3 years old!

Amalia-
I know it has been a long time since I have posted on this blog, but I would be remiss if I didn't come back to document just how amazing you are on this, your third birthday. (Actually your birthday was yesterday, but I'm sure you'll forgive me for being a day late since we had your party two days early!)
You get more and more incredible every day. You have the funniest, spunkiest, orneriest personality of any 3 year old I have ever met. You constantly blow me away with how smart and funny and stubborn you are. You say the most amazing things, letting your father and I know that you are really listening and learning from us, even if we think you aren't. The example I always use is when you gave Daddy his "choices". You test your limits with such gusto it is almost all I can do to correct you without bursting into peals of laughter. Other times it is all I can do to keep my temper in check when you so forcefully and blatantly defy those limits. But it's all part of the learning process. You are never mean spirited, just spirited.
This past year you have made the most incredible leaps and bounds in all areas of your development. You have always been a very empathetic, loving, and social baby, but from two to three you have left almost all semblance of babiness behind.
You are getting more and more "girly" all the time, without any real support from the other members of your family you are adamant that your favorite color is pink, and all your favorite clothes are pink, food containers, shoes, bags, toys, etc. must be pink. You are still very loving with baby dolls, and have now discovered ponies which you think are the BEST. But at the same time you want to take ballet class, you also want to take karate, so all the girliness is tempered by your desire to kick butt! I will take it.
Another area of your personality that has become more apparent is that you are definitely NOT a morning person. You are happiest to sleep in (with mama of course) until 8:00 or 9:00, but that also means that well after everyone else is asleep you are content to chatter away until all hours of the night, using every excuse that your clever little mind can think of (I have to pee, I don't like these jammies, I need to give Daddy a hug and kiss, I have to look out the window, I need a drink of water, I'M NOT SLEEPY!!!!!!!) as you can see, there are quite a few!
Your favorite person in the world remains your hero and nemesis Domingo. You will do anything for his attention, even if it is negative. The best is when you play together, which is definitely more often than when you fight with each other.

You were born on the longest day of the year so the fact that your favorite song is Here Comes the Sun is so fitting since you fill our lives with sunshine.
Happy 36 monthday Amalia.
Love Mama

further proof that they are listening!

Amalia has been on a serious roll these days, saying and doing funny things, and really coming into her own in terms of her personality.
She will be 3 in a few short months, but she sometimes acts as if she's going into her teens, or like she's already someone's mother!
At night our goodnight routine is usually 1.)read a book 2.) say a prayer 3.) goodnight "family" kiss all together. Usually there is a count down to the family kiss. Amalia started this tradition where she does the count down and adds a little exclamation before the kiss, for example the first time it was 3-2-1 OCTOPUS! Cute and funny and of course Domingo has to one up her and exclaim something himself. But lately Amalia's countdown is 3-2-1 "wuv". (She is still not pronouncing ls effectively, but the ws are ridiculously cute, particularly in the love countdown.)
Domingo once again had to one up Amalia and his countdown is 3-2-1 "rainbow love." It's all just too much. But that doesn't compare with Amalia's exclamation tonight.
Today in the car, Chris was saying something to her and she said matter of factly "Daddy don't talk to me. I don't want you to talk to me. Here are your choices..."
I'm sure I have listed her choices to her in such a matter of fact tone at least a hundred times. Choices between brushing teeth or sitting on the naughty step, or playing with us or continuing to cry in a tantrum in her room and the like. But to hear that parenting rhetoric parroted back with such confidence, such bossiness, that was really something else.
I don't really know where she gets that from since really Chris and I are not super assertive bossy people. I might have been more so in my youth, I would have to demur to my parents and older sister on that one, but I can guarantee I never told my mom or dad what to do in such an off handed and natural way, never for a moment thinking this kind of language and tone were not appropriate for a 2 year old to be using at all, let alone with her parents. I guess I should be pleased that we are raising such a self-confident child who understands that this is how you talk to people who are being unreasonable, you have a choice, either do what is right or suffer the consequences, it is all personal choice.
As soon as the words, "you have a choice" came out of her mouth I turned to Chris with a smirk on my face and said "are you listening to this?" But any hope of seriousness or trying to make it a "teaching moment" to explain that this is not how children speak to their parents, children do not set the rules, went out the window the minute she set out our "choices". What were those choices you ask?
"One: you can kiss me. Two: you can hug me. Three: you can let me eat chocolate."
Given those choices, how can you not just love this kid?

could it possibily be?

That the ground hog was right? I don't want to jinx it, but after the insane blizzard of a few weeks ago, the weather is starting to look down-right springy.
Domingo has been completely and totally disturbed by all the mud an dog poop that has emerged since the snow melted. Amalia is true to form and LOVES jumping in mud and puddles. Let's hope it continues!

Return of the Monthday!

Well, not really. But Amalia and I did just go to the doctor for her 2 and a half year check up (a month and a half late-oops!) so we have another stat sheet to put up. And I also took some more pictures of the blizzard that ate the back yard.
School is back open tomorrow, and Chris and I are assisting, and taking the bus so that should be interesting. Amalia and I took the train to the doctor's office today, and so she is officially a city-kid. She had no problem and people were really nice and gave us a seat on the super crowded train on the way back.
Amalia is doing great. Once again she's still a giant among babies, but she's coming back down to earth particularly in the weight category. I think the hideous cold she had and her less than usually enormous appetite these last few days may have helped a bit though!
Weight: 34lbs (90%)
Height: 38.5 inches (95%)
Head Circ: 20.25(>95%)
BMI: 16.25 (50-75%)
The doctor was really impressed with how verbal and social Amalia is. She went through a bunch of the ages and stages stuff with her, and she is doing all of the things she would have expected a much older kid to be doing, talking in complete and complex sentences, knowing her colors, shapes, upper case letters(she spelled the word HONEY on a coloring page in the waiting room) and some of her numbers(I asked her to press the elevator button number 4 and she got it right away), she jumps and kicks a ball and can stand on one foot, I don't exactly know why that's on the list but she can do it! So the doctor said, just to keep doing more of the same, and to work on letters and numbers. The only thing she will not do is speak in Spanish for heaven's sake! It makes me cukoo, but I know that she understands most of what is said to her, we just have to keep trying.
I remember a little over a year ago I was concerned because she just wasn't talking anywhere near as much as Domingo at her age, and now she is just such a chatterbox! The first thing she said when the Dr. came in the room was "Hi, I'm Amalia, I'm going to be a doctor like you when I grow up!" The doctor was like "whoa! fantastic!" This whole, "be a doctor" thing is totally and completely her invention. I'm sure that since there are loads and loads of MDs in the family, it's only natural for her to hear about it and say that's what she wants to do, but she's taken it to a whole other level of play (and I really can't say that I mind, I'd LOVE it! So long as she never says, "I want to be a lawyer when I grow up!") she makes me wait in the waiting room, she takes my temperature and then gives me a shot and says "Don't cry, now you can get a sticker!" at least she doesn't charge me a $20.00 co-pay!
She was so great in the appointment today, I was by myself and a little worried about it, but she was terrific. So maybe it's karma paying me back for just how miserable she was as an infant, because she is really just a joy in her "terrible twos". But man did I earn it!
Here are some more winter fun pictures!

My attempt at shoveling out our car, but I had to give up when Amalia was screaming she wanted to go back inside for hot chocolate.


Exhibit A


Meanwhile Domingo was "swimming" in the snow. He was so ridiculously happy rolling around and eating the snow like a puppy!




In the 5 minutes of outside time, before she became too cold and wet and fun in the snow became unbearable misery. This kid is more like her mom than I ever realized!

bad delinquent blogger makes good!

For those of you who still sporadically check on this site (mom), sorry it's been months since an update! I blame facebook. It's so easy to post the funny things the kids say and do and the very occasional picture we take over there, so the blog is woefully neglected.
Anyway, here are some long delayed pictures from New Years, school, random, and the great blizzard of 2011! There really was a lot of snow! It was the 3rd biggest snowfall on record, they closed the schools, and Lake Shore Drive! It was pretty wild. We were glad to be warm and cozy in our little house, and then went out to play in all that white stuff! The kids got thrown around in the drifts for a bit but quickly complained they were wet and cold. Maybe there are some of my genes in there after all!


proof that you do love each other, or that we forced you to hug.


Holiday Card 2010- looks like an emo band's cover art


story time at school.


I'm sure this is the result of some great injustice, like we said no to m&m's for breakfast.


On our way to the Redmoon Winter Pageant. They were very well behaved, enjoyed the show, and Domingo fell asleep at the restaurant under the table, just like I used to do.


New Year's finery.


sibs


In SB with Farfar


Amalia looks so full of teen angst in this one!


baby pile!


snowday!


whee!

Jokster

Domingo told me this joke last night, he claims to have made it up himself:
What do you call a new born Rhino?
A Cry-nocerous!
Hilarious.

down memory lane

I don't know why, but lately the kids have been really into watching old home videos of themselves and Chris and I from when we were not nearly as grey as we are today. And last weekend my mom had some long-time (notice I didn't say old) family friends over and they watched old home videos of when we were kids and they were so young. It must be something about the fall air. Needless to say, it got me in the blogging mood, and I often go back through the archives and look at how these children have gotten so big. Seriously, who snatched my babies away and replaced them with these giant children? Domingo is just such a boy I can't stand it. We were watching a video of Domi's first bath (not one I've put on this blog since it is a little too full-frontal) and I was dumb-struck by just how small he was. He was so YELLOW! Like a little sweet potato! It cracks me up now to think how defensive I was about it at the time. Also, Amalia LOVES this video and asks for it over and over despite the fact that it makes her a little weepy herself since she gets very distraught by the "baby crying." She is another one. Although all of my photos and videos of Amalia's first days (that were not preserved on this blog) were lost when the computer died, I still remember like it was a moment ago, just how small and delicate and impossibly perfect she was when she was born. Now she is such a child it stops me in my tracks on occasion. She is the queen of "by myself" or "mom let ME help YOU." She also has the need to "tell" you something of the utmost urgency, usually when you are in the middle of talking to someone else. She will grab my face and hold it in her two hands and plea urgently, "mom I have to tell you something." That something is usually what she had for lunch or that she went to the park or that she wants a snack. Her enthusiasm and new found independence are so incredible, particularly considering about a year and a half ago I was so concerned that she wasn't talking enough! HA!
Domingo made a comment to me today that normally would have me laughing my head off, but today just made us both sit and think for awhile. He said "mom when I'm a grown up, you'll be so OLD!" Then he said he didn't want me to be old because he always wanted me to be his mom. This child is four and he's thinking about things that are so delicate and sophisticated and hard to grapple with! We talked about it for a while, I explained that I would always be his mom no matter how old he gets, no matter how old I get. That is one of the wonderful and infuriating things about moms, no matter what you do, where you are, who you become, we are always going to be your mom!
And as I sit here in our nice cozy living room looking out at the changing fall leaves, I really do have a twinge of bittersweet feeling that these are the last of the baby times for me. That from now on, it will just be looking at pictures and videos not holding and nuzzling feathery soft milky babies. But then I get pounced on by my lion-boy and snuggled by my t-rex girl and I guess I can make do with the baby pictures if I get to keep wrestling with the real deals.