Lil boo boo stuff

I am losing interest in writing on a blog more and more but I know I need to write on it for a journal to keep track of Pria's growth. So here I am doing it again almost 4 months later...

*Pria starts gymnastics this weekend. I am pretty excited. It is going to be Dustin and Pria's daddy daughter date time on Saturday mornings.
*Pria has 11 teeth now, including her 4 molars in the back. When she got her first molar she had a high fever of 102 for a couple days, which was a little scary but she handled it well. She slept a lot and was very snuggly and attached.
*Pria loves using her utensils to eat. She mastered them well at like 15 months. She waits very patiently for us to bring us her fork or spoon if we forget to put it on her plate. She likes to sort and organize her food on her plate. She nibbles on her food in between organizing. She eats everything now except lettuce (hard to eat) and of course any sugar desserts.
*Her sign language is still going strong. She knows a lot of signs and sometimes figures them out before Dustin and I have the chance to learn them ourselves from her Signing Time dvds. She kind of teaches us haha. She says words very well too. We try to challenge her with new ones every day.
*Her favorite toy is still the ball. If she sees one she has to run over to it and pick it up right away. She tries to gather as many as she can carry, hoarding them around everywhere.
*Reading time is very important to us and we do it every night before bed and throughout the day. Pria loves her books and gets very happy when we read to her or look through them and let her point to things basically asking us what everything in the book is.
*Pria still nurses. She does so on average 4 times during the day. She still nurses once at night but occasionally forgets
*She knows what potty means and where the potty is, but hasn't figured out that she can actually go in the potty. It is ok. No rush. She will figure it out on her own time.
*Pria is in nursery now at church and it is growing on her. I still go in with her on Sunday so I can gradually put her in. I have gone in with her about 5 times now and she does better and better each time. She's getting more familiar with the idea of playing around 10 other little kids who don't typically like to share their toys or the little slide that is Pria's favorite... Sharing is also a very new concept and at that age it is difficult with every kid but I am in there to try and help her get comfortable with it and so I know how to handle it too. She isn't the only one learning. I am learning how to do it too! How to help her and teach her. Depending on if kids are really sick or if the energy in nursery is crazy I may or may not keep her with me in Sunday school while my dad is teaching. She behaves really well in the adult class reading her books or listening to my dad teach.
*I am in no hurry to have her be on her own away from me. She is an angel child and I don't mind having her hang out with me. Some of the moms in church give me the vibe that I need to let her go. Mind your own business. I know my child better than other parents and I know when to leave her without her parents on her own time. I don't get other parents sometimes...

Anyway thats all for today. I'll write again in like 6 months! Haha

Yo.

Updates on whats up with Pria:

She loves coloring (with a LOT of supervision of course because she gets it on her body, clothes and other things you shouldn't color... But it is a learning activity.
She climbs on everything. Can climb on the chairs, get on the table, crawl from couch to chairs next to each other and her bed in her room she climbs up to jump around on.
She is pretty good with balance and most the time we trust her but well she is 16 months and isn't a pro yet so we have to be near her all the time. Speaking of balance we went by a gymnastics place to check it out and see if Pria liked it. She is still too young for it but we wanted to check it out. She sort of joined in on the baby class for fun. She doesn't listen yet so we are waiting until she is 18 months to join a 8 week class. She liked the trampolines a lot. She is so funny when she bounces really fast with a big smile on her face. I want to get her one of those little workout trampolines with a bar kids can hold onto when they bounce ha.
She uses forks and spoons and won't eat unless she has her own haha. She likes to do most things on her own now. It makes a huge mess but she loves it and learns how to use utensils better every day.
 Books and her toy balls are her favorite. She has so many books but her her few favorites she likes us to read over and over and over and....over. She should be able to form sentences by the time we see Jelina next. Her language right now is taking off. Dustin and I understand what she is trying to communicate but other people can't understand what she is saying. I need to video her saying 'cheese' lol. Funniest thing ever.
She has figured out how to use our phones and Dustin's iPad.... She swipes and then does what we do on our phones. She has called Sierra quite a few times haha. Once I was sitting on the couch by her and I heard someone in the distance saying "hello? hello? You there?" I looked all around and saw Pria running with my phone and Sierras face was on the front. Haha.
Pria's molars are coming in right now so she is really whiney. I can tell it hurts her :(
Prias absolute favorite activity is playing hide'n'seek and tag. She loves being chased and having us creep around corners to sneak up on her and roaring like a lion... She squeals and runs as fast as her tiny feet can go.
Oh the things you could never catch me doing before Pria... What we will do to entertain her and make her laugh. Although you may find it more entertaining seeing my dad do it... We were hanging out in the living room one Sunday and Pria ran into the kitchen from the hallway squealing with delight. Next thing you see is my dad crawling fast on the floor after her growling LOL. Dad gets so happy hearing her laugh. Dustin was making her laugh so hard one night tickling her and dad was like, "That is the best sound in the world..."
She is so smart its not even funny. She figures stuff out so fast. You can' sneak anything passed her.

 I am starting a garden in the backyard. Like a legit one. I am just hoping my veggies will grow. Majority of the things I buy at the grocery store are produce and it adds up. Food is not cheap here. So I am going to try and grow stuff myself. If we had a bigger yard I would do more because things like cauliflower, squash, and potatoes take up a ton of room. So I can only grow the small plants unfortunately.
 Silly but fun news. We got our first green egg yesterday from one of our chickens. Her name is Sofia haha. I may have said already but we named our chickens after celebrities.
We have 6: -Reba (our red one)
-Goldie Hawn (our gold one)
-Beyonce (mixed colors with a huge butt)
-Lil Kim (she's black)
-Phoebe "Friends" (our white crazy chicken)
 -Sofia Vergara "a latina actress we like" (looks like a mexican chicken lol)
 Dustin wants to get another chicken that lays dark dark brown eggs with white spots... Dustin loves the chickens...

Next project, potty training. Sigh.... I know it will be a lot of work but I need to start it now. Pria hates diapers and she has her own little pink potty she knows is hers. She sits on it whenever one of us goes to the bathroom haha. She just doesn't know to pee in it yet.

Let's get social.

So Pria is at a point in her life where she needs to get more involved with other kids. At church she will be joining nursery in a couple months and she is pretty shy so I want to be around her with other kids to see how she will be. On Wednesdays, there is a baby reading time for ages 0-24months which Dustin and I went to with her and it was cute. Pria just didn't know quite what to do with all these other loud hyper kids kids. It was similar to when we were in Nebraska and there were a bunch of kids and she just sat, watched, smiled and slowly moved closer to the other kids.
I don't mind that she is shy. Really I don't. I was shy and still am at times around other new people. Sometimes it bothers me a little and I know everyone always likes a more social butterfly around than a quiet person. So I do want her to get the opportunity to be around other kids and can make what she wants of the situation. If she is shy she is shy. But I can't keep her all to myself anymore...

It is not just Pria either. I have a goal this year to try and be a more social mom. Not my favorite thing... But I know Dustin would be happy if I did and its healthy I guess. Not that Dustin minds if I am not a social butterfly. But I know he would like it.

Some things you just can't capture...

I don't really blog any more. But I do think of writing on here little things that Pria is doing and stuff. I more want to write on here as a journal for me rather than sharing with others. But once I am on here I forget what I want to record! Ugh. We record a lot with our camera and video. But some things you just can't capture...

She learns everyday. She knows so much more than we think. We have to be careful sometimes. She is just now learning 'no.' Not the word. Just shaking her head. She hasn't shook her head to say 'no' however which is good. We try to say yes a lot or 'let's try this' or we don't do that' instead of saying the word 'no' a lot.

Pria definitely has a sweet personality. Very quiet most the time. She loves to just sit and read her little books. She will pick her favorite ones, bring them over and back into our lap to sit by one of us to read to her. Or sometimes she just back up slowly to just be by us.

She brings us specific toys when we mention them. Just last week it was so sweet. We said "where is the fishy?" She stood there for a second thinking and then ran into her room and brought us a book and turned to the page with a fish on it. It was sweet. She does the same thing with her shoes and socks a lot.

KISSES! Oh my goodness this is my favorite. Dustin taught her "kisses" in just ten minutes a month or so ago. When we say 'kisses' or make kissing noises she will pucker up her lips and lean in to our lips for a smooch on the lips. Sometimes her kisses have extra "juicy slobber" which you just gotta give in to haha. Or we even ask her to give her puppy or other stuffed animals kisses and she does it with a smile.
HUGS! She is very snuggly and loves big hugs. She won't do hugs on command to us yet like she does kisses, but she knows what they are. She will also give huge hugs to the cat, Nala and her favorite stuffed animals.

Other little people... Pria has been around more little kids and she mostly just observes quietly, but giggles sweetly when they smile and talk to her. We are out in Nebraska this week for Christmas and she loves Taylor and Austin's kids (we are staying at their house). Pria does this really cute "hee hee" laugh at them.

Getting scared. There are a few things that make her really sad making me sad a little bit too. She cries when someone is cutting up meat or fish. We walked passed the fresh fish deli yesterday in a grocery store and she just started crying when she looked at it. Some noisy moving 'creepy' toys freak her out and make her cry. People with a very negative energy make her cry. If our voices get too high she gets sad. A while back we brought my parents dog Jayda to the beach in our jeep. After leaving the beach Jayda jumped in the back seat where Pria sits running around getting wet dirt/sand everywhere with Pria and I in the jeep. I yelled a little for her to get in the trunk of the jeep and Pria really didn't like it... And the biggest one, when other kids cry she gets really really sad with a big pouty lip.

When she is nursing Pria likes to pick at my finger nails or poke my nose...Awesome. She does it to Dustin to when they are just sitting together or he is reading to her.

Sleeping. Not even gonna go there. I am pretty tired most the time let's just say that...

And speaking of sleep. She is awake now. Later.

"mommy brain"

I am not doin' too hot on this blog thing... I am sure it will only get worse as the years go. I finally understand why some moms took forever to write on these things.

Mommy brain.

Too much goin' on in there! Moms are always thinking about everything! I mean I had a busy brain before but now, man its crazy up there haha!

Pria is growing way way fast and it is hard for me to think of all the things she has developed with.

She is walking so fast she is basically running. She is SO freakishly smart and understands MORE than you would know. She may not be able to speak but when we talk we point to certain things so she knows what those things are and she copies us a lot and I can just tell that she understands based on her expressions.
She can sign a bunch of things like; food, water, milk, 'all done', shoes, more, pick me up, and we are working on some more. It is very helpful when she uses her signs to let us know what she wants until she can speak better.
There isn't really any foods she distinctly dislikes. Since she is 1 now, we let her try most of what we eat. Except of course any junk or things that are difficult for her to eat. She really prefers eating things with her hands, by herself. Which makes it hard sometimes because that just means a huge mess...But I gotta just push through so she can learn...
Buying food for her is also hard because she eats in such small portions and we never know if she is actually going to eat what I prepare for her. SO I feel like we waste a lot of food. It is a struggle I am figuring out the hard way. I am sure I will have it down by the next kid... Maybe lol.
She loooves broccoli, tofu, chicken, eggs, couscous (a new hit), Evolution green drinks, and bananas are still a big favorite.
Also, since she is 1 now, walking AND teething apparently that means it comes with nursing A LOT during the day and at night. I read online that it is normal and only lasts a couple months. Feels like forever so far.

I am so sleep deprived it isn't even funny. It is exhausting. But I read why it happens and it makes sense. So again I need to push through and just make it work for Pria and me.

Pria had her one year birthday a few weeks ago and it was great! I went a little overboard on the decorations and planning but I enjoy that type of stuff and everything looked amazing like I imagined it. We had pumpkins of different colors and sizes everywhere. I even spray painted some hot pink and gold. It was a gold, orange and hot pink theme. She had a photo table with two big cork boards of pics of her all over it. A big food table decorated with pink flowers and mini pumpkins. I had a burlap birthday banner and a very color for banner for fun that I made across the house. There were a bunch of hay bales everywhere for extra seating. And the hit of the party was the 4x4 corn box in the middle of the backyard!!! There were about 10 kids there and they all loved it. We got the idea from a pumpkin patch that we went to which had a pool size corn box that was awesome! SO we made a mini one to go in the house when we don't want to go outside. And then we got the grand idea to make a medium size one in the backyard for the party and for Pria to keep in place of a sandbox.
She got a lot of great presents from family and friends. Blocks, puzzles, noisy toys, fleece pajamas for the winter, books and more! Pria was happy for the whole party walking around in her little pink/orange/green/brown tutu I got her from Etsy.com. She didn't really eat the mini Shepherds Pie I made her in place of a birthday cake... But oh well. Ya never know. I should have just put a candle in a banana and she would have had a ball with that. All-in-all it was wonderful and I had fun planning for it.

Every night Dustin, Pria and I have our nightly routine of dinner, giving her a bath, chasing Pria around the house (crawling around quickly saying "rawr!" after Pria as she squeals in delight) reading her night-night books and then having a few sips of rice milk before putting her to sleep.
She is getting more and more fun to play with. She likes to hide in tiny corners as we chase her around the house and giggles when we say, "where is Pria at?" We have tickle sessions all the time. She is most ticklish around her neck, her inner thighs, the side of her ribs and sometimes her armpits. I love it when she really laughs.
Pria really doesn't like wearing diapers. Like most kids of course. But I really think when she is ready, potty training will come easier to her. As soon as we take of her diaper she rolls over and tries to get away as fast as she can while giggling. It is so cute and hard to not let her run around naked happy as can be. I don't really give in though when the house is cold early in the morning and I don't want her to catch a cold from running around naked...

Since she is walking now, her legs are really starting to thin out and loose the chunkiness. It is so still there but not as much. I am hoping her 18-24 month clothing will last a long time because of this. That is what she is wearing now. And some 2T things like jackets.
I have shoes for her. Size 5. But haven't really needed them too much yet. I always have her in socks and not often is she outside where she absolutely has to have them on. I wanted her to get walking down pretty good before I put her in shoes that made her walk funny ha.

Our next door neighbor is moving out this month. So after they renovate the guys side of the house (he has been there 18 years and hasn't had someone fix anything or clean the carpets the whole time), we will have a new neighbor. We are trying to get someone we know in there so we don't get some random crazy person. Hopefully we will succeed. Random I know.

In one more month it will have been a year since Jelina left for her mission. It has gone by so fast and the next 6 months I am sure will cruise. She is doing great and loving her work. She has changed a lot and we are excited for her to come back. We plan on flying out to New York to pick her up and spend a week in the area. Maybe 2 days in the city and then go else where for fun including Rhode Island where one of my dads great friends lives. I am excited for Pria to see her again. We try and show Pria photos of her all the time. They are all over the fridge. I should show videos too...

Speaking of Jelina AND Pria, Pria is a dancer! Most any song she will move her little body too with a smile on her face. It is so adorable. Dustin and I don't really dance well so we are hoping Jelina can teach her some fun moves when she gets back. I think they will have a blast!

More fun stuff coming up during the holidays like a big Powell family trip to the cabin over Thanksgiving, a trip to Papas house for a weekend over his birthday and flying to Nebraska for Christmas this year. I will most likely write about all that in January...maybe.

Oh yeah and our photography business is growing rapidly. It is still a side hobby business. But since I took it over, we are getting more referrals and making some extra money which is very helpful!
Check it out at holdmyhandphotography.com!!!

Little steps...

So Pria has begun her first steps officially this week. She takes 3 little steps and then falls to her bum. But today October 4th, she was doing her 3 step walk a lot. I am pretty sure she will have it down by her birthday.

I am excited for her knees to no longer have rug burn and bruises from very fast crawling. But it is bittersweet because I know that very soon I will be chasing her even more than I do while she is crawling.

Dustin and I were playing with her in her room while she was steppin' and it was very exciting to watch her slowly do it over and over...

I am so grateful for Octobers...

Man I am slackin!!!!

Always Pria:
Pria is 11 months old now and we are having her first birthday party in a couple weeks. Yay! Pumpkins and tutus. So lots of pink and peachy orange colors and.... gold glitter. I am having a lot of fun planning it and gathering the decor and stuff. Like everyone says, yes she will not remember but from pictures she will know and who doesn't love a cute birthday for a little girl we all love?!

Pria loves to dance. And by dance I mean rock back and forth side-to-side or back and forth. She mostly seems to jam to classic rock and country. Dustin and I don't ever dance. She just picked it up naturally. It is super cute. Sometimes Dustin or I will rock with her and she loves it. Jelina will have to dance with her when she gets home from her mission too...

Pria looooves her books. I will be working on something in the living room and I will look up as it goes silent and she is just sitting there, cross-legged flipping through one of her books and pointing to pictures she likes in the book happy as can be. Love it. We read bedtime books to her every night before bed and after her bath. She likes rocking with me in the rocking chair while I read to her.

Since we live by a small airport that is becoming a much larger one... we hear a lot of airplanes flying over. And Pria loves to point them out. Even when she can't see them, she will hear them inside the house and turn towards the noise and point saying, "Ooh!" or some other babble...

Other News:
Not much... Other than we just bought a second vehicle since our lease is almost up on its max amount of miles we signed up for. We could go over but you have to pay something per mile over. So we are just going to try and avoid going over much at all. We have to be careful until March when it is up!

We got a dark blue 2000 Jeep Cherokee! This will be my 3rd jeep cherokee... Lol. The other 2 were older ones, like 1990. We are excited to have something that can tow, have 4x4, and hold more in the trunk when we are driving farther or staying somewhere overnight.

Pria really likes it because she can actually see outside in this car. For that reason it is nice but it is actually harder to drive her to sleep because she loves to point at things as we drive by and look around...Oh well.

We hope to use this one and save up for a bigger nice one in like a year or two.

Summer slackin'

It has been a while since I have updated stuff on Pria and what we all have been up to. Summer is busy for anyone and we have been busy.

Where shall I start?...

Pria!
Pria has 5 teeth now. Not all the way, but they have all cut through at least.
She is clapping now and knows a couple signs for sign language. Awesome.
She will be walking by her 1st birthday for sure. Any day now she will figure it out.
Her hair is getting longer and thicker, and still lighter brown.
Her eyes are still blue.
She is very ticklish on her sides, feet and abs. At the right time she will give a hearty giggle.
She isn't saying many words yet, but we can understand her babbling noises and know what they mean.
I know she understands us and a lot of specific words like kitty cat, puppy dog, birdie, horsey, daddy and mommy, eat/food, all done, and up. I am sure she knows more, but those are the ones she is very attentive to and perks up even when those things are not around.

Chickens!
We got chickens this month. 5 of them. All different colors/kinds. We named them after celebrities. "Goldie Hawn" (orange/golden one), "Beyonce" (she has a big booty), "Reba" (our red one), "Whoopi" (black with attitude), and "Phoebe" (a crazy white spazzy one lol). They are in a 10x12 coop in our backyard that Dustin put together and we love watching and sitting by them during the day. They are still pullets (younger) so they won't be laying eggs yet but they should in a couple months, which is mostly why we got them. I also like to have them as pets and for Pria to enjoy watching and she does. When we hold a chicken she likes to pet their faces and poke their eyes. We try to be careful that they don't poke her back with their beak though.

Hawaii!
I will post the best pictures later from Hawaii. For now you can look at them on my facebook if you would like. https://www.facebook.com/alyssa.groff1/media_set?set=a.10152174453938242.670803241&type=3
We had a lot of fun in Oahu, Hawaii with my family and bff Sierra LaDow (she always comes on our family vacations). We were only there for 5 days but I feel that was actually the perfect amount of time for Pria. On the 5th day I was exhausted from taking on a new routine for Pria. We were ready to be home. Pria likes her regular routine.
But she had a blast on the beach! Running her hands in the sand, crawling as fast as she can around the beach, splashing in the water (the calmer water because the waves scared her), and poking the holes that crabs made in the sand.
Every morning we tried watching the sunrise on the beach (2 of them we were too tired to go) since Pria woke up early that week. But after an hour of playing, the saltwater and sand all over her made her tired and a bit fussy. I would too. Salt water makes you all sticky.
I think her favorite though was cruising around the condo we were staying in. She entertained herself for hours crawling around that place. New places always keep her interested/distracted/entertained/busy. It also kept everyone else entertained watching her while we relaxed haha.
We rented a nice new green Ford Explorer (car we have been looking at for a while so it was nice to test out). And drove around North Shore where we were staying quite a bit to shop, play at the beaches, and watch my dad kiteboard.
We celebrated my moms birthday while we were out there and went out to eat at a nice restaurant called "Ola" where you dine right on the beach. It was pretty awesome.
Dustin was able to visit one of his old roomates, Thomas, that lives there on the island. We also visited my dads cousin, Sabrina who also lives there. She and my mom love to laugh together.
We all got a little sunburnt. It was very warm and humid that week. I was very careful with Pria. Lots of 50spf on her. She got the most sun on the bottoms of her feet (the one area I forgot) and a teensy bit on her nose.
It was a really fun week and we are so grateful my dad got the rental house for us to all stay in!!! Thanks dad!

Food
Back to Pria. She is eating so many more foods now that it is getting expensive and very time consuming... And of course I get the healthiest stuff that is fresh so I have to prepare it before it goes bad and use it before it goes bad. I have to mash stuff and cook everything and Pria doesn't understand that things have to cook so she gets impatient. It is a lot of work.

It is a full time job. If moms got paid for what they do, we would all be very rich. But for now, I get paid with better things instead of money, like Pria love, giggles, smiles, snuggles, her new discoveries, excitement and taking life in like we all should more often...

Naps. Clothes. Words.

So this post will be kind of boring. But I do this blog as a journal for myself and not just to share fun things for family and friends.  So I am writing a few facts and stuff for my own benefit later.

Naps:
I am merging Pria's 3 naps into 2, more strictly than before. Because when she had 3 naps a day it made the day a lot longer and she wasn't going to bed as early as I wanted and in a nutshell it just needed to change. It was fine before with 3 naps but in the last month or two her naps were 2 hours long on average and before bedtime she was playing for a long time making bedtime late for everyone...

Now she has 2 two hour naps and 3 hours between naps. And then is awake for 4-5 hours before bedtime. It makes her nice and sleepy. Goes to sleep at 8-8:30 and wakes up at 7ish. It's great. It is still not a regular routine for her. But I am hoping by Hawaii which is in 3 weeks, she will know that is her routine. The only thing that will mess with it is the time change. I am crossing my fingers...

Clothes:
Pria is wearing size 12-18 months right now at 9months. I am trying to collect clothes for her from garage sales and craigslist. But occasionally I have to give in to a really cute outfit I see at a store.
I am not buying onsies anymore because having a top and a bottom is so much easier for changing her out of pants for when she needs a diaper change or changing just a shirt when she makes a mess while eating food. I am now buying 2 piece pjs for her to sleep in as well.

(Again, all kinda boring stuff to read about)

First words: (I guess this one is fun)
Her first word was "kitty" as she squealed seeing one of our cats run around the backyard.
A couple days ago at my Grandma Judy's house, while pointing to a banana she said, "nana." That was her second word.
Then yesterday while hanging out at my parents house, she was playing with my dad in another room and was looking around and then must have heard my voice and said "mama" while crawling super fast down the hallway towards me. :) EEeee! (My excited reaction)

A couple firsts

Yesterday Pria's first top tooth popped through. (Her left one) We noticed she has been very clingy. We don't know if this is because she is teething or if she is just going through a new stage of her life. I know at this time babies usually get separation anxiety. Either way, I don't mind that she wants to be close to me. I'm taking advantage. Because someday...it won't be like that. :/

Yesterday we also went to the Windsor Town concerts on the green. It is fun. We set up blankets and chairs on the grass with the rest of Sonoma County haha. Pria LOVES crawling around the blankets, grass, watching people's dogs and dancing to the band. Yes, dancing! She bounces up and down and wiggles her little hips. It is soo cute and it made us want to do it every Thursday night. She had done this before while playing on her 'learning table' that has music, but we weren't sure if it was dancing or just bouncing around. But know we have noticed it when there is music on. So it is sorta a first. :/

She stood up for the first time by herself while we were at the town green. We were all watching her and then all of a sudden she just stood up and stayed there for a couple seconds. We were just like, 'woah!'

She is more vocal now. She has been babbling off and on for a while, but now it is a lot more. A couple nights ago we were hanging out at my parents house and they heard her be really loud and chatty for the first time and were very entertained.

Roller coaster

I've found myself on an emotional roller coaster lately. Pria has been going through a somewhat difficult stage where her sleep patterns at night are becoming unpredictable and she doesn't know what she wants. Or at least we don't know what she wants...
When it comes to food, breastfeeding, playing, being held, sleepy or if she is teething... It is a very frustrating game. I find myself extra tired and a little uptight at times... I am doing a lot of it by myself which is hard for my first time. Which brings me to my thought process trying to imagine doing this with more than one... I can't imagine.

But then the next day will be a great day and Pria is happy all day and her naps all do well and she eats and nurses and crawls around babbling. And I will think, I can do this again. This is fun!

But then the next day is crazy. And I am back to square one. It is a fun circle.

I am sure if there are other moms with more than one child reading this, who knows what you are thinking... "Pshh amateur..." or "Just wait..."

I just want her to be happy. And it is frustrating not being able to figure it out. Sometimes I do figure it out and then when I try it again the next time she is fussy it doesn't work. I try sometimes to not get impatient. During those times I just have to close my eyes and take a deep breath while having Dustin hold her for just 15 minutes.

15-20 minutes. That is all I need sometimes. Just a short mind release so I can think clearly. Usually when I do this I can help Pria. Because my mind isn't cloudy with frustration. I am able to calmly think of other solutions to make everybody happy. I don't need half a day or a few hours. Just 15-20 minutes to myself. That is not so much to ask right?

"Just checking in mom"

For a while, Pria would turn to look for me while she was busy playing or crawling. It was like she was making sure I was there watching her which I always am. Now that she is more mobile she crawls to me, stands up to where I am and checks in with me. She gives me a quick "hug" looks at me and then goes right back to playing and moving around.
I love it.

Pria's Favorites:

Pria loves avocados, bananas, pears and sweet potatoes.

Pria loves to suck/gnaw on carrots, celery and jicama.

Pria loves to be naked.

Pria loves puppies and kitties and most other animals.

Pria loves water. Playing in it, bathing in it, drinking it...

Pria loves mirrors.

Pria loves to crinkle and eat paper (we try to grab it before she actually eats it...)

Pria loves buttons.

Pria loves to watch other small children.

Pria loves being outside. (She calms down as soon as we step outside)

Pria loves peek-a-boo.

Pria loves getting little baby massages.

Pria loves the color red.

Pria loves to play in dirt, sand, grass or any outdoor nature.

Checking in!

Just when I think I am getting a workout taking care of Pria, she starts to do something new, like crawl.  Now I'm following her around ha! Two weeks ago she started crawling. Now it is all she wants to do and she is cruising! We are now trying to rearrange things in the house (so she can't reach them) and are making plans for building some baby gates (some cool barn looking ones).

I can't imagine when she starts walking...

Let's see what are some other updates and news with Pria...hmmm

-She hates sunglasses. I have no idea why but if someone is wearing them she starts to cry.
-She has had a variety of foods now. Avocado, banana, sweet potato, beets, bone broth, likes to suck on carrots/snap peas/celery, and pears.
-We think her top teeth will be coming in soon. Tooth #3 on the way!
-We got a new jogging stroller. Bumbleride Indie in turquoise. She LOVES it.

Dustin and I are doing great. Loving Pria so much. She is our whole world. Dustin is working hard and busy with his job. And he enjoy his job which is a plus! Not many people do. 

Dustin is building a chicken coop this month for some chickens we will be getting soon. We are mainly doing it for eggs since I like fresh ones not from the store. And chickens are fun and Pria will most likely enjoy them too. She loves animals!

We are going to Nebraska next week to visit his family and friends. It will be Pria's first airplane. I realllly hope it goes well.

No I am not working and don't really plan to as of right now since Dustin is providing for us and for me to be home with Pria. Which I am SOOO grateful for! I am running the administrative side of our photography business Hold My Hand Photography.  We have two weddings we are doing photos for this summer so far. Sweet!

We are going to Hawaii (Oahu) in August with my family and Sierra (which she is basically family) which should be awesome! SO excited!

My sister is doing great! Training two companions this month and most likely will be transferred soon. She has been out almost six months now and she changes for the better every time we hear from her. You can check out her emails/letters on her mission blog here. I update them every Monday (her P-day).

That's all for now folks! :)

Pria's First tooth!

Pria's first tooth broke through this morning on her 7 month old birthday. Her bottom right one. You can't really see much of it yet. But you can feel it is definitely a tooth. Her left one is just about to pop through too. Probably will happen in the next hour or something.
There was no fussing or anything. If I hadn't felt her gums we would have never known it happened!!!