Clara-isms

Clara is at the funnest age ever, right now. She's such a crack up. I have said it numerous times, but she can make me laugh more than anyone else in this world. She's so animated, and makes the funniest faces, and says the most random things. Her vocabulary is multiplying daily. She says new things hourly almost. And I think I'm the only one who knows what she is saying.

1. The other day she whacked her foot on the table and was crying and saying "tisses, tisses" and I couldn't figure out what she was saying, until I realized, she was asking for "Kisses, Kisses" because I always kiss her boo boo's. It was hilarious.

2. She says "Otay" for Okay which cracks me up, she's like a a Little Rascal.

3. In the grocery store, she was pulling stuff out of my purse, she pulled out a tampon and was waving around screaming "Pee Pee", I wanted to die!! I had to remove the purse from her reach. 

4. The other day she packed her purse to go to lunch with Misty and Eric, she had the following items: bikini, sunscreen, sunglasses, hand sanitizer, gloss, a book, a plastic ball, a hair clip and a rectal thermometer. You NEVER know when you might need one of those, haha!! She's so funny!

5. She calls Nemo, "memo"; and Toy Story "toy toy"; & Woody, "yodel yodel".

6. She loves to take baths and swim, she calls them both "plash plash" for splash splash.

7. She announces every time she passes gas "TOOT TOOT".

8. She's extremely girly, obsessed with hair spray, polish, lotion, hair accessories, lip gloss, makeup, purses & shoes.

9. Every time a movie ends, she screams "Mama" to get my attention so I can watch her dance to the song on the credits.

10. She sniffs EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING!!

11. She calls anything with a paint brush or makeup brush, "eyes" because she watches me put on my eye makeup and that's what she calls it.

12. She claps her hands when she gets excited, which I do too!

13. She calls any snack a "cracker" and for the longest time it sounded like caca, and I HATE that word more than anything, bleh.

14. She's pretty much potty trained except for night time and naps.

15. She's completely and absolutely in love with the dogs, and especially Izzy "Zizzy"

16. She rarely poses for me for pictures now.

17. She also loves Jack Jack. When he cries she gets very upset and says "baby cry" and points. She's the first to announce when Jack is upset.

18. She also rolls her eyes at me, quite often & throws whatever is in her hand because she is mad.

19. One time she was mad at me and she picked up a drier sheet to throw it and it kept floating in the air and she was getting madder and madder and she kept trying to throw it and I finally started busting up laughing because I couldn't keep it in anymore.

20. She calls the remote, the "mote"

21. At night she takes a bath, and Mike takes her to bed and she curls up with her minky blanket, monkey and glow worm and goes right to sleep. Bed time is about 10:30pm and she wakes up about 8:45am.  

22. When I was nursing, she was fascinated with my breast pump. She breaths in and out to imitate the suck sound of the pump. This picture is blurry but here she is pumping haha.

23. She is obsessed with keys. She carries them around everywhere and puts them in any crack or slot she can fit them in. 

24. "If you're gonna spew, spew into this" mini Garth



25. She still flicks her belly button when she is drinking a sippy "baba"

26. She is the best little helper. She likes to dust, and help me in the kitchen and she likes to take things to the trash.

27. She LOVES her dada!!

28. She also loves to play, she does the weirdest stuff when she's in her own little world.



I thank God everyday for her and that he protects her and keeps her safe. I cannot imagine life without her!!!

Potty Training Clara

When I took Clara for her 2 year check up, Dr. Pardo said it was time to start potty training her. I wasn't sure if she was ready yet. She didn't understand when she had to pee, and the sensation of peeing. But Dr. Pardo and my mom both reassured me that she would learn it with training. She suggested that I set up a calendar on the wall with some fun stamp markers that she can play with every time she sits on the potty, and then reward only poop with a treat. So instead of a calendar on the wall, I just decided to set up coloring central in the bathroom. I got all of her markers and paper and a tv tray for the bathroom and she would color every time she sat on the potty. We started on a Monday and by Monday at noon I wanted to quit, haha! It was so annoying and time consuming. She practically sat on the potty ALL day long. So Jack and I were in there with her ALL day long too. He was fussy, Clara was fussy and mommy was miserable. But I stuck it out. The next day, she seemed a little better. She was beginning to understand the urge to pee. I cleaned up a lot of pee and poo off the floor. Pooping in the potty was very scary for her we had numerous accidents. I would say a good two weeks into it and she had the hang of it. We still have a few accidents every once in a while, but NEVER poop accidents. She only goes in the potty for that. She has been amazing to me, how fast she learned the sensation and to go in the potty. She hates it at night when I put the pull up or diaper on her. It has been great that I won't have to buy diapers anymore for her. I have one last small box and only use about 1 a day at night. I'm not sure how night training works. And going in public is a little scary for her but she's been getting better about it.

 Day one of the training

 looking miserable with her box of crayons

 so bored waiting to pee

She played with Jessie & Woody for a while on her table. She sang Yodel Yodel Yodel.

 Asleep in her Nemo panties.

She pretty much hangs out in her panties all day long. She tells me right away she has to "Pee Pee" and then runs to the bathroom. She usually wants to bring something with her like: keys, hair bows, toys, just random things. She's obsessed with the step stool she uses to wash her hands. So far, so good. I think she's just about trained! whew, it was rough at first lol!

Eating our way through Las Vegas

We were invited to Las Vegas to stay at the Stratosphere for Mike's dad's 60th birthday. We left the kids with Grandma & Papa and took off when Mike got off of work. We didn't officially get on the road until 8pm. On our way there, his dad called and said some friends of theirs were stuck on the I-15 dead stopped because of a fatal accident. So his dad has us take a back road. It was kinda scary because it was pitch black and creepy. Mike was worried a Coyote would jump out onto the road but that never happened. All I know is Joshua Trees are scary looking lol. It added on about 40 minutes to the trip but I-15 was closed for over 4 hours so we were lucky!! We go into Vegas at 1:30am.

 creepy back road

The next morning we got up fairly early because my internal clock was still set for waking babies, lol. We got dressed and went to his dad's house and visited for a while. Then we went shopping at the outlets. It was SUPER fun. We got a ton of stuff! I got new shoes for walking, Vans for Jack, Toy Story stuff for Clara at the Disney store. It was only 104 but slightly breezy so it wasn't that bad. We hadn't ate anything for breakfast so Mike decided we should have frozen custard to start out the day, haha! It was fantastic. I had a Coconut Western, coconut frozen custard, hot fudge, hot caramel, salted pecans, and a cherry. It was stunning.

 Only pic of us together, it's terrible but who cares.

We then went to Claim Jumpers for lunch at another mall clear across Vegas. Yummy cheese sticks.

 Us with the birthday boy

 Mike & his Pops

The BBQ birthday party was fun. He has a lot of great friends. We just visited with everyone, ate some amazing red velvet cake, and spinach dip. And then we went back to our hotel around 11pm.

 I thought we were going to bed, but Mike had other plans in mind: gambling & drinking. So I decided to wear my new skecher's flip flops and got two horrible blisters on the top of my foot. I was very bitter and so ready to go home. Then we stopped and got that big ol' strawberry colada with vodka and things began to feel better. Then I sat at my favorite slot machine with the diamonds that bounce back, and won $21. I was quite excited. Then I had a Kahlua & Cream and was feeling really tipsy, so we got in a cab and went back to our hotel.

 We at at this place called Roxy's in our hotel. It's a 50's diner, and they sing and stuff. I don't know if it was because I was tipsy or starving, but this was the most amazing grilled cheese I had EVER had!! It had a garlic butter and was served with a tomato bisque. It was fantastic.

Then on the way home, another car accident on the I-15 going south and traffic was completely stopped. So we took another back road. It literally added on almost 2 hours to our trip but it was a beautiful drive. This picture does NOT capture how cool those clouds were. It took 4 hours to get to Barstow, but as we were driving in, the radio said the traffic was still stopped on the I-15. Sooooo glad we took the long way. We had a great time, and missed my kids like CRAZY!!!

Sheryl Crow

My awesome mom, got us tickets to go see Sheryl Crow at the Fox. I have LOVED her since I was in high school. I have all of her cd's except for her brand new, which I must purchase! She was absolutely unbelievably good! She played almost all my favorite songs. She even sang the song from Cars, which made me think of Clara because she LOVES that song. She was super itsy bitsy tiny. I knew she was small but it was shocking how tiny she was. She was beautiful! My mom and her were born in the same year, she looks like she's maybe 30, lol!

We had amazing seats, 11th row, dead center. It was perfect until the 7' man sat in front of me, lol! 

Street Fair

The Bakersfield street fair is held third Thursday of the month for a few months out of the year. Mike of course can never go because he works so late. So my mom called me and asked if I wanted to go that morning. I thought it would be fun to get the kids out of the house, and see what they had. It was moved to the Mill Creek Park downtown, it was so pretty and much better than when they had to close the streets.

 I put Clara in her stroller and Jack in the baby Bjorn. He loved being in it and ended up falling asleep while I held him.

 Tom & Nico pushed Clara around, who refused to pose for the picture.

 My brother Thomas & I, I'm gonna miss him like crazy! He's leaving in a few weeks to go to Cal-State Northridge to become an Engineer!

 My mom LOVES bulldogs. It's been a little over a year since we lost Poopy, so every time she sees one she has to pet them, and talk to the owners. She even showed him a picture of Poopy. It was cute, and Nicole made fun of her, haha.

 I do believe Thomas took this picture of the Red Hat Lady. It was funny!

 Grandma & Clara walking along the sidewalk looking at the duckies.

Clara calls all birds "bak bak" like a chicken. So she kept screaming "BAK BAK" at them as they floated by, lol! 

We had a good time, it was really HOT! There were a ton of booths for things to buy. I even ran into my old friend Steve from high school. It was soooo good to see him. Him and his wife own a shop in the East Hills Mall and sell marshmallow shooters and duct tape wallets and other things.

Rock Ceremony

My parents house is almost done! So my dad wanted all of us kids and grand kids to pick a rock that will be placed on the fireplace that will be "our" rock. So we all met up at the house at 7am on a Monday before work. Mike had the day off for a doctor's appointment so it worked out perfect.

Clara telling Papa which rock she wanted. She had a whole stack of them in the end.

 Uncle Squeezy and his girl Clara.

Jack Jack found a rock

 Jenny & Boba

 Aedan picking his rock out

 Nicole found the smallest rock of course

 These two are quite the pair

 Mike made a joke about "to be announced" for future babies. However, he's sadly mistaken because I'm pretty sure we are done.

 Papa & Grandma standing in front of their future fireplace.

 The kitchen almost done

 and beautiful. Looks like a catalog.

 Papa then let us pick where we wanted our rocks placed. Here's Clara placing her rock on the wall.

 Group shot of all of us, taken by their contractor Juan.

 Posing next to Jack's spot.

 Crissy & I with Jack standing in the kitchen.

My dad text me this picture last night of the rocks already in place. So exciting!!!

After we finished there, we all went to eat at Keene Cafe, and then got stuck on 58, because an elderly man drove his Mercedes into the back of a diesel and it was completely stopped for about 45 minutes.  According to the news he lived, which was shocking.