New Do's for Bella and Mommy

I chopped off all of my hair last week and I think the girls have finally adjusted. For the first few days, Matea looked at me like I was her kidnapper and just seemed totally puzzled by the whole thing. Bella said, "I just think your hair looks very not cute." Thanks. I told her I really like my new hair cut and that's all that matters. That kept her quiet for about 5 seconds.

For whatever reason, I curled Bella's hair this morning and now I'm wishing I hadn't. I have a feeling this is going to be an everyday request now and it's always going to be like this morning (her watching in the mirror and ordering me to add more curls here and there). She did look really cute though...until we stepped foot into our thick June marine layer. Bye, bye curls.

A visit from The Olson's

Our friends Jaron, Jenni, and Avery came to visit on Memorial Weekend. I just met Jenni a few years ago and only get to see her once or twice a year but it seems like we've been friends forever. We have a lot of the same interests so we have plenty to talk about while Steve and Jaron bore us to death with their off road talk. Avery is a year younger than Bella and the baby they're expecting will be just over a year younger than Matea. Bella and Avery spent the weekend alternating between having great fun and screaming and crying over sharing toys. According to Bella's teacher, she has no problem sharing at school but she definitely has a hard time with sharing with friends when they're on her turf.

Bella's Wedding

Anyone who has been around Bella lately knows that she spends most of her day in her own pretend world. She has a pretend friend who's a bird named "Bird", and a pretend dog named Dancing Banana. She's obsessed with pretending that she's pregnant and making Steve and I deliver her babies and she's been asking a lot of questions lately about our wedding. She wants to know where she was when we got married and her three year old mind just can't comprehend that she didn't exist. She tells us what her wedding will be like and when we ask her who she's going to marry, she sometimes says no one and sometimes says Papa.

Fun on the Farm

Avila Barn is hands down, Bella's favorite place. It closes for the winter and just reopened last weekend so I took Bella there as a surprise. She worked up the courage to feed the goats and had lots of fun throwing hay on Matea's head. Matea seems to love the barn as much as Bella and really liked it when one of the goats licked her toes.

Big Girl

Matea's almost 10 months old now but sometimes I think she thinks she's 10 years old. She spends a good part of her day just trying to keep up with her big sister and do everything Bella does. She had a well baby visit a few weeks ago and weighed 18 1/2 pounds. We found out at the visit that she's anemic so we're feeding her lots of iron rich foods and giving her iron supplements everyday. She's crawling from one end of the house to the other in less than 10 seconds and pulling up on everything.

Mother's Day

I had a nice, quiet Mother's Day at home this year. My mom and grandma came over for the day on Saturday and we went to the farm and lunch with my sister. Since we're not all together very often, I thought it was a great time for a picture. I propped up the camera on a fence post in the goat corral and kept my fingers crossed that the goat wouldn't get the camera. I hope Steve doesn't read this because I'm not in the mood for a camera usage lecture. On Sunday I did some scrapbooking and we all went shopping together to spend some money my mom and grandma gave me for clothes. Bella gave me a card addressed to "AOM". She wanted to write "Mom" by herself but didn't know how to write an "M" so she told Papa she would just do an "A" since she knows how to write that letter on her own.

Potty Party at Our House!

Bella has been a terribly stubborn potty trainer. We started the process when she was 18 months old and I almost wonder if we just started too early. She understood right away what the whole potty deal was about but just wasn't consistent about going. She wasn't bothered at all by accidents and seemed to really like that the whole thing puzzled and irritated us. Apparently, she likes to be in control of situations. I can't imagine where she learned that, must be from Steve.

Last week she went all week with no accidents so we had a special "Potty Party" for her yesterday morning. Balloons, streamers, flowers, little presents, a special Winnie the Pooh show, and a cinnamon roll and hot chocolate for breakfast. She loved it and seemed really excited to talk about it with people so we're hoping we've finally turned the corner.

New Blog

Since I'm so great at keeping this blog up to date, I decided to make a separate one for my sewing gig, Crafty Mama Creations. http://craftymamacreations.blogspot.com/

Crap, another biter!

Yep, it's looking like this is the sweet face of a biter. Bella went through a major biting phase from about 15 months to just over 2 years. It was so bad, we pretty much had to abandon playdates because she couldn't keep her chompers to herself. The first time it happened with Matea, I thought it was a fluke. I caught her happily sucking the juice out of a wipe and took it from her. She grabbed my forearm and bit down. Since then, she's bitten me twice and I saw her bite
Bella this morning. It's definitely intentional and out of frustration and anger. I really hope she grows out of it otherwise I see some tough times ahead between the sisters. Ah well, I guess Bella may learn that karma's a bitch.

Dancin' Tator Tot

Matea hears the slightest sound of a beat and immediately starts dancing. Here she is shakin' it to the John Deere Gator song on her tractor.

Eggs, eggs, eggs!

This was our first year dying eggs with Bella. We've always been out of town for the holiday in the past and Bella was still too young to participate so we had skipped this tradition until now. She had a lot of fun decorating the eggs and was even willing to taste one after she hunted them on Sunday morning.

Easter Outfits

Pics of the girls in the Easter outfits I made for them.

Kite Flying

Grandpa and Grandma Cindy and her parents came for a visit last weekend. This was the first time Cindy's parents had seen Bella since she was about 6 months old and their first time meeting Matea. Matea took a while to warm up to everyone but Bella immediately started workin the crowd. Grandpa brought his kites and we all went out to the beach on Sunday. Bella was really excited but I'm not sure that kite flying was what she pictured and I don't know if she really put together that the kite was attached to the strings she was holding with Grandpa. She had a great time and told me that night that she was going to dream about flying the baby kite all by herself while Grandpa watched.

Standing Up

It seems like everyday Steve and I mention how we can't believe how quickly Matea is growing up. She learns something new and then masters it within a few days. She working on learning to pull herself up to standing and loves to hold on to the couch or a little chair.

Matea Showing Off Her First Tooth

Matea Crawling

Life with Bella

Bella started going to school 4 mornings a week instead of two. We're doing it on a trial basis for a month to see whether it makes life at home better and so far, it has. I think she's loving the extra interaction and I'm getting enough of a break from her now that I can deal with hearing her whining and arguing without feeling like I'm going to snap. She's been having really good days at home and at school and we kind of feel like we got our old Bella back.
This morning she was talking about "when I'm a baby again" and I told her she'd never be a baby again. When I told her that she would grow up to be a mommy with her own babies some day, her face lit up and she was so excited by the idea. I guess it had never occurred to me that she didn't realize she would grow up and be like her mommy. She told us she's going to have three kids, all girls and all named Baby Matea.
This morning she got dressed for school (after turning down 3 outfits I presented) and we did her hair in cute pig tails and sparkle clips. We were waiting outside the school and I looked down to find her hair down and her handing me the clips and pony tail holders. Apparently when her friend, Lillie walked up, she announced that she had to have her hair down like Lillie's and ripped everything out. I can't believe it's starting this early.

And, she's off!

I was going to come on and post that Matea had started scooting a few days ago but I saw official hand-knee movement yesterday so I would say she's in the beginning stages of crawling.

More camping pics

Matea's first camping trip

We took Matea on her first camping trip last weekend. We just went to a local campground in case things got ugly and we had to come back home. She did really well and got to experience a few other firsts too...her first time on the beach (and eating sand) and her first tortilla. We're planning another trip next month, further away in the Los Padres.