Daddy Love: She loves her daddy!

Munchie just loves her daddy!  I love the way she gets excited when she hears him coming through the front door.  I mean she could be watching one of her favorite shows, eating, playing, heck anything and when she hears the door knob rattling she hops up, runs by the door, does her little happy dance, and says "daddy, daddy, daddy!".  Then when he walks through the door, she runs over to him and grabs his leg.  I just love it!!!

I also love when I am putting her down for bed and when she starts dozing off she crawls off (or at least tries to) the bed and says "Dada", grabs her blanket and walks into the living room.  She'll hang out with him for a few minutes and then walk back into the bedroom to go "night night".  Every now and then she'll do this at least 3 times, when it gets to that point I have to stop her from climbing off.  :OP  Of course she doesn't like that, but within like 5 minutes she's sleep.  Oh and sometimes I hear daddy Teems say "Munch your supposed to be going night night" and he walks her back into the bedroom.  It's sooo cute because in one hand she has her blanket and her other hand is in his big hands.

I love it how he plays with her.  The way he plays with her will make her not be afraid of taking risks.  She's a perfect balance of tomboy and girlie girl.  It's so cute to see her trying to climb back up his leg or arms when he puts her down or when she's trying to mimic the movements so he could do it again.  (The "skateboarding" on a toy truck video)

I love it when she climbs into his lap so she could see and mimic what he's doing.  Or climbs in his lap to give him a kiss.  Awww she's so lovable and she loves her daddy!

I love she points him out in a picture.  I remember the first time I saw her do it.  :O)  We were at my momma's house and she was pointing at my her dresser saying "Dada" I was like what?  So I dismissed and kept talking to my momma, then she did it again.  That time my momma was like she's pointing at the pictures, I walked over to the dresser and asked her "Where is daddy?" and she looked at all the pictures (my momma has pictures of her 3 kids and grand kids), found our family picture and pointed to daddy.  My momma was soooo tickled and told me to let daddy Teems know.  When I told him, he was EXCITED!  Munchie does this every time she sees a picture of him.  Mommy loves it!

Daddy Teems tries to act all tough with her, but he's a sucker for his little Munch!  He'll say it's the last time he may do something, but let her whine a bit and he does it a few more times (hence the bubble blowing video). Dads and their girls. 

The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.

Proverbs 20:7 NKJV

Fantastic Firsts: Our walk to Randy's donuts

July 11th was Randy's donuts 60th anniversary and I decided to take Munchie for a little walk there (we live around the corner).  Randy's has one of the best chocolate raised donuts and I wanted her to taste the yumminess (is that even a word?).  Well it was a pretty big celebration!  They were giving away free donuts, music playing, photographers out of the ying yang, even the mayor of Inglewood was there to present an award to the owners! How cool is that!  I wonder if we made the news.  Hmmm channel 7 news came while we were there and I tried to position us so the camera could catch us.  hahahaaha!  Oh well if we didn't, Christiana can say she attended a birthday celebration of one of Los Angeles historical landmarks with her momma!  I mean when people come to L.A. they all know of the big donut.

As for tasting the yumminess of the donuts, that was a negative!  She didn't want it, no matter how I presented it to her.  Boooo!  Well luckily I always have snacks on hand and offered her a yummy Oreo cookie.  So needless to say we were at a donut celebration and Munchie was grubbing on Oreos; oh well more donuts for mommy. :O) 

  A daughter is the happy memories of the past, the joyful moments of the present, and the hope and promise of the future.
-- Author Unknown

Cousin love: Hanging with Tutti at the beach

I just love summer vacation!  I love it even more because it means I get to spend more time with Munchie and get out and about with her.  Well one of our out and about days was spent at Mother's beach in Marina Del Rey with her auntie and cousin Tutti.  I don't think we spent any of our summer vacation days with them (they usually hang out with each other when we have date nights) so hanging out in the daytime was good for everyone.  This is such a great beach for families!  Of course it's a man made beach, but it's perfect for kids.  The water is shallow enough for them and there's even a jungle gym for them to play on if they decide not to get their feet wet or get tired of the water.

When we got to the beach Christiana didn't like the feel of the sand.  She stopped walking after taking 2 steps, it was almost like she was frozen for a few seconds.  So we did a little "step, step" action; every time I took a step I would say "step" and then she would do the same.  Once we finally made it to our spot on the sand, she was ready for the water (just like in her swim class). :O)  She grabbed her auntie's hand and started pulling her towards the water.  My little dare devil baby kept trying to release my hand so she could go off by herself!  Who does she think she is?  So I would bring her towards the shore where she didn't necessarily need to hold my hand.

After they got tired of splashing, we pulled out the beach toys and they played with one another in the sand.  Of course they wanted to play with the toys that the other one had, it was a good thing that both me and Angel had similar toys for them to play with.  Pat on the back of us mommies! :O)

Once that got old, we dried them off and had snacks.  Of course my little water baby wanted to get back in the water!  No way Jose!  We spent about 2 hours at the beach and after that we headed home to get them ready for their naps.  Within 5 minutes of driving home Munchie was knocked out in the back seat & I can only imagine that Tuttie was the knocked out on the way home too.  :O)

Mobile Munchie: Getting her feet wet

 This summer we decided it was time for Munchie to get a little more comfortable with water, so we signed her up for baby & me classes at Lucky Duck Swim School.  These classes are pretty nice; we sing nursery rhymes to swim like movements, the class size is small and it's not too long (30 minutes).  The cost of each class is $15, which seemed to pretty much the standard rate for baby & me classes and they are offered 2 times a week (Thursdays & Saturdays @ 11:30).

Christiana already loves water so throwing in some swim like movements will get her ready when she starts actual swim classes.  This also gives us a little more mommy & me time.  She was sooo ready to get in the pool last week; class hadn't even started yet and she was pulling me towards the pool.  Now once she got in the pool that was a different story.  I mean she didn't cry or anything but she wasn't laughing and smiling.  It was almost as if she was watching and studying the moves, who knows but at least she wasn't screaming and crying like a couple other kids. :O)

When she is done with these classes and the instructor thinks she's ready to move on to actual swim lessons, I better sign myself up for some classes!  I want to be able to swim with my little girl and not be the only Teems in the shallow end.  :O)

Cousin love: Munchie & Sarai on the 4th of July

This 4th of July Christiana got to hang with her big cousin Sarai (Rai as she says it).   I'm glad that Unc-key Ray decided to stay and celebrate the 4th with us because it gave the girls an opportunity to play with one another. They don't get to see each other as often as I would like (I mean they are literally 1 year apart - Christiana 2/22/11 & Sarai 2/19/10) so every chance they can play with one another is great.  

So how did these two little ones play with each other?  They shared stickers; Sarai had a book of Dora the Explorer stickers and they were putting them all over the place.  They watched a little Dora the Explorer; they are both HUGE fans!  The both sat in the big chair and watched it together.  The girls played a little "catch" with one another, of course they don't quite know how to catch but watching them toss the ball and running after it was great!  I really enjoyed watching them interact with one another.  Of course they couldn't really couldn't have a conversation with each other but watching them mimic how adults talk to each other was very cute.  Everything Sarai did Munchie wanted to do and vice versa (remember they both wanted to have Nana's attention). 

   

Cousins are different beautiful flowers in the same garden -Anonymous

Cousin love...hugs

Family fun: 4th of July with my momma & the grill master

This year we Daddy Teems suggested that we spend the fourth of July at my momma's house, of course I agreed this would give her and Christiana more bonding time.  My momma isn't the type that likes to have get togethers (as for me I love them!) so when I asked if it was okay she was a little hesitant.  I told her she didn't have to worry about anything and we would clean up our mess afterwards, when I said that she was like "cool!".  I let daddy Teems know, from there he planned the menu, went grocery shopping, and did the damn thing.  His menu for us was: Roasted Garlic grilled Chicken, Pinot Grigio soaked Lemon Pepper Tilapia, turkey links, grilled squash, asparagus, and peppers, and seasoned sweet corn.  Everyone grubbed out, even my food critic momma (she could open up her own restaurant if she wanted to) and vegetarian expert poppa Mat.  I must say that daddy Teems was the total grill master!

grill master Teems!

While daddy Teems was on the grill, the rest of us kicked back and had some quality time with one another.  My brother (Unc-key as he likes to be called) even changed his plans to hang with us.  Actually having all of there (with the exception of my sister (TiTi Joy):O( ) really meant a lot to my momma.  My momma got to spend some time with 2 of her 3 grand babies.  As a matter of fact Christiana and Sarai were competing with one another for her attention.  When one would play with her, the other would come over and play with her.  Kids are funny.  My momma got a kick out of this because on a regular day they wouldn't sit in her lap on their own one of us would have to tell them to go to Nana  :O)  She totally embraced and loved all of the attention from her girls. 

I am very thankful and appreciative for daddy Teems for suggesting this.  With my momma being back at work I don't get to see her that often and when I do it's very rushed because I have to go home for my second shift (wife & mommy); so to be able to spend some unrushed time with her was great!  Throughout the day she would say thank you for coming over and spending time with her.

You don't choose your family, they are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
Desmond Tutu

munchie moments: spit bubbles

Daddy Teems is good for recording little Munchie moments, while me on the other hand I take tons of pictures.  There are times when Christiana is in her own little world and she'll make spit bubbles; daddy Teems caught her in one of those zone out moments. 

Christiana's food explorations: picky, picky, picky

Christiana was nicknamed Munchie for a reason; that reason being because she loved munching on everything (well with the exception of baby food).  Lately her nickname doesn't fit; she has been extremely picky.  It's like an everyday battle with her and food.  She's at an age where she's finding out what she likes and doesn't like or maybe she just enjoys saying "No".  Whatever it is she's becoming more and more picky.

This summer I have her 3 times a week and I stocked the kitchen with kid friendly food and made sure I bought her favorite snacks (at least I thought they were her favorite) and food that I know she eats at daycare.  Weeell that sure didn't work!  She used to love grapes, saltine crackers, graham crackers, goldfish, potatoes, bread, strawberries, yogurt and a couple other things that I can't think of right now, but she's hasn't been wanting those things lately.  I mean what's up with that?!  So what did I do?  I went to the store and bought other kid friendly food, asked other mommies for their advice, and did a little research online (mommy blogs and mommy friendly sites).  Oh I also bought cute dishes and utensils for her to eat with (she's into Dora the Explorer right now so I found a cute little set for her) and snacks that have her favorite characters on it and that's not working.  I mean I remember a time when she would eat and eat; now when I try to give her something (not even something new) and she sticks her tongue out to "feel" it and if she doesn't like the texture she won't take it (mind you this is even with her "favorite" foods).  Sooo what's a mommy to do when her little one doesn't want to eat?

Well I found out that she likes ketchup and bar b que sauce, I mean who doesn't like these condiments?  Knowing that she likes these condiments, when I make her little plate I make sure to have a side of ketchup or bar b que so she could dip her food.  Score one for momma!  Adding ketchup hasn't worked for eggs, but I will keep trying.  Munchie hasn't given up her love for Mexican food (YES!), beans, toddler fruit snacks, and her Trader Joe's vegi sticks.  Even though she has turned into a finicky eater I will continue exposing her to new foods and won't give up on her old favorites.