"New" Year

Yeah, that's what I think about 2010 too.

Our little chic chubby gal pal Ella turned 2 one month after Claira turned 2. Her mommy and I hope they will be close friends. And now that we live in the same city it'll be easier to help that happen!

I had a horrible flu in January right before it was time to head to the mountains for the annual snow trip. I was really bummed because I was with them for the 2009 and the 2010 snow trip. The whole concept of snow was still so new to them last year. And just one year later, they look like they've been around it their whole lives...Ellia's chill confident head tilt smile & Claira didn't look like she would topple over at any minute.

Well, it finally happened. After having that big, teal, round pacifier rule my life... (Crap, where's the paci?! I have 10 of them-whyyy can't I find a single one?" , "Claira! Don't throw your paci! No! It just rolled under the car-whyyyy did they make them round?!") ... Claira now has a new pacifing method. And it looks like it'll be here to stay for quite some time (dentist be damned)


Just a typical evening spent with my girls after dinner.

Ellia Update (old)

OK, so I've abandoned this blog for 6 months! I can't even believe it's been that long...so now I'm going back & updating...or postdating to be truthful.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this image of Ellia. This is Ellia's 2nd school photo. You might remember her 1st one. She's wearing a vintage outfit from my childhood days. And her assured smile is something a worrisome mother loves to see.

Here is Ellia's signature at the end of 2010. Surprisingly it's evolved a lot in 6 months and I'll post a current one when I get 'back to the future' posts!

At the end of 2010 Ellia's was drawing much much more. She discovered Dino Dan and suddenly had to have everything dinosaur. We scouted for dinosaur books at the library, we put together a dinosaur Field Guide, and she started filling her little notebooks with page after page of the image above. Like in a trance, she'd draw that strange smiley dinosaur with his scientific name written above & then she'd flip the page and do it over...and over...and over.

Here is one of my favorite of Ellia's first drawings. This is from when she was at her 1st school-so it's early 2010. I think it's a kiss. I love it.

December Memories

My tiny, chubby Claira turned 2...
24 months I've grown to know this fast growing girl. Oh, she wants to grow up so much faster than Ellia did. I guess that's the sliding scale of siblings. She was so sweet & quite calm on her birthday party day. Her face seemed to look like she was trying to figure out what was going on. Leading up to her birthday, the Happy Birthday Song was one of her favorites (as well as one of the few things we could decifer in her 'Claira language') Also leading up to her birthday there was a distict interest in all things girly. She began to cradle dollies in the crook of her arm, awkwardly trying to balance the doll and tenderly giving her a bottle or blanket. She even started making the dollie cry with a whimpy "OOO-ooo-ooo..."

Claira still idolizes and obeys 99.9% of what her big sister tells her to do, shows her to do, asks her to, tells her not to do, etc. Many times Claira will, without being able to talk, show favor for Ellia over me. If I need to dress Claira & Ellia is heading out the room, Claira will push me aside and do her flat-foot/arms out run to catch up with Ellia.

Christmas 2010

Bless Santa's heart. Claira's eyes are piercing over to her vicious mother who did this to her. Meanwhile Ellia did a gorgeous job at giving the photo that contrasting & classic "Santa's lap" phhoto for the ages.

Halloween 2010!

JACKSON (Charlie Brown) & ELLIA (Rock Star)

2010 & 2007

Ellia and Jackson have a wonderful ease with eachother. From the day they were born they have been opposites. Yet, they each have a soft spot in their hearts for eachother. Ellia beams with loving eyes at Jackson. Jackson is a southern gentleman with Ellia. And lately they hold hands or put their arms over eachothers shoulders whereever they go.

CLAIRA (Giraffe)

This was the little chubby giraffe's first Trick or Treating experience. I had no idea what to expect so it was a new experience for me too! Triumph #1: She put on & kept on her entire costume all night. (Even if the giraffe head was at a 45 degree angle the entire night.) Triumph #2: No skeleton or smoke was going to get in her way of getting to that candy loot at each front door.

Once she got up to each door, she did the same thing. She kept a decent 6 foot observation distance from the door but had her hand outstretched to show that she was a part of the group. She waited to see what Ellia and Jackson did & then immediately pushed her way to the front to get her goods.

If she has a choice on what candy to get, she would choose a lollipop everytime. And unlike Ellia, she devours lollipops in just a few minutes. I can give one to her & then look back at her only to see the colored syrup of the lollipop surrounding her face.

Claira was very serious about her candy collection. Not being a 'first-born' has many benefits, one of which being your parent is much more lax in the candy eating department!

Claira Right Now

Look at this chick! Who does she think she is anyway?
Claira has a lot of confidence for an almost-2-year old. She is now playing and reading books quite a lot on her own, in her own little world. Her favorite book by far right now is the one about getting a new potty. I hauled out Ellia's potty from the garage & memories flashed before my eyes...the potty training months in our apartment in Norwalk. Could I really be venturing into that again, already?? She's very excited about the new potty (since she's read so much up on it) although I usually hear Ellia, sitting on the toilet, laughing and saying to me "Mommy, Claira's being silly. She's standing in the potty.. you can't STAND in a potty Claaaira!"
Claira loves dollies & combing their hair. She loves broccoli more than most kids her age, but only the tops. She uses a spoon for soup better than most kids her age, but she eventually flings it over her shoulder with a laugh & then complains to me that it's on the ground. She still uses that damn pacifer, but with a girl this determined - I'm picking my battles one at a time.

Photos compliments of Jimmy. Awesome, awesome shots!

Ellia Right Now

More vintage! Aunt Carol sent a lot of great outfits from the attic that I had worn as a child. The minute I saw this one I knew Ellia would love it. And she really did. I had to take this shot before she left for Montessori. Why do kids love pockets sooo much?? And the fact that these ones are totally tailored for one specific thing, forget about it! Ellia was gonna complete that mission of filling those required slots. You'd never think carrying around colored pencils on your chest would make you feel so special - but I KNEW she would feel extra special at her school wearing it. When I dropped her off & waved our customary goodbye in the window I could see Charlie standing 2 milimeters from her outfit already asking questions about it.

Ellia is learning Spanish & really likes to try to use the words. She's drawing stick people a lot & I'm collecting examples along the way to show their evolution. If I ask "Who's that?" when pointing to a stick person it's almost always Jackson & sometimes it's me. She really loves to cook & so I recently turned a $5 Goodwill nightstand into a mini kitchen island for her so I can finally let her 'help'. She is making new friends at her new school & it's a new 'social' phase for us. I keep my ears open when Ellia watches the Nick Jr. cartoon "Franklin" since that poor little turtle deals with a lot of social awkwardness and trials & tribulations with all his friends. Alas, there's a message at the end & I put it in my back pocket if I need to pull it out when Ellia expresses some new 4 year old emotions.

The entire clan took a great trip to the UCR Botanical Gardens & we couldn't have picked a more beautiful day. At the beginning Ellia was really pumped up, in her sweetly methodical manner, to use her 'bonoclers' to find as many of the birds that were in her little nature pamphlet. Then she got kinda tired of the whole walking thing, having not found 1 single bird to check off her list. (I know, I know, it might've helped if she was looking through the correct end of the bonoclers.) Eventually she picked out the perfect walking stick and led the clan to the end of our journey. After that she got to go mini golfing for the second time in her life. (And let it be known that I beat Jimmy.)