And this is what happens...

when the people who live upstairs buy a watermelon, let it sit on their counter for who knows how long, then give it to you before they leave town, then it sits on YOUR counter for who knows how long, and then your two-year-old climbs up on the counter, STEPS on the watermelon, and it turns out it's rotten, so her foot goes right through it, and it gushes everywhere.

By the way, that will ruin your rug. And it smells REALLY BAD.

Ella- 5 months

This sweet girl is 5 months old now. She is my favorite child right now. She turned out to be a pretty happy, calm, and content baby- for the most part! I LOVE this age. I know. I say that a lot.

She is...

*trying to crawl. She almost has it down. She can roll and scoot and collapse her way to almost anything. I am 10% super proud of her early achievements and 90% DREADING the fact that she is already mobile. If she walks early like Kalia, It will be 1% and 99% the same feelings.

*Working on sitting up! (just like Kalia- trying to crawl before she can sit up). She can sit for about 5 seconds at a time.

*Tenacious- meaning that when she sees something she wants, she gets so focused on it that nothing else matters.

*SOOOO interested in table food. If I'm holding her while I eat she tries to eat off my fork or hand. And she goes nuts when I drink bottled water. So I let her try some smashed banana and a little fried potato. And I give her sips of water often. She is a huge fan. Rice cereal- who needs it?

*A healthy little baby. She's fought off 2 colds like a champ. P.S. She is completely vaccine-free. (Stay tuned if you want to know why.)

*I got SO SICK of my diet that I tried formula for 24 hours. Actually it was only 2 oz of formula (an amino acid formula called Elecare, for food allergies) added to 4 oz of breastmilk. IT WAS THE WORST 24 HOURS OF MY LIFE. Okay, not my life, but of her life so far, definitely. Not only did she hate the stuff (it's gross, no doubt) but what bothered me most was how it seemed to emotionally really bother her that I wasn't nursing her. It was super hard for me too. She would drink the bottle, swallow, and cry. Then she'd frantically try to find her usual milk source- even resorting to sucking on her fingers or my bicep. It was heartbreaking. Also, she was acting like she was in pain all day too (could be a possible reaction to the corn syrup solids in the formula) and so I decided it wasn't worth it to put us both through that. At least not now. Maybe later. I am rededicating myself to the diet- No More Cheating (unless it's a full on cheat-and-then-pump-and-dump-day.)

*Still not sleep trained but doing really great at night! This crawling thing has her all excited, and during the day currently she is taking 3 naps of about 1 or 1.5 hour each. I would prefer 2 naps x 2 hours. We'll see.

*We don't use the swing much anymore, but when we do, she either almost pulls the mobile off or she ends up like this. Here's my happy girl last week, when she really started gettin' up. Ok, not happy til mommy starts making silly noises.

Height at 4.5 months: 24 inches (90th %)
Weight: 17 lbs (90th %)

Kalia Turns 4!!

I always feel bad that Samuel's birthday gets slightly downplayed, due to the fact that it's one day before Kalia's. This year he had to work on his birthday, but I decorated the table for him and made him a "Cheese Pie"- like a cheesecake but you don't have to bake it. It was his request, as he is not a cake fan, but I believe EVERYONE should blow out a candle on their birthday! We went and saw Cowboys and Aliens that night and it was pretty good. Happy 34th to Samuel!
Kalia got to go on a date with Daddy to the Children's Museum of Phoenix as part of her birthday. That place is KID HEAVEN! I am seriously contemplating an annual pass for Christmas. And we would start using it now while Ella is still free. Here's a few pics of that fun:


She also got to have a small "friend party" (her first friend party!) and we had it at Chuck E. Cheese (thank you Kat, for informing me that you can take your own stuff and not pay them per child.) It was a very "chill" party. The place was practically empty. But it was fun for the kids. The BEST part though was when Kalia was opening her presents and Annie was crying because SHE didn't get presents. This is only funny to me and my sister and my mom, because I guess I had the same problem when I was little and my sister, only 13 months older than me, had a birthday. My parents started giving me a present on HER birthday. I thought that was a little indulgent- until I went through it and then I understood. Notice Annie here in the background.The grocery store down the street sent a card with a free 8" cake for her birthday. She was SO excited to get her free cake, she put that card on the fridge and looked at it every day for 2 months until it was finally time to go get it on August 24th.


Here's a few more things about Kalia at 4 years old:

*She loves to learn. She seems very self-driven and likes to ask me randomly what "5 + 5 is" and stuff like that. She is great at addition, and just started subtraction. I don't really work with her, she's just picking it up on her own. Every now and then I'll sit down and spend a few minutes on it. She also likes to pick out words when we drive around, like when she sees "BIG" at Big Lots and "MAX" at Office Max. She also can write about half the letters without looking at anything. (Her latest self-entertainment is to get paper and write HEATHER KALIA ANNIE and TO and then she draws some squiggly lines, seals it up in an envelope, and brings it to me as a "love card." But I do have to spell my name for her.)

*Her once curly hair is kind of a PAIN now. It never looks good, no matter how recently I "did" it. It's course and thick and has some curl left, and it's just hard to manage, frankly. It doesn't comb down smoothly either. And one time I blow dried it straight and then flat ironed it, and 4 hours later, it had started to go curly and wild again. Even though her hair is at least 50% straight. It's weird. Also, the pool has made her ends dry and brittle, so I took some scissors and whacked off 2 inches. Not bad for my first try. At least it's a straight line. It helped a lot. She has a tender little scalp and always cries when I have to brush it. One product I love to use on her is Devacare No-poo. It's for curly haired people, but it's like a conditioner ONLY, but with a little bit of cleansing agents. It works really when I have to wash her hair. Smells good too. (Note: I finally attempted french braids. My mom would be so proud. ;) The pictures above are my second try. I'll keep working on it, she loves having two braids, just like her mama did long ago.

*She is super competitive. She cries when she doesn't win, even if it's a race to get jammies on. I wonder where she got that. (hint: not from Samuel.) I am working with her on this.

*She is not in preschool because it's too dang expensive here ($100 a month is the cheapest I could find) and they don't have free programs in our district. I am bummed about this. We settled on a hip hop dance class once a week, (Annie's in it too.) They love it. I know she doesn't really need preschool, as much as I need the break from her. She is at that age where she talks CONSTANTLY and she doesn't play by herself very well. By 1 p.m. I am exhausted just listening to her (and responding with, "Great! Awesome! So cool! Wow! Amazing!")

*She is very well behaved and almost never throws tantrums or gets into mischief. I count my blessings on this one. (Although she has been using a whiny voice a lot, which I absolutely cannot tolerate.) I wonder if this is more typical for a first child? Seems like a lot of my friends have a really sweet, responsible, oldest child.

*One area she lacks in is FOCUS and HOLDING STILL. Preschool would be really great for this. I guess she does pretty good in Sunbeams, so maybe I just have too high of expectations for what a barely-4-year old should be doing.

*She is SO PICKY about what she will eat. Like I mentioned on facebook last week, she will literally throw up if I make her eat certain vegetables. This is driving me a bit insane, but I've decided not to fight her on it, just offer her fruit instead. And she can choose to go hungry if she wants. But that kid would live on cheese and yogurt and noodles alone, if she could.

*She loves Ella SO much and always tries to make her laugh and smile. And she is great at it.

*She (and Annie) are totally OBSESSED with watching Little Einsteins on TV. We have a bunch of episodes recorded on the DVR, and Kalia can work the remote and so I find them watching it all day. It's a great show, and very educational (love the music theory they teach) but I am getting a little tired of hearing the same theme song day after DAY!

*She likes to sleep with lots of stuffed animals on her bed. She falls asleep at 7 p.m. if I am on top of things(which is almost never) (and Annie didn't nap). She has rest time for about 2 hours every day, but gets so bored by herself, and always comes looking for me.

*A cute story about Kalia is that the other night we were having Family Night, and I made up a quick lesson about who our Heavenly Father was (vs. who Jesus was) and I was just drawing stick figures showing all of us, His children, etc. All of a sudden, Kalia, who was sitting right next to me on the couch, just grabbed my arm and started smothering it with kisses. At that moment, I knew that she was feeling the Holy Ghost, and she just couldn't contain her happiness anymore. We pointed out to her what she was feeling inside, but it was just a sweet moment, and a reminder about how sensitive these kids are to things that are good and right and true.

All things considered, Kalia Ruth is AMAZING and I am so lucky to have her. I can't wait until she can babysit so Samuel and I can go on lots of dates.