Orlando

My sister and her family were going to Orlando and since it was the only chance to see them this year, I decided to purchase 3 tickets and go visit her. No be able to stay longer, I decided to go for 4 days.
The airplane ride there was good. After 2 movies, a lot of phone games, coloring and enough candy to make any kid happy ( and over excited) we arrived in Orlando. Julianna was the best helper and good big sister I could hope for. Julianna was able to help me with the luggage, elevator doors and most of all, entertain her little sister.

We had a great time but too tired to tell everything we did.

Alessandra's new hair cut

I was home with the kids and Alessandra was cutting papers... she loves to use the kids scissors and cut all the papers until they are all over the place.
I heard a weird cutting noise and I asked her what it was... I asked her if she was cutting papers and she said yes.
A couple minutes later, she comes with a big smile and the scissors on her hand and tell me :
Mommy, Ale cut hair
I immediately replied that only Lizzle can cutt the hairs...no mommy and definetely no Alessandra.
She looked at me again and said:
No mommy... Ale cut hair
It was then that I saw it ... my first reaction was to tell her how ugly it was and how we only cut papers.
She understood, said sorry but for the rest of the night she kept repeating: Ale hair not ugly... hair pretty
I gave her a kiss and told her that it was pretty but to never do this again

Last Day of Summer School

Today was Jules last day of summer school... she loved all the field trips, all the new friends and even loved the school. She did not want to leave when I picked her up today

We received a little note from another girl from her class ( Named Mia) that she wanted to keep in touch with Julianna. Cute ...

Julianna is in a transition phase where most of the time she is great, helpful and happy but sometimes something really small will irritate her and she " Freaks Out" It is often at bath and/or bed time. She cries because she does not want to take a bath and cries because she does not want to get out of the bath. It is very tiring and reason does not always work.

I know I am going to really miss this age but I don't think I will miss these night fights.

I love you anyways Jules

Camping

We went camping for the 4th of July... Julianna is completely obsessed with my friend Rob.
She only wants to hold his hand, sit next to him, play with him. I get worried that she is bugging him as she will ask him to do everything with her.

The camping was fun but we decided to return Sunday night instead of Monday ... Julianna has 2 swollen eyes ( probably from mosquito bites) and we stayed at home watching Barbie movies.

Alessandra and Jason went to the Wild Animal Park and had a lot of fun... I also enjoyed my smooshi time alone with Jules

Just another day

Alessandra was sick this morning so she could not go to school and I stayed with her the whole day. I had to bring my car to change the oil and since she was feeling a little better after taking Tylenol, I decided to pack the stroller and bring her.

We spent a magical day together. She is very funny and she turned a boring day in a waiting room with nothing to do, into a fun place to spend our time. It is hard to explain but we had a lot of fun today. Alessandra would make funny faces at everyone and anything I told her was the funniest thing ever.

We went to L&L for lunch and stayed there for a long time just talking about funny things.
She LOVES Snow White and I got her a little book that she wanted me to read over and over again. Every time I did, something new happened and she would laugh very loud. I was enjoying every minute of it ... until the guy from the shop told me that my car was ready and I could leave.

OOOiiiii

Alessandra now says "Oiiiii!" all the time. It is too cute when she answers the phone and says, "Oi! Udo bem?" She is quickly developing her language skills but at the moment we need a dictionary to interpret her pronunciations. Here's what we've got so far.

Alessandra's Dictionary:

Lali - Alessandra
Dudi - Juice
Pilo - milk
Blinki- blanket
Nana- Julianna
Lilo - Lizle
No why - Snow White
rora - Aurora ( Sleeping beauty)
Oo Ah - monkey

Babies

Last week I was reading a very good article on what to say when kids ask difficult questions about babies. These include questions such as "How are babies made?" or "How do they get out of your belly?" I was reading more for curiosity as I thought Julianna was still too young to grasp the whole idea.

Well... yesterday, while driving home, Julianna asked me - "Mommy, how does a baby get inside the belly...?" Without hesitation, I answered that Mommy and Daddy create this little seed and it grows inside the belly.

I was preparing myself for the other questions from the article, but her only response was that she used to be small like a little seed too!

Whew... I guess we still have a little more time to worry about the rest of this conversation!

Jason and Jules

Julianna and Jason play games every night. Heroscape is the name of the current game and she feels like a very big girl playing with her daddy.
It is too cute when they get to a store and find something for the game. It is like they have their own secret language.

Oh.. and Julianna had a nightmare last night. She had a dream full of of Dragons, Monsters and army guys ... I wonder why :-)

BF

I knew it was going to be hard but I never thought it would be THAT hard.

After a lot of excuses, I decided to stop the BF. Alessandra is getting too big and even though we both enjoyed the bonding and closeness that it brought to us, it was time.

I was waiting for Alessandra to lose interest or waiting for supply to diminish but neither one of those ever happened. Like Julianna always says, "mama" is like Alessandra's candy... even if Alessandra was very cranky or in pain, everything would be okay if she had some "mama".

The first day without BF was on 01-04-10. The night time was very hard and she really did not understand what was going on. I bought Yakult and strawberry milk but nothing would substitute the complete package that "mama" gives.

Today is the 4th day and everything is going better. She is getting easier to distract and I am not as sore as I was for the past few days. But I've been feeling sad... I can’t believe that this is it. My last baby and my last chance to BF. Some of my friends tell me that they did not enjoy it too much, that it was painful, boring... but not me. For me, it was the most natural, bonding and magical thing I ever experienced. My strongest memory will be of that little person looking at me like a little calf ( Yes... I know..am the cow) and the feeling that in that moment I could protect her from anything and everything and nothing could hurt her.

Alessandra, I love you and I will miss our BF moments terribly.