Alessandra buggy car

I recently got a little red push car for Alessandra. I got it on Craigslist for $10.00

Alessandra loves her little car... we use it instead of a stroller and she feels so proud when she's "driving" in it. A few days ago, I put her in the car when we went to a few stores and the whole time, she had a huge smile on her face and waved at everyone that passed by.

It was too cute ...

Nap time trouble

Julianna is having a hard time at school during nap time. For the past few days in a row, she has brought home a note from her teacher saying that she does not listen at nap time (sometimes with a sad face drawn on the note for emphasis!). We've stuck to a standard punishment whenever she gets one of these notes: no candy, no juice, no dessert, no TV... for the rest of the night.

With the bad notes coming fairly regularly, we needed to find out why this was becoming such a big issue for her. After a lot of discussion, I found out that the problem is that Julianna does not want to sleep. She swears she is not tired and she just gets too bored lying down in her cot looking at the ceiling for 2 hours. She ends up playing with things around her and making noise, which can wake up the other children.

I explained to Julianna that she needs to follow the school rules and that she needs to listen to her teachers... However, even after our "talk" Julianna still did not listen. Jason and I decided to add more things to her " punishment" and Juliana had to go to sleep 30 minutes earlier. She was clearly upset and stayed in bed.

We told her that if she did not listen again, we would take away her favorite toy and she would not be able to play with for a few days. I asked her what her favorite toy was and she told me "the Bouncing ball"; and inflatable that she can sit on and bounce around the room. I told her that I was going to take the bouncing ball away the next time she did not listen in school.

Well the next evening, when I went to pick her up at school, the second I got there she starting gushing about how much she LOVES this little pink pony that she has at home. I told her okay but I did not know why she kept repeating that over and over... she loves the Pink pony, the pink pony is her favorite toy, etc.

Guess what.. when I talked with the teacher, I was informed that Julianna did not listen again at nap time.

When we were leaving the school, Julianna was in unusually high spirits especially considering that she knew she had a bad day and she didn't listen to her teachers. In the car, she told me that she knew she had to be punished when we got home, and that I could take her FAVORITE pink pony away... Suddenly I understood what she was doing! So tricky!

I told her that I was not going to take the pink pony, and that I would take the bouncing ball away from her instead... and immediately she started to cry :-(

The little Mermaid

Today was Keeley’s birthday party. Ariel (the Little Mermaid) was there. On the picture, Julianna was getting her face painted.

Julianna is very funny when she is around her friends from school. She is very bossy but at the same time, vey nurturing. She takes care of her friends. For example, when Ariel arrived, everyone wanted to take pictures but one of the girls was missing. Julianna made everyone wait and left to look for her girlfriend to make sure she would not miss anything.

Ariel started singing and Julianna was the only girl singing with her. Exactly the way she sings to us at home.

Alessandra stayed playing with some toys (little people) for a long time. It was very cute see her playing that long with something.

They had a piñata and all the big kids were getting the candy. Alessandra was able to get one chocolate kiss and she was the happiest kid EVER.

When we got home, Julianna and Alessandra played a long time in the ball pit and were laughing and giggling for a long time. I was even able to take a short nap ( very short nap :-) )

Ah... we are taking the day off on Tuesday and we are going to Disneyland ... I can't wait to use our new wagon.

Big Girl

Today was Alessandra's first day at the toddler class. The teacher said that I do not need to bring her bottles anymore and that she will be eating the school food and taking one nap a day.

When I picked her up, she was all excited to see me and I was told that she did very well. She went outside to play and she ate all the food they gave her.

It is kind of sad to see her leave the baby room.

Sunday was her birthday party ...so I guess she is officially one now...our big girl!

Ah! today she said that word Ball ..

"I love you with all my heart"

I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART

This is Julianna's favorite phrase... every day that I drop her at school she says that. Before, she used to say ...I love you at my heart but now she figured it out.

Alessandra's party is going to be on Sunday. It will be very small; only 3 or 4 kids are coming. I did not want to do anything too big (and at this age, she does not have a lot of friends yet). The theme is Ladybug but I am having a hard time finding a bug shaped cake.

We are trying to teach Alessandra (again) to sleep through the night. She was doing great but spending 20 hours on airplanes and airports (each way), as well as the jet lag, our trip to Brazil returned us to square one. After 3 very hard nights of P/U and P/D ( Baby Whisperer) ..she finally went to sleep at 8:30m pm and only woke up at 5am. It was a good stretch but ... "What happened with my morning?!"... I guess we can't have everything :-)