New Tooth

So...we had our ultrasound a week ago today. I haven't written about it cause it's not that exciting. The baby was breach, and sitting with its legs crossed, indian-style. So the u/s technician couldn't give us a confirmation on what it is, since he couldn't really tell. He said it could be a girl, because he couldn't see any boy parts, but then again, he couldn't see any girl parts either, so he can't be sure. So I'm a little bummed. Keith is telling everyone it's a girl, but I don't want to do that in case it's not. Hopefully the doc will check again for me in a couple weeks and maybe they'll be able to tell for sure then.

Téa got a new tooth - her right canine on top. We've been calling her sharp tooth, cause the left one came in about a week ago and it looks so funny - just the little point poking through. I think I have a picture....hold on, let me check. Yep - there it is.


I can't think of anything else right now. If I do, I guess I can always come back!!

We have kittens!!!

Dory had kittens today!! The girls are so excited. She had 5 - two brownish/black ones, one white, one orange, and one gray. It took about 2 hours. I'm already having a hard time keeping the girls away from them. Here's a quick picture I took. I'll try to take a better one later.

A few more things I forgot

• Keith turned 32. He's really getting old!
• I got a new camera - a Nikon D50!!! I've finally gone digital and I love it. Actually, I think Keith might love it even more than me. He's taken close to 200 pictures in the last 2 days.
• Téa still hasn't had her 12 month pictures taken yet. And she'll be 15 months on Friday. Every single time I schedule an appointment for her pictures, she falls and gets a bruise on her head. Then just as that one is starting to heal, she gets another one. I thought she was finally ready and then last Sunday she got a black eye. It's finally going away, so hopefully I can get some pictures taken of her in the next few days.
• Elena finally goes to nursery by herself. She was having a really hard time with me leaving her there. I'd have to wait at least 5 minutes for her to stop hiding behind my skirt and start playing before I could sneak out. The past couple weeks she's started to run in and start playing without me having to coax her into it. Yeah!
• Yesterday Elena told me "Mom, Nena REALLY love candy. Nena love candy in my mouth". When I was telling my mom about it, she said that when I was younger, it was my turn to say the prayer, and I said "Heavenly Father, please help me get ice cream in my mouth". So apparently, we both had/have sweets on our minds.
• Amya made a paper today that says "I miss Joe". I asked her how she knew how to spell Joe and she said she learned on Blue's Clue's (which Elena calls 'coo-coo'). I told her we'd put a picture of her and Joe at the bottom and she could put it up in her room.

It's been a long time.....

I didn't realize it had been over a month since I updated. We've had a lot of things happen, so be prepared for a long one.

• I already talked about when Téa took her first steps, but she hasn't really used walking as her primary means of transportation until this past week. She would take a few steps, but as soon as she fell, or got to another couch/wall to hold onto, she was either crawling, or holding onto something to walk. Then, finally, in this past week, if she falls, she gets up and continues walking. She doesn't hold onto the couch/wall, even if she's right next to it. She's so cute - she looks like this tiny midget person walking around. We love it!
• Elena is still not potty-trained. We're not being that vigilant about it. I put und*es on her, but then after a few accidents I get frustrated and put the diaper back on. I don't know, maybe she's just not ready. She definitely wants the candy reward, but she just doesn't tell us when she needs to go.
• On the subject of candy - she's HOOKED. I can't get her to not think about the stuff. She's constantly talking about how she loves candy. One day she came to me and said, "Mom, Nena sick. Nena doctor office. Nena shot. Nena Band-Aid. Nena candy." (The final sentence said with a huge grin.) What a manipulater!! Then when we had to take Téa to the doctor's, we were waiting for him to come into the room and Elena got all upset and said "Mom, Nena no need shot. Just candy".
• On the talking subject, she has really started talking a lot lately. It's weird. She was talking before, but just basic things, you know? Now all of a sudden she's talking in sentences and using big words, and just sounding so grown up. It's just going so fast.
• Oh, and today, she started singing a new Eminem song that Keith likes and sings all the time. She was walking around the house saying "Shakin that butt on the floor" over and over. Thanks, Keith. Really.
• Amya is reading!!! Kind of. Well, yeah, she is. We got some 1st reader Dora books from the library and have been going over and over them, and she's really reading a lot of the words. She already knew some words before, but now she's doing 'and', 'the', 'at', 'we', 'look', and other ones like that. We worked with some of the word cards she has and she learned a lot of words that way to. For example, one of them had the ending '-ay', so she learned say, play, pay, and stray. She's so smart!!!
• The pregnancy is going pretty well. No real nausea or anything. I do have a major pain in my hip/pelvic joint today though. Really making walking hard. I think I'm starting to feel the baby move, but not that much. I have an appointment on Thursday for a regular check-up. I'll be 18 weeks this week. Hopefully we can find out in 2 weeks what this baby is!!!
• Now for the last part of my post today. I really didn't want to talk about this just because it's been upsetting me so much, but Joe died yesterday. We still don't know exactly what happened (we shoudl find out later on today or tomorrow) but Noel found him in the bathroom at the farm yesterday. I guess what's bothering me the most is the fact that he was alone. No one was there to comfort him, to tell him they loved him, or that they'd miss him. He was just alone. And who knows for how long. And also, he's been pretty upset the last few weeks, and I feel bad that he left this world in a not happy state. I know he's gone to a better place and that he's much happier now, he's not crippled anymore, and all that, it just still makes me sad about how he spent his last few weeks. And I think about how if we had known, we would have spent more time with him. It's just sad for me.

So to end, here's a picture of Joe with Amya and Elena at the farm on Aug 20, 2005. The girls had wanted to show him something and he gladly went to the back with them. He always had candy for them when they came over, or he'd buy some for them if we were out together. He'd give them money to play games at the pizza place. He bought Old Yeller and Savage Sam for Amya when we were at Sam's because he heard her telling me that she wanted them. He really loved the girls, and they loved him. Especially Elena. She was always with him when we were at the farm. We're really going to miss him.

New Stuff Going On

A lot has happened since my last post. On Thursday (the 12th) Téa finally took some steps!!! We were at church and Angela Puertas and her daughter Isabel came. Isabel is two weeks older than Téa and is already walking. She started walking around the foyer and Téa was watching her like a hawk. Then Amya, Elena, and Isabel started playing with some volleyballs and Téa totally wanted in on the fun. She was standing up and I could tell that she wanted to participate, so I was helping her walk around. Then I let go of her hands and she took a few steps!! We quickly called Keith over so he could see her, and after some coaxing, she took a few more!!! She hasn't done any more walking since, but I'm glad she made some progress.

On Friday, I was playing with Téa and decided to check to see if she had any new teeth. Sure enough, she did!! Two new molars on the top. I think they have only come in in the last few days, cause they're not poking out that much. Then Elena was jealous and told me to check her mouth - and she had a new tooth!!! A new molar on the bottom left. So of course, Amya made me check her too, and she had a new one as well!! Same as Elena - new molar on the bottom left. Elena's has been there for awhile, it's almost all the way through, but Amya's is just barely coming out. So we thought that was funny that all three girls had new teeth together.

One more thing - Saturday night we needed some milk for Sunday. I would have gone to the store when Keith got home, but he was out late, so I told him to just pick some up on the way home. He said he would, but when he got home he had forgotten. I told him he had to go get some, and as he started to leave Amya said, "Sorry Dad, buh-bye"...very sarcastically. We just started laughing, she said it so funny.

Oh and Elena is still working on the potty thing. She's doing better about using it, and we're giving her a couple mini M&M's every time she goes, but she's had some accidents too. She doesn't really tell us when she has to go, we have to ask her. And even sometimes when we ask her, she says she doesn't have to, and 5 minutes later her pants are wet. But we're trying.

And now I think we're caught up with the happenings in the life of our family.

Good news...and bad news

Today was the first day that Elena told us that she had to use the potty and then actually used it!!!! This morning she told Keith, so he put her on, but she didn't go. She asked for pant*es though, so we let her wear them. I kept asking her all morning if she needed to go or not, and she kept saying no. Then, right before Diego came on, she said "Mommy - Nena peepee". So I told her let's hurry and go before Diego comes on, and she did!!! She was so proud of herself. So we left them on. Then when Amya came home, I told Elena to tell her what she had on. (I had just asked her if she had to go, by the way.) Then Amya says "What's that stuff on Elena's legs?" She had wet her pants. ARGH!!! I had all these thoughts going through my mind, like maybe she'll just start using the potty and I won't have to worry about it anymore. But no. And then 10 minutes later, she did #2 in her pull-up. So I guess she won't be potty-trained in a day...should I hope for a week?

My Three Girls

My First Post

So I guess this is my first post. I'm hoping to make this blog a place for me to document the lives of my girls. I feel like I'm not doing a very good job of recording the little things they do and say and I'm quickly forgetting them. I'm on the computer so much, hopefully this will make it easier for me to come and jot things down before I forget them. So here goes.....