Monday, June 30, 2014

Midsummer

We spent midsummer's eve at my uncle's house by the beach. Just had to quickly share this picture of Inara getting ready for some dancing around the midsummer pole:



Birthday post and more to come soon!


Sunday, June 15, 2014

Rides and Dancing

We took Inara to a theme park for the first time today and she loved all the rides. She was too little for some of them, but she rode the biggest roller coaster she was allowed on about five times. I'm so happy that she's not scared of these kinda things like I was as a kid. I feel that I missed out on a lot of fun because of it. Love this video of her having such a good time:


As I've mentioned, Alba seems to enjoy music on another level than Inara did as a baby. Unfortunately, she's growing up in a very non-musical household with a big sister who almost never wants music playing in the background. I've been trying to take Alba to a weekly music class, but now that's over for the summer and I'm attempting to find other ways to expose her to music. One of my plans is to try to fins a pianino (don't tell Andrew). Well see how it goes. Here's a video of Alba dancing. You have to wait until she climbs the stairs to see it. 





Thursday, June 12, 2014

Bath

The girls have an inflatable pool, but Inara insisted they both take a bath in the little plastic tub.










Monday, June 9, 2014

Miracles

A small miracle occurred today: Both girls fell asleep at the same time and I was able to sit down and read a book in the middle of the day! We all have a cold, so that certainly contributed, but I say that moment of peace and quiet was worth a couple snotty noses. 


Also, a video of Alba saying "titta dar" (look there) in a creepy, asthmatic voice. This was about a week ago:




Saturday, June 7, 2014

Back Yard

Gardening help:





A bit about Alba: She's standing on her own for longer and longer periods of time and she can push a cart across the room. Today she actually took one step by herself, but it took all of her baby might. She's also crawling more and faster, but usually just as a means to standing. She has one tiny tooth and can say "pappa", "Alba" and "titta" (look). She also waves, points and claps her hands. She's weary of strangers and takes a long time to warm up to people. She's usually ok as long as I'm holding her, but I can never leave the room. However, when she's comfortable, she is very energetic and vocal, bouncing around and yelling at the top of her lungs. She sleeps much better now, waking up only once or twice in the night and frequently sleeping past 6.00 am. She loves banging on stuff and playing the xylophone and gets a huge kick out of our weekly visit to a children's music group.  She also really likes animals, cooing as soon as we see a bird or dog. Inara is of course the comedian of the century, even when she's doing absolutely nothing Alba starts laughing while looking at her.  She's generally very happy, but a bit frustrated that she can't walk yet.

A bit about Inara: One of her preschool teachers stopped me before I was leaving last week to say that it's such a delight to have Inara there, that she's so positive and helpful and a great friend. It made my day to hear that! At home she's usually exactly that except for when she's tired. Being tired is her kryptonite. Sometimes she gets in an awful mood where she refuses to do what we say and hits and screams, but it's rare and probably pretty normal. The other night after such an incident she said to Andrew: "I don't like when you tell me what to do" and "I want to do what I want to do." Hello teenage Inara. Most of the time she's very considerate. After I went to see a doctor about my hernia she asked how it went at the doctor's office. Since I explained to her that I have a hole in my belly, she's been saying that I should be careful and not lift and she's been as helpful as she can to try to avoid that I lift her. Today, when I was feeling a bit down she tried to comfort me by saying that when it's her birthday it can be my birthday too. That was so sweet that all my little troubles where blow away. When it was actually Andrew's birthday last weekend she ran upstairs to wake him up and tell him to come open his gifts and eat pancakes. When she got to the bed, she leaned in and whispered "happy birthday, dad!" followed by "I'm going to pretend it's my birthday, ok?." 
She's very sweet to Alba and frequently comforts her and holds her hand in the stroller and while we're biking. Thanks to Diego, Inara now also knows how to count to ten in Spanish!