Apetite for love

My newest little baby has a great love for earthly pleasures. She loves to eat and sleep. I guess all babies are like this, but it's hard not to get all mushy inside when it's about your own baby. Ami is a string little girl, fat rolls surrounding her legs and arms. She tries relentlessly to crawl and gets angry when she doesn't move much. She sits up well with support and wants to see everything that surrounds her. This makes for some strong neck muscles!

Wow! A whole new world in front of me!

Waking us next to these two makes all the mornings bright and sunny

I'm going to bite off your nose, sis!

 While Ami is discovering the world, Catalina goes to school. First grade is not as much fun it seems, as she keeps telling me doesn't want to go to school anymore because it's boring. She cried about it several times too, in case just saying so did not break my heart enough. I'm hoping it's just the transition from a summer of doing nothing to 6 hours of school...

At home we all try to enjoy each other as much as we can. We are getting ready for Ami's baptism, and that will be a whole lot of party!! Hoping that love can make everything right, even a difficult first grade start :)

First grade

I really can't believe that I am writing this post. It just feels like yesterday I was coming with her in my arms, after having just delivered Catalina. How is this possible, that the tiny black eyed miracle I carried in my belly is "scolarita", or of school age (it sounds soooo much better in Romanian).
Catalina knows how to read and write, she knows how to add and subtract. She is smart beyond her years and beautiful beyond anything and everything. I watched her grow, but I am still in disbelief that I have a first grade daughter!

Days before the school started we found out who was her teacher. We had no idea who she was, but we decided we're going to like her. And when the morning of the first day of school arrived, we were all ready!

Per our tradition, we walked to school. It was harder for daddy who carried ALL of Catalina's supplies, but we were all happy. So, so happy and proud of our daughter.

We know how incredibly lucky we are, so we are not taking anything and any moment for granted.

Catalina is a big, confident girl now. She went with her teacher without looking back. She did well the first day and all of the other days after that. She will do well from now on too. We are just so, so grateful to have the chance of watching her!

Good luck, my love. Shine bright as the stars and let nothing stop you from achieving your dreams!

Milestones...

What new is happening in our house. Nothing really, but A LOT!!After pretty much screwing up our family vacation I decided to pay some attention to my beautiful girls. And what do you know, plenty of great reasons to be over the moon happy!

Ami is an amazing baby, ready for action all the time. She rolled from her back to her tummy before she turned 3 yo. She was doing strong little "push ups" shortly after. This of course gave us great opportunities to take even better pictures :)

 With strong neck comes also sitting and seeing a whole new world in front of your eyes! While not a big fun of the bumbo seat, Ami does a very good job at seating without support in it.

Catalina had quite a few firsts as well. A week before our ruined vacation we went to a small zoo nearby. She had her first true face paint and mommy got one herself!

And right before first day of first grade guess who announced her visit??? Nobody else, but the tooth fairy!

My daughters are growing big. They are so different and so much alike. Love is in the air...

Our big (NOT) summer vacation

When I knew Ami will be born at the beginning of summer I knew we won't have one of our long, fact filled vacations in 2016. Going anywhere far with a baby is just not realistic. So, we decided that our first outing (the DC trip was a last moment booking that just happened to turn out amazing) will be for Labor Day weekend at the beach. I made extensive searches to find a nice place right on the beach, that's not very expensive but still good. We decided on a condo with no reviews in OC Maryland. Right on the boardwalk, the condo looked oldish, but ok. We just thought that we'll spend most of the day on the beach or on the boardwalk, so who cares...

Days before the trip a big tropical storm was announced. We chose not to believe the weather forecast. We got there to find a condo filled with cigarette smoke, old furniture and a gazillion of plastic chairs. we left for the beach immediately. 3 flights of stairs and we touched the golden sand.

 Everybody, small and big had fun. So much silliness and just happy. We were finally having our summer vacation!

 The sky looked darker and the forecast announced big storms.

 We walked on the boardwalk and Marius and I felt young again, like when we were in college and we were enjoying a week at the shore. This time even better as we had with us two amazing girls. We had a nice dinner and headed out to our smoke filled condo

 After a horrible night on a smelly mattress we woke up to dark skies, rain and heavy winds. I was so upset I told Marius we should pack and go home, especially since the weather forecast predicted 2 more days of heavy winds and rain. So... we packed and left.

Our 3 day vacation at the shore transformed into a night at the shore. I was disappointed, but also sure that leaving was the best choice, since I had to choose between 3 days in a crappy condo, or in my house.

The bad part was when  after arriving in Philly the next two days showed sunny and beautiful in OC Maryland. We lost our money and also a very nice time at the beach. Lesson learned.
But we are still all healthy, we managed to have some fun in Philly, so nothing too bad. Just a bitter taste for losing our summer vacation...

I guess I'll wait for all the other ones that will come!

Presidents

Being a second child is not easy for sure. The parents have very little patience for growing up, they just envision all the things the baby will do and somehow hurry up the little one. Ami is such an amazing baby, sweet, happy, independent and breathtakingly beautiful. But somehow we find ourselves immersed in activities that are nor necessarily baby like. For example, a lot of trips.

After the beach and the restaurant and the free library and the pool, we decided on our first long drive: Washington DC. Marius had to go to a training program so it was the perfect opportunity to introduce to my daughters all the things they can be: artists, senators, historians or president of USA.
We stayed in a very nice apartment, right in the middle of all the museums, close to the Capitol< Washington Monument and even the white house. I love how walk-able DC is, how the sidewalks are wide and clean!

We got there on a very hot weekend, so taking pictures was not on our kids' list of being fun...

Marius has an obsession with the the Air and Space museum, so this is where we stopped first. Ami cooperated quite well, and Catalina joined Marius on a lot of rockets mom found just boring

We had a lovely afternoon, but hurried back to our hotel/apartment. No before we tricked the girls to take some more pictures ;)

The rest of the days I was alone with Ami and Cati so we made a list of museums we want to see. Catalina's love for animal placed the Nature History museum on a very deserved first place. She enjoyed it so, so much! She wanted to look at every single exhibit, every duck and every skeleton. The museum itself is quite nice and it has a variety of expos, from diamonds, meteorites, dinosaur skeletons to whales, lions and all other sorts of creatures.

All our days started with a big smile on our faces!

The great promises are right at the entrance!

Scary vultures!

I wonder if there is a baby in this pouch...

My little giraffe :)

Everybody got a little gift!

Mom, this rock came from space!

Amazing crystals

Every girl's dream! A HUGE diamond :)

Old and new

Next museum on our list, the American-Indian Museum. The walk there was brutal. Excessive heat at 10:00am! But we still managed to fake our happiness in some pictures. DC does make one smile :)

As for the museum,  I expected a very kid friendly museum, with very nice gift shops and a lot of interactive areas. The museum is nice, but hold little interest for kids.

 Right at the entrance there is an open area where activities are held and there is also a display of various canoes used in different countries. I thought kids can climb and play there, but...NO.

Checking her balance! Catalina aced the balance test. She was able to balance herself in the canoe for the whole minute. Mommy lasted 3 seconds :).

 There is a kid area with an imitation of an indian village, and Catalina played for quiet some time in the little house, while mommy took a break and fed Ami. Poor little baby was dragged everywhere and rarely complained. 

We hurried home as Marius was coming a little early from his training and we wanted to save some of our energy to spend with him as well. Daddy wanted to go to the White House to take pictures. Catalina wanted to show daddy the Natural History museum. They both won!

 Good thing we made it to the museum again, as we completely missed the evolution section the first time. Catalina gets to meet her ancestors... This started a very long and frustrating conversation about how we evolved from monkeys. A 6yo does not have a good grasp of the meaning of "ancestors", so Catalina understood that my grandma grandma's was a monkey :)

After revisiting pretty much all the exhibits the museum finally closed and we started towards the White House. A lot of walking later we reached and took the most desired photos :)

Yes dear, you can be America's president when you grow up!

Both of you can!

 Walking back we were exhausted. Catalina was so tired that her feet were melting under her. So, I put Ami in the sling and Catalina took the seat in the stroller. And up, on the sky the most beautiful full moon ever!

This ended our last full day in DC. We, the girls, were quite content with the museum visits, so for the last half day we decided to be relaxed. After long searches I decided that the History museum will be our last visit.

 Right at the entrance we found our favorite presidential candidate. I am so happy to leave in a time when my daughter says that Hilary should be president and she feels it's normal that woman should be president. Go Hilary!!!

The museum has 2 kid friendly areas, but somehow Catalina did not find her spot in either. One was way too advanced for her, I would say it was for kids 10 and over, the other one was for little babies.

We did go visit the rest of the museum. The presidents' hall was nice, the first ladies' hall was interesting, but we were tired....and hungry....

 So we went to the gift shop to complete our vacation. And fun we had!

Back at the hotel we rested and cuddled. America is safe, the eagle is protecting the president! I am proud to raise these two American daughters!

A wonderful first trip for Amelia. I have so much hope for many adventures together with my two beauties!