Alyssa is eating like a big girl now!

We tried solid food with Alyssa tonight for the very first time, rice cereal. She looked like she was going to gag as I put the first spoonful in her mouth. She managed to get through the bowl of cereal but seemed to suffer most of the time. I did expect her to do a little better because both Briana and William took to eating solids as if they had been eating them all along. This little girl is going to need some work!

Baking with Daddy!

Apple season is here and with it comes Alan's famous apple pies. This year Briana really wanted to help bake pies with daddy. She is very helpful in the kitchen and will often ask to help whenever someone is in the there.

California Adventure

My nephews are 6 and 8 this year and to celebrate we all went to California adventure. This was also Alyssa's very first visit to the magic kingdom. I don't think she even knew where she was. We spent a few hours at Disneyland before meeting the rest of the family over at California Adventure. It was nice to spend some time over there becuase we were able to experience some new rides. As always we had a great time!

I'm so behind . .

I just realized that I haven't posted a thing for September and the month is half way over. I do have a few things in draft form, however finding the time to blog is getting more difficult. Briana started school last week and surprisingly a small change like can be disruptive to your schedule. Now that Alyssa is three months old I decided to finally sign up for the gym and get into the shape I was before my three babies. :) Factor in our recent camping trip and the fact that I only have three more months to finish my 2008 digital family album it's no wonder I haven't been on the computer lately. I also signed up for a consignment sale on October 2nd and getting ready for it has been very time consuming!! Hopefully all will be back on track very soon.

Chick Hicks

he's mean!!! I have often written about my little boy's obsession with certain movies. (Toy Story, Cars, Bee Movie just to name a few) So, he has a small collection of cars from the movie Cars that he plays with frequently. I recently purchased the Dinoco Blue pack which features Lightning McQueen and Chick Hicks painted blue. So, anyway I often will hear William playing with his cars and talking for them. One of his favorite lines to say is, Chick Hicks, he's mean!! So the other day I was taking pictures of Alyssa when William insisted that I take one of Chick Hicks for him. So, since I already have the picture, I mine as well share the story behind it as well!

Camping in Lake Silverwood

We decided to venture out on our second camping trip since Alyssa's arrival in May. In order to stay close to home we ended up at Lake Silver Wood. The kids had so much fun splashing in the water and playing outdoors. Alyssa and I hung out on the sidelines. On a side note, when I was taking these pictures Briana splashed me with lake water. Not only was I upset about having lake water all over me, I later found out that she splashed the camera lens causing the photos we have taken since the trip to be blurry in one section.

Briana's 1st Day of School

Briana started her first day of preschool today. She will be attending on Tues/Thurs from 9-12 to give her a taste of what will come next year in Kinder. I was surprised to find that I had mixed feelings about her finally starting pre-K. Briana was the baby I use to leave at the Kindercare to go and work a full day. We did this for two years and so I thought letting her go to a part time pre-school would be like nothing. I didn't realize how much I have changed from my working mom days. As a working mom you justify why you leave your baby behind and you do everything in your power to silence the voice that tells you how fast they grow and you should really be at home. In addition you are so busy raising your child, managing your household and going to work that you have little time for anything else.

After William I did listen to my inner voice and stayed home with my children full time. Now fast forward two and a half years and Briana is setting off for her first real school experience and I find myself mourning her babyhood. It went by so fast. I have enjoyed the last two years and I have grown so close to my oldest daughter in the process. There are so many more experiences that I have enjoyed that I would have definitely missed as a working mom. Now that this change is in front of me I find myself struggling to embrace it. I know it's another big step for Briana. Even though I have been with her everyday these past few years it seemed to sneak up out of no where. I often times ponder the whole process of having a newborn baby who is so dependent on you for every little thing and how in 18 short years (or so) you have a completely independent adult who is leaving your home. I know from talking to moms of adults that it happens in a blink of an eye. To me this is a major step toward 18 year old Briana, a person I would love to meet and get to know some day . . . I just wish there was a way to slow down time and enjoy them just a little more just how they are today.

So here she is, so excited and so I too will be excited for her. I find having children allows you to re-live your own experiences but from a different prospective. I love you so much big girl!

My Nephews Turn 6 and 8!

It's so hard to believe that my nephews are already 6 and 8, as well as a first grader and a third grader. Labor Day weekend was also a time to celebrate both birthdays for the boys. We had presents, pizza, cake and lots of fun. It was after this particular party that William's love for dinosaurs grew. Now he asks for a dinosaur every time we go shopping and every time he sees one on TV.

My nephew, Joseph, also received a Darth Vader costume for his birthday and absolutely loved it. Both William and Briana could not stop talking about it. Add in the fact that the boys have the Lego Star Wars video game and all the kids love to watch the movie . . .we have a little Star Wars obsession going on!!

Birthday Party

Saturday we were invited to a fun birthday party at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris. The kids had so much fun riding trains, playing outside, eating pizza and eating cake.








It was a WALL E themed party. The kids with their WALL E masks!

So cute yet

so frustrating!!!! William is going through so many changes and does at least one cute thing a day. He is amazingly smart with the ability to use new vocabulary correctly, sing songs and remember scenes in movies. And yet he is the one child who has me pulling out my hair every single day. He wants my help, I begin to help him then he cries and yells don't help me!!! I want a drink, no drink, I want a drink!! Add in constant crying and you got my day with my little man. So cute, yet so frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!

Toddler's Laws

This describes William perfectly!!!!

1. If I like it, it's mine.

2. If it's in my hands, it's mine.

3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.

4. If I had it a week ago, it's mine.

5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.

6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.

7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.

8. If I think it's mine, it's mine.

9. If it it's near me, it's mine.

10. If it's broccoli, it's yours!

Just as I suspected

I'm not the best photographer in the world but I love taking pictures of my kids. When Alyssa was due to arrive I was thinking about how hard it's going to be to get a picture with all three. Anyone with small children knows how "cooperative" they can be at picture time. Now Alyssa is here and just as I suspected it is difficult to get a picture with all 3. Look below, I was shocked I took one and they were all looking at the camera. I go to take another one just to try and get a smile out of Alyssa and William disappears. He had better things to do, I guess? Now here is my challenge for the year, getting cute pics of all three together. I think I'm up for it! :)

Alyssa is already 3 months old!

I can't believe my baby is already 3 months old. It has gone by so fast. She can't quite roll over but does roll to her side and then back. She tries hard to talk to us and makes baby sounds so we will talk to her. Of course she always has the biggest smiles whenever someone looks her way. :)

Someday my babies will be gone

I have been a sahm now for just over two years. It is by far the most difficult job I have ever had. There are no breaks!!!!! No lunch break- I eat standing up while cleaning and getting the kid's meal together. No bathroom breaks - oh I go, but I always have company and help with toilet paper and flushing. No naptime breaks - Briana gave up her nap about a year ago. With 3, it seems as though someone is always awake during the day. No continuous nighttime sleep for me. With three children someone is waking me up in the middle of the night for water, potty help or crying for formula.

I have many mommy friends. Some work and I begin to think how it might be nice to work again. Some have kids that are in school during some part of the day. Then I think how nice it would be to have the kids in school so I could exercise, run errands,manage my household and just have a little time to myself.

After reading the piece below I realize that school time and even full time employment will be here before I know it. More importanly my babies will be fully grown and gone. I am exactly where I need to be. I wouldn't miss this time in their life for anything in the world! They are only young once and they are grown before you know it.



~~All My Babies Are Gone Now~~

By Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columnist and Author

All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow, but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.

Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach, T. Berry Brazelton, Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education — all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations — what they taught me, was that they couldn’t really teach me very much at all.

Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2.

When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow. I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton’s wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China. Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.

Every part of raising children is humbling. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the “Remember-When-Mom-Did” Hall of Fame. The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language –mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, “What did you get wrong?” (She insisted I include that here.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald’s drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?

But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night.

I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Even today I’m not sure what worked and what didn’t, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I’d done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That’s what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.

Big Boy Room!

It's about time!! We finally moved William into his big boy room. Alan was able to paint, set up his furniture and baby proof the room in a very short time this weekend. We put him down for a nap in there yesterday and it went horribly. He was playing and yelling downstairs and not at all interested in getting some sleep. Alan finally moved him back into his crib but it was too late. He was so riled up that he ended up with no nap. That made for a "fun" cranky evening!

Then it was time for bed. We put William down in his big boy bed. He ended up crying for 30 minutes. Our plan was to give him 30 minutes and then put him in the crib and try again the next night. Just when we were about to move him, he stopped. He ended up falling asleep in his big boy bed. He did wake up at 5am crying because he was unsure about his new surroundings. I walked into his room and he asked to be put back into the crib.

So, today for nap time, I asked him if he wanted to go in his crib or his big boy bed for a nap. He chose the big boy bed and had me close the door to his room. I could hear him talking and playing for about a half an hour and then silence. He ended up taking his very first nap in the big boy bed. Bedtime went much smoother than the previous night. It seems as though he is quickly adjusting to his new bed and his big boy room. :)

Lexi's 3rd Birthday

We had a small birthday celebration for my only niece, Alexis. We had pizza, presents, cake and a whole lot of fun! Happy Birthday Lexi!!





William thought this was his gift.



Grandma and her 3 girls. (Briana, Alexis and Alyssa)

Briana is Gone Again!

4 1/2 must be the magic number. This month alone Briana has been asked to go on special outings with family members. First she was asked by her grandparents to go to Las Vegas.

A few weeks later she was invited to go to Disneyland with her Uncle, Aunt and cousin.

Today, she left for the mountains with my parents, nephews and niece. She has been to more places without us this month. I don't know if it all was a huge coincidence or if Briana will continue to get special invitations without the rest of us!!

William's Favorite Songs

William has always taken an interest in movies and songs. He started to sing simple songs at 15 months old and quoting lines from movies just after two. Now he listens carefully to the radio and sings along. He loves rock and roll. Here are two of his favorite songs and how he has changed them over time.

1. We will, we will rock you! He started to sing this one as, we will we will rock em! And on occasion he will sing: we will, we will rock daddy!

2. Free Falling. He started this one just as it is but it quickly changed to free fall down!

Do you understand?

There is always a part of me that wonders how much William truly understands when I am disciplining him or trying to explain why he can't do certain things. I will often times tell him not to hit his sister and he will try and run away from me. So, I have to take him by the hand and look him in the eye and say " William we don't hit because it hurts, do you understand?" He usually says yes, then he gives Briana a hug and we move on with our day.

This morning, I was changing his diaper as usual. He tells me, mama don't touch the poo poo. (Something I always had to tell him during the diaper grabbing phase.) I tell him, that's right William, don't touch the poo poo. He then takes my hand and tells me, do you understand? It will make you sick.

It was the cutest thing! I wanted to pick him up and give him a huge hug but instead I told him, yes I understand it will make me sick. :)