Big girls

There are some cliche comments that are as true as they are annoying. Somewhere on the very top of my list is "enjoy this age, they (kids) grow so fast". Yes they do, no need to remind me. And yes, my girls are growing way too fast.

To start with baby Amelia. Especially at this age, babies grow in a day as a toddler in a year. Ami gets chubbier, longer every day. She's not a newborn anymore. Her face is luminous, her blue eyes bright and very focused now. She absorbs everything around her and in the last days she started being quite vocal. She talks her own language still shy, but much louder and more often. Her smiles are priceless, completely mute, but wide and heart melting. Her eyes squint, her mouth widens, sometimes open, sometimes closed, but her face ALWAYS becomes brighter. So amazing to see such transformation!
She is enjoying her play mat a lot more, she stares at her toys and kicks her legs like a soccer pro. She keeps her head very well now, it's way easier to carry her around!

I'm having fun!

Look, ma! I'm trying hard!

I'm done, pick me up NOW!

I'm gonna suck on the giraffe's foot now :)

Precious!

Ami loves to be naked and we are happy to oblige!

 

Bath time is pleasant and a family deal. We all surround her and start fighting who gets to do what. Poor baby :)

Mommy had to go to work some of the evenings so Ami had to drink milk from a bottle. No problem there, she loves it. She also became very good friends (too good!) with the pacifier. I envision a long, loving relationship there ...

 What about my lovely older baby? Catalina has changed marvelously as well. She is becoming a teenager way before her teens...She decided she is ready to wear a bikini so now she shows off her cute little belly everywhere! We did not have a lot of pool days together, but the ones we had were great.

 She also decided she is ready to have a haircut. This time the 3 girls went together and the haircut was real. I did not think she'll really go ahead and cut it short, but short she did. And boy, does she look amazing! So grown up, so much like her.

Good thing, she still lets me see her silly, childish side. We take long and often walks with Ami in the stroller, and we had a perfect rainy day. It was pouring outside, but it was warm and very pleasant, so Catalina jumped in all the puddles she could find. We had so much fun!

 And then one day I decided it would be nice to make some crafts. Before Ami was born I thought I'll buy some wooden toys and maybe photo frames and I'll paint with Catalina. I never got to this before Ami, so the other day I told Catalina my plan. She was very excited, as she thought her ponies could definitely use some new furniture :). So we painted furniture for "my little ponies" !!

There is no doubt we are having lots of good fun at home. Some short trips are coming our way and I am trying to make the best out of my last month of maternity leave ...

Keeping my two little duckies close in my heart. Always.

My pink rose

There are tens of blogs that I write daily in my mind. Time is very limited however and a very few of those actually make it in here. But there is smth that comes up in my mind very frequently: how much Ami looks like a pink rose. Her skin is paper white, her lips light pink, her cheeks full and plump.

These days we are enjoying some beautiful red and pink roses that daddy got for his girls. And I cannot take my eyes from either of my beautiful roses !

Sisters

Mornings are hectic with a baby in the house. Lovely, but really, really unpredictable. Most days I can barely get the time to brush my teeth. Often I do not have time to shower. It does happen at some point during the day, but I never know when. This is why what happened yesterday was such a great surprise!

Yesterday morning Ami was in a good mood. Even in a good mood she needs attention and 2 minutes after she is left alone she starts crying. However, Catalina woke up and started playing with her. They were both looking quite content so I hurried up to brush my teeth. I managed to get a good brush and no screaming baby was to be heard. The bathtub looked so inviting! After a night of milk spilt on my body, of too much sweating in a bed too hot, a bath seemed like heaven. But of course, I can't afford that when Ami is awake. I went back to the bedroom to find Ami covered nicely with a blanket and the two sisters looking loving at each other. Catalina informed me that Ami was cold so she covered her.

  I felt hopeful, so I asked Catalina if she is ok watching her for a few more minutes. Her answer" "of course, I love Ami". So I filled half a bathtub with water and jumped in, ready at any second to jump right out if the baby cried. I did hear a start of fussiness and in the next second I heard a musical toy being wound up. The soft music calmed down the baby, so I decided to enjoy my bath further. Few minutes later I heard Catalina getting off the bed so I thought she got bored and she's coming to get me. Surprise, surprise! She took a baby book and started reading to Ami from that book. I was so happy, I wanted to cry! Big sister reading to her baby sister without any suggestion from me!

Needless to say, it was the start of an amazing morning. Ami laughed more than she ever did. Of course, that might had smth to do with being butt naked and peeing in our bed! :).

I can only hope that more of those smiles and more of these mornings are coming. This summer has the potential to be beyond awesome!

An american family

4th of July does not get all its glory in our family, for the simple reason that Marius usually works this day. It's usually left to me and Catalina (and from now on Ami as well) to make the best of it.

This year daddy stayed with us in the morning. We started the day with a photo shoot. Among the way to many newborn clothes for Ami we had a patriotic dress for her, that suited her blue eyes just perfectly!

Our neighborhood has a low key, nice parade in which Catalina's former day participates. With a fresh new baby and Catalina out of school we felt we should just watch the parade and not walk in it. Daddy joined us for the parade as well.

 It was quiet, lovely fun. We had burgers in the evening and a guest from Marius' work. We had indeed an American family 4th of July. No complains here, from this newly American family of four.

Growing love

We had a magnificent month of June this year. It started of course with Amelia's arrival, but we had fun events rolling one on top of each other. Catalina's ballet recital followed soon after the baby came, and soon after came the kindergarten graduation. My little baby will start first grade in fall and I can't spin my head around this. She changed so, so much since last fall. Gone is the shy kid who won't talk to our neighbors, here she is, in all her splendor, a lot more confident, but as sweet and loving as ever.

With this, we started a magnificent summer vacation! The three girls together at home, partying all day long. To be very true, I have to admit that I was nervous about it. How will I deal with a newborn who needs me continuously and a 6 year old who needs entertainment? I imagined days of screaming and feeling guilty. Once again, Catalina surprised me. Not only where was no pressure from her part, but she made the days go so much smoother! When Ami was crying and I felt overwhelmed, Catalina came and just repeated for the tenth time "she is just too adorable". And all of the sudden, I'd be able to see my adorable newborn and not a fussy baby. We played together, we told stories, we watched a lot of TV (it's summer vacation, some vices are accepted...)

And in between all this, we watched Ami grow. The first month flew by in such a rush! Ami is a very sweet baby, chubby and pink and absolutely gorgeous. Her eyes are of an amazing blue and I am starting to be sure they'll stay blue. She smells of an amazing baby smell, she is soft in my arms like a big cotton ball. She sleeps like a champ during the day, and stays up like an owl during the night. This makes for a tired mama, but one look at her big blue eyes cures all pains.

She turned one month old and all of the sudden I realized that there are milestones to be watched, that I just completely ignored! The guilt set in and I went fast online to see what is my baby supposed to do. And then panic set in. My baby is not focused, my baby does not watch toys moving in front of her eyes. What is wrong? So, I waited for the morning to "train" my baby to watch her toys and look me in the eyes. And guess what? My baby did follow the toys, she did stare in my eyes, there was no training needed. And then the guilt went away partially. The second baby does not get the same attention as the first one, that is a given. But a lot of the pressures and obsessions I loaded onto Catalina are spared for Amelia. She went through a morning of "come on, smile", "come on, look at the toy" and then she did it and then it was over. For Catalina I anticipated all the milestone and if she was late a single day in reaching them, I loaded all sorts of imaginary diagnostics onto her. With Ami it's easier. I don't have that much time for hypotheses :)
So what is my sweet baby Amelia up to these days? She likes to be carried and wakes up the second you try to put her down. She has more hiccups than I thought possible and this got her the nickname "squeaky toy". Each Wednesday, for her weekly birthday I made papanasi and we sang happy birthday to her. So I guess now I have a papadia and a papanas girl :). Ami is very soft and warm when she's in my arms. Lately she had really bad gas, so she tensed a lot and cried a lot. Hopefully it gets better. She does reward us with smiles, mostly when she is getting ready to sleep and her eyes are closing. We're still waiting for that intent smile, when she looks at us and then smiles.

Until then, there is a lot of sleeping. Favorite spot: the lime green rocker. Ami spends the bigger part of the day in this rocker. Si absolutely loves it!

 When we don't sleep, we take pictures. Lots of them!

Being home all day long means we have plenty of time to relax. Just so we don't get bored, we relaxed in different places, doing various relaxing things :)

On the balcony, in the favorite chair

In bed, taking care of our beutiful eyes

 At the pool, learning to live the good life :)

 And, in between our very busy schedule we finally took the first picture together

We are a gorgeous family. I might be subjective, but who cares? I love who we are today, I do hope we all stay healthy and joyous. We are blessed!