If we happen to leave our laptops open or our computer on, Olivia will undoubtedly make her way over to it. She will often locate things that we never knew existed. On one occasion she deleted something on Adrian’s laptop, and to this day we have no clue what the file was hahah!
Here are some photos we captured of one of her online adventures.
Here are two videos Adrian took before we put the girls big bed together.
I can’t believe this day has come already. Jillian is so excited, and so am I. I’m looking forward to hearing all the new songs she’s going to learn and seeing all of the little projects she will be bringing home.
Adrian and I got to go with Jillian in the morning for a meet and greet with the parents. haha for some reason I was thinking it was going to be like Kindergarten where the teacher gives a back to school spiel on the first day of school. It was simply a look around the class and meet the teacher. Jillian is very confident so Adrian and I decided we could leave early. We told Jillian that we were going to leave and she got a sad look on her face. We explained that we had to go to work and she knew what that meant, so she was happy joining the other kids playing in the block area. We said goodbye and she was fine 🙂 No tears from anyone!!
When I got home from work Jillian told me all about preschool. They sang wheels on the bus and colored. I think she’s super happy about going to school!
This is the artwork she brought home.
Our home was included in the large blackout that included San Diego and Parts of Arizona. Adrian met me at work that afternoon since I was working late, he told me about the power out and I called my mom. She had us pick up ice in Irvine because she had just gone to Costco that morning and had a fridge full of food. Driving home was annoying because all of the street lights were completely out, so people were a little crazy on the road.
My aunt, uncle and cousin were over when we arrived at home. It was a nice family dinner by candlelight 🙂 Adrian and I had also purchased a starter log and a bundle of firewood. After dinner we had a very nice bonfire. Jillian didn’t care for the cooked marshmallows because they were not perfect in color, especially if the marshmallow caught on fire. It was getting late so I put Olivia to bed, Jillian had fallen asleep in my aunts arms.
Getting myself to sleep was really tough, I usually listen to an audio book or watch a movie to help shut off my mind before heading to bed. I also didn’t have any books to read at this time, I guess I could have read Beowulf in preparation for teaching it to my class, but eww, not what I wanted to read right before sleeping. I had a rough day at work and my mind would not shut off, thankfully my laptop had about an hours worth of power, the unfortunate part was our server was down so I couldn’t access all of our movies. So I watched Aladdin, it was the only thing on my laptop. (No DVD drive on my laptop)
The power went back on and life resumed as normal. It makes you think about how prepared would we be in a larger scaled emergency.
Even without power, we are still connected 🙂
The girls have always had trouble sleeping by themselves. One night we stuck Jillian in the crib with Olivia and they slept through the night. We then progressed to putting their mattresses on the floor. This was great, until Jillian rolled off of the mattress and right under the nearby crib. We decided to remove Olivia’s crib and turn Jillian’s toddler bed into the full size bed (we bought a convertible crib). After doing some research looking for the parts to change it into a bed, I found that the company had gone out of business. Only one website was selling the side railings for about $150, which was more than we wanted to spend on two pieces of wood. We found some side rails for $50 and all Adrian would have to do is drill some holes, yay saving money!
Anyways, The girls love their bed! They love sleeping next to each other, they both slept through the night from 8:30PM until 7:30AM. Unfortunately, for me I had a huge headache all night and had a hard time sleeping, so much for a restful night! Since we made it a big bed we’ve had many nights where they sleep all the way through! The few times they woke up were for teething or needing to use the restroom.
My mom has been taking Jillian to swimming lessons this summer. Jillian has good days and bad days. It sounds like it switches each week. Last week (when this picture was taken) was her best day yet. She listened to directions and swam like a champ. This week however, she cried from the minute she touched the water to the second she got out. Who knows what’s going on in her little head, she doesn’t tell us what’s wrong.
This week we’ve also been having nigh time issues. She’s been having a tantrum every night, not wanting to go to sleep. Then she wakes up multiple times during the night, I just don’t know what’s going on with her this week, hopefully next week will be better.
I don’t remember if I ever wrote about Bear on the blog.
On June 18th, we won Bear at an auction for my mom’s cousin’s daughter (What’s the term for that haha, second cousin?)
Anyways, Bear was purchased with the intent of giving him to our neighbor who was looking for a dog at the time. Well after one look I was in love with the 9 week old puppy, I mean just look at how cute he was!
The girls absolutely adored him, well I should say Olivia absolutely adored him, Jillian could take him or leave him. Those first two weeks were like a dream, he slept all day with the occasional waking to play, eat, and poop. Some nights were good, other nights he whined… he was definitely our third child. He was slowly getting the hang of potty training and we were excited how quickly he was learning.
Then July came around and I started teaching at UCI with the young writers program. I was gone all day, leaving my mom to watch the girls and work with Bear. It was ok at the time because I was only going to be working for 3 weeks then I could get more involved with puppy training. Well one week into teaching and I was offered a job at a year round school.
Fast forward to August and my poor mother is doing all of the babysitting and puppy training. She managed to potty train him and began working on the behavior issues like biting, jumping, digging, barking, chewing, etc. It became too much for all of us, and it wasn’t fair to Bear. We just didn’t have the time he deserved.
We ultimately decided that we needed to give him to his original intended owner. She lives 3 doors down from us and doesn’t have any kids. She is an interior decorator who I believe works mostly from home. She was thrilled when we asked if she was still interested in the dog.
We called her a few days later to check on her and she is in absolute heaven. We’re so excited that Bear (who is now called Bentley) has the home he deserves to be in. He gets round the clock attention and love, which is something that we just were not able to give.
On the last weekend of July the weather decided to change. 🙂
The girls absolutely loved dressing up in their rain gear and heading for an afternoon of splashing in puddles and catching raindrops on their tongues. Adrian and I missed this event because we were spending the weekend in San Diego. My mom messaged me these pictures, I love that we have the technology to receive a picture of a moment in time while we are far away.
We spent the day down in San Diego with our friends. We played at the beach and the girls had the best time!
Photo taken by Jarold Espiritu
Photo taken by Jarold Espiritu
Dear Blog,
This summer session of my master’s program is a tough one. I am doing homework on a daily basis and barely have enough time for the family. I am going to put you on hiatus until August. I look forward to writing about Jillian’s birthday and our summer adventures in Gymnastics and ballet.
See you in August,
Sarah