Soccer Tots!

We signed up Elle for Soccer Tots this summer. I know it sounds crazy that she is doing soccer at 19 months old but the program is designed for toddlers her age. The class is geared towards developing their motor skills, foot-eye coordination as well as listening and following instructions. 

Excuse me, the ball's behind you! lol

Yes Coach?

Stacking up the cones

 Kick the ball!

Civics lesson (video)

I asked Elle who's the President of the United States? She answers "Obama".

A few times she has said "Gramma" lol.



Elle's three-word sentence

Elle has been talking a ton these days. She continues to amaze us with all the new words that she learns every day. For the past few weeks, she's been saying two-word sentences like "get down", "all done", "play please" (pay peas), "mommy/daddy sitting" (when she wants us to sit), "carry please"(keewee peas). She has also been saying "i love you" (i wuh you) a lot. This morning, she surprised  me with another 3-word sentence! She was in bed with us and she said "get down" so I put her down on the floor. Then she said "Mommy, get down" over and over again. She wanted me to get off the bed and play with her! It helps a lot that she can now communicate what she wants but she's so bossy :-P. Wonder where she got that from? :)

Perfect day for a baseball game!

We went to the baseball game tonight for Daddy Jarbs' company family outing! It was Elle's second Nats game. The first time we took her, she was only about 6-7 months old!

When we arrived at the baseball park, we went straight to the kids play area where they had a tunnel maze and slides. Elle went up on the tunnel maze by herself! She just kept on going and going inside the tunnel until we couldn't see her anymore. I was worried she would get stuck in the maze and get toppled over by the bigger kids but she did really good. She was probably the youngest child playing inside the tunnel. Daddy Jarbs and I were yelling from below which direction she should go to get out of the maze and impressively, she followed our direction. She eventually made it out of the tunnel to my relief. Such a brave and adventurous little girl!

Since the game was at 7 pm, I wondered how long she will be able to stay up. Her bedtime is at 8 pm and she lasted until about 830 pm until she let us know she's had enough and wanted to go home.

The mascot of President Washington freaked her out!

Good thing there were a lot of empty seats around us because she wanted her own seat!

Daddy Jarbs and Elle

Say cheese!

Let's go Nats!

This was taken right before we called it a night! Poor baby was ready to go night night.

My little tomboy

Daddy Jarbs got Elle a baseball hat for the upcoming Nationals game that we are going to later this week. Here she is eating her snack and she insisted on wearing her hat while eating!! See the little cup to her left? She has been practicing drinking water straight from that cup and she's been doing good! She initially started practicing drinking water from the shot glass that Daddy Jarbs inherited from Great grandma Jarbs! :-).



She loves pointing out and naming all the animals on her placemat!

Mother's Day!

I did not want anything else for Mother's Day but to spend fun day with my favorite girl :). We started the day walking to our neighborhood Farmers Market. Elle had fun seeing all the dogs. She would scream"doooog!" whenever she would see one : ). We then walked to our neighborhood tavern to have brunch!

Brunch at Rustik Tavern. This was taken from my phone so the photo is kinda dark.

Waiting for her blueberry pancake

When Elle woke up from her nap, we were then off to the zoo! The visit to the zoo is becoming a Mother's day tradition :-). The very first time we took Elle to the zoo was Mother's Day last year! She was only 6 months old then and did not have a clue of where we were and did not care about the animals. Now, she knows all the animals and was so excited to see them. Grandma, Grandpa Jarbs and cousin Kelly joined us on the visit to the zoo!

Elle loves her cousin Kelly. It was so sweet seeing them walk hand in hand :).



Elle got excited when she saw the photo of the lion. Little did she know she was going to see the real thing!

When she saw the real thing she screamed "liiiioooon" a little bit too loud :-).

Then and now. Taken exactly one year apart. What difference a year makes!

Elle loved walking hand in hand with Grandma Jarbs and cousin Kelly.

For once, she did not want me to carry her and Mommy Jarbs finally had a break :).

Elle also saw the gorillas and chimpanzees. It was the gorilla's nap time!

Elle watched the panda bear eat her afternoon snack!

Elephant!

With Grandma & Grandma Jarbs and cousin Kelly

Me and my mini-me. Yes, we got matching outfits :).

A lot of people have stopped us and commented how cute we both looked in our matching outfits.

Mother's Day 2011 and 2012 :)

Family get-together

We drove down to Southern Maryland today for a family get-together. Elle got to see family and play with her cousins!

Here she is playing soccer with cousin Kelly

She's got the stance but wrong ball :-).

She could be a good goalie...only if she was on the other side of the goal! LOL



Daddy Jarbs and Elle tried to hop in the pool. The water was cold so the plan was quickly aborted!

Mommy and Elle

With her favorite cousin, Kelly!

Helping Grandma open her Mother's day gift

Happy Mother's Day Grandma Jarbs!

Pajama Day!

Today is pajama story time day at day care so Elle went to school in her pajama!

The librarian came to read bedtime stories to all the kids from the three different classes

 and of course, I spied on them on the daycare webcam :). They all sang Five Little Monkeys!

Here's Elle sitting on Ms. Capers' lap 

Getting cozy with her favorite boy friend Malcolm ;-)



Elle dancing! (video)

Here is Elle's version of dancing to the music :-).

Letter from Mother to a Daughter

I came across this letter online. I am not sure who wrote it but reading it brought tears to my eyes. Now that I am a mom, I can totally relate. Since Mother's Day is around the corner, I am sharing it here on the blog so that one day when I am old and gray, my memory is failing and cannot talk and think clearly, Elle will be able to read this and know this is exactly how I feel.

Letter from a Mother to a Daughter: 

"My dear girl, the day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through. If when we talk, I repeat the same thing a thousand times, don’t interrupt to say: “You said the same thing a minute ago”... Just listen, please. Try to remember the times when you were little and I would read the same story night after night until you would fall asleep. When I don’t want to take a bath, don’t be mad and don’t embarrass me. Remember when I had to run after you making excuses and trying to get you to take a shower when you were just a girl? When you see how ignorant I am when it comes to new technology, give me the time to learn and don’t look at me that way... remember, honey, I patiently taught you how to do many things like eating appropriately, getting dressed, combing your hair and dealing with life’s issues every day... the day you see I’m getting old, I ask you to please be patient, but most of all, try to understand what I’m going through. If I occasionnaly lose track of what we’re talking about, give me the time to remember, and if I can’t, don’t be nervous, impatient or arrogant. Just know in your heart that the most important thing for me is to be with you. And when my old, tired legs don’t let me move as quickly as before, give me your hand the same way that I offered mine to you when you first walked. When those days come, don’t feel sad... just be with me, and understand me while I get to the end of my life with love. I’ll cherish and thank you for the gift of time and joy we shared. With a big smile and the huge love I’ve always had for you, I just want to say, I love you... my darling daughter. "

I love you Eleiana!

Elle counting in 3 languages (video)

Here's a video of Elle counting in Filipino, English and Spanish. I'll have to take another video of her
counting when she's not too distracted!

Eleiana singing! (video)

Elle loves singing. We'll often hear her sing songs to herself :-). Here are a couple of videos of her singing.

ABC!

Singing her favorite "Hello" song

TGIF!

Elle's teacher sent me this photo (sorry, it's kinda dark) in her daily report. Here she is playing at the park with her classmate Aliyah. Not sure who the bigger kid is. I don't think she is in Elle's class.

When I came to pick her up at day care later in the afternoon, 

she was playing with Aliyah again and did not want to leave!

I got her out the door but it took forever to get her to walk down the ramp

After a few minutes, I finally got her to walk down the ramp and into the car!

Playing with Jacob

I received Elle's daily email report from day care today and her teacher sent me this photo of her and her classmate Jacob playing in the seesaw :). So cute!

Aquarium at Imagination Stage!

It rained all day today but it did not stop us to go out for this week's Sunday Fun Day! We went to see the Aquarium at the Imagination Stage theater. Aquarium is an interactive performance geared for kids age 1 to 5 years old "where giant jellyfish fly through the air, sheep graze in the grass, and lemons create the sun in a "let's pretend" sky". This was the very first play that we have taken Elle to so I was not sure if she will sit still and pay attention during the show. Well, much to our surprise, she loved it! She was mesmerized the entire time. She listened to all the instructions and did what was asked from all the kids (pick up the lemons, ring the bell, throw the fish, etc).  She did not even want to leave when the show was done! At the end of the show, the kids were hanging out in the middle of the room and a big (about 4 yrs old) boy snatched the fake flower that Elle was holding in her hand! I was sitting from afar and saw it coming. I was afraid that he would hit and hurt her so I intervened. The boy's mom also saw what happened and apologized. My lil tough girl did not let go of the flower though and played tug-o-war with the boy! Ha! That's my girl :).

With friends Noah (8 months) and Sergio (14months)

Breakfast at Uncle Chip's

A new cafe called Uncle Chip's recently opened right around the block from our house and it has become our favorite weekend breakfast place. Daddy Jarbs gets his coffee there every weekend and Elle loves their oatmeal raisin cookie!

Here's Elle patiently waiting for her oatmeal raisin cookie. She was so friendly and kept saying "hi" to all the people coming into the cafe. One couple even said they recognized Elle from Rustik Tavern the previous night. 

Daddy-Daughter Date

I went out to have dinner with my girlfriends and in turn, Daddy Jarbs and Elle went out for a daddy/daughter date! They walked to Rustik Tavern which is a few blocks away from our house. Daddy Jarbs said Elle was such a good date and was in great spirits the entire time :). Here are the photos taken by Daddy Jarbs.

She only drinks water...yeah, she's a cheap date :).

Goodbye baby tub, hello big tub!

Elle is getting too big for her baby/toddler tub. I was scared to transition her to the big, regular tub thinking she may slip. This week, we finally took the plunge and put her in the big tub and it was a success! She loved playing with the water, the bubbles, cups and her sea creatures! It was kinda bitter sweet saying goodbye to the baby tub which we have used since Elle was 3 weeks old! Our baby is growing reaaaally fast :(.

Here's a video of her playing in the tub.

Impromptu picnic and Sakura Festival!

The weather was so beautiful today that it would have been a shame if we just stayed inside the house. This morning, we drove out to the National Arboretum and had  breakfast picnic!

Later in the afternoon, we checked at the Sakura Festival on Pennsylvania Avenue. There is a fee to get into the festival but Daddy Jarbs and I found out that if you come close to 5 pm, they let you come in for free :-).