Ella's school pictures!

Too funny! They actually turned out better than expected considering when I try to take a picture of her she throws herself to the ground and screams.

You can click on the class picture to enlarge it.

Rainy Day Fun

It rained ALL DAY yesterday. It didn't even let up for a second. So we met our friends at an indoor play area called Unbelive-a-bills. I was worried that it was too big for Ella. It's a huge indoor play structure (4 stories) with a huge slide from the top. Ella is normally afraid to go down small slides alone so I thought she wouldn't play.

Well, if Mia told Ella to jump off a bridge she would...so daredevil Mia had no problem so Ella followed her up (with a little help from Mia's mom, Nicole, on the first round) and in no time she was climbing the whole thing alone and going down the giant twirly tunnel slide.

I forgot my camera, so I "borrowed" these pics from Amanda's (Reagan and Avery's mom's blog).

Mia, Reagan, Timmy, and Ella (don't you love how Ella looks at the camera?)

I love how Mia and Ella are gossiping up at the top...wonder what they are talking about.

Sofia and me..she's such a champ, she was exhausted but put on a happy face.

Video of Sofia and Ella the Dog

Here are two semi long (1 1/2 min), semi boring in parts videos of Sofia BUT it shows her doing two things that the grandparents haven't been able to witness in person yet.

#1-Crawling
#2-Doing her new "laugh". It's hysterical. Tonight we went to dinner at On The Border and she spent almost the entire dinner sitting in her highchair doing her laugh. The tables around us kept laughing and commenting on how "unhappy" she was. :) She really is such a happy little girl. Especially now that she can crawl, she's soo much happier now that she can get around.

Without further ado...

And here's our new doggy bringing in the paper...such a good dog.

Ella Videos from tonight

Videos of Ella that only a Gaga, Abuela, Papa, and GG could appreciate.

Her shirt is off because we had spaghetti for dinner and she likes to slurp it up and I'm blinking like crazy because 1)I'm exhausted and 2) I never take my contacts out so my eyes are dry so please ignore my insane blinking.

Playing with Jordy

Since we're on Spring Break this week Ella was missing some of her school friends, especially Jordana.

So yesterday met up with Jordana, her baby brother Sam, and her mom Jessica for lunch at Mara's Cafe then we came back to our house and played outside for a bit.

The girls had a blast at lunch, especially when it was gelato time. Jordana kept feeding Ella her chocolate gelato...I guess she had to since Ella kept shoving her fave into her spoon saying, "more please".

Sam couldn't keep his hands off of Sofia. He would start huffing and puffing and squeling with delight anytime he got close to her. It was adorable.

Jordana and Ella at Mara's

Serious concentration is needed when eating gelato

Sam and Sofia in the wagon. Isn't Sam adorable?

Today we met Daddy for lunch at De Piero's Farm and then went to the park in Upper Saddle River with our friends Lola and Jack. Lola was our very first friend that we met in NJ. I forgot to bring my camera to the park, but I really need to get a picture of Ella and Lola together now considering they were about 9 months old when they first met.

The girls had so much fun together today. When we got there they ran to each other like long lost friends and embraced each other tightly. Periodically while playing chase they would just stop and hug each other. Adorable.

Lola and Ella's 1st ever playdate-Summer 2006...wow Ella was Sofia's age here. Weird.

At lunch with Daddy today.

Random pictures:

A very bad picture of Sofia's tooth. The other bottom tooth just broke the surface today too.

What a Beautiful Spring Day!

Today is just beautiful. Simply perfect.

This morning Tiffany (our old nanny/current friend/part-time babysitter) and her charge, Colden came over to play.

Ella and Colden always have such a good time playing together.

We were outside all morning playing in the yard and then we went on a little walk to the water. The kids had a blast.

Despite the look on both of their faces, they really did have a good time!

Sofia in the car

Sofia and Colden looking out at the water

Running around (yes, Ella is barefoot. She will not keep on her shoes!)

Getting a lift from Tiffany
What a beautiful view! I love Spring!

testing

I'm testing to see why I can't get my pictures to enlarge when clicked on in the post anymore...

please ignore.

Busy Busy Busy

I'm so sorry I haven't done much updating as of late. It's not that we haven't been doing anything fun, quite the opposite, but I've just been REALLY bad about taking pictures.

Last Saturday night we went to dinner at one of Ella's friends from school's house, Jordana. Her parents are Andy and Jessica and we had a great time. Turns out they love concerts as much as us, so we've already planned to see John Mayer together this summer (sans kids of course).

Last Sunday Morning, Ella and Ricardo went to a special Daddy and Me playdate at Ella's school then they went out to lunch together and Ella ordered her own lunch...what a big girl.

The weather has been beautiful here lately and we've been taking full advantage.

This last week we went to the park with our friends a couple of times, we went out to lunch with some school friends and on Thursday we had a "Spring Fling" playdate where we got to plant some petunias in paper cups and had ANOTHER easter egg hunt (a little late-but Ella didn't mind).

Ricardo left for our friend Kevin's bachelor party in AZ on Friday morning at 5am! So it was just the girls and me this weekend.

Saturday we went to our friend Thomas' little sister, Ava's 1st Birthday Party. We bought her a dollhouse and Ella kept telling her mom Kim, that Ava should open her dollhouse...ummm, kid, you're not supposed to tell people what's in the present!

I tried to get pictures of the girls together before the party but with Sofia crawling and Ella being Ella...well, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Yes, that's a hanger in Ella's hand...mommy dearest?

Hey, they're both looking at the camera. It's a start!

Does this dress make my thighs look big?

If you're going to make fun of my thighs, then I'm out of here.

Get back here baby sister (or now, Baby Fifa)...yes, she's trying to pull her back by the ankle.

Luckily, my friend, Ilona was at the party with her daughter Hazel and snapped a picture of Sofia and me together. I appreciate these pictures so that I can document that I do in fact, really exist.

(side note: Seriously, look at those thighs! Girlfriend is growing out of all her 6-12 month clothing. All the summer clothes that we saved from Ella are going to be too small! She's an amazon!)

Saturday night my terrific friend Karen came over to help me out. She is so helpful with the girls and once they were in bed she and I chatted, laughed and drank a bottle of wine. She spent the night too, so we got to hang out today too.

Now the house is clean(er) and I'm exhausted. It was a fun but long weekend. Ella doesn't have school this week (uggg) so I need to rest up....Ricardo won't be home until 1 am or later.

Sorry about the boring blog. I go through phases with my picture taking. I promise I'll get back on the wagon.

Betaseron; Step by Step

I started my MS therapy on Tuesday night. Danielle, my Beta Nurse came by the house to walk me through my first injection. Luckily, Danielle is a mother to a 6 year old and 3 year old because right as she got here, Ella was melting down wanting to go to bed, and Sofia had projectile vomited up the entire contents of her bottle all over Ricardo and her bedroom...good times.

Anyway, I'm glad she was here because the Betaseron process is not just a pull out of the package and inject deal, there are multiple steps involved and tonight when I did my first injection by myself, I found myself having to stop and think about what the next step was. Ricardo and I took pictures of the process to document. So here they are.

The Prep: My injection site rotation chart (today I injected into my left arm), the packet, the "betaject, and tylenol (to help minimize the flu like symptoms). After my first shot, I woke up at 2 am with the chills and there was nothing I could do to stop them. It was teeth chattering chills but after about an hour I was able to fall back asleep and I felt ok on Wednesday. I'm hoping that it's the same with tonights shot since Ricardo leaves at 5am for a bachelor party in AZ and won't be back until 11pm on Sunday.

The vile of Betaseron powder

First step is to attach the vial of powder to the syringe which is filled with the solution and push the solution into the vial and rock it back in forth for 4 minutes...4 minutes feels like forever.

Flip it all upside down and let the mixed solution fill the syringe. Turn it so the needle points upward and push out the fluid back into the vial until the syringe has only the amount needed to inject. I'm starting with .25 cc's, after two weeks I got to .5 cc's, then .75 cc's and on May 27th I start to inject the full 1 cc's.

Twist off the vial, create a little air bubble in the syringe then load up the betaject. There's a whole 3 step process to load up the betaject, but I won't bore you with the details.

Loaded and ready to inject

Inject, remove syringe from Betaject and toss.

That's it. It's not painful to inject-unless I hit a muscle. What sucks is the flu like symptoms that can happen. I was lucky with my first injection that I only had night chills. Let's hope it stays that way.

So, this is something I have to do every other night now. As I continue with the shots my body will get used to it and the flu like symptoms will decrease and I will also get faster with the process so I'm not too worried.

We have a tooth....for real this time

We really truly have a tooth...and it's in the proper place! Her bottom right front tooth broke through the surface two days ago and it looks like the bottom left front is going to follow shortly.

Just like her big sister, she's a late teether. Ella didn't get any teeth until 8.5 months and then she got 4 in one month. Let's see if Sofia follows in her big sisters foot steps.

I tried to take a picture, but she won't let me get in there, so instead I'll leave with a picture of her holding her big girl straw sippy cup.

Oh, she's also 8 months old today! Wow, time flies.

MS Walk 2008

Today was the 2008 MS Walk. We had a great turn out and a great time walking. Unfortunately it was a chilly chilly day. It was 52 which isn't so bad but it was windy so it felt really cool.

Our team did awesome! We raised over $9,000!!! (The website doesn't reflect all our checks that haven't been loaded in yet). We rock!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/NJBWalkEvents?team_id=104891&pg=team&fr_id=8413

I'm so lucky to have such wonderful friends who worked so hard to raise so much money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and came out even on a chilly morning to show their support.
Thank you friends!

Here are some pictures from the walk:

The Family

The girls had on cute matching shirts. The front said "I Love mommy" and the back said, "And Mommy Loves Me"...but it was too cold to really show them off.

Liisa and me (we've been friends since Kindergarten)

The ladies

My friend Kim and I and our children who refuse to look at the camera. Kim raised $1K!!

It was a great morning. Thank you again to everyone who fundraised, donated, and or walked. We really appreciate it!

Ella's 2 1/2 year Well Child Visit

First, it's just crazy to me that she now goes to well CHILD visits, not well baby visits.

She was weighed on the big girl scale and kept her hands on her belly when the nurse asked her to (so that she wasn't holding on to anything).

Her height was determined with the stand up wall ruler not lying on the table and they no longer do head measurements.

She's in love with her Dr. and actually asks to see him, so she was so well behaved and turned on the charm big time, asking for him to hold her and hug her. Sofia was a doll too, just hanging out in the stroller munching on cherrios and puffs...it was a great visit.

Anyway, on to the stats so that I can put it in her scrapbook...

Height-37.5" 90th %tile
Weight-32 lbs 75-90%tile (so let's just call it 80%)

Dr. Steifel said to her, "Wow, you're tall!" So for the rest of the day she kept saying, "I'm tall. Mommy's tall, baby sister's tall. I'm tall"

:)

Schtuff...

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. There really isn't anything too exciting going on here, which I suppose is a good thing though.

Ricardo and I have decided that living with a 2.5 year old is similar to living with a raging alcoholic...

They fall down and bump in to things often
They break things
They leave random things in random place (like the banana peel I found in her play microwave)
They have wicked mood swings, and after they hit you they want to cuddle
They babble incoherently
They're loud
They have no sense of personal space
They think they are hysterically funny
They have no rhythm, yet dance at every opportunity

and the list goes on. I have to say, as frustrating as parenting a 2 year old can be, it is most often quite entertaining.

Ella's new favorite line is, "I don't want to." Wow, we hear that a lot in a day. Ella, come wash your hands...I don't want to. Ella lets change your diaper....no no no, I don't want to.

She also asked her first why question last night! YIKES! Please don't tell me we've entered in to the why stage. We were watching a Disney Princess DVD called "Christmas of Enchantment" but Ella for some reason has decided it's called "My Little Princesses" and requests it as such....but I regress.

There was a scene where people were sitting in the audience watching the princesses dance on stage and Ella said, "Why are they sitting there?" Simple enough to answer, but "Why is the sky blue?" is just around the corner.

Ella now:
Counts to 15, sometimes even 20
Sings her ABC's
Pretty much knows all her colors including black and white
Loves to sing Old MacDonald
Loves to feed her baby sister (see video)

Thinks she is too cool for naps and is trying with all her might to give it up
Is a very affectionate and loving daughter and sister. She loves to cuddle and lay with us and she loves to kiss and hold baby sister.

Sofia is madly in love with Ella. Ella just looks at her and she start laughing hysterically. She's been trying new foods and loves them. Yesterday she had eggplant and devoured it. I haven't seen her inhale a new food like that yet.

She's also graduated to a straw sippy cup. We use the Playtex Quick Straw . It says it's for 2 years + but honestly, Sofia has no problem with it at all, and I think it's one of the easiest straw cups out there.

Here are some pictures from the past couple of days...like I said, nothing special. Sorry grandmas...

We've had a lot of rain here lately, which really stinks, but it does give us an opportunity to wear our cool rain boots (and matching jacket-not shown here).

This is what Sofia looks like when Daddy feeds her. :D

Family walk/bike ride

That's all for now.

See, now you know why reality TV isn't really real...real life is sooo boring. :D

2 more Sofia milestones!

Sofia is learning new things every day. It's pretty amazing to watch. I worried that milestones wouldn't be as exciting for us as parents the second time around, but I'm happy to report, it's just as exciting to watch #2 develop.

So today Sofia did two things:

#1-Perfected the pincer grasp! She's been trying to get food in to her mouth on her own for a couple of weeks, but usually misses. Today at dinner she got all her puffs in her mouth by herself-one at a time! She also sucked on a green bean tonight while the rest of us were eating dinner. She's been really good with her mum mums and her zweiback toast.

#2-Pulling her self to standing. So, as you all know, she's been standing for a couple of weeks but she hasn't been able to pull herself up to it. She's been trying for the past couple of days (around the same time she began to get in the sitting position by herself). Today, I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready and Ella and Ricardo were coloring. Ricardo called for me. Sofia had pulled herself up to her learning table! Yea Sofia...although I foresee some sleep issues as soon as she figures out that standing in the crib is much more fun than sleeping in it. :)