Goodbye July

What a month! I can't believe I ever thought I was tired or busy when I just had one child. How easy that seems now! HA. No offense mothers of one baby -- your job is still tough, but just WAIT til you have another one ;) muhahahaha...

We stuck close to home in July and started to find our groove with Lucca & Jackson's schedules. Everyone always tells me to just get through the first year of life with two babes and the rest is golden. But as crazy as it is having two, we realize these are sweet, sweet days, and my mindset is anything but "just getting through this year" and more like trying to soak up each moment of this year. A few favorite moments...

Our beloved park bench. We eat lunch here almost every day. We also read books here.

Jackson listens to the stories too.

Lucca is becoming quite the little artist, which I'm so happy about. We've been doing lots and lots of painting...watercolor, acrylic on canvas, finger painting, you name it. I love watching her be creative. She names every painting, a few of the most recent are "Cowboy" "Boo Boo" "Buddy" "Peedie" and my personal fave... "Crazy Jumping Pirate Bugs"

Unfortunately, I now have a big stack of Lucca's art that I can't seem to part with yet. You may be getting some in the mail soon if you're lucky :)

The bath time ritual is something we so greatly look forward to every day. 7:00 on the dot -- this girl gets in the tub, sometimes with balloons (string of balloon pictured below..ha)

Lucca the Ballerina!

Lucca went to her first ballet class a few weeks ago and I'm not sure she's taken her tutu off since. Which is funny, because we've had 5 tutu's here for the past year but they all the sudden are the coolest thing in the house. Now that she actually realizes they are for dancing she likes them. Just bend be thankful that I did not post a photo of ME wearing one of her tutu's, because yes, that happened.

Lucca LOVES her brother. I have become more than Jackson's mother, I am his bodyguard - from Lucca. The love she has for him is shown in many ways, including squeezing, squishing, squealing, holding, poking, shouting and jumping all over him.

But who is Lucca's #1 fan? Jackson.

1st Canvas

Lucca painted her first canvas today, which will proudly hang in her room. She liked it, I liked it, and hopefully when she's in 7th grade I can get her out of school early to go to painting classes with me -- just to keep the tradition going, right mom?

Grammie visits!

Every now and then it's good to get some help! This week I asked my mom to come over so I could take Lucca to a couple of her classes BY HERSELF! Without Jackson. It's proven to be pretty difficult to walk the balance beam and swing on the rings with Lucca at gymnastics while wearing Jackson in the Baby Bjorn. So what a treat when Grammie watched the baby so LC could enjoy 100% of mommy's attention at her classes. She was a star at gymnastics as usual and today was Lucca's 1st ballet class at Tutu School. Adorable & hilarious. Teaching 2 year olds how to plié and stand in 1st and 2nd position is an amazing sight to see :)

And of course Grammie does all the laundry and washes dishes each time she's here, and bathes Jackson, and wakes up early with the babies, etc etc etc!

Grammie, come back soon...PLEASE.

Cleaning Lady

It's about time she starts cleaning up her messes!

My heart.

My sweet Lucca,

I've so appropriately called you a little gem since you were a wee babe and today this nickname could not have been more fitting. You melted my heart about a billion times today. Two years old is a crazy age -- some days are amazing, some days test every bit of patience that exists in my body. Your personality is larger than life and most days the sky is your limit.

Today you wore a pretty little white dress, sweet as could be. Daddy woke you up and made you breakfast and let me stay in bed. I woke up to you climbing into my bed asking me to read you a Curious George book. "Mommy wakes up," you said. We watched your favorite show, Super Why, which you dance and sing the intro to every single time. We walked to the park and went straight to the swings of course. On the swings you like to sing Doe-a-Deer, play the Rhyme game, and count, both in English and Spanish. Then you made a birthday cake in the sand, used sticks for candles and sang happy birthday to Muno. You ran in the grass, chased a butterfly until it flew away, and then you came running back to me saying "Excuse me mommy, do you know where that butterfly went?" ... I died.

You ate three bean salad and a mini Cibo muffin for lunch. We had lunch with Daddy, so that was a treat. You touched the flamingos and crocodiles (people in Sausalito have wacko yard ornaments..) on the way back to our house the way you always do. We galloped. We hopped. We jumped.

After nap, you didn't want to go anywhere - you just wanted to play at the house. You love to use your imagination. You played with your animals, lined them all up on your surfboard so they could surf. Then they had a tea party. The gorilla stayed in the bag like he always does...you play with all the animals but him.

We went to the grocery store and you got two balloons from the nice old guy that loves when we come in. You also took a bath with those balloons tonight. We watched Gabba and got ready for bed. Jackson was having a rough time settling down and was crying which sometimes makes you cry, you sweet little thing. I got him to sleep and then read your Mickey Mouse story that you waited so, so patiently for. Sometimes it's rough being the big sister and being second in line to the newborn baby, but you do it so well - you really are the best big sis.

You sang your way to sleep to the song of choice lately, This Old Man. I hope you have the sweetest dreams tonight my little lady Lucca-Lu.

You. Are. A. Gem.

July 4

We had a hometown holiday on July 4. Started the day with a pancake breakfast down the street, followed by the Sausalito parade, live music in the park, and then home for red, white and blue cake. Although the parade left much to be desired, Lucca loved it. She sat on top of Daddy's shoulders to see the floats pass by (if you could call them floats) and then danced the day away to the live music across the street at the park by the water. The Cal Alumni band found their biggest fan. She is 2 years old, 3 feet tall and full of good moves.

Perfect weather, perfect company, perfect weekend and perfect not-pictured baby brother who slept in his stroller most of the time. Proud to be an American family.