Already?!

Here are the 1st of many School Photos. By definition they exist to make you cringe & laugh many years later! (Mostly for celebrities)

Let's Go!

This photo sums up pretty Claira pretty well. Often she is so eager to go take a trip that she points to her jackets hanging in the closet and yelps at me!

This trip out took us to Mother's Beach in Long Beach. Ahh, the weather was perfect. I watched a college-aged girl do an extensive ab workout on the grass in front of me. I thought to myself: "Her next class at Long Beach State probably isn't until 6:00pm so she decided to head to the beach to exercise in the fresh air and then read a book in the sand while adding to her tan. Wow, I remember when I had that much time on my hands to make 'la-la-laaa' decisions..." I stopped looking at her and went back to looking at my girls. Then I tried to get a tan from the knees down.

This trip out was to Liberty Park in Cerritos. I had been here a few times before just for the playground. Little did I know that behind me was a fountain sculpture that is puuuuuurfeeeect for these two kids! Whew, what a discovery. They use their sand toys for the water...

Then they realized they could make mud (or should I say chocolate pudding, chocolate shakes, chocolate milk) Claira is pretending to "eat" her "chocolate"

This trip out was to the San Diego Wild Animal Park! We took the trip with Grandpa, Grandma, Adam & Carissa & we had a wonderful time. Ellia's favorite part was the lion sitting on top of the car, then he took a nap in the sun. Ellia and I had lots of funny conversation about it.

Yummy!

Here Ellia is playing waiter before she cooks me something.
STEP #1: GREET CUSTOMER
Ellia: "Ok, whatch-you want?"
Mommy: "Um, can I have a chocolate cupcake?"
......

STEP #2: WRITE DOWN THE ORDER
Ellia: "Ok, yes. What else?" (She is not in mid-blink in this photo - that is the expression she makes every time she takes my food order)

STEP #3: COOK FOR A REALLY LONG TIME BEFORE SERVING

Artist Portraits

Look at THIS photo! Yep, I took it. You know, I was feeling guilty about not taking Claira to get JCPenney portraits every 3 months like I did for Ellia. But, Claira has redefined our lifes in a whole new way. So, why do stuff the "old" way! And this picture makes up for a few missed portrait sittings.

I let these two goobers paint and this is what they do! Ironic turn of events:
Ellia copied Claira, instead of the other way around, and painted her face after seeing what her sister did.

I asked Ellia to draw her family & here are a few of her portraits. Above is Mommy's portrait (don't I look sexy). Below is Grandpa's portrait (she's drawing his beard "Grandpa has a lot of hair!")

My Little Girl...

...looks so mature here.
We socialized at a party together; my favorite way to party is with my mini-BFF :)

A Date with Claira

I got to spend a few hours with just Claira on this day. I have not done that since my first 2 months of maternity leave. I was startled, actually, at the slight difference in her personality. It's not something I can really describe...just different. One thing is for sure, I could tell she was really enjoying being the "only one." I'd like to do more "dates" with each of them, someday.

Just for the heck of it I plopped her down in Ellia's forward-facing seat to try it out. She was kind of confused but liked it, of course. Looks like that'll be the next purchase!

SUNNY DAYS make life lighter & brighter

Playing restaurant or birthday party is Ellia's main thang right now. Sometimes we go for walks around the neighborhood looking for special and new "ingredients" for the meals she wants to cook. When we find something I ask her what it is and she says "That's a sho-sha-low" or whatever random syllables she can string together. "OOh, ok, a sho-sha-low. That's gonna taste good!"

The entire family came to visit us!
(Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Adam & Auntie Carissa) Ellia was very, very excited to have visitors, as she always is. Grandpa took her out shopping and then we all went to the beach! This was Claira's first time spending lots of time in the beach sand. She did her kimchi squat and used a shell to dig up sand...over and over. The weather was absolutely perfect...and you can't beat the lighting the beach gives you for photographs to capture a day with your family.

Just a Friday at The Aquarium. But this was a great day. I'll always remember it and not for any particular reason either. I just felt so happy and blessed as I went about my day with them in the sunshine. I'm so lucky they exist.