Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Years Eve!!

New Years is a much different celebration with two little kids. We went to Grandma and Grandpas house for a fabulous dinner with family. The food was delicious, homemade tortillas from Tia Mari and the best carne asana. I ate so many tacos! Diego has his first taste of Grandmas refried beans. The texture was thick for him so tomorrow I'll try again and make it thinner or let him eat whole beans cut in two.
Just for fun I thought I would go with Netflix on demand New Years countdown for kids. It was 3 minutes long but Callie didn't even want to watch that long. She wasn't thrilled with the whole countdown and cheering and didn't like her "champagne" sparkling cider. Oh well A for effort on my part. Happy New Years! Hope you had a good one. It's been a great yet challenging year. I'm hoping 2015 comes with less crying, more sleep, and more smiles. Regardless there will be lots of fun and love in this house for the year.









Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is Grandmas birthday!! We took her out to dinner at Olive Garden. Callie was super well behaved and ate almost half of the feast they served her.  Callie was very loving to her Grandma, wanting to sit next to her, sing to her, hug and kiss her. She was so sweet which was a nice change from the challenge she has been this week.
The babies were all crying and reaching for Grandma but she doesn't have enough hands to hold them all. Lots of love for Grandma and so thankful for all she does for us in watching the kids, feeding us, and bringing the family close together. She's the string that keeps us all together and we love her lots! Happy Birthday Nena, you deserve 10 birthdays!
Even cuter on the baby monitor tonight instead of heading crying I heard Callie singing Happy Birthday Grandma and Feliz Navidad. Music to my ears compared to the crying I frequently hear.





Monday, December 29, 2014

Eating Peanuts

Last night D had his first night in his on room. He did pretty well actually. I fed him twice and I only went one extra time to settle him. Otherwise I waited for him to go back to sleep no he never cried more than 15 minutes at a time. This is a huge improvement from the hour he would cry in our room. I think it was worse for him to know I was only an arms reach away but wouldn't pick him up. In his room he figures I'm not there and goes back to sleep. Callie slept through all the crying somehow and so it was a successful night.
Then today Callie went in for her peanut challenge. She ate Reese's peanut butter cups in the doctors office. She did really well at least with the eating of the peanuts. She was not very well behaved to sit still in a room for 2.5 hours and was throwing a fit by the end, however they determined she passed the peanut challenge!!! When I got home she had really red cheeks and chin that was pretty concerning for me. Juan said her face was like that at the challenge and they were not concerned. Just to be sure I snapped some photos and I will send an email and photos to her doctor tomorrow. But we are to feed her peanuts at least once a week so her body starts getting used to the peanut and becomes more tolerant. I bought peanuts today and peanut butter but I will hold off until the doctor says for sure the rash is ok. Either way it was still successful in that she didn't have a major reaction which makes me feel better she wouldn't go into shock if she accidentally ate a peanut. Hopefully we are crossing more things off her allergy list in the future and in the long run she has no allergies.


Sunday, December 28, 2014

Night light

We put away all the Christmas stuff already. I just was ready to get it down now Christmas was over and felt like if I didn't just do it Callie would beg not to for weeks. She was pretty bummed about taking down the tree and stockings and is still talking about Elfie being gone. I put away almost everything but she wouldn't let me put away her Christmas tree night light. The new bookcase blocks the outlet where her regular nightlight was and so its noticeably dimmer in its new location, plus the Christmas tree puts off a good amount of light itself. She insisted it was too scary without it as it was dark and so I gave in. But I can't have it all year as it will drive me crazy so today we set out to get a new night light. I decided to take her to a paint your own ceramics place so she could have something similar but not Christmasy and we lucked out as the only nonchristmas one was Hello Kitty! She had fun painting. I tried to get her to stay on the general area of what should be separate colors and we brought her hello kitty as a guide to what colors but that didn't actually happen. She decided to just go wild towards the end so it will be interesting to see what it looks like once it's fired. Here she is in process and with her finished product. We pick it up Friday and I will let you see it when it's in her room.

Meanwhile D officially moved to his room tonight. We moved all his stuff back to his room and he is staying no matter what. We are returning to the modified cry it out of 7-14-21 min waiting periods and I am only feeding twice. He's been terrible lately up 8 times or more and needs to be fed to go back to sleep every time. It's time for him to be a big boy as he is almost 8 months old now! And I'll start to work on reducing night feedings more over the course of the month with the goal of no waking a by 9 months. Wish me luck I think it's going to be a sleepless week for all of us.
And lastly a mother big day... Callie has. A peanut challenge tomorrow. I have to work all day so Juan is taking her. I'm nervous even though I know it will be fine with all the doctors and nurses there. Wish us all luck and lots of prayers!




Saturday, December 27, 2014

Cart for two

Costco has giant shopping carts with spots for two kids. For months Callie has wanted Diego to ride with her in the cart but I always have him in the baby carrier. Today I let him ride in the cart with her since he can sit pretty well now. He was ok with it but it didn't last too long as Callie can't keep her hands off of him and was hugging and touching him and made him cry. He cries a lot anyways but this was just an extra crying we didn't need in the middle of the store so back into the carrier he went. I at least took one photo even if it's not good ;)

Tonight Juan and I got to go out to the SDSU basketball game with some friends and the very brave Tia Mari and Tio Bo came down to babysit. Diego was difficult as usual but Callie was a perfect angel. A extra big thank you to our amazing Mari and Bo for watching the kids tonight to give us a much needed break and night out.

Friday, December 26, 2014

More Xmas eve photos

Here's the remainder of the Xmas eve photos Jeana took. I love the whole family one! We took the kids to the park in the morning to let Callie run around and wear herself out a bit. D enjoyed the swings at the park for the first time too. I can't believe Christmas is already over and it's time to clean up and start a new year! I haven't published my blog book in over a year so it's time to put this year in the books. That's my next project.
















Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas!

Well our plan worked, by not telling Callie it was Christmas Eve she slept in a bit. We actually decided to go downstairs and start coffee and feed the dogs at 6 am when she wasn't up yet. Diego was awake at his faithful 5:15 time as always.


We told Callie that she needed to find Elfie and there was a special thing she wanted to show her. I thought she would be so excited and yelling but instead she just stood in awe staring then went on a sort of random rant. Either way here it is, Callie's surprise Christmas. Once she was opening presents she was in the happy smiling cheery mood. Maybe we just shocked her too much and she hadn't even woken up yet.


We had the best day. FaceTime with our CT family in the morning and then presents and breakfast at Grandma and Grandpas and we stayed all the way until dinner playing with our new toys and just enjoying each other. Callie's big present from Santa was a hello kitty car which she was so excited about. Second runners up were the firehouse dollhouse and the Dora backpack. Or maybe even the wiggling fish game for the bathtub. Watching her face was priceless!



We are so lucky to have all we have but its not about the presents, it's the amazing family and love we have. Sitting around and celebrating Christmas with your own small children is so different than my last 10 years of adult Christmases. They bring bigger smiles, such joy, and just a warm feeling in your heart. I hugged each of my kids a little longer at bedtime tonight because they made our day so special and Juan and I couldn't imagine our lives without these amazing little kiddos. Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you all had as great of a day as us.



Tonight we explained to Callie that Elfie had to go back to the North Pole until next year. She was saying she was going to cry and she didn't want Elfie to leave or Christmas to be over. I spent 30 minutes at bedtime making sure she said goodbye and read her a book, etc. then I heard her singing this made up song on the baby monitor about Elfie going back to the North Pole. Too cute!