn't. The only time I could take him lunch was pretty early, right after Abrisa ate breakfast and drank her morning milk. So we found some food for him and headed to his work. Abrisa was being extra quiet in the car, which was odd because she is usually singing or talking back there. So I look back at her and ask her if she's okay. She doesn't respond :). Sooo....we are almost to the school and I look back at her again and she projectile vomits all the milk she had drank. It was everywhere!! awesome. So I drop the food off and head home. Poor sweet girl!!
I put her in her bed because she was pretty tired and ready for a nap after that crazy outing. So, I go back to my car and it smelled absolutely unbelievably terrible. I'm sure you can imagine!! Thrown-Up Milk in a Hot Car. MMMmmmm Good! So I have to get the carseat out and take it all apart and it says you can only hand wash the cover. GREAT! At this time, I am feeling like this has never happened to anyone else in the whole world. I do my best to hand wash it....I use a TON of detergent!! I let it all dry out and put it back in the car. The next day, we get in the car and it still smells like milk vomit! So I decide to head to the car wash. It's the one at 71st and Sheridan...they do a great job! I tell them what happened and they get to work. I wait inside in the crazy gift shop and their is this woman in there. She has two kiddos and she starts talking to me. She was very nice, but I felt like everything she was saying was a lie. All the stuff she was saying was outrageous. Anyway, then she decides it's time to breastfeed her son. Let me just paint this picture for you....we are at a carwash....where a ton of dudes are there washing cars and coming in and out of the gift shop! She pulls her shirt up and just begins to nourish her baby. I mean, I'm all for breastfeeding!!! But, did she realize she could pump and put the milk in a bottle so they men weren't all looking at her! It was bizarre!!!

Learning to be a Mother

Abrisa doesn't like anything.....no food will do. I have made her so many different types of food this week that she has turned away, it's not even funny. I will make her something and she won't even put it in her mouth to try it. I know she's starving...I know it!! Although, if you look at her she doesn't look like she misses a meal. Sometimes, I'll just shove a piece of 'whatever I've made at the moment' in her mouth to see if maybe she'll taste it and then realize how delicious it is. ...but no, she'll spit it right out!

Food she will eat: carrots, but only if they are mush like baby food. hummus, but only a few bites. eggs. toast with jelly. applesauce. yogurt. well that's about it. She hates everything else. I mean, I'm sure she wouldn't turn away a nice big cookie or a huge piece of chocolate cake, but come on!! I did make her a smoothie kinda thing today though and I slipped some vegetables in it and she had no idea!!

It's funny, when you have an infant, you have to learn how to take care of them. You have to learn how and what to feed them. You have to learn how to give them a nap and put them to sleep. You have to do a routine so they'll get comfortable with what is happening. Then, right when you get everything down and you feel awesome about it....and you feel like you're possibly the best mom that was ever created----BAM! --they get a little older and everything changes. They start throwing little tantrums (for no reason at all--just out of the blue), they don't like anything you make them to eat, they hit you (ya!! not kidding--she usually laughs after she hits me, not sure what it's about). So, I am having to go through a whole new learning experience. I guess now that she is 1, she thinks she is supposed to be all grown up or something.

But even if she does hit me or not like any of my food or even if she didn't like me, I would still love her more than anyone. I would love her more than ever. She is my sweetness and she is why I get to be a mother. I feel like sometimes I take it for granted....I know there are people out there that wish they could be mothers or could have been mothers ....I just feel so happy that I get to be a mother. It is the greatest thing I've ever experienced.

Riding Around in Boxes

This weekend we played and played and played. I thought I'd show you a few videos of Abrisa's new favorite thing to do. Besides taking everything out of every cabinet in the house, she loves to ride around in boxes. I emptied a new box of diapers and she was kind of looking at the box and kind of playing with it and I thought it would be fun for her to get in it. So I put her in the box and then tied a rope (actually a work-out band) around the front of the box and started pulling her around. She wasn't smiling while I was pulling her around, but several times when I would stop she would get upset. In one of the videos, she says her favorite word, "baby"...although it comes out "ba-ba".

Walking Baby

Abrisa has been half walking/ half crawling for the past couple of weeks. Right after she turned "1" she has been doing both. Her walking has been very wobbly though. She'd take a couple, four, eight steps and then lose her balance and go down to crawling. Yesterday and the day before she has been really working hard at the walking thing! Today, she said, "I'm done with crawling"!! She has walked non-stop today. No crawling unless it's absolutely imperative. When she would lose her balance, she would get really mad at herself and make a grrr sound. And when she would try to stand back up, she would have to really use her leg muscles and really grrrrrrrrunt! It's really funny! I can't believe my sweet little angel baby is walking. I thought she would be a newborn baby forever!

BaThTiMe

Taking baths for Abrisa used to be one of her favorite things in the whole world. When she was tiny tiny (like a month old) she loved baths. I would lay her in the bath on this blue spongy thing shaped like a turtle and she would lay there and almost fall asleep. It was so calming to her, I guess. Well, lately she has been flipping out in the bath. Two nights ago Shaff came home while she was in the bath and she was so excited to see him and wanted to get out and hug him that she slipped and hit her face on the side of the tub. ... a little blood came out of her nose. We were flipping out! Shaff was like, 'did she break her nose...oh great!!' although, he didn't really say 'oh great'...he used a different word other than great. :) ..... so if she likes a bath, it's a rare occassion. Tonight she loved it....don't know why! Everything was funny to her.