Things I have learned this weekend

1. Do not go camping with a three week old. Wait until they have some sort of sleeping and eating routine.
2. If you are traveling from LA to Sacramento Route 99 had TONS more Sonic's on it than Interstate 5!!! Totally worth driving through the armpit of California for!!!!
3. Do not go camping unless you are 100% sure that you can set up camp by yourself, even in the dark. It takes 1-2 adults to watch a newborn and two year old while setting up camp.
4. Its probably best to go camping about only 3-4 hours away from home. Any longer and the traveling gets extremely tiresome for all involved.
5. Never give into peer pressure (or parental pressure) and always go with your first instinct.
6. I don't want a tent trailer. If I ever feel that I am too old to sleep in a sleeping bag in a tent I will just not go anymore. Maybe one day I will be singing a different tune, but it seems to me to be too much effort for a little extra comfort.
7. GPS's are convenient but you might want to check a map (or bring one) just in case. Here are a few funny clips that I thought of while we were on our trip. Cars clip (about 8 minutes into it) The Office - GPS clip
8. MP3 players and earphones are my two year olds best friend. She would only fall asleep with lots a people around if she was listening to her music. This weekend was the first time I rock Lizzie to sleep in well over a year!!!
9. My entire family (Jai, Lizzie, and Charlotte) start sweating at 70 degrees. I think we might do better living in a cooler climate than Southern California!!!

Lizzie did have a great time. She loved to swim in the river, taking showers, squishing ants, and making someone else swat away flies from everything she felt was hers (her baby doll, blankey, food, the seat she wanted to sit in, Charlotte, etc.)
While we were taking down camp she sat in the car and pretend to drive us all around!!! It was really funny!!

Elizabeth Update

Lizzie just had her two year check-up today!!! She is doing great and growing normally. She is now up to 25 lbs (30%) 35 inches tall (65%) and her head is in the 93rd percentile!! The doctors visit was pretty traumatic for her (she cried the entire time) and she received one shot. It looks like we will have to make an appointment with an allergy specialist for her peanut/nut allergy. She had a pretty bad breakout last weekend and we don't even know what exactly she ate that she was allergic to. She loves to sing and request different movies to watch. She talks to mom and dad a whole lot but will be extremely quiet for everyone else. Her favorite thing to do is to use just the first letter of a word instead of the whole word. So B is for Blankie, bacon, bath, etc. You just have to know the context in which she is using the word to understand what she wants. She LOVES baby Charlotte and gives her lots of hugs and kisses. It really is amazing how much bigger she is now that she is a big sister. She has grown up soooo much!!

Charlotte Update

Wow!! The first month has really flown by. I swear it was TONS faster than Lizzie's first month. Nothing spectacular really but she pulls her head up like a pro. She can sleep through her sister's tantrums, but easily wakes with Lizzie's loud whispers. Over all she is really pleasant and fun!!

pictures

Pic of Charlotte in the hospital

Lizzie loves to hold her little sister!!!!!

This is what I found one afternoon after Lizzie's nap.

I don't know who would rather sleep on a hard wood floor rather than their bed, but we do have a unique child!!

I have caught both Jai and Lizzie sleeping with their hands behind their head. It gets annoying when you are sleeping next to them because they take up half your pillow while sleeping this way. Well just this week I caught Charlotte doing the same thing. It looks like I have absolutely no luck!!!!

Jai says that all Hispanics automatically assume this position from fear of the Po Po!!!

Potty Training

So we are attempting to start potty training Lizzie. One reason is that our garbage can gets really full really fast with diapers and the other reason is so we can have her go to daycare/pre-school at Jai's school. We have a training seat permanently attached to one of our toilets and when ever we remember or she asks we take her in there. Well this morning Jai was feeding/helping with baby while I was washing some bottles when Lizzie awoke. She told Jai she wanted to go to the bathroom so he told her to talk to me. Well by the time she got to me this is what I found:


She had let baby doll try to pee in the toilet and she fell in!!!! It was quite funny.

Here are a few other pictures I took today to make her stay longer on the potty.



Any tips on toilet training? We are not trying too hard but it would be nice to have a good response and experience with it.

Comparison

Elizabeth................................................Charlotte

These are my two girls at about the same age. This just proves that Lizzie was super small!!! She was able to fit into that outfit for about three months and I think that Charlotte will have out grown it in the next few weeks!!

Horrible

There really are worse things in life. But its hard to imagine them when you have a whiney sick toddler for two days and you are still running off little sleep because you also have a two week old. We have all slept in until 10 for the past few mornings. Hopefully today will be a little better now that Lizzie doesn't have a fever!!!