Esen, you are my hero for getting this on video.
 

Sophia has really started to interact more with Ella (perhaps because now Ella crawls around after her like Sophia is her mama duck).  Today, Sophia trapped Ella in the hallway and forced the ABC song on her over and over and over again.  Ella finally burst into tears (who wouldn't!) but then Sophia was sweet enough to try and comfort her ("No, no Ella... don't cry Ella...") by stroking her face and back.


In other news, shorts season means two things: (1) my pasty white legs really need some sunless tanner because lord knows I'm not getting much time to lounge around in the sun, and (2) Sophia's knees look like raw hamburger since she has suddenly forgotten how to walk.  She was in the backyard this weekend with Esen when she apparently was just walking along at normal speed and suddenly fell.  The screams were deafening (and I was inside the house... what must the neighbors think?) and the result (besides a ton of tears and Dora the Explorer bandaids) was Sophia walking around like she had been clubbed in the knees by a baseball bat.  She was walking around so slowly that this video actually looks fast relative to 30 minute prior!  Poor kid.  She'll be wearing pants for a few days regardless of the temperature outside!
 

Not a toy (that's crazy!)... Sophia shared the bookstore!!  She was so excited to take Ella to the bookstore and show her the best spot in town:



It was awesome.  Ella crawled around, Sophia brought her books... we even saw a friend of Sophia's from school.  It's like the coffee shop for kids.  Just the right amount of snooty friendliness.  :)

The pics above were taken on my cell phone (sorry for the lousy quality) and when I emailed them to myself to post I saw a few other good ones.  One worth sharing is this picture of Ella totally knocked out while we got frozen yogurt last week:

She looks so chubby here that she definitely needs the low-cal, low-fat kind (wait, that's me!).  :)

You might think the ear tug is a secret signal like the celebrities use on TV, but really it's just that she has ear infections again.  We're hoping they might clear up on their own this time since she hasn't seemed too uncomfortable and the fever has subsided.  It would be really nice to avoid yet another round of antibiotics, but the prescription is filled and ready to go just in case she takes a turn for the worse.  I'm sure glad that all the kids are spending lots of time outdoors these days at school... hopefully this will be the last round of colds we all endure this season.

Ella hasn't gotten super fast with the crawling and she is happiest when she's down on the floor and on the move.  Just look at this face:

The kid does a lot of smiling.  I mean, she does her fair share of screaming and crying, too (you should hear the teachers at Shalom School talk about the infamous Onur girls' screaming), but Ella is just so easy with a smile that she improves my mood every time.  She's starting to want to follow Sophia around the house, so if Sophia goes into her room, Ella just crawls down the hall right after her.  You might think that Sophia would be thrilled with this new set of rules, but it unfortunately means that she's not able to successfully get away from her (at least not easily).  This afternoon, as Ella was coming after her, Sophia was in her room screaming, "NO ELLA!!  NO ELLA!!" because Ella wanted a toy that Sophia had.  Looks like we need some strategies for sharing around here pretty quickly!

With temps above 100 this past weekend, we did the smart thing and inflated the swimming pool!!  By some small miracle I had swim diapers and swimming suits in just the right sizes for both girls, so we suited up and took it outside.  Here are some posed pictures of the bathing beauties beforehand:

As you can see, Sophia's posed smile has started to look a little painful... she just smiles so big that it hurts!

I don't have any pictures from *IN* the pool (because we were all in there and had our hands full keeping both kids happy), but there are a few nice ones from the cuddle-up drying off period.  Ella was clearly pooped (but she had/has a cold, so that's understandable).

As usual, Sophia had energy and silliness to burn!  My favorite Sophia quote from the pool:  "Mama!  You no wet me!"  I didn't like getting splashed as a kid either (just ask my cousin, Jenny, who used to torment me!), but I was only touching her arm with my wet hand!  Silly kid. 

It was our last week of classes around here this past week... crazy times trying to reach the end of the semester race.  Despite all that, we have a few pictures and videos to share.

Mother's Day took us to the park for a picnic.  Sophia has her own blanket and picnic basket (with fun accessories), the latter of which was shared with Ella!  (Note: we're enjoying some borek that Babaanne made when she was here last time that has been sitting tucked in the freezer.)



The best part of our local park is that we can lay down a blanket under a shady tree and still be right next to the playground.  Sophia can choose to go play for a bit and then come back for a rest and a snack.  One trip over to the swings allowed us to meet another two-year-old Sophia:



No, Ella didn't drink any Diet Coke (that was for me, so I guess she did get some indirectly), but both Ella and Becky were discreetly nursed:

It was a really nice (and stress-free) Mother's Day outing.

In other news, Ella's development has been cruising along at warp speed and it's time that I get some of those milestones noted here (Lord knows that I'm not writing a damn thing in her baby book!).  Shortly after returning from North Dakota, Ella really started to EAT solid foods in earnest.  She'd been kind of slow to catch on (or maybe just low on interest), but now she regularly downs 1/2 cup of oat cereal in a sitting and is eating a variety of pureed baby foods at daycare, too.  It's nice because it gives us one more thing to do in the morning and one more activity to detract from my ability to eat dinner (and by nice, I mean, not).  While we were in ND, Ella was doing some serious army crawling... it wasn't pretty, but it was definitely making her a bit mobile.  As predicted, she kicked it into high gear this past week and now is doing some classic crawling:
   

Watch out Suzy... she's coming for you!  Sophia is slowly learning to move things out of Ella's grasp (especially the really important items like blanket and lovey).

I spent my Saturday in San Francisco for a work-related meeting.  Although this got me out of the Sacramento heat (it was over 100 today), I missed out on a fun day of childcare (just ask Esen!!).  Here's a video he shot of our little lady, who was clearly headed somewhere with purpose:
  

She just cracks us up sometimes!  I wish I took more time to list some of the funny things that come out of Sophia's mouth these days.  For example, a little while back she started stalling when I'd ask her to do something by holding up two fingers and cutely saying "two minutes, mama" as if she'd get to my request after she finished up what she was doing.  She also continues to offer funny commentary on our driving.  After Esen harshly put on the brakes the other day (in an attempt to stop at a yellow light), I put my hands on the dashboard (perhaps in an exaggerated fashion) and Sophia yelled at *ME* for driving too fast!!  He understandably thought this was hilarious.  I'll try to keep track of some direct quotes for you in the weeks to come!

OK, I'll give you a hint.  She'll be getting Mother's Day wishes from me this weekend.  That's right... the picture on the right is baby MaryJane.  Hard to believe how strong the resemblance is, no?  I don't think that I look all that much like my mom (in terms of facial features anyway), so that might explain why most people don't think that Ella looks like either Esen or I very much. 

I want to wish everyone out there a Happy Mother's Day, but I'd like to encourage you all to consider something you might otherwise not.  There are lots of perfectly wonderful people walking around out there today who are having a rough time of it because Mother's Day reminds them that something important is missing.  There are those who have lost mothers and mothers who have lost children, and still others who are desperately trying to become mothers.  These women look no different on the outside than anyone else you'll encounter, but trust me when I say they're extra sensitive to all this Mother's Day hype.  Be kind and sensitive out there please.

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing women in my life.  May you feel loved and appreciated and hopeful about the future.

Sorry it's taken me all week to get my act together and update the blog.  Ella and I returned from a quick trip to ND this past Sunday.  Although we were there for a sad reason, it is always wonderful to be around family.  We saw so many people in such a few days, and most had never even met Ella yet, so it was also nice in that regard, too.  I took precisely zero pictures, but fortunately there were a few taken by others.  Here are a few taken with my cousin Jenny and her kids, Rachel and Grace:

These pics were all taken right after our plane ride.  Ella was a total dream on the plane.  She slept a little, but mostly was just content to sit and be entertained... and to entertain those around us.  :)  She was similarly good on the return flights, except for that little business on the flight from Denver to Sacramento where she pooped all over herself in a small regional jet with no changing table.  I had to change her (in turbulence) on the galley floor while the flight attendants stood nearby ready to catch a rolling baby.  That part was fun.

We had to improvise a little bit on the road as there were fewer baby implements around compared to at our house.  Here's a video of my dad as a stand-in baby swing and jumparoo:

     

We've had a busy week getting back to normal.  Sophia and Esen did just great without us.  Although she stayed pretty close to me that Sunday when I got home, it was clear that they had enjoyed themselves together.  We all had a bit of a family outing Thursday evening at the park.  The neighborhood Mother's Association put together a demonstration for kids by police officers about "stranger danger."  Although those details were mostly lost on Sophia, she enjoyed seeing the dogs in the K-9 units.  The kids from Ella's infant playgroup were also there.  See if you can pick out little miss happy pants:

Although this group hosts lots of different activities for families in our River Park neighborhood, we've been substantially busy enough that we haven't made it to all that many.  This evening at the park with the kids was one of the first times that I had a little insight into how nice it must be to live in one place and watch your kids grow up with the kids down the block.  One of the mothers brought food and margaritas and we just sat and enjoyed the nice weather and the kids.  It was all so ridiculously domestic, but it was nice in a way that really touched a nerve in me.

Finally, I'll leave you with a super cute video.  It's a nudey bathtub video, so strictly forbidden for me to embed on the blog.  I suspect that it might be ok to link to it, however, so please take a look:  http://www.motionbox.com/video/show/3096d5b01e12e9c1be.  I love giving the girls their bath together.  Not only is a huge time saver, but they're so damn cute together that I can hardly stand it.