Camping, Crawling, and other fun

We left for our 4th of July trip to Seaside, Oregon on July 1st. We had a fun-filled week of swimming, kite flying, carousel riding, ice cream eating, dutch oven cooking, parade watching, mini-train riding, biking, beach bumming, sandcastle building, firework gazing, and relaxing with family. As we drove out of the campground David asked Liliana if she had had fun camping. She responded with, "I want to go camping again!"

The day before we had left for our trip, Emmett officially started crawling. He is still improving and getting better at it, but he's able to get around without all the rolling and pivoting on his belly that he used to do. Emmett's third and fourth tooth have popped through now as well. The third one came in just a day or two after the second tooth and the fourth one just poked through a couple of days ago. He now his his two bottom center teeth and two by-cuspids, but no center top teeth. I think he's going for the kindergärtner-about-to-enter-first-grade look!

On Sundays I try to get the kids to take at least a short nap before church to avoid the head-spinning, blue-liquid spewing that often accompanies missed naps. However, since we have to leave for church right about the time naps normally start, this effort does not always prove successful. Today was one of those days. I put Liliana down and she was quiet for awhile, falsely leading me to believe that she had fallen asleep. After some time, I heard strange sounds coming from her room and ventured to see what bizarre acts could be causing the noises. At first I was surprised not to spot Liliana in her room. Then some movement from above caught my attention and I realized she was on the top bunk of her bunk bed - to which we had removed the ladder so she wouldn't be able to climb up without us present. "I'm on the bunk bed, Mommy!" She exclaimed proudly.
"How did you get up there?" I asked.
"I climb down that and that," she said, without actually giving me any useful indication as to how she had got up.
I took her down from the bed and looked at the assortment of things she had shoved off the bed (which was the source of the sounds that had brought me to the room to investigate). David had been using the bunk bed to store random toys and other items that he didn't want Liliana playing with for one reason or another and Liliana had started tossing them off the bed, while sitting under the little red table that was being stored on the bed as well. She had used the table to climb up and open the curtains in her room, which resulted in David putting the table out of her reach. I invited Liliana to climb the bed again so I could see how she did it, but she ran out of the room saying, "That's naughty?" She did demonstrate her monkey-like climbing skills for David after we got home from church and we recorded them, so I'll have to link them to this post sometime soon. Now we'll have to decide whether we want to go ahead and put the bunk bed ladder up; take the bunk bed down and find someplace to store it; or try and convince Liliana of the danger of climbing her bed and trust that she won't do it anymore (highly unlikely).

Move your hand, Daddy

Tonight, as part of our Family Home Evening, we were reading an illustrated scripture story to Liliana. She was laying back in David's lap and they were sitting next to me on the couch. Liliana kept squirming around and pushing David's arm. She told him to move his arm and hand out of her way and he asked where he should put it. Liliana paused to think a moment and then said, "Right there," while pointing at my chest. David asked, "You want me to put my hand on Mommy's boob?"
"Yes! Put your hand there on Mommy's boob," she replied.
David, always wanting to make his little girl happy, was more than willing to oblige!

In more modest news, tooth number two is officially through for Emmett! Now he's got one on the bottom in the center and one on the top, to the right of the center. He's got a hillbilly smile!

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!