"M is for Emma!"

I think Miah has a thing for the letter M. It's always the first letter he picks out from a picture of the alphabet. Anyway, tonight the kids were hanging out in our room (by "our" I mean all 4 of us! haha. Em's crib is by our bed & Miah still sleeps w/ us...which is TOTALLY fine by me! I like how we end up looking like a human "H" in the morning. haha) and I pointed out a picture of a snail on his pajamas and so he started sounding out an "s". After that he started saying "m. m. m" then this comes out of his mouth..."M is for Emma!" Jenner & I just laughed and corrected him, but I thought that was pretty clever for a 2yo. haha. Anyway, after that I tell him, "D is for Daddy!" and he repeats me. Then I say, "M is for Mommy!" and he says, "M is for ...DAD!" ya, he calls me dad. He calls Jenner, daddy. gotta love him!

btw, Happy 6th Birthday to my niece, Keilani!!! Love you! -Auntie Jen

Happy Birthday Mikaela!

today's my niece Mikaela's 13th birthday! i can't believe she's 13 already! it seems like only yesterday i got to witness my sister give birth to her! that was one of the greatest experiences of my life! back then my mom and i used to live with my sister, Donna, and her husband, Rex, in a house we rented by the two story McDonalds on paradise valley rd (if you're from east side you definitely know the area i'm talking about! haha). i think it was on mesa vista way or something like that. anyway, i had class that morning at southwestern college and when i got home my mom told me that my sister went into labor and Rex's friend, Jojo took her to the hospital. i remember Rex coming home from his job at the Catamaran all calm- mom was laughing at how calm he was and tried to hurry him up to go to the hospital. haha.

i'm not sure how i got to the hospital, but it seemed like we were waiting for mikaela to make her debut for a loooonnnggg time, so rex and i walked to a fast food restaurant across the street from the hospital to get some food. i secretly didn't wanna go cause i was afraid we were gonna miss something, but at the same time i was really hungry! :)

when we came back, my sisters back was really hurting bad and she had this tennis ball to massage her back. she had me pushing that tennis ball against her lower back so hard i was sweating! haha
anyway, when it was finally go time, we got in position-rex on my sisters right side, me on her left side with a camera and stine up by her head with the video camera! oh ya, and jojo was behind the curtain. lol
then we saw the top of mik's head! oh boy, did i lose it! tears kept filling my eyes and i couldn't wipe them with my hands so i had to blink so fast to get them out! it was amazing! i finished the whole roll of film just taking pictures of her when they moved her under the heater; i forgot to leave some for a family picture! luckily there was extra film.

later that day everyone came to the hospital. mg lynne saw me and asked me how it went and i just started crying! i couldn't even describe how awesome it was to see her birth! i can't believe that was 13 years ago! and now she's a teen! how time flies!

Happy Birthday Mik! I love you! -Auntie/Ninang Jen

cousin bonding

This past weekend the kids and I went to visit my sister and her family up in Corona. The four of us had gone up for a couple hours last weekend and since then Jeremiah's had been asking for "Kai's house" everyday. Jenner worked that weekend and had to stay home, so I packed up the kids and drove up during naptime. I think Jeremiah was too excited cause we were already past Temecula when he finally fell asleep. Our cousin Stine and her family came up as well. It turned out to be a great family bonding weekend!

Everyone got there on Friday afternoon and we decided to stay in for dinner. I cooked some fish tacos and my sis made some turkey lettuce wraps (yummy!) Saturday the mom's went out to get a haircut (thanks to my sis for treating Stine & I) then we sneaked over to Berrysweet (thanks Mg Stine) for some yummy yogurt (don't tell Kiana cause she sooo wanted some Berrysweet that weekend). Anyway, that night we ALL went bowling! It was the first time for Jeremiah and luckily I got to capture his excitement with a photo. I guess we were having so much fun bowling and playing in the arcade that we didn't leave till almost 11pm! Luckily Mg. Lynne got to come by the house that night to partake in Mg. Stine's de-li-cious graham cracker/brownie/marshmallow dessert! It was so yummy that we made her make it again on Sunday! haha.

my Miah

Miah's such a riot! Yesterday I told him to go call his daddy and he says, "Baaaabe!" Jenner & I looked at eachother and I said, "Did he just say babe?" and Miah looks at us, smiles, and says it again only louder! Then, today Emma was w/ me in the kitchen standing by the microwave and Miah comes over and says, "Hi Emma! (babbles something i couldn't understand while patting her back) okay?" then gives her a kiss on her head, says ba-bye and runs off to play w/ his trains. He cracks me up!

walking in the near future!

So I guess Em did have a new trick for today! She stood by herself for 2 seconds! LOL. I guess we better have the camera ready to document her first steps cause it's coming soon!

Jeremiah & Emma's new "tricks"

Today I found out that Jeremiah knows his letters! I know a couple of kids his age that know the alphabet already and I tried to start teaching him earlier but didn't really push it until he showed more of an interest. I thought he only knew a few letters, but was surprised to learn he knew much more than I thought. He has that leap frog gadget that sticks onto the refrigerator & teaches you how to say each letter & what it sounds like. There's also a button that plays the whole alphabet (which he used to press all the time w/out it finishing the whole alphabet!) He actually has 2 here at home & 1 at grandma marie's house, so he plays with it often. I also bought Thomas the Train letter flashcards which he also loves. Anyway, I guess I'm so surprised he knows his letters because everytime I play with him & try to teach him the letters he gets bored w/ it and goes to play with his trains. Anyway, he recognized the "m" the other day & said "m" and today after dinner he was playing w/ the letters and I thought I'd quiz him. Low & behold he knew practically all of them! He got maybe 2 or 3 wrong, but we still praised him for trying. He still pronounces some of them wrong, but I'm sure w/ practice and at the rate he's learning, he'll get it in no time. I'm so proud of him & you could tell he was proud of himself because everytime we exclaimed "yay" he smiled & laughed.

Jeremiah is also starting to tell me "I love you" more often!!! He used to say it very rarely...usually after I'd tickle it out of him, but now he says it everytime I say it to him! What a joy that is & my heart skips a beat every time he tells me "I love you."

His little sister Emma has some new tricks up her sleeve too! She already mastered giving 5 and I recently introduced giving kisses. It didn't really take more than a day or two cause everytime I gave her a kiss I'd say "kiss" first. Now when I say kiss she plops a wet one on my face and then smiles and laughs. I love it! I've been working on clapping but have noticed her belly gets in the way. LOL. She's also starting to lift herself up more to cruise around the couches. It seems as though she likes standing better than sitting...which might help the belly situation! haha. As much as I make fun of her belly, I absolutely love her chubbiness right now..so squeazably soft! LOL

Can't wait for what new "trick" tomorrow brings!!!

Emma's dr appt

My little buddha baby had her checkup last week. I was really excited to find out how much she weighed because she filled out pretty quickly since her last dr appt. plus she's been eating the pureed fruits & veggies like the dr suggested. sooo, drum roll...Emma weighs a whopping 17lbs (which is only 9 lbs lighter than Jeremiah who's 2 yrs older) and she's 25 1/2" long! The dr said that she was overweight! hahah. So different from Miah who was always underweight just until his last appt. Luckily Emma didn't get any shots this time. She did however have to get blood drawn, but she didn't even cry one bit! What a strong girl...just like mommy. LOL. Anyway, now she gets to start eating pureed meats. So far she likes it. The only thing I've found she doesn't like is peas...again, just like mommy :P