Wednesday, January 19, 2011

the big 5 mo

5 months; where has the time gone?! You'd think that the days would creep by staying at home full-time but let me tell you! Each day is a blast, sometimes a bit of a challenge, but always a total blessing. Grace ensures that I will be busy every day and Lia has her list of requests as well but happily rolls along with whatever. She's such a good sleeper. She'll even nap at open gym gymnastics with kids running around jumping and shreiking :)

It only took 5 months, but I have been able to tame the wild, spiky hair. She's working on a new batch of hair. I'm curious to see how its going to look in the next few months.
Big sis wanted in on the action. Cheese...

my 2 year old teenager

I am so glad to live in Texas! We had a week of 'cold' weather last week. Cloudy, dreary rain with a high in the low 40's and it was killin' me! It turned back to sunny and 60 on Monday and I was able to release my monkey to take back over the playground. Who would want to take the easy route and ride down slides when you can climb up and down and up and down the rope ladder. Grace just had to master that while we were there. And don't let these things in the picture below fool you. They look like an odd little flower that's slightly off balance. If you sit on them, they start to move slowly, spinning faster and faster until you are REALLY dizzy. Swagger....


and little Lia chills in the stroller, waking from her nap while Grace conquers the world.


she looks a little devilish, doesn't she?


Monday, January 10, 2011

in the new year


What wonderful things... we helped Grace give us the gift of becoming potty trained just before Christmas. Its not without its accidents and nighttimes will need some time, but boy is it nice! I hope not to jinx it but so far we have not had an accident with a public outting. There are many recon missions to the public restrooms, you know, to touch the germy toilet seats, watch them flush, wash hands, wave hands in front of the papertowel sensors, and occasionally actually going in the potty. I think Grace would be very satisfied if she could sit on and flush each toilet in the restrooms.
Mimi and Papa came and stayed for a week to hang out and help me out while Dan was in Colorado Springs for their Christmas Training trip. There was a whole lot of relaxation and hanging around the house, but I don't think anyone minded. Many block towers were destroyed, books read, babies put to 'night-night'. Grace got to show off her skills at gymnastics. Its funny, but she can do a seatdrop on the couch (unfortunately) but won't do it on the trampoline.







Today in particular was a most glorious day. My job being mom was the easiest its ever been since having 2 (human) kids. It was cold (for Texas, anyways) and I had no intentions of schlepping the girls anywhere; there was no need. We stayed in and played all day and each of my 3 children did very sweet/cute things. I was semi-distracted at the computer, oh, updating the blog, when I looked over and saw Grace down on the floor next to Lia showing her a book and telling her about the pictures on each page and shaking a rattle for her. Its nice to have someone else to entertain Lia, too.
Later, Grace found Baxter's leash and wanted to take him for a walk. He actually let her put his collar on and just as Grace was reaching forward to slide the collar down his neck, Baxter gave her a big, wet kiss. Then he kindly let her walk him around the house, but not without a few dirty looks over his shoulder.
And Lia, well, she's cute, sweet and easy. She just smiles and rolls with whatever comes. I have to say, it was nice to have her doing some tummy time and I think she only spit up once. Lia is the author and founder of the Language of Foo. There is no more sweet cooing, but pursing her lips, and saying Ffffffooooo. She is quite proud of this new language but was rather surprised when I already knew how to speak it.








there she is, speaking Foo


Look at that wild hair!

Who is who?




Monday, December 27, 2010

Best Christmas photo ever!

It was killing Grace that she couldn't eat one of Santa's cookies as she put them out for him.

Dr. Gracie

Grace received a guitar, cowgirl boots and a doctor kit for Christmas. She now must wear her boots everywhere she goes!


This is what happens when forehead and corner of the wall meet. I'm really not sure who won the battle because the wall has a pretty good dent in it as well. I thought I was seeing things when I saw a blue line starting at her forehead all the way down to the corner of her mouth. Then came the big goose egg.

Before the collision, my little towel-wrapped pretty

Lounging on Christmas day. Baxter was excited that Santa Paws brought him some new tennis balls.
I know, it seems horrible, where is Lia you're asking? Well, unwrapping started at 6:20 since Grace is an early riser and was quite excited. Lia pretty much slept through it all. She didn't get up until 8:15. She got a jump-a-roo but isn't completely sure of it yet. She has flashed a grin while in it so I think she's warming up to it.
We spent Christmas at home and it was very relaxing. We had Christmas dinner with our neighbors across the street, our surrogate family.
We have helped Grace give us the gift that keeps on giving- she is potty trained!!!! (except for maybe at night but we'll take it!) A crash course in bare-bottom romping around the house starting Tuesday before Christmas, a slight handful of accidents and now she's got it going!! Yeah!!!! I'm seeing $$$$$


Sunday, December 19, 2010

lots of fun!

Happy 4 months to Lia!!

Tatum and Grace together. As soon as we arrived to Colorado, Grace and Tatum were off to play together and it was like none of the rest of us were there.

Christmas feast at the little girls' table

Chutes and Ladders with Grace hoarding all of the characters, oops, guess that's why they say for ages 3 and up...


If only you could have seen what and how many attempts it took to come up with a great photo like this with all 4 looking good. It might have been just as fun to have a video of Aunt Christy and her heroic antics behind the camerawoman (me) to keep these girls happy and cooperating. She is a better person than I. :) Here we have the 4 Carrington cousins, Liana, Kalina, Grace and Tatum, ranging from 4 months old to 3 years, 4 months and 1 day.

my Christmas babies


The eldest cousin, Tatum, looking quite sophisticated, an interesting snowflake and the little elf saying, 'Hey! Get me out of here!'

Grandma Pat-Pat/Lola (depending on whose household) and the Christmas girls

Pocky and Pat-Pat/Lola. Things were beginning to get testy...

There was too much excitement at the house and Grace was having a hard time napping. We decided to take a drive and lull her to sleep. What unfortunate views we encountered! Geez!! I would have to hike/run/bike EVERY day if I lived here. It is just so beautiful. This was Red Rock State Park. It looks like the Colorado version of Sedona.




Once the girls were awake, we found ourselves in Golden, CO and decided to get out and explore. What a neat town with an amazing mountain profile as its backdrop. We had a little hot cocoa to warm up, strolled through downtown and saw the beautiful Christmas lights as we were leaving. It truly felt like Christmas with it being legitimately cold.

Lucky Dan will be returning here in 2 weeks with his team for their Christmas training trip. They'll train hard core and compete against Colorado School of Mines. Wonder what a week of training at altitude can do for the swimmers?
We celebrated Miss Kalina's first birthday, coming up on the 28th. She was a delicate explorer of textures but before we knew it her little cake had been completely brought to crumbs. The big girls had their cake and were wired and were super excited to open Christmas presents. You should have seen the shreiking, jumping, running and giggling that went on. Too much to even capture on camera. Luckily there were no casualties.

Early Merry Christmas! What fun!!