Our Little Monchichi

I don't know when or why Michael started calling her Monchichi, but we have definitely adopted it as her nickname.  We love our sweet Monchichi girl!

(Looking around for an original Monchhichi doll for both her and Wes.  Michael and I had them when we were kids and Wes loves watching the YouTube video of the old commercial!)

A Wee Bit O the Blarney

The fact that it's still March makes me feel better about just getting to my St. Patrick's Day pictures.  We had a fun day of celebrating all things Irish, and Cora got to wear three green outfits, so I think she enjoyed it as well!

Outfit number 1: plus the shamrock clip I made for her.

Here's outfit number 2: plus a very cranky brother.  He woke up from his nap in the worst mood, and then I tried to get a picture of them together and Cora spit up all over herself and Wes' jeans, which sent him into a major tantrum (these are clean jeans, btw).  He obviously hates baby barf on his clothes...I don't blame him, I've just gotten use to it. So I had to settle for these pictures, which aren't very good :(

This is the most adorable St. Patrick's outfit than I got in a hand-me-down box from my friend Amber.  Too bad she barfed on it before I could get a good picture.  But it will be a good reminder of the phase we are in right now, though I can't really imagine forgetting months spent covered in barf :)

A few minutes later Auntie Jessica, Uncle Nino, Haley, Gia, Cash and Papa Ron came over to celebrate with us and eat corned beef and cabbage. Gia and Wes helped me put together a fruit rainbow for an appetizer. 

I saw this idea on Pinterest and I thought the Rolo's as the little pots of gold and the marshmallows as clouds were just too cute.

The kids had to wait to dig in until I got a picture, but once they got the go-ahead, Wes went straight for the chocolate, which surprised me because he's more of a fruit kid than a sweet kid.  Crazy I know...who's child is he anyway??

Michael made corned beef and cabbage and potatoes (somehow the carrots got forgotten :) and we had lots of spicy mustard! And of course there was Guinness and Harp for the adults.

And here's outfit number 3: plus Auntie Jessica and Haley 

Auntie Jessica made the most delicious pistachio cheesecake for dessert...

(Oop, forgot to add this pic)...and I made these little goody bags for the cousins to take home.  Rainbow candy sticks and more Rolo pots of gold.  The shamrock is felt from the pattern for Cora's bow. 

Happy St. Paddy's Day all!

Wesley Says: And So It Begins

 The other day while Cora napped, Wesley and I were playing a Mickey Mouse computer game.  We were about halfway though our game when Cora woke up.  I went up to get her and came back down to finish my game with Wes.  I had Cora on my left knee and Wes on my right knee when the following conversation started between Wes and Cora:

Wes: "Mom, Tora (still can't say the "c") wants to touch my shirt"

Cora: "ga ga ga" - Translation: I love you brother

Wes: "Tora, why are you touching me?"

Cora: "ga ga coo" - Translation: Because I love you, don't you like me touching you?

Wes: "Mom, Tora's touching me again"

Cora: "he he goo" - Translation: Oh, I see, you don't like it. I'm going to do it some more. 

Wes: " Tora, stop touching my shirt"

Cora: "ha ha ha" - Translation: I like this game, who's more annoyed...my brother or my mom? This is good practice for when I'm older.

Wes: "Tora, don't touch me any more, I mean it"

Cora: "pblsssss"- Translation: make me! 

Wes: "Mom, I don't like Tora touching me"

Cora: "bla bla" - Translation: Little Sister-1, Big Brother, 0 

Wes: "TORA!!!!"

Mom: "Ok, I got enough pictures for my blog, we're done playing on the computer now"

Just a tiny, but very vivid glance of what life will be like very shortly.

Trouble

Ok, so I think we're already in trouble with this little one.  I don't remember Wes even being aware of the TV until he was much older (it's entirely possible that I just don't remember though.  I've been enjoying remembering back to when Wes was little and he was learning and discovering things for the first time too.  But it also makes me realize how much I don't remember, even with all the blogging and documenting I've done!)  

I don't think we have the TV on all that much, but obviously Cora finds it fascinating!

Goings On

Get ready, this is my attempt at catching up!  We've been so busy recently so here's the fun things we've been up to...

A trip or two to the library:

Winnie the Poo's Honey Tree was our favorite find this trip.

Finger whole hand painting:

A play date at Wes' friend Brayden's house:

Cora loves sitting in her Bumbo seat:

Practicing our letters with mommy's letter punches:

Posing in cute outfits:

Celebrating Mom and Dad's 9th wedding anniversary:

Wes and Cora and I went to the Great Dane bakery in Huntington Beach to buy a small recreation of our wedding cake to surprise daddy.  We may have had a cookie in the bakery as well.

                                            3/7/03                                               3/7/12

Grammy babysat Wes and Cora while Mike and I went to The Original Fish Company for dinner.  This was the first time in nine years we broke with tradition and didn't go to the Summit House (where we were married).  Change is good :)

A trip to the Spectrum with Sarah, Aaron and Jayne to have lunch and play in the fountains:

It was 90 degrees last week, crazy weather!  And as we were walking to the food court, the boys were walking around all the fountains and I bet you can guess what happened next...yep, Wes fell in...head first, fully clothed!  I had trunks for him since our water plans were for after lunch, but I had to run into Old Navy and buy him a new t-shirt.  It totally scared him, but I couldn't help but laugh (but only because I watched the whole thing happen and I was right there to pluck him out of the fountain!)  Here's to hoping he'll steer clear of the fountains from now on, though I won't hold my breath!

A trip to the beach:

We continued to enjoy the warm weather by spending the afternoon at the beach with Auntie Chrissy, Cody and Eva.

This was Cora's first real trip to the beach and I forgot decided to wait until Daddy was with us to get a picture of her toes in the sand like I did with Wes.

A trip to Disneyland:

(don't know what's going on with Cora's bow here)

We even got to ride in the nose cone of the Monorail!  The Monorail is one of Wes' favorite rides and this was a big treat for all of us, very cool!

Whew!!  I think I'm caught up now.  Feels good for the moment, though I know it's fleeting!

Holy Cannoli

I interrupt my behindness (totally a word) to post something current.  Yesterday I was smacked in the face with the reality of how fast time is flying by...I registered Wes for Preschool and Cora rolled over for the first time!  How is that even possible??  I feel like I was in high school yesterday, but I'm going to be 34 next month and I have a kid who's almost old enough be in to school himself and another one on the move.  Yikes!  I was never one of those people who would say "time is going by too fast" or "I want my kids to stop growing" but I'm starting to sympathize with them.   

Big Bear!

On March 1st and 2nd we headed up to Big Bear for a little snow get-away!  We've taken Wes to the snow every year since he was born so we were glad we were able to keep up our tradition!  Unfortunately I had my first major 'second-time-parent moment' and forgot to have Cora touch the snow since this was her first trip to the mountains!  Oh well, next year.

Staying at my parent's time share always makes things so nice since they all have full kitchens, dining rooms and up to three bedrooms.  Oh, and this one has a gas fire place, just flip the switch!    

As soon as we got to our unit, we broke into the snow clothes box and got all bundled up and ready to head out to the snow.  Wes got new bibs and new snow boots this year (but this is actually his jacket from last year, it still fits...barely. And when he saw them in the snowbox, he had to wear his two-sizes-too-small Spiderman boots.  I don't know how, but we got his feet in them!)

My little snow bunnies.

We stayed on a side of the time share property that we have never stayed on before, but our unit was great!  It had this little backyard that was in the shade, so it had lots of snow to play in.

Wes getting Snowball-Making 101 from Daddy.

Next we headed to the front of our unit where there were a few little hills to sled on:

Daddy even got in on the sledding action!

I was texting Grammy a picture when Mike got this perfect picture of Wes' snowball mid-air...right before it got me and Cora!  He was pretty much firing at point blank range, so all his snowballs hit their targets!

Then we headed back to the backyard to build a little snowman.

Our poor Frosty had a droopy eye!

Then we took a little hike to the back of the time share property.  This is where we usually stay and the last two years we were here, this area was covered with snow and was great for sledding.  We'll have to go earlier than March next year! 

Wes thought throwing pine cones into this little creek was great fun!  We literally had to drag him away!

It was getting late and cold, so we headed back to our room and Wes and Cora and I played by the fire while Daddy went to pick up a few things for dinner.  We brought up a stew we made in the crockpot the night before, so all we had to do was heat it up and mix a salad.  So glad we thought ahead!

Daddy picked us up some cookie dough, so we baked up some cookies and had them with a cold glass of milk, yum!

We had a little bit of a rough night, Cora was up at 2am and then Wes was up at 4 and ready to start the day, ugh!  Luckily Mike was able to get him to go back to sleep, but our day still started early at 6:30.  We brought oatmeal for breakfast and then got packed up (can't believe how much stuff we needed to bring to the mountains for just one night!).  But we were really excited to head to the tubing place down the mountain in Snow Valley!

Wes did awesome and loved tubing!  He started off by going down the hill with Mike on one big tube, but once Mike convinced him to get on his own tube, he was going down the hills by himself!

I had Cora in the carrier most of the time because she was so tired from all the excitement, but I did go down the hill a couple of times with Wes.  I even convinced him to go down the biggest hill with me!  We kept talking to Wes about skiing down hills instead of tubing and he said he definitely wanted to do that next year.  Here's hoping he feels the same way next winter!

Snow fun 2011
Snow fun 2010