Year in Review: 2012

Beware: Picture Overload! 

Happy New Year...a month late!

I've been slacking on the monthly posts for the kiddies. The holidays really kept us busy and then I started a new workout challenge that keeps me busy in the evening once the kids go to bed. After that I just crash. I had a fairly quick workout tonight so I figured it was about time!

I enjoy looking back on the review I did of the last year and didn't want to get too far into this year before completing 2012. It was a good year to remember. =) Oh, and because I can't very well remember the details of last year, this is all done by looking back at my iPhone photos since we don't use real cameras anymore. I don't even know where the real camera is.

January

We started off the year with a bean-dos update.

A big girl bed training; which, made me very nervous that our little bean wouldn't want to stay in her bed anymore. It wasn't the case then; it is now.

Many days at home being cozy with my girl while I tried to regain some of my energy back.

February

I hosted a cute Valentine's day tea and craft party for some mommy and baby friends at our house.

The hubby and I enjoyed a wonderful V-Day dinner date at a French restaurant.

The bean-dos belly grew and we found out we were having a boy! I sorta had a feeling it was and the hubby was genuinely surprised. This meant I could get started on nursery plans!

March

Enjoyed some beautiful sunny days.

Amélie almost touched a shark. Her buddy, Josie, did.

Lots of playdates and crafts

Drove down for cousin Corbin's second birthday. We had to drive back the next day because the Hubby was experiencing some terrible allergies. boo.

First Build-a-Bear. She made her beloved Bruce.

April

Our dear and wonderful friends got married on April Fool's Day. It was beautiful and so much fun. They even had It's Its for dessert. Yum!

We visited family in Kansas and had a great time. Probably one of my most favorite trips to Kansas; it was sunny and we were able to do some touristy activities.

Took advantage of our Gilroy Garden's membership a lot.

There was some big girl bedroom planning going on.

May

First visit to the Exploratorium

After numerous hot, hot, too hot days, we bought an inflatable pool. It was a big hit with the baby girl.

Amélie started soccer. One of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Amélie moved into her big girl room! It was a hit.

I finished Sebastian's room.

June

There were lots of special days days devoted to Amélie as we neared Sebastian's arrival.

My bestie threw me a perfectly sweet and thoughtful baby shower tea party. We ate the BEST cake!

We spent Daddy day riding a train through the Santa Cruz mountains and eating yummy mexican food.

Had some awesome weekends with girlfriends in preparation of my sweet friend Kendra's wedding where we rode a gondola on lake Merritt.

July

Had daddy man come to visit and help me so much in the few weeks before Sebastian's arrival and after.

Pool time with dear friends on the fourth of July.

We bought another Volvo wagon. We now have two.

Celebrated my girl's second birthday with a super fun duo pool party.

Sebastian Gabriel was born exactly a week after Amélie's birthday.

He went home wearing the same outfit Amélie went home in too.

August

The hubby and I celebrated our birthday.

Those first 6 or so weeks with a new baby were rough! Especially once Eric went back to work on the 15th.

Sebastian went to the Children's Discovery Museum for the first time and loved it.

September

Eric's dad and stepmom came to visit and meet Sebastian.

Lots of baby growing and toddler learning going on.

October

Halloween! We went with a Star Wars theme this year. I made both of the babies costumes and my belt.

November

Thanksgiving at home in San Jose with my family and Eric's mom.

Major princess infatuation going on with the toddler girl.

"Butterfly wings, tutu." 

This shirt also belonged to Amélie. She was able to wear it until she was about 1. Sebastian can no longer wear it because it's too small. 

Many wonderful days at home with the babies. Dance parties galore and warm baby kisses.

December

Christmas at home in San Jose

I made a ginormous advent calendar.

We sent Enzo to live with a new and very happy owner. He just wasn't a fan of kids. It was okay for a while, but now that Amélie is running around and Sebastian will be doing so in a matter of time, we thought it was best for him and us.

Our family of four got to spend some quality time together while Eric was off for Christmas break.

Spent time with our dear friends and their awesome kids in Sacramento.

There are so many good pictures and great memories that go along with them. I wish I could post all of them so I can easily go back and relive those special moments of our lives. 

I L O V E good F O O D

I've been meaning to do one of these posts for a while. I was inspired by Stephanie's post that she did on the meals she prepared for her family for a week. Since her menu basically became my menu that week (Thanks again, Stephanie!), I thought someone might enjoy taking my recommendations.

I plan my menu for the week on Sunday nights. I select either three or four meals since we usually have pizza one night, have left overs others, and then go out once. I've been using Pinterest or searching google for recipes with specific ingredients and then creating one big shopping list. Since I do all my shopping with two babies in tow, I try and minimize how many times I visit the grocery store. Man, sometimes I have to go on the weekend and it is crazy! I'm thankful that the store is nice and quiet during the week mornings when I go. As long as I make my list for the week, I only go to the grocery store once, unless they don't have an ingredient I need. I love using Pinterest because I can just save my recipes and go back to them when I'm preparing my meals and then leave notes on whether or not it was a hit. So far, I don't think there's been anything I've made that hasn't been good. I do have to say that I there are pins on my board that I haven't made yet. They are future meals/cakes/yummy goodies. Things to be enjoyed.

Here's a look back at the week before last and my comments. This weeks menu was mostly courtesy of a website called Weelicious. I had not used this site before, but had heard good things about it. It's meant for families with children. I ended up going back to it two weeks in a row to try other things, but wasn't as impressed the second week. So, I'll be skipping the second week and moving on to last weeks menu.

Menu week of 1/7-1/11:

Monday- Penne pasta with Spinach with Mild Italian Sausage in a cream sauce
This is so delicious and super duper quick and easy. My bestie, Kristin taught me this recipe about 8 years ago and it's something we enjoy every so often. I was going to post a picture I took of this, but when I showed it to Eric he said it looked like worms. Ummm...not the most appetizing. I can promise you this DOES NOT taste or look like worms in real life.

1. Cook penne
2. Brown the sausage out of the casing. I use two regular size sausages. This week I used a turkey Italian sausage they had a WF.
3. Add a dash of red pepper flakes to taste. More if you like it spicy.
4. Once the meat is thoroughly cooked, add about a cup of heavy cream.
5. Add the cooked penne to the pan with the sausage and cream. Mix.
6. Add about 3 cups of spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilted and mixed in with the other ingredients.
7. Season with salt and pepper to preferred taste.
8. Let it simmer for a bit, like 5 minutes to get the flavors to meld and then enjoy!

Tuesday-  Roasted chicken with caramelized lemons, cherry tomatoes, and olives
 I served this with couscous. This was so delicious and fairly quick and easy to make. I'll definitely make this again. These one "pot" type of meals are great for busy parents. Eric was a big fan of this dish. Everything just came out so tender and juicy.


Wednesday- Middle Eastern Chicken Burgers
Again, this recipe is easy to make and fast. Amélie even ate this, so I have to give this a big thumbs up! We had some berries on the side. Amélie is the biggest berry fan. 

I'm going to throw this recipe in between weeks because we actually had this one on the first day of the year and everyone LOVED it. We hosted a little new years brunch at our house. I made this dish and a french toast casserole I saved on Pinterest.

1/1 -Potato, Sausage, and Spinach Breakfast Casserole
This is basically a whole breakfast meal in one pan. I didn't end up creating a good hash brown layer because I was having trouble making it stay in one piece. I just sautéed the potatoes in the skillet and it didn't make a difference. The egg makes it all stick together in the end. This had so many great ingredients. I especially like the surprise appearance by the leeks. Yum! This could easily become vegetarian without the sausage. The recipe was so yummy and easy that I believe it can also be a weeknight dinner.


Menu Week of 1/14-18:
Monday-One-pan Garlic and Lemon Chicken with Green Beans and Potatoes
Anything with lemon always sounds good to me. If it has lemons, count me in! This was easy enough and smelled delicious while baking, but the flavor was good, not great. If I was to make it again, I think I would let the chicken marinate in the lemon, olive oil, and garlic for a few hours before baking it and then maybe also add butter for extra yumminess. Some fresh herbs wouldn't hurt either.


Tuesday- Cranberry-Avocado Salad with Candied Almonds and Sweet Balsamic Vinaigrette and Grilled Cheese on Fresh Sourdough Bread
I'm not usually one to crave or make salads, especially when I know the toddler isn't likely to eat it. But, when I saw this picture and read the name, I could not wait to make this. It just sounded so good! Yeah, it didn't disappoint. It was amazing! I even had it with dinner the next night. I didn't make 5 cups of the candied almonds like the recipe suggests. I just measured about a cup of nuts and kinda winged it with the rest of the ingredients. They came out just right. I made grilled cheese since I know Amélie will almost always eat that and I thought it was necessary to have something warm and gooey with a cold salad on a cold night.
 

Wednesday- We had prepared tortellini(from Whole Foods) with red sauce. Nothing fancy, just fast and easy after a long day.

Thursday- Chicken Tortilla Soup
Of course this was a huge batch, as soup recipes always seem to be. It's nice to have some leftovers, but sometimes it's just too much and I end up delivering a warm dinner to our busy neighbors across the street. This was a big pot of soup! It was delicious. Just a great tortilla soup with lots of yummy ingredients. While I was cooking I realized I had run out of cumin and my neighbor was out too, so no cumin. The soup was still really good, although I think it would have been even better with cumin. My recently learned trick for shredding chicken quickly is to stick the just cooked chicken breasts in my Kitchen-Aid mixer with the paddle attachment and then turn it on. It shreds the meat quickly and perfectly. We had this for lunch and dinner a few nights afterwards and it was just as good. I started preparing dinner while the kids were both napping(very rare) around 3 and finished it with a little help from Sebastian who was very upset every time I put an ingredient in the pot. He thought he was going to get to eat it. It sat covered on the stove until we ate a little after six and it was still perfectly warm. This recipe does require a little bit of time since you have to wait for the chicken to cook in the oven, but meanwhile you're putting together the rest of the recipe. Overall, not too much time or effort.


Since there are so many recipes available on the internet, I don't usually make the same recipes over and over again. I like this because I really enjoy trying out new recipes and cooking. But, I would definitely make all of these recipes again because they were tasty and relatively fast to make on a weeknight when I have two babies vying for my attention.

Do you have any quick and delicious recipes that you've made lately? Please share! =)

Frijolitos: Twenty-Seven Months & Three Months

Life is great.

Our days have a certain structure to them. There's a pattern to the things we do; a routine. We get up, we have breakfast, there's a nap, errands, a playdate, a museum visit, an outing, then lunch, more naps, play time at home, the hustle of getting dinner ready, two sometimes very needy kiddos, bath time for one, dinner time for all, bed time for one, pj's, story time for another, kisses, bedtime for another, and resting for two very tired parents. Eric and I recount our adventures at the end of the day and usually go to sleep thinking about our babies. Little and sometimes big things change from day to day; there's ups and downs. These days just.slip.right.through.our.fingers. It's hard to stay in the moment sometimes and really appreciate all the good things life has brought us. I really can't complain about anything. Not.one.thing. Man, I'm lucky. But, there are moments; quite a few moments fortunately, when I can actually think about all the good in our lives and take a close deep look at each of my babies and notice how they are changing and how wonderfully amazing they are(and they're really MINE!). For those I am extremely thankful. I wish I could take every minute I have with them and make every second the very best for them and all about them. But, there's that routine and the things that need to get done and time just gets away from me. So, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and trying my hardest to be the best mommy to them and the wife my hubby needs and taking more minutes out of my busy, non-stop, sometimes crazy days to appreciate the little things; especially those little noses on those cute little babies of mine.

That's why I need to stay on top of these! I don't want to forget all the things little my kids do or say. I've been thinking about keeping a written journal. Something I can keep on my bedside and write in before bed. Nothing where I'm going to write a detailed explanation of my day, but simply the highlights, bullet points perhaps of the things said or done that I just can't forget. Do any of you do this? I've seen some journals specifically devoted to that type of thing, like a "line a day" type of thing and that seems do-able. I think I need to get one tomorrow!

Amélie

• is a little parrot. She repeats everything! I love it. 
• can have conversations with me in Spanish. So nothing extremely detailed or anything. But tonight she and I had a conversation about her wanting bread to have with her dinner and how she should eat it with her soup. It was amazing! My girl is bilingual! Yes!
• is loving purple right now.
• is in love with balloons. 
• has an amazing memory. Today we went to Banana Republic because I wanted to try on some pants and she asked for a balloon when we went in the dressing room because she remembered that last week when we were in the same exact dressing room there was a balloon that she got to keep. Crazy pants! 
• loves her tio Christian. We saw him yesterday and tonight she was still talking about her tio. She loves my brother. 
• really loves playing with her friends.
• will ask to watch "telé."
• knows what a "punkin"/"caabaza" is(pumpkin/calabaza)
• always asks me where her brother is and will point him out all the time. She loves him. 
• when I say I'm going to feed Sebastian she'll say, "Astian. Leche." Also, when I'm kissing her goodnight, she'll grab the top of my shirt, look down it, and say, "Leche para Astian." This always makes me laugh.
• loves to help me in the kitchen.
• swinging/rocking is her jam.
• really enjoys skype-ing with her abuelito in Guatemala and her BFF "Sphia"(Sophia) that lives in Berkeley. 
• is still being potty trained
• wants to wear her "botas"(boots) almost every day. Knows that when she wears her rain boots she can jump in puddles.
• loves to do crafts and paint/color. That's my girl.
• especially loves the weekends because her daddy is here all day.
• gives the BEST kisses. We have a little routine at bedtime where we chat for a bit and she points out things like my nose, ears, earrings, hair, mouth, tongue...things like that and at the end I ask her for kisses and end with eskimo kisses. Well, she's recently decided that when she gives me regular kisses it's necessary for her to put both of her hands on my face and pull me to her so she can kiss me. Oh my gosh, I love this so much. The first time she did this I just died. I was so happy I asked her for more kisses and she happily did so because she noticed it made me happy. Now, she asks  for "ottos besitos"(otros besitos/more kisses) and then quickly puts her little hands on each side of my face. I cannot get enough kisses!
• has the cutest little girl face I've ever seen(she is my daughter :) ).

Sebastian

• is sooo talkative. I've never met a baby that talks this much or...
• smiles as much! If you talk to him or smile at him, he's all smiles. 
• is growing like a weed. He is wearing 3-6 month clothing and is growing out of some of them already. He's long and those cheeks! Gah, I love those cheeks! 
• has been rolling from belly to back for a few weeks now.
• went through a growth spurt that lasted a very long week. Thank goodness he's back to sleeping his regular night hours and feeding regularly and not all day and night. 
• watches his sister all the time. They recently had their very first in-depth conversation that ended in Sebastian getting upset because Amélie was getting so excited and loud about the fact that Sebastian was talking to her. 
• really loves his swing. Yippee!
• can still only be awake for about an hour(max.) at a time before he gets grouchy. Except for the hours before bed time.
• is cuter than ever!
• is still learning to fall asleep on his own. He's a stubborn little guy, but he's doing a little better. There was one night I just had to let him cry for a while because nothing was making him happy and he needed to sleep. He eventually fell asleep. 

Frijolitos: Twenty-six and Two Months

I was running errands the other day and happened to walk by a t-shirt store that focuses on Latin American themes. I peeked inside as I a strolled by and happened to catch a glimpse of some itty bitty t-shirts: one in pink and one in brown that had "Frijolito" with an image of a cartoon bean dressed up in either a bow, gloves, and big lashes, or a simple T. I quickly ran in there to take a closer look and I had a hard time resisting to purchase one for each of my frijolitos. How appropriate, I thought. :)

Time never ceases to surprise me with it's ability to move so quickly. As a write this, Sebastian is close to being 10 weeks old. As a person looking from the outside, I would think ten weeks seems like a long time, but from where I stand, ten weeks is just the other day, just a little guy in my arms, just my "newborn" baby. But, there isn't a doubt that he is definitely getting bigger and that the days are flying by. Amélie is also changing SO much every single day. Sometimes I just sit there looking at her and think how much of a big girl she is becoming. She's stringing words together and surprising us with how much she knows. She's got a bubbly, sweet, and happy personality. We really are very lucky parents.

So, before another day/week/month goes by before I have time to write, I thought I'd make a quick list of where my kiddies are today.

Amélie

• loves pink
• is currently learning her colors and can correctly identify them about 80 percent of the time
• likes to repeat everything!
• very interested in shoes. The brighter/shinier/girlier; the better. 
• let's me style her hair every morning
• knows all her body parts in Spanish and English
• loves her baby brother, "astian."
• gives the best kisses
• really likes to point out people's noses
• likes to sing
• knows to ask for her sunglasses when the sun is in her eyes
• actually enjoys riding in the car now
• really loves coloring
• can translate from Spanish to English and vice versa
• is very girlie
• the swings at the park are her favorite
• has a contagious little girl laugh
• can play with bubbles any time of day
• doesn't like having her hair washed
• likes going to the library
• loves reading books, especially Curious George, Thomas the Train, and Clifford
• knows who Elmo is
• makes us laugh all the time
• loves to dance
• can be shy when it comes to making new friends
• prefers sitting in her chair at the kitchen counter than sitting at the kitchen table
• LOVES anything having to do with water
• could eat a "hog gog"(hot dog), burger, pizza, pancakes, and "shnackies"(snacks) all day and every day
• talks all day
• is 26 pounds

Sebastian

• has the best baby smile
• loves to smile at anyone that will talk to him
• really likes being snuggled
• talks a lot
• totally rocks at tummy time
• is really strong and can hold his head up really well
• is constantly moving his legs and arms
• can eat all day
• likes to watch his sister move
• doesn't like being in the car/car seat
• has approved the use of a lovey for bedtime snuggling
• is finally using the pacifier to soothe himself
• sleeps really well at night
• is starting to create his schedule
• can sleep from 7pm to 6am and wake up twice
• is starting to go down for his naps much faster and easier
• still won't put himself to sleep without mommy help 
• sleeps swaddled but usually wakes up with one arm out
• will fall asleep in the ergo every time
• makes the cutest little pouty face
• has brown eyes and light brown hair
• loves bath time
• likes being warm
• likes to hit the toys hanging from his play mat thing
• is 10 pounds, 12 ounces

Mimi and Kiki

By the title you could believe that this is about individuals by the names of Mimi and Kiki, but they are in fact two things we never leave the house without- Amélie's special blankie (mimi) and her binky (kiki).

I wanted to write about this because one day I'll be able to look back and enjoy all the little or not so little things that were a part of our lives with these two babies. These two objects have certainly become a big part of our lives in the last several months.

For a while now, as long as we've been tucking Amélie into bed at night, she's always had her blankie. As part our routine we lay her blankets on top of her and then wish her a goodnight and give her a kiss before we walk out the door. Well, somehow along the way, Amélie decided her blankie was mimi. Since I was a child, I've always referred to bedtime/sleeping as mimi. I think it's just a nickname for dormir, which means to sleep in Spanish. It's not something I made up. My parents used the term and I've heard other people use it as well. Anyways, since then we've called her blankie, mimi. There was a time period of about two months a while back where Amélie wanted her mimi to go with us everywhere and we were fine with it. The doctor even said it was a good thing she was attached to an object as her security item and not a human. He said it was perfectly normal. We thought it was cute. She got over taking it with her everywhere, but it still remained part of bedtime.

Mimi's helping me eat my special pink! cupcake. 

This girl is in love with pink(how ironic) due to Pinkalicious books. 

Fast forward to about two months before Sebastian arrived and Amélie started asking to take mimi (oh, and we think it's a "she." ie. "Where's mimi? Where did you leave her?") with us everywhere. We were okay with it again, but it slowly progressed and now is at a serious obsessive level for her. We can convince her to leave mimi home for certain things or put her down for activities, but we almost never leave home without her because it.can.be.bad! The thing doesn't leave her sight at home, too. We probably hear her asking for mimi no less that 4 times in an hour. If she's(mimi) in the other room and we can't get it to Amélie THAT second she will go into hysterics while repeatedly asking for mimi and kiki. Imagine this happening while we're out and mimi is at home? Help.

Color without mimi and kiki by my side? Heck no, Joe. 

Mimi on the chair, kiki on the counter. 

Mimi used to get dragged on the floor and you can imagine this thing got filthy! There were a few times where I tried to convince her to take another blankie, but nope. That's not mimi! We even found a fleece with Curious George, whom she LOVES, on it at Joann's that I made into a little lovey blankie with the hopes of it taking the place of mimi, but that did not work for a minute. I was seriously embarrassed of my little girl walking around with her dirty blankie she didn't want to give up and so I cut her in half. That way I can wash one half while she has the other. Thank goodness she didn't notice.

I think along with the sense of security that she gets from mimi, she also feels the same way about kiki. Her binky has always just been part of her sleep routine. We'd give it to her right before we walked out and sometime throughout the night she's spit it out and that was that. It wouldn't be seen or talked about until the next sleep session. But again, about two months before Sebastian arrived (noticing a pattern??) she started using her binky all the time! Ugh, I hate that darn pacifier. Right before she started asking for it all the time, I was at the point where I was thinking about putting the binky away somewhere and never seeing it again because she's a big girl and I felt it was time for it to be gone.

If she's got mimi, kiki is right there too- in her mouth,  in her hand, or by her side. I'm always asking her to give it up and she usually will, but unless she's happily and busily preoccupied, she'll ask for it again. Although, even during any meal time she wants to have kiki right next to her plate. It's ridiculous.

Playing the keyboard? Can't do it without kiki and mimi(on the chair)!

At her two year well-visit we brought it up with her doctor and he told us not to worry about it because he thinks is a phase that she'll grow out of soon enough. I'm fairly certain it has something to do with a certain little addition to our household. It totally drives us crazy right now because we seriously cannot leave the house without these two things and we have to know where they are at all times as if they are our third and fourth children, but I'm sure it'll be something we look back on and tease Amélie about when she's grown. I'm really hoping that comes sooner than later. =)

Little brother; I'm the big girl with my mimi and my kiki in hand! 

Gosh, I love that girl and baby boy!

Do any of your kids have a security item they can't live without?

The Challenge

It's time! I'm feeling almost completely like my former self physically, and at seven weeks post-partum, I think it's safe that I begin to workout. Woo. I'm excited. I really enjoy working up a sweat and getting some results.

Since the beginning of September coincides with my ability to workout, I've decided do to a fitness challenge of sorts. I've actually convinced the hubby to do it as well. We are going to be doing the  "One Hundred Pushups" training program. I'm going to be adding running to my routine since that's my thing and it also happens to be one of the few workouts I can do with both of the kids. I've got the double jogger ready to go! The thing I also like about the pushups program is that there is a timeline and ending date. It'll give me a chance to compare now to then and it doesn't seem like that long of a time period. Also, my goal has been to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight and shape by three months post-partum. I'm only 5 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy, but my shape is another story. We'll see.

I was hoping to really begin in earnest this week, but our household has come down with a cold. First it was me, then Sebastian, followed by Eric (who's the biggest baby of all), and today Amélie's been displaying symptoms. I'm also waiting on my carseat adapter to arrive in the mail since Sebastian really prefers riding in the carseat as opposed to the actual stroller seat at this point. It's supposed to get here this week. That means I'll start running as soon as it arrives and that Eric and I will probably complete the initial push-up test this coming weekend and start the plan on Monday.

Of course, here are my dreaded before pictures. I took some showing my actual belly, buuuuut, I don't think I'm ready for the interwebs to see that just yet.

Eek! I can't believe I've added these. As you can see in the top picture, there is a pooch in the lower portion of my belly. Lucky for me, at this point my natural waist and upper torso seem to be back to the shape I was before. My skirts, dresses, and higher waisted pants fit just fine. But, most of my jeans are definitely snug(read: muffin toppin') around that darn pooch and I can grab the extra skin. I'm going to include my measurements because that'll give a better idea. Bust: 38 inches. Natural waist: 29.5 inches. Hips 37 inches. Gah. Oh yeah....my weight. Today I'm at 130lbs. Before baby I was between 120 and 125. I'm happy at 125, but will be more than happy to be at a constant 120. 

Alrighty, so here's hoping that six weeks from Monday I'll be down five (or more!) pounds and looking more fit! 

Oh, I've also been trying to be consistent about using my "Lose It!" app. This last holiday weekend was a bust, but I'm back on this week. Wish us luck! =)

If anyone wants to join in on the fun, it would be awesome to see some before and after results as well.