A Little About Karis' Personality

When the girls were little, I don't know how many times in my head I would say, "This too shall pass." From spitting up to sleepless nights to throwing food...  I had to remind myself that it was just a phase and the girls will soon outgrow it.  Well, there's one thing that I hope Karis never outgrows.  

Karis embraces new situations, new people and change.  I noticed this about her when she was really little and it still continues today.  She is always excited to see what's next.  I feel like she goes into every situation with a clean slate.  I love how confidently and openly she checks out new situations and people.  

At church, she has been in the "2-year old" Sunday school class for over a year.  She started going a couple months before she turned two, when she outgrew the nursery.  Every Sunday, she had the same teachers, same toys, same set-up and saw familiar faces.  Today, since she is now three, she "graduated" to the 3-year old class.  I wasn't sure how she was going to react, but in Karis-style, she was so excited to check out her new room.  She quickly embraced her new teachers and loved the attention she received for just having a birthday.  So much so, that Makena pointed to her back (for me to put a name tag on her) and walked into the classroom too.  She wanted to join the fun!  

Here is a picture of Makena after we dropped off Karis in her room. 

Here is a picture of Karis and her new teacher.  Her teacher really enjoyed her and is excited that Karis is now in her class.

Here is the craft that Karis worked on in class.

I hope that I can be more like Karis when I go places and meet new people.  I typically have lots of assumptions, pre-conceived ideas, and negative thoughts before I even get in my car to leave the house!

Our First Gingerbread House

One of Karis' friends gave her a gingerbread house kit for her birthday.  It was the perfect activity for a rainy morning. 

Karis kept saying, "Mommy, we're doing a good job" while putting the candies on.

Makena was more interested in eating the candy.

She even took a bite out of the roof before it was assembled.  Notice the lick marks as well.

The finished product!

Good enough to eat!

Celebrating Our 3-Year Old

Our sweet (not so) little birthday girl:

Karis was so excited to have a party.  She wanted EVERYBODY to be there, so we invited her favorite friends, young and old.  The theme was Curious George since that is one of her current favorite shows (along with Clifford).  

I created a spread of a few of her favorite things:  Pirates Booty, chocolate chip cookies (which she helped me make), cupcakes, licorice and lollipops.  

We had a bounce house in the front yard for the kids to enjoy. 

We had a couple of crafts.  One was with foam stickers which Karis loves to play with.  We have them all the time and every day she works on a "project."

We had mac n cheese and chicken nuggets for the kids.  My sister made a chili bar with two kinds of chili and a bunch of toppings.  It was a huge hit!

Afterwards, we sang Happy Birthday to Karis and she was enjoying every second of it. 

The adults enjoyed the red velvet cake while the kids had cupcakes. 

We opened the gifts a few at a time all throughout the rest of the day.

Thanks to my sister for also taking great photos to capture the day.

It was so much fun watching Karis enjoy herself on her birthday.  We made a big deal about her being three and she was so proud.  At the end of the day, it was late and Derek was putting Karis down for the night.  I'm not sure how it came about, but Derek told Karis that "tomorrow isn't your birthday" and Karis (exhausted and crashing from a day-long sugar high) started to cry.  

I guess she really did have a good day!

Sweet Dreams

Karis finally got a big girl bed! 

When we tried to move her out of the crib, we put her in a full size mattress.  Some days she would sleep in it, but other days she would want to be back in the crib.  So we decided to take down the crib and put the crib mattress on the floor.  She was excited to be out of the crib but also liked the comfort of having the same mattress.  She slept on it consistently without a problem.  But, she has been sleeping on her crib mattress on the floor for awhile now and had clearly outgrown it.  

We got a great deal on a twin size bed (thanks to Groupon!) and now she looks so small in her bed.  She loves her new bed, her new sheets, and crib rail.  I'm sure she's sleeping a lot better now with all that extra space!

Helpful Little Helpers

The girls love to help and get into everything that we do.  They especially like to help us in the kitchen.  

The other day, Derek was working on one of his motorcycles.  Instead of giving him his "alone time" we followed him outside.  =)  Derek had Karis help him clean the bike while Makena picked out a few tools and decided to work on some things by herself.   

Baby #3 at 12 Weeks

I wanted to go back and note a few things about this pregnancy (otherwise I'll never remember).  During the first trimester, my morning sickness wasn't "bad" but it was worse than the other two pregnancies.  With Karis, I was nauseous.  With Makena, I had stomach aches more than I felt nauseous.  With this pregnancy, I had both!  I was always hungry and craved spicy, strong-flavored foods like Indian, Greek and Korean.  I of course wanted noodles too... something I crave with every pregnancy.  

I was extremely tired until about week 15 or 16.  I took a nap with the girls every day, for up to two hours (and still felt tired!).  

The time surprisingly has been going slow.  I see the doctor for check-ups once every four weeks and the time in between seems so long.  

Here are a couple of shots of the baby at my 12 week appointment.

One More to the Mix

The newest baby Robinson is scheduled to arrive May 21, 2012!  Below are some first looks at the baby.  

At 9 weeks:

At 12 weeks:

We have told Karis that there is a baby in Mommy's tummy.  Thanks to her previous experience with her little sister, I think she gets it... at least more than the average 2-year old.  

Daddy shows Karis how she can gently pat mommy's tummy and talk to the baby.  Karis gets excited, and even a little embarrassed.  With a big grin, she leans into my tummy and says, "Hi Baby!"  Her grin quickly turns to a frown and she says, "Baby not talking!"  She doesn't understand why and gets sad that the baby won't talk back to her.  

One morning, Karis told us that she wanted to be in mommy's tummy too.  I told her she's too big, to which she responded, "How did baby get in there?"  I thought to myself, "Lord, please don't make us have to explain to a 2-year old where babies come from!!"

When I was 5 weeks pregnant, I took the girls to Makena's 18-month check-up.  After the nurse took Makena's basic vitals, we were left in the exam room to wait for the doctor.  When the door shut, Karis with excitement asked, "Baby come out now?!"  it's going to be a long 9 months for Karis...

Halloween 2011

The cow and the kitty had a great time trick-or-treating for the first time.  We went to a few houses on our street and then walked over a couple blocks to visit a few friends in the neighborhood.

Karis was eager to go to each door.  After she was given one or two pieces of candy, she gladly helped herself to the candy bowl and grabbed a few more.  She came home with more than twice of what Makena had!

Makena just wanted to eat the candy as she received them.  She was quite frustrated when she learned that that wasn't happening.  

We ended the evening by checking out the loot, giving out some more candy from our door, and then putting down both sugar-loaded kids for the evening.  

Trunk Or Treat

Our church had a Trunk a Treat event where cars lined up and gave out candy from their decorated trunks.  They had bounce houses, movies, crafts and hotdogs.  Derek was the grill master for the evening and served about 400 hot dogs!  The girls enjoyed collecting candy and playing in the bounce house.

Makena found a new friend -- a little girl who I don't think she's ever met before.  Makena kept going over to her to hug her and then would look at me and point to her, as if she was saying, "I LIKE her!"

A Fall Visit

On Thursday, October 20, we headed out to Gradma's house.  The weather was much milder than when we last visited a couple months before.  It was 90 degrees during the day which made it bearable to spend some time outside.  The girls did pretty well on the car ride thanks to a friend's portable DVD player.  

As usual, the girls enjoyed their daily walks helping Nana walk Riley.  

There were plenty of story times with Nana.

But no naps for Karis for the five days we were there led to dozing off in Nana's lap.

On Saturday, we went to Derek's cousin's place.  Kim and Casey live in Phoenix which was about 45 minutes away.  We spent time with them and Bella, their 3-year old daughter.  The kids loved being outside and playing with lots of toys.

We also got to visit with Aunt Alice who drove out from Indiana that weekend.

On Sunday, Derek and I left the girls with Nana and headed to the stadium to watch our first live NFL game -- Steelers vs. Cardinals.

The indoor stadium was beautiful and we enjoyed the controlled climate (read: no Arizona sun beating down on us!).

There were probably more Steelers fans than there were Cardinals fans.  It felt like a home game.

It was a great game.  We witnessed Steelers' longest touchdown pass thus far -- 93 yards!  The Steelers won 32 to 20.