Valco Baby! 
This week Valco stands for:

Very
Awesome
Lucrative
Crazy
Opportunity

Thanks to Baby Gizmo and Valco, we have an opportunity to win an awesome stroller!

To read about it, please visit Baby Gizmo over here…   If you don’t have a need for a stroller, enter to win for me!   If you win simply give that amazing stroller to me, I need it with all my beautiful babies!  With this single stroller I can hold ALL three babies!

Next » Do these looked cooked to you?

Things get busy at my place.  Really busy.  So I put some sliced sweet potatoes in the oven for 5 hours…  not a big deal.    I think what makes this funny is what I said to Joshua.

I went into the nursery to get Joshua, he just woke up from a nap.  I picked him up and said “gah Joshua you smell like burnt toast with jelly on it.”  lol   I still didn’t realize I left my sweet potatoes in the oven.

A couple/few hours go by and I finally find the potatoes in the oven… crackling and sizzling.  Not because I remembered there were there, but because I saw smoke coming from the sides of the oven.

Mariella was so upset and disappointed. lol ahhh sorry Wee Baby, next time mommy will try and remember to set the kitchen timer.

link to photo album

« Previous Fabulous Give~a~way! :-)

Next » plastic bottle pom pom thing

Another activity that kept Mariella busy for a very long time was the making of the plastic bottle pom pom thing!

She loves saying the words “pom pom.”  She can say it very well and with confidence!    Now she can say blue pom pom, red pom pom, green pom pom, pink pom pom, and well you get the idea.  The one that sounds the cutest is “boo pom pom.”  It is sooooooo sweet and adorable to hear her say boo pom pom!  so cute.

The best part about this activity was pouring the water.  After she filled up the bottle, she emptied it back to another bottle, then back to that bottle, then the other bottle.   She was not to interested in the finished product.  Which I thought she would be,  I was fascinated watching the sparkly pom poms sway back and forth!  She was more concerned with putting the pom poms in the container and playing with the water.

link to photo album

Try it!  If you would like, send me a picture of your creation and a photo of your little one playing, I’ll add it to the album! 

« Previous Do these looked cooked to you?

Next » In the midst of chaos..... I see Mariella

I was hungry, sleep deprived, crampy (thanks Aunt Flo) and feeling the pressure of being a mom.  Julianna is in my arms crying.  She is teething, has a wet diaper, and woke up screaming for milk.  Joshua is on the rug, in a boppy pillow, teething, no diaper (I was in the process of changing when the screaming started) and yelling too.  He is tired and wants to go to bed.  Mariella begins to follow their lead and began to whine and fake cry.  My eyes tear up, I didn’t know who to take care of first.  I start to cry.

The two oldest kiddies, Mariella and Joshua, stop crying.  I turn to see what was going on.  I see my beautiful first born daughter holding a bottle to Joshua’s mouth.  She is saying “shhhhhhhhhh, its ok.”  I  burst into tears.  How sweet of her to try and help me.  To help her baby brother.  The bottle is empty, and I don’t know where she found it. But oh how I love her for being such a big girl.    I am so proud of her.   She fills my heart with so much love and once again I am reminded of how truly blessed I am to have all these Wee Babies in my life.  I am blessed to be their mommy.

I love you Mariella Lee!

link to photo album

« Previous plastic bottle pom pom thing

Next » Mariella, Bear and Edamame...

Mariella is in love with her stuffed animals right now.  She has many and loves them all so much, even this lady bug with long prickly legs that creeps me out.  lol  Well, today Bear joined us for an afternoon snack.  We enjoyed some tasty edamame!  I didn’t plan on taking a video clip of us munching on soybeans today, but Mariella was so sweet with bear I had to capture it and share with the world.   In the clip Mariella shares her edamame and water with Bear.  She notices the camera, leans over and hugs bear and smiles while taking advantage of a photo opportunity.  long video below, you will see sharing, caring, spitting out food, fake sneezing and more. lol I love my Wee Baby!

Mariella  you are so loving!

I enjoyed my time with you and Bear today. I love hearing you say “squeeze” when you are popping out the soybeans!  I am so sorry I shot a soybean into your eye, at least we laughed about it.  Oh and  I am also happy that when you spit out your food you keep it on the table/plate now.  I do not miss the days when you threw everything on the ground!   You are such a lovely little girl and I am so proud of you for sharing and playing so well with Bear today.  You are an amazing daughter and an amazing big sister!  I love you Wee Baby!

« Previous In the midst of chaos..... I see Mariella

Next » pipe cleaner activity!

Looking for toddler activities for Mariella, I found several on this clever pipe cleaner game!  This is a really fun idea and so easy to create.  One thing I did different from the ones I seen is twist the pipe cleaners to have multiple colors.

This doesn’t mean much now, but soon when she start learning colors and numbers I can label the top of the canister with 1, 2, 3  and 4 ~ then twist some with 2, 3 and 4 different colors.  So we can count colors!  We can also color code too!   Plus twisting the pipe cleaners made them stronger.  We can have them straight, I can bend, curl and make different shapes for her to try and put throught the holes.

This is what we did

~used an oatmeal can, covered it with printed paper, then added some sticky foam for fun. 
~removed the oatmeal cardboard top keeping the plastic ring intact, cut a circle from a rubber mat, added holes with a hole punch, then put inside the oatmeal plastic top.
~twisted some pipe cleaners, bending the tops down to avoid the pointy ends.

and ta-daaaa! 

Try it!  If you would like, send me a picture of your creation and a photo of your little one playing, I’ll add it to the album! 

« Previous Mariella, Bear and Edamame...

Next » Julianna in a blue bucket.

Julianna is 189 days old today! She is such a feisty little cutie.  She is really getting strong these days.  Her knees are red to prove it!  She keeps tucking her knees up to her chest in childs pose,  using her arm strength to push herself all the way up to half plank, then into a beautiful upward dog.  My yoga baby doing sun salutations already!

I bet she will be crawling before her big brother Joshua.  She only uses her pacifier maybe once a day now, for a nap here and there.  She has had some oatmeal cereal every other night, I don’t give her much.  She is a terrible eater with her silly tongue always getting in the way! Which reminds me, I want to talk to the pediatrician about that.

Taking Julianna down by the river to take a few pictures reminded me of my first born daughter, Mariella. Amazing how my cuties are growing up so fast.  Children are the ultimate life clock!

Link to photo album

« Previous pipe cleaner activity!

Next » Sleeping Wee Babies

Joshua and Pat reminded me of how I love  to see/hold a sleeping baby.  It is one of the sweetest things a person could ever do, hold and love an innocent little happy baby.

One evening, Pat went to put Joshua in his night clothes.  I didn’t get worried when 15 minutes  passed by.  But when 30 minutes approached I though let me go check on my men!  When I walked into the room and saw them sleeping so sweetly together, my eyes filled with happy tears.  Then I ran to get my camera so I could capture the moment.

I just had the biggest smile on my face.  Something about sleeping babies just fill my heart with love.  Combine my sleeping baby with my sleeping husband and you get me crying like one of my little babies.

It was a precious site to see and I wanted to capture it so I can always remember how special and blessed I felt when I walked into the room.  Here is a little video clip, Joshua smiles in his sleep too. How adorable is that?  I also gathered up a bunch of sleeping pictures of my Wee Babies.

Video

Link to photo album

« Previous Julianna in a blue bucket.

Next » Wee Baby loves my vitamix!

Everyday, Mariella and I make something in our new vitamix blender.  Smoothies, ice scream, and soup so far.  I’ll say “Want to make a smoothie?”  and she replies “yaaaaaaaaaa”  and runs to her learning tower to get ready!  She loves to help and I let her.  Regardless of any mess she may create.  It is all good.. 

She puts in the ingredients, we have tried all sorts of combinations, some of the ingredients we used so far are, fresh and frozen fruit, milk, yogurt, spinach, carrots, coconut milk, and more.   I really enjoying my smoothie making time with Wee Baby.  It is such a treat.  After I blend up her creation, I grab the glasses and give her the straws.  I pour and she puts the straw into the glass.  We cheers and the biggest  “YUMMMMM,… UMMM UMMM GOOOOOD” comes from her little self/   sooooo cute.

Here is the recipe:
a little of this
a little of that
and a lot of love
then enjoy your smoothie! 

Link to photos

« Previous Sleeping Wee Babies

Next » Is it weird that....?

Not sure if something you do is weird or not? Lets talk about it, we can help each other figure out if it is weird or not.

I’ll start.

Is it weird that I turn off and on the lights with my toes?
Is it weird that I don’t like taking a shower when the tub/walls are wet? (I want to be the first in the shower when it is dry in there)
Is it weird that I heat up the same cup of morning coffee for hours?
Is it weird that instead of clipping my babies fingernails, I bite them?

ok, let me have it!  And tell us yours,  lets see how weird we all are!!!

« Previous Wee Baby loves my vitamix!

Next » Mariella picking grapes off the vine ~