Emma's New Bike Seat

Finally Emma has a seat on the back of Andres' bike. We set out on a mission today to buy a seat. First stop, one option $120. Second stop, two options $120 or $130. Third stop - no options. Fourth and final stop - the $40 winner ($43.00 with tax Andres reminded me). Several hours after we began the installation process, it was ready. We took the girls for a short spin around the neighborhood, but we've already promised that tomorrow we will take a more substantial ride. Emma was super calm (well okay she's pretty much always calm) and was excited to see Lorelei and me pull up beside her.

Emma Standing

Emma has been crawling for a few weeks now - so it's getting old. About a week ago, she started pulling herself up to a standing position. We had to lower her mattress a level, but soon I think we'll have to drop it down all the way. She is such a strong little girl! This week she saw Lorelei hopping and jumping around and so she jumped - both feet! Now granted we were taking a stroll at the time, so she had my support, but come on! That takes some concentration!

Lorelei Turns 3!

After what seemed like a long period of being "almost 3", Lorelei finally celebrated her third birthday on Thursday April 24th. Andres and I went to daycare early. Her very thoughtful daycare owner, Nolvia, bought her a pinata. That was pretty much the highlight of the event for everyone. What was really funny to watch was a bunch of kids all 5 and under try to beat a pinata. They had to have some strategic help! And as brutish as Lorelei is in so many ways, when it came to whacking the pinata she was surprisingly reserved.

Andres and I made a sweet princess cake for our princess that she shared with all her friends at daycare. After two hours of partying with the younger set, I was pretty much ready for a nap!

Sleeping Blues

The girls have really been double teaming lately with the sleeping. I have to chuckle at the similarity of Emma's sleeping history with pretty much every other kid on the planet. Rewind 2 months and we had already gone through the very painful sleep training: hour and a half of full out crying the first night, 45 minutes of crying the second night, 20 minutes the third night, 7 minutes on the fourth night and then - a magical night. Of course of a one night respite Lorelei started waking up at night while Emma continued sleeping. Well and then a sickness hit, throw in a trip to Argentina, and teething pain and all that great sleeping went right out the window. We now find ourselves back at square one. This past week we were awake with Emma several times each night. One night was 3 hours of inconsolable crying.

Wednesday night they took turns waking each other up. Lorelei ended up sleeping on the couch after quite a fiasco. Last night (or truly right now because I am still in "last night") it started shaping up to be a bad one again - and it was/is. Lorelei seems to have cold and for some reason she is bothered by not being able to breathe. Go figure. Emma woke up at her usual time - 11:30 expecting a feeding that she didn't get. I think Andres fell asleep on the living room floor with Lorelei on the couch while I was hiding out in the bathroom catching up on old News Weeks. After an hour of complaining she went back to sleep. And then Lorelei was awake - crying and in my bed!. All was calm by about 2:00. At 3:00 Emma was requesting a feeding which she didn't get and complained about it for 45 minutes. All which led to me having this quiet time in the early morning hours to catch up on some much needed blogging practice.

Emma and the Peanut

It turns out that the second child in the family has to be not only protected from things like outlets and sharp corners, but also the older sister and that turns out to be far more challenging that I had anticipated. For instance - last night Lorelei and Andres were happily engaged in shelling and eating peanuts. Lorelei said that Emma wanted a peanut too. I told her that no, Emma could not have a peanut. Next thing I know Lorelei has slipped a peanut into Emma's mouth. Emma was none too happy to have her mouth so unceremoniously scooped out and the peanut so rudely removed. After I screamed at Lorelei to go to her room, Andres explained to her why it is dangerous for Emma because she doesn't have teeth yet. (This was really part of an ongoing discussion on what is dangerous for Emma to put into her mouth.) How can a not-yet 3 year old really understand "danger" or imagine what choking would be like? She has no concept of dying or even really bad things happening.

Emma Hits 3 Milestones!

Emma has been hard at work these past few weeks and months. All that effort has culminated in achieving 3 milestones simultaneously this week. On Wednesday April 2nd, Emma crawled. She went from a week or two of rocking on her hands and knees to full out crawling! She can already navigate around the living room pretty well getting behind the couch and finding all kinds of treasures. It was also the first time I saw Emma sit up. There was a delay between seeing her do it and recognizing the marvel of it. Fantastic! Of course now that means that we have to move everything two feet off the floor and we need to be super vigilant with little tiny things lying about. Emma's third milestone was hit today when I spent my lunch break at Babies R Us buying a new car seat for her. Lately I have noticed that I can barely get Emma and her carseat in and out of the car. That got me thinking that I needed to research the safety guidelines of her infant seat. Turns out that the infant seat is good up to 22 pounds and 27 inches. As of a month ago Emma weighed a little over 18 pounds and was 26 inches long. Hmmmmm...... So my super sized child now has a new car seat that will last her for years to come (I hope).

To Argentina

We made our visit trip to Argentina as a family of four. Emma was an amazing traveler. I think she much prefers air travel to car travel. Lorelei was pretty great as well taking into consideration that we spent more than 15 hours on airplanes. There definately was a moment around 4 a.m. on the way to Argentina when Andres and I both wanted to disavow any relation to the screaming, kicking demon-like child, but once she finally fell asleep all was well. And I learned a valuable lesson. On the way home Lorelei got a sleeping pill!

Andres' family was very happy to see us and to get to meet Emma for the first time (other than Los Abuelos that were staying with us when Emma was born). Lorelei's amazing memory was evidenced again. She picked right back up with Tia Gaby and Tio Cesar, asking after Cesar's boys Luca and Cristian. Lorelei was almost hysterical upon seeing Tio Fer and Tia Vero continued to spoil her rotten. Mix in lots more relatives and friends and it was just a really lovely visit.

We also made the strategic decision to spend a week at the beach in a rented cabin. It was really nice to see the ocean again (which is a funny thing given that we live pretty darn near the ocean). Lorelei happily returned to her [water] element. Emma enjoyed the sand more than the chilly water.

We also celebrated Lorelei's birthday early. We all got together at the club. The kids had a marvelous time running wild and enjoying the playground. Emma enjoyed being passed around the crowd. It was fun to have so many of the people that we love in one place.