"Have a good day!" / Week 21

Mommy called Daddy this week over bluetooth in the car. Clara listened to the whole conversation and as soon as mommy said bye, and daddy said bye (and daddy hung up), Clara said, "Have a nice day!!" Such a polite girl!

She also is continuing to memorize books and "read" them to me and to herself. This week, she has read her bedtime book almost word for word for what mommy reads every night. (I edit it for smaller words and shorter paragraphs because the book is a little old for her.)

Clara also surprised mommy by showing me that she knows sight words! :O. I wrote out the word "cow" for her, expecting to have her tell me the letters and me tell her the word. She just looked at it and said, 'spells cow'! Then I wrote "cat" and she said "cat!" And then apple and she said, "is what kind of fruit? an apple!" Then last night, for fun, I wrote out "banana" and went through the letters and said spells banana. Also carrot. Daddy came home an hour or so later and asked her what the words were, and she said "banana" and "carrot"! Who is this child?!

Sweet sisters sitting together!

Clara came to mommy with four hair ties (and already having one in her hair) and asked mommy to put them in her hair. So mommy obliged :D.

Here she is reading a book to me!

Such beautiful girls!

At the park on a rare "cold" day!

Clara sporting her brand new outfit from Grammy!

Mommy and Clara took a special trip to the zoo! Clara ate her apple and watched the penguins and sharks for a looong time. She loves the "aquarium at the zoo" ... :)

Audrey wearing pants for the the first time in a long time!

Costco with the kids!

Mommy with all the kids waiting for Grammy to come out. I got some fun looks from passer-byers. 

My papparazzi shot of Clara and her sunglasses!

Mommy has slowly been preparing Clara for preschool by talking about school, shifting her schedule, and having her bring her backpack on outings. She loves it, and is so so cute!

Clara at the Aquarium! Perhaps her favorite outing!

Clara at Nai Nai's house.

 This week, Clara has continued to shock mommy with her fully formed and contextually correct sentences, all without prompting from mommy. Daddy always puts Clara to bed at night, and he did so on Friday. Then Saturday morning came around and daddy woke her up, usually mommy wakes her up. She looks at Shane and goes, "You came back." Heart melt!

Then last night, mommy was doing dishes inside while daddy was outside in the backyard with the girls. Clara runs to the screen door and says, "Come you come outside now?" Ahhh!

And this morning, I woke Clara up and she quietly snuggles and says, "I love you." I don't think my heart can take it!

Audrey has also been a brave girl as we started nap training this Monday. She is doing pretty well, with some protests, but is falling asleep by herself in her crib with minimal crying. Now to work on longer naps :).

I chose this picture because it shows the wonder of her cheeks! And neck rolls! And arms rools! And chubby thighs! Augh! My baby!!!

21 sweet weeks with two sweet girls <3.

Sweet sisters / Week 20

Clara and Audrey have kept us on our toes this week, both learning and developing so much! Clara has been learning to count with her fingers, counting accurately to 10 on each of her fingers. She can also count to 30 and knows the concepts of all the numbers up to 20! She has been speaking in full sentences lately, in the correct context too! The other day, I asked her "Where are you going?" And she answered, "I am going to the table!" and that was exactly where she was headed! At the same time, she also loves speaking jibberish out of nowhere. We think it's her way of competing with Audrey, since we do some baby talk with Audrey. Clara is also twisting caps on and off her bubble solution jars, water pens, and anything she can get her hands on! She loves singing songs and sings words clearly both in Mandarin and English! Her latest is the "Shake it off" song from the movie Sing. It's adorable, especially since that's the same song she did a little butt dance to when she first started to stand!

Audrey, on the other hand, is now sleeping through the night pretty much with only one feed! We have been sleep training her for a week and a half now, and she has taken really well to it because of daddy's hard work! Here she is sound asleep in the morning, so sweet! She is really waking up to the world, kicks her little hands and feet every time mommy coos at her, and loves to watch sister dance and read books! She holds her head up really well and follows people's faces and loves to squeal at the top of her lungs! She grabs toys at the first try and I always find her holding some toy that she wasn't holding when I left her!

Sweet Audrey during play time on the blanket. Couldn't resist taking a picture of this face!

On Sunday, Grammy, Auntie and Daddy watched Grampy play at Humphrey's!

And Clara got some fun clothes to wear from Auntie and Gemmy! I love this new dress! Clara put it on and said, "I look so cute, like Zoe!" Zoe is a Sesame street character that wears tutu's! I love how her mind is making all these connections!

On Monday, we went to watch the eclipse at the library. Here Clara is watching the live feed on a giant screen!

The eclipse was much more interesting to mommy than Clara, but she still had fun outside in the play area! She learned about the sun, moon, and shadows! The leaves made some really cool crescent shaped shadows on the ground.

When we got home, I asked Clara to "go inside, take off your shoes, and put them by the door." I came in and found this. My sweet girl followed my directions exactly!

Here's her library craft, she did it all by herself! I only inserted the pin. It's the sun being eclipsed by the moon.

Audrey in her new cute hat :P, which probably was Archie's, but still, adorable :).

Clara loves having Daddy play music for her, and Daddy loves it too.

My girl, so grown up...

And my little, chewing on her hands and drooling buckets.

Yesterday, we went back to the Tierrasanta pool for some water fun with the cousins :).

Sweet little fishies :).

Twenty weeks have gone so fast. 

Audrey has been out of the womb more than half of the time she was in at this point. We love our girls, and they love each other! We couldn't be happier :).

Second haircut ever / Week 19

This week, everyone is all better, and mommy is almost all better. 

Clara and I had some fun outings together!

We are on the brand new bridge at the Zoo together!

Nai Nai put Audrey in a stroller...

So Clara wanted to be in a stroller too :).

Our budding plumeria keeps on stunning us with its beauty!

This is a screenshot from a video of Clara entertaining Audrey. They both have huge smiles on their faces!

Love our Clara and her giant mouth! Below Daddy made Clara into a burrito :).

Clara smiling with her donut on her daddy-daughter date!

Gemma came over and played with Clara!

Matching outfits on accident! 

Clara riding a giraffe at TJ Maxx!

Girls swinging together!

And Clara's second haircut ever!! It only took two minutes, just to clean up the edges and her old bangs, but she did so great! She also got her second lollipop ever. Now she asks to go to the "hair store" and get her hair cut and a lollipop! The first lollipop was from Trader Joe's... :)

Little Unicorn all clean!

With Yeh Yeh

With Nai Nai and Yeh Yeh

 Look at those cheeeeks! Cheeks for daays!

Audrey has now rolled a few times both belly to back and back to belly! She loves to squirm on blankets and watch Clara play. She is sleeping well now that we've started sleep training with Daddy on duty, and wakes up cooing to herself most mornings. She sounds like a pigeon :P. She loves to be tickled on her bare skin and giggles for mommy lots. 

Clara is now making up her own language, we think in response to the attention Audrey gets. She still needs lots of mommy and daddy time, but her tantrums aren't as bad anymore, just the new language. On an outing with just mommy, she kept running to me and saying, "I love you so much!" On a different outing, Clara said, "We went to the wedding to get a new sister." I asked her "Oh yeah, and what sister did we get?" She said, "Baby Audrey!" I said, "Do you like baby Audrey?" She said, "Yeah!" This little girl has just the craziest thoughts in her head. We love her and all her thoughts! We love them both so!

Look at that little girl! Ice cream onesie - so cute!