We got to babysit Kekoa!

We had such a nice time watching Kekoa yesterday morning. We felt honored that Hsiaolei asked us! She brought him over at 10:30am and left him with us for an hour. He was soooo good. he didn't make even a squeak, unless it was a squeal of happiness watching Ava play :) Ava did really well too, considering her current stage of needing all of mama's attention and fussing, fussing, fussing if she's not getting it! She was calm around Kekoa and shared her toys. She wanted to include him in everything she did and she allowed me to hold him almost the entire time. It was really sweet. I shared with a girlfriend that the night before I had a dream I was pregnant with a boy, and the next morning here I am in my living room with a baby boy and Ava! It was a good taste of what it would be like ( just the easy, fun part) :) Brad came out from getting dressed and picked up Kekoa and said "now you have 2 babies, Cass!" I laughed. I'm not quite ready for that yet, but I did love holding and snuggling this little man.

I set Kekoa down in front of Ava's barn because she said, "kekoka tye?". He loves watching her play. Here Ava has taken the bed (from her doll house) and put the pig (from the farm) in it and is telling Kekoa "piggie seepy. cose eyes piggie. ssss" (pig is sleeping. close eyes, pig. shhhh.) Kekoa is taking it all in. He's a good listener.
such sweet little munchkins.
Ava asked if she could hold Kekoa. Here is her version of holding him...
And giving him a kiss
I put them in the rocking chair together. They don't look too excited about it, but I love those little faces :)

ok, Kekoa! Time to play Doctor. You need a "shot owie", uh-oh!
look at Kekoa looking at Ava. Ava is showing him how to use the stethoscope. (oh, and she is obsessed with wearing her rain boots whenever possible--last night when I took off her clothes for a bath, she ran away from me just to go put her rain boots on. A nakie girl in rain boots is pretty darn cute!)
Now you try , Kekoa.
She's got Kekoa listening to his eye, poor guy. What a sport!

Thank you for asking us to watch Kekoa, Hsiaolei! We really enjoyed our time with him. He is a precious little guy! Please ask us again :) xo.

rainy day distractions

I have never seen it rain harder than it did last night! It seems like it hasn't stopped raining in 2 days! I know, for you east coasters, you're probably thinking, "oh, Cassie, get tough! you used to live in Massachusetts for God's sake!" Well, I'm used to my sunny northern california perfect temperature days now, and I miss them. The rain, I imagine will cause flooding. It's coming down hard and in sheets. Now I see where the term "buckets of rain" comes from. yikes! Anyway, there are some brief breaks and Ava and I gear up and hit the puddles for them, but for the most part we've felt a little trapped inside and the park is out of the question. So here are some of the things we've been doing to keep ourselves busy...

see the rain in this picture?

MORE MUFFINS! This time we made carrot cake muffins. A recipe from Nana who made this (in cake form) for Ava's first birthday! Delicious and dairy free, my favorite. (lick those little fingers, Ava)
Nana's Carrot Cake (muffins)
Daddy came home early from work on Monday, which was a special treat and Ava was waiting to play. Her latest fascination is playing "knock knock". She's gotten pretty good at knocking on a door herself. When daddy came home from work he knocked on the door. Ava was so excited and a little nervous at the realness of it all. She was happy to see daddy and they played "hot tea" party and "fye bodee fye" (fly, birdie fly) together while I made dinner.
hugs for Daddy. so sweet. Daddy is in heaven.
You get to see Brad's goofy side in this video! He is so silly with Ava sometimes, such a great Daddy. I can't say enough good things about the kind of Dad he is to her. He loves every little nuance about her, as do I. For some reason he gets hung up on the way she says "bus", or really anything that ends in "S". He can't get enough of it! He thinks it's the cutest the way her mouth looks as she says it (something about the way her teeth touch her tongue, I think). I'd say he asks her to say it at least twice a day! So, I included a second video, a mini-clip, of her saying "bus", so you can see how very cute it is, indeed! :)

Sophia comes to play!

Sophia is a sweetheart. I have known her since she was 18 months old and now she is 5, in Kindergarten, and has a 2 year old little brother! I was her first babysitter and she'll always be very special to me. I love Sophia for many reasons, but one of my favorite things about her is the way she plays. Any toy she has, she explores to the fullest, and really, genuinely appreciates it. It's not hard to shop for her because almost anything I loved as a child Sophia does too. Watching her play takes me back to when I was a kid, and all those positive memories--the ones filled with the wonder I experienced when I played- just lost in my imagination.

here are the girls together. They've been playing together for years. They play most nicely together now. They struggled to get a long for bit when they were younger and Hailey was a little put off that Sophia didn't have any hard edges, like most of the friends Hailey gravitated toward back then, but now they are so sweet together. I didn't hear a single problem arise between them for 2 1/2 hours!

They came to me after a while and asked me if I would come and be their nurse, gesturing toward their bellies, sticking them out as far as they could (they were both expecting! Sophia was carrying quadruplet girls, and Hailey one child, she didn't know the sex yet--who's idea was this!?!). When I showed up in the room they handed me the fisher price Dr. bag. Ava had one stethoscope and worked on Sophia and I made my way over to Hailey. It took a big effort on my part to play along without laughing. This was too funny!

After Sophia left Hailey carried her baby around like it was real. She asked me the sweetest questions in such a concerned way, like "Cassie, what do I do with my baby?" I taught her how to swaddle the baby and keep it warm. "should I put it in a cradle, Cassie?" I told her it's best if she could hold you baby as much as possible. "what do babies eat, Cassie?" I told her about the choice between nursing and formula. When I called her over for dinner she said, "what should I do with the baby while I eat?" I told her to put the baby in his (it was a boy!) moses basket and set him at her feet while she ate. Then I used that as an opportunity to tell her how important it is for her to eat if she is a new mom and nursing. She ate a good dinner. Too full for dessert! (That's unlike her.)
It gives me hope for Hailey when I see her play with Sophia and use her imagination so fully. We've spent many of Ava's naps talking about friendships. Hailey's been in some tough ones already. I've shared with her some of the harder friendships I experienced as a kid and how I managed them and how I wish I would have done in differently. I try to teach her that it's ok to not be friends with someone who is "bossy", or controlling and mean. I think she's taking some of it in and beginning to believe it.A quick little snap of Ava watching the girls play. For me this picture captures that classic "looking up to" older siblings. watching, learning. The girls were wonderful with Ava. She played in the room with them, doing her own thing, almost the whole afternoon. They never complained about her being in there. Most big sister's wouldn't have it! Ava's a lucky little sister.

The prettiest princesses I ever did see...

We had another great visit with Hailey today. It was quick, only for Sunday, but filled with love and fun. The girls are so connected and always ecstatic to see each other. Within minutes of Hailey arriving they were giggling in their room together and came out to the living room like this! Of course, I grabbed my camera and said "ok, now, stand together so Mama can take your picture" and Ava stood right next to Hailey and reached out to hold her hand. oh, sweetness!

I love that Hailey put Ava's whole outfit together, necklace and all!

what a pretty little princess.

The day was jammed packed with fun from this point on. After dressing up Hailey requested to have a dance party! We danced to Lady GaGa and Brittany (in honor of Auntie Mina). I wish I could show you the video, but I took it with the camcorder. bummer. It's hilarious! We have dance parties regularly though, so I'm sure one will get caught on video soon and I promise to post it :)

After our dance party Ava had to go down for a nap. She tried to get out of it by calling out for Hailey for a few minutes, but Mom insisted that she have a nap, for we were having Sophia over for the play date in the afternoon. While Ava slept, I cooked/baked up some dinner and dessert and then got to play with Hailey. It's always nice to play alone with her. Her favorite game is "school". It has been since she was 3. I am always the teacher and she is always the student who's turn it is to "show and tell". She chooses and toy and practices for what happens at real school (at least that's what I think) because she usually takes that very toy back to her mom's and brings to to school to share. I love her age right now. 6 is easy going and sweet when it comes to Hailey Anne.

nature gets up close!

Ava was so excited to spot a squirrel right outside the window this morning! He was sitting on the fence eating his acorn when we spotted him and as Ava got closer to the window the squirrel spotted her too! What an interaction between the two of them! :) The more excited Ava got the more nervous the squirrel got and it wasn't long before he dropped his acorn in distraction and jumped away to go find it!

Drizzly Day

It's a drizzly day here today. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning, so Daddy stayed home with Ava. When I got home she was feeling a little cabin fever and we still had a good 2 hours before nap! Park was out of the question because everything would be wet. I thought about taking her out to walk around, but I hesitated because she would get so muddy and dirty... and then it dawned on me!! I bought her rain boots and a rain coat for this very reason! I was so glad that I remembered and so was Ava. When I asked her if she wanted to go out and splash in the puddles she said her classic "ya!?" with a look of shock (like, really?). She never expected me to say yes :)
boy, did she enjoy the splashing part, and boy, was mama glad we had waterproof boots! I think we found every puddle there was on both sides of the street!
happy girl, but also looking a little mischievous to me ;)

It's SO fun to play in the puddles!

I caught Ava in a moment. She was looking off into the sky- I always wonder in these moments...what is she thinking? learning? feeling? She is such a sweetheart. A deep thinker like her Daddy, I bet :)

And I love those big eyes.

A little video so you can join the fun! (Listen for those squeals of joy!) It's fun to be a kid :)

mellow weekend together

After the hustle and bustle of the holidays this weekend was just what Brad, Ava and I needed. We had a really relaxing weekend together, spending lots of time playing, napping and playing some more! We even got to see Grandma and Grandpa on Sunday. Ava was so so happy!

On Saturday in the late afternoon, after A woke up from her nap, we walked her down to her favorite spot, Vasona Park :) She enjoyed exploring and swinging, as she always does.
through the field to the gazebo...
The sun sunk lower and lower over the course of the time we were there and the sky just got more and more beautiful to look at.
There was this kind of swirling formation that the clouds were in directly over the open field. Brad described it well, like walking into "nature's cathedral". we were both in awe looking up and getting that sense, that we all do once in a while, of how small we really are here in this spot on Earth.
Ava meandered her way over to the gazebo and encouraged us all to sit there with her :)
The setting sun on our walk home

Reading together. Ava loves the book Please Baby, Please. It's about a mother asking her young toddler to please not eat sand, please don't color on the walls, please eat your peas, etc. I think she likes it because she can relate to that experience so so well ;)
getting tired. and modeling the headband Nana gave her for Christmas.
a second wind! Ava laughed hysterically and could not stop when the doll Mama was playing with fell off the elephant it was riding! The things she thinks are funny make us laugh. You never know when she's going to bust up! The best part is she always gets the hiccups from laughing hard!
playing with Mama. I love these kinds of weekends. All together and nothing to do.