Roly Poly

Allison kind of looks roly poly with her huge thigh chubs, but now she has the "roly" part down. Yesterday she rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time. Now this might not seem like a big accomplishment for a near 7-month-old, but considering her big sister never rolled over until after she was crawling, it's a big deal for us. Yesterday I just thought I'd put her on her tummy for a little bit to see if she would play like that, but instead, over she went. So we kept putting her back and she kept rolling over. Way to go Allison!

While I am posting videos, here is another one from a few weeks ago of Allison in the bathtub. She would kick her legs and splash for a few seconds, then look up at me as if to get approval. She went on this way for nearly half an hour. I was laughing so hard!

Catching Up

We've been so busy over the last month I have not gotten around to posting on the blog, but here is a short synopsis of a few of our recent activities:

Most notably, Emily turned FOUR YEARS OLD on June 10. Our little baby is no longer a baby, nor a toddler, but a full-blown little girl with ideas of her own and some attitude to go with it. Okay, I admit she still acts like a baby sometimes with tantrums and crying and all, but she is also getting big and smart and very independent. She learned to write her name all by herself a few weeks ago and likes to do grownup things like answering the phone and typing on her computer. She can type all the family's names by herself!
On the day of her birthday, we made cupcakes for her to take to her preschool class. She was excited to add the pink sprinkles on top and wear her favorite skirt outfit. She really likes to wear skirts all of a sudden, although we make her wear shorts under most of them so she doesn't end up showing off what's underneath!

I wanted to make Emily a special breakfast for her birthday, so I made her this parfait using green gogurt, blueberries, raspberries and an apricot on top. She was so excited about it that she didn't even eat it. I think she might have eaten some of the apricots off the top, but the rest ended up in the refrigerator for another week until I caved and dumped it in the trash. Next time I'll just put oatmeal in a fancy glass and call it good.

We let Emily choose anywhere she wanted to go for her birthday dinner. She chose Sonic Drive-In. It was a bit hot, but that's where she wanted to go, so that's where we went. I was kind of glad she didn't choose Chuck E Cheese or something!

The big 4-year-old birthday party was held at a place called "Pump It Up" where they have all kinds of inflatable slides, bounce-houses and obstacle courses for the kids to play on. It was a lot of fun for them and easy for us - we just show up, let the kids play for an hour, then go into a room for cake/ice cream and presents. Then we leave and don't have to clean up or anything. They even washed my ice cream scoop and cake server for me. It was awesome!

You might notice the random Aladdin and Jasmine figurines in front of the cake. Emily wanted a "Jasmine and Aladdin" cake for her birthday, but I didn't feel like trying to make one of those. So I made what I thought was a cute cake using her two favorite colors as decoration, thinking she would love it and forget all about Jasmine and Aladdin. Well lo and behold, when I excitedly showed her the cake in the fridge before the party, she asks, "Where's Jasmine and Aladdin?" Uh, oh. So I packed up the figurines, put them next to the cake at the party, and everyone was happy. Emily got her Jasmine and Aladdin cake after all.

In early June we also signed Emily up for a dance class (above) and a gymnastics class (below). She has fun and it keeps us busy when she is home all day.

Emily also had her very first checkup at the dentist. She did really well and had no cavities.

And Allison had her first taste of ice cream...

and popsicles. All in the same night. She loved them both!

Sitting Up

Look what I can do! Allison started sitting up by herself sometime last week. She can sit for about five minutes before tumbling over. She is growing so fast!

Happy 5 Months

Allison is five months old today! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. She is such a cute little chubby baby and a good one, too. She sleeps all night and is happy all the time - it's great. We couldn't ask for a better baby. We love you, Allison! And just for fun, below is a photo of Emily when she was five months and two days (three and a half years ago!). We love you too, Emily!

For the First Time

The last two weeks have been a little crazy with the weather here. In early May it was beautiful perfect weather, then all of a sudden it jumped up to 102 degrees for a few days, and now this weekend it's back to cold and rainy. What?? But thanks to the extra hot weather, we got to take the girls swimming - Allison's first time. We just went in the evening so it was still very warm but not hot burning sun, and Emily got to practice her swim skills she learned at her swim lessons last year and Allison got to get in the water (no photos of her actually in the water because Kevin was already soaked when we got in, so nobody took a picture). Emily's old swim pants fortunately fit Allison okay, so that was her suit. What a chub, huh? Allison was really calm in the water and I think she liked it...all great until Kevin suggested I take her in the baby pool and as I was stepping in some ladies sitting on the grass started yelling at me. At first I couldn't understand what they were saying until "poop in the water!" What? So sure enough, I look down and there is the hugest log sitting on the bottom next to the filter. NASTY! Needless to say I jumped right out and was thankful that I only got in a few steps up to my shins. YUCK YUCK YUCK! Good thing Allison was way up high and never touched the water. Well I was completely grossed out and still am just thinking about it. We got washed off and made darn sure Emily didn't go near that water!

After spending about an hour relearning her swimming, Emily got to have some real fun getting pitched out of the water by her dad. That girl has no fear in the water.

We also did some experimental cooking that weekend. When it gets so hot we don't like to use the oven so we try to cook on the grill a lot or just use the stovetop. I had read about grilling on cedar planks in the Costco magazine and when I saw them for sale at Costco I thought we should give it a try. You soak the plank in water for a couple hours then cook your food on it on the grill. We tried some salmon and it was pretty tasty. Every summer I think we should get all fancy cooking on the grill and we have yet to do much more than hamburgers, hotdogs and steak. Maybe this year we'll go gourmet...

Allison is learning to grab things with her hands and feet. It is so fun to watch her exploring everything with her eyes and trying to grab things. She is almost proficient and grabbing things and putting them in her mouth, but not quite.

Can we say CHUBBERS? Or as my mom lovingly calls them, pudgies. I love chunky babies!

Oh, and we're working on sitting up. So far she does pretty well supported and can sit up a few seconds on my lap, but that's about it. I love this picture, though. So cute!

And finally, a word about Emily. Slug Bug! Okay, that's two words. Emily learned the slug bug game from one of her grandmas and is now completely obsessed. And she has the rest of us obsessed too. We can't get in the car without scanning the entire road for a slug bug. Emily keeps track each day and gives us an accounting at the end of the day: "Daddy got three slug bugs - red, blue and black; and I got four slug bugs - silver, red, yellow and blue...." I am amazed that she can remember every single one. The funny thing is, if we spot one first and call it out she'll say "I was just about to get that one!" even if she still hasn't even seen it yet. Ha. There may be a little competitive spirit in her after all. Slug bug orange!

And we mustn't forget...farmers markets! Below is a photo of Emily eating a strawberry from the first famers market we went to this season. Here in Fresno they have some sort of market just about every day. Our favorite is the one in old town Clovis (it's like a historic downtown full of antique shops and what not). Every Friday night they shut down two blocks of the main street and have all the vendors, live music, food and children's activities. We went two weekends ago for the first time this year (the super duper hot weekend) and we could smell the strawberries all the way from across the street. I can't even say how good the produce is - everything is picked fresh from the farm usually that morning and they have all the fruits and vegetables you can think of. That night we got blueberries, raspberries, apricots, honey, strawberries and cherries and I think we ate all of it within about two days. It is soooo good. Probably the best thing about living here in the valley. I don't think I have ever seen the variety of fresh food anywhere else. And it's always perfectly ripe and delicious, and best of all, affordable!

So it's starting to feel like summer. Despite the harsh wind and rain we've had this past week, all the summertime fun has arrived. Swimming, grilling, farmers markets...love it!