Date night for Mommy & Daddy Jarbs

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!

 Thanks again Gramma and Pop!

Puzzles!

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.

Bobby McKey's Kids Day (again!)

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 :).

Biting!

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!!

Potty training update

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 :).

Soccer practice

Here are some photos taken from yesterday's soccer practice.

All of them wanted to be the goalie!

Listening to Coach

 

These cones are more fun than kicking the ball!

My little tomboy! She loves putting her hat backwards.

Here's a video of her after Coach asked her to put her foot on top of the ball.

 

Flying!

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 :).

Pool fun (video)

Here's a video of Elle playing in her mini pool. She said "buh-bye" when she heard an airplane fly over!

Happy birthday Tita Elie!

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 :).

Say cheeeese

We finally have a backyard!

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 ;).

BBQ and fight party

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.

Hayleigh's birthday party!

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!

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 :)