3 Steps ...

Gabriel took 3 steps on his own twice on Tuesday! He's been taking one step and grabbing on or going down to a crawl for the most part, so he is so close to walking! But on Tuesday, he was holding on to my chair and I felt him let go. Suddenly I heard Aitana yell ... "Mommy, he's WALKING! HE'S WALKING!!!" I turned and saw that he was far enough away from me to have walked and I saw him take 1 last step. When I asked how many steps he took, she counted 1 ... 2 ... 3. He took 3 steps!

What an exciting moment for both my babies! Gabriel was so proud of himself and Aitana was so excited that he did it toward her! What a special moment for these two.

Luckily later that night, Gabriel did it again for all of us to see. Of course, Kinwa wasn't quite so quick when I said "Kinwa, look" about 3 times. He caught Gabriel's last step this time, but I for sure saw it! What a special day!

I'm so proud of you Sonny!

Divide and Conquer

I'm sitting here right now with a kink in my neck because my kids have decided that is their motto. Of course, I decided to write this post and they are playing next to each other very happily. What? I think they just love to make me look crazy, but no matter what, their goal is to drive me crazy.

Kinwa has been gone for 3 days and he is on his way home. It has been a pretty easy single-mom week, but the kink in my neck has gotten more and more painful as the days go on. Gabriel has decided he needs to be my shadow and half the time I can't see him because he is actually under me! Aitana on the other hand is climbing on the table, trying to climb on the sink, standing on chairs and has recently decided that she should go upstairs by herself whenever she wants to play alone. That is never good.

On top of this ability to pull me in every direction and drive me to the point of pulling out my hair, we are having a sharing issue. I know it's normal and it's a natural part of learning and development, but seriously? If I hear "No, that's mine!" or crying from Gabriel because his sister decided to jump in front of him so he couldn't play with his toy one more time, I may just run and hide. I've been trying everything. From "your brother is your best friend" to "do you like it when other people are mean to you? No? Then we should really treat others, including brother, nicely" and even "Get brother another toy so you can switch." It works for a second until Aitana decides that she likes Gabriel's toy better. I try to point out every example of sharing I can and encourage her to repeat that behavior, whether we see it on TV or she does it herself. We'll soon be starting a behavior and responsibility chart for Aitana. It's a great age to start it and once Gabriel's birthday is out of the way, it'll happen.

But for now, I need to be satisfied with a stiff neck and lots of time outs for Aitana AND Me!

"It Be Mother's Day"

I was woken up on Sunday by a sweet little voice uttering that cute little phrase. She got out of bed and came to me and said that all by herself, without any coaxing from anyone. I couldn't help but smile and be so thankful that I became Aitana's and Gabriel's mommy. This particular mother's day was even more special since it was my first with Gabriel.

We had such a wonderful day. Aitana and Kinwa got me a delicious breakfast burrito, followed by a walk to the park and some good playtime, lunch at my parents' and dinner out.

But most importantly, I just really loved spending time with each of my kids. Gabriel climbed all over me and showered me with kisses while we waited for Kinwa and Aitana to get back that morning. In the afternoon, I got to hold Aitana and ended up rocking her to sleep and just enjoyed snuggling with her. It made me think though how fast this time is going. I know that day in and day out I take so many little things for granted. I get wrapped up in everything that "should or must be done" that I don't take time to just enjoy anymore. But I came to realize that Aitana and Gabriel are suddenly so grown up. Where did my tiny cuddly babies go? I'm not sure, but after giving them my undivided attention on Sunday, I realized how much I've missed just enjoying my kids and how incredibly fun they are. They are amazing little creatures and I am so proud to be their mom. I am truly blessed.

The day I became a mom for the very first time (Aitana):

Here I am the day I became a mom for the second time (Gabriel):

Funny stuff ...

Aitana has this purple toy where you press buttons and animals pop up. She has loved this toy forever and even now at 2 1/2, she still plays with it on a daily basis. Well, long before Gabriel was born, something happened to 2 of the pop-ups. When it happened, my aunt told me she thought Aitana got 1/2 of a plastic egg stuck in each and they just stopped working. (BTW - Aitana has had a long-running obsession with plastic Easter eggs. I'd say they are a favorite toy.)

Daddy said he would fix it long ago, but never got to it. Sooo ... the other day it was sitting there staring Kinwa in the face and he decided to open it up to fix it. When he did, this is what he found:

Don't they look adorable with their cute little egg hats?

So Proud

So, I normally wouldn't praise my child for being rude to anyone, especially another adult, but I have to say I was very proud of her last night. She ended up sleeping in my bed last night while we are trying to get her new bed together. The window was open with the blinds closed and we could hear everything going on outside.

Now, I cannot praise my neighbors for being wonderful. As a matter of fact, most really kind of suck. We have a few nice ones, but there are 4 houses (2 in front of us, 1 to the side and 1 behind us) where there people are just jerks. So one set in front of us were outside, making noise on their patio and such. Whatever, it was a little loud but harmless. Well, at 11pm, the neighbor next to us started blasting some ghetto music. The neighbor across from us heard it and yelled at them, using the F-word and everything. Very classy of course. So, here is where Aitana did me proud. She was fed up with the neighbors across the street for being so loud. So...

She YELLED at THEM for being so loud! My 2 1/2 yo tried telling off these jerk neighbors! They looked up towards our window like "What was that?" I just about died laughing. Go Aitana!!!!