Grammy and Poppa visit for Swallow's Day Festival

At school Liliana has been studying the story of the swallow's yearly migration from Argentina to San Juan Capistrano. They did paintings and made swallows from felt, listened to and acted out stories about the swallow's migration, and even took a field trip to the Mission to discuss the migration and see the swallow's nests.

Grammy and Poppa came to stay with us the weekend of San Juan Capistrano's Swallow's Day Festival. We watched the parade (which is one of the largest non-motorized parades and filled with lots of horses), spent a lot of time in the kid's area where they had games and bounce houses and awesome balls that children could play in and float on water (check out the picture), ate and shopped around. It was a fun festival and so nice to have Grammy and Poppa here with us to enjoy it.

Grandma and Grandpa visit for St. Patrick's Day

My parents brought Liliana back from the stay at their house the weekend of St. Patrick's Day and stayed with us. Liliana has so much holiday spirit and St. Patrick's Day with her was a lot of fun.
The week before St. Patty's Day we read books about the meaning and customs of the holiday. On the morning of Saint Patrick's Day she woke up to find that a leprechaun had peed in her potty and left green foot prints and green pee-pee in her toilet! He also left her a pot of "gold" (gold caramel corn and a bag of gold nugget gum). That day we made green cupcakes (with spinach to make them green), and had lunch at Hennessey's where loud Irish music played and Lila danced. She worked on some St. Patrick's day activities that I found on the ever-handy Pinterest. For dinner we had corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots.

Liliana stays with Grandma and Grandpa for a week/B and Uncle get ENGAGED!

Liliana went to stay with her Grandma and Grandpa for 5 days without us in the Bay Area. I wasn't feeling very good during the beginning of my pregnancy--bad nausea combined with getting hit with a cold followed by a horrible stomach virus left me worn out and ready for a little break. My parents have been begging to take her since she was born and kept offering to give me a rest during this pregnancy so I decided to take them up on it. We have only been away from her for that long once when we went to Cabo last July with the Walters. I was pretty distracted on that trip so I was worried that I would miss her too much being here at home without her. As it turns out, I definitely missed her and shed a few tears every morning when we would talk and facetime, but she had a blast and the stay-cation was very relaxing for me. I went out to eat with girlfriends, went out to dinner with Adam, read a lot, went on a hike, organized closets, and slept.
While she was there she got to celebrate B and Uncle's engagement at a party that they threw at their house. She was very excited to be a part of the celebration and I heard that she ate a lot of oysters and stuck close by her Aunty B's side. She can't wait for their wedding. Interestingly, in the weeks leading up to their engagement, she started asking me when Colin was going to ask Brittany to get married. She must have felt it in the air. When we told her the news, she immediately called and said, "congratulations!! I am going to be your flower girl!" We are so excited for them.

Liliana had a lot of fun on her trip to the Bay Area. Despite the fact that it rained all week, my mom and dad managed to take her on an excursion every day. She went to the Academy of Sciences, story time at the local Lafayette library, went the see The Lorax for the second time, a couple of trips to the toy store and more. My parents brought her back and when it was time for them to go home and leave her here with us she told me that she wanted to go live with them and that Adam and I could come visit her up there. :)

Diapers

Liliana is officially done with diapers!! She has been daytime-potty-trained since she was 18 months old, but still slept in a diaper. I was waiting for the day that she woke up with a dry diaper to take the plunge and start night time training, but she NEVER did. I was starting to wonder if there would ever be a sign that she was ready, and then one came and I wondered why I ever wished for it.
Liliana started waking up every time she went pee in her diaper because it was uncomfortable to her. I figured that we were waking up anyway to deal with that, so we might as well start the potty training. At the same time we decided to stop letting her crawl in bed with us every night. We love snuggling her so much, but we have to make room for co-sleeping with Baby Brother sooner or later and neither of us wanted to wake up soaked in pee while she got the hang of things. It was hard for her (and me, being pregnant and having trouble sleeping anyway) for a couple weeks. I would put her on the toilet before I went to sleep around 10 and she would pee while half asleep. Then she would wake up 2-3 times after that to pee and ask to get in bed with us. Adam and I were exhausted and frustrated. Lately it has been getting better. More often than not she still gets up once a night and Adam has to go help her pee (she won't go by herself at night) and she has had the very occasional accident, but for the most part, she is doing well. I don't wake her anymore for half-asleep potty visits and I am not good at restricting her liquids before bed (how do you tell a little kid they can't have something to drink when they are thirsty?), but she is still improving. We trust her so much that we let her sleep in our bed one night on the weekend. We are hoping the day comes soon that she always sleeps through the night or gets over her fear of peeing by herself in the middle of the night so that she can take care of it herself, but we are proud of her progress. I am so excited that I won't have to buy 2 sizes of diapers when Baby Boy is born! From experience nannying, I have to say that I prefer to only have 1 child in diapers at a time.

Speaking of diapers for Baby Boy...we are planning on doing cloth diapers with him. I figure if I declare it here on my blog I am more likely to stick with it when the going gets tough. :) I had big plans to use G Diapers (they are a hybrid where you can use either a biodegradable/flushable insert or a machine wash cloth insert) with Liliana, but I got a job nannying sweet Layla when both of the girls were 6 months old and I thought it would be too much to care for 2 infants and deal with cloth diapers in the Tollack's home. So, I copped out and used 7th Generation brand disposables with her instead. People often asked about why Liliana's diapers were a tan color as opposed to white and I am sure I will get a lot of questions about why I am cloth diapering.

My reasons for not using traditional disposable diapers are for the health of the planet and my babes. When I was pregnant with Liliana and started my research I admit that I was just looking for a safer way to diaper for the planet--traditional diapering leaves behind 2.7 tons of non-biodegradable waste per child that takes approximately 500 years to decompose--YUCK! But then I learned some facts that disturbed me even more about the safety of traditional disposable diapers on my baby's bottoms--they contain dioxin which is used to bleach them (a highly carcinogenic chemical that is banned in many countries), sodium polyacrylate which is used in the absorbent gels (which caused toxic shock syndrome in tampons and was subsequently outlawed), and a chemical called TBT that has been linked to hormonal problems and infertility. Its true that these chemicals are used in small amounts and deemed by the distributors to be safe, but reading that freaked me out, so I looked for alternatives.

Let's see if I will stick to my plan of G Diapers on Baby Boy or if I will fall back on my trusty 7th Generation brand. Another bonus of cloth diapering is that it saves a lot of money. Wish me luck! 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday, we read his books all week. On Friday we went to Pretend City where they were celebrating with art projects and a Dr. Seuss story time. Liliana made a red bow tie to match The Cat in the Hat and a little orange Lorax-guy. That afternoon we went to see "The Lorax" (which happens to be one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books) and then went out to dinner. The movie was really cute and we have been listening to the catchy tune "Let It Grow" ever since.