Calendar Shoot

Nonnie is in California for Christmas, and we are working on another calendar of the girls.  This is just a preview of what's to come!

We Just Love the Sea Center

One really nice thing about living in Camarillo is being halfway between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.  Other than that, there are lots of other nice things to do, as long as you have no desire to do them after 10pm, which is when our entire town shuts down -- a fact that bothered us a lot more before we had kids, now, however, it's comforting to know we're not missing a thing.

Because of our proximity -- and the fact that we have our sweet Smith cousins in Santa Barbara -- we make it up there at least once a week.  Last week, we managed to make it to the Sea Center with our good friends, the Fraziers.

 Nola has been to the Sea Center often enough to guide a tour...

 One critical stop on her tour would, of course, be the puppet theater.

 Payton and Nola's best buddy, Nate, think Nola's puppeteering skills are whaley cool
(okay, that was a reach...)

Little Miss Payton just being precious & delighted to get to hang out with the big kids, instead of lugged around by mommy.

The Second Child

Very recently Nola discovered "her website," which is a fair nickname for our family's blog, especially since I have been neglectful -- to say the least. When I take a picture of the girls that I want to share with someone, I now have the ability to just text it to Nick, my mom, and my sisters -- generally, people who I know won't mind being texted in the middle of the day with giggly videos (apologies to Aunt Jaimee, who always seems to get these on days when she has to work with her boss.)

Honestly, until Nola rediscovered the blog, I kind of thought of it as a relic of the past.  Yet another online social media outlet that had been bowled over by Facebook & company.  Yet another new mommy novelty pushed to the back burner for the sake of just getting through another day. However, it is kind of a really cool multi-media baby book.  Nola loved finding her videos and pictures in the same place that she finds Dora, which is why I've decided to not shelf the blog entirely.  Payton deserves her moment in the sun, and she's just as funny and charming... and even if it is only my girls watching their videos and pictures, that should be all that matters.

I will do some patchwork catch-up sort of blogging -- to make things appear more filled in than they are, so bear with us over here at Nola's website as we make room for Payton.

Here, Nola took it on herself to feed Payton -- as "Payton finishing her snack," was the last thing that we had to do before we could decorate the Christmas tree.  

Cheerio!

We've been away for sometime, and I mainly have my newfangled iPad to blame, as it doesn't support various endeavors, blogposting included; however, when Nick captured this moment at Costco, I had to dust off the laptop to post it. 

2 Years Old

We had Nola's sweet little cousins over for tea and dress-ups. What fun!

Nola's Chores

Nick and I have been beside ourselves with pride and exhaustion, as Nola clearly sees the crib as something that is "so last year." For the past two weeks, she's been "sleeping" in a bed, which means we (alright, I'll just admit it, it's Nick whose been carrying the load in this one, as anyone who's ever known me knows that I simply won't wake up for anything. Not even my own child. I'm awful, I know...) Anyhow, "we" have been waking up at 12, 2, 4, 6 and just about anytime in between that Nola deems necessary, as she has a whole new world opened up to her without the barrier of the four-sides of the crib. This, compounded by her new door-knob turning skills, has opened up a whole new nighttime world to her, and a whole new world of hurt for her parents.

Instead of taking a step backward, and averting the meltdown that returning to the crib would cause, we've decided to make a giant leap forward, and make this whole "bed thing" work for us.

Last night, before supper, we made a chart of "Nola's Chores," which pretty much just entailed sleeping in until 7 (the "Going on the potty" chore is thrown in just to make us look extra precocious). Note that there's an addendum that we had to tape to the bottom this morning... to the average layperson (read: those sane enough to not invite a toddler into their house) this little addendum may seem redundant, but sleeping through the night is not the same as sleeping until 7:00 (which is honestly just an arbitrary time that mommy selected, as it's only 3 hours earlier than mommy would prefer to wake up. Sadly, that's "so last year" for me too).

Nola slept in last night until 5:45, which is a vast improvement, and deserving a sticker. We have yet to determine what the stickers will earn our diligent little (almost) 2-year old, but her reward for today was to get to listen to mommy sing some Roberta Flack on the old karaoke machine. Oh, the things that are possible when you have a full night's sleep!

6-months old!

We just got back from our pediatrician's, and he confirmed our belief that Payton is just about the sweetest little thing in the world. Nonetheless, she still had to get her shots.

Strawberry Picking at the Farm

If weather permits, we make it out to the Underwood Farm at least once a week.

We've picked a few other things, but nothing compares to "shawberries!"

Payton wears her strawberry onesie in support of her big sister.

Love these photos! Thanks again, Nonnie.

Tummy Time

Payton rolled over for the first time last week, on June 6, to be exact... this is truly a notable milestone, as our poor little Payton gets pretty limited floor time, due to someone who shall remain nameless (but I'll give you a hint: She has really curly hair and her favorite phrase as of late is, "No!")

Elmo's Healthy Heroes

We've been busy, and hate to play blog catch-up, but wanted to document the utter coolness of Elmo. We saw him and his "Healthy Heroes" when they came through Thousand Oaks at the end of May, and have been using his "healthy tips" (i.e., "Eating your colors", "Taking your naps") as parenting bribery every since.

Just a pose to juxtapose

Nola, around 6 months old....

...and Payton, nearly 5 months.

I guess it's obvious that a big challenge for me at this stage of mommyhood is to look at each girl as thoroughly and wonderfully unique (with the exception of the maternally inherited chunky-thigh-gene.)

Their Nonnie took these pictures (yes, for anyone keeping track, she's been in California more than Louisiana since right before Payton showed up on the scene), and I asked her to retake some of the pictures I tried out earlier with the girls.

I swear that they wear clothes most of the time.

But they do look so cute without them!

Mom's Attempt at a Photo Shoot

Nonnie set up something that is roughly equivalent to a Sears Portrait Studio in our spare room, and (probably strategically) left one of her fancy cameras around as well. I decided today was the day to get behind the camera and see if I can capture the girls myself. Half of the pictures were blurry, while the other half had a lens cap dangling in front of them, but we did manage to catch a few that were worthy of sharing on the blog.

Honestly, I felt pressed to do it as soon as possible, as I just happen to have a pair of matching dresses in the right sizes.

Of course, the best moments were captured when we decided to forget about the dresses altogether!

Payton's Squeal

Payton is so verbal, but since the rest of her family is too, she decided to find a signature sound to get all of our attention. And it works. She squeals like this a lot, of course, not when the camera is around. I just happened to get lucky the other day and catch it on tape.

The Farm!

The Princes introduced us the the Underwood Farm, which happened to be really close to where we live. Since our first play date with Fallon & Fletch, we've tried to make it out to "the FAHM!" as often as the weather permits.

Happy Birthday, Eliza

Our sweet cousin, Eliza, just turned three, and invited us up to Santa Barbara to celebrate as fairy princesses!

Payton was the tiniest fairy at the party!

Nola sure did love seeing her cousin "EEyiZAH"

Green Eggs and Jam

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday last Tuesday, and while we didn't have any ham on hand to make a suitable breakfast, we improvised in a way that we're sure Dr. Seuss would approve.

Green Eggs and Jam?

We do like them, Sam I am!

FIRE!

We've joined the local Moms Club, so that the Akl ladies have a chance to get socialized... as we don't really get out too much, just check our previous blogpost if you don't believe me.

Once a month, the club takes their little ones on a field trip, and this month's happened to be the Firestation. Never mind the fact that almost all of our kids are too young to even know what a fire is, the field trip was lots of fun (albeit horrifyingly scary at times --

again, we do need to get out more often).

Nola, who found the whole field trip to be frighteningly overwhelming was thoroughly delighted with it by the time we got back into the car.

Tea L C

Our afternoons have been made less frazzle-y lately by introducing tea-time.

I get to nurse Payton, without being harassed for the other "boo-boo"

(yes, for those of you who don't know, we are tandem nursing --

which is another blog for another day),

and Nola gets to add several spoonfuls of sugar to her Sleepy Time and milk.

We thoroughly enjoy the break in the day,

especially since Nonnie made us big fancy hats to wear while we have our tea.

What an Easy Baby!

I have a feeling that just writing that Payton's an "easy baby" is going to jinx us, but I felt it was worthy of sharing. She's so mellow, and I have to say that Nola is doing a great job handling the transition from being our one-and-only to being "Big Sissy." However, I do feel that most of my time is spent figuring out creative new ways to keep Payton injury free from Nola's overzealous affection for her "Little Sissy," but it has been a true joy seeing how our newest family member has added so much love to our lives.

First Bath

It's been 9 days, and we finally threw in the towel - so to speak -

and decided to give Payton a bath.

Here she is!

Payton Jolie Akl

Born on December 26, 2010

at 8:50pm

Weighing in at 8 pounds even

and measuring 20.5 inches

We've been in a blur of sleep-deprived happiness,

otherwise we would have posted her arrival earlier.

More photos to follow and, of course, a calendar.