Beach Baby

CiBaby has only been to the beach two times in her life...today

and the day she became a U.S. Citizen in Honolulu, HI

She had a much better time today.*


*She hated everything about the beach in HI...the wind, the sand, and the water. Grant it she was on overload at the time...

Before and...now!

As many of you know, or have heard, we have been working on our basement for a very. long. time. It started from just cinder block foundation walls and has progressed from there. But now, yes finally, it is coming to an end!

Before...(of course I forgot to take pics with just cinder and studs, oh well!)

Mid-way...

NOW!!!

What do you think???

Happy 3rd Birthday, CiBaby!!!

CiBaby's 3rd birthday started off with frosting clean-up.

Followed by "Rainbow" fingernails by Big Sister...


Then came her party with her little buddies. It was suppose to be a "Splash" party, but notice the sweater in the picture below...a little too chilly for splashin' around. Regardless, the kids seemed to have a great time. We drained the pool of water and filled it with balls instead!

Pizza for dinner...

Tutu and playtime for dessert...

Then the Birthday Princess headed off to bed!

It was a great 3rd birthday for our little princess. I can't believe how much she's changed in a year!!!

Stay tuned...

We are experiencing technical difficulties at the CzaMama house...our internet went out 6/30 and will not be reestablished until 7/11.

Just to note, CiBaby is now the big 3 and loving all of the birthday attention.

And as a pre-holiday wish...we wish you all a very happy and safe 4th of July! Celebrate in the fact that we are free, but never forget what others before you did to get us there and currently do to keep us here.

Chillin'

Today was not the best day in The Land of Potty Training. We went through 4 pair of underwear and pants, and 2 pull-ups.

So tonight after dinner, the second pull-up came off (wet) and we told her she needed to have at least underwear on to run around in the backyard. She begrudgingly put on a new, dry pair of underwear...next is our exchange...

Me: "Honey, you need to stop peeing in your underwear, otherwise we will have to go back to baby diapers (which she doesn't want)." Said very calmly, I'd like to add.

CiBaby: "You okay."

Me: "Yes dear, I'm okay."

CiBaby: "Mama. You need to chill out."


Well alrighty then.

Making up for lost sleep

5:00 AM wake-ups, little to no naps and later bedtimes* gives you this...

at 9AM**

*Of course all of the lost sleep was by her own doing.
**And she slept for 1.5 hours! I thought she was being awfully quiet!!!

Happy Birthday G-Mama!

Today we had the pleasure of accompanying G-Mama on her birthday fun. Our first stop was our local zoo. CiBaby and G-Mama visit there often and CiBaby knows exactly what she wants to see.

We saw lots of beautiful butterflies. That huge one in the second picture is actually a moth, but gigantic and beautiful none-the-less. When CiBaby was told that she couldn't chase, touch or blow on the butterflies, she was done. Although she did stop to wave "hello" to a few.

We also road the antique carousel. You will notice that CiBaby is not smiling much because she really wanted to ride on the horse all by herself.

And G-Mama was the winner of a lick of CiBaby's sucker (I didn't get one because it wasn't my birthday!)

We also had lunch at a great local restaurant, did a little fabric shopping, visited the new TJs close to home (YAY!!!), cooked dinner and dipped our toes into the nice, cool pool. It was a great day.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you.

What makes you special?

CiBaby's book of choice tonight was Miss Mingo and the First Day of School. It's a very cute and informative book about the unique differences of animals. So T-Daddy asked CiBaby what makes her special. Boy, there are a lot of choices. To start, she was born in China, adopted, has only one ear*...there are really a plethora of possibilities. What does she say???

Gummy snacks.

*but hears insanely well out of the other!

Sisters

= teamwork

The goofball

In 1 week, CiBaby will be a whopping 3 years old...but her wit, well, she's advanced for her age.

On Sunday, Father's Day, we went to G-Mama and Bopa's house for dinner. During play time, Bopa kept trying to get CiBaby to look up so he could tickle her under her chin. Of course she is onto Bopa so she covers her chin and just looks up with her eyes! Then after our meal and while having "pocky-cicles" (aka popcicles), CiBaby looked at Bopa across the table and said, "Point!" (as in "point up") Then she casually takes a lick of her popcicle and says, "go on!" We all just about died laughing.

Later Bopa was doing his rendition of Winkin, Blinkin and Nod, which always makes her laugh. She sat there smiling politely, then looked around the table and said "Bopa silly."

Then this morning she asked me, "Where you going?" I told her no where, yet, I need to get a couple of things done. Then she says to me, "I want to sit on your lap." I ask, "Why," and she quickly responds, "because I wuv you." Ummm who can deny that???

Ingenuity

Why is it when you think you've fixed a problem, a small child finds a work around?

A few weeks ago we had several friends over. Once about half of the people were gone, all of a sudden we noticed that CiBaby and her friend, "Wibby," had been in the house for a bit too long...alone. Wibby's mama went into investigate and found the girls giggling and cheering up a storm in the bathroom...to which they had flooded by turning on the water full blast in the sink and were splashing around in it. J came out to tell me what had happened, the girls were soaked but smiling ear to ear. Little did I know how much water was on the floor! Suffice it to say, I needed the mop! Not a huge deal. We had a talk and that was the end of it.

Several days later, CiBaby was in the bathroom "washing her hands," but it was taking way too long. Come to find her again, filling the sink with the water full blast. Thankfully I caught her before a great flood, but there was water on the floor again, none the less. A time out was had...and I cleaned out the slow drain.

Yesterday. Oh yesterday. I was trying to do a bit of deep cleaning in the refrigerator and CiBaby was out in the living room playing, until she headed to the bathroom. What is it with kids and bathrooms??? If she wasn't toilet-training/trained I'd put one of those doorknob covers on the door! There she was, at the sink again. Water pouring out of the faucet full blast, washcloth in hand to help the water cascade over the pedestal sink. Well, I yelled...we both had a time-out in separate rooms, and I sat there wracking my brain trying to figure out how she did it again! I'd cleaned the drain out and it was running clear and fast. Except...she had put a wadded up piece of toilet paper in the drain catcher...which mushed up and completely stopped the water from running down the drain.

Dangit! Why is she so smart???!!!

*Of course when T-Daddy got home she told him, very seriously, "Mama mad." Ummm yeah.

I'm a big kid now

CiBaby has declared, she is no longer a baby, she's a "Big Girl."

After a temper tantrum, CiBaby figured out how to get out of her crib, so the inevitable happened. She's been in her "Big Girl Bed" for a couple of months now and doing very well (most nights).

She also has been toilet training. I had become a bit frustrated using diapers but didn't want to push her into using the toilet until she was ready. As previously discussed, the "potty" was an issue that carried over from way back. Well, a few of her good friends are now potty trained, including her BFF and CiBaby wants to be just like them...so off comes the diaper and we've started! She's doing quite well, during the day (one step at a time!).


CiBaby is right, she's no longer a baby...even if I want her to be. Sniff.