Happy 3rd Birthday Sweet Alina!

Our adorable little Alina at 3-years-old!

Happy 3rd birthday to our sweet little Alina! From the moment she was delivered into our arms, she's been just the greatest joy and love of our lives. She was the happiest and most mellow little baby, with the face of a sweet little doll and the most playful/good-natured personality. She always given us big smiles and laughs. Her genuine little laugh is truly one of the best sounds imaginable. She was also our early walker at 9-months-old. She's been pushing to keep up with her big sister since birth and she truly excels at everything she does.

As a two-year-old, she was our inquisitive little climber and daredevil; always pushing the limits. She was virtually fearless and rarely slowed down. She loved climbing (and still does)! If she could climb it she would, and the girl would scale things like they were of no consequence. We were always surprised by where we would find her, because she found ways to climb up the counter or in her closet to get things she shouldn't be into. Sneaky little thing. Despite her pent up energy and curiosity, she's always been the sweetest little love bug. She took excellent care of all her baby dolls and always displayed her innate desire to nurture and calm those around her. In fact, when I last asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she responded, "I want to be a mommy just like you, and I want to take care of little babies". Not gonna lie that this had me in tears of joy, and it really highlights her loving and nurturing personality. She's definitely going to be a wonderful mommy someday, and this brings me so much happiness.

At three-years-old, she is the kindest and most loving little girl with an unparalleled love for all things Mickey and Minnie Mouse. She had a great time celebrating last month, with all her friends and family, at her Mickey and Minnie Mouse party too! She moved up into the bigger class in preschool several months before her third birthday because she was already ready and determined. Her best friend in preschool is Annie and they are like two peas in pod, little friends with birthdays only a week apart. She loves making art projects at preschool and is excellent at coloring, she has nearly mastered staying in the lines and has even started writing her name. She loves to stay active too, whether its playing outside, showing off her gymnastic talents on the playground trapeze, riding her bike and scooter in the court or just running through the grass on a little mini mission. We've embraced her boundless energy and know that someday she will be out little athletic star. She brings us countless moments of joy every day, and we are so proud and happy to have been blessed with this adorable little angel. We love you so much sweet girl. Happy Birthday baby doll Alina!

She's our big girl now, but I love that I still see her baby face here

 

Road to Hana with Kids: Part III - Hana Lava Tube, Black Sand Beach, Driving off in the Sunset

Halfway to Hana waterfalls, flowers, and banana bread

Hanging tree vines on road to Hana

Ready to explore Hana Lava Tube

Inside the cave created by Hana Lava Tube

Lavasicles; they reminded the girls of melted chocolate

A peek in to the beautiful Travassa Resort in Hana

Black sand of Wai'anapanapa beach in Hana

Once we arrived in Hana, we made the most of our time by checking out the Hana Lava Tube and black sand beach of Wai'anapanapa State Park. The Ka'eleku Cave/Hana Lava Tube was a huge highlight on the way. The cave itself is easy to navigate and doesn't take long to explore. The girls liked getting to carry their own flashlights, and were especially intrigued by the lavacicles, which reminded them of melted chocolate. After spending some time spelunking (what a word!), we soon made our way back to the surface with the goal of reaching the Wai'anapanapa black sand beach. Once we arrived we realized that there is a lot to see in Wai'anapanapa State Park. If we weren't on a race against sunset, we would have stayed much longer to explore the bluffs and sea caves. The black sand beach is actually fairly small and crowded, so we stayed just long enough to leave a few footprints. The girls had fun chasing a few Hawaiian mongooses on our way out of the park.  

After a very long and enjoyable day on the Road to Hana...with kids, we arrived at our final destination; Ohe'o Gulch in Haleakala State Park to see the aptly named Seven Sacred Pools. These tiered waterfalls are an incredibly beautiful sight. We arrived close to 6pm, which was nice because we didn't have to fight the crowds. The downside is that we didn't make it early enough to hike the Pipiwai Trail and bamboo forest, but in all honesty I don't think the girls would have made it far. We didn't stay too long as it was still a very long drive back to Kihei. The girls were pretty tired out toward the end of the journey, as were we. It took about another hour and half for us to drive from Ohe'o Gulch back to Kihei. Driving up toward Haleakala at dusk gave us our last incredible views of Maui. What a crazy/long/fun/exhausting/fulfilling trip it's been. We couldn't have envisioned a better vacation to start off 2014. Aloha Hawaii!

Beauty of Wai'anapanapa state park; Hawaiian mongoose

Seven pools at Ohe'o Gulch

Waterfalls, mountains, horses and cows

Secluded tropical bungalows outside Hana

A final Road to Hana shot before sunset

Lights of Maui at dusk

Disneyland Trip 2012 - Adventureland, Frontierland and Critter Country

 

The girls met Tigger and Winnie-the-Pooh, so sweet!

Sisters having fun by Rabbits garden in Critter Country

Splash Mountain! Elise loved the ride

Adventureland fun - Elise's first Dole Whip

Beautiful view from the treehouse
 

Exploring Tarzan's Treehouse in Adventureland

Mark Twain Riverboat in Frontierland

 

The girls found the treasure on Tom Saywer's Island

 

Views from the Jungle Cruise Ride in Adventureland

The girls were captivated by the jungle cruise :)

Daddy and his girls strolling through Adventureland

Look Who's Walking! - Alina at 10-Months-Old

Baby Alina is walking at 10-months-old!!!
 

Cute baby walker in her blue tutu swimsuit

Baby Alina turned 10-months-old on June 12th. She took her first unassisted steps on June 22nd, 2012! Just a short week later she began full on walking. This is the biggest milestone of our baby girl's first year and we are amazed that she has mastered it so early on. We think her strong desire to keep up with big sister Elise, pushed her to take those first steps. She only crawled for a few short months and now fully enjoys viewing the world upright and on her toes. We are such proud parents right now! Watching our baby girl walk is nothing short of amazing; and we just can't believe how fast she progressed. I'm sure running, climbing and dancing are not too far off. What a special moment for our littlest doll!



Our skilled little walker perfecting her gait

Walking and calling for "mama" - I love this combination hah

Alina has a few favorite words now; "mama, dada, baba", and her favorite non-word "gaga", which is always super cute to hear. She isn't a little chatterbox quite yet, but she knows all she needs to get by. I think that saying rings true, either you have an early talker or an early walker, she certainly falls within the latter category. Elise was the early talker, but she didn't start walking until after one-year-old. I work on introducing new words with Alina, but as of now she sticks to her favorites, and you will never hear me complaining about her saying "mama" too much, I can't get enough of that one and it seems to be her overall favorite - YAY for mama!

Baby stinker face strikes again; look at all those teeth!

 

Playful little sweetheart

At 10-months-old, Alina has a total of six teeth; four on top and two on the bottom. She got her  additional two top teeth right around eight-months-old, and hasn't had any more come through since. She is no longer nursing, I stopped right before she turned 10-months-old, as she was no longer interested. She has four 8-oz bottles of organic baby formula in additon to all her daily meals. She now eats the same things we have dinner...hooray. She especially enjoys chicken, pasta, spaghetti, turkey meatballs, eggs, avocado, steamed broccoli, squash and carrots, soybeans, and fruit of any kind. She's not a picky eater as of yet, although she has been turning up her nose to tomatoes (which she used to love).

Feed the baby - she's a big eater now
 

Spaghetti face! She has no qualms about getting messy

Helping us do the dishes, with an irrestible giggle



Alina is still a great sleeper. She usually has an hour nap in the morning, and a 1-2 hour afternoon nap. She sleeps the entire night through from 7pm - 7am. She rarely ever cries when put down for her naps or bedtime. This is a huge change from Elise, who always cried when put down to sleep (she still does even to this day). It is nice to be able to lay her down and watch her cuddle into a ball and fall asleep almost immediately. We are so grateful to have a little one who embraces her zzzz's!

One sweet little girl! She is always happy :)

Pretty in pink and showing off her beautiful eyes

Alina looks even more like mommy's little twin, as her eyes are beginning to darken. She has gorgeous hazel eyes right now and it has us wondering if they will stay that way or turn all the way brown. Right now they appear to be brown in the center surrounded by green on the outside. I think they will likely turn brown, but only time will tell. I also love that her hair has stayed a nice golden brown color. It is getting much longer now and we do not plan to cut it. We are going to let it all grow out, nice and long - no bangs for this little one.  While Alina looks like mommy, she definitely has her daddy's sweet and mellow temperment. She rarely ever cries and is not demanding whatsoever, however, she is a ball of energy and super inquisitive. She loves playing with her toys, especially the musical ones, as she is so curious about all the sounds. She is also quite active and always finding a chair to push along the floor; any way possible to get into dishwasher; looking for ways to climb up furniture and toys; and this little one puts everything in her mouth, we really have to watch her in that department. Other than that, she is so easy and always a joy to be around.

 

 



Reading her musical sound book; she loves it





 

 

Alina's growth stats at her 9-month checkup:

Height: 28 in (50th percentile)

Weight: 15 lbs 14 oz (5th percentile)

Alina had her most recent checkup at 9-months. At that point, she was average height, but still super tiny weight wise. Since then, she is no longer nursing and now on formula and three full meals a day. I can tell she has gained considerable weight, although she is still a naturally petite little girl. I'm looking forward to finding out her growth stats at her 12-month checkup. I plan to start her on whole milk in another month or so. I have a feeling we are in store for a huge growth spurt. She may be our tiny little doll now, but not for long; I plan to enjoy it while it lasts!

 

Our California Girl

Our platinum blonde, sun-loving California girl

Beautiful blue eyes; deep in thought

Just a few of her many adorable expressions

Mommy, daddy and Elise got to visit with our friends Mattu and Sunny last month! They were in town visiting, from London, and we were so happy to get a chance to catch up on the past year. Mattu took some beautiful candid photos, which I just have to share. She really captured the playful spirit of our darling little nearly two-year-old girl. Elise has the cutest and often silliest little expressions. This is one of my favorite things about toddlers; you never have to question their emotions because they proudly display each one - often in the most dramatic of ways.  She started out playing shy and coy, but after a half hour, she was playing hide-and-go-seek, and by the end of the day had made best of friends with Mattu and Sunny; so much so that she did not want to say goodbye!   

Visit Mattu's beautiful photography blog at: http://anokhifocus.blogspot.com/

Playing hide-and-seek with Mattu

This one is just so cute; her smile always wins us over

Daddy and Elise - these two are never far apart :)

More fun expressions - pensive, joyous, playful and coy

Elise at 18-Months-Old

Daddy with our little toddler

It's safe to say that at 18-months we have a full fledged toddler on our hands. She loves to explore everything and her vocabulary has grown tremendously. She now strings together sentences and phrases, and it's amazing to see how much she retains. She can name all her favorite foods, animals, toys, shapes, colors, Disney and other favorite characters, and so much more. We have baby flash cards and she can identify nearly all the objects on them without a problem. She can also locate any objects in a picture book that we ask her to find. She can count to 20 and she sings her ABCs all the way through G and then hums the rest, it is so cute! We are literally surprised everyday by how well she can communicate.

One of the funnier aspects of her speech, is that she will sometimes mispronounce words and they come out sounding more like four letter words that shouldn't be repeated. The worst one is frog, somehow she forgets the "r" and adds a "k" to the end and it ends up sounding pretty bad. We were at the store, when she saw a frog toy, pointed to it, and started yelling it loudly, while sticking out her tongue (the baby sign for frog). I think the people walking by were shocked, so we had to quickly reinforce "yes honey F-R-O-G". Crisis averted! Thankfully, we've worked on her pronunciation and she is able to say such words correctly now.

Cuddly Elise sporting her new beanie 

 

 

Another thing that mommy and daddy just love, is how affectionate she's become! Prior to this age, she would rarely slow down to cuddle, hug or give kisses. Now, she tells us when she wants a hug and loves to say "kisses" and give us smooches. We've been adoring all this newfound affection from her, though she has already learned to leverage such sweetness to get what she wants from us. As far as we're concerned, it's a much more preferrable method than fussing, so we can't complain.

Weight - 26 lbs 11oz (50 - 75th percentile)


Height - 34 1/2 inches (Above 95th percentile) - Our little beanstalk!

At 18-months, Elise's appetite changes on a daily basis. Some days, she wants to eat all day long, while others she barely even touches her meals. I know most toddlers go through a growth spurt around this time, so we do our best to feed her appetite on the days she needs more. Lately, she's been a big breakfast eater. She loves when we make her scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, cottage cheese, and waffles or english muffins for weekend breakfasts. She likes to sit in her chair and slowly eat all her food, but the second her hand get messy she's yelling for mommy or daddy to "wipe yucky", our cue to clean her hands. For lunch, she's been enjoying sandwiches recently. She loves turkey and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but mommy must cuts them up in small pieces otherwise she won't touch them. She also loves fruit; her recent addiction has been grapes. For dinner, she usually eats what mommy and daddy have. Lots of chicken with fresh vegetables, rice, pasta and we've even given her tacos and fajitas and she never turns her nose up to anything spicy, just like her parents.  

Ordering us to allow her to play on the desk and continue making a mess

While Elise is usually sweet and affectionate, we can't leave out the realities of having a curious little toddler. Lately, she loves climbing up every chair and other piece of furniture in the house, and making a mess out of everything she can find. When we catch her, she gives us a huge grin and then proceeds to tear into whatever interests her. She loves to attack mommy's computer and play with the pens and stamps on her desk, which have since been put out of reach. The funniest thing is that she now tells us, "it's ok I up here", as if that gives her permission to wreck havoc! She's slowly learning the art of manipulation, and just how far she can push her limits.

We have just started to introduce Elise to the idea of potty training. We got her a brand new pink potty that plays a song when she uses it, and she loves it. For the first few weeks, she just sat on it saying "my potty" over and over, not really sure what to do, but since then she has went pee on her potty maybe 5-6 times over the past month. We had to laugh at ourselves, as we were watching her like a hawk and thrilled the very first time she finally did it. Proud parents alright. It is still super early for full on potty training. From what I've heard, most kids aren't fully potty trained until around 2 1/2, so she has a good head start.

Perhaps the most exciting news, is that she has finally accepted her bedtime routine. Both mommy and daddy have to be there to put her to bed, and she points at our mouths and says, "mommy song" and "daddy song", and we sing and hum her bedtime lullabies each night. When we put her in the crib, she throws out all her blankets and toys, except Tinkerbell, and lays down and says "night, night", "love you" or "bye, bye momma, bye bye daddy, see ya", and that means she's ready to fall asleep. We've been so proud of her new nightly routine, because in the past she always cried at bedtime. It feels good to know that she can express when she is ready to go sleep all on her own. She also makes sure to let you know when she is awake the next morning. We usually wake up to "momma, dadda, where are you?". After hearing that, we can't wait to go get her out of her crib and get hugs and kisses from our happy little morning baby!

Elise's Second Christmas 2010

Excited to open her gifts on Christmas morning!

 

She loves her new set of Disney princesses

 

Keep those gifts coming!

Bring on the next gift

Wait, you mean there's more!?!?!

She loves her new doodler

Special gift from mommy; her first engraved silver bracelet!

Elise had a wonderful second Christmas holiday. On Christmas Eve, we gathered both families over and Elise was able to open a few of her gifts. Grandma and grandpa gave her a toddler size Leapfrog laptop, which she loves! Daddy spoiled her rotten with her own personal Dora the Explorer quad runner! Watching her attempt to ride it was absolutely hilarious, and fortunately we got it all on video. I will do my best to post the video very soon. 

Christmas day was super busy, as we did three separate gift openings, but Elise was a little trooper in ripping through all her presents! After each gift was unwrapped, she handed them to daddy and exclaimed, "open!". Once each gift was opened, her eyes would widen and she would purse her mouth and say, "owwwwww". It was super cute to see her reactions to each gift. She ended up with a ton of clothes and way too many fun toys, but her favorite gift by far was her pink tricycle, complete with her own own bell to ring, from grandma and grandpa. Her feet just barely reach the pedals, but she is so eager to learn how to ride it. We look forward to teaching her!

Opening gifts at the grandparents

Elise with papa

The ball kept her attention longer than any of her toys

Playing with her cousin

Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Darcy

Did we mention that she is OBSESSED with Tinkerbell!

Her new Tinkerbell PJs and pillow

Eager to see just what she got



Elise loves her new tricycle from grandma and grandpa!