My 27th Birthday

My birthday was amazing and I truly felt loved by my honey, kids, and my friends. It started with breakfast in bed, my FAVORITE breakfast, triple grande non fat no whip pumpkin spice latte and a chocolate croissant from starbucks :P Yes, the hubby made an early morning run to starbucks and arranged it on a plate but my little babies didn't think that was good enough so they wanted to add some "homemade items." Alyssa made me a delish nutella toast, and AJ, well, he added some raspberries to round off the meal in a more healthy way ;)

I had already received a pretty awesome birthday present the day before, an Iphone 5, so I wasn't thinking I'd get too much more than that on my actual b-day. I.was.wrong.!!

We like to give presents first thing in the morning in this family, and I was more nervous this morning because for the first time ever, the hubby braved getting gifts with OUT my help. Let me just explain this about my hubby, he is the stereotypical man in this department where he is known to be an absolutely terrible gift giver. He is well aware of this and it's because of it that he has always asked me what I've wanted to perhaps "splurge" on myself and he then picks something from there. This time, I didn't really tell him anything because I wanted him to try on his own. I was VERY happy to see that he got me something I needed; a wallet, ( as my poor 2 year old juicy couture wallet was falling apart) and a few things I didn't "need" but definitely LOVED, a new purse AND a new fragrance set. I am not as big of a collector of perfumes as my mom is, but I do love me some delicious smelling perfumes. I do believe a woman can never have too many purses so, seeing that new bag, in a color I didn't already have was a MUCH welcome sight. ;) The man did GOOD. I thought, at this point, we are done with presents and could just hang out at home and be laid back for the rest of the day but he had other plans for us.

He told me I could go on a shopping trip and get some much needed clothes to help my severely lacking "fall wardrobe". I loved what I got, and I loved that he was amazing and took care of both kids while I shopped 'till I dropped. I didn't take a picture of those gifts, but low and behold, my sneaky 5 year old was snapping pictures on my new phone and I saw this:

How funny she got a picture of some of the shopping bags, "perfect for my blog" I thought :)
After shopping all day long, I was exhausted but hubby had planned to take the kids and I out to our (used to be) favorite sushi restaurant for dinner. So we went and we met up with my closest girlfriend, Kelly and her girls :) I'll keep the bad part of this to a minimum and just say that rickey and I had been to this restaurant a billion times before this night just us, and the ONE time we bring someone to the place, everything except the food was awful. We won't ever be going back but we did at least have wonderful company and had a great time, despite the restaurant's shortcomings. I'm so bummed we didn't think to take any pictures at the restaurant but I did take a picture of her great gift she gave me.

After dinner, we went back home and Rickey and the kids sang happy birthday to me and we enjoyed some yummy and naughty cake. We tried to document the moment with pictures and I can honestly say that we are absolutely horrible at self-portraits LOL. here are a few funny pictures but I loved all the pictures. I really felt super special and I appreciate everything my family (and friends) did for me on my birthday. <3

Potty training

So, I've done this potty training once before.... and it was completely different from what I'm doing now. My first experience was a girl, a VERY talkative girl who was potty trained in 3 days at age 2 yrs. 2 months old. Now, I'm here with a BOY, who is 3 years 4 months old... and could care less about being in a dirty diaper to teach. It has NOT been easy by any means; for starters, he would not sit on the potty... even if it was that cool "cars" one that doesn't yet attach to the "big toilet" AND it was set up in the living room so he wouldn't feel like he was missing out on any playing time or even precious tv time. He just merely saw it as a cool new Cars toy and NOT what is really is, a POTTY.

We've been at it for 2 weeks and the first week he would only sit on it but not with his pants down... the second week he would mostly sit on it nakey but would hold it so he never went in the potty. We have had the best of luck when I ask him EVERY.10.MINUTES. to sit on the potty but let's be real, I've got to take big girl to school and make breakfast/lunch/dinner, and clean the house and run errands, so I can't remember to ask him if he needs to go THAT often... and that's when the accidents would happen. I know a lot of you will say that if he's not ready to be telling me that he needs to go then I'm "pushing him too soon" but I'm sorry, he's almost 3 1/2 and if I don't at LEAST get his toes dipped in this "potty pool" he won't get it done till he's 6! (total joke, btw!) I'm just really ready to be done with diapers and I know he's able to learn how to use a toilet at this point.

He has been pretty good at going when I ask him to go, as now I have a good reading of when he should be ready to go but for the first time ever, HE asked me to take him to the potty saying these exact words: "mommy, it's gon come out, go to potty" so we rushed to the potty and he went 1 and 2!!! I was very happy to have him tell me he's ready to use the bathroom for the first time ever!!!

We felt brave enough to go run errands today and were out about 3 hours wearing undies and not diapers and we were accident-free and he used the potty when we got back home. I cannot tell you how happy I am to see him take the first very crucial steps towards potty training because there for a split second I thought I may just not know how to teach a boy to stop wetting and pooping himself and use a toilet! Alas, he is proving me wrong... one day at a time. :)

Here he is smiling, so proud after telling me for the first time he had to go potty.

SJ Kids Museum and a Broken Arm

Before I start this post, yes it's outdated.... but I'm terrible about blogging on time and at least I'm trying. So back in August, august 13th to be exact, our family from san diego come up to the bay area and we wanted to get together with them. So we decided it would be tons of fun for the kids to go to the san jose discovery museum. It was so much fun for the kids and we spent all day there. Towards the end of the day, we were just about ready to leave the museum, when Alyssa comes to us crying and tells us that she fell and hurt her arm. She didn't want to move it and said she wanted to just go home and go to sleep. This is NOT like her because we had plans to go to dinner after the museum with our family and for her to say she wants to just go home, we knew she was definitely uncomfortable. Lucky for us, Aunt Dori who was with us that day is a pediatrician in san diego and she tried to get somewhat of a "look" at her arm. It didn't look broken and because Alyssa wasn't screaming and hollering or showing extreme pain we didn't think it to be broken, maybe just bruised. We iced it and gave her pain medication and went home. Aunt Dori told us that we could of course take her the the ER or just wait overnight and see how the arm looks in the morning.
The next day, her arm was swollen right above her elbow and did NOT want to move it at all! I knew something wasn't right at that point and scheduled an appointment with her pediatrician to take a look and get some xrays. We went in and of course, it was broken!!!! It was a very tiny tiny fracture and because neither Rickey or I have ever broken a bone we did not know what to look for or expect other than a bone popped out of place which is what most people think a broken bone would look like. Since her brake was not like that, it was definitely a shock to hear it was indeed broken.
We got a splint cast put on that day and the very next morning she was an orthopedic specialist and got a cast for 3 weeks. She did ask first thing if she could get a pink cast, after all, injured or not one Must be stylish at all times right?!? She was such a brave girl and went through the whole experience like a trooper!
She just got the cast taken off last week on friday, so she's slowly getting full mobility back to her arm (it was stiff from being in the same position for 3 weeks) but she doesn't miss having the cast at all.
This was definitely a new experience for all of us because like I said before, neither Rickey nor I had ever broken a bone so she was the first in our family to have broken a bone. I'm glad her arm is healed and can't wait for her to get back on the soccer field and on the monkey bars, as she has to wait 3 more weeks before doing those types of activities.
Here she was with her cousin Ryen doing one of the activities at the museum before the big brake :(

Getting the splint cast, what a trooper with a smile on her face!!!

After getting the pink cast on, still all smiles :))

She has the BEST abuelita who sent her a "care package" as soon as she found out her arm was broken! <3

Picture Day in school, cast and all, still styiin'!

FINALLY getting the cast removed, hooray!

1st Day of 1st Grade!!!!!

I can't believe my Princess is a "big girl" and started 1st grade!!!! It feels like just yesterday I was teaching her the ABCs at home and doing her first puzzles with her and now, here she is in the first grade, writing and full on reading now!!! I'm so proud of her and I could go on and on about how wonderful she is and how she is an amazing student but I don't like to brag. LOL
I tried to make her first day a little special since she told me she felt a "little itty bit nervous" (her words) about eating lunch at school for the first time in the cafeteria. In kinder she only had snack time and it was not in the cafeteria with the older kids, so I completely understood her nerves.
So the night before her first day, I crafted up a cute little table set up I found on where else but pinterest lol. It was so unplanned that about 3/4 of the way being done I realized I had nothing to use the toppers with. So at 11:30pm I whipped up some healthy banana muffins and cursed myself for baking so late because as tired as I was, I couldn't fall asleep because the whole house smelled so good. :)
She absolutely loved her first day and has been having such a good time every day and she actually doesn't like the weekends because she doesn't go to school! I'm looking forward to another great school year for her and can't wait to see how much she learns and how much fun she will have.