The Lopez Clan!

Updates!

2012-06-15T20:32:00.001-07:00

My folks have asked me about former posts. So here are some updates:

Cloth diapers: A lot of friends and family have asked about this one. Yes, I'm still using them. My mom and a couple of friends told me, I was either crazy or they'd give me a couple of months after Nathaniel was born. Sorry to prove you wrong. I do have to admit that I use them in combination with disposable diapers.

The first time my mom babysat Nathaniel she was kind of freaking out about the diapering issue. She was about to go to the store and buy some diapers before we walked in the door. Since then, I made sure that whenever Grandparents babysit, he is always wearing disposable diapers. If we are out and about and that we'll be out for most of the day, we leave the house with him wearing disposable diapers.

Also, if I run out of clean diapers, I will use a disposable and get to that load of laundry whenever possible. Obviously, I'm not using a cleaning service for them, and I don't want to be consistently worrying about having enough clean covers and cloths. I usually do a load twice a week and that usually gets me through the week. .....and there is very little difference with our electricity bill.

We no longer use gDiapers. As Nathaniel grew, they would leak more and more. I switched over to Thirsties and Bum Diapers and have no complaints. They work great!

Mark chooses to only use disposable diapers. He states that it's easier to put on and off Nathaniel. No comment on my part...

I usually have to buy a diaper box at Costco about every two months. Love it!

Sleeping arrangements: When Nathaniel was about 2 months old we put Elie and Nathaniel in the same room at night. At that time he was waking up once at night. Then Nathaniel hit 3 months and there was a sleep regression and it was just easier to have him sleep in our room with us. At 6 months he would wake twice a night and sometimes only need one feeding. Now he is starting to sleep through the night or needs an earlier morning feeding. I'm not putting him back in the room with Elie yet, because her 2 year old molars are popping through and she wakes up at night due to the pain.

School: As many of you know, Elie started school in February. By the end of the month, she was starting to enjoy it and now it's just part of what she does. She continues to attend twice per week in the mornings. Since she has started school I have seen her social skills flourish. She will now initiate conversations with children and adults in different settings. Her temperament is still slow to warm and I was not expecting that to change, but it is nice to see her comfortable interacting with other children.

Movie Time!

2012-04-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was Elie's first time at the movies. We went to see The Lorax. We headed to The Whittier Village Cinema's, while Tio Jay and Tia Delia stay with Nathaniel. I'm not sure who was more excited to go to the movies, Mark or me?

Da-da and Elie purchasing the tickets.

Elie enjoying the show.

About the last 5 minutes of the show Elie was getting a bit antsy and needed to get on her feet.

We all had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)

2012-04-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Nathaniel was diagnosed with RSV. He had had a cough that was going on for about a week, and it was gradually getting worst. During the day he was fine; not whinny or irritable. Nights were a little harder. So I did not worry too much, but since Elie was never sick as a baby I wanted to make sure I was doing everything right and not over looking anything with him, so I called the nurse help line Friday morning.

The nurse asked me if had been wheezing, which he was not, but as soon as a said that, I looked at him (he was sitting next to me) and I heard him slightly wheezing. The nurse said I needed to come in to see the doctor.

So here's my newest BFF. Nathaniel has to breathed through this every 4-6 hours. With the breathing treatments the mucus and cough should go away. He coughs less, not as stressful and night time sleep is a lot better.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with RSV, here's a little info:

an inflammation of the small airway passages entering the lungs. In adults or older children, RSV presents itself like a common cold, but with infants, it become a bit more severe.

Hands!

2012-03-15T20:37:00.002-07:00

Nathaniel is growing up right before my eyes. He is so into grabbing things now-a-days. Month 3 he discovered his hands. He would look at them intensely and slowly but surely he realized that arms were attached. He was so into them he would gaze at them fondly instead of napping.

He began to tap his bouncer animals.

By month four, he was very interested with his table activity, but was not to sure what to do about it.

By the end the fourth month he was touching his toes and eventually nibbling on them..pheww!

With a little modeling from big sister, by month five, Nathaniel was well on his way....

First Day of School....can you believe it?!?

2012-02-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, February 1st, Elianna went to school for the first time. YIKES! My baby is growing up! I started talking to Mark about Elianna's social development and thinking about putting her in school this summer.

Out the front door with "Da-da."

Unfortunately, she does not have any cousins her age, the kids on the street are a bit older and she's the only kid in her Sunday School class. At the park I see that she wants to interact with other children but does not know how to. For the most part, she will observe the others play. Also, as she will tell you, she is shy, but as I like to call it, slow to warm. In addition, I've seen her develop her readiness skills a lot faster than I've anticipated, so instead of waiting until this summer, she went this past week.

She is attending Lad n Lassie here in Whittier. She goes twice a week in the morning. We had gone to the school twice before her first day, so she could become familiar with the environment. Even though, when we reached the classroom door on the first day, she said, "Don't want it." As I expected, she cried when we left. Mark stayed at the door to see if she was still crying after we left and she was not. When we arrived, she was being held by Teacher Vanessa and was crying. Teacher Vanessa said that she had been crying for maybe, 5 minutes, but she sat through circle time (next to Teacher Vanessa) did the craft and went potty in the toilet. I had to call once, to see how she was doing. So we both did pretty good for her first day.

Bag pack ready!

Snack bag

The second day of school Mark went to pick her up and she came in the house saying, "I like outside (aka: recess time)." She sat on her own during circle time, ate part of her snack with the other kids and did the craft. I'll give it a couple of months, if she is enjoying it and we're able to financially swing it, we'll stick with it.

Marley

2012-01-31T20:54:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, Marley was our dog, but in November we had to say good-bye to him. Marley had a heart murmur that had gradually gotten worse. About 5 years ago, Marley would at times sneeze, we thought it was strange, but it was nothing major, it was just what he did. Later, at one of his check ups, the vet explained that he had a heart murmur and the symptoms would be more apparent and worsen over time. For example, the sneezing was because of the murmur.

As the years passed, the sneezing became more frequent. He began throwing up, it was not food and it was just stuff. Ultimately, the sneezing became somewhat of a cough, which then began to occur throughout the night. There was one night that I don't believe he even slept. Once that began to occur I started the conversation with Mark about his health. We knew the only way to make his life better was for heart surgery. You dog owners out there know that means big bucks. Not only the surgery, but the medication and follow up visits. Mark asked to give him one week to find a place for him. We knew it would not be another home because no one would want to take on that type of financial responsibility. It was either a rescue/shelter for cockers or for him to be put down at the vet's.

Mark called around and the rescues would not accept a dog from a private owner, so we were left with only one choice. It was a Saturday morning and Mark decided to give Marley something special for breakfast. He made him eggs and bacon. Marley was an expert when it came to climbing the dining room table and getting to plates when no one was in the room. Mark made him his plate, placed it on the table and pulled out the chair. That's how he'd get on top of the table, by climbing the chair.

Marley finally found the plate and enjoyed it. Mark did not want to take part in going to the vet's office, so I did it. I held it together pretty well until I had to say good-bye to him. I pet him fondly, told him thank-you and slowly began to cry. I finished up at the front desk, they brought back his collar, I went to my car, drove home and seriously began to cry. By the time I arrived home, I was composed.

As the days followed, I missed Marley's presence and routine actions that would occur throughout the day. He was almost 10 years old and had been with us for most of our marriage. We got him about 2 months after we were married and he was 6 weeks old. He was named after Bob Marley and was our first kiddo....RIP Marley!

Some days are easy, some are....lets just say, tired.

2012-01-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

Being a mama of two young ones definitely has it's highs and it's really tiresome days. For example, Nathaniel is teething. Poor little guy, I'm pretty sure he has four teeth coming through the bottom. His bottom gums are so tender, that at times it's hard for him to breastfeed or drink from a bottle. His eating and sleeping schedule changes, and more tears throughout the day. Which means, he's one tired and cranky baby by the end of the day. Yesterday was a hard day, but I learned from it and today was a much better day. To where he had three naps some longer than others, but I was able to put him down and everyone got some rest. Not only did he nap, but so did big sister, Elianna...YAY!

Naps!

2012-01-25T18:30:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I'm typing this, but, I think Elianna has outgrown her naps......NOOOO! These past two weeks, she has slept twice during nap time. The other days, she is talking up a storm and jumping around; in other words, having a party of one. I'm still putting her down and she will fuss a bit, but for the most part she is having a good time in her crib. So from now on, I refer to naps as Nap time or quiet time. Quiet time for mom, I'm still in need of it. The days she is not napping, she is in bed by 7PM and is alseep within minutes.

Nathaniel has moved into a day time sleep schedule. He has started to do a 2 hour nap in the morning, instead of having a lot of cat-naps. Later in the afternoon is when it gets tricky. He may be tired but having him transition from my arms to the bed wakes him. Tomorrow, he will be fed in the bouncer and most likely fall alseep, stay there for his nap and hopefully stay asleep. Lets see if that works....fingers crossed.

....And Then There Were Four

2011-12-10T22:02:00.000-08:00

Hello Nathaniel! Well folks, it has been two months since Nathaniel's birth and a lot of good and not so good stuff has occurred. Nathaniel was born a healthy baby boy. Who has a very different temperament from his sister's. Or, it may be that since it's the second time around for us, it's a bit easier. One thing is for sure, I never thought he was going to be over 9 pounds at birth! He is now wearing size 6 months clothing...YIKES! Here is a picture of me the night before his birth...double YIKES!

Elianna, I believe, has made a smooth transition to her brother's arrival. There have been a few occasions that she wanted to be held when I was holding him. We do have to work on a "quiet" voice or a whisper. Especially when Nathaniel is napping ;) She states that he is "cute" and pronounces his name, "Nafaniel."

I have had to deal with a breast infection for about a month, which I believe is now over with....fingers crossed! Today I took my last antibiotic pill. All I can say about that is, I never want to go through that again.

Nathaniel is almost sleeping through the night. Twice this week he slept until 5:15 AM. Those two nights I consider sleeping through. Last night he went back to a 4AM feed, even though, not too bad.

Got to say with two kiddos, the day goes by a lot faster!

A clean bill of Health!

2011-09-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

Today was our 6 month visit to CHLA; a follow up for Elianna's hip. So off went, dealt with an 1.5 hour of traffic. Elianna did pretty well with x-ray part. I could not go in the room due to the fact that I'm pregnant, so I was out in the lobby waiting for Mark and Elianna to finish up and only heard Elianna once....Yay!

We waited just a bit and Dr. Skaggs who came in the room and said, "The x-rays look so normal, there is no need for follow up visits." I could not believe it! Thank you Jesus! At our last visit, he had explained that if this visit's x-rays look good, we would have yearly follow up visits, so that's what I was hoping for, but instead we got better news!

We would like to extend a Thank you to everyone who had been praying for Elianna and her hip. Those prayers really came through!

Saturday....Not too exciting.

2011-08-20T22:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday:

In a nut shell:

Whittier Presbyterian Hospital for a Breast feeding class. Gotta get back into the "lifestyle."

Nap time for Elianna

Costco - They got Halloween and Christmas set up already.

Dinner - Saturday Nights we usually eat out and tonight it was Acapulco's.

Finished up with some blogging and iMovie fun and....

some ice cream.

I know, shameful. But I did enjoy every bite!

I didn't think pictures were really needed, expect for this last one. I think we all know what Costco looks like.

Friday...A small cold.

2011-08-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

Friday:
Elianna woke up with a bit of a cold this morning. Her first one! Mostly it was a runny nose and sneezes throughout the day. She seemed a bit more in need of hugs today, which is just fine with me.

Her free time choice, trying to plop herself into the Bumbo. It's her latest thing.

Oops! Missed...

"In!" She was very proud of herself, as you can see by her (big) smile.

She has taken it upon herself to be in charge of giveing Marely his snacks, (force) feeding him, and to let me know when he is in need of water.

Today's table top activity, watercolors! It is very soothing for me.

Elianna needed some TLC after her nap.

During our silent reading time, Da-da was home and began playing the piano for us. Elianna could not help herself and joined him.

Thursday....A morning at the library.

2011-08-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday:

Even though I'm a Souther California gal, I love my overcast summer mornings.

Elianna and Marley are having some quality time. Well, it's more like, Elianna is invading Marley's space.

This Thursday was our library day. Off to SFS library. Elianna gets a big kick out of this statue each time she sees it.

After letting her feet go, Elianna states, "Poochie!"

Some coloring....

After the library it was lunch time and I had a craving for a Big Mac.....and I got one. It was very yummy!

Bath time! Since I was about 5 months pregnant Mark has had to take over the baths. My belly is too big, which makes it hard to get to her, especially when she wants to get up and walk around. Bath time is now called, "The Daddy Dip." The first few times Mark was done given Elianna a bath, it felt as if he done it in two minutes.

Me: You're already done?

Mark: Yup. I don't know what takes you so long in there.

Da-da and Elianna were camera shy.

I soon got a smile...from both!

Our evening walk before bed time. The whole group. Elianna's favorite saying during our walk, "Come on!"

Wednesday...at home

2011-08-18T07:44:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a nice easy going day spent at home. I'm not sure how most Mommies do it, but I usually get out of bed at least an hour before Elianna's usual wake up time; getting ready and I try to do few things around the house.

Here's my 5 minute grooming regiment.

Today during our gross motor time, Elmo and "Woof" joined us for yoga.

Elianna sat on the mat for a bit. Giggled will while we were stretching our legs and touching our toes, but she did attempt to touch her toes and then mine.

Soon after she retreated to some book time.

After yoga and our morning walk, it was some tabletop activities (fine motor). Play-doh was the choice for today.

Since it was a hot day, after Elianna's nap, we had some water play.

Elianna notices that "Da-da" is home from work.

Kiss- kiss!

....and for a snack, ice cream!

Tuesday.....Busy Tuesday.

2011-08-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Tuesday, turned out to be a busy day. It started with getting Elianna up and ready for the day....

Good Morning!

Someone is done with breakfast.

While I clean up our breakfast mess, Elianna has some free-play time, and why that clothes basket is one of her favorite things, beats me!

Throwing in one chore for the day....the bathroom!

Elianna was going to help, but she decided to get into my things instead.

....and applied some blush.

Abuelita (my mom) came over to babysit for a bit while I went to my doctor's appointment. After my appointment we headed out for lunch....

.....and the beach. Elianna was trying to enjoy the sand, especially on her hands.

She spotted the ocean...charge!

....maybe not.

Elianna got her feet wet and did not care for it. As you can see, her face says it all.

After dinner, Mark was washing the dishes and Elianna and I needed to relax. I almost fell asleep.

Monday

2011-08-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

This week I will post what our daily life looks like. My friend Samantha did this on her blog and I thought it was a cute idea (thanks Sam!). So here is a snapshot of what Monday was like.....

After our morning walk and quick stop to Fresh and Easy, it was Elianna's TV time.

....and she was enjoying her favorite "friends." Elmo.....

and Ernie.

While she was enjoying some TV fun. I got started on dinner. It was orange chicken via crock pot.

Someone is hungry and came to supervise.

Even though I cut up some orange slices for her lunch she wanted to dive into the uncut 1/2.

The orange mixture for the chicken.

Before the chicken is cooked.

Dinner is ready!

After dinner and Elianna's bath, we headed over to Central Park for a live Reggae Band.

Mark got to catch up on current events.

Elianna did some writing.

Overall, our threesome group had a good time and enjoyed some tunes!

Cheese! (I call this Mark's "homie" look)

Let's do some yoga...or maybe not.

2011-08-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

As part of our gross motor time, I will at times, incorporate some yoga. Nothing too complicated, it's really for me to stretch out this "baby-making" body of mine and if Elianna happens to enjoy it...perfect! She will usually do a few poses/stretches with me and then have her giggles. Today there was no yoga for her. She preferred to play with "Rocko" aka - rocks.

The name Rocko came about from Sesame Street. One of the characters, Zoey, has a pet rock, Rocko. Elianna has not taken in a pet rock, but every rock's is named Rocko.

The only "mat" time that Elianna had was placing the rocks on it.

7 Months!

2011-08-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to say, we are 7 months along. This pregnancy has been a bit harder, but at the same time, a bit easier. Harder, because I've now have a toddler to care for and easier, because I've been through this before and know what to expect. Everything seems to be going well, except for the plantation of the placenta. It seems to have planted itself on the lower part of my uterus, which makes it dangerous for a vaginal delivery. The risk of hemorrhaging during and after birth is high. We were planning on a C-section anyway, but the just kinda sealed the deal. Luckily, it is not too low on the placenta, because that would have meant, bed rest!!!!

The major difference with this pregnancy is this little guy has some strong kicks/punches. Elianna was also very active during my pregnancy with her, but this little guy will stop me in my tracks or wake me up at night. I'm experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions. They come about once every other day or so.

Here are some pictures of my growing bump.

3.5 months

6 months

Today, at 7 months (28 weeks)

This last picture I took right now. I wanted to have something current to post so I took a quick shot on Photo Booth. I'm not looking my greatest right now, so the cut off face was not an accident :)

It's done!

2011-07-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

I finally finished Elianna's quilt! I'm so proud of myself; I'm proud that I did not give up and finished what I started. It took my about a year to finish it, but it's done. I believe it took me that long because I've never actually taking on a project like this before, it's a lot of planning. Also, time management, knowing when it's best to work on it with a little one around and finally, being pregnant. There were a few months that I did not and could not do any extra curricular activities. I finally told myself, that Elianna's blanket would be done before "Mark Jr's" arrival and ta-da...it's done.

It's not perfect by any means. I learned as I went with this project, but I'm happy to say Elianna loves it. Her exact words or word when it was presented to her, "Nice."

Here's the front. I picked different patterns and sizes. I did not want a perfect shaped pattern. The different fabrics remind me of Elianna and her personality.

This is the back. Yesterday we went to the fabric store and Mark was the one who saw this pattern first and I fell in love with it.

Mark seems to enjoy Elianna's blanket as well.

Going Cloth!

2011-07-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

It has been decided! We are transiting to cloth diapers. After much research, budget management and a strong push from yours truly....gDiapers here we come! We've been potty training for a bit over 3 weeks now and Elianna is doing great. She is only using a diaper to sleep in and when we go out; boy have I've seen the difference in $$. I had been toying with the idea of cloth diapers since I was pregnant with Elianna, but we decided not to, the reason being, that the first time parenting experience might have been overwhelming, to have added cloth diapers might not have the best idea for us and we really did not have anyone close to guide us with that.

What "pushed" me over to the "cloth side" was seeing the savings as Elianna uses less and less diapers; not to mention how much better it is on our environment. At first I was going to start "Mark Jr." on them, then I thought, why not with Elianna? We really do not need to spend money on a diaper for a 2 hour nap. That's where we will start with her. The night time diaper might stay disposable, but she has begun to pee less at night. We may also use a night time disposable diaper for "Mark Jr."

Yesterday, I received my delivery of my first Indian prefolds, they are the larger size for Elianna. I ran them through the washer twice to soften them up and here they are drying.

The Indian prefolds come in an off white color, due to the lack of bleaching. Per my research, these are the most absorbent cloth diapers, but since we will be using them with the gDiapers, there should not be much to worry about in regards to leakage.

I'm very resourceful, I use every inch of the house to line-dry.

Mark is calling this my experiment, but believe me, it's no experiment! I'm waiting for my Snappies to arrive in the mail. Snappies? you ask. They are the alternative to pins and are very popular. I was practicing putting on cloth diapers on Elianna's stuff animals and I did not care for the pins, so I opted for the Snappi. I will post a picture as soon as they come in a few days!

Elmo!

2011-07-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Elianna gets about 2 hours of TV time during the day. She has never been much of a TV watcher nor is she now. I purposely had the TV off during the day when she was an infant so she would not get use to it. The one show that she really has been into is Elmo's World. She was about eight months old when she first saw it. There is something about that little red monster that grabs her attention. She would never watch that segment all the way through, see doesn't even watch Sesame Street all the way. She enjoys the intro song of the show, Abby's Flying Fairy School intro and some musical parts within Sesame Street. Within the last month, The Cat in the Hat, Knows a lot About That! has become one of her favorites, again, she pays attention to certain parts of the show.

Last month her Tio Jay and Tia Delia gave her an Elmo doll. She is sooo into him. She sleeps with him, shares her food with him, makes me give him some food, they watch TV together and takes him on walks. She is so busy with him, he has to take a bath/wash at least once or twice a week.

First day she received Elmo.

Bringing him to breakfast.

....and not letting go.

Hygiene!

2011-07-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

So many changes for Miss Elianna. In May, the pacifier was completely taken away. Since she was about 7 months, it was only use for her naps and night time sleep. She had about 3 or 4 days to adapt to the change, but nothing major. RIP pacifier!

At the beginning of this month we started using a toddler toothbrush. We got her an Elmo toothbrush, that she will usually allow me to brush her teeth with no problem and that she attempts to brush her own teeth.

At the beginning of this month we started using a toddler toothbrush. We got her an Elmo toothbrush, that she will usually allow for me to brush her teeth with no problem and that she attempts to brush her own teeth.

.....and the big one: POTTY TRAINING! That technically started as when she turned a year old. That's when she began following me into the bathroom, whether I wanted her to or not. Since I didn't have much of a choice, I started laying down the foundation for potty training. Each time I needed to use the bathroom, I would make a big deal by announcing it to her and rushing to the bathroom. By 14 months she would tell me that she had poop in her diaper and usually she was right. At 15 months, we got her the potty. I put the box out for her notice and once she took interest in it I pulled it out and explained how she would be using it. The potty was put in the bathroom for a week or two, later I asked to sit her down, she said yes and to my surprise she peed in it. I thought about going ahead with the official potty training, but I waited to make sure her language skills were a bit more refined and her bladder control was a bit more stable. Meanwhile, after every diaper change (or most) I would sit her on her potty. By the end of May she was going in the potty at least once a day (#1 or #2), but then she came down with Roseola and I did not sit her on the potty for about 4 days and that kinda changed things.

Last Monday was the first day of training. It did not go very well. A few things happened. I approached it like a teacher. I believe I have potty trained most of my students, expect those in Kindergarten. I was either the main "trainer" or supported what the parents were doing at home. Since last week was my brother's wedding, we were busy running around for last minute details, I decided that I would hold off on the training for this week. We would be at home more time and it allowed for me to rework my approach with her. I realized what I did with my students was not going to work with Elianna. For one, I'm mommy, not Mrs. Lopez and we are at home, not in school; that in itself really changes things. I ditched the pull-ups and went Commando. This allowed for me to see when she started to go, instead of noticing wet underwear. Also, in whatever room we are in, the potty is with us.

Since Monday things have improved, there are less tears, less pee-pee clean ups, she is telling me that she needs to go and today she went to the potty on her own. She needed some prompting to stay, but she knew what to do. She is, of course, wearing a diaper when she goes to bed or if we need to go out, but that's okay with me. This major change needs to run it's course.

It's a boy!

2011-06-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we are having a boy. To be totally honest, I was surprised. My pregnancy has pretty much the same as it was with Elianna expect for some headaches and a bit more throwing up in the first trimester. My cravings have been slightly different. I'm not a coffee drinker, but at night I was craving coffee. So Mark would usually make a decaf coffee run for me at night.

The time of the ultrasound the little guy was not shy about showing if he was a boy or girl. I would say within the first 2 minutes, there was a pee-pee.....once again, to my surprise. It took me that whole day to get over the shock and the following day I was able to fully embrace the gender.

This is the first buy we got him. It's so weird not getting anything with pink on it.

His coming home outfit from the hospital.

As with Elianna, we have no idea what his name will be. Mostly likely unlike we get some time with him, the name will come. We have been bouncing around some names, but nothing that we agree upon....again.

It's library time!

2011-06-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

My goal has been to at least go to the library every other week; weekly if possible. We go to different ones within the city of Whittier and Santa Fe Springs. Elianna really seems to enjoy her books and becomes excited each time we enter the children's area at the library. Now we've got to work on our library voices, but she's pretty good a Shh'ing mom.

Getting comfy with the toys.

Makes the library her home.

Time to go!

Elianna's Journal

2011-05-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

Here's the journal. At this point we are using it about 2 twice per week and she is enjoying her line "writing."

The two-handed writer; we are pretty sure she is left handed.

Cheese!

...and the madness begins! It's time to use a table, before the pillows and the couch gets full of graffiti.