My cousins from North Carolina are in town for Thanksgiving holiday. Elle hasn't seen her Tita Angel since she was 2 weeks old and Uncle Tim visited us last summer. Elle loves them both! She loves playing with them and holding hands while sitting in the car and while walking. We spent the whole day with them yesterday and Elle had a blast. She got upset when I dropped off her Tita Angel (who she confuses with cousin Baby Anya and accidentally calls Baby Angel! lol) and Uncle Tim at the mall and would refuse to nap or go to bed because she just wants to play with them! I know she would be so sad when they leave to go back to NC 😞.
Here are some photos taken at the National Harbor. We missed the tree lighting ceremony but got there in time for the fireworks. Elle got scared of the fireworks and had her face buried on Daddy Jarbs' neck the entire time. She said "Nana scary" meaning she was scared lol. She was so happy when the fireworks were done, clapped her hands and said "Yay! No more bang bang in the sky!" Lol.
I try to stay away from the malls during Black Friday but since Elle and I had nothing to do and Elle loves shopping, we stopped at the Crate and Barrel store in Old Town. As soon as we walked in she said "cart, cart". Well, so I gave her the hand cart and she carried it the entire time lol.
Daddy Jarbs and I met with Elle's teacher, Ms. T to talk about how Elle has been doing in school. We have received a report prior to the meeting and Elle has met (and exceeded) most of the criteria/ developments expected of her age. To summarize, Ms. T told us she is above average in her age level. Even though she had a rough transition when she started in this school, she is now fully adjusted and loves going to school and seeing her friends. Ms. T even told us that Elle lends a helping hand or offers Elmo and other toys to the other new kids who are having a hard time transitioning to their class. She also said Elle loves to read and be read, loves art and loves helping out. Her vocabulary is growing and said most kids are expected to know about 100 words at this age but Elle has way exceeded that. They actually call her the 3rd teacher in class since she would echo what the teachers are saying and would tell her classmates to put their jacket on or to go outside in the playground or tell which song she wanted to sing (yeah, she's bossy like that lol). Before the meeting ended, Ms. T told us that we have done a great job raising Elle (
yeah, the whole 2 yrs of her life!! Lol) considering we are first time parents and that we have set a good example for the 2nd baby. As a parent, that's probably one of the best compliments I've ever had :).
Today was Elle's Thanksgiving Luncheon in school. Families are all invited to come during lunch and partake in the Thanksgiving feast prepared by the school. Daddy Jarbs couldn't make it because of work but I did. I met the parents of the other kids in Elle's class whom I have never seen/met before since we have different pick up/drop off schedules. As soon as I walked in Elle's classroom, one of the dads asked me "is she your daughter?", while pointing at Elle. As soon as I said yes, he exclaimed, "we love her!" Lol. He told me Elle is such a sweet girl and that every time he would drop off/pick up his son, Liam (who's one of the new kids in class), Elle would always walk up and say hi/bye. The entire time i was talking to Liam's parents, they were all saying praises about Elle (which kinda made me embarrassed because i do not know their soon too well). Lucas' (also one of the new kids in class) mom also told me that one time when he picked up her son, Lucas gave a high five to one of the boys but gave Elle a kiss goodbye :). It warmed my heart knowing Elle is well-liked at school. Parents always say nice things about their kids but hearing other people say it about my kid makes me a very proud momma. One of my wishes as a parent is for her to grow up as a caring and loving person with a very good heart. If that happens then Daddy Jarbs and I can pat ourselves in the back and tell ourselves, we've done a great job :).
Elle and Daddy Jarbs' birthday are less than a week apart. Daddy Jarbs' birthday comes first so for the past week, I have been trying to have her practice singing "Happy Birthday Daddy".Well, she has decided that Daddy Jarbs is not allowed to have birthdays anymore lol. In the video below, you can see her get mad whenever I would say it's daddy's birthday. She kept saying "No daddy. Nana happy birthday!"and proceeds to sing to herself lol. From the day Elle was born, we knew that will be the end of Daddy Jarbs' birthday :).
We were out and about running errands yesterday. With all the excitement going around, Elle missed her nap time! She finally napped in the car at 4:50 pm! When we got home, we transferred her from the car to her crib and she did not wake up until 8:20 am the next day!! I woke up to her calling from her crib "Mommy, Daddy. Mommy and Daddy" over and over again!
Finally, a bump picture at 14w5d! I feel like my belly looks much bigger than it is in the picture. So cute that Elle wants to be in the picture too :).
Here's a quick check-in:
How far along?: 14w5d How big is baby: The size of a lemon! Weight gain/loss: +5 (from pre-pregnancy weight); same weight gain at this time when I was pg with Elle! I want to note that my pre-pregnancy weight this time is 5 lbs heavier (but since I am short, it looks more like I gained 10 lbs!) than my pre-pg weight with Elle. Pregnancy symptoms: Having an appetite for 5 people! lol. Since I am out of the 1st tri, I feel like I am slowly gaining my energy back. Maternity clothes: Yes! I had been wearing my maternity jeans because it's so comfy. Been wearing my belly bands too. I have snagged $3 - $7maternity sweaters and long sleeve shirts at the consignment store :). Best moment this week: After not working out for a long time, I went to the gym 2x this week! Took a circuit training and spin class! Who knew spinning to the tune of Gangnam Style will be so much fun! I hope to get back on track at the gym from here on out.
We recently opened a baby doll set (which includes a baby blanket, pillow, bottle, pacifier, diaper and baby dog) which was given to Elle as a birthday gift last year! Elle loves her baby doll and takes really good care of the baby. She even have the baby sleep with her in the crib. First and last thing she does before she goes to sleep and when she wakes up is put the baby's blanket on. She also takes the baby's pacifier out before she does to sleep (since we told her baby can't sleep with a paci). It made me think that she will be a great big sister to Baby Jarbs2 :).
Stretch Marks: None Sleep: I get about ~7 hours of sleep at night Movement: I've felt some "bubbles" a couple of times but was not sure if that was Baby Jarbs2 Food cravings: Root beer! Food aversions: Frozen yogurt again! Labor signs: None Belly button in or out: Still in but I feel like it is going to pop out much earlier this time What I miss: Medium steak and over-easy eggs! What I am looking forward to: 16 week appointment in 2 weeks!
Here is Elle's video taken yesterday as we were driving home from school. She loves to sing and yesterday's song of the day was "Ring Around the Rosy"! She sang it over and over again! I kept asking her (in Filipino) to choose another song but no such luck :).
As you saw in the video, her socks do not match her outfit. Well, she chose her socks herself ;-). Also, she kept on asking "Who's that?". She asks this all the time! Sometimes we would be in a restaurant and she will randomly ask "Mommy, who's that?" while pointing to the people sitting next to us lol.
I have previously mentioned that a lot of things have been going on these past few months so we have been really busy. Well, this is what has been keeping me "busy" (busy in the sense that I have ZERO energy by the time I get home) for the past few months and one of the major reasons why I have not been able to post in the blog for the past few months :).
So, meet Baby Jarbs2....EDD (estimated delivery date): April 21, 2013 :). This video was taken during my 12-week appointment. The doc did the NT scan and according to the doc, everything looked great.
The Jarbs family is thrilled with the impending additional to our family. Moreso, we are excited for Elle to have a sibling!
After a 3-month hiatus, I am back! I know I have not given this blog a lot of love for a few months :(. For that, I am sorry. I know Elle's fans have been waiting for an update for a while. We just had too many things going on these past few months, I cannot even catch a break to sit in front of my laptop and update my blog!
Elle is now 23 months old and she's been growing up and reaching her milestones way faster than I can update my blog! Where do I even start? I'll try to give a summary of what she's been up to for the past few months.
For those who are wondering how she looks like now, this is her! This is her school picture taken when she was 22 months old. We were pleasantly surprised with how this turned out since for the past two years since she has started school (day care) and have made attempts to take her school picture, it was always a failure. She looks so grown up here than she really is in "real life" but one thing is for sure...she is not a baby anymore :(.
Daycare
Last August, got an email from one of the day cares where we were waitlisted on since I was pregnant with Elle. After almost 2 years in the waitlist, they offered us a spot in the toddler room! This caught us offguard but it was an offer too hard to pass up. We were happy with Elle's previous school and all the people there were like family to us so it was a very hard decision to make. Long story short, we did make the switch (but not after Mommy Jarbs has shed a lot of tears). I felt very sad leaving the place where Elle has been cared for since she was 5 months old! All the people there were nice and most of all, I was sad for Elle leaving her friends which she has known all her "life" (Yep, all 22 months of it lol). The new school is only a 5-minute drive from my work (15 mins by foot) so it was very convenient compared to the previous day care which was about a 20-30 min drive from my office. The first couple of weeks of transition at the new school was rough for Elle. There were tears everyday during drop off. Things started to get better by the third week and now, after almost 2 months, she's completely adjusted :). Every morning whenever I would drop her off in school (Daddy Jarbs will bring her in into the building), she would say "Mommy go to work, Daddy go to work, Nana go to new school. Mommy will be back!" lol. She would also say "Bye bye Mommy":).
Sleep
Elle normally gets about ~11 hours of sleep at night + ~2 hour naps at day care (total of ~14 hrs). It's interesting to note that she's been napping better at the new school compared to the previous one. I am thinking that maybe it is because in the previous school, the toddler room was smaller so you could hear every little noise. She would end up waking up easily. On weekends though, it's a completely different story! This girl loves to sleep in! We would just let her sleep as much as she wants (unless we need to go somewhere so then we would wake her up). She would sleep between 12-14 hours with another 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon!! Thankfully, she got her sleeping habits from Daddy Jarbs! lol. Back when she was 18-19 months old, she went through a phase when she would skip naps in school. I thought she was ready to drop her nap time but good thing, it was just a phase! I am soo thankful that she ended up to be a good sleeper (knock on wood). Every once in a while, I would think to myself that I am glad the sacrifices Daddy Jarbs and I made when she was a newborn to make sure she develop good sleeping habits has paid off. She loves her sleep although now, she knows how to stall ("I want potty", "Mommy, read book", Mommy: "Elle, do you want to go to sleep?" Elle: "NO"). Sometimes she tries to fight it but once we are already in her room, she gets excited to go to bed. Sometimes, she would even tell me to leave her room and close the door lol.
Speech and language development
Elle has been a little bit advanced in her speech and language development. During her 18-month doctor's appointment, her pediatrician told me normally, kids that age can say up to about 20 words?! At that time, Elle could already speak 2-3 word phrases! I am bummed that I am not able to really keep track of exactly when she started saying things. All I know is now at 23 months, we can have real conversations with her. In the car, she would point out things that she sees and it's nonstop:
"Mommy, look" or "Mommy, hand, I see it (she's talking about the stop/no crossing sign) or "Mommy, I see doggie" or "Mommy big airplane" or "Mommy, I wanna go Costco" or Mommy, look at me", or "Cmon Mommy".
This is our regular conversation every day while on the way home from school:
Mommy: Ano ginagawa ni Mommy? "(What's mommy doing?)
Elle: Mommy dri-bing (driving; yeah, she is still confused with her "b" & "v" lol)
Mommy: San si Daddy? (Where is Daddy?)
Elle: Daddy work
Mommy: San si Nana (Where is Eleiana?"
Elle: Nana on the carset (carseat)
She talks nonstop! Sometimes she talks way too much! lol. It's so much fun talking to her though. She cracks us up every day :). I will try to start documenting all the funny things she says every day.
Here is a video I took of her the other day while she was sitting on the potty:
Potty Training
She is still not potty-trained but continues to use the potty. She sits there every morning and night. She is more vocal now about using the potty. There were a few times when she has pee'd on the potty (one time she called me "Mommy, look" and pointed on the potty for me to see her pee lol). She has also pee'd on the potty (they have kiddie pottys) in her new school one time! lol. Over the last few months, she has pooped in the potty one time. Since she can talk now, she can say "I want potty" or "I want pee pee again". A lot of times she just wants to sit there and read her book so we just let her. We have started using pull-ups on weekends. She now knows how to pull her pants down and take her diaper off. She is very conscious of when pee or poop are coming but most of the time she would tell us after the fact that she has gone :). My goal is to have her potty-trained before she turns 2.5 yrs old :). We'll see how it goes.
Girly-girl
Since she can now talk, she has strong opinions about what clothes or shoes she wears lol. She loves anything with Elmo, Mickey Mouse or Hello Kitty! Her favorite shoes right now are her Crocs with Hello Kitty and flower clip-ons. In the morning, I would let her choose which shoes to wear to school and surprisingly, sometimes, she would choose shoes that would match her outfit lol.
This is a photo I took of her wearing a Hello Kitty shirt, Hello Kitty leg warmers, Minnie Mouse pull-ups, Minnie Mouse head band and Princess necklace. Yes, she chose this outfit herself lol.
Reading
Elle still loves reading which is great. Sometimes, she would contently sit on the floor and read her books. Sometimes, we would hear her "read" the book to herself, it's kinda funny.
Counting
Elle can count 1-20 in English, Spanish and Filipino. She actually started doing this when she was about 18 months old so this is kinda of old news lol.
Singing and dancing
Elle loves singing and dancing. A lot of times, she would say "Mommy, look, Nana dancing".
Eating
Elle loves pasta and bread. I think she was Italian in her past life lol. She eats pretty well but is still a picky eater at times. She would look at the food and if it doesn't look good to her, she wouldn't even try it. You give it to her another time, and she would inhale it! She still loves her milk and continues to have 3-4 cups a day. She now uses fork/spoon to eat and has mastered drinking from a cup/glass. In school, they don't even use sippy cups anymore!
This is a picture of her eating roaster broccoli, her new fave!
So this is all for now. I will post more as I think of more stuff. Hopefully, I will be able to regular post from here on out :). I may occasionally back post pictures from the past couple of months, so please bear with me :).
This morning, as we were getting ready to leave for work/day care, I told Elle to get her shoes. She went to the shoe cubby and grabbed her Crocs-style shoes. A few minutes later she walked up to me with a big smile on her face and with one shoe on her feet and said "i did it"! She was referring to the ONE shoe that she was able to put on by herself! She looked so proud of herself :). So cute!
I was changing Elle's diaper and all of a sudden she let out some air. We were both caught off guard. I did not say anything but made a face. All of a sudden, she said "fart! nana farting!" lol. I do not even know where she learned that word. Maybe at day care or maybe even at home!? Too bad Daddy Jarbs was not home to witness this. He would have been very proud! lol. Now, almost everytime I change her diaper, she says "fart". Ugh! lol.
Since the weather has been sweltering hot, every Friday for the month of July is pool day at day care! Here's a photo sent by Elle's teacher from the first pool day of the month!
We had a low key 4th of July celebration. Since the holiday fell in the middle of the week and on a school/work night, it was not really ideal to go somewhere far. Plus, Elle cannot really stay up late to watch the fireworks. Nevertheless, we enjoyed staying home and having our own backyard barbeque.
Happy 4th!
Oh, Daddy Jarbs did her hair :)
There weren't only two but THREE pigtails!
On our morning walk to Uncle Chips to get her oatmeal raisin cookie. We walked by a fireworks stand and the guy selling them gave her free sparklers just because she looked cute in her 4th of July ensemble :).
Since Daddy Jarbs is vegetarian and I am not really a huge fan of burgers and hotdogs, our backyard barbeque consisted of grilled corn and grilled lobster tails :). Yum!
Later in the day, Elle cooled off in her pool
Sparklers!
Towards the end of the day, Elle grabbed my hand and said "inside, inside". I did not realize it was already past 8 pm. It was already her bedtime so she wanted to go back inside the house. Elle did not see any fireworks but she did hear some "bang bang" earlier in the day. She would say "Nana see bang bang" which meant she wanted to go outside to see where the sound of the firecrackers were coming from :).
A week ago, I posted about Elle's love for puzzles. Today, she amazed me by completing half of the US map on her own! She would pick up a puzzle piece and I would ask her "where does [name of state] go?" and she would put it in the right place!
She normally starts with Alaska and Hawaii!
And then Texas
California
Pennsylvania is one of the two states on the East that she knows. She actually surprised me that she knew where it should go since it's kind of in the middle and she still does not know the states around it.
Elle spent the past two nights at Gramma and Pop's house so Daddy Jarbs and I can have a date night :). Daddy Jarbs' favorite Hawaiian singer, Anuhea was in town so we drove to Annapolis to watch her show. The ticket I got was my Father's day gift to Daddy Jarbs. We got the VIP fan package which included the exclusive sound check performance, meet and greet with Anuhea & Mishka and a personalized signed poster and cds :).
Sound check performance
Anuhea!
With reggae singer, Mishka. Daddy Jarbs does not look too enthusiastic
in this photo compared to the none with Anuhea :P.
I got Anuhea to sign a cd for Elle :)
Elle also loves listening and dancing to Anuhea's songs. She calls her "hea". When she hears her music, she would walk up to us and say "dancing, dancing" and would want us to carry and dance with her. Here's a video of us dancing to Anuhea's song. See the smile on her face?
We missed Elle but she had a great time hanging out with Gramma, Pop, Aunts and cousins!
Elle LOVES playing with her Melissa and Doug puzzles. We got the number, farm and fish peg puzzles and she has mastered them all. She knows all her animals and has surprised us one day with being able to to identify/recognize the numbers and some the different colors! I only let her work with one new puzzle at a time and do not give her a new one until she has mastered it. Since she has nailed all three puzzles, I recently got her the Melissa and Doug USA map sound puzzle from Yoyo.com. We originally got a defective one in which the sound wasn't working. Yoyo.com had us keep the defective one and sent me a brand new one. I thought the puzzle is a little bit too advanced for her age (she was 18 months when I got it) so I haven't opened the new one yet but let her play with the defective one. We would play with it leisurely and I would point out the different states but did not really expect her to remember them. Well, she proved me wrong. The very first state that she was able to identify and placed correctly on the puzzle was Hawaii! :-). Daddy Jarbs was not surprised! Second state was Alaska! I was amazed that she can actually single out the Hawaii and Alaska puzzle pieces among all the puzzle pieces!
This weekend, she surprised us yet again. We were working on the puzzle and we were blown away when she knew where to put California, Arizona, Texas, Florida and North Dakota on the puzzle! I busted out my camera a little bit too late so I was only able to record her working on North Dakota (first part of the video) and Florida (1:11 min mark). You can hear our reaction when Elle knew were to put N. Dakota on the map. You can see that she grabbed the puzzle piece herself and placed it correctly on the map without us telling her where it should go.
We went to Bobby McKey's Kids Day again! This was probably our 4th time?! We enjoy going there since it's a good excuse to listen to music, drink beer (only for Daddy Jarbs but not me) and hang out with friends and our kids. Elle enjoys listening to the music and dancing on stage :).
Here's Elle and friend Zaynee (on her left) on the stage dancing to "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". She was probably the youngest kid up there :).
A couple of weeks ago, Eleiana's teacher told me that Elle bit her classmate, Aliyah. I was told that both Elle and Aliyah were about to wash their hands in the bathroom. Aliyah was screaming and then Elle wanted her turn to wash her hands. Next thing they knew, Elle bit Aliyah! I felt bad for sweet little Aliyah when I found out about this. Elle has never done this at home so I am pretty sure she learned how to bite at day care. When I asked Elle what happened, she told me "Aliyah, ouchy, crying". I asked, "Did you say I'm sorry?". Elle said "I shorry". I was surprised that she even responded when I asked her what happened so she had an idea of what she did. Since the biting incident, we've been telling her that "We don't bite. Biting is not nice". I even got her the book "Teeth Are Not for Biting" and have been reading it to her everyday. We've been crossing our fingers that it will stick to her head that biting is bad.
Yesterday, when I picked up Elle at day care, her teacher told me Elle bit Aliyah again :(. Not just once but two times! Ugh. The teacher said the kids were playing on the see saw. For some reason, Elle got frustrated so she bit Aliyah. I felt really bad again. We've been reminding Elle everyday that "biting is not nice" but we got no control once she is at day care. When Elle and I got home, I was surprised to see that Elle had a bite mark on her arm! The teacher did not mention Elle being bit. Perhaps, the teacher did not see that one of the kids bit Elle? Or maybe Elle just bit out of retaliation? When I asked Elle who bit her, she said "Reina". Umm...not sure how reliable that information is lol. I asked her again a few times and she kept saying "Reina". I asked her again the same question an hour later. This time she said "Aliyah" lol. Since she does not do this at home, the least thing we could do is remind her over and over again and tell her everyday that biting is bad and cross our fingers that it will stick to her head.
This afternoon, while we were in the car, Elle was playing and talking to her baby doll. She was blabbering things to her doll so I was not really paying attention to what she was saying.. It took me a while to realize that she was talking to her baby doll and was saying "Biting, not nice!" over and over again! Hahahaha. Daddy Jarbs and I tried so hard not to laugh. Well, hopefully, she'll start practicing what she's preaching!!
In our effort to slowly potty train Elle, we have recently introduced the potty seat. It's the kind that goes over the regular toilet seat. At first, Elle did not want to sit on it but it slowly grew on her. Now, she grabs the potty seat herself, puts it on top of the toilet and say "poppy, poppy" and the followed by "booky, booky" (meaning she wanted us to grab her a book to read). We got the sitting on the potty routine down. She knows she needs to sit on the potty as soon as she wakes up and before bath. She is now very familiar with the potty but having her go is another story :). She has gone to the potty a few random times but no consistency yet. Most of the time, she will just sit on the potty and ask us to read her a book. Most recently though, she told me "poppy time" so I took her to the potty, had her sit and after a few minutes, lo and behold, she went #2!! Wooohooo! I can tell that she is getting more conscious and can feel what's coming. She will randomly say "pee pee" or "poo poo" which can either mean she's about to do #1 or #2 or her diaper is full and want to be changed. We have been very lax with this potty training thing and have just been taking her lead. We'll have to wait and see where this potty training journey will lead us next :).
One of Elle's favorite thing to do these days is to "fly". She asks us to lift her up using our feet and she loves it. She keeps saying "gain, gain" (again). She actually has great core muscles and can balance while up in the air :).
Happy birthday to Elle's favorite Tita!! We love you!!
Here's Elle singing happy birthday to her Tita. She's been singing since we were driving home from day care. She did not nap at all today so I was pleasantly surprised that she was in a good mood.
We got Tita Elie a Kate Spade purse and here's Elle modelling it. Elle LOVES purses and got excited when I took it out. I think she thinks it's hers :).
One downside of living in the city is not having a big yard for the kids to play. After living in our house for almost four years, we finally fixed up our mini back yard! Though the space is not that big, it is still a decent amount of "green" space where Elle can enjoy outdoor play. Daddy Jarbs did a great job in installing the turf. Now we have nice, green grass all year long ;-).
Daddy Jarbs grilling shrimp and veggie skewers for lunch
With the new outdoor play space, we surprised Elle with different outdoor toys and she loved all of them.
Water table fun! See her beach chairs?
Elle loved her new pool. The smile on her face was priceless.
She loved going down the slide. Weee!
I sent Daddy Jarbs to Toys R Us to get Elle an outdoor toy and he comes home with a mini-basketball set. He insists that it is good for her coordination ;).
We invited a few friends over for a barbeque and Pacquiao-Bradley fight party. It has been a while since we threw a party in our house. We've been throwing Pacquiao fight parties for the last few years but this is the first time that we've had one since Elle was born. Now, almost all of our friends also have a kid of their own!
Before the party, we were a little bit worried how Elle would react with all the new faces and having the other kids play with her toys. At first, she did get overwhelmed with all the new faces. She just clung to Mommy Jarbs and would whine if I try to walk away from her. As the night wore on, she eventually became comfortable and had a lot of fun playing with Valentina. Elle did better than expected with sharing her toys. We've been prepping
her before the party that her friends are coming and that she should
share her toys. We've also started reading to her Karen Katz' I Can
Share lift-the-flap book and it may have helped a little. She only fussed during the first few minutes
when she saw the other kids play with the toys but later on, she was
totally okay with it and did not even care. She did keep a close watch on
them though. She was too excited with everything going on and did not go to bed until 10 pm!
Daddy Jarbs, the vegetarian, insisted that we have lechon (Filipino roasted pig) for the party. In Filipino culture, we only have lechon during special occasions :). The roasted pig was pretty good though. Elle enjoyed seeing the piggy. Good thing she did not get traumatized seeing a whole roasted pig. She actually seemed amused and kept asking me to carry her so she can see the piggy.
Our friend Saveounn helped chopped up the lechon!
Here's everybody glued to the tv during and after the fight. Everybody was shocked and disappointed with the outcome of the fight.
Here are some photos from Hayleigh's birthday party a couple of weeks go. Elle had fun hanging out with her friend, Lara. They just held hands the entire time. So cute!
.jpg)
.JPG)
+copy.JPG)
.jpg)
