I wanna cry

Okay, so, we're on attempt #2 for potty training Kaia. I know, she just turned 3...a lot of kids are already potty trained by now. So, here's part of the reason she's not. We were gonna start the process while i was pregnant with leia & some of my friends that have 2 kids & have already been through the nightmare called potty training said, "wait until leia's born cuz she'll just regress". well, i appreciate you all trying to help, but i should have just ignored you all. yea, she might have regressed, but at least she would have been through it already & had the idea in her head. now, she's 3, more stubborn and probably confused because this is the 2nd attempt (like i said in the beginning of this entry). the first attepmt was when leia was about 2 weeks old... that was awful, one day she'd "get it", the next day she wouldn't. i was trying to do this...took kaia to the potty every 1/2 hour, helped her wipe, help her wash her hands, and cleaning out "accident-panties", with a brand new baby NURSING, and i mean actually on the boob in the midst of all of this. can you say STRESS??? so here's our daily routine now...
1. wake up
2. put "real" panties on kaia
3. take her to the potty for pee #1 (or poop, hopefully) of the day
4. set timer for 20-30 minutes & every time it goes off, go to the potty (this repeats ALL day long)...etc.
She's starting to "get it", unless we leave the house to do errands (i do have to say that she didn't have any accidents when we were out today) or when it comes to pooping...she's been holding it in since yesterday (until about 10 minutes ago)...that's where the "i wanna cry" part of this comes in. we get home from the grocery store today (accident-free) and i see her squatting in front of the t.v., so i rush her to the potty again...nothing happens. she comes back out to the living room, i look over to see her pushing & tell her, "kaia, hurry, let's go sit on your potty.", i'll just say that it was too late. i REALLY was about to cry, how do you MAKE your kid poop on the potty??? i'm so frustrated & i know, you have to be patient when it comes to this, but i would really appreciate ANY tips, please.

It's startin' to feel Christmas-y, finally!!!

Well, i guess that complaining about the weather the other day worked, cuz it was in the 60's today and i have the heater blasting right now...yes! besides the weather, it feels more like Christmas season as we drove home from church today and saw multiple father-and-sons out in the front yard putting Christmas house lights up, we went to the mall yesterday and there were Christmas songs in every store of the mall (oh wait, it's been like that for a few weeks now), the girls got their Christmas pictures taken last week and downtown had their annual "festival of lights" like they do every year the day after Thanksgiving. that was fun, Kaia and Leia loved it, between the fireworks and the Christmas lights on the mission inn getting turned on, both girls were staring up for about 10 minutes straight (we knew kaia would be, but leia was too...just like she knew EXACTLY what was going on)...it was adorable, check it out...

Black Friday

Okay...i don't know why they call the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, but i do know that the day after Thanksgiving is shopping day!!! i hope to get out to the mall sometime today, derek and i have very different ideas of what "fun shopping" is. i said let's go to lunch and go shopping, the lunch part we agreed on...then, he says it, "let's go to Home Depot and Circuit City and Guitar Center"...screeeech, my mind racing with all sorts of fun stores...Nordstrom, Bella's Boutique, Hollister (even though i feel really old when i go in there), Old Navy, just to name a few...came to a halt. I DO like going to Home Depot if we're doing something fun like painting rooms or re-modeling something, but NOT just to look around the day after Thanksgiving. My "bubble" was bursted. just kiddin, i know he'll go with me to all of those places if i really want to...he's great about stuff like that (and if he really wants to go to those other stores, i'll go too). :)
Anyways, the main reason for this entry was to show you all our little tiny (FAKE!) Christmas tree in our little tiny condo...it's just kinda sad to pull a little tree out of a box, next year hopefully we'll have a bigger HOUSE with a real tree that smells like pine. ahhhhh, can't wait.



check out her fancy footwork!



kaia helped arrange the nativity scene...i love the upside down donkey!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everybody had a great day and ate a lot of food. we had a really nice day at papa and "nema's" house (derek's parents). this was leia's first Thanksgiving and we could tell that she is so ready for real food...everything i ate, she followed the food from the time it left the plate to my mouth, so cute. We are so thankful for so many things...one of them being my family. i love them so much, here are some pics from today...


here are the girls and papa... here's "ne-ma"...




looks like the tryptophan kicked in! :)

Kaia's 3 year and Leia's 5 month pics...

A couple of weeks ago, i took the girls to get their pictures taken. Kaia seems to be going through a stage where she either doesn't want to smile when we ask her to, or we just take so many pictures that she's just OVER it. Anyways, i can't believe that these pictures came out as good as they did, cuz for so many of them, she was doing the fakest smile. i had to "trick" her into smiling (kinda), the photographer and i were laughing at her fake, cheesy smiles so much that she started laughing too & then she just snapped the pics at the right time. hey, whatever works!

C'mon...it's November!

Okay, so, i woke up this morning and realized that we were out of milk. i love my little coffee cup of cereal (usually raisin bran) and kaia needs her milk with whatever she eats for breakfast, so i went out for a quick trip to Ralph's (it's a grocery store, for those of you who don't live in Cali.). the weather is beautiful...IF IT'S AUGUST!!! when i looked at the car clock it said 9:28 a.m., and the car said that it was already 75* and the radio was telling me that we were gonna have a record high, so when i got home i checked the weather online & it's supposed to get up to 91* (at least). not trying to complain, and i am totally a hot weather person...in fact, usually i'm complaining that i'm cold if it's colder than 75*...but i'm ready to do a little complain'. were supposed to be getting out our sweaters and going out for hot chocolate and having to cuddle for warmth, not waking up in the middle of the night sweaty! let's see...Thanksgiving is in 4 days, i really hope it cools down by then (at least a little), i think it's supposed to be in the 70's... that's a little better. i'd rather be complaining a little about it being too cold instead of saying that i'm too hot...at least through Christmas. anybody else ready for it to feel like winter?

Hangin' with Thomas (the train)

Today we went to Perris with "Pa-Nema" (that's kaia's nickname for Grandma & Papa Paulo) to take the girls to the Thomas festival. Kaia really enjoyed going on the train ride and getting balloon animals, but when the trip was over, we still think that her favorite part was the bounce houses. Leia seemed to really like the train ride too, actually i think she was just happy to be on my lap & not in her car seat...she's kinda a mama's girl...ahhhh. :) The conductor of the train was one of the cutest little "teddy bear men" that i've ever seen (that's what my sister & i call cute, little, old, nice men). he stopped to take pics with all of the kids, see...

Dance fever...

well, today was kaia's first dance lesson, we had to wait till she was 3 to sign her up, so 2 days later...well, she's officially "a dancer". We weren't sure if she was gonna listen to the teacher, or get bored , or push the other girls around (which she's been known to do). She didn't do any of the stuff she shouldn't have done, she listened to the teachers very well, did everything she was supposed to and didn't get bored 1/2 way through...she danced the whole hour! we got her her 1st pair of tap shoes, ballet shoes, leotard (purple with a butterfly and a little sheer skirt attached, she picked it out herself), and pink tights...she's all set.
of course, i was the mom that had her camera out snapping pics off and on the whole time...the other "normal" moms probably thought i was nuts, oh well, what's new?
check 'em out...

She's 3!!!

I know, i've done a lot of entries about Kaia turning 3...thia is the last one, i promise. i just thought i'd put a few pictures from her actual birthday DAY! Enjoy...







this was a few days before her b-day...one of her new outfits

Happy Birthday to my Doll Baby!

I know that my mom used to do this when we were growing up & now i am too, she would (and still does sometimes, over the phone since she lives in Texas) reminisce about the events that unfolded the hours before I was born.

So, here I go, it's my turn... three years ago today, right this minute i was at Kaiser, pregnant with Kaia and in labor...(and had been in labor for about 3 hours)...ouch! Almost 8 more hours to go until Kaia was finally here. I will never forget the first time I saw her beautiful, Hawaiian looking little face. I have never been the same since. She will officially be three at 7:50 in the morning. Happy birthday, my love. Check out her last three years of Birthday Party pics...


Kaia's 1st year Birthday



Kaia's 2nd year Birthday



Kaia's 3rd year Birthday

Build a Bear + 9 toddlers= lots of FUN!!!

Today was Kaia's 3rd Birthday Party and it was very amusing for everybody. For those of you who don't know what Build-A-Bear is, it's a place where kids (or adults) pick out some kind of stuffed animal (deflated), fill 'em with stuffing, add a heart, get it stitched up & pick out clothes for them to wear...they even get a Bear Birth Certificate. It's hilarious, i've never seen so many little kids "be-boppin'" around like they've done this before, making all of these choices. Kaia chose a tan little teddy bear & a hello kitty shirt & jeans, but, one of my favorites was kaia's friend, Jade. She chose a kitty with nothing but boots on, that was a funny sight to see (kinda like "puss-n-boots" from Shrek 2). We love you Kaia, the last three years have flown by!