Pretty Girl

Diana looked very pretty today in her hand knitted dress from my former co-worker's mom. It is precious and I get so many compliments on it. I remember the day Mary brought this dress to me in the hospital and it brought tears to my eyes how beautiful it was and how someone I didn't even know could make my daughter something so wonderful. I also thought, it looks so big! Well, it fits her perfectly now. My little girl is growing up.

I also love the stages I captured in these pictures. Diana goes from sitting up to her belly know pretty quickly and sometimes is pretty proud of herself for doing so.

Busy Girl

Diana helped mommy this morning cut out coupons...well really she just had fun making a mess, waving the paper around and trying to eat it.

We also played with Jonathan's balloons from GB (which she surprised him with when we got back from California. She was in Ohio for a few days and we missed her so she left Jonathan a few balloons and diving sticks in our house!) while he was at school but shhh don't tell Jonathan we played with them. Diana does love balloons these days and she blinks so quickly when they fly around it is pretty funny.

Where is Diana? There she is!

Rumble Strips

Ariel had to take Jonathan to and from school as I was without a car again today. Jonathan loves to go to school via the freeway and every morning in the car he will ask me if we can go the freeway. Well, apparently today he asked Ariel if she could go the freeway so she did. But because Ariel is such a fun cool mom, she showed Jonathan what the "rumble strips" (the grooves on the edge to let you know you are running off the road) were. Jonathan thinks they are so funny and couldn't stop talking about them, "Mommy, you aren't suppose to drive on them, but Ariel did" (with a big smile)and "They tickle my feet." In all seriousness Ariel is my role model...a mother of 4 kids (all under the age of 5), her house is always picked up and spotless, she cooks and her kids eat her meals, she always has such fun/creative ideas for the kids and is probably one of the most caring and kind hearted person I know. She offered to take Jonathan to school today when she already has her own 4 to deal with. Amazing woman! Thank you so much again Ariel! By the way, we have to drive on the rumple strips now and it makes me smile.

St Mary's School Tour

After church today, we went to the St Mary's school open house for Catholic School Week. At first Jonathan was a little timid, he was holding my hand and had really big eyes...it was very busy and obviously a lot to take in. A boy named Leo, who was in the 6th grade, gave us a wonderful tour and as the tour went on Jonathan started to warm up to him. Of course Jonathan asked him his favorite question, "How old are you?" When Leo responded with 11, Jonathan just kind of looked at him. Eventually, Jonathan was telling Leo what parts of the school he wanted to see, the gym, the library, computer lab, art room, music room and the Kindergarten rooms. Jonathan got really into the open house and at one point I asked him if he liked the school and he said, "Yes. I like it so much I think I could sleep here!" We are thrilled he likes it so much and hopefully he will be this excited when he starts Kindergarten the fall of 2013 (not this September but next September). I asked Jonathan what his favorite part of the school was and he said the gym, I was not surprised, although he did spend a lot of time in the music room.

Gnawing

Diana is chewing on everything! She especially loves to chew on her farm animals...thanks Auntie Heidi and Uncle Jason! Gnaw, gnaw or should I say neigh, neigh. Haha!

Tongue

I think Diana has discovered her tongue...she always has it out these days. I must admit her lips and tongue are probably my favorite feature of hers. Her tongue is so little and cute I LOVE it (although not so much in this picture)! She is drooling a lot again, as you can see, so I am hoping a tooth is coming soon. Her eyelashes are really coming in too!

Me Too

Diana may be following in her Mommy's footsteps and soon be nicknamed, "Me Too." Today Jonathan and I were on the floor reading his BOB books and Diana threw a fit until she could hold one of the BOB books as well. I tried giving her toys, other books but nothing worked. She of course wanted to put the book in her mouth which is why I didn't want her to have it so I had to give her the pacifier and then the book and she was thrilled! She just kept waving the book around and smiling under the pacifier. She definitely is a very determined little girl and it is showing more and more every day. She is starting to lose interest in her own toys and wants to do what every big brother is doing...we could be heading down a very interesting path.

Playdates

We have been busy with playdates this week, which worked out well since we were without a car (Brad's car broke down and is being fixed). Wednesday Alex, Evan and Drew came over to play. Thursday Olive (little girl from preschool) and her sister Lucy came over to play. On Friday the Pusateri clan came over. Jonathan can't say I never let him play with his friends now! It really was a lot of fun to watch him play with other kids and it allowed me to get caught up with some of my friends too.

Can you see the look on Diana's face...she wants the sled Lucca is chewing on...

Learning to share at early age is a good thing...luckily for Diana, Lucca has 3 older siblings she knows about sharing. :-)

Race Cars

Jonathan helped me clean the couch today so as a treat I let him race his cars on the couch while the cushions dryed. He still talks about the Indy 500 race he watched with Auntie Heidi. Today, the blue car (close to him) was his favorite because it looked like the Indy 500 cars.

Jonathan's Toys

Diana would much rather play with Jonathan's toys these days then her own. Lucky for her, he is pretty good about sharing and does a good job of keeping the smaller toys away from her. Today he even shared one of his fire trucks which was very surprising as they are his favorite.

Jungle Toy

Diana loves her little jungle toy...she is reaching for things, figured out how to make it play music and has even attempted to crawl through the small openings.

On the Move

Diana is on the move! She isn't crawling so to speak but she is being creative on getting to where she wants to go. She has been what I call "back scooting" (where she arches on her back and scoots on her head and feet) for awhile now and most recently been scooting around on her bottom. Today she bottom scooted from the middle of the living room to the corner of the room to reach a chair to play with while I was changing out the laundry ( I was wondering why she was being so quiet). She has been doing much better on her belly lately and will occasionally flop to her belly on her own to get something she wants. My mom even said it won't be long until she is crawling. Well, today she "crawled" but it was backwards. She was playing on her belly and before I knew it she was back 5 feet . Later tonight we were playing in the living room and she apparently wanted to play with Jonathan's fire station as she bent down to her hands and flopped to her belly and "army crawled" about 2 feet, forward this time, to where she could reach and pull the fire station to her. Jonathan said "oh oh!" I have been warning him that we are going to be in trouble when she starts crawling, as she will be into everything, including his toys. I am excited for her to reach this milestone, just not sure I am ready for a mobile baby yet.

Crazy Hair

Not sure what was up with Diana tonight but she decided to make a surprise wake-up at 9 pm, hysterically crying. She had been sleeping so hard in her bed or was moving around so much with her crying that she gave herself really crazy hair. We couldn't get a good picture of it, but seriously she looked like she had a mohawk.

Funny Sayings from Palm Springs

A couple of random funny things from our Palm Springs trip...

When Diana was fussy coming back from the discovery center, Jonathan said, "It's ok Diana, just take a deep breath."

Jonathan is into joke telling these days. One of his favorite jokes he learned at a restaurant was "Why was the tomato blushing?" "Because he saw the ranch dressing."

Thank you Nana and Grandpa Gordy for sharing your vacation with us and spoiling us all! We had a wonderful time and want to go back! (The freezing rain was not very welcoming in Cincinnati)

Wee

Our takeoff from Palm Springs was a little rocky...it was very windy so it was a very bumpy take off. I was freaking out a bit as the plane was going all over the place and we were close to mountains. I think everyone on the plane relaxed a little bit when Jonathan said "wee this is fun!". And "wa-hoo!" (Since I post things late and back date them, I am happy to say that the golf tournament was suspended later on Saturday due to the high winds. I wasn't just being a worry-wart, it really was windy!)

Discovery Center

Nana had a great idea today...we went to the Children's Discovery Center and Jonathan had a blast!!! They had a really cute pizza parlor where Jonathan made all of us pretend pizzas, we went grocery shopping, he painted a VW bug, drove race cars, got measured as 3 feet 4 inches, ran through a corn maze, played dress up and his favorite, playing a veterinarian. I would highly recommend this if anyone goes to Palm Desert.

Angry Birds

Jonathan is teaching Nana how to play Angry Birds on the iPad. It's amazing how quickly he learns things and how well he can work the iPad. Nana asked "how can I get my bird down?". So matter of factly he said, "no way"

Happy Diana

Diana is loving sitting up and just playing with her toys.

Bob Hope Golf Cart

Jonathan got to see the Bob Hope golf cart today when him and Grandpa Gordy went to the golf tournament. Pretty Cool!

More Swimming

Nana and Grandpa Gordy went driving around this morning while Jonathan and I stayed home with Diana (I think she has an upset belly). Jonathan told me it was his workout day, so we played football outside and ran up and down hills. I asked him what one thing he wanted to do today, and of course he said go swimming, so that's what we did. It was gorgeous again here today. Grandpa Gordy and Jonathan snuck into the PGA tournament again today.

Humana Golf Tournament

Today started out later than any other day out here thus far, 5:40 am...at this point I am hoping the kids don't adjust to the time change. Jonathan, Diana and I all played in my bed first thing this morning and I loved watching the two of them interact together. Jonathan even shared the iPad with Diana and showed her how to play the baby piano ap, which she loved!

Of course Jonathan would find an ihop out here...which we HAD to go for breakfast.

Jonathan got a dart gun as a special treat from auntie Heidi, and he loved playing with it today outside. After about an hour of playing with the gun, Jonathan suggested a golf cart ride...needless to say, Jonathan and Grandpa Gordy got into a little bit of trouble where they "snuck" into the PGA Humana golf tournament, that is taking place across the street. Jonathan got a bunch of free stuff...treats, golf marker, flashlight and a pedometer. They took me back to get a pedometer and while we were there, Jonathan was filmed by Humana...watch out, you may see him (or grandpa Gordy or me) on a commercial someday. As Grandpa Gordy said, it was better taking Jonathan to the golf course than taking a puppy to a beach.

Next on the list was swimming at the pool, where Diana enjoyed watching her big brother swim and was spoiled by being held by Nana and Grandpa Gordy. Jonathan's imagination and energy doesn't stop even in the pool...we were sharks, firemen, taxi drivers, you name it and we did it.

When we got back to the house, Jonathan found a new friend, a puppy named Buttons down about 4 houses. He played fetch with the dog while grandpa Gordy talked to the owner...both boys were enjoying themselves.

The funniest part of today had to be when Nana was reading jonathan a book tonight, "For the Love of Dogs". There was a part that talked about service dogs, "service dogs assist people who cannot see or hear..." and Jonathan said "Grandpa Gordy needs one of those". Nana and I of course thought this was hilarious!

Silly Jonathan

Jonathan being silly with a tennis ball and his pedometer (he got from the golf tournament).

Concentrating

"Shhhh...I am concentrating." This is Jonathan's new saying. He will close his eyes, talk to himself and sometimes be drawing something on his hand. If you say anything he will say "Shhh, I am concentrating."

Love Me Some Ice Cream

Tonight we went to Hogs Breath, restaurant owned by Clint Eastwood, for dinner. Diana slept, still not adjusted to the time change, and Jonathan was a little difficult at first as he was tired but quickly recovered and thoroughly enjoyed his chocolate ice cream.

By the way, it was Daddy, not me, who taught him how to "drink" the last bit of his ice cream....I know, it doesn't sound like Brad, but trust me, it was!

Tennis Anyone?

Today we went to Fritz park, where we played tennis for awhile and then Jonathan got to play at a park. Jonathan did really good playing tennis and was improving with every ball Nana fed to him. On the park Jonathan enjoyed climbing on the rope spider web, doing a scavenger hunt and playing with some new little friends.

This afternoon we finally took Jonathan to the pool...this may be where we are for the rest of the week. He is a little fish and loves to swim. He was jumping right in, going under water and swimming very well.

The Living Desert

We went to the Palm Springs zoo today, the Living Desert. It was a gorgeous sunny day and a perfect day to spend at the zoo. Some of the highlights were the baby giraffe, the merry-go-round, and the petting zoo. We had to go back to the petting zoo twice, so Jonathan could brush the goats with two different types of hand brushes. The kids rode in a safari wagon and I think Diana thought she was a big girl. She kept trying to reach for Jonathan's goldfish.

Jonathan's other highlight while we have been here is riding around in the golf cart. Today we took a ride out to the PGA West clubhouse where they are setting up for a big tournament. Jonathan thought it was fun to ride on the street in a golf cart and to see all the tents.

Sequence for kids is his favorite board game these days, ever since he got it for Christmas from Nana and Grandpa Gordy, and we have been playing it a lot. Jonathan and grandpa Gordy are normally on a team against Nana and me. Tonight after we got done playing, he said..."I love vacation! I think we should stay on vacation for 40 or maybe 80 nights?"

Diana has been a trooper and is loving the attention from Nana, Grandpa Gordy and her big brother. She is still a little messed up with the time change and with the combination of fighting her naps, she is, or I should say was, a little tired. Last night I thought she was taking a "cat nap" like she does sometimes around 4:30, but she never woke up again until 1:30 am. I am glad she slept so good but the bad news for her is that I know she can go about 12 hours without eating now.