The beginning, hopefully

Now that Ali is 3 years old she seems to be so mature. In reality she looks the same, but for some reason now that she knows she is 3, she is trying to be a big girl. When I try to explain things to her she actually TRIES to understand. She also doesn't whine nearly as much, nor does she throw tantrums as often. It is great! I hope it lasts, at least until her teenage years.

Here are a few picture of this week. This is a picture of her clay creation. In case you cannot tell what it is, I will tell you. It is Mickey Mouse. You can see the BIG blue eyes and the long legs, clear characteristics of Mickey.


Tia Gaby got her this baby and me outfit that Ali loves to wear.


This is Kat's version of early crawling.

A Birthday! and more

Alicia turned three today. It seems like just yesterday she was our little baby. This is her one day old.

On Saturday we had some friends come over and help us celebrate. Ali is a bit shy, so for the first hour she was clingy and withdrawn. By the end of the party when it was time to open presents she was having much more fun. The cake was somewhere in the middle. Being the center of attention is NOT one of her comfort zones. She must have just been over the moon with excitement since she actually blew out candles and sat without being held by someone.


The little girl next to Alicia is a friend named Abby. She was obviously very happy for Ali, plus candles are just so much fun to blow out that who wouldn't celebrate the success of such a mission.


One of Ali's favorite presents (Thanks to Abuelita and Abuelito). It could be that it was the biggest present, or that she loves to paint, who knows. She clearly loves to write A's.


This was from today. I just had to post this picture because I love it. Alicia is concentrating so hard on playing and Kat looks like she is mischievously going to "get" Ali.


Just a cute picture to show how chubby and big our baby is getting.

Not Quite a Crawler

She is not quite crawling but she is still moving. I really love this age. At 7 months she is just so much fun. She is starting to play with toys, and have preferences for some toys over others. It is just great. Is it wrong to hope she stays exactly like this?
On President's day we decided to do a little historical site-seeing. Unfortunately it was so cold that it was hard to stay outside. This is the famous Plymouth Rock.

Believe it or not, this is the site of Mayflower II. Due to the chance of it freezing in the waters, it is taken out of the water at Christmas time... we of course knew that before we took the drive out there.

My Cute girls being Cute

Abuelita sent some yummy candy and a fun hat for Valentine's day. Ali loved both (although I really think that the candy won out). She loves lollipops and I think it is because they last longer than other types of candy, so she thinks that she is getting more candy. I HATE lollipops because, as you can see, they are a sticky mess. That is a sticky hand she is showing me. Ah... what I sacrifice for my girls!

So funny story, like most kids, Ali gets really quiet when she is naughty. More than that though, when she really wants to get into mischief she closes doors. Yesterday while I was doing something I heard the door to my room close. I gave her about 1 minute and then followed her in to see what she was doing. Turns out she has an aching for video games. Perhaps we just need to get her some new books.

This picture is cute and I would add it even if it didn't have a story, but it too has a story. When Ali was little we had a little toy box out in her play area. Like most kids she would immediately dump it out if she even got close to it. She started to dump it out at about 6 months old. Kat on the other hand has never been interested in dumping stuff. She did however learn to tip it. As you can see, she was quite pleased with the results. As a side note, this week Kat learned to throw things. I thought that at first it was an accident. She frantically shakes things until it "accidentally" goes flying. It has since occurred to me, since she repeats the actions (especially when she doesn't want something), that she really is able to throw. I guess kids just do things at different times. Ali didn't learn to throw until she was about 18 months old. (She was a pro at dropping things though).

Who wore it better?

Tia Gaby got this sweater for Ali last christmas. Due to a small amount of shrinkage, it now fits Kat. Who do you think wears it better?

Random stuff

The last two weeks have been pretty uneventful. It has been cold and snowy so we really haven't gone out too much. 

We've had some fun in the snow and we tried to build a snowman. For my family, you must excuse our tiny attempt at a snowman (especially after Jen's) but really the snow has been just fluffy stuff so really this is quite an accomplishment.  Actually, it is more of a snow mound, so maybe it is not an accomplishment, but Ali was still proud of it.

Their little cold faces are just so cute. Even if I feel bad for her, I do love the pink cheeks.

Ali has become a great big sister. For awhile I thought she was going to start hating her little sister because she had kind of been ignoring her and pretending she was an only child again, but within the last couple weeks she has become a loving and protective big sister. 

Kat is starting to MOVE! Luckily she does not yet crawl, but moves in a way that only 6 month old babies can. Once I figure out how she gets from point A to point B I will let you know, but for now it is an unanswered question.

This picture may seem like an odd one to add to the blog, but I had to add it. For Christmas Ali got these pajamas (Thanks Tio and Beba). It is her first dress pajamas; all her other pajamas are the traditional footsie-like ones. Well when we got them I thought she might not like them because she is used to wearing the pants, but she LOVES them. Each time she puts it on she dances around and says, "OOOO my pretty Dora dress jammies." Most of the pictures I took were blurry because she was moving too fast.

Why do they grow so fast?

I think the movie speaks for itself.

If you look close, you can see that Ali wrote her name. It may look like she wrote it upside down, but really I just turned the board around so that her name could be seen in the shot. This is not the first time that she has written her name, but it was the first time her name is recognizable.