All I Want for Christmas...

Is my baby's two front teeth! Emma lost her other front tooth just a few days after the first. Actually, she probably doesn't want them to grow in any time soon. She seems quite proud of her gap-toothed grin.

My biking babe

We took the girls out to ride bikes again yesterday. Emma is making amazing progress on riding without training wheels. She started the day quite wobbly but eventually had Carlos just running along the bike.

Nothing of Much Importance

Okay I got nothing today. I am tired and just spent 2 hours cleaning out the dryer vents because they appeared clogged and the laundry room smells like burnt clothing. I must have emptied out 6+ years of lint. Instead of exiting the vents, it just appeared to have stayed there acumulating.

So after cleaning the vents, I was filthy and had to take a shower and then bathe the girls. I wish I could think of anything to blog about more interesting than this but I am just too tired.

Here are a few pictures of the girls from our Sunday trip to the mall play area:

HSM3 Senior Year!

Together, together, together everyone
Together, together, come on lets have some fun!
Together, were there for each other every time
Together together come on lets do this right!

For those of you without children or living under a rock, that's from the million dollar High School Musical phenomenon. Emma and I saw HSM3 yesterday at the El Capitan in Hollywood. Okay, it is commercial and over the top, but we loved it! It was cute. The music was still a lot of fun and hey Kenny Ortega direction and choreography. How can you pass that up?

I spent half the movie entertained, one quarter of the movie enthralled with my daughter and her friends (more on that to come), and one quarter fighting my urge to be cynical and criticize the storyline (okay come on I doubt Stanford would schedule some honors program for incoming freshman in June so students have to miss prom and graduation, please!).

Now Emma is 7 and I heard her and her friends discussing how hot Zac is but my favorite anecdote from the film was following the first major kiss between Gabriella and Troy. We all heard a major chorus of "Eww!" from Emma and her friends. As I laughed out loud, I also thanked God that my girl is still my little girl!

Look ma! No tooth!

My darling first born lost her front tooth. It is only her third lost tooth and the first on the top tier. She is so excited. It will only be the second time the tooth fairy will visit as tooth #2 was really lost while on the camping trip from hell last May.

Do you Remember Learning to Ride a Bike?

Emma has been working on it with a lot of help from Carlos. She is working so hard and I don't remember it being so difficult. Which makes me wonder just how accurate my memories are! I know it must have been so difficult to learn how to balance on a two-wheeler. I am so impressed with Emma for challenging her fears and working so hard every day to master the bike. I should have taken more pictures, but here is the only one I could find:

The Karate Kids

Some pictures from karate class. Here is Emma working on a kata and sparring with a classmate:

Here is Sofia working on her kicks:

Wow looking at the photos I am convinced my children are karate prodigies. Okay, now watching them in class is another story. In reality, Sofia spends some classes working fairly well and others talking to her peers, other parents, or dancing around the room. Emma does pretty well, but also seems pretty easily distracted and seems to have difficulty telling her right hand from her left. I am pretty sure she inherited that from me.

Back to School Night

Back to School Night was tonight. Carlos and I left the girls with my mom and went over to the school to attend the first PTA meeting of the year and then sit in tiny little chairs in the classroom and meet Emma’s teacher. I have to say that I really like her. She is young but not too young and she appears to be confident, flexible, and energetic. Good qualities for a 2nd grade teacher. I was fairly accurate in my observation skills. She is due to have her first baby in November and will be out for at least three months. However, she appears to be a good caring teacher and Emma seems to like her so I will think positive thoughts.

Emma starts 2nd Grade

We took Emma to her first day of 2nd grade. She was so excited and looked so grown up. Her teacher is Mrs. Luchansky and she seems very nice but also quite a bit pregnant. I suspect she is due before the Christmas holidays. I can't believe I have a daughter in 2nd grade.

Emma turns seven!

My first baby girl turned seven today! I cannot believe I have a seven-year-old. We celebrated with a small birthday party. Emma had become obsessed with Hannah Montana and Camp Rock over the summer so of course she had requested a Hannah Montana party. The girls made bracelets, put on fake tattoos, and did karaoke to Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus tunes. We also did a huge Hannah Montana piñata (as I could not find a smaller one). Finally, we had cake and ice cream and then everyone went home.

I was actually proud of myself. Celebrations and parties are always challenges for me. They stimulate my perfectionism. I usually obsess over the details and spend weeks planning for the “perfect” party. A few years ago, I realized this had to stop. It was not healthy for me and it was not a good habit I wanted to pass on to my daughters. My journey to reduce my perfectionism may make a great anecdote when I am leading a group of patients and encouraging them to do less and live better, but it was not pretty to realize that I had not enjoyed any of my daughters’ birthdays because I was too focused on achieving the perfect party!

For this party, I worked very hard on making it simple. I borrowed a karaoke system from a friend. I ordered the cake from Albertson’s and Emma loved it because it had Hannah Montana on it. I bought some munchies and drinks at the store that morning rather then cooking all kinds of treats. I already had the jewelry craft and the temporary tattoos left from a YMCA meeting that changed at the last minute. The girls had a great time and for once, so did I! I was able to enjoy the party and avoid being stressed.

Magic Mountain

Well I realized last week that Emma had earned a free ticket to Six Flags Magic Mountain with her reading during first grade. However, I finally read the actual ticket and noticed it expired Saturday. So I decided it was time for the family to make the trip there and saturday was the only day that worked with our schedules and yesterday, we trekked to Magic Mountain.

On the "up" side, the girls had a blast. They enjoyed every minute, even the long lines. And the lines were not that long considering it was a Saturday during the height of summer. They met Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Emma went on her first major roller coaster, Ninja.

On the "down" side, the weather was hot and humid, the food was terrible and over-priced, and there were a lot of rides the girls were still too young to go on. For me, there were a lot of rides that Emma could go on, but Sofia could not. That meant someone had to entertain Sofia for an hour or more while Emma went on the ride. We took turns, but it was still a bit taxing in the heat.


Overall, I don't think we will visit again until the girls are older and even then I would still rather go to Disneyland being the Disney freak that I am.

End of Week One at Summer Day Camp

I felt I should provide another update since I was not very happy with the YMCA day camp. Well...after week one Emma seems to be happy. She seems to have made a few friends. I still suspect one or two of the older kids is not too nice to her, but I have to admit that this happens everywhere and she is going to have to learn how to deal with mean kids no matter where she goes. She loves the swimming and is very proud of how much better she is swimming. Carlos is out of town tonight for business, so the girls and i went in the pool after dinner and Emma was showing off her improved swimming skills!

More on Summer Camp

Well, a quick update. I picked up Emma last night from the YMCA summer day camp and she seemed to have had a good day. She loved the swimming and her swimming lesson. She seemed to find a few friends and at least one staff she liked. She proudly told me she put on her sunscreen all by herself every hour. She also told me that some kids were mean to her and made fun of her drawing and she seemed worried a bit about whether she might be teased by these kids if she wore the wrong thing. For me, the jury is still out but I am trying to allow her to be independent and learn to navigate a new system.

Does It Ever Get Easy?

So, the school year has ended and that is a major improvement in many areas for being a mom. No more homework or school activities to organize and supervise. But, how to handle summertime childcare? I finally decided to use the YMCA summer camp program for Emma. They have an indoor pool and she can go swimming daily. it also seemed more supervised than the Parks and Rec Program that runs her after school program during the year. Today was the first day and it was difficult. I just dropped off my sweet innocent 6-year-old and felt the YMCA was offering limited attention to her needs! She was afraid and alone. No sign of any prior friends attending the program. This morning I did not find any eager staff to help set her feelings at ease. I had to leave her and hope for the best. Am I expecting too much for my $160 a week? This is more expensive than day-care, yet they all seem to provide less attention than a day-care. I just don't seem to understand the system. Let's hope she has a good day.

My First Born has a Rite of Passage

Emma lost her very first tooth! It has been loose for weeks but chose today to fall out at school on the playground. Apparently, her friends helped her find it and she is proudly wearing it in a little tooth necklace someone gave to her at school around her neck! Now, we enter the world of the tooth fairy. She has already proudly told me that the tooth fairy apparently leaves a dollar! (I guess I am lucky her friends do not have crazy parents who leave outrageous amounts.)

Our Trip to the Snow...

Well, Emma and I are back from our winter camp experience. It was not exactly camping as we stayed in cabins. The camp location was great (http://www.alpinemeadowsretreats.com/). There was snow everywhere and lots of great places to go sledding. The cabins were nice with heating and indoor bathrooms. The staff was nice and provided all the meals so all we had to focus on was having fun.

The drive was easier than I anticipated, but I was still glad we found a ride there and back. Chains were needed, but really only in the camp which had many small slopes and one lane roads covered in ice and snow. We rode up with another Adventure Guide's husband and their 3-year-old daughter so Emma had a great time talking with her and watching her videos on their IPOD. I must say I learned the true funcitonality of an IPOD this weekend. Wow, their IPOD had plenty of space for many movies and TV shows, the girls were never bored and it was a long ride up and back!

We had so much fun! We sledded and played in the snow. We all made snow angels. Our tribe made a princess out of snow outside of our cabin. The girls talked all night and made up stories in the cabin. We checked out everyone else's snow creations.

Sunday, we caravaned back home with some of our friends. Now, we are so psyched up for our Mammoth trip in February.