Happy Birthday Sophie

Our first born is now 3 years old!

A midweek birthday in November isn't easy to pull off, but I think even if she weren't so young and just doing whatever we told her that she would still have thought it was a great birthday.

It started with the Sunday before when we went to our usual marionette theater in Los Angeles with family to celebrate, this time with the added fun of having a birthday shoutout arranged for Sophie... and she hated it. Every time I've gone there's always been a few kids with the shoutout and of course this time Sophie was the only one, which wasn't great for her as a very introverted kid who takes awhile to warm up. She clung to me throughout the happy birthday song, wouldn't wear her golden crown, and I had to accept her gift from the marionette puppy on her behalf. Oh well!

She got so many great gifts from Auntie Sasha, Auntie KitKat and Gangy that day - Gabby's Dollhouse galore! I'm partly to blame, I love Gabby's Dollhouse so I'm happy to have those toys around and encouraged it.

Can you tell it was an ode to
Young Frankenstein?

MerCat!

Her gift from the marionette theater

Sophie went crazy with the googly eyes

And a bathtime MerCat!

Tuesday was Grandma Debbie's birthday, and Wednesday was Sophie's real birthday! I stayed up late decorating the house, changing out our letterboard and tabletop paper, etc etc. The night before, AJ had taken Sophie to the store to buy something for grandma Debbie's birthday gift, and apparently found a DJ Catnip that she loved (see: Gabby's Dollhouse) and AJ bought it for her but told her that she couldn't have it until her birthday. So we were woken up on Wednesday by Sophie running into our room saying "Daddy it's my birthday! I can have DJ Catnip now!" and that's how the day started.

We did her yearly photo with her llama, and it was the last milestone card of the set that Kayla sent me from the UK, and I'm never sure if these ones are meant for Sophie or for me...

Me on my 3rd birthday for comparison

She was in a great mood and I did drop off, which I don't normally do since I have Summer duty, but needed the big car to transport everything to daycare for her birthday party there that day - gift bags, cake and the balloons. She had such a great day at daycare - both reported by them and seen from the photos she sent me. 

They started outside but it was a pretty windy day
so they ended up moving it all inside

The struggle is real

Originally we weren't really planning to do anything in the evening other than have cake at home and open presents, but in the end my sisters and nephews ended up coming over, we ordered pizza and it was such a great time! I'm really glad we did it because Sophie had a blast running around with them and playing and to this day still says "I miss my cousins" from all the fun they had that night.

This girl also CLEANED UP. Heather brought a gift since they weren't there on Sunday (more Gabby's Dollhouse! I love it!) Auntie Ana had left a gift from the last time she was here, Auntie Iris dropped by a gift, Ms Ellie sent home a gift, grandma Debbie had gifts - Gabby's Dollhouse and playdough sets and a Minnie phone and a ukelele! Mama and dada had one (that I completely forgot about until AJ reminded me LOL) - Sophie's first bike! (Assuming balance bikes don't count, which I'm unsure of).

It was such a great birthday in the end, especially for one that happened on a Wednesday, and Sophie is still loving all her new gifts. Can't believe Christmas is just around the corner now - oof.

Touchdown Halloween

I'm only 2 1/2 months postpartum, but Sophie "gets" it now so we couldn't skip it, and put minimal energy into it this year. I've had my referee costume since my early 20s, and AJ has been a football player since high school, so a quick Amazon buy for Sophie and Summer and we had ourselves our own little team.

We did our usual trick or treating with our friends in their neighborhood, and Sophie had so much fun looking for the houses with lights on to get candy. She was so shy and couldn't say trick or treat at first, but after some time with Bryce and James she cracked out of her shell and was doing so well saying trick or treat and also thank you. Weirdly I couldn't get her to hold her pom poms even for pictures, and that was how we sold her on this costume (Baby Box on Gabby's Dollhouse has pom poms and she was stoked about that). As soon as she got candy in her bucket she would immediately turn to me and say "let's go get more candy!" like geez kid, take a moment to appreciate the candy you just got!

This baby had a poop blowout later
in the evening which explained this
mood for us in retrospect

We ended the night at the grandparents house who conveniently live in the same neighborhood where the kids got to look over their haul and golf in the front yard. It was cute watching Sophie emulate the kids without totally being sure what to do. I watched her watch them going through their buckets and she would pick out one of her candies and just kinda turn it over because she couldn't open it. I came over and opened the KitKat for her and handed it back to her, and she was still unsure what to do and she licked it! I broke it in half for her and showed her how to eat it - win win.

It was a good thing we were hanging out at this house when we were, because Summer ended up needing to eat and then had one of the biggest poop blowouts of her life. Happy Halloween!

All the October Updates

Well, we've been in a busy fog over here, adjusting to being a family of four, relishing what a wonderfully sweet baby Summer is - such a great sleeper, calm temperament and very forgiving with her overbearing and very loving older sister.

Here were some highlights from that first month.

Visitors and Sophie being excited to
introduce her little sister

Having fun at the park with Auntie Kit Kat

Summer's first smiles

My mom's photoshop skills 

We had a lot of activity when Sophie's daycare was closed for a week and a half earlier this month. I wasn't exactly ready to face a day with a toddler and a newborn unassisted all day long, so we piecemealed together visitors and trips to help out. First was my mom coming for the day when we took a trip to the aquarium and stopped by Aunt Jann's house in the evening. We did Home Depot's kid craft one Saturday, and our family finally upgraded to a new/bigger car that will fit the two gigantic car seats that our kids now require.

Breakfast with Gangy

The Goodyear Blimp!

Sea lions

Octopus!

Sophie is obsessed with frogs

Welcome to a huge sunroof ceiling!

Decorating a racecar that turned out
a truly beautiful mix of lovely shades
of pink, blue and white

Kiwi also loves his baby sister

Later during the daycare closure, our family took a staycation down in Dana Point which was so much fun - we were staying in the honeymoon suite and walking distance to the baby beach, and it worked well with October being off season, but still warm enough to enjoy the pool and ocean.

Sophie got bored on the drive down
there and I turned around and this was
what I saw 

All of us chillin' at the pool

Sophie asked me to take this picture
of them two

Sophie happy to help out taking care
of her little sister

I didn't think she'd want to swim!
Hence why she doesn't have a bathing
suit on. Oops.

During this week, Summer also turned two months old!

We also got the family together to visit a pumpkin patch, and we made the most of it considering how warm it still was.

Sophie refused to take the annual
"How Tall This Fall?" photo booooo

Proof it's impossible to get them
all looking at the same time

Jayna pulled an absolute solid and was able to book a last minute flight out from North Carolina to come visit me and lit up my maternity life for a few days. Aside from just enjoying her company and being able to relax, I was also able to get so much done, plus we got to check out the French pastry shop I haven't stopped hearing about, and get my eyebrows done. It was such a treat.

Ahhh the peace at Fashion Island

Amazing finds at Buffalo Exchange

Meeting Summer early (She didn't
meet Sophie until she was just about 2 years!)

Despite our best efforts, couldn't
find a way to take a picture on this
together

The day that Jayna left, we had our Boo at the Zoo activity. I already planned our family costume and really hadn't anticipated Sophie coming home one day talking nonstop about being a witch for Halloween. I don't even know how or where she learned about witches but she was so excited about it, I decided to be *that* mom and spoil my child and also buy her a witch costume that she could wear to this event, and still be a part of the family costume on actual Halloween. (I also went out of my way to go buy her a witch broom that she was so excited about initially but then refused to have anything to do with it during the zoo event so that was... cool).

I love the way she eats her hand.
Can you see the candy in her little belly??

We met up with our friend Landon there!

We all rode the train together... excuse me,
the boofari.

Sophie was so stoked on the spinning 
birds nest, and was still excited about
it even afterwards. I guess she didn't 
get my motion sickness genes

And then of course, just our usual life around here. Enjoy these stills.

Sophie just loves her sister!

Summer worries when we let Sophie
take charge

Kiwi forced himself into my lap under
the feeding pillow and made himself
quite comfortable

The cats love Summer's stuff

Big stretches!

I suppose we really are in the holidays now at this point, so things will be getting crazy. Until next time...!