2 weeks of fun!

Part 2:

On Monday we went to the beach with Marc's parents. It was the first time we put a swimsuit on Grace and let her play in the sand and the water. She loved the water (even though it was so cold) and was squealing with excitement and just wanting to walk out farther and farther.

On Tuesday we went to the San Diego County Fair. I was hesitant to go but I'm SOOOOO glad we did. We all had a blast, well except for maybe Grace. She is the reason I didn't really want to go. She was pretty much stuck in the stroller the entire time but wanted out to see what was going on. She only took a 20 minute nap before some kid came running by screaming and woke her up.

I knew before we went that Caiden was just barely tall enough (about half an inch) to go on some of the kid rides but I had no idea there were so many he could ride all by himself. We were only a few minutes in when we spotted the pony rides, he played it cool through the entire ride. It's so cute, he does this shy face when he knows he's doing something new that we are so excited watching him do it.

After the pony ride we walked around and checked everything out before heading to the kid zone. It was quite impressive. 

The first ride when you walk in is this slide so Caiden and I went on it.

Then came this ride. I really wasn't sure if Caiden would be cool going on it by himself but we gave it a try. You could tell when it started he wasn't sure what he should do -and kind of looked scared. Luckily there was a bigger girl that was in front of him that he could watch and see that she was having fun so he played it cool.

Then he did the mini ferris wheel and was on a roll!

Then Marc tried to go on this ride with him. He got all the way on it  and then Caiden told him to get off, that he wanted to do it by himself. So bittersweet. I kept saying I can't believe how big he's getting. This is his embarrassed, shy face again.

I really can't believe he went on this one and was smiling the entire time. Such an independent boy and not even three years old yet! He was seriously the smallest kid on all these rides and probably the youngest, too.

Digging into his corn on the cob.

On Wednesday Fery had some friends come over to our house that are visiting San Diego from Iran. Grace was so cuddly with Soudi and was giving her nose kisses and rubbing her face all over her face for so long. It was so cute.

On Saturday we went up to Orange County to see the new baby and have lunch with some of Osi's family. My parents were also in town staying with my sister and Dustin so it was a big family affair. First we stopped by to see Theo. Grace was pretty crazy while I was holding him. She was either pulling on my arm or pulling on Theo. I think she's a little more possessive than Caiden was/is. Caiden was all talk. He was talking about baby Theo all day but when we got there he really didn't pay him much attention.

Sara bought Grace this awesome donut skirt!

After spending a little bit of time at Sara's we all went to Marc's uncles house. They hosted a lunch for all of us.

Sunday was Landon's 3rd birthday party. He had a pool party and even Grace got in on the action!

That was all of the adventurous stuff we did while they were here. Here are a couple more random pics that were taken over the last two weeks. So sad to see this vacation end.

2 weeks of fun!

PART 1:

We have had a very, very busy last week over here. Marc's parents came in town last Wednesday and are staying for two weeks. We've been doing so much that I'm going to break this post into two.

They came bearing gifts! The most fun was the bounce house. Caiden was so excited watching it blow up but after a few minutes he asked if his friends could come over. He so badly wanted someone else to come in and play with him. There's only so much an adult can do in there. Grace also loves it so much. Caiden gets a bit rough when she's in there so you constantly have to 'bird dog' him to be careful.

Marc's dad even got in on the human bouncy ball action!

Then, on Thursday, I became an AUNTIE!!!! On Thursday morning around 2am I received a text that Sara's water broke and they were headed to the hospital. By the time I got out of the house and drove up to LA I arrived to the hospital around noon. She had my nephew at 5pm that night. It was one of the coolest experiences in my life...watching him be born. It was so much fun being there and "helping" her push through all the contractions. I'm so happy Sara and Dustin allowed me to be a part of this very special day. Happy Birthday, cousin and nephew Theodore David Soeker!

On Friday Marc's cousin got married. It was a such a fun night and a much needed night out for us. We got a babysitter and it was the first time the babysitter had to feed them dinner and put them to bed. In the past we've always put them to bed before going out. She said Caiden did fine (which is what they always tell you), more importantly they were both alive when we got home so it was a success!

On Saturday there was a day after wedding brunch. It was at his cousin's in-laws house and they have a pool. We brought Caiden's pool stuff and he pretty much just stayed in the pool the entire time. It was perfect.

Grace hung out with Marc's cousin's baby girl, Leah.  She is 5 months old.

On Sunday we went downtown to the Sheraton Marina for Father's Day brunch. It was nice being able to celebrate with both Marc and his father, I just wish my dad could have been there as well.

Quilts

I've been meaning to post these photos for months. They are the quilts that my Aunt Sue made each of the kids. They are amazing and I love, love, love them! Caiden has his in his crib although he doesn't really use it, it's just kind of thrown in the corner and he's usually sleeping on it in some way. Every once in a while I'll see him laying it over himself when he's bored but it's always pushed off before falling asleep. Grace is using hers! We have the minky side facing up as her bed sheet so she sleeps on it every night! Thanks again, Aunt Sue!

Grace: 10-months

Double digits!!! WOW! I feel like this last month she has gone through a huge growth spurt both developmentally and physically. She is crawling FAST, pulling herself up and walking around everything, she's even climbing up the stairs completely unassisted. She is taking less and less spills and you can see noticeable improvement in her skills every day. She is even standing by herself. It's so funny -she'll take her hands off whatever they are on and just pause for as long as she can and then catch herself before she falls. I'm sure she'll be walking by her first birthday!

She still only has her two bottom teeth so she is just drinking a ton of breast milk with a bit of oatmeal cereal and some pureed food around 9:30am and 6pm. I feel like she's finally starting to get hungry for more than just milk and it's been fun giving her food...she hasn't met something she has disliked yet!

A few weeks ago she started sleeping through the night! All the way from 8pm to 7/7:30am! She takes two naps a day -one around 9:30am and one around 2:30pm. They are both pretty good. The morning nap is unpredictable because most of the time she's in her car seat so that we can get Caiden out of the house to burn off some energy (otherwise he does things like throw balls in the house and crack our television...yep, that's right. He threw this tiny little hard plastic ball and it cracked our tv and destroyed it. He sat in time out for 45 minutes for that one).

Anyway, back to Grace. Her afternoon nap is usually an hour or two and is always in her bed because Caiden naps during that time too and Mama don't want to miss out on her alone time!

Her personality is coming out more and more every day. She is such a pistol when you take something from her that she is not supposed to have. She will yell at you to let you know she's not happy. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. She finds the tiniest turd of something on the ground and she's putting it in her mouth -and she HATES when you try to take it out. She clamps her mouth shut and then when you finally get your finger in to scoop it out she screams at you. She's our little sassy pants!

Look 'ma...no hands!!!

She's officially crawling

The army crawl has been retired -we haven't seen it in quite a few days. We are marking the official day as May 24 (also Marc's birthday!). That's when she consistently started the regular crawl and stopped the army crawl.

...and she's off...

...to see Marc as he walks through the door from work. {pick me up, dadda}

Marc and I were even able to enjoy a nice steak dinner with just the two of us on his birthday thanks to Sara and Dustin for watching the kiddos!