This was our trip to the Sea World water park on Elina's birthday. It was Eli's first time but he was totally into it. He did his "steps" in the baby pool. In this clip, Elina wanted to make sure I got her smiling face, too.
This next clip shows how brave Elina has gotten. Because of swim class, she doesn't mind jumping into the baby pool. This is considered brave for Elina. You can tell that after the last jump, she got a little scared because her footing was off. That's our Elina!
Elina recently tried out an Aquatot swimming class, which is the next level up from the class we all took together. B and I were really wary about her even participating. In the Aquatot class, the parent just sits on the side and the child goes into the water with the instructor. Because of Elina's fear of adults she doesn't know well, we thought for sure that Elina would refuse to go into the water. But I figured we'd take her to check it out anyway.
Man, did she prove us wrong! She totally surprised us. She sat down next to the other kids anxiously awaiting her turn. She did a sit dive into the water when the instructor asked her to. And she kicked and moved her arms around like she was really swimming. Each time she jumped in she would look back at me and make sure that I was there and watching her. It's funny because ALL the kids did that. Whenever the kids looked back and saw their parents, they would beam with pride. It was pretty cute.
The instructor said that Elina is definitely ready for Aquatots. I'm so excited for her and I'm so excited that I don't have to go in anymore. When we left the pool, we had the following conversation:
Me: You were so brave! I'm so happy that you went into the water with the teacher!
Elina: Are you so proud of me??
Me: Yup, I'm SO proud of you!
Elina is getting so much better at talking to strangers, adults, and other kids now. She still has her moments where she'll look away and pretend like she doesn't see you. But overall, she's come a long way the past few weeks. She's more comfortable around others now. At the last playgroup she played with the other kids. Normally she plays by herself or with one other friend or she hangs around me, so this was one of the most exciting things for me! She's really growing up and becoming more brave. Thank goodness!
At 1 year--
I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on Elina's 3rd birthday. It's really amazing how quickly 3 years have gone by. This has probably been the most trying year in regards to staying at home. It's not just because of the addition of Eli, but because Elina is now more defiant and more talkative. She's not nearly as bad as the descriptions of the "terrible twos" because she rarely throws tantrums. To date, there has only been ONE instance when I've thought to myself, "This is not my child!" And this didn't even happen until just a few weeks ago. So on the tantrum front, we're really thankful Elina is the way she is. Staying at home with the kids is a blessing and I'm thankful that I'm able to do that, but after talking to a toddler all day long, I get really tired and cranky. It's tough because I'm constantly repeating myself, saying things slowly, saying things nicely, saying things properly. Sometimes I just don't want to sound nice. Sometimes I just don't want to talk at all. So what do I do? I just repeat myself slowly, nicely, and properly. It's almost impossible to ignore a toddler. Trust me, I've tried.
On the other hand, Elina has come a long way with her grammar and vocabulary. It's amazing. She says the most unexpected things and most of them are pretty funny. So I definitely think that those funny moments make the tedious, continuous commentary worth it.
Elina has become a really nice, sweet little lady. She's polite (most of the time) and seems to care about other people's feelings. She's very helpful around the house, getting me things and putting things away. She's very neat and always asks for a napkin when she makes a mess on the dinner table or on her face. She loves to repeat my rules to her friends when they come over to play ("No, Mommy says we can't take that sticker off"). She's also started to become very independent when it comes to playtime. She and Cuddlebunny pretend to take naps on the couch and have tea parties--all without me! I mean, I'm not invited at all. But I am invited when it comes to playing games. I was so excited that she could start playing games because I LOVE games. However, we seem to play the same games all the time. Crazy Eights is wearing me out, but Elina has such a great time that it's worth it.
Elina's also a good big sister. She likes to show Eli how toys work and tell him what the rules are in the house. She'll hug him and kiss him, but she doesn't like it when Eli accidentally touches her. If his hand brushes her arm, she pulls her arm away quickly. Or if he reaches out to touch/grab her hair or clothes, she turns her head away and covers her eyes. It's a strange sibling relationship. She loves him, but she also dislikes him. But overall she's adjusted well to Eli being around.
All in all, it's been a good year with great mom moments and ugly mom moments. Elina's kept things exciting and we can't wait to see what this next year brings!
Eli is really into food...I mean, REALLY into food. He's more interested than Elina ever was. I'm hoping that this means he'll be a great eater when he gets a little older. Because I am seriously sick of having a picky eater. Elina is so particular about foods...like her father. It's always a chore to get her to eat enough. I know they say that toddlers eat when they are hungry and can't overeat, but Elina really doesn't eat that much. It's exhausting.
On the other hand, Eli seems to love food. He's always interested in what you're eating or drinking. He looks at you with a pleading face while he licks his lips. When he eats solids, he is all business. He just eats and eats as you shovel and shovel more food into his mouth. If you miss a beat, he'll get mad at you and start screeching and banging his hands on the highchair. If you finish feeding him and he's still hungry, he reacts the same way. He's very demanding during meals. It's nice though because he eats quickly and it's over with. We hope that this means when he gets older he'll eat a lot without complaints.
Here's a video of Eli happily sucking on an edmame shell. Seriously, this kid will try to eat anything you put near his mouth.
Hi, everyone! It's me, Elina. The big girl who just turned 3. Can you believe it? I'm 3!! Sorry this post is a little late. I partied too hard for my birthday and am still recovering. I know you've all been DYING to know how my birthday went. So here it goes...
Well, it was a great party. All my friends came with their parents. We had Hawaiian pizza, Hawaiian punch, lots of yummy sides (thanks to Ah-Ma), fresh fruit, and a Lilo And Stitch ice cream cake that Mommy made. We also made pasta bracelets, which was lots of fun. Then we just played in the pool and hung out. I really had a blast. I'm finally at an age where I can anticipate my birthday and enjoy the fun and food. I really really love to sing "Happy Birthday" to myself and to anyone else. See for yourself--Here's a list of some things I dislike:
Well, that's me in a nutshell. Thanks for reading my post! Until next time...
Last weekend, we went to eat at a Japanese restaurant while my parents were in town. Elina loves to eat edamame so we always order it. Usually she's really interested in taking the beans out of the shell, but this time she was more interested in picking up the edamame with her chopsticks. I didn't think she could do it, but she proved me wrong! My mom was really impressed because we only use chopsticks at home when we're eating rice, which doesn't happen every single day. So with limited practice, Elina has already become a master with the chopsticks. We were all so impressed and Elina was SO proud of herself! Talk about having Asian blood in you...
This past weekend we went back to Marburger Orchard to pick peaches. This is the same place we went to pick strawberries a few months back. B's all-time favorite fruit is the peach, so we HAD to go peach picking with him. 
That was hard for Elina to understand. She thought it was like strawberry picking where she could just pick and eat simultaneously. Since she couldn't eat the peaches right away, she started straying away and checking out the blackberry bushes (blackberry season just ended). She found a stray, ripe blackberry and just threw it into her watering mouth without consulting us. I felt bad and just let her eat that one and another one that we found later on. Who could blame her? We ended up asking the nice people at Marburger to sell us just one of their ripe peaches and they kindly gave us 2 for free. When we bit into that peach though...it was like heaven. Seriously, how is Elina ever going to eat store-bought peaches again???
The show was pretty entertaining, although J and I agreed that we could really do without the animals in the show. It's just sad to see a bunch of beautiful horses run around in a small ring. The tiger part was scary because the tigers looked like they wanted to claw out the trainer's eyes. They were so angry and constantly showing their teeth. Yikes. The only animal part that was really cute was the dog act. They had poodles and toy dogs doing all sorts of tricks. One poodle even rode one of those razor scooters! It was pretty cute (even J thought so).
lose interest and asked to go home. So we left early, after the intermission. But we were ok with that because we didn't have to deal with the long lines and big crowds exiting the Alamodome. (Am I old, or what?)I know that I haven't been posting as often as I used to. Apologies to people who actually check this blog often! Blogger's been giving me trouble with uploading this one funny video of Eli. I've been trying to upload it for the past few days!
Besides that, I'm spending all my free time planning Elina's 3 year birthday party, which is in about 10 days. We're going with a Lilo and Stitch luau theme since Elina is in love with the movie. What's strange is that no one carries Lilo and Stitch stuff anymore even though there is a cartoon series on the Disney channel. I went to the Disney store the other day and all they had, besides the movies, was one Stitch stuffed animal--ONE! And forget about party supplies. No one carries them. You can get them on ebay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg. (Think $10 for 8 Lilo and Stitch cups.) So, I'm busy trying to figure out what I can draw and how we can decorate things in a different way. The thing is, it's easy to decorate for a luau themed party, but what does a 3 year old know about luaus?? If I only do luau stuff, she'll see the party decorations and think, "Wow, palm trees--big deal!" Unfortunately, she's never been to Hawai'i and she just won't get it. But if she sees Lilo and Stitch everywhere, she's guaranteed to jump for joy.
On top of all this, Eli has decided that he is an early bird. For those of you who know me, you know that I am NOT an early bird. Eli starts making noises a little before 6am, folks. I'm dying over here! So I've been trying to get to bed early--meaning before 11pm. Hence, I haven't had as much time to post entries.
So there's the quick update on my life to explain why I have no time for anything other than catching up on sleep and planning a Lilo and Stitch party! Exciting, huh?
