Sleeping on the Job

Isaac was not happy. I couldn't put him down. I knew he was just overly tired, but so was I and I needed to shower.

Steven took over. No fair! They were both sleeping when I got out.

Smiles

Squeeze in the Sink

My friend said/blogged that her baby loves baths in the Bumbo chair in the sink. He's Noah and Isaac's age, so I asked if they liked it. YEP!

A Warm Evening

We went to the park near Steven's mom's house. I sat on the ground in front of laughing Isaac the whole time. Steven and Dylan left to play on the slide and play catch and things, but I was content.

Isaac would start cracking up when I would start to move the camera to capture Dylan too. I wanted to get it on video.

Eyes color update b/c I'm so curious:

Today they looked brown in front of a window, but blue as blue can be in the bathtub. They're still murkey I guess.

Tennis Lessons

Dylan expanded his vocabulary the other night. He learned "tennis" and "racket." The says them perfectly. He really liked the rackets. Yes, that's duck tape on mine. My brothers would be proud. Dylan felt left out when even 2Dylan had his own racket. I got his bat out of the car. He likes it, but had to have a racket too.
They played with extra balls on the other court while we pretended we knew what we were doing.
I really couldn't focus. I'm not that competitive as it is, but this picture is classic. It looks like I'm a spectator. My head went back and forth as Steven played against Jolyn and Daniel. I was on the bench most of the matches. Isaac needed me.

For a better story, click here.

Big Slide at "Dita's"/Abuelita's house

and the lizard that climbed up on the sideways shade umbrella

Baby Laughs

Who doesn't just LOVE a baby's laugh?

1st Hair Trim

I'm not waiting for this momentous occasion for the big 1st hair cut for Isaac. He looks so silly with his bald spot on the back of his head then the dark mullet hairs growing under it. So why not blog it since I'm not going to keep the fuzzies I trimmed. If my fingers weren't so big in diameter, I would have done a better job. It doesn't even look like I did anything. If I knew where the buzzer hair trimmer was, I would use that. I look back at pictures of Dylan w/ a silly patch of hair on the top of his head and wonder what I was waiting for. Why the heck didn't I see how silly that looked? Anyway, here's your picture. (I did save some of the hair between two pieces of box tape.)

Yellow and Green

Side by side, I had
2 dirty boys, then
2 naked boys, then
2 yellow ducky towel boys, then
2 diaper boys, then
2 of these cute yellow and green PJs boys. I had to get a picture of this since they're too big for these PJs and it'll be the last time to remember this.
It's totally not worth clicking on the collage, but I wanted to make it. Dylan was so sweet and was looking at Isaac, then he was bored holding him, then he was totally pushing him off of his lap. Dylan asks to hold Isaac but in less than ten seconds, he says "All Done" with the words and sign. I guess Isaac is a boring blob to his big brother. Soon he'll be bigger than Dylan though and HE'll do the pushing, watch out, Dylan!

Don't worry, my camera only needs one hand. I was holding Isaac the whole time.

Next Time Won't You YELL With Me

Bed time w/ Daddy, this is what I found. Luckily he re-built the tower and repeated for the video.

Sorry about letter C, Steven wouldn't let him continue 'til he said it correctly. (He likes to skip to D)

House Update

I haven't spread the word on this yet. It'll be interesting to find out who reads this.
We decided to stop waiting and waiting for the bank to approve the short sale. It's been like 6 weeks or something. Even Steven's ready to move.

We went to go look at it w/ our Realtor (and his wife and son since they're our friends). We were looking at all of the things that really need attention and Jolyn was taking pictures for the bank so they would put a rush on our case. Well looking at all the parts that need work really turned me off to the house. It was more than I had remembered. The hot tub part of the pool looked like a dinosaur puked in it. There were big tadpoles swimming around in the big pool. Dylan was pointing and saying "eew, gross!" Steven and I both said to each other "I'm not going in after him, you are" if he fell in. I should have Jolyn send me a pic of it, but then again, nobody wants to see that nastiness. I'm sure Steven could possibly get the pool perfect, but it would be hard to get the image out of my mind when going for a swim.

Then we went to my mom's old house. We hadn't seen it empty and clean. We came home and made a pros and cons list between the two houses. They both have a room and bathroom for Maria since she'll still be living w/ us. They're both 4bed and at least 2 bath. They both have good kitchens. They both need washers and dryers. Our dining room table will fit in either easily.


The Pre-foreclosure House
1. size (it's twice the size of my mom's)
2. location
3. location
4. location
5. cool floor plan
6. exciting potential, seriously

My mom's house
1. price
2. move-in ready (seriously, it doesn't need new carpet and has fresh paint inside and out)
3. perfect pool (redone recently and no tadpoles)
4. gate for the pool
5. storage shed for the pool
6. deck space
7. sprinkler system
8. curb appeal
9. big yards (both front and back)
10. garage
11. 3 lane driveway which fits 6 cars easily, the other has a nice long one but we'd still have to park a car in the front or make a round driveway unless the same person always comes last and leaves first.
12. The house stays in the family!
13. usable good appliances in the kitchen
14. better tile in the kitchen/dining room/entry way





Even w/ location listed thrice, my mom's won. Like the purple tree? I do. I knew my mom would sell it when it was in bloom. Dylan was standing in the sprinklers and it was starting to rain too. You can't tell though.




The bad part is that we had to "break up" with our realtor. Steven and I felt so bad. He worked so hard and we signed 3 contracts, but none of them worked out in the end. Steven may have even used the "it's not you, it's me" and the "we can still be friends" lines. We played tennis w/ them the next night for family night. We're still on speaking terms, that's good:) If you need a local realtor, LMK and I'll give you his contact info! We'll use him to sell this (Maria's) house after we do some renovations to it.

So we can move in like yesterday! We're not using Realtors so Steven's going to draw up a contract, find the mortgage, insurance, and title companies and we'll sign at the end of June. I'm so happy! The master bedroom is big. Steven and I will each have our own closets. My mom used a small room and put 4 boys in the big one at one point, but we're claiming it. It's SUCH an improvement from our last house.

The houses we had under contract were all in different church branch or ward boundaries. I've been teaching the same youth since before Steven was in Law school. That will be one of the biggest changes for me. The good news is that we ended up with being in the same congregation as my mom, dad, and grandma. That may be one reason that my mom lowered the price for us. My brother, Martin, on his mission will come back to a new house, but can go to his old one too.

Daddy swimming lessons

Swimming lessons w/ Daddy

The trick to teaching your own kid (reply to Kat's comment):

It's all about the DAILY one on one time. I'm no expert since he's my first "own" kid I've taught. Oh, and he's not swimming yet really. I'm just optimistic. Ideally I would make it even more of a routine. This morning I asked him if he wanted to go in the pool and he replied "pants, pool, bath, bed." This is because each evening, we put him in his swimmy (he's really into "pants" which could be pants, shorts, or a swimsuit), then I warn him that he will have to take a bath and go to bed right after. He still requests to watch a DVD before bed, but I remind him that we had already agreed on pool, bath, then bed. So this morning, he thought he was way ahead of me. I didn't make him go to bed in the middle of the morning though.

So what I was trying to say, is that Ideally I would treat his daily pool time like a real lesson. We could save the play time for after the kicks, big arm circles, choo choo train, floating, dive sticks, etc. Now I kinda ask him if he wants to do it, and he does! I don't want him to hate me. It's ok if swim lesson kids hate me for the first week, b/c I don't see them 24/7 and I know that they'll love me the next week (or the one after that). Parents aren't paying me to just blow bubbles w/ their babies. They want results. I make it fun, but structured. I keep it fun w/ Dylan. He went down and got the dive sticks from the steps last night. I was so pleased that I didn't have to convince him. He was determined. He asked me to do it and when I said it was his turn, he hesitated, then just went for it. He got it 1st try!

Cinco de Mayo

I know, it's really late.
This seems like a college kid's kind of holiday to me. Matt, Stephen, do they really even dance La Cucaracha and drink margharitas on this day in Mexico?
We went to a Mexican restaurant b/c why not. The problem is, Dylan had finally just fallen asleep when Steven told me we should go crash Andre and Darren's dinner plans. So I had to wake him up. He was NOT in the mood. I think the novelty of going to a restaraunt has worn off for him. He wanted to "go bye bye, go bye bye, go bye bye, uh bye bye." So after a little bit of chips and salsa, I walked around outside w/ him. What a pain. He ate some food inside, but that was short lived. Oh, Malia didn't go. That was a much better idea. Noah and Isaac were normal happy campers.

Anyway, our church had a Latin party that weekend. My dad came over and we drove together. Look at this picture. It is so funny. Who's face is more crazy? Isaac's or my dad's?

This is more like it. That was much better for Dylan. He could run around, he could be a picky eater, and it wasn't a waste of money. At the end, they had a pinata. (How do you make the ~ over the n, Kat/Matt?) My dad stood in line w/ Dylan. I was so relieved that he didn't have to take a turn hitting it b/c I bet you he would have just cried and ran for me. I can't believe he was brave enough to go stand in line. The funny thing is, he got a little cheapo squirt gun, harmonica, and jumping frog (like his outfit). He didn't even notice that there was candy to be had- lucky me! I don't know how he knew to say "bang" when pointing the gun. I think it's just little boy instinct.

We went to the mall afterwards. Dylan got to be an airplane and zig zagged through the center kiosks b/c Isaac and I were slower than the fast airplane.

Swimming Lessons

Do you see those baby teeth? He only has 3 more babies to go. That's letter T on his right.
BIG arms

I was taking Dylan in the pool every day for a while. He'll be swimming laps by the end of the summer if we keep this up. We didn't have time yesterday, but for sure tomorrow we will. He even keeps on gliding w/ his face under water after he grabs my hands. He will kick and do his arms, but not all together.

Porch Picnic

1st time in a park swing

Isaac is my big cute blob.

We only had 15 min to spare, but this park was near, so why not. Jake played w/ Dylan, I plopped Isaac in the swing. He laughs every time I hold him up over my head but I can't seem to set the camera to self-timer and ballance it on my face or chest good enough to capture it. He wasn't laughing as much in this swing, but I sure tried getting under him to make him laugh.

My dad took this one in Old Navy for me. He was laughing when I held him up like this and my dad said he would take the picture for me. It's not the best background, so imagine blue skies or in front of really green palm frauns or something behind us :)

Sweet Thumb Sucker

I thought it was the absolute cutest thing when Dylan first found his thumb. I knew it meant expensive braces later, but I'll get a discount (I hope). My pediatrician told me it's genetic. So why fight it?

Now I still think it's the cutest thing that Isaac has found his thumb. He's stumbled upon it before, but now he really knows what he wants and works hard to get a thumb in there. Whichever one of the two find their way to his mouth first wins, he doesn't seem to have a preference yet. He was sucking it all day yesterday and today. I love it.

(I do try to give him a pacifier, but he only takes it on rare lucky occasions.)

Lolli Fun

I love the ones I got of Malia chasing me. That's one plus about having a point and shoot camera. I don't have to worry about tripping and breaking a heavy expensive camera, OR about manually focusing such a thing.