Girls and Boys

Last night Rory's friends Owen and Aven came over to play. Their parents went to a football game and also left their baby girl Vila with us. While Glen and I were taking care of Vila and Isabella, the other kids were playing (unsupervised, as you can see) in Rory's room. Glen went to check on them and they had all put Rory's princess dresses on. Luckily the boys' parents didn't care that we let them play dress-ups. It's totally normal and natural for little boys to want to play with girl stuff, but in this day and age people are a little more cautious. This reminded me of the time when Seth, Rory's cousin, wanted to dress up in one of her princess costumes and Rory said, "you're not a princess, you're a boy." And Seth heatedly replied (yelled), "I am a princess!" I couldn't stop laughing. Ashley told me a story about Joseph when he was little. Whenever she would paint her nails, Joseph would want her to paint his too--he must have been about 2 or 3 years old at this time. After a couple times of Ashley painting his nails, Leslie (his mom) made him take it off and explained that nail polish is only for girls. He was in tears and wailed, "Girls are sooo lucky!" Well it's true, girls are so lucky. We get to spend so much time (that we don't have) painting our nails and faces, shaving legs and underarms, and fixing our hair. How fun! I'm speaking for myself when I say that I would much rather be able to jump in the shower, jump out, run my hands through my hair and come out looking hot without having to do all that other stuff! But I will say, we do get to wear very pretty clothes (clothes that remind some of us that we've carried and born children). Wait, maybe I'd rather wear loose pants and baggy t-shirts. Boys are sooo lucky!

Izzy and Mimi

Isabella has a new best friend named Miranda--Mimi for short. My friend Lenore is holding them in the pool of balls at this kids play place called the Jungle where we went a couple days ago. Nore always tells people that they're twins cuz they kind of look alike. They both have asian blood. Izzy, Rory and I love to go on excursions with Nore and Mimi. In the other picture Rory is playing with Nore's niece. She's a cutie. They had a lot of fun.

Changing

We've lived in Walnut Creek for 2 months now and the girls are changing so much. Rory decided that she wanted to get her hair cut about shoulder length. She will every now and then say "I'm a girl that loves her hair!" It's so funny. Most kids freak out when they get their hair cut, but not Rory. She was telling the hair dresser to cut it shorter, but I stopped her from cutting it too short. Rory's made quite a few new friends, so it's been a lot easier for her to adjust to the move.
Isabella is getting so big and has lots of personality. She is so smiley and is making lots of fun noises. She is also beginning to try to crawl. She can scoot herself around somewhat, but she's not all over the place YET. I'm in for it really soon. She loves her big sister, and is easily drawn to laughter by the silly faces and noises Rory makes when trying to entertain her. She is also eating solid foods and loves it! We can't eat anything without having to include her too.
I took the picture above at Civic Park here in Walnut Creek. The parks are much prettier here than in Southern Nevada.

Grandpa's Visit

Grandpa Bruce and Uncle Rodney came and visited a few weeks ago and Rory and Izzy just absolutely had a blast. On our way to pick them up at the train station Rory said that she wanted to go back to Boulder City with them. She was already preparing herself for the time when they would have to leave. I was tempted to send her back with them just so she could experience actually missing her mom, dad and sister. When we arrived at our place, Rodney had some work to do and so he went in Rory's room (the guest room when company comes) to do it. Rory followed him in there and kept him great company. She was telling him stories and showing him books and other treasures of hers. The next day she loved showing grandpa how she can do 50 piece puzzles all by herself. Grandpa played along with Rory's every desire that day. He also helped me out by taking Isabella whenever I needed free hands. He took us out to lunch (California Pizza KItchen), and then he was able to see Rory's preschool when we dropped her off for the first day of school. We had dinner in San Francisco that night and then grandpa and Rodney went to the 49ers game. It was sad for Rory to say goodbye, but she loved every minute of it while they were here.