Valentine's Day Sewing

I never posted, far too lazy (I would like to say busy) to upload the photos to actually show what our Valentine's Day sewing project was. The Valentine tutu shirt idea came from a blog I follow, Joy's Hope.

Here's how they turned out:

Naiya's:

And Alexia's:

Ryan and I are not ones to celebrate Hallmark holidays, but I am finding that they are good excuses to sew and create with/for the girls!

I would also like to mention that I will forever remember this Valentine's Day sewing project.

Literally.

I decided to skip hauling out our huge, screeching ironing board, as I thought it was an unneccesary hazard to my little helpers. Well, it turns out that it is indeed quite necessary. I skipped using it to press the applique onto each shirt, and low and behold, I now have the (somewhat) imprint of an iron on our lovely dining table. For the record, I did fold up a towel and place it under the shirts, assuming it would be enough. Ryan lovingly rescued me from self hatred by proclaiming the iron print gave our table "character". So I keep telling myself that every time I am tempted to inspect the burnt table.

In addition to the festivities, we handed out no-bake cookies with personalized goodie bags, an idea from Martha herself. The cookies were a hit! I ended up letting my husband dig into the last bag that I procrastinated giving to one of my neighbors. (I ended up giving her a few gerber daisies instead.)

Happy Knooooooooooooooooooow

Alexia's first song:

(Take One)

(Take Two)

Obviously much more interested in the rocks than performing for me.

Naiya is 9 Months 3.4.10

So much has changed this past month with Naiya. At 9 months she is officially crawling (as of March 13th), which is the exact month Alexia started crawling. It's so crazy to see her on the move. I set her down in one spot, and in no time she's clear across the room. I love seeing the awareness of things and a determination to get a hold of something, that have accompanied her crawling.

(sidenote: if you listen to Alexia, you can hear her running away and saying, "back!" She does this every time she leaves a room and intends on being right back. In this video she is set on getting Naiya a "tockle" (sock) for Naiya.)

Naiya is still proving to be a laid back baby. So much so, that she woke up from a couple naps with her right eye crusted shut and when I took her into the pediatrician I found out she had pink eye AND a double ear infection! I felt so caught off guard with the ear infection (okay, and slightly negligent), because she never showed any sign of not feeling well. And I can assure you we all would have known if Alexia was the one with the ear infection. Alexia is what we lovingly call our baby that is very in tune with her emotions. And she can cry (which actually sounds like a long, drawn-out scream) like it's nobody's business. But it's amazing to Ryan and I how different the girls are. Each uniquely designed!

This is a common face Naiya has been making recently. It's like she has lock jaw or something. It's hysterical to us though.

This is a trademark Ryan hold, I used to go bonkers when he would do this with Alexia, but somehow the girls love it (much to my chagrin):

Naiya is still in 3-6 month clothing, but on the verge of needing to wear 6-9 months. She still has very little hair, and the hair that she does have, nicely forms a mohawk. She has followed her sister in putting everything in her mouth. I hear of some babies never going through that stage, and I find it almost impossible to comprehend. Alexia is still infatuated with putting things in her mouth. She doesn't necessarily try to eat things anymore, but she loves chomping on rocks, acorns, coins, and her tiny hair ties, but she's very open about it and will run up to me and say, "mouth", or "ah", and stick out her tongue to show me what she put in her mouth.

Naiya completely skipped over the whole pureed food stage. It only took a couple refusals to eat oatmeal and one puke session of mashed potatoes for me to throw in the towel with spoon feeding her. I just don't have the patience for it this time around. So I've happily accepted her desire to eat finger foods. The variety is pretty slim: Graduate puffs (I'm not really one for store-bought convenience baby food, but Sam's Club has great prices!), wheat crackers, wheat bread, peas, roasted and cubed sweet potato, and Grandma just discovered Naiya's love for pesto pasta w/ broccoli. I'm still nursing Naiya six times a day. I just recently spent a few nights weaning her from her feeding in the middle of the night, and then she got her ear infection and was up at night again. I'm such a sucker when the girls are sick. So sleepless nights have become the norm again. I've lost count of how many times Naiya has gone back and forth with sleeping through the night. But I will admit that I enjoy the middle of the night feed and the first of the morning feed, because Naiya is not normally a snuggler, but those two feedings she is so tired she just falls asleep on my chest.

My only complaint about Naiya is the daily occurrence of pooping out of her diaper. Often it's twice a day. OxiClean is my best friend. I've started buying it in bulk. I have two buckets (one for whites, one for colored) that soak soiled clothes, and they never seem to be empty.

Here's a comparison photo of the girls at nine months:

Alexia is 21 Months 02.22.10

I can hardly picture Alexia as a baby anymore. When I look at newborn pictures, it's almost impossible for me to believe she was that little! (And she was little, weighing in at 6 pounds and 1 ounce.) It's so hard to remember back to those days because she has so much personality now, and is running all over the place with her own agenda. Here are the few photos BEFORE I was able to get her to sit still. She loves to draw and color:

Looking oh so studious. But really, she is purposely trying to ignore me:

More often than not, she puts her finger in her mouth for photo opps. Look for it in other pictures, you'll start to notice the trend:

Taking Alexia's picture is becoming quite the challenge. As soon as she sees the camera, she starts pointing and whining at the camera because she wants to look at the pictures. I need to brush up on my paparazzi skills.

Some of the things I see on a daily basis are:

Bedtime Routines:

• she loves books with flaps. She'll actually cry if I try to read a book without flaps. Her two favorites are from Grandma, The Old/New Testament Learning Books (she's so spiritual, I know)
• she will get upset if I don't let her kiss Naiya before I put them to sleep
• she still likes to go over facial features right before I put her in her crib, she recently learned where her heart is
• obsessed with her "bankie" (blanket), it goes with us in the car, and one end of the blanket has a know in it (came like that) and she searches for it and says, "knot?", and when she finds it, instead of using words, she makes a noise that mimics how I say, "here it is!", she sucks her right thumb and rubs the palm of her left hand back and forth over the knot

Playtime:

• now enjoys going straight for the toy basket and dumping out all of the toys at once
• loves playing in puddles
• loves to watch and help us in the kitchen. She'll even haul the step stool in for herself
• likes throwing and kicking soccer balls out back
• when we tell her "we're going to go", she sprints to her room and brings back her coat, and sometimes her shoes and socks

Language (these are all the words she has come up with Alexia-style):

• "mo-mo": another (if she sees a duplicate of something)
• "peeeeee-ease": please (the elongated "e" for "sugar on top" emphasis, I'm sure)
• "bo!": bless you
• "bo": says this whenever she hurts herself or falls (or sees someone else do the same)
• pronounces her f's with a p (true filipino style); so "frog" is "pog"; she even copied Grandma who was trying to get her to pronounce fish with an f, by saying, "fffffffffffffff-pish"
• words that are off limits for us to say to her unless we are ready to follow through at that moment (a.k.a. meltdown triggers): bath, walk, go, cookie, cracker, juice
• "yah-yah": she finally says her own name!
• "tockle": sock

Personality:

• pretty standoff-ish with new people or a crowd
• very skittish, gets scared easily by loud noises, still pretty cautious
• won't let either of us go down the stairs without her, she holds her arms out and runs in place pleading, "Me! Me!"
• cries really easily (Ryan commented the other day that he believes God is going to use Alexia to teach him patience and teach me how silly I look when I'm immature- I might agree with him that she is a taste of my own medicine)

I really look forward to seeing her grow even more into her own. She has an amazing belly laugh, and it's pretty easy to get it out of her.