Jordi’s mom came up for Josie’s birthday party and hung out with us a few more days. She got to do such fun things as take the girls to the doctor, and take me to the doctor for some strong medicine to finally get healthy. One day we went to the Stone Zoo as she had gotten Josie a membership for her birthday. We also played outside and inside and luckily on the day she had to leave we got to go to the Franklin Park zoo all together before we dropped her at the airport to just barely catch her flight. Josie and Celia loved to watch the gorillas, especially the baby one. We’ve been to the zoo at least 5 times now since getting the membership, we can get friends in too, so let us know if you want to go!

Celia today was determined to use the potty. She hasn’t yet (not that we are instructing her to, this is her idea). Directly after bath Josie decided she needed to go and sat on the toilet, so Celia got her little potty and brought it in front of the toilet and sat down. She made the ‘sssssssssst’ noise we try to use. She checked the potty. Nothing. She sat down again and grunted. Checked the potty again, nothing, some gas. So she decided to stand up. Now I know if she is successful she is going to make a big mess trying to go while standing, but she is so determined I don’t want to interrupt her. I see all of her body clenching and pushing, her stomach, her legs, her face. More grunts, nothing produced. She stands off to the side of the potty and tries again. And suddenly there is fluid on the floor!

Except it’s vomit, she tried so hard she spit up a bit.

I just hope she continues with her self motivation to use the potty because she wants to be like her big sister, I wouldn’t mind getting her out of diapers sooner.

Celia’s hair growth has really started to take off, so a month or maybe two ago now, I took a picture of the back of her head to preserve her lovely swirl in the back. Now her hair at 19 months has grown into little ringlets in the back and side and the swirl has mostly disappeared. One of my favorite things to try to remember in my photography is to get the details, especially the fleeting ones like this.

On Josie’s birthday we had a full house with three extra guests in our little place! We woke up and had waffles for breakfast at home and my parents joined us too. We had the traditional whipped cream, strawberries, butter and syrup on them, fully loaded. Then we headed into present opening where Josie got to open her whole big pile of loot. She got a great well-rounded set of presents from books to art and dress up and our big present to her was a new big girl bicycle. I made her (yet another) cake for us to celebrate with, this time a layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

After some bike riding and playtime, Josie requested italien food for lunch, so we got some takeout from Sabatino’s.  And then we had a hasty cake and singing time as Javier and Bruna had to catch their flight back to Miami.

Celia I think was already napping by cake time, she was too tuckered out to make it. We said our goodbyes to Javier and Bruna and spent the lovely afternoon playing outside with my parents down at Waldo park and down on the bikes. Per Josie’s request I made lentil burritos for dinner and wished her a very happy birthday in the middle of dinner right at 6:39. More cake follows, boy we were full by the end of the day! It was a fun calmer day with us all at home relaxing and playing around the house with all the new fun toys.

Josie has been doing well with her new bike. No training wheels, she can ride across the basketball court and stop herself. Still working on getting going and she wants us to stay with her still too, but her balance bike has prepared her well. Celia has already claimed the balance bike well as hers and is trying really hard to master it already.

About a month ago I found a recipe for some driveway paint and let the kids have at it. It was easy to mix, half water half cornstarch and while the mixture was a little odd, when poured on thick it went well onto the driveway and left some major fun colors! We even attracted all the neighboring kids to play with us too and paint. This week we bought three boxes of cornstarch to make more fun paint!

As I said, Celia’s got more words every day. Lately we hear a lot of MINE (or as she says mime). She’s also learned to say excuse me, somewhat in the proper context. Saturday night she wanted to get to her books and some toys were in the way so she repeatedly said excuse me while shoving them out of the way. I think she may have learned that ‘use’ of the word  from her sister.

Celia is coming up with new words every single day now. It’s great to understand what she’s trying to communicate to us. This week and over the trip we’ve heard
-breakfast
-chocolate
-zucchini
-Josie (soooo cute)
-brocolli
-hello
-hola
-hi

And this morning, I we heard STOP for the first time! Because Josie was squeezing her nose.

It has been a very quiet month here on the blog because we’ve had an extremely busy month! We had out of town company, Josie’s birthday and party and then we all tromped off to Europe for two weeks. We’re home now, still jetlagged, Celia woke up at 3am today, 1am yesterday, so we’re headed in the right direction. Here’s a photo while I try to get those posts all written, but we’ve been going to bed with the girls at 7pm so far, so no time yet! Local people – Josie could definitely use some play dates after two weeks with no playmates her age if you’re around!