Scary Kitty

Sunday we went to dinner at the home of one of David's coworkers. Liliana followed their two cats to their climbing tower in the corner of the living room behind a chair. After a few minutes, she came hurrying out from behind the chair saying, "That kitty scary." Suspecting that she may have done something to make one of the cats swat at her, I asked her, "Were you bothering the kitties?" Liliana responded with, "No. I not bother the kitty. The kitty bother me!"

Tooth or dare

Emmett's first tooth poked through a week and a half ago (May 22nd). I knew it was getting close, but his Auntie was actually the one who first spotted it while she was holding him at Cousin Tasha's bridal shower. He's officially a danger when he's nursing now! Daddy was helping him get some gum relief by giving him a cold piece of apple in one of those little mesh baggies to chomp on. By the time Emmett was finished with it, there was no evidence remaining to determine what fruit he had started with.

Last Thursday, as we were preparing to leave for a camping trip at Soap Lake, we were informed that there was a problem with the reservation. We decided to go to Idaho to visit David's parents instead - surprising Grandma with a knock on the door at 6:00am Friday morning! The kids entertained Grandma and Grandpa Hernandez all weekend long. David and I took Liliana to an indoor water park since the weather was cold and wet, while Grandma and Grandpa played with Emmett at the house. David and I even got to go out and see a movie one evening. We came back Monday and got to sit through the lovely west-bound post-holiday weekend traffic on I-90, but I know David's parents were really glad we came.

Tuesday evening we were out running errands and stopped to pick up a bite to eat. Emmett was sitting in the high chair in the restaurant and looking around, babbling happily, when all of a sudden he said, "Da da." He continues to say it over and over now. I know he isn't really calling David, but I'm still a little bummed that he chose to say that before saying, "ma ma." I mean, come on - who changes most of your diapers, kid? Who feeds you and plays with you most of the time? Who finds you much more interesting than the computer? That's right! It's Mama! Daddy - boo, Mommy - yay!

Liliana has become quite the little parrot. She says things like, "Oh, my goodness!" and this morning she asked Emmett, "How are you doing today? You ok? Oh, good. I'm glad." I ask her something similar each morning when she wakes up.

This morning Liliana decided that she didn't want David to go to work. While he was in the shower, she asked me, "Where Daddy gonna go?"
I turned it back on her and asked, "Where do you think he's going?".
"He's going to work?" she asked. I confirmed it and she said, "I don't want Daddy go to work. I want Daddy stay home and play with me."
"Well, somebody has to go to work to get money to pay the bills." I responded.
"Mommy go to work," was her sweet little response.
"Don't you like it when mommy stays home to play with you?" I asked.
"Yes."
"But you want mommy to go to work?"
"Yes."
"And you want daddy to stay home with you?"
"Yes."
"Ok, go tell daddy."
She went to tell him, but he didn't understand her over the sound of the shower and the fan running in the bathroom. I told him when he got out of the shower, and I saw a huge smile spread across his face. Then when it was time for him to leave, Liliana ran to the window and watched him pull out of the driveway. "I want my daddy stay home with me!" she cried. She began to fuss and climbed off the couch and walked over to me, asking to be picked up. It was sad and cute all at the same time. I wonder if she ever misses me that much when I go places...

Mobility and more chewing ability

While Emmett is probably too heavy to be able to start crawling any time soon, he has figured out how to get around some. He has been able to roll over from his stomach to his back since he was just a couple of weeks old and he's been able to roll over from his back to his stomach (but only to his right) since about a month ago. He realized yesterday that he can put these skills together and get places. I watched him work his way slowly from the living room into the kitchen and then spin around in circles on his tummy in the kitchen. I'm sure it won't be long until he realizes he can just keep rolling, rather than stopping between rolls to check everything out. Then I'll really have to keep an eye on him!

This morning Liliana was singing songs with me when I caught a glimpse of something white towards the back of her mouth. When I looked closer, I saw she had a new molar half grown in at the back left corner of her mouth. She has been such a good girl (well, not fussy - but still her trouble-makin' self) that I had no idea she was getting more teeth in. Thinking back over the last few days, I can say that she's been eating less and asking for softer and colder foods like applesauce and yogurt, but there really hasn't been any crankiness or recognizable discomfort. She has been such a good teether with each of her teeth. I hope Emmett will be the same!

Liliana has started "reading" now. She's getting really good at remembering what stories say on which pages and will recite many of her stories pretty much verbatim with the correct pages. If I point to words that match the pictures they are next to, she can say the words. It will probably be a little while before she can actually recognize the words on their own without the pictures, but she's really getting a lot of these emergent reading skills now and she really loves books, pretending to read, and being read to.

Dirty hands, plugged noses, loads of gross fun

A couple of nights ago I went visiting teaching and left David with the kids. They were in bed and falling asleep (so I thought) by the time David arrived and I had to hurry out the door to make my appointment. When I got home, Emmett was crying in his crib, Liliana was calling out from her room, and David looked unhappy. I was greeted with a, "why me?" from David as I walked up the stairs. When I asked what happened he told me that the kids both decided not to go to sleep like they were supposed to. Emmett had fussed most of the time I was gone (only about 35 minutes) and Liliana had called out to him continually from her door. Wanting to see Liliana since she had gone to bed before David had made it home from work and church meetings, David let her out of her room for a few minutes. She told him that she wanted to sleep in our bed - which is strange because she hasn't slept in our bed or our room at all since she was less than 6 weeks old. For some reason David put her in our bed and told her to go to sleep. He closed the door and went to try and calm Emmett. After awhile, he heard Liliana running around in our room and went to check on her. When he opened the door, David saw Liliana behind our bed. She held up her hands to him and said, "My have poop on my hands." And sure enough, she did! Apparently she had loaded her diaper and decided to stick her hands down her pants to check it out (which she had never done before then and hasn't done since). David was not happy, to say the least - especially when he realized she had spread the poo on our quilt, too. By the time I got home, he had cleaned Liliana up and put her back in her bed, but he let me know that I was going to have to take care of the bedding - Thanks a lot, honey.

Last night Liliana was eating dinner very slowly. David and I both finished and got up to put away left overs and tidy the kitchen. I heard Liliana start giggling and making this weird sniffy-snorting noise. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I eat my corn with my nose!" Sure enough, she had shoved some corn up one of her nostrils. I have no idea where she got the idea to do it, but she did! David held her other nostril shut and told her to blow hard. The corn came out and we both struggled so hard to hold back the laughter. Oh, the joys of parenting a two year old!

On a not-gross note, the ladies in the daycare center at my gym are crazy about Emmett. They say he is always smiling and that he laughs about almost anything. I weighed him with our bathroom scale yesterday (which so far has been within a few tenths of a pound of what the doctor's office weighs my kids at) and he weighed 24.5 pounds. Granted, he was wearing a slightly wet diaper, so maybe he's just 24 pounds, but that's still ridiculously huge for a 5 month old! We had to get a new car seat because he was too tall for the infant one that is supposed to fit about 97% of one-year-olds! What can I say, I have little baby monsters - one is a monster in size and the other is a monster in behavior, but I love them all the same. They definitely make life a joy - even with all the craziness!

Roll-y poly

Emmett started rolling from his back to his front last week (Tuesday, April 6th), but he still only goes to the right and won't even try to roll the other direction. Today at one of his nap times, he was getting really cranky and fussy, rather than falling asleep. After several minutes, he was suddenly quite. I went and peaked in his room and found he had rolled himself onto his tummy and immediately fallen asleep with his head resting on his folded arms. I kept checking on him to make sure he wasn't smothering himself, but he was sleeping so great that I didn't want to roll him back. Besides, he'd probably wake up, fuss some more, and then roll back onto his tummy. Liliana became a tummy sleeper when she started rolling over too. I'd always lay her on her back, but she wouldn't stay that way. I guess it runs in the family!

Today when we were leaving the gym, Liliana didn't want to settle down and get into her car seat. I finally got her buckled in and she said she wanted a treat (animal crackers or an occasional cereal bar I keep on hand for her when we're running around and she gets a bit hungry). I told her that she didn't get a treat because she wasn't doing what mommy asked her to do, but that if she was a good girl she could earn her treat back after lunch. She started whining and I asked her, "Do you want to be a good girl and get your treat after lunch, or do you want to be naughty and go straight to bed when we get home?"

She answered with, "I want to go to California!" (Apparently she'd rather go visit family than be a good girl for mommy - see previous post)

I asked, "What are you going to do in California? Are you going to visit Great-grandma and grandpa?"

"Yes. And go swimming." That little girl has a good memory because we haven't been to CA since last summer - when she was only 18 months old!

Movin' Out

Today Liliana was being a trouble maker. I told her, "You can either be a good girl or you can go straight to bed and take a nap."

She responded with, "I want to go to Utah!"

I asked her, "Are you going to live with Auntie Ney?"

"Yes. And Kaden and Daxton!" Then she asked to call Renee on the phone. Aunt Renee was pretty excited about the idea of having Liliana come live with her, so Liliana left that phone conversation encouraged about her plan. Later, when I put Liliana down for a nap, she emptied the entire contents of her dresser onto the floor. I am guessing that she was preparing for her move, though she did not admit to it.

Liliana may end up trading places with my nephew, Daxton. Renee said she had to run after him as he went down the road on his scooter the other day, and when she caught up to him and asked him where he was going, he answered, "Seattle." These kids crack me up!

What will she say next?

We had the wonderful opportunity to attend my brother's wedding in Utah last weekend. Joey married his sweetheart, Harmony, in the Manti temple. Now all my siblings are married! We made a mad dash down to Utah, attended the "preception" on Friday night, the wedding on Saturday, and driving back home through the night again, stopping in Tri-cities so Great-Grandma Dianne could meet Liliana and Emmett, and arriving home Sunday evening. Now that we've been home for several days, I think we're just about caught back up on sleep. The night we arrived home, Liliana saw a fly buzzing around our living room and she said, "I see a bug right there inside the house." David and I just looked at each other and shook our heads - we couldn't believe how clearly she said what she had.

The other day I walked past the nursery and saw Liliana sitting on the floor with my nursing pillow wrapped around her and her baby doll laying on top of the pillow. As I walked in, Liliana lifted her shirt and asked, "Where's my boob?" Once I got my laughter under control, I helped her figure out how to "feed" her baby.

As part of dinner last night we had corn bread muffins. Liliana asked for one and then took her spoon handle and sawed it in two pieces. She said, "I cut the muffin in half." I still don't know where she picked up "half" from. I guess we must have said it here and there in reference to things, but I can't remember any specific instances. That little girl has a good memory!

Today Liliana followed David into the garage and asked him what he was doing. He told her about what he was looking for and let her help him look. After he came upstairs and she had stayed downstairs, he noticed it got quiet. David leaned over the stair railing and asked Liliana what she was doing. She had gone back into the garage and as she walked back into the downstairs room she said, "I'm just checking." We still don't know what she thought she was checking, but it was an interesting response, none the less.

Emmett is gaining more and more control over his hands and is able to grab his toys fairly well and get them to his mouth. He laughs and smiles a lot and really enjoys watching his sister play and dance around. He still rolls over from his stomach to his back, though I think his chubbiness is making it harder because he doesn't do it as often or as quickly as he did a month or two ago. At his 4 month check-up this week, Emmett weighed in at an amazing 20lbs 10oz and is 27.5inches long. He's still off the growth charts for both height and weight! He is wearing size 9 month clothes, but will need to move up to 12 month size very soon at the rate he is growing.