You are My Sunshine

My Little Liana is 11 months old! She is so beautiful, bright, sweet, and perfect in every way. She is our little ray of sunshine, who can brighten our most dreary days. We are so blessed to have her in our family. She has been walking since 9 months, so now she is practically running which has made playing with Keira even more fun. They chase each other around the living room and tackle each other, giggling and squealing the whole time. They are still absolute best friends, and I know they will always be. Sometimes they don't even have to be playing to have a good time. One day, Liana came up to Keira who was sitting on the couch and they just started laughing at each other back and forth. Like their own language of laughter.

Liana hasn't added much to her vocabulary over the past month, but she has developed a beneficial use of the word "non." We call her baby food "yum yums" and now when she's hungry she says "non non non" which I figure is the best she can pronounce yum yum. She has even taken it a step further and when she is tired she says more of a "nigh nigh nigh" which is probably the best she can pronounce nigh-night (what we say to her when we lay her down in her crib). So, around our house she is famous for her non-nonning all day long. The other new word we've heard a few times is Hi.

So many people say that they think Liana looks just like Keira did as a baby, I usually just agree, but I have noticed striking differences from the moment she was born. They are the exact same coloring, and they both have the trademark big head that runs in my family, but besides that they are pretty unique. Keira- straight eyebrows Liana- very arched Keira- almond eyes Liana- round Keira- round nostrils Liana- pointed nostrils. They have different mouths and ears as well, and Keira has always been tall and skinny where Liana is shorter and more curvy. At this age Keira was wearing 9-12 month clothes. Liana wears mostly 24 month now, some 18 months still. By this age, Keira had 8 teeth and right now Liana only has 4. Instead of getting the middle two, she got the lateral incisors. My kids get their teeth in such random order. Despite their physical differences, I don't think either of them could possibly be any more beautiful than they are. I think Art and I were very lucky to have kids more beautiful than both of us combined.

Smart, Beautiful, Crazy Keira

Every day with Keira is an adventure, a laugh, a challenge, and a joy. Here are some of the things I have written down about her in the past couple months...

February 27- I colored my hair, and Keira used the unsupervised time to build a massive couch fort and decorate it with Costco muffins.

February 28- Took Keira to the park today to wear her out... 10:30 pm I am falling asleep on the living room floor and she still won't settle down and go to sleep. Keira 1 Park 0.

March 5- Keira spent the night at Grandma's house and when I went to pick her up today, she had completely disowned me. She said she wants to stay there forever. She wanted nothing to do with me! We decided her next sleepover should involve spankings and no chocolate milk so that she will want to come home in the morning. :)

March 7- I must have watched too much Psych in Keira's early years, because she refers to black people as Guss-es.

March 23- Keira just asked me for a ring because she and sister are married forever and ever. lol These girls are best friends. :)

March 29- I was doing my 20 min exercise video and Keira insists I hold a dvd in each hand in lieu of optional weights that I don't have. Then she tells me to flap them like a bird which I did to humor her to which she responded, "That's the spirit!" What would I do without Coach Keira?

April 1- I was getting juice for sister and Keira wanted some too and I said who do you think you are? And she said "Keira! K-E-I-R-A!"

April 3- I've been spraying this big black bee through the screen with poison and he keeps coming back. I was like how the heck is he still alive? And Keira said, "I'm telling ya! He has three hearts!" (like in video games)

When I went to register Keira for kindergarten, I learned that she has to go to TRANSITIONAL kindergarten for a year first because her 5th birthday falls between October 2 and December 2. I have mixed feelings about this, but hopefully it will be a blessing in disguise especially since it should be a much smaller class size. Transitional kindergarten is the same curriculum as regular kindergarten and if she does well, next year she can try to test out of kindergarten and skip to first grade.

They said that kindergarten has gotten much more challenging since I was a kid and gave me a paper listing some things she should start working on. I made her a numbers book to help her learn to count to 100, a 3D shapes book, and a random order alphabet book with upper and lower case to work on recognition and letter sounds. I let her choose a Disney Princess for the cover of each book and she loved them. I am shocked at how quickly she is learning. She can recognize almost all of her lower case letters, when I have never purposefully tried to teach them to her. Best I can figure is she picked them up reading the Dr. Seuss ABC book. She is also remembering the names to the 3D shapes faster than I expected. And when I went over the numbers book with her, I could see she was actually reading the numbers on the page instead of reciting from memory.

I had been really worried about Keira going to school because of her disinterest in writing, coloring, and learning on command. I mean really worried. Then, all of the sudden, she has started demonstrating more interest and intelligence than I thought she possessed. For example, one day after church I was examining a doodle she made in class and realized that in the very center of her drawing she wrote almost her whole name on her own. She had NEVER attempted such a thing before, I didn't even know she knew how to SPELL her name, but on that paper she wrote K-E-I then the beginning of a backward R which I think confused her then on the back of the paper was her letter A. That's why on April 1st when she spelled her name out loud I was shocked. I'm starting to realize that the knowledge is all in there, but for some reason she doesn't want me to know just how smart she is.

She has also just become interested in doodling and writing. In the past, I could never get her to sit down and draw or write letters. If you ask her to do something, chances are she's not going to do it, but of her own accord she has drawn a snowman, dogs, ladders, faces, and will write several random letters on paper having received no instruction from me. The only letter writing she has done previously was a tracing application on my phone that she does with her finger. It just amazes me that she won't sit down and trace letters with me on paper and let me teach her, but she randomly manifests amazing intelligence and ability. She sat down on the kitchen floor and made this robot "with wings" all by herself in a matter of minutes. She cut the shapes, glued them all together, and drew a face on it before I even realized what she was up to. I'm so glad she has taken a sudden interest in learning and hopefully she will thrive in transitional kindergarten this fall.

Love of Legos

Keira has been playing video games on Art's PlayStation 3 since she was about 3 years old. After Art downloaded her a free demo of the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean game, she was hooked on it so we bought her the full game and she loved it. Not only did she love it, but I realized I loved it. There are LOTS of reasons why I love the Lego themed games and here is why:

1.   Problem Solving- Lego games are all about figuring out what goes where, breaking and building objects, figuring out what to do next to fulfill the objective, figuring out which character you need to use to do different things. It definitely involves some thought. The problems you solve follow the theme of the movie which makes it fun.

2.   Infinite Chances to Succeed- This is probably my absolute favorite feature of the Lego games... they have done away with the traditional Mario lifespan where you have a certain number of hearts and when those hearts are gone (or you fall in the water or in a hole) you die and you are sent back to the beginning of the level. That is SO frustrating!!! Never more, though... Lego games do have hearts, but when those hearts are gone, you break into little Lego pieces then POOF they put you right back where you were. Fall into a hole? POOF, they put you right back up. Swim out to far in the water and a shark will eat you, but then POOF you're right back where you were. All you lose is a few coins every time your character breaks, but there are coins everywhere so it doesn't upset your kid when they die. It gives you infinite chances to succeed, and I think that's great- especially for young kids.

3.   Lego Humor- The Lego games follow the storyline of the movie they portray, but the characters act everything out without saying words and they include some humorous spins on events.

4.   Adding and Dropping Characters- The Lego games are 1-2 player games and they designed it to allow the second player to add in and drop out AT ANY POINT in the game. This is so nice because if I want to play with her for a minute, I can grab a controller, hit start, and I'm in. Baby needs me- hit start and drop out. You can also save and quit the game at any point which is awesome too.

5.   Free Play- When you play the levels for the first time, you play in what is called Story Mode where you play as the characters specific to that scene. When you go back to play the level a second time, you can play Free Play which means you have the ability to change your character. Different characters have different abilities. Each level has hidden objects to collect- 10 pieces of a ship, 8 items to locate with Jack's compass, and collecting a certain number of coins to achieve "True Pirate." These are all optional but fun things to do and when done earn you a "gold brick" to be used toward more things in the game. The Pirates of the Caribbean game plays through all 4 movies, so there is a lot to see and do.

6.   Family Fun- Not only does Keira love Lego games, but our whole family loves them. They are easy enough to be done by Keira alone, yet involved enough to be interesting for an adult.

7.   Soundtrack- Lego games utilize the soundtrack from the movie they portray. So, goodbye repetitive video game music, and hello amazing movie music.

Keira loved the Pirates version so much, we branched out to the Harry Potter games and she loved those just as much. I definitely recommend Lego games to anyone. I think they are very clever, very cute, entertaining, and thought provoking. Lego games are available for several different game systems and can be bought used for 10-15 dollars a piece. Can't get any better than that.

What Family's For

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love spending time with my family and reflecting on the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I loved finding the girls matching Easter dresses and my sister helped me take their picture in the Japanese Gardens in Woodward Park. Keira was quite photogenic, but both of them have been sick for the past 2 weeks, and Liana (who was getting a tooth on top of being sick) was unhappy every time I set her down to take a picture. Family pictures are always so much trouble, but I keep telling myself it's worth it.

This year I planned to sing a solo in sacrament meeting- a song I sang 2 years ago called "The Shepherd of My Soul." I had practiced regularly and was perfectly prepared and looking forward to performing, until Saturday morning I woke up with a terrible sore throat, swollen glands, and headache. My voice was unaltered at that point, but I was worried because I was in so much pain and there was no telling if I would wake up with no voice at all Sunday morning. I had no idea if I was going to be able to pull it off or if I should call it off instead.

I said and prayer and went to bed, then got up at 4 am Sunday morning and took some tylenol, then took some ibuprofen at 6, got a serious pep talk from my cough drops from 7-8 then sang my little heart out at 9:30. It was an Easter miracle for sure. Now my sore throat has retaliated against me for singing despite its efforts to thwart me and has turned into laryngitis. Now I won't be singing anything but the blues... in my head... but I know my prayers were answered Sunday and I am grateful for that.

The cough drop wrappers have encouraging statements on them. I found them incredibly motivating. :)

Our Easter festivities included a barbecue at my Grandpa Don Eslick's house on Saturday afternoon. It was a toasty warm spring day and we enjoyed some time outside visiting and I played several hymns on my flute for my grandpa who hadn't heard me play yet. He commented that he really liked the songs I played, but that his very favorite song is "Because I Have Been Given Much." I happened to have that in my music binder, so I played it for him. I could tell that made him quite happy. That evening, the weather cooled down significantly as a thunder storm moved in. It was a crazy stormy night Saturday night, then Sunday was beautiful, sunny, and crisp again.

My Grandpa Donal Eslick in his natural habitat (in front of his work truck and shop).

We had our Easter celebration at my house and did the Easter egg hunt indoors since it was a bit cold and muddy from the storm. After I sang in our sacrament meeting, Keira went with my mom to Kyle's sacrament meeting to hear him sing. While she was gone, I cleaned up the living room and hid her eggs around the room and hung her basket on the front door with a Happy Easter sign for her to see when she got back.

This was the first time we had an Easter egg hunt for her and she was sorely disappointed to find two $1 bills in a couple eggs instead of candy. I thought that was funny, because I thought kids always get excited about the eggs with money in them. Guess I was wrong. Oh well, ultimately she was happy and ate her weight in peanut M&Ms (which she insists are called jelly beans) and Reese's peanut butter cups (which she calls Daddy candy because they are Art's favorite). We had a tasty tri-tip dinner and enjoyed the day together with my brother Kyle, step-brother Caed, my sister Lauren, and my mom. Unfortunately, Brent and Vivian couldn't make it down to join us, so we ate some tri-tip for them. That is, of course, what family's for.

Over the Rainbow

I just celebrated my 27th birthday on March 28th and I must say, it was probably my best birthday in recent history. First, I gave myself the gift of a clean house. Then that afternoon my mom, Art, and I took the girls to the carnival they have annually behind Sierra Vista Mall. You realize as you get older that the thing that makes you the most happy is seeing your kids happy and Keira just loves rides. She is the ultimate thrill seeker. She rode the ferris wheel with Grandma, two crazy spinning rides with me, and went down a gigantic wavy slide with Art three times. When I was on the Tornado spinning ride with Keira, the ride reached the top and got spinning fast and she laughed whole heartedly and shouted, "This is even better than I imagined!" That made my day. :)

Then we went to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner, Plaza Ventana, and had a delicious meal. Afterward, we took the girls home and Grandma watched them while Art and I went to see the new Oz movie. When we got home, the girls were fast asleep. It was so nice to come home to a peaceful clean house. I think what made this birthday so special was that I didn't try to invite friends and become disappointed when no one bothered to show up. It was a beautiful day, the girls were both happy and well behaved, and I just enjoyed fun time with my family and that's the most important thing to me.

I had watched the original Wizard of Oz a few times last week in preparation for seeing the new Oz movie. I think The Wizard of Oz is the best movie of all time. Even Keira and Liana love it. I have never seen Liana be interested in what's on TV until I put on The Wizard of Oz for her. She was absolutely fixated on it. I did have high hopes for the new Oz movie (which is a prequel to the old Wizard of Oz) but I knew it wouldn't compare in awesomeness just because nothing compares in awesomeness to the original Wizard of Oz. It was a decent movie, but we both thought it was too long. Anyway, my point is not to give a movie review, but watching all these tornadoes in the movies this week and riding the Tornado ride reminded me of the time I was in a tornado many years ago...

It was about 15 years ago... I must have been around 12 years old or so (my mom says it was right when we moved in that house which would make me 8 years old, but I could swear I was older than that). It was probably in early spring. The weather was calm that day, but in the afternoon we saw a storm start to come in from the West. Black clouds and pouring rain. Our house was a big two-story home in the country, nothing but crops on every side. My mom and I were sitting on her bed looking out the back sliding glass door to the balcony watching the storm clouds get closer. The wind picked up quickly and was blowing harder than we had ever seen before and suddenly we see a tornado form from the clouds and touch town maybe a quarter mile from our house. There was a farm worker on a tractor out plowing the field and he turned his tractor around and was driving away as quickly as he could, but the tornado was getting closer so he actually got off the tractor and started running toward the street.

My mom and I stood at the sliding glass door and watched the tornado coming straight toward our house in complete awe... like complete dummies. It hit our house directly and the glass on the door bent inward. It was completely curved. Then water started shooting though the bottom of every door and window on the West side of our house about 6 feet in the air. We scrambled to grab towels to stuff into the cracks. After the tornado passed, we saw that our above-ground pool which had been mostly empty in the back yard, had been tossed completely out of our backyard.

Thankfully any tornado that touches down in California is not any more devastating than this one was, because we would have been in a world of trouble standing there by those glass windows. They probably would have all shattered on us. I think the proper tornado protocol is to crack the windows and get to a room in the center of the house with no outside walls or windows, but we didn't know that back then. So, just in case you were wondering, we weren't transported to Oz, nor did we get to meet the wizard... but it definitely gave us a story worth telling.

Walking and Talking

Liana at 9 months old!

In the past month she has been participating in unauthorized acts of growing up... namely WALKING and TALKING. She had been taking 2 steps here and there since she turned 9 months old then at 9 months 2 weeks she got up to 5 steps, and now that she just turned 10 months old she is walking all the way across the room. The way she walks is so cute. She takes the tiniest little slow, steady, cautious steps. She says dada, mama, "guh" for grandma, I have even heard her say Keira. She also says DOG clear as a bell and "buh buh buh" for bark bark bark. This girl is growing up way too fast. Under no circumstances is she allowed to have a birthday in 2 months.

Liana is very self-entertaining. She crawls (and now walks) around looking for cool things to play with/chew on. She doesn't cry for me if I'm in another room. She is very laid back and content, a "go with the flow" kind of girl.

Her new favorite thing to do is empty things, bags, baskets, drawers, cabinets... she just stands there slowly tossing out one item at a time. She isn't playing with the contents, just throwing them on the floor. She will stand in front of Keira's dresser and throw all her clothes on the floor one at a time. Then she moves to the book shelf and does the same thing with the books. I guess she just likes making messes for me to clean up.

Liana is just the sweetest little baby I could ask for. She gives the best little hugs and lights up when she sees us. She is a joy to have as a daughter and I just love her to pieces.

Liana is 10 months old!

Peanut Butter Confessions

When we were kids, Brent and I used to try to be the first person to open the new jar of Skippy peanut butter. Brent, especially, gleaned particular enjoyment from opening the fresh jar and being the first one to mark the previously flawless surface of the creamy peanut butter.

YEARS later, Brent was reminiscing how we used to fight over getting to open the new peanut butter and I confessed to him that I didn't really enjoy it like he did, I just liked to open it and mark it up just to thwart him.

Sibling rivalry at it's finest. Love you, Brenty.