Ava lately

There's not really much to say. I mean you are a baby, so pretty much you are adorable, you sleep a lot, eat often, and cry sometimes. Your crying is getting a little easier to understand. At this point we wouldn't call you an easy baby, and at times we have definitely called you an angry baby. You stare at people very inquisitively, almost seeming as if you are going to be a deep thinker, or very confident. It could be that I just get lost in your deep blue eyes. 

Riley is Two

On Riley's birthday we baked a cake in the morning, went to some discovery center in Chula Vista and had family over for pizza dinner & cake.

Ri, you are hilarious. You are mischievous. Very mischievous. You are excellent at avoiding eye contact when you have done something you shouldn't. You love to dance. You certainly didn't get your rhythm from your parents. You are a risk-taker, always wanting to climb, be thrown high in the air, and push the limits. Upon meeting new people you are so shy that they tend to ask if you speak. Within a few minutes you take their hand and lead them away to do something you want. I've yet to see someone resist. You are sweet and soft spoken. The way you say please 100 times makes it so hard to not give you the world, no matter what you are asking for. You have the cutest tan and the most amazing curly hair. You are just starting to come out of a phase of chewing then spitting out almost 90% of your food. That may explain why you are in the 5th percentile of everything. Such a petite girl. You love nursery rhymes. You are a wonderful big sister. Always so excited when your sissy wakes up, you rush at her saying "eyes open!" Your favorite person is your Aunt "Tia" Holly. I don't think you could ever get enough of her. Nor she of you. You are incredibly stubborn, unbelievably entertaining, and perfect in every way. We love you. Happy Birthday to our little two year old.

San Diego Vacation Days

Every once in a while we spend a few hours doing something touristy in San Diego and it feels like we are on vacation. Like we are back along the Mediterranean. Do you ever have those perfect moments? ...the right coastal breeze, the warm temperature, enjoying a little happy hour or afternoon ice cream (or both), taking a long worry-free walk...

This day was along the embarcadero & Seaport Village:

The crowd Riley runs in

What a lucky girl Riley is. Here are a few of her regular friends she gets to hang with often. 

 The Oz man (who is expecting a sister any day now!)

Tori & Moses

Aniston & Miles

Baby Syd & Kierin - We miss you guys!

Family

I will never be able to express how grateful I am for the family that looks after us and loves on our girls like crazy. 

Newborn Pics

Thank you Clare!

Birdie

Our little birdie is one month old and my oh my, this girl has a set of lungs on her. Her tiny squawks aren't so tiny. In the evening Iv'e been closing up the house and turning on the AC just because I feel for the surrounding neighborhood. We live on a canyon and let me say that sound definitely carries around here. It's not every night though, only a few so far. When it comes to answering those questions that even total strangers feel comfortable to ask..."Is she an easy baby? How doses she sleep?" I'm giving it time, I'm not throwing in my towel yet. She's just a little thing and I have high hopes. 

The girl has beautiful deep blue eyes. Where do I reproduce these beauties from? And their eyes? If you haven't seen me in a while, then maybe you have forgotten, that I have nothing magical going on in my average brown eyes like these daughters of mine. It's unreal. 

She has long legs and long feet. I'm hoping for some height from this one. I remember Riley being in newborn clothing past the first month. In fact Riley easily fits into a lot of her 12 months clothes and she's 24 months in a week. So far, with Av, we've got a grower. Appropriately so, she is in 0-3 month clothes already. 

She's just starting to make those adorable baby coo-ing sounds. She smiles a little while she falls asleep sometimes. 

She looks a lot like Robby's baby pictures. It's funny how when people tell me how much she looks like Robby, they have an eyebrows tilted, half frown face. In other words, sorry she doesn't look like you Chels...but don't you worry people...I married my husband for quite a few reasons, and one of them was his looks. So If my little lady looks like my good-lookin man, then I'll take it. 

Ava, you seem like you may be on your way to being just as determined of a little girl as your sister, but please have some grace on us honey. 

August

Here's a breakdown of the last 3 weeks. It's pretty self-explanatory.

I guess unless most toddlers serve a good IPA in their playhouse, this one isn't quite self-explanatory. So to explain - as with Riley we tried to make the most of happy hour while on leave from work with good friends around to help chase Riley and share their adult company with us.

Laying sod

Cousins

A couple non-self-explanatories:

Ri...
...has new words each day. Half of them are some other language that take Robby and I a couple of minutes to sometimes 24 hours to realize what she was saying. An example is when she says 'meelps' for 'milk.' Sounds ridiculous but it is so dang cute. Another one is "hoont," in which she crouches and shakes her fist in the air. This is her imitating us "hunt"ing flies with a kitchen towel around the house. She also loves ironman clips, nursery rhymes, and dogs all on You Tube. Grandma Fleisher has taught her to become pretty efficient with iPad apps. She goes to gymnastics with her friend Aniston. She also turned two (at least mentally and emotionally). The other day Robby asked me "so, how long will Riley be two for?" In other words, she tests us like crazy, avoids eye contact anytime we are trying to be serious with her, runs away when we say not to, and I could go on and on.

Av...
....has long legs, arms, fingers and toes. Please God, let her be tall. I need someone to reach things when Robby's at work. Her eyes are deep dark blue. She is fussy a lot of evenings, just about at Riley's bedtime on the minute. She has a dimple on her right cheek. She sleeps a lot.