It's a....

BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well...you can't see it too well because of how I scanned it...but it's true, Alia is going to have a baby brother. Pretty fun news for us. We had an ultrasound done a few weeks ago and I decided I wanted to know what our baby was. After all, so much of our life is unsure...it's nice to have something that you know is for sure. :) At least it is for me. So, Alia has been talking about her baby brother, and she greets him with a kiss in the morning and another one before she goes to bed. It's pretty cute.
I am now 32 weeks along-with only 8 weeks to go. Hard to believe that in 2 months we'll have another child. I am counting the days though, as things get more uncomfortable for me. It will all come soon enough. :)

27 weeks

Here it is...the first picture taken (and published) of second time prego me. We took this today...at 27.5 weeks. Not too much longer now. It's hard to believe we're going to have another bundle of joy (and energy!).

Curious George

So, today Alia had a real treat. Her daddy and I took her to see the movie Curious George. This was her first real movie she's ever watched (you can't count the mom's movies I went to when she was real little). She loves monkeys so we were hopeful that she'd watch it. As you can see in the picture she was pretty entranced by the big screen. She brought along her big monkey with her. She did real well-just got a bit squirmy a few times...but she watched the whole thing. And even laughed a few times.

A mom worries...

So, we took Alia to the DR for a check up on fluid filled ears. The DR told me that her ears are still filled with fluid (it's been about 2.5 months) and that we need to take her to an ENT. With her learning language she needs to be able to hear 100%, otherwise her speak could be delayed. So, I'll call tomorrow and make an appointment. If the fluid is not gone, ear tubes are probably in her near future. Jason and I both had ear tubes (Jason 3 times!!) and the DR said that it is hereditary. So, my cute little Alia may have her first trip to the hospital soon. *sigh* I can't stop thinking about it...the sign of a true mom, I suppose.

Valentines Day

On Valentines Day we had a nice evening at home with my parents and some family friends. Here are two pictures of Alia-one in the cute outfit she wore all day, the other is of her in her jammies...all ready for bed.

Putting together words

In the past three days Alia has discovered the art of putting words together! It seems like I've been waiting forever for her to do this...and now she is. It's really cute. Today we were driving in the car and she said to me, "Mommy, Elmo book." Some other phrases she's said are: stinky diaper (I wonder why!), animal crackers, grammas car, daddy please, more please. It's amazing how fast she's putting things together!

I'm a little fishie!

It's been pretty warm here-in the 80's! We decided to take Alia in my parents jacuzzi in the backyard. She loves it. She is getting more and more confident in seeing how far she can go without falling. We have dunked her under a number of times also, I wouldn't say she loves that...but she doesn't cry. :) We are hoping to get her in some swim classes soon-to get her more used to the water. Here are some pictures for you.

Counting!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...I can officially say that Alia can count from 1 to 5. We've been working on it a while now, and all of the sudden this week she can do it. We have some counting books and when we ask her how many bugs/flowers/etc she sees she points to them and says, "one-two-three-door (four)-five". It's pretty cute. You can tell that she's real proud of herself. I'm proud of her too.
She is learning her colors...if she pays attention she can get her colors, but sometimes she just says all the colors hoping to get it right. Her favorite colors right now are brown and blue. Oh, and orange. It's amazing how fast she's learning. We work on things every day...and all of the sudden everything clicks. It's crazy.

"Matching"

A few weeks ago I bought Alia the game called "Memory". It's the old game where you have a bunch of cards and you try to find the match to the one you pick. Usually the game is played with the cards turned upside down...so you have to remember where each card is. Well, I decided to try it with the cards face up with Alia. She loves it! I tell her to find the doggies, or pizzas, or horsies and she looks for the two cards with that on it! She gets real excited when she finds a match. Now, whenever she wants to play the game she points to the box and says, "Matching". Some days I feel like we've created a "matching" monster.

The new house!

Grandma Barb got this fun little playhouse for the grandkids and we put it up in the back yard. Alia and her cousin, Avery have both enjoyed playing in it. These are a few pictures that I think are especially cute. I wonder where Alia learned to talk on the phone like that!?!? It couldn't be from her mommy talking to her Auntie Mary so much. :) Teeheehee

He loves me, he loves me not

In honor of Valentines Day coming soon...Alia is pondering her little love life with a flower.

My Best Friends...

Last week we went to Shoreline Village in Long Beach and walked around. We found this adorable little car with Alia's best friends in it! She ran up to it yelling "Burt! Ernie!!" Once she was sitting in the car, she had a great time taking a ride with Burt and Ernie.

Some of my favorite things...

Alia's favorite...
Food: quesadilla ("dilla")/pizza/apples
Drink: milk
Book: anything with Elmo...but at dinnertime it's her Bible
Song: If You're Happy and You Know it (clap your hands)
Bathtime Toy: box of bugs (little plastic bugs.she loves them)She even makes the "hopper" hop!
Bedtime Pal: her fishy-it's a multicolored clown fish
Bedtime Routine: Singing Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus loves you, then saying her prayers
Playtime Place: Gymboree! Gymbo the clown goes up and down...
Toys: right now it's two things 1) a bucket of zoo animals and, 2) her tea set (she always wants to play "tea")
Exericse: dancing around. Any time music comes on-she moves and grooves

I'm living in the LBC, baby!

Alia's cousin left some sunglasses at our place, and Alia found them and has made good use of them. Here she is with her Cubs visor and her USCB sweatshirt...ready for college!

Mommy and me

Just a little picture of mommy and Alia.

Cookies

I was making cookies one day and Alia was "helping". While they were cooking, she came and sat right in front of the oven and watched the cookies baking. Eventually she pointed to the cookies and said "cookie!". It was pretty funny. So I took a picture.

Baby Jesus

One of the ways we've tried to help Alia understand about Jesus and Christmas is to get her own nativity scenes-ones that she can play with. This is a fisher price little people nativity scene. She loved playing with it. When you push the angel on the top it plays the music for "Away In A Manger".

Surprise!

Oh boy...just what I always wanted! We spent Christmas morning with my brothers family in Phoenix...what a time it was! Here's Alia, obviously excited about something. :)

Christmas Time

Here's Alia checking out the Christmas tree and presents.

Here comes Santa Claus...

So, yes, Alia saw Santa Claus this weekend. The only reason she got to see him was because he came right next door! Yes, THE Santa Claus was at the house next door to us! :)
My parents' neighbors put together a toy drive every year and they bring in Santa on an old fashioned Fire Trick (seen in the background). It is quite an event-with crafts, 2 bouncy houses, refreshments and SANTA! :)
Alia liked Santa but from a distance. She blew kisses at him and watched him from afar-always wanting to know where he was. When we went to take the picture with Santa alia would have
nothing to do with being close to him...in fact she
cried when I tried to stand her on the fire truck.
She is still talking about Santa. Every time we go
out to get in the car and she sees the neighbors
house she says, "Santa. Bye-bye".