My "ugly Christmas sweater" poncho made by Claire and mommy. What do you think? Winner??

My "ugly Christmas sweater" poncho made by Claire and mommy. What do you think? Winner??

we found "zebra" the elf brushing his teeth this morning. :)

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Dance time at the Dolan's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85OpLf8pQdk

We love Starbucks!

We like to start them young. Job security, you know. :). Happy Sunday!! Love, Dolans.

Happy Halloween!

Princess Belle

Day at the park

Claire's 4th Birthday

Claire has been waiting for this day since she turned three! She was so excited too, because Mema and Papa were coming in town for her birthday, and so was her best friend Bella. I kind of made the mistake of showing her where we were having her birthday party about a month before the party, so just about every day, she wanted to see pictures of where she was having her party. We counted down to her birthday with a started a countdown calendar on the iPad, and then she wanted to know every day how many sleeps left until her birthday. Mema counted down the last few days with a new birthday present every day. Then the day arrived. Wow was this kid excited! We had a prince and princesses in a magical forest party at Moonpaper Tent with 15 kids. What fun! The kids got to dress up and then go on an adventure, make a craft and get a treasure. It was a bit gypsy like, but perfect for the kids and bringing out the imagination. Claire had a blast.

For her actual birthday, Mema, Papa and I took her to do the Ride the Ducks tour. It was a bit miserable outside with the weather (cold and pouring rain), but Claire didn’t care. She bopped around to the music on the duck and loved every second of it. Then we took her to see dad at Starbucks so he could wish her a happy birthday. That night we had another cake for her and she was glowing ear to ear. She had the cake a little late (8 pm), which made her stay up late as well because of the sugar. Oh well, only on her birthday.

Claire was blessed with so many presents. She’s really into crafts and coloring now, and just about every gift related to one of those. Busy girl.

Claire as a 4 year old:

1. Loves dancing and singing. Anytime there is dancing on TV or music playing, she’s dancing along with it.
2. Smart kid. She calls us out on things if she knows we’re lying.
3. Loves coming into our bedroom in the early morning to snuggle.
4. Loves mac and cheese and peas, spaghetti o’s, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, carrots and snap peas. Won’t eat fruit unless it’s from a fruit cup. LOVES ICE CREAM!
5. Wants a princess story told to her every night before she goes to bed.
6. Loves Dora the Explorer and the movie Tangled.
7. Only will wear something if it’s pretty (dresses, skirts or something sparkly). Won’t wear jeans.
8. She’s learning to read, but won’t practice reading at home with us, only at Tree of Life.
9. Is shy when she first meets people, but typically opens up within 15 minutes and is your best friend.
10. Loves to color or play on the iPad. This kid is smarter than me on the iPad!
11. Very opinionated. Tells you what she likes and doesn’t like.
12. She’s a total ham! If you laugh at something she does, she keeps going with it. She loves seeing people laugh at the things she does.
13. She’s very protective of her sister. She wants to help her in every way she can, but doesn’t really want other kids to get in Maya’s way.
14. She’s one of a kind. She’s smart, great personality, a go-getter, and will try almost anything.

Happy birthday sweet princess!

Claire's bday

Ear tubes = walking!

This last year for Maya has been rough with all the ear infections she’s had. She’s had five of them and has had to take multiple antibiotics for three of them because she couldn’t get rid of it. So we decided it was time to get ear tubes. They worked so great for Claire, and we don’t want to see Maya suffer anymore. So I took her to the Bellevue Ear, Nose and Throat doctor to schedule the surgery. Fortunately they were able to schedule it that week. So I took her in on a Friday morning at 6 am in Issaquah. I was a little concerned that she would throw a fit because I woke her up so early and she couldn’t have anything to drink before surgery because of the anesthesia, but she was fine. She slept a little on the way in, and then slept on me while waiting for surgery. The surgery is maybe five minutes, but I can’t be with her. She came out and was still sleepy, but she did great. They told me to give her a bottle, so I did. That was probably a mistake because it made her throw up in the car on the way home. Yuck! She was crying and the car seat was a mess! She slept for a bit when we got home and then woke up in the afternoon as happy as can be. Didn’t even phase her.

 

The next day we were hanging out, and all the sudden she started walking on her own! She’s been attempting walking since 10 months old, and holding our hands ever since, but never walking on her own. The doctor said that the ear tubes might help out her equilibrium and that she might walk soon, and he wasn’t kidding. She didn’t just take one step, she took about 20! We got the video of her first steps, and big sister Claire was so proud. Maya was thrilled to be walking as well. She was squealing with delight. So proud!

Maya's walking!

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59fAZlqCZ4Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sent from my iPhone

Maya is already recovering nicely from her ear tube surgery this morning. :)

Yummy!

Happy Birthday Sweet Maya!

My this year has gone fast! I can’t believe Maya is already turning one! She’s got such a personality, and definitely taking after her sister’s traits. It’s different for Maya turning one compared to Claire, because she’s already hit all the “one-year-old” milestones before she turned one.

1. She was moved over to Tree of Life Day Care two weeks before she turned one.
2. We flipped her car seat to face forward (mainly because there was no room on the passenger side anymore).
3. She started drinking milk early because of starting at TOL, and was taken off bottles and moved to a sippy cup.
4. She’s talking a ton!

What a big girl!

My cousins were in town for the weekend before Maya’s birthday, so they came over to celebrate. We attempted to do a cake, but Maya wasn’t really digging it. I think she was a bit overwhelmed with all the excitement and everything going on. She cried and didn’t want her cake. Oh well. Take two was on her actual birthday. The girls went to school, and everyone sang happy birthday to her and she got books from Marissa. So sweet! That night we got cupcakes for her birthday instead. She stuck her finger in it, and that was the end. Just not interested. But then we started to open presents. Maya seems to have an obsession with shoes, so we decided that since we have so many toys for the girls, that we should just get her shoes for her birthday. Hopefully we aren’t feeding the obsession too much. She was so excited though when she opened her shoes!

What makes Maya special:

1. She loves to snuggle. She’ll snuggle on my chest or just with a soft blanket or stuffed animal.
2. She can be comforted with a binky.
3. She loves to be held. She’ll throw herself down until you pick her up. Then, she’s as happy as can be.
4. She has a smile that lights up the room.
5. She has a shy side to her, but only for a moment. It seems to be her game. She just needs time to check you out first.
6. She loves her food. She’s definitely a healthy eater. Loves cheerios, cheese, fruit (all kinds), yoghurt melts and veggie burgers. And if she doesn’t get food when she wants it, you’ll hear about it until she gets it. Then she’s happy. J
7. She loves her sister, but needs her space. She doesn’t like to be smothered or held onto by young kids.
8. She’s a tummy sleeper. Won’t sleep on her back unless she’s rolled over on it during her sleep.
9. She’s a trooper. She’s been through 5 long ear infections that caused terrible pain, but somehow she’s made it through.
10. She loves shoes! They don’t have to be her own shoes, she loves everyone’s shoes.

Our little boo is a girl that will definitely make something of her life some day. She has a strong personality and doesn’t really take no for an answer. We love you Maya! What a gift you are to our family!

Towel sharing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4tH7xSlAVg

Hiking with the fam.

Jeff was actually holding Maya in the firetruck, but you can't tell!

Claire's posing with her muscles at the Arboretum

As Claire posed for this she said "princess cheese"

As Claire posed for this she said "princess cheese".

Date night with daddy

This is what happens when mommy goes out on a Saturday night and Claire has date night with daddy...a Dora princess castle cake. Lucky girl!

Saturday night sunset on Lake Washington!

Blueberry picking kind of day. Just mom and Claire.

Transition

Maya is just about 1 year old, and it’s time for her to move over to Tree of Life with Claire. This is wonderful and convenient for us, because now we only have one drop off and one pick up. I was so excited for this day to come, and now I’m so stressed about it. I’ve grown to enjoy Kids R Special more and more. I still love TOL more than any other place, but now it’s getting ready for these new changes. Maya is supposed to be one and walking when she starts there. They’re letting her start September 1^st instead of September 13^th, so I have to get her up to speed for her new home away from home. She has to be:

• Walking
• Off of the bottle
• On a sippy cup
• Off of formula
• On milk
• On 2 naps a day instead of 3 (and on a mat instead of a crib)

She’s picking up the walking thing very quickly, so I’m not so worried about that. I’m more worried about how to transition her to the sippy cup with milk and the naps. I know she’ll do it, so I just need to let go and let it happen. Claire transitioned so smoothly and adjusted to TOL amazingly well. I’m sure Maya will to. It’s more about how will I adjust. J

Communicating "No"

Maya has just discovered how to give her input without actually talking. When she doesn’t like something, she shakes her head “no”. Or, if you tell her not to do something, she looks at you, shakes her head “no”, tries again, you tell her no again, she shakes her head “no” again, then stops doing what she was doing. Very smart little girl. She’s also very excited that she can now communicate more with us. So cute!

Mommy's attempt at face painting. She kept wanting me to make another one. I think i made 4 princess crowns. Definitely not a princess crown artist. I'll stick to my flowers. Now to make sure she doesn't put her face on anything until we take it off.

Maya's learning to walk!

Maya is quite anxious to get off the ground and start playing with Claire. Rather than learning to crawl, she wants to get on her feet and walk. I’m guessing she’s giving up on the crawling since it seems hard for her to do. I think it’s because of her chubby little legs. She just can’t get the one to move under the other. Poor thing will lay on her belly and throw a fit because she can’t get up and move with us.

 

Last weekend we started practicing the walking, and she took a few steps and then would stop. A few days later we came home from daycare, and she chased Cielo around the couch without stopping. Give her something to go after, and she’s on the move!  Claire’s been amazing with helping her get there too. She’s so excited that her baby sister is finally starting to be able to do more with her. Yesterday she took Maya’s standing toy from our bedroom into the living room so that Maya would have something to play with and be happy. So sweet of her. Such a great big sister. They both work so well together. My sweet girls.

Happy 4th!

Happy birthday Evie!

Claire's last soccer game!

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Claire's first boat ride and caught a fish! Too bad Jeff and I missed it because we were shopping for dinner. :(

Three cousins eating breakfast in a row in Florida

Maya's first swing ride. She thought it was the coolest thing ever and giggled the entire time!

Claire and Bella at the horse track chilling for a moment after the bouncy house.

Graduating to new car seats!

I couldn't haul around Maya's infant carrier anymore without almost falling over. Maya is almost 9 months, and I weighed her on the baby scale, and she weighs about 23 lbs! So you add the 23 lbs plus the weight of the infant carrier (at least 10 lbs), and I'm carrying around a lot of weight all the time. Plus, those carriers aren't the easiest thing to handle.

I had bought Claire a new booster seat a few months ago, but just didn't move her into it yet, so I decided last night was the time to change everything up. Claire helped me put her new seat together (then put it up on the couch and sat on it). Jeff and I came into the room and saw her sitting in her new seat on the couch and each thought the other put her in it. We laughed at her. So cute! Then she helped me put her new seat into the car. Of couse, she wanted to sit in it after we got it set up. Then she wanted me to get in the driver's seat and drive (so I just sat up there instead so she'd be happy).

The new car seats were put to the test this morning on our way to daycare. Maya LOVED her new car seat and was checking it all out and laughing and telling us stories about it. Much easier to get her in and out of this car seat as I'm dropping Claire off for daycare and getting ready to take Maya to her daycare. Only thing that will take time to get used to is handling two kids without car seats. Usually we could have Maya in the infant seat and set her down to take care of Claire. No longer. I'm sure it will be fine, just need to figure this part out.

Claire's quotes

We were at the park for a picnic this last weekend (first outdoor one of the year so far), and Claire had just had some gelato ice cream AND a cookie! Needless to say, she had a bit of a sugar high. She was running all over the park (probably ran a good mile on her own running back and forth to us). She then sat down and said "my legs are screaming with energy". Jeff and I both looked at each other and laughed. How cute! We told her to go for another run. Exactly what that kid needed!

Summer girls!

Maya's first orange! Tried to eat the rind too!

The differences

I never thought that the two girls that we created could be so different. It's interesting taking a look at the two girls and getting to know them and their little quirks. Claire had colic at the beginning, and then was an absolute angel with sleeping and transitioning to everything. She caught on very quickly with things. Maya has a little more of the stubborn personality from Jeff and I, in the sense that when she wants something her way, we basically need to do it. For instance, she must have the pacifier to go to sleep. I tried getting rid of it early on, and she would throw a fit! So, I decided that if we can both get more sleep, then she can have it. Claire on the otherhand, didn't need the pacifier much (only naptime, and never at night). I think I'm partially to blame for Maya's obsession with the pacifier, since day 1 I gave it to her in the hospital because she seemed to need to suck so back.

Maya also MUST sleep on her stomach if she's taking a nap or going to bed at night. If she's in our arms, she'll try to sleep, but ends up very restless. We just got back from a trip to Florida with the family, and had a long leg coming back (5 hours 40 minutes), and she couldn't sleep at all, and was crying. As soon as we got home, I changed her and put her to bed on her tummy, and she was out, just like that.

Claire is very set in her ways now with the foods she wants (even though she ate everything when she was younger). Now she only wants fruit in a fruit cup, and rarely will eat fresh fruit at all. She still eats amazing with her vegetables, and in fact will usually ask for veggies first thing in the morning, or before bed (usually snap peas or carrots). Maya on the other hand, loves her grains. She's just getting into the finger foods, and always wants to feed herself (the pureed foods didn't last too long). She'll eat Cheerios and Puffs like they're going out of style. She'll pretty much eat whatever we give her, but prefers the grains.

These are just some of the differences I notice, but I'm sure we'll collect more soon!

Pee Wee Soccer

Claire has been begging us to sign her up for soccer, so we did, and got her on the Pee Wee soccer team. There are 6 games. They practice for 20 minutes, then play against other Pee Wee teams for 40 minutes. The kids are all 3-4 years old. One of Claire's friends, Cash from daycare, was on her team, so that made it fun for her. The first game we missed because we were in Colorado. She got a shirt, and shin guards, and everything! So cute! Funny enough, her team was playing against another one of her friends from daycare too (Bella). Cash, Claire and Bella are all friends, so they were holding each other's hands when they were supposed to be playing. Claire and Bella (from opposite teams), held hands most of the game. The other parents were already kind of "Soccer Moms", so not sure they were so thrilled that we were kind of a man down since the kids were holding hands, but I thought it was adorable.

On her second game, she scored the first goal. Go Claire!

Claire and Rosey the Tarantula!

I took the girls back to Denver to visit the family, and we had an amazing time. The flight out was a little rough because it was bedtime (7-10:30 pm flight), so that's my fault, but they still did great.

We stayed with Mema the first few nights, and the girls got to hang out and play there. Then we headed over to Nana's house for a few more days. The first day with Nana we went to the Butterfly Pavilion. Claire loved it, and was so excited to have butterflies flying all around her. They also had a bug area with spiders and beetles that we got to check out. In one area, they have Rosey the Tarantula, and people can hold her. Claire didn't want to at first because she's scared of spiders (just like mom!), but then changed her mind after Nana held the spider (which shocked me too because she's scared of spiders). So Claire stepped up and held her! She was so brave! I couldn't believe she did it. When she was done, she asked if she could hold her again. Atta girl! So proud of her!

These girls could be twins!

When Claire was born she had dark hair which quickly fell out, and then was bald until she was almost 1. Maya came out with very dark hair as well, but it didn't change to a light blond until she was about 7 or 8 months old. I wanted to take some pictures of the girls at the same age in the same outfits. Here's one that I took of the girls when they were 5 months old. Maya is on the left and Claire on the right.

"How is Claire with the new baby?"

One of the first questions you get asked when having a second baby, is "how is the older sibling doing with the new baby?" I wasn't raised with a sibling, so I never new what it would be about. That's why it was really important to me to have a sibling for Claire. Claire has been absolutely amazing with Maya from day 1. We're so fortunate that there was never any jealousy. I take that back, I think there was one time at the beginning when Claire wanted to dance with me in the living room. We had just started doing that before Maya was born, so it was special to her. She asked me to dance with her, but that Maya couldn't dance with us, so I needed to put her down. She was pretty adamant about it, but that was her only moment of jealousy (so far at least).

Our Complete Family

I never thought having two kids could be so rewarding. Jeff and I have had an amazing life together pre-kids, but realized that money can't buy happiness, but the two amazing girls in our lives can. We are blessed with sweet Claire (Claire Bear as she refers to herself), and Maya (now called Maya Boo). Our girls Maya (now 8 1/2 months) and Claire (3 1/2 years old), are always changing and doing things that we want to remember. This blog will include some short snippets of things the girls do or say, as well as tell stories about their life and the changes we go through together as a family.